Does Outreach Equal Equity?

In this reflection ¹ I consider “community/outreach” programs of arts non-profits that work primarily in economically sabotaged ² communities with populations that do not mirror the people they serve in their on-site programming. ³ I prefer the term community (without qualifiers), for if we are really building community through programs outside our studio doors then we are building relationships and breaking down silos—a civic responsibility for a more equitable society. Making connections across difference ideally moves us towards challenging and changing ourselves. As we change, it becomes more possible to change the institutions and structures in which we exist that have been built on a history of white supremacy and the oppression of people of color. We cannot avoid this history in the United States; it is here even when we as a culture choose to disregard it. In The Black Book, Grandpre and Love use William Faulker’s observation that “The past is never dead.” They go on to explain that, “despite attempts to categorize historical events as irrelevant to the present, they have a tendency to continually manifest themselves. This is a good starting point to understand how past policies and biases have created the contemporary political system of anti-Blackness” (Grandpre and Love 4).