Our Mission
Define, declare and demonstrate the role Corporate America must play in advancing racial equity
Who We Are
Take On Race Is a Coalition of like-minded companies who are committed to Advancing Racial Equity in America. This coalition is part of a growing movement unified by our compelling mission to define, declare and demonstrate the specific role that we can play in driving racial equity in the United States. The two-fold intent of this movement is to:
- Unapologetically focus on leveling the playing field for Black and Brown people in America, particularly given the deeply rooted, structural and institutional racial disparities in our society, and
- Amplify the previously silent voice of Corporate America in defining and addressing racism, and it’s negative impact upon Black and Brown people in America.
We established this platform with a goal to activate Take On Race member companies to boldly tackle the institutional structures that continuously fuel systemic disparities. Take On Race (ToR) supports companies in creating and scaling programs that immediately address a variety of issues, including employment, wealth creation, healthcare, education, image bias, and social justice.
Corporate America’s silence has left a critical void in the pursuit of racial equity in the U.S. Faith based institutions have weighed in, and they have taken on the moral challenge of racial equity. Academia has weighed in, not only in conducting research about race and about the state of race in America, but also providing coursework and course material for people to learn more about how we can work better together across the races. And Government has weighed in on the national, state, and local levels. But most of the racial equity work that goes on in the corporate context today, is in response to government regulation.
Our strategic intent is to influence corporate leadership to move beyond what we’ve been regulated to do. Failure to do so makes Corporate America culpable and complicit in the continuation of the status quo. We must create serious discussions coupled with strong actions by which corporations adopt their own set of responsibilities in the existing state of play on Race in America.
What We Do
Take On Race is fueled by the possibilities of ideas and collaborations that can come from Corporate America. This initiative is not about the individual effort that individual companies will do, but it's about the effort that we can collectively do, and we want to call upon the laws of synergy as we work together, where the sum of the parts will be greater than the whole.
The ‘endgame’ for this initiative is to be the catalyst for collaboration amongst participating corporate leaders to define and prioritize the barriers that impede racial equity and impact the long-time success of companies. By coming together, we can agree on how to declare and proclaim the role of Corporate America in the space of racial equality, and then begin to demonstrate practical examples of how Corporate America is addressing the barriers. Once live, these examples will become ‘Corporate Race Disruptor’ case studies.
We call this initiative Take On Race—a double entendre that provokes corporate leaders to provide their take, or perspective, on race and then drives corporations to take action on race equity issues.
In September 2019, we hosted 200 people from 80 companies to begin to define what would need to be true about this mission and our journey towards spotlighting and scaling efforts by companies to get Corporate America to align on a set of bold actions in a way that advances racial equity.
Despite the challenges of COVID, we will continue to find effective and efficient means towards reaching out to you and others to continue to codify race barriers domains and the corporate race disrupters currently in market to overcome these barriers.
Why We Exist
We believe that we can accomplish more together than we could ever hope to accomplish apart. Collaboration is central to our operating model and unites the vast experiences and resources of corporate diversity and inclusion leaders and others invested in this space.
Each Disruption Domain and the coinciding initiatives are led by an originating corporate champion. The Take On Race team works aggressively to recruit at least 10 additional non-compete corporate partners with the combined scale and reach to change the socioeconomic environment and life experiences for people of color.
Now is the time for corporations to take courageous steps to advance racial equity in the communities they serve and in marketplaces where they do business. Over 1000 visionary CEOs have taken the bold step to become signatories on the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion Pledge. By signing on, these companies have committed to proactively tackle issues of unconscious bias within their walls. And, action makes good business sense. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation continues to amplify what is already known—the value proposition is tremendous for companies to find a way within their business interests to advance racial equity.
Take On Race calls on Corporate America to break their silence on racial disparities in America. Together we can disrupt the status quo, with the goal of creating undeniable impact for people of color.