SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Starting on Oct. 1, the United Way of Central New York is launching a challenge in Central New York to help residents become more educated on issues of racial justice. The 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge is the result United Way has partnered up with more than 70 organizations throughout Central New York, including the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County governments, to encourage their employees as well as anyone else to sign up.
“Some people might write in a diary, some might meditate, but they don’t necessarily spend the time or do the work to say: ‘I want to know where I am and where I’m going,'” said Ray Manassa, Chief Marketing Officer at the United Way of CNY. “This puts the intent in there.”
Participants will receive daily emails with readings, articles, videos, quizzes, and interactive challenges on the subject of racial equity. These resources — compiled by diversity experts Eddie Moore Jr. and Debby Irving — come from many different places, including news organizations like ABC and Buzzfeed, non-profits like the Southern Poverty Law Center, and studies conducted by universities and think thanks.
Employees of the United Way went through the challenge themselves a few months ago. Afterwards, they teamed up with the YWCA of Syracuse to get others in Central New York signed up to receive the same resources.
Given recent issues of racial tension in the United States, including protests following the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester, Manassa felt it was important that the challenge get started sooner rather than later. Prude died from “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint,” according to the medical examiner’s autopsy report.
“This is really an important piece for [people] to be able to say that maybe [they] can stop and look at things from a different point of view,” Manassa said.
The program caps off on Oct. 21 with a community conversation event hosted by the Friends of Central Library featuring Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, who is the Director of the Center for Antiracism Research at Boston University and National Book Award winner. The event was scheduled before the challenged was announced, but organizers timed it out to make the conversation the program capstone.
