Theory of Change

In the United States, many institutions and systems were established during a time when white dominance and discrimination against People of Color were the norm. This worldview treated bodies and the earth as resources to be exploited and controlled. Despite progress, many US institutions perpetuate this drive to dominate and control despite stated commitments to meritocracy, equal opportunity, and social responsibility. 

Disrupting systemic injustices, especially racism, requires intersectional interventions at structural, cultural, and individual levels. Crossroads believes that antiracism is the most effective intervention to disrupt this drive to dominate and its unjust outcomes. 

Crossroads’ theory of change advocates for the creation of sustainable, resilient, and diverse institutions accountable to Communities of Color. This approach recognizes that the drive to dominate, embedded in our systems, often maintains and as result legitimizes disproportionate white advantage and harms People of Color.  

Antiracist transformation begins with understanding how institutions participate in practices that maintain racial injustice. The next step is fostering cultural shifts within institutions to embed values, habits, and norms that deepen antiracism. This involves creating spaces for reflection, allowing individuals to interrupt behaviors that sustain a culture of dominance. Accountability requires deep, ongoing engagement, humanizing all participants. Such identity transformation institutionalizes accountability to People of Color and other oppressed groups, rearranging power dynamics. 

Antiracism is the strategic intervention that dismantles institutional and cultural practices upholding systemic racism and the drive to dominate. Facilitating these interventions involves identifying and equipping internal organizers and facilitators with the necessary resources, capacity building, and strategic power to implement and assess change.