What is CARA?
The California Anti-Racism Alliance, LLC (CARA) is a network of people committed to building relational power and advancing racial equity in California who share a historical, cultural, and structural analysis of racism and inequity as alumni and partners of the Racial Equity Institute (REI) and the Groundwater Institute (GWI).
CARA hosts training workshops that help leaders and individuals in organizations and communities develop the capacity to understand the root causes of inequities in institutions and systems and work toward structural solutions. The workshops are delivered by REI and GWI, close partners in organizing borne out of the long history of racial equity movement building in this country. REI’s Phase I two-day workshop and GWI’s 1.5-Day Immersive Experience workshop have reached over thirty thousand people in a variety of settings throughout the US, from the largest corporations to the longest standing community organizations.
CARA gathers alumni of REI and GWI training to build on a shared language and race analysis by offering caucus groups for deeper collective processing, networking and partnerships for change among the alumni community. These gatherings are also opportunities to build relational power and develop strong leadership in multi-racial coalition for community and institutional organizing at the local level.
Why CARA & REI/GWI?
The California Anti-Racism Alliance (CARA) is made up of California-based people who have been, in some way, transformed or affirmed by the race analysis put forth by the Racial Equity Institute (REI) and the Groundwater Institute (GWI). This analysis of historical and structural racism has its roots in the civil rights movement, handed down through generations by civil rights leaders such as Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian, Anne Braden as well as Dr. James Norman Dunn and Ronald Chisom among many that formed the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, which REI and GWI evolved from.
CARA believes that in addition to a collective will to eliminate racial disparities, it is essential to have a shared understanding and definition for what racism is: a structural arrangement of power based on race. The race analysis put forth by REI and GWI helps ground us collectively about the historical and structural roots of racial inequities, orients us to examine and address systems instead of individuals, familiarizes us with the narratives that keep inequities in place, and defines our own relationships and roles to the arrangement of power. By operating from a common definition of racism and a shared race and power analysis, we can be far more effective in organizing and addressing racial inequities at their root causes.