The other day I was surfing through some websites reviewing some sites for client work and I came upon the YWCA website for Greenwich, CT.
Now, if you’ve ever been to Greenwich, CT, you’d know that it’s not the most racially or ethnically diverse place in the world. ‘Nuff said?
So, I was shocked amazed interested curious about seeing this verbiage at the top, left-hand side of their web page:
eliminating racism
empowering women
and then further down the page:
strong alone.
fearless together.
At first, I thought, “Ok, now we’re talking!” That is, until I looked at the rest of the website and saw information on workshops that COULD BE planned about racial justice and information on a “racial justice” scholarship from 2008, oh yeah, there was their advocacy statement, too. Forgot about that.
What was most weird for me, was their “Racial Justice Art Gallery Bridge”. My thinking was that there would be some sort of bridge, a physical structure, that would be peppered with art that supports eliminating racism. Nope! It’s a CARD GAME! They teach you how to play cards in the name of eliminating racism. Huh? Man, I can’t make this stuff up.
So, I decided to call this YWCA to see exactly what they mean by “racial justice”. (BTW, their voice mail repeats the “eliminating racism” statements), only I couldn’t get in touch with anyone to tell me about their programming – and that was 3 days ago. Hmmm…
On the “Mission” page on their website, it says:
The YWCA of Greenwich is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
Right, but HOW?!! With no programming? No events? A out-of-date scholarship and a card game? This I gotta see.
I see DETAILED information about “the only water playground in Greenwich”. I see two in-depth info packets about the swine flu. I see a schedule of activities. None of which have to do with racism.
This is a typical problem in America when attempting to address racism. Organizations think it’s enough to make a BOLD statement about eliminating racism and then not back it up with ACTION. Can someone say “grant check”?
YWCA of Greenwich, CT on eliminating racism – supposedly their core mission – FAIL!
P.S. I have 50 bucks that says IF someone from their organization even finds this blog post, they’ll tack up some canned comment about their committment to ending racism and their “track record”. They won’t cop to this mess.
