Helping Americans Understand Race Is Like Learning to Fly: A Strategic Guide for Healing and Repair
In an era of growing political backlash against equity and inclusion, messaging expert and racial justice leader explains why understanding racial justice is like achieving liftoff—it takes time, strategy, and adaptability. From red states to blue cities, we must keep talking about race while meeting people where they are. Avoiding labels, staying flexible, and guiding others through learning stages is how we make real progress toward a more just America.
As the Trump administration wages war on our democratic institutions and social safety net, many of us who have fought for civil rights feel a life-or-death urgency to defend DEI and policies that advance health, racial equity, and democracy. And we know we must not give up on making the case for healing and repair.
But in a country where many people have long refused to talk about race, let alone our nation’s racist past and present policies, we’ve got to be strategic — especially in the face of an administration that lies, obfuscates, and erases the past.
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane, you know that takeoff is not instantaneous; the aircraft doesn’t just leap into the sky when the engines start. Instead, there is a process, a sequence of events that must unfold in order for a plane to achieve liftoff.
Helping people understand racial justice and the need for repair is like that, too.
I’ve studied decades of social science research and spent many years coaching leaders on how people think about race and what helps evolve their thinking. I’ve worked in communities where people are ready, even eager, to talk about the racist legacies of slavery and more recent policies like redlining — and to embrace solutions.
I’ve also been in places where I’ve said “equity” and community leaders have leaned over and whispered, “We can’t use that word here.”
You can’t use the same tactics in every place or with every group of people. But we have to keep talking about race and increasing people’s understanding of what justice entails if we’re ever going to get to a future in which all Americans can thrive.
Don’t get stuck on labels
Imagine you’re teaching literature to students with vastly different reading levels. For the class to succeed, you must assess each student’s starting point and tailor your teaching accordingly.
The same is true for our conversations about race — whether at work, our kids’ soccer games, or school board and city council meetings. In some rooms, diving directly into a discussion about race will cause backlash. In others, failing to name it explicitly will lose the room.
Race-based discrimination in America is built on a history that is often untaught and misunderstood. Learning about race is much like learning a new language or playing a musical instrument: It takes time, practice, and patience. Despite the urgency we feel to make change now, we must create opportunities for others to learn and allow time for their understanding to develop.
We also have to avoid getting stuck on labels. The ways we describe racial inequities or responses to them — including “structural racism,” “DEI,” and other terms — can sometimes be barriers to effective conversations. Labels carry different cultural meanings across the country, making it challenging to find universally accepted terminology.
A good tactic is to acknowledge the different ways people talk about injustice. Let’s say we’re talking about unequal access to resources or opportunities in education, housing, employment, transportation, or another aspect of life. We can point out that some may call that “unfair,” some may call it “discriminatory,” and some might say it’s straight-up “racist.”
We may not all agree on what to call it, but we can ask people to agree not to take it into our shared future. We can urge them to move beyond arguing about what to call injustice and instead do something about it.
Stages of takeoff
But how do we get people from one point on the spectrum of understanding to another? I’ve seen firsthand that there are four stages to getting people to think differently about race, similar to an airplane’s progress down the runway.
First, we get people to “pull away from the gate.” We do this by simply naming race. By talking about how no matter where we come from — our background, race, or economic status — we all deserve to live in communities with great schools. We all deserve a decent place to live and the ability to build a good life for ourselves and our families, no matter our job, race, age, or identity.
This is a portion of “Give People What They Need to Fight for Racial Justice,” originally published in Word in Black. For more information, visit www.wordinblack.com