8 minutes
Affirming is not transforming Training and identity statements can leave White advantage intact. Restructuring is the next stage.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “Affirming is not transforming” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to Anti-Racism as Ordinary Work. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: How should the team use the concept? Document a next step for Affirming is not transforming: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. The split the guide will not let you blur An Affirming institution develops an analysis of systemic racism, sponsors anti-racism training, recruits and promotes people historically denied access, and begins accountability to racially oppressed communities. It still often leaves the structures that maintain White power and privilege relatively untouched.
A Transforming institution commits to intentional restructuring. It audits institutional life so People of Color participate fully — including worldview, culture, and how power is shared. Anti-racist multicultural diversity becomes an asset of the institution, not a side program.
Stage 6 is a future vision of a transformed society. It is not a banner you hang after a training cycle.
Awareness is the on-ramp. Structure is the work. Training is not a substitute for a changed operating environment.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether affirming is not transforming changes a live DHS process connected to Anti-Racism as Ordinary Work or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Carry this forward Training and identity statements can leave White advantage intact. Restructuring is the next stage.
You control whether affirming is not transforming changes a live DHS process connected to Anti-Racism as Ordinary Work or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
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Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice Examine how institutional practices can sustain racial inequity and identify a specific work process to change or formally escalate.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
