The North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) Juvenile Justice & Children’s Rights, Education Law, Criminal Justice Sections, and Minorities in the Profession Committee are proud to present the Racial Equity Institute’s (REI) “Groundwater Presentation: An Introduction to Racial Equity”! This free event will take place on May 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Bar Center (8000 Weston Parkway). More information and a link for registration will be available soon, but if you have any questions about the event, please contact Andi Bradford. (Please note that while the event is free for everyone to attend, no more than 175 attendees will be permitted, so please register early!)
REI hosts trainings locally and nationally to help participants develop tools to understand and challenge patterns of racial inequity and to grow equity within their organizations and communities. REI’s Groundwater Training is a lively, participatory, and evidence-based introductory session in which trainers review stories and data to examine characteristics of modern-day racial inequity, and actively engage participants in analyzing the impact of systemic and institutional racism in our society in areas such as education, healthcare, juvenile justice, criminal justice and child welfare.
This research-based presentation focuses on the following six points that are essential to understanding the realities of systemic racism as a predictor of outcomes in all institutions.
Racial inequity looks the same across systems.
Socio-economic difference does not explain the racial inequity.
Systems contribute significantly to disparities.
The systems-level disparities cannot be explained by a few ‘bad apples’ or ill-intentioned gatekeepers.
Poor outcomes are concentrated in certain geographic communities; usually poor communities and communities of color.
An analysis that includes race often draws starkly different conclusions than one that does not.
NCBA members who have attended this training describe it as transformative as well as fundamental to an attorney’s ethical responsibility to “seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession.” (NC Rules of Professional Conduct, .01 Preamble)