Our Approach
Principles
We are guided by the following principles:
- Crossroads’ work is built upon a systemic power analysis of white supremacy and systemic racism in the United States;
- Crossroads seeks to be accountable to people of color communities and organizations;
- Crossroads’ work encompasses a multicultural analysis of white supremacy and racism, recognizing white supremacy uses diverse strategies that target all people of color communities in specific ways.
- Crossroads’ work is intersectional, recognizing that white supremacy and institutional racism exist in relationship with other forms of oppression, and that intersectional interventions and disruptions take into account the full humanity of communities of color.
Partnership
Crossroads acts as an outside partner to the institution providing capacity building and technical assistance, tailored to the unique makeup of the variety of constituents in the organization.
Practices
Crossroads’ methodology draws from a variety of disciplines that are adapted for effective internal institutional change. We engage the science of organizational development to build institutional structures and culture that are supportive of antiracist transformation. We draw on social science disciplines such as applied research, sociology, legal analysis, and education. We are informed by spiritual and religious disciplines, and the power analysis and organizing of communities of color and other marginalized communities. Crossroads draws on these sources to support structural and cultural change to build resilience in institutions and individuals within them to confront racism and oppression manifested within the institution and in society more broadly.
Collaboration
Cross-racial collaboration is a core value at Crossroads because we believe that both people of color and white people must be actively working together in mutually accountable ways in order to be effective at dismantling racism in institutions. One way we live into this value is our facilitation teams are nearly always composed of a person of color and a white person, creating a courageous and more liberating space for our partners and workshop participants.
Intersectional
Crossroads understands our work is intersectional, recognizing that white supremacy and institutional racism exist in relationship with all other forms of oppression. Intersectional interventions and disruptions take into account the full humanity of communities of color.
Transforming Values
Crossroads embraces transforming values to cultivate terrain for anti-racist accountability. These values were developed as we envisioned who we wanted to be as an organization. The values reflect our worldview and make it possible to build relationships of accountability with and be in the service of supporting the resistance of people of color.
Transparent Communication & Decision-Making
Crossroads values honest and open communication, with confidentiality allowing individuals to make mistakes, learn from them, and recover. This is in contrast with a culture of secrecy as a way of hoarding information and manipulating collaboration.
Both/And Thinking
Crossroads acknowledges that multiple realities and methods for institutional life exist. Our bias is toward action so that indecision, or competing or conflicting ideas do not paralyze the work. This thinking is in contrast with rigid binary thinking that discourages diversity.
Cooperation and Collaboration
Crossroads’ value of cooperation and collaboration allows organizations to say yes more often than not. Cooperation and collaboration support individual creativity and collective action, which are necessary to interrupt white dominance and create a more equitable world. This value is in contrast to compartmentalized individual action that is competitive.
Abundant Worldview
Crossroads’ worldview of abundance transforms how we identify and use resources such as money, power, people, time, and holding space for innovation. This value is in contrast to a scarcity mindset in which the default response is “No,” and resources are hoarded and used unsustainably.