The Groundwater Approach Webinar

All UNC Lineberger faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in The Groundwater Approach: Building a practical understanding of structural racism, an informational webinar presentation on the nature and impact of structural racism.

The webinar is led by the Racial Equity Institute in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Racial Equity Institute defines structural racism as a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate inequities among racial and ethnic groups.

The groundwater metaphor is designed to help participants internalize the reality that racial inequities come from the racially structured society in which we all live. All of our systems, institutions and outcomes emanate from the racial hierarchy on which the United States was built.

The metaphor is based on three observations:

1. Racial inequities look the same across systems.
2. Socioeconomic differences do not explain racial inequities.
3. Inequities are caused by systems regardless of people’s culture or behavior.

Participants will gain a better understanding of the following:

• Structural racism as a feature of social, economic and political systems.
• Impact of structural racism on our nation’s people, economy and social institutions.
• Structural racism is a “groundwater” problem and we need “groundwater” solutions.

Attendees across the country are finding the groundwater metaphor to be useful in re-framing and re-focusing their work, leading to new partnerships and exciting new openings for action.

The last webinars were held in July 2020 and November 2020. Registration was free and limited to 200 participants. No new webinars are currently scheduled.