Three Objectives

Race-and-ethnic-based affinity group initiatives bear, to my counting, at least three potential objectives. One might be that of in-group members thinking critically with one another about their roles within the larger organization or community and what strengths they bring to their work—a form of confession that often involves bonding around challenges experienced as persons of color.

The second objective within such groups might be tending to the health of dynamics among people within the group—an objective that often involves exercises that prompt members to think critically about how to serve as stronger allies for one another. These first two objectives remain leveraged internally within the group, serving to realize affinity spaces as sources of refuge and healing for those members present. The third and last objective is external facing entirely, with effort lavished upon strategies for mobilizing collectively as a unified body regarding DEIJ issues in general. And while such groups may choose, as part of their mission, to focus solely on one of these potential aims, no single aim is mutually exclusive from the other two, and any intentional engagement of all three ought to be in recognition of how all three relate interdependently within a total system.