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Fighting Racial Inequity in the Publishing Industry: Closing the Intention-Behavior Gap
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Fighting Racial Inequity in the Publishing Industry: Closing the Intention-Behavior Gap
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TrendMD: TrendMD is proud to be a sponsor of this year's virtual conference. And we encourage everyone to take advantage of the special opportunities this format has to offer, especially the TrendMD breakout session on Wednesday at 1:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. I posted describing a 12-month randomized controlled study that showed how TrendMD increased citations. And lastly, drop by our marketplace gallery booth at any time during the conference.
TrendMD: We look forward to seeing you there.
CASON LYNLEY: Welcome. I'm happy to introduce today's keynote speaker, Dr. Joseph Williams. Dr. Williams first accepted our invitation as a keynote speaker for the 2020 SSP that unfortunately was canceled due to the global pandemic. [? Jael, ?] [? Lori, ?] and I were thrilled that Dr. Williams and Dr. Helmuth accepted our invitation to join us this year. Dr. Williams is not a stranger to SSP.
CASON LYNLEY: At the 2013 annual meeting, he led a pre-meeting training session on microaggressions for registrants and another for the SSP board. Over the past four years, the annual meeting has increasingly featured more diversity, equity, and inclusion content, reflecting the attention that the Scholarly Publishing community has paid to these critical issues. In the survey feedback from past annual meetings, the most memorable keynotes both challenged and inspired attendees.
CASON LYNLEY: Dr Williams' talk-- Fighting Racial Inequity in the Publishing Industry, Closing the Intention-Behavior Gap-- promises to do both. He consults with schools, communities, associations, and corporations to improve diversity and inclusion efforts, and engages people in productive dialogue and action. He is an associate professor in the Counselor Education Program at the University of Virginia and a faculty affiliate with Youth-Nex, the U.Va Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, and with the Center for Race and Public Education in the South.
CASON LYNLEY: He earned his PhD in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa, and his masters in Mental Health Counseling from Minnesota State University. Please join me in welcoming Doctor Williams.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: My name is Joseph Williams. I'm currently associate professor at the University of Virginia. I'm going to talk to you today about fighting racial inequality in the publishing industry, particularly looking at closing the intention-behavior gap. I think it's really important that we're all on the same page of what I mean when I say racial equity. And so when I mention racial equity, I'm really talking about the guarantee of fair treatment access and opportunity for people of color.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: One of the things that you might be wondering in your head is why focus on racial equity, when there are so many different types of inequalities and inequities that actually exist. And so I focus on race today, not only-- not because I self-identify as someone who is Black and I have some type of hidden agenda, nor do I actually focus on race today because I believe the race is the only thing that matters or it's the most important thing.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But I focus on racial equity, because I believe that race is the central mechanism in which oppression actually exist. Also if we think about it within the context of the United States, I find that race and conversations around race is probably one of the most highly polarizing conversations we actually can have. And so if we can have this conversation about race, then we actually can have a conversation about anything right, any social identity that's oppressed or discriminated against.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, the focus on race isn't to ignore other ways in which people actually identify. The focus on race is really to create a blueprint that can be used to actually address other forms of inequalities or inequities. And so again, I'm hoping that that makes sense to you as we kind of go into this journey today in terms of racial inequity in the publishing industry and what we can actually do about it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that we have to start with is the problem. One of the things I oftentimes tell my students is how do you actually address a problem that you don't know exist? And it's a trick question, because you don't. And so again, there's tremendous power in being able to actually name a problem. One of the things that we see is that there's tons of research that isn't necessarily new, nor is it hidden, that looks at the disparities, racial disparities within the publishing industry.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so as we think about racial inequity, one of the things that we have to think about is how do we identify that? How do when a racial inequity is actually taking place? Well, it's really tricky because you actually have to start at the end. You have to start at outcomes. So you look at outcome datas to actually look at potential red flags that might be an indicator of racial inequities, that might be indicator that there are actually issues within our policies and practices and procedures and culture and norms and values that, again, work to advantage some and to disadvantage others.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, if we're talking about who that some is, it would be work to advantage people who would be self-identified as white and disadvantage those who self-identify as persons of color. And so again, as you actually see on your screen, one of the surveys that we actually see from Lee & Low looks at, again, racial inequities, gender inequities, and other ways in which people identify across different domains, such as the industry overall or those who are actually in executive leadership positions, those who are in editorial positions, or even book reviewers.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that we actually see is there's a disproportionality in terms of those who are in some of these higher level positions based on race. And there's other ways in which race intersects with gender and ability and those things. And so I don't want to actually take those for granted, but I want to actually really focus on our time to not distract from the other ways in which we identify, but to really focus on racial inequities.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And one of the ways in which we find or we identify and recognize racial inequities is to actually look at data. And you all within the scholarly community actually have really robust data that actually shows different forms of inequalities or inequities across different ways in which people actually identify. One of the things that I'm hoping that you actually see is that there's really two causal explanations of these racial inequities in terms of why there's such disparities around race, around those who are in the industry overall, or those who are in executive leadership positions, or maybe even those who are actually editorial board members or reviewers or editors within themselves.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that we see is that there's actually two ways in which we actually can explain it. One would be actually looking at group-based deficits. Another one would be systemically. So when we see that the percentage of people of color who are actually in executive leadership positions is quite less than those who self-identify as white, there's two ways in which we can explain that.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We can say that there's something about the group of people of color. Maybe there's a pipeline issue, in terms of those who are actually motivated to actually be in executive leadership positions. Maybe it's actually an issue with mentoring. If we actually just mentor those who are already within the scholarly industry, we actually can kind of groom them in order to actually be a part of executive leadership, where there's committees or permanent positions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So that's one to look at these group-based deficits and say, how do we actually address it in that way? Another explanation will be to look at it from a more systems perspective, that there's maybe something wrong with the policies, practices, procedures, rules, whether written or unwritten, that actually operate in ways which actually advantage some, again, and disadvantage others. It's similar if I was actually to give you an analogy of who is the best NBA basketball team in Los Angeles.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Is it the Lakers or the Clippers? And I was to submit to you that, you know what, the Clippers beat the Lakers 10 times out of 10, there's only really two possible explanations that you actually can come up with to explain those differences. Either the Clippers are a superior team or the rules of the game seem to actually advantage the Clippers over the Lakers. It's the same thing when we look at this these charts and we actually see these different disparities in terms of those who self-identify as white and other Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, in terms of leadership positions, in terms of functionality within the scholarly industry.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, two ways of explaining it. And I think a very neutral stance would be to say, at best, that at best, some of these disparities that we actually see along racial lines can be attributed to systemic factors. And so again I'm hoping that that makes sense to you, as you start to kind of deconstruct why we're talking about racial inequity within the scholarly industry today.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so this really leads to the next point, really a natural progression, that again, I believe that the scholarly publishing community, much like other communities and industries, have a moral and ethical obligation to actually examine the different ways in which whiteness and white supremacy is kind of systematically embedded within the industry, to the detriment of Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I think that's really important for a number of reasons. One is that it actually helps recognize the unintentional ways in which the industry might be perpetuating white supremacy, or this idea of white values, white norms, white standards, white ways of being and doing and practices, that they're actually superior to other groups. And again oftentimes, this is very implicit, very hidden, very unconscious, in how it actually plays out in policies, practices, rules, and things of that nature.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It also helps us think about building a road map for identifying the barriers which might actually prevent the SSP community from addressing some of these barriers, whether they're intentional or not, within the industry. So there's several different ways where it's really important that we actually think about how does white supremacy, how does actually this white norm that we'll define in a moment, how it actually creeps into the scholarly industry and actually kind of colors the way in which we actually operate.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: One of the things that I'm hoping that you really picked up is that I didn't really use a financial or bottom line argument as to why it's so important that we think about addressing the racial inequities within the scholarly community. Because one of the things that we oftentimes see is that that bottom line that, you know what, if we were to diversify the industry, that we'll see greater productivity.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We'll see a larger consumer base. We'll see a larger bottom line. We'll see more, again, movement within the field among different groups. We'll see more representation. And those things are all important. And those things are all true. But what we actually see in social science research is that companies, industries, associations that use more of a bottom line perspective tend to actually not last very long.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Their initiatives, their change is actually not sustainable. But what does sustain organizations, what does sustain institutions is when there's actually a focus on morals. That we actually should promote racial equity, not because it actually increases their bottom line, but we should actually promote racial equity because it's actually the right thing to do. The reality is that when we actually use that form or that, you know what, we're going to approach it from kind of an increase in bottom line, increase in productivity, increase in our reach, increasing the voice of different groups-- which again, are all important things-- that we understand that there's actually a cost to this work, which we're going to talk about throughout our presentation.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That there's a high cost in terms of what it actually means to do this. And are we willing to actually pay that cost is really the key. And this goes beyond hiring a diversity equity inclusion officer. This goes beyond affinity groups or committees that actually charge to do this work. This is about shifts, shifts and structures, shifts in policies and ways of doing, reallocation of resources, recommitting to, again, some of the values that maybe some of the companies within SSP community actually started with.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so what that requires is what we would consider within the field, particularly in social science, as an anti-racist perspective or anti-racist approach, which is not a strategy that you try out. It's not a new technique that you learn. It's really about a lifestyle. It's a larger commitment. It's a philosophy, a way of actually doing, a way of actually being.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That again, it involves actively identifying, challenging, and changing the values and institutional structures and behaviors that, again, perpetuate some of those racial inequalities that we saw a few slides ago. This is actually looking both inward and outward to actually to try to promote forms of racial justice. Again, whether it's within the scholarly industry, whether it's within education, whether it's within entertainment.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the cool things that Olue actually reminds of in terms of anti-racist perspective is that being anti-racist doesn't mean that you actually have to admit to not actually having any racist thoughts or ideas or opinions. That part of being anti-racist is about challenging, again, not only those values and structures and racial discrimination and inequalities that we actually see within the industry, within our communities, within society, but also the ones that we actually see within ourselves.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: The subtle ways and the not-so-subtle ways in which we've internalized racist thoughts and beliefs about other groups. And so again, we actually encompass all those things at the same time. It doesn't actually contradict itself. And this is the commitment. This is actually what it means to be anti-racist. And what we actually see is that the scholarly publishing community is actually taking a really important first step in actually addressing these things.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I pick and choose the opportunities that I have to do keynote addresses really wisely. I rarely ever do them. One of the benefits of keynote addresses is that when you actually look at social science research that actually tracks these types of talks is that, you know what, those who actually are invited to do keynote addresses oftentimes are never invited back. And so for me, that's actually a really good thing.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: For me, it actually means that, you know what, regardless of what I say, I don't have to worry about the pressure of actually being politically correct, which you'll find out pretty soon, if you haven't already, that I'm not. And so again, I think it's a really great opportunity to kind of jump into it. And I really appreciate some of the commitment that the scholarly publishing community is actually starting to show and has shown for a while in terms of trying to actually address some of these issues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: One way in which the scholarly publishing community have actually moved towards addressing it is with the addition of a new toolkit, the anti-racist toolkit, which is about what are the practices, policies, procedures, ways of doing things that are anti-racist. That actually seek to identify and to challenge values and behaviors and structures and institutions that harbor, again, policies, practices, and procedures that, again, whether intentionally or not, actually harm people of color.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So we see this anti-racist toolkit for allies, which is a great resource that I hope those of you who haven't had opportunity to read through it, that you will take some time over the next few days to actually gather that. That you will take that wealth of knowledge and resources and actually apply it to where you work, the space in which you actually occupy. But one of the things that I've learned in my time as an educator and as a consultant on diversity, equity inclusion, initiatives for nonprofits and for profits and for organizations that are affiliated with schools and those that are not, is that anti-racist values are very easy to have.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Like, if I was to poll you-- and I wish we were actually live in a face-to-face interaction-- of how many of you actually agree with the anti-racist perspective, I would assume that the majority of you would actually raise your hand and say yes, those values actually-- they speak to me. However, one of the things that I find is that to have those values, that's a very easy thing to have.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To raise your hand is a very easy thing. The hard part is when you're actually asked to put those values into action. When they're are no longer values, but actions in which you actually have to act out. And actions which actually carry certain consequences with them. And that's the hard part. And so today, we're going to look at what are some of those barriers, the professional barriers and the personal barriers, that prevent us from actually taking those values, those anti-racist values, for those of us who have them, and actually walk them out into how we actually operate in the spaces that we occupy, particularly within the scholarly publishing community.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again we to talk about the intention-behavior gap, which really describes the failure of humans, of individuals, to translate intentions into actions, the failure to translate intentions into actions. Since many of us have really good intentions. But for some of you after you actually listen to this presentation, it might actually increase not only your awareness about barriers, but maybe your intention to overcome them.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But oftentimes, these types of addresses very seldom does it actually lead to any type of behavior change. So that we see this intention-behavior gap actually play out in very, very real ways. And so again, we're going to talk about some of those strategies or some of the reasons in why that actually is the case. Again, when we go back to social science research, what we actually see is that our intentions are only 30% of the variance that leads to behavior change.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So it only really accounts for 30% of why people actually enact in certain behaviors. So it's not a very good indicator of how people actually move from, again, having these good intentions, these anti-racist intentions, to actually certain behaviors that we actually we play out. And so what I would hope for you to do is, again, as you see illustrated is to actually look at it as this road or as this race, this kind of ongoing race, where at the very beginning of the start line is our intentions and at the very end, the finish line, are the behaviors.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But what you see is actually that there's multiple things that are actually in the way. That these hurdles that represent both our personal challenges and professional obstacles that actually prevent us from actually finishing the race and actually moving from those intentions to actual behaviors. And that's what we're going to actually focus on today, that intention-behavior gap and what we can actually do about it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the first hurdles that we actually see is we start to actually center our own emotions and experiences. When it comes to actually doing this work, when it comes to calling out racist practices, when it comes to calling out racial microaggressions or discriminatory practices, we tend to actually center our own emotions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How am I feeling? So how is my comfort level? So the moment that I'm actually uncomfortable, actually, I quit. I don't do it anymore. The moment I actually start to have fear, I just no longer actually want to finish this race. So again, we start to actually center ourselves and start instead of the racial and ethnic marginalized colleagues and customers that we actually work with or we're seeking to actually serve.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so when things start to get hard, it's easy to give up. When things start to get challenging, it's easy to give up. We're unsure. It's easy to give up right. Even for some of us who are engaged in this work, when we don't get the recognition that we think we deserve, it's easy for us, actually, not to actually act on our good intentions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so, again, we become more important than, again, those who we serve. We become more important than actually trying to face racial equity or trying to actually promote racial equity within our industry. We call it oftentimes within the counseling industry the nice counseling syndrome. And we actually can remix that here today and look at it as the nice scholarly publisher syndrome, where being liked and maintaining peace is more important than doing some of the hard work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, one of the first obstacles that we oftentimes face when trying to actually enact those things that you see in the anti-racist ally toolkit is that, again, we start to center ourselves. It becomes about us-- my comfort, my sense of security. That becomes a central barrier that stops me from actually really engaging in some of the work that needs to be done.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: If you self-identify as a person of color you might also have internalized or fall into the trap of what we call white centering, where we tend to center white people and white values, white norms and white feelings over, again, everything else. That we kind of learned that how we actually move in and out of the industry is about being very careful about not offending folks, not making people feel too uncomfortable, not wanting to be perceived a certain way.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so we start to let things slide. We start to let things go by. And it actually contributes to-- it perpetuates the issue. We tend actually to avoid that conflict. And there's really important reasons why, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But the moment we actually start to save our colleagues, particularly those who self-identify as white, from hard feelings and at hard uncomfortable conversations, we do them an injustice.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We rob them of the opportunity to grow. One of the things that we oftentimes see in the counseling industry is that conflict is extremely important for change. You actually don't get change, you don't get behavior change, without conflict. As one person in my attendance a few workshops ago once said, that even a seed needs to actually push up against the ground in order to actually grow into a tree.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That we have to worry about not so much protecting people from uncomfortable feelings or uncomfortable conversations, but we have to keep our eye on the larger goal, which is, again, creating a culture, creating an industry, that is actually truly inclusive. And that's almost another presentation within itself. Because we don't want to actually include people into a system that was never designed for them, a system that is actually unwelcoming.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And we'll get into inclusively in a little bit. And so to kind of summarize that first barrier is really that the value we place on being viewed as nice by others kind of overshadows our willingness to actually engage in anti-racist efforts, if those efforts might actually result in interpersonal disagreement and conflicts with other colleagues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Then we say, you know what, that's too much. I'm not willing to actually pay that price. And it stops us from actually moving on our intentions to actually do something. And maybe you're asking yourself, what is this something that you keep asking us to do? And this is, again, why I was actually so impressed with this SSP in terms of the anti-racist toolkit that's actually being promoted now.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That this list is full of strategies that you actually can engage in to actually do some of this important work. Let's think about a second barrier, which is, again, being labeled a troublemaker. So again, those real fears, those real realities of being labeled a troublemaker, of someone who is actually not collegial because you're pushing up against practices and policies.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You're asking uncomfortable questions within a meeting. You're challenging microaggressions when you hear them occur in the moment, making that a teachable moment for others, that you run the risk of actually being labeled a troublemaker. And a troublemaker actually has issues in terms of just job security, collaborate with other colleagues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It changes, again, the whole cultural climate of how you experience the space that you occupy within the scholarly industry. So again, this real reality of actually being labeled a troublemaker from administrative or from colleagues or from those who are under you actually, again, it stops us from actually moving our intentions into actions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, the question that has to become is what's more important, the label that we receive or doing some of the work? Or maybe a better way of actually saying is that, how do we actually be very politically savvy in how we actually engage in some of this work, so that we can avoid, if possible, that label. Which again, I'm a realist and I'm not a motivational speaker. I think it's kind of hard to avoid that label.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That the moment folks become uncomfortable, you're slapped with that label. So how do you operate within that. How do you build allies? How do you build others, so it's not just you. Things to kind of consider moving forward. So that label in and of itself becomes an obstacle, in terms of what stops us from moving forward and doing some of this work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Another we see is this apathy. That apathy becomes a coping strategy. [INAUDIBLE] say, you know what, I'm indifferent. One of the things that I failed to mention at the very beginning with the slide that looks at the percentage of people across different racial groups in the industry and in executive levels and editors and book reviewers and so on is that, again, you have to look at that and say, well, you know what, who else sees this as a problem?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Who's negatively impacted by this problem? Who benefits from things being the way that they are? Who loses? Because the reality is that for some of us, we benefit in some of those spaces. So why would I actually work to deconstruct the industry, why would I work to actually promote racial equity within the scholarly publishing industry, when, again, the people who look like me are the ones who are in the high positions?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: They're in executive levels. They're the middle managers. They're the ones making the choices. They're the gatekeepers. Why would I actually have to-- why would I work against that? And that's questions that we have to ask. And sometimes, when we don't ask those questions, when we don't actually wrestle through that, what happens is that apathy sets in and we're kind of indifferent to it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I see the charts. I see the groups that are actually being promoted. I see the groups that seem to be struggling to gain access to those spaces. Hey, it's just the way things are. Or hey, maybe it's, again, maybe it's something about them, not necessarily our industry. So we start to actually see, you know what, apathy becomes a coping strategy.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Or maybe you say that, you know what, the problem that you showed on the chart, that's too large for me. That's outside of my professional roles and responsibilities. That's kind of outside of my scope. There's nothing I can really do about it. And so apathy becomes this resistance or this protective factor that protects us from actually doing the work-- or prevents us, I should say, from actually doing the work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, we have to make sure that we don't actually fall into that trap, as well. And as you see there again, that personal apathy actually helps us kind of, again, avoid controversy. It helps us to actually avoid conflict. It helps us to avoid being labeled a troublemaker. And so again, the apathy, it actually-- it serves a purpose. It's a corporate strategy.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Why do we engage in coping strategies? Because they actually-- they work, even the ones that actually have a harmful impact on ourself and others. I'm a clinical mental health practitioner by trade. We think about substance abuse. Why do people engage in it? Because it actually works. It helps alleviate a problem, even if it's a short-term solution to long-term issues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Even if it's actually literally killing us that we engage in strategies that, again, they are effective. Same thing with apathy. And so what happens is apathy leads to a sense of complacency. And we're just OK with things being the way that they are, especially if we're not actually personally connected to it. One of the things that I oftentimes do and I see a lot of my workshop is that, you know what, the reality is that I can give you all the stats-- which is why you only had one slide of stats today-- I can give you all the figures in the world about the scholarly industry and who's in certain positions, who's not, looking at income and positionality and all these other ways in which race intersects within scholarly industry.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And the reality is that it probably won't change anyone's mind, because it's not an intellectual issue. It's a heart issue. There has to be this emotional connection to the numbers that you actually see before you actually move your intentions into behaviors. And without an emotional connection, without that, again, it's just more information, which for some of us, that is the goal in and of itself, is to learn the lingo, is to read the anti-racist toolkit, just so we know how to talk the talk.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But we never actually put that into actions. We're kind of satisfied with, again, just being able to know that this is politically appropriate, this is not. And that's as far as it goes. That goes back to that centering the self. We call it performative wokeness, that we give off this perception of if I actually liked this on Facebook or if I retweet this, or if I actually post this on my LinkedIn account, it actually shows to others, it demonstrates to others that, you know what, that I'm doing this work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But the reality is that you're paying very little of the cost. So you're centering your own comfort before you actually engage in this work. A few more strategies and then we're going to kind of conclude with what does it all mean. You see, there's this anxiety that's actually leading to guilt. Anxiety about, were do I start? Who else sees there's a problem?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Who might be able to help? Or the fact that I see it and there's so much and it's overwhelming me. Or I see it and I'm not really doing much about it. And then anxiety actually leads to guilt. And guilt is not really a productive feeling, in terms of doing anti-racist work. The guilt actually prevents us from actually engaging in it. Guilt causes us to actually make other excuses as to why we can't engage in it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So we see oftentimes there's anxiety that leads to guilt of, again, not knowing where to start. And I will give you a really quick tip about where to start. Anywhere. It's the same thing as the metaphor of how do you eat an elephant. Well, one piece at a time. So you start one place. And you hope that starting in one place actually indirectly and directly actually impacts other areas.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And for some of you have to start with, are we gathering data? Do we disaggregate it based on race and based on gender and based on other ways in which people actually identify? Maybe that's a starting point. Do we have a racial equity or an equity dashboard where we make that information available to the public, so that we can be held accountable to some of that?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, this goes beyond affinity groups and beyond DEI officers-- which again, are important positions to actually have. We actually see since the murder of George Floyd that the DEI positions have actually skyrocketed over 400% across the globe. But we actually also look at the research. It shows that, you know what, it's the highest turnover. People are lasting less than 9 months.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Why? Because again, industries and spaces and organizations are actually putting all the burden of responsibility to those small communities that oftentimes are under-funded, under-resourced, don't have a clear charge, don't really have any capital to actually leverage. That they're asking them to do all the work. They are trying to alleviate their guilt by creating these positions that are almost window dressing.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so we have to say, OK, well, how do we disrupt that? We'll get into some of that. And so again, we see that, again, those anxieties leads members of the scholarly publishing community to again express feelings of personal guilt, apprehension, and uneasiness. And again, to alleviate those feelings, there's oftentimes, we kind of have a dismissed or diminished interest or motivation to do something.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We're not really interested in actually redefining our professional roles in ways that actually align with the anti-racist perspective or approach. I always tell organizations and associations to be very careful when you talk about anti-racist work, because it changes how you do things. You have to redefine roles and responsibilities. You have to kind of redistribute resources.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You have to fund it. And it changes some things. And it's a cost that you have to be willing to actually pay. Another one that we oftentimes see is that there's anger that actually leads to kind of an ineffective response. So as maybe you say, you know what, I'm really not new to the racial disparities that I actually see within our scholarly publishing industry, whichever space you occupy.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But the fact that you see so many of your colleagues, so many of your partners, and so many of the people that you work with who are actually indifferent to it, who actually engage in inaction, they don't do much, that it actually leads to anger. And I always say the anger is actually a very productive response, if used correctly. But that anger can actually spill over and actually lead to kind of constructive and, again, ineffective outcomes.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Because you'll have others, whether it's administrators or supervisors who, again, are less likely to work with you because, again, they don't want you to actually feel or express that anger. And again, anger's important. And I think it's actually a very healthy and developmentally appropriate response to the inaction of our colleagues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But we have to bottle that anger up. We have to express it in ways that are actually effective, that helps move the needle, and not create additional barriers. So sometimes we have very great intentions, but when we look around and see that, you know what, no one else seems to be bothered. And we look around we see, you know what, no one else seems to be doing anything. And then our anger actually gets the best of us.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And we're less effective in our communication in other ways in which we actually address or try to address certain issues. So it's about how do we actually harness that. How do we leverage it? I believe the last one, before we start to think about what are the professional barriers-- because right now, we're really focusing on the personal barriers-- is really this false sense of powerlessness.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That, little old me? I don't have the power. I don't have the positionality. I don't have the resources to actually affect this change. And so when I actually start to fall into that trap of thinking, that sense of powerlessness, it becomes really a reason to avoid doing this work. It becomes a reason to avoid advocating for redefining how we do things.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: By taking a deeper dive into our policies and practices and how they actually might unintentionally be working to advantage some groups and disadvantage others. We have to learn how to, as you see, to kind of differentiate between, again, realistic barriers and just the perceptions that we actually have. Sometimes there's a sense of dispowerment that, again, it becomes a form of personal resistance, that I'll use that as an excuse not to engage in this work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And what I hope is that you're not tuning out now. So again, one of the things that you might have actually picked up is that, again, I'm not a motivational speaker. I find to be a very realist person in these spaces, that there is a cost to actually engaging in anti-racist work. That it's more than just reading the material, but again, understanding that oftentimes, many people will actually engage in some of this work to actually raise their awareness.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Many people are engaging in this work to, again, raise their intentions. But very few are actually taking those intentions and actually moving them into behaviors. And I don't think the scholarly publishing community is any different than other organizations that I see engaging in this work. And so part of the presentation is not to discourage you, but it's to help you to actually identify some of the barriers, both the personal ones, as well as the professional ones, that actually stop us from actually taking some of the good work that you're doing and actually letting it flow into our behaviors.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so I hope that this bleeds into more conversations within your colleagues and within the organizations and the spaces that you occupy within the industry. That this is just the starting point. Hopefully, it just opens more doors. If you actually haven't read through the anti-racist toolkit, that's actually developed by and for the scholarly publishing community, that, again, that may be a first step.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Tons of great ideas. Tons of great strategies. But if we're going to be honest, most of those strategies? They're not new. They're contextually appropriate, which makes them unique, but they're not necessarily new. And they're not hidden. So one of the things that we have to ask ourselves is, well, if they're not new and they're not hidden for the most part, why aren't we been engaging in this?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Again, our intentions are only 30% of why we actually do things. So there has to be these other barriers. And how do we actually counteract these barriers moving forward? And so that's a really nice bridge as we think about professional obstacles. What are those professional obstacles that stop us from doing this work?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: The first thing we see is this professional paralysis. Well again, where we start to kind of question, well, what can be done? What can I do? How do I actually address some of these problems within my organization? How can I ever tackle such a momental task? Is it really my job to challenge racism?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I don't really get paid for that. I don't get really recognized. Actually, it puts me in more of a position to actually lose my job. I don't think one person or one group or one office or one committee or one fill-in-the-blank can actually address and make the changes that I think needs to be made for those of you who see them.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so professionally, we kind of just get, why should I actually engage in this? Why should I take the risk? And this is why at the bottom line argument is not sustainable. This is why the argument, well I should take the risk in order to, again, to see more diversity among my colleagues, to see a larger consumer base-- this is why it doesn't play out well.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Because again, there needs to be more than that, because there's a huge risk. That we're talking about anti-racism. Again, we're not talking about trying on a new strategy. We're not talking about learning a new theory. We're talking about, actually, a value system. And if we're talking about values, not everyone values that. That's the reality.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That's how values [? have ?] come and go. Some people value it. Some people do not. So what happens when you're working in the industry or in a space where some people just don't have a value for anti-racism? They don't really value addressing racial inequities. We really haven't even got into the difference between equality and equity.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so it's important that we actually kind of consider these things, that again, our values aren't enough. Oftentimes, they don't really lead to behaviors. We don't really act on our values. And so we get into that second professional obstacle. And this is again, the professional and character assassination.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: There's research that shows there's tons of strategy that this actually happens. This is kind of similar to that being labeled a troublemaker. That again, oftentimes organizations use different means to actually discredit those who are actually social justice advocates or those who actually want to engage in anti-racist work. They start point at other ways in which they're evaluating them, that they're not doing this or they don't do this or they spend so much time on this that it takes away from there.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So anyone who is actually going to challenge the status quo or to challenge unfair policies and practices, that they're, again, they run the risk of actually being assassinated in terms of their character, in terms of their work ethic. And so as you think about how this might or might not play out in the space that you occupy, one of the things I always want to ask people is, how do you protect against this?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do you expect your team, your organization, your association to engage in this work, if you're not actually providing some form of protection against this? Things that have to be considered, rules that have to be re-looked at, other things that need to be added into-- again, accountability systems, which we're going to talk about in a moment.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So where is the protection against this? How about, again, perpetuating this culture of fear, which is closely tied to what we just talked about. This culture that if you speak out, if you do things and kind of go against the grain, if you ask questions that may be uncomfortable in the meeting, that again, you could be jeopardizing your career. You could be jeopardizing your advancement. And this happens.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: There are rules, sometimes that are unspoken. You know who to say what to. That, again, they have consequences to it. How do you actually deconstruct those? How do you actually change that culture? One of the things I oftentimes say, and I do a lot of consulting work around this, is again, I can walk into an organization or Association? And usually within five minutes, actually I get a really good sense of, again, the culture of fear that has actually permeated throughout the organization.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You'd be surprised at how many places that I come and I'm asked to speak and to consult and to do workshops and I can't even finish through where I get the people who actually work there who are complaining that. This happens and this happens and when you said that, this happens. The culture is very prevalent, is very in your face. That again, you know that there's an order.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: There's a hierarchy. And there's certain boundaries that you don't cross. So how do you learn to identify that? You see a lot of people who actually engage in racial climate surveys, culture surveys in terms of assessing the climate and how different groups are actually experiencing in the workplace. If you haven't done that, that's a good starting point.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, people are oftentimes immobilized with those different fears, ranging from social concerns or even kind of apprehensions about maintaining their jobs. And again, oftentimes for some, those fears causes them not to act. And some of those fears are-- they're real. So I'm not saying that these aren't real barriers.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I'm actually looking at the social science research to try to support this, so that you're not just stuck with my opinions. But to see that what actually causes us to not actually engage in some of the things that we profess we value in. Just a few. And again, I feel like now they're starting to actually overlap and you're starting to get the point that even job security.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So how do we protect against this? That you actually could run the risk of losing your job. You could run the risk of being promoted-- or not being promoted, being demoted. So again, it's important to actually kind of think about those things. And so as we think about anti-racist, the tool-kits-- and I believe the ally one is already available for you.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But there's one geared towards Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. And there's a third anti-racist toolkit that's coming out. How do you keep these things in mind as you're developing those tool-kits, as you're implementing those, as you're encouraging members of the scholarly community to actually engage in some of this work? How do we protect against job security?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, raising these issues of racial inequity, regardless if you're in scholarly industry, regardless if you're in education or entertainment or wherever you might find yourself, oftentimes leads people to actually fall in, again, disfavor with others. Again, how do you engage in this work and not make others feel uncomfortable? Even if you're doing everything you're supposed to do, even if you're being polite, even if you're being very strategic in how you're doing it, the uncomfortableness is necessary.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Again, there won't be change within your organization, within your space without it. So again, how do you actually work with colleagues and supervisors who might feel threatened by this value that you have? This desire that you have to actually, again, open up the scholarly industry? And today we're focused on racial equity, but again, that doesn't mean that that doesn't actually bleed out into thinking about what this looks like in terms of gender and other ways in which people actually identify, age and ability.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It becomes a blueprint for how you actually can transform the SSP community from within. I think we're in this time where we're faced with this dual pandemic of COVID-19, as well as racism. And it seems to provide an excellent opportunity to redefine how we do things. There is no return back to the normal. This is the biggest pause maybe in the history of the world. That we have an opportunity to pause.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And as we start to integrate back into society, if we start to integrate into ways in which we do things, how do we change our focus? So there's not just trendy. So we don't have to wait until someone else dies at the hands of a police officer before we actually re-look at our commitment to addressing racial justice. That in a few months, once racial issues are no longer the hot topic, once racial equity and anti-racism is no longer the buzz words, that you're still going to actually engage in the work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do we get to that? How do we use this as a time to restructure things? And maybe one of our last ones is looking at the lack of accountability. This is, like, the so what. Accountability is the engine that really drives these initiatives. You want people to engage in this work? You want those who don't value anti-racist work to actually engage in it?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Well, how are they being evaluated? Is it tied to merit pay? Is it tied to how they're being evaluated? One of things you oftentimes say in the industry is that you measure what matters. How are you measuring these things? How are you measuring racial disparities within your organization, within the spaces that you occupy? As we see, the again, accountability is, again, what separates the wishers in life from the action takers.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And there's accountability on a personal level, on an organizational level. A lot of different ways in which we can think about accountability. On a peer level, how we hold each other accountable to these things. So again, without accountability, again, we're going through the motions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And again, dealing with the administrative edits that, again, oftentimes their instructions and ways in which we're actually instructed to do things that are actually counter to an anti-racist perspective. They're antithetical to anti-racist perspective. But we do them in order to maintain the peace. But what we do them in order to, again, maintain our jobs, which are important.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So this is really, when we think about this, this is thinking about it from a board level, from those that are actually in positions of power. How do we do these things, not just from a bottom up, but from a top down? Because if there is a buy-in from the top down, then again, this stuff doesn't work. If people at the top down, if they're not uncomfortable, the stuff doesn't work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So the key is, how do we make sure that everyone's on board with this? How do you hold them accountable? Which again, it goes beyond bottom line. How do you hold them accountable for doing some of this important work? Who are you voting for? Who are you nominating for board positions and presidents positions?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And what is their track record for doing this? And how are you holding them accountable? And how are you supporting them? How are you leveraging your positions to make sure that they're actually doing these things? Or again, are we kind of just going with the motion as we see with sports industry and other places that, again, they're donating money, but not really taking actions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It's easy to donate some of that money. So again, how do we actually keep these things in the forefront as we think about changing what we value, how we actually do things within the industry, so that you actually can become the front runners or the lead thinkers in doing some of this work? I don't know another profession, as a professor, that's more important than the scholarly industry. That you are the gatekeepers of information.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That's incredibly important. That you all kind of gatekeep and what comes from the scholarly publishing community is what we consider to be the canon, some of the most important canons in counseling, in psychology, and in education, and other industries-- economics, the body of literature and books and articles that we deem to be important. And so how do we do that in ways that are equitable, if we don't actually hear all the voices?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do we center the marginalized voices? It requires us to take an anti-racist perspective. It requires us to say, what's good for the minority is actually good for the majority. How do we open it up to other countries, improve access in terms of their publishing opportunities? These are, again, questions that we have to think about. Again, we're in a very good position to think about how do we lead the change moving forward.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that oftentimes I lead with-- or I leave with-- is again, well, let me give you some tips and strategies for overcoming those barriers. But maybe I misled you. Because the reality is if I were to stay here and to give you tips and strategies of how to overcome some of those personal and professional barriers, I would actually just be re-perpetuating what I talked about in terms of the intention-behavior gap.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That I can give you strategies, but again, it doesn't mean that you're going to do anything with them. And so let me leave you with one strategy, just one strategy. One thing that I see the missing link is-- so if we go back to the slide that looks at the us running on that map, us running the race for moving our intentions and letting them flow into actual behaviors, and we think about what's missing?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: What helps us get over those hurdles? What helps us get over those barriers, both the professional ones and the personal ones? Well, I'll say one word. Courage. That there's a lack of courage. A courage to step up and to speak out and to take risk. This is what we need to get over. You don't need more steps.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You don't need a new framework. You don't need a new guideline. In order to move our intentions into to actions, we need courage. Courage to actually build authentic relationships. Or how about the courage to actually stand against the status quo? To develop compassion and empathy?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To see ourselves and others? And we know and-- again, as a clinical mental health counselor, what I know is that empathy is actually-- and perspective taking-- is actually, it's pretty hard when the person you're asked to demonstrate it with is different from you. So what if you're in a position of power and privilege?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And in terms of race, there's a hierarchy that exists, not just in the United States, but globally, where you have whites who are on top and Blacks who are on the bottom and everyone else is actually in between. So if you're in the position-- again, and I believe we live in a racially hierarchical society, where you're at the top, how do you develop compassion and empathy for those who are actually at the bottom?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do you leverage that privilege to uplift others? To provide a platform for others to actually have a voice? How about openly disagreeing with colleagues? Just the courage to do that. These aren't multi-million dollar initiatives. These are small risks that actually take courage. The courage [INAUDIBLE] of echoes a colleague's comment in the moment.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You hear a microaggression or someone asks you the question, and you back them up. We oftentimes undermine the importance of an echo, to have someone else there. And if you're a person of color, it's nice when there's someone else who's actually speaking up and it doesn't have to be, especially if you're in a predominantly white space. So we think about allies and how they actually can speak up.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How they actually can bear the flag and can bear the burden of actually doing some of this work, especially when it comes to racial equity within scholarly publishing industry. The courage not to remain silent on these issues. Understand that there is no such thing as neutrality. There is no gray area. Either you're engaging in anti-racist behavior or you're not.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Either you're anti-racist or you're not. Either you're racist or you're anti-racist, but you're not in-between. And let me kind of remix something that Beverly Tatum, who's an author who I love to read, talked about in terms of racism, anti-racism. She said, you know what, you could think about anti-racist as this. And she gives four different illustrations.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And only one of them is considered anti-racist. And so the other ones, by the definition, would be considered racist. Let's say, if you were in a walking escalator and it's moving towards racism, it's moving towards white supremacy, and you're on there. You see the direction in which is going and you walk in that direction with it, that's person one, walking towards white supremacy, walking towards racism.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Then you have person two, who sees the escalator moving in the same direction and say, you know what, I'm not OK with that. And so they stay still. They're not walking towards it. However, the escalator is still moving. They're still going that direction. Neutrality doesn't work. Then you have person three, who sees that walking escalator.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: They see the direction it's going. And then they turn and they go the opposite direction, but they're walking in a pace is so slow that the escalator is actually still moving them towards white supremacy, still moving them towards racism, in terms of being complicit with it. Then you have person four, the last person, who sees the walking escalator, who actually-- who turns and they're walking.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And they're walking at a pace that actually they're making some traction. Four people. Only one is considered anti-racist. And the reality is, is which one are you? Which one are you? As we think about courage-- which, again, in terms of being OK to upset others, that, again, conflict is a very natural thing, constructive confrontation.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: The courage to actually put the anti-racist toolkit into practice. Not to learn the lingo. Not to say I read it. But to say, how do we put this into practice? And there are practical steps. I've read the entire manual. It's filled with strategies and things that you actually can do.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Being OK with discomfort. The realization that, you know what, you can be extremely safe and extremely uncomfortable at the same time. I wish this was more interactive, because I want to poll you right now to say, which one of you are comfortable? How comfortable are you right now? Like, where are you in terms of your level of discomfort?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Or have you been offended yet? Are you offended by what I'm saying, what we've been talking about? Maybe you've already checked off. You already stopped the video. Maybe you are still uncomfortable. Maybe you are offended, but you're still listening. You still hear. And I salute you.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And I say to continue to push through that discomfort. And let me just kind of finish up that, again, when we think about courage, that courage-- and this is one of my favorite quotes-- is not really the absence of fear or the fear of personal things that can be done to you or fear of losing your job. It's not that you don't have fear, but it's rather the judgment that, again, something else is more important than your fear.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To speak up is more important than my fear. To ask a hard question is more important than being liked by everyone. To do something is more important than just the perception that, again, I'm an ally. Again, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Or should we say someone else is more important than the fear. And what I do is close with, again, the importance of actually thinking about courage is one of the missing links that can help us actually overcome some of those hurdles that stop us from actually turning our intentions into behaviors. That is actually a necessary precursor to any sustainable change or action. Without really that underlying disposition of courage, again, those actions, those behaviors are less likely to happen.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Because oftentimes, our actions, our behaviors are an outgrowth of courage. And so really what I encourage you-- the charge for you today-- and when I say you, I mean the SSP community-- is set to develop and to cultivate and to leverage that courage. To have hard conversations. To be OK with not being liked.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To be OK asking uncomfortable questions. To be OK bringing up the importance of accountability. Because again, what you hold the key of information is being gatekeepers of what's published in terms of our scholarly communities, which is extremely important, because policies are actually informed by what's published in the scholarly community, practices, laws. So there's an incredible responsibility, incredible opportunity now to think about, again, how do we redefine what we're doing within our industry, so that It's more just, so it's more inclusive, so it's more equitable for others?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How are we providing opportunities for others to, again, leverage their experiences and their worldviews? To, again, enhance it and to challenge our profession? How do we critique the profession? You only critique what you love. So again, thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you. I look forward to some Q&A. And I hope that you have an opportunity to, again, interact with one another, as well.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so I wish you the best. Please stay safe. And again, I'm excited to partner with you in terms of thinking about next steps moving forward. Thank you, all.
Segment:0 .
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CASON LYNLEY: Welcome. I'm happy to introduce today's keynote speaker, Dr. Joseph Williams. Dr. Williams first accepted our invitation as a keynote speaker for the 2020 SSP that unfortunately was canceled due to the global pandemic. [? Jael, ?] [? Lori, ?] and I were thrilled that Dr. Williams and Dr. Helmuth accepted our invitation to join us this year. Dr. Williams is not a stranger to SSP.
CASON LYNLEY: At the 2013 annual meeting, he led a pre-meeting training session on microaggressions for registrants and another for the SSP board. Over the past four years, the annual meeting has increasingly featured more diversity, equity, and inclusion content, reflecting the attention that the Scholarly Publishing community has paid to these critical issues. In the survey feedback from past annual meetings, the most memorable keynotes both challenged and inspired attendees.
CASON LYNLEY: Dr Williams' talk-- Fighting Racial Inequity in the Publishing Industry, Closing the Intention-Behavior Gap-- promises to do both. He consults with schools, communities, associations, and corporations to improve diversity and inclusion efforts, and engages people in productive dialogue and action. He is an associate professor in the Counselor Education Program at the University of Virginia and a faculty affiliate with Youth-Nex, the U.Va Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, and with the Center for Race and Public Education in the South.
CASON LYNLEY: He earned his PhD in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa, and his masters in Mental Health Counseling from Minnesota State University. Please join me in welcoming Doctor Williams.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: My name is Joseph Williams. I'm currently associate professor at the University of Virginia. I'm going to talk to you today about fighting racial inequality in the publishing industry, particularly looking at closing the intention-behavior gap. I think it's really important that we're all on the same page of what I mean when I say racial equity. And so when I mention racial equity, I'm really talking about the guarantee of fair treatment access and opportunity for people of color.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: One of the things that you might be wondering in your head is why focus on racial equity, when there are so many different types of inequalities and inequities that actually exist. And so I focus on race today, not only-- not because I self-identify as someone who is Black and I have some type of hidden agenda, nor do I actually focus on race today because I believe the race is the only thing that matters or it's the most important thing.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But I focus on racial equity, because I believe that race is the central mechanism in which oppression actually exist. Also if we think about it within the context of the United States, I find that race and conversations around race is probably one of the most highly polarizing conversations we actually can have. And so if we can have this conversation about race, then we actually can have a conversation about anything right, any social identity that's oppressed or discriminated against.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, the focus on race isn't to ignore other ways in which people actually identify. The focus on race is really to create a blueprint that can be used to actually address other forms of inequalities or inequities. And so again, I'm hoping that that makes sense to you as we kind of go into this journey today in terms of racial inequity in the publishing industry and what we can actually do about it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that we have to start with is the problem. One of the things I oftentimes tell my students is how do you actually address a problem that you don't know exist? And it's a trick question, because you don't. And so again, there's tremendous power in being able to actually name a problem. One of the things that we see is that there's tons of research that isn't necessarily new, nor is it hidden, that looks at the disparities, racial disparities within the publishing industry.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so as we think about racial inequity, one of the things that we have to think about is how do we identify that? How do when a racial inequity is actually taking place? Well, it's really tricky because you actually have to start at the end. You have to start at outcomes. So you look at outcome datas to actually look at potential red flags that might be an indicator of racial inequities, that might be indicator that there are actually issues within our policies and practices and procedures and culture and norms and values that, again, work to advantage some and to disadvantage others.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, if we're talking about who that some is, it would be work to advantage people who would be self-identified as white and disadvantage those who self-identify as persons of color. And so again, as you actually see on your screen, one of the surveys that we actually see from Lee & Low looks at, again, racial inequities, gender inequities, and other ways in which people identify across different domains, such as the industry overall or those who are actually in executive leadership positions, those who are in editorial positions, or even book reviewers.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that we actually see is there's a disproportionality in terms of those who are in some of these higher level positions based on race. And there's other ways in which race intersects with gender and ability and those things. And so I don't want to actually take those for granted, but I want to actually really focus on our time to not distract from the other ways in which we identify, but to really focus on racial inequities.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And one of the ways in which we find or we identify and recognize racial inequities is to actually look at data. And you all within the scholarly community actually have really robust data that actually shows different forms of inequalities or inequities across different ways in which people actually identify. One of the things that I'm hoping that you actually see is that there's really two causal explanations of these racial inequities in terms of why there's such disparities around race, around those who are in the industry overall, or those who are in executive leadership positions, or maybe even those who are actually editorial board members or reviewers or editors within themselves.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that we see is that there's actually two ways in which we actually can explain it. One would be actually looking at group-based deficits. Another one would be systemically. So when we see that the percentage of people of color who are actually in executive leadership positions is quite less than those who self-identify as white, there's two ways in which we can explain that.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We can say that there's something about the group of people of color. Maybe there's a pipeline issue, in terms of those who are actually motivated to actually be in executive leadership positions. Maybe it's actually an issue with mentoring. If we actually just mentor those who are already within the scholarly industry, we actually can kind of groom them in order to actually be a part of executive leadership, where there's committees or permanent positions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So that's one to look at these group-based deficits and say, how do we actually address it in that way? Another explanation will be to look at it from a more systems perspective, that there's maybe something wrong with the policies, practices, procedures, rules, whether written or unwritten, that actually operate in ways which actually advantage some, again, and disadvantage others. It's similar if I was actually to give you an analogy of who is the best NBA basketball team in Los Angeles.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Is it the Lakers or the Clippers? And I was to submit to you that, you know what, the Clippers beat the Lakers 10 times out of 10, there's only really two possible explanations that you actually can come up with to explain those differences. Either the Clippers are a superior team or the rules of the game seem to actually advantage the Clippers over the Lakers. It's the same thing when we look at this these charts and we actually see these different disparities in terms of those who self-identify as white and other Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, in terms of leadership positions, in terms of functionality within the scholarly industry.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, two ways of explaining it. And I think a very neutral stance would be to say, at best, that at best, some of these disparities that we actually see along racial lines can be attributed to systemic factors. And so again I'm hoping that that makes sense to you, as you start to kind of deconstruct why we're talking about racial inequity within the scholarly industry today.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so this really leads to the next point, really a natural progression, that again, I believe that the scholarly publishing community, much like other communities and industries, have a moral and ethical obligation to actually examine the different ways in which whiteness and white supremacy is kind of systematically embedded within the industry, to the detriment of Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I think that's really important for a number of reasons. One is that it actually helps recognize the unintentional ways in which the industry might be perpetuating white supremacy, or this idea of white values, white norms, white standards, white ways of being and doing and practices, that they're actually superior to other groups. And again oftentimes, this is very implicit, very hidden, very unconscious, in how it actually plays out in policies, practices, rules, and things of that nature.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It also helps us think about building a road map for identifying the barriers which might actually prevent the SSP community from addressing some of these barriers, whether they're intentional or not, within the industry. So there's several different ways where it's really important that we actually think about how does white supremacy, how does actually this white norm that we'll define in a moment, how it actually creeps into the scholarly industry and actually kind of colors the way in which we actually operate.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: One of the things that I'm hoping that you really picked up is that I didn't really use a financial or bottom line argument as to why it's so important that we think about addressing the racial inequities within the scholarly community. Because one of the things that we oftentimes see is that that bottom line that, you know what, if we were to diversify the industry, that we'll see greater productivity.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We'll see a larger consumer base. We'll see a larger bottom line. We'll see more, again, movement within the field among different groups. We'll see more representation. And those things are all important. And those things are all true. But what we actually see in social science research is that companies, industries, associations that use more of a bottom line perspective tend to actually not last very long.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Their initiatives, their change is actually not sustainable. But what does sustain organizations, what does sustain institutions is when there's actually a focus on morals. That we actually should promote racial equity, not because it actually increases their bottom line, but we should actually promote racial equity because it's actually the right thing to do. The reality is that when we actually use that form or that, you know what, we're going to approach it from kind of an increase in bottom line, increase in productivity, increase in our reach, increasing the voice of different groups-- which again, are all important things-- that we understand that there's actually a cost to this work, which we're going to talk about throughout our presentation.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That there's a high cost in terms of what it actually means to do this. And are we willing to actually pay that cost is really the key. And this goes beyond hiring a diversity equity inclusion officer. This goes beyond affinity groups or committees that actually charge to do this work. This is about shifts, shifts and structures, shifts in policies and ways of doing, reallocation of resources, recommitting to, again, some of the values that maybe some of the companies within SSP community actually started with.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so what that requires is what we would consider within the field, particularly in social science, as an anti-racist perspective or anti-racist approach, which is not a strategy that you try out. It's not a new technique that you learn. It's really about a lifestyle. It's a larger commitment. It's a philosophy, a way of actually doing, a way of actually being.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That again, it involves actively identifying, challenging, and changing the values and institutional structures and behaviors that, again, perpetuate some of those racial inequalities that we saw a few slides ago. This is actually looking both inward and outward to actually to try to promote forms of racial justice. Again, whether it's within the scholarly industry, whether it's within education, whether it's within entertainment.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the cool things that Olue actually reminds of in terms of anti-racist perspective is that being anti-racist doesn't mean that you actually have to admit to not actually having any racist thoughts or ideas or opinions. That part of being anti-racist is about challenging, again, not only those values and structures and racial discrimination and inequalities that we actually see within the industry, within our communities, within society, but also the ones that we actually see within ourselves.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: The subtle ways and the not-so-subtle ways in which we've internalized racist thoughts and beliefs about other groups. And so again, we actually encompass all those things at the same time. It doesn't actually contradict itself. And this is the commitment. This is actually what it means to be anti-racist. And what we actually see is that the scholarly publishing community is actually taking a really important first step in actually addressing these things.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I pick and choose the opportunities that I have to do keynote addresses really wisely. I rarely ever do them. One of the benefits of keynote addresses is that when you actually look at social science research that actually tracks these types of talks is that, you know what, those who actually are invited to do keynote addresses oftentimes are never invited back. And so for me, that's actually a really good thing.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: For me, it actually means that, you know what, regardless of what I say, I don't have to worry about the pressure of actually being politically correct, which you'll find out pretty soon, if you haven't already, that I'm not. And so again, I think it's a really great opportunity to kind of jump into it. And I really appreciate some of the commitment that the scholarly publishing community is actually starting to show and has shown for a while in terms of trying to actually address some of these issues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: One way in which the scholarly publishing community have actually moved towards addressing it is with the addition of a new toolkit, the anti-racist toolkit, which is about what are the practices, policies, procedures, ways of doing things that are anti-racist. That actually seek to identify and to challenge values and behaviors and structures and institutions that harbor, again, policies, practices, and procedures that, again, whether intentionally or not, actually harm people of color.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So we see this anti-racist toolkit for allies, which is a great resource that I hope those of you who haven't had opportunity to read through it, that you will take some time over the next few days to actually gather that. That you will take that wealth of knowledge and resources and actually apply it to where you work, the space in which you actually occupy. But one of the things that I've learned in my time as an educator and as a consultant on diversity, equity inclusion, initiatives for nonprofits and for profits and for organizations that are affiliated with schools and those that are not, is that anti-racist values are very easy to have.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Like, if I was to poll you-- and I wish we were actually live in a face-to-face interaction-- of how many of you actually agree with the anti-racist perspective, I would assume that the majority of you would actually raise your hand and say yes, those values actually-- they speak to me. However, one of the things that I find is that to have those values, that's a very easy thing to have.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To raise your hand is a very easy thing. The hard part is when you're actually asked to put those values into action. When they're are no longer values, but actions in which you actually have to act out. And actions which actually carry certain consequences with them. And that's the hard part. And so today, we're going to look at what are some of those barriers, the professional barriers and the personal barriers, that prevent us from actually taking those values, those anti-racist values, for those of us who have them, and actually walk them out into how we actually operate in the spaces that we occupy, particularly within the scholarly publishing community.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again we to talk about the intention-behavior gap, which really describes the failure of humans, of individuals, to translate intentions into actions, the failure to translate intentions into actions. Since many of us have really good intentions. But for some of you after you actually listen to this presentation, it might actually increase not only your awareness about barriers, but maybe your intention to overcome them.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But oftentimes, these types of addresses very seldom does it actually lead to any type of behavior change. So that we see this intention-behavior gap actually play out in very, very real ways. And so again, we're going to talk about some of those strategies or some of the reasons in why that actually is the case. Again, when we go back to social science research, what we actually see is that our intentions are only 30% of the variance that leads to behavior change.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So it only really accounts for 30% of why people actually enact in certain behaviors. So it's not a very good indicator of how people actually move from, again, having these good intentions, these anti-racist intentions, to actually certain behaviors that we actually we play out. And so what I would hope for you to do is, again, as you see illustrated is to actually look at it as this road or as this race, this kind of ongoing race, where at the very beginning of the start line is our intentions and at the very end, the finish line, are the behaviors.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But what you see is actually that there's multiple things that are actually in the way. That these hurdles that represent both our personal challenges and professional obstacles that actually prevent us from actually finishing the race and actually moving from those intentions to actual behaviors. And that's what we're going to actually focus on today, that intention-behavior gap and what we can actually do about it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the first hurdles that we actually see is we start to actually center our own emotions and experiences. When it comes to actually doing this work, when it comes to calling out racist practices, when it comes to calling out racial microaggressions or discriminatory practices, we tend to actually center our own emotions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How am I feeling? So how is my comfort level? So the moment that I'm actually uncomfortable, actually, I quit. I don't do it anymore. The moment I actually start to have fear, I just no longer actually want to finish this race. So again, we start to actually center ourselves and start instead of the racial and ethnic marginalized colleagues and customers that we actually work with or we're seeking to actually serve.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so when things start to get hard, it's easy to give up. When things start to get challenging, it's easy to give up. We're unsure. It's easy to give up right. Even for some of us who are engaged in this work, when we don't get the recognition that we think we deserve, it's easy for us, actually, not to actually act on our good intentions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so, again, we become more important than, again, those who we serve. We become more important than actually trying to face racial equity or trying to actually promote racial equity within our industry. We call it oftentimes within the counseling industry the nice counseling syndrome. And we actually can remix that here today and look at it as the nice scholarly publisher syndrome, where being liked and maintaining peace is more important than doing some of the hard work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, one of the first obstacles that we oftentimes face when trying to actually enact those things that you see in the anti-racist ally toolkit is that, again, we start to center ourselves. It becomes about us-- my comfort, my sense of security. That becomes a central barrier that stops me from actually really engaging in some of the work that needs to be done.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: If you self-identify as a person of color you might also have internalized or fall into the trap of what we call white centering, where we tend to center white people and white values, white norms and white feelings over, again, everything else. That we kind of learned that how we actually move in and out of the industry is about being very careful about not offending folks, not making people feel too uncomfortable, not wanting to be perceived a certain way.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so we start to let things slide. We start to let things go by. And it actually contributes to-- it perpetuates the issue. We tend actually to avoid that conflict. And there's really important reasons why, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But the moment we actually start to save our colleagues, particularly those who self-identify as white, from hard feelings and at hard uncomfortable conversations, we do them an injustice.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We rob them of the opportunity to grow. One of the things that we oftentimes see in the counseling industry is that conflict is extremely important for change. You actually don't get change, you don't get behavior change, without conflict. As one person in my attendance a few workshops ago once said, that even a seed needs to actually push up against the ground in order to actually grow into a tree.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That we have to worry about not so much protecting people from uncomfortable feelings or uncomfortable conversations, but we have to keep our eye on the larger goal, which is, again, creating a culture, creating an industry, that is actually truly inclusive. And that's almost another presentation within itself. Because we don't want to actually include people into a system that was never designed for them, a system that is actually unwelcoming.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And we'll get into inclusively in a little bit. And so to kind of summarize that first barrier is really that the value we place on being viewed as nice by others kind of overshadows our willingness to actually engage in anti-racist efforts, if those efforts might actually result in interpersonal disagreement and conflicts with other colleagues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Then we say, you know what, that's too much. I'm not willing to actually pay that price. And it stops us from actually moving on our intentions to actually do something. And maybe you're asking yourself, what is this something that you keep asking us to do? And this is, again, why I was actually so impressed with this SSP in terms of the anti-racist toolkit that's actually being promoted now.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That this list is full of strategies that you actually can engage in to actually do some of this important work. Let's think about a second barrier, which is, again, being labeled a troublemaker. So again, those real fears, those real realities of being labeled a troublemaker, of someone who is actually not collegial because you're pushing up against practices and policies.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You're asking uncomfortable questions within a meeting. You're challenging microaggressions when you hear them occur in the moment, making that a teachable moment for others, that you run the risk of actually being labeled a troublemaker. And a troublemaker actually has issues in terms of just job security, collaborate with other colleagues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It changes, again, the whole cultural climate of how you experience the space that you occupy within the scholarly industry. So again, this real reality of actually being labeled a troublemaker from administrative or from colleagues or from those who are under you actually, again, it stops us from actually moving our intentions into actions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so again, the question that has to become is what's more important, the label that we receive or doing some of the work? Or maybe a better way of actually saying is that, how do we actually be very politically savvy in how we actually engage in some of this work, so that we can avoid, if possible, that label. Which again, I'm a realist and I'm not a motivational speaker. I think it's kind of hard to avoid that label.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That the moment folks become uncomfortable, you're slapped with that label. So how do you operate within that. How do you build allies? How do you build others, so it's not just you. Things to kind of consider moving forward. So that label in and of itself becomes an obstacle, in terms of what stops us from moving forward and doing some of this work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Another we see is this apathy. That apathy becomes a coping strategy. [INAUDIBLE] say, you know what, I'm indifferent. One of the things that I failed to mention at the very beginning with the slide that looks at the percentage of people across different racial groups in the industry and in executive levels and editors and book reviewers and so on is that, again, you have to look at that and say, well, you know what, who else sees this as a problem?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Who's negatively impacted by this problem? Who benefits from things being the way that they are? Who loses? Because the reality is that for some of us, we benefit in some of those spaces. So why would I actually work to deconstruct the industry, why would I work to actually promote racial equity within the scholarly publishing industry, when, again, the people who look like me are the ones who are in the high positions?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: They're in executive levels. They're the middle managers. They're the ones making the choices. They're the gatekeepers. Why would I actually have to-- why would I work against that? And that's questions that we have to ask. And sometimes, when we don't ask those questions, when we don't actually wrestle through that, what happens is that apathy sets in and we're kind of indifferent to it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I see the charts. I see the groups that are actually being promoted. I see the groups that seem to be struggling to gain access to those spaces. Hey, it's just the way things are. Or hey, maybe it's, again, maybe it's something about them, not necessarily our industry. So we start to actually see, you know what, apathy becomes a coping strategy.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Or maybe you say that, you know what, the problem that you showed on the chart, that's too large for me. That's outside of my professional roles and responsibilities. That's kind of outside of my scope. There's nothing I can really do about it. And so apathy becomes this resistance or this protective factor that protects us from actually doing the work-- or prevents us, I should say, from actually doing the work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, we have to make sure that we don't actually fall into that trap, as well. And as you see there again, that personal apathy actually helps us kind of, again, avoid controversy. It helps us to actually avoid conflict. It helps us to avoid being labeled a troublemaker. And so again, the apathy, it actually-- it serves a purpose. It's a corporate strategy.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Why do we engage in coping strategies? Because they actually-- they work, even the ones that actually have a harmful impact on ourself and others. I'm a clinical mental health practitioner by trade. We think about substance abuse. Why do people engage in it? Because it actually works. It helps alleviate a problem, even if it's a short-term solution to long-term issues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Even if it's actually literally killing us that we engage in strategies that, again, they are effective. Same thing with apathy. And so what happens is apathy leads to a sense of complacency. And we're just OK with things being the way that they are, especially if we're not actually personally connected to it. One of the things that I oftentimes do and I see a lot of my workshop is that, you know what, the reality is that I can give you all the stats-- which is why you only had one slide of stats today-- I can give you all the figures in the world about the scholarly industry and who's in certain positions, who's not, looking at income and positionality and all these other ways in which race intersects within scholarly industry.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And the reality is that it probably won't change anyone's mind, because it's not an intellectual issue. It's a heart issue. There has to be this emotional connection to the numbers that you actually see before you actually move your intentions into behaviors. And without an emotional connection, without that, again, it's just more information, which for some of us, that is the goal in and of itself, is to learn the lingo, is to read the anti-racist toolkit, just so we know how to talk the talk.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But we never actually put that into actions. We're kind of satisfied with, again, just being able to know that this is politically appropriate, this is not. And that's as far as it goes. That goes back to that centering the self. We call it performative wokeness, that we give off this perception of if I actually liked this on Facebook or if I retweet this, or if I actually post this on my LinkedIn account, it actually shows to others, it demonstrates to others that, you know what, that I'm doing this work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But the reality is that you're paying very little of the cost. So you're centering your own comfort before you actually engage in this work. A few more strategies and then we're going to kind of conclude with what does it all mean. You see, there's this anxiety that's actually leading to guilt. Anxiety about, were do I start? Who else sees there's a problem?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Who might be able to help? Or the fact that I see it and there's so much and it's overwhelming me. Or I see it and I'm not really doing much about it. And then anxiety actually leads to guilt. And guilt is not really a productive feeling, in terms of doing anti-racist work. The guilt actually prevents us from actually engaging in it. Guilt causes us to actually make other excuses as to why we can't engage in it.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So we see oftentimes there's anxiety that leads to guilt of, again, not knowing where to start. And I will give you a really quick tip about where to start. Anywhere. It's the same thing as the metaphor of how do you eat an elephant. Well, one piece at a time. So you start one place. And you hope that starting in one place actually indirectly and directly actually impacts other areas.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And for some of you have to start with, are we gathering data? Do we disaggregate it based on race and based on gender and based on other ways in which people actually identify? Maybe that's a starting point. Do we have a racial equity or an equity dashboard where we make that information available to the public, so that we can be held accountable to some of that?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, this goes beyond affinity groups and beyond DEI officers-- which again, are important positions to actually have. We actually see since the murder of George Floyd that the DEI positions have actually skyrocketed over 400% across the globe. But we actually also look at the research. It shows that, you know what, it's the highest turnover. People are lasting less than 9 months.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Why? Because again, industries and spaces and organizations are actually putting all the burden of responsibility to those small communities that oftentimes are under-funded, under-resourced, don't have a clear charge, don't really have any capital to actually leverage. That they're asking them to do all the work. They are trying to alleviate their guilt by creating these positions that are almost window dressing.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so we have to say, OK, well, how do we disrupt that? We'll get into some of that. And so again, we see that, again, those anxieties leads members of the scholarly publishing community to again express feelings of personal guilt, apprehension, and uneasiness. And again, to alleviate those feelings, there's oftentimes, we kind of have a dismissed or diminished interest or motivation to do something.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: We're not really interested in actually redefining our professional roles in ways that actually align with the anti-racist perspective or approach. I always tell organizations and associations to be very careful when you talk about anti-racist work, because it changes how you do things. You have to redefine roles and responsibilities. You have to kind of redistribute resources.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You have to fund it. And it changes some things. And it's a cost that you have to be willing to actually pay. Another one that we oftentimes see is that there's anger that actually leads to kind of an ineffective response. So as maybe you say, you know what, I'm really not new to the racial disparities that I actually see within our scholarly publishing industry, whichever space you occupy.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But the fact that you see so many of your colleagues, so many of your partners, and so many of the people that you work with who are actually indifferent to it, who actually engage in inaction, they don't do much, that it actually leads to anger. And I always say the anger is actually a very productive response, if used correctly. But that anger can actually spill over and actually lead to kind of constructive and, again, ineffective outcomes.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Because you'll have others, whether it's administrators or supervisors who, again, are less likely to work with you because, again, they don't want you to actually feel or express that anger. And again, anger's important. And I think it's actually a very healthy and developmentally appropriate response to the inaction of our colleagues.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But we have to bottle that anger up. We have to express it in ways that are actually effective, that helps move the needle, and not create additional barriers. So sometimes we have very great intentions, but when we look around and see that, you know what, no one else seems to be bothered. And we look around we see, you know what, no one else seems to be doing anything. And then our anger actually gets the best of us.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And we're less effective in our communication in other ways in which we actually address or try to address certain issues. So it's about how do we actually harness that. How do we leverage it? I believe the last one, before we start to think about what are the professional barriers-- because right now, we're really focusing on the personal barriers-- is really this false sense of powerlessness.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That, little old me? I don't have the power. I don't have the positionality. I don't have the resources to actually affect this change. And so when I actually start to fall into that trap of thinking, that sense of powerlessness, it becomes really a reason to avoid doing this work. It becomes a reason to avoid advocating for redefining how we do things.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: By taking a deeper dive into our policies and practices and how they actually might unintentionally be working to advantage some groups and disadvantage others. We have to learn how to, as you see, to kind of differentiate between, again, realistic barriers and just the perceptions that we actually have. Sometimes there's a sense of dispowerment that, again, it becomes a form of personal resistance, that I'll use that as an excuse not to engage in this work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And what I hope is that you're not tuning out now. So again, one of the things that you might have actually picked up is that, again, I'm not a motivational speaker. I find to be a very realist person in these spaces, that there is a cost to actually engaging in anti-racist work. That it's more than just reading the material, but again, understanding that oftentimes, many people will actually engage in some of this work to actually raise their awareness.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Many people are engaging in this work to, again, raise their intentions. But very few are actually taking those intentions and actually moving them into behaviors. And I don't think the scholarly publishing community is any different than other organizations that I see engaging in this work. And so part of the presentation is not to discourage you, but it's to help you to actually identify some of the barriers, both the personal ones, as well as the professional ones, that actually stop us from actually taking some of the good work that you're doing and actually letting it flow into our behaviors.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so I hope that this bleeds into more conversations within your colleagues and within the organizations and the spaces that you occupy within the industry. That this is just the starting point. Hopefully, it just opens more doors. If you actually haven't read through the anti-racist toolkit, that's actually developed by and for the scholarly publishing community, that, again, that may be a first step.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Tons of great ideas. Tons of great strategies. But if we're going to be honest, most of those strategies? They're not new. They're contextually appropriate, which makes them unique, but they're not necessarily new. And they're not hidden. So one of the things that we have to ask ourselves is, well, if they're not new and they're not hidden for the most part, why aren't we been engaging in this?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Again, our intentions are only 30% of why we actually do things. So there has to be these other barriers. And how do we actually counteract these barriers moving forward? And so that's a really nice bridge as we think about professional obstacles. What are those professional obstacles that stop us from doing this work?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: The first thing we see is this professional paralysis. Well again, where we start to kind of question, well, what can be done? What can I do? How do I actually address some of these problems within my organization? How can I ever tackle such a momental task? Is it really my job to challenge racism?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I don't really get paid for that. I don't get really recognized. Actually, it puts me in more of a position to actually lose my job. I don't think one person or one group or one office or one committee or one fill-in-the-blank can actually address and make the changes that I think needs to be made for those of you who see them.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so professionally, we kind of just get, why should I actually engage in this? Why should I take the risk? And this is why at the bottom line argument is not sustainable. This is why the argument, well I should take the risk in order to, again, to see more diversity among my colleagues, to see a larger consumer base-- this is why it doesn't play out well.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Because again, there needs to be more than that, because there's a huge risk. That we're talking about anti-racism. Again, we're not talking about trying on a new strategy. We're not talking about learning a new theory. We're talking about, actually, a value system. And if we're talking about values, not everyone values that. That's the reality.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That's how values [? have ?] come and go. Some people value it. Some people do not. So what happens when you're working in the industry or in a space where some people just don't have a value for anti-racism? They don't really value addressing racial inequities. We really haven't even got into the difference between equality and equity.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so it's important that we actually kind of consider these things, that again, our values aren't enough. Oftentimes, they don't really lead to behaviors. We don't really act on our values. And so we get into that second professional obstacle. And this is again, the professional and character assassination.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: There's research that shows there's tons of strategy that this actually happens. This is kind of similar to that being labeled a troublemaker. That again, oftentimes organizations use different means to actually discredit those who are actually social justice advocates or those who actually want to engage in anti-racist work. They start point at other ways in which they're evaluating them, that they're not doing this or they don't do this or they spend so much time on this that it takes away from there.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So anyone who is actually going to challenge the status quo or to challenge unfair policies and practices, that they're, again, they run the risk of actually being assassinated in terms of their character, in terms of their work ethic. And so as you think about how this might or might not play out in the space that you occupy, one of the things I always want to ask people is, how do you protect against this?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do you expect your team, your organization, your association to engage in this work, if you're not actually providing some form of protection against this? Things that have to be considered, rules that have to be re-looked at, other things that need to be added into-- again, accountability systems, which we're going to talk about in a moment.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So where is the protection against this? How about, again, perpetuating this culture of fear, which is closely tied to what we just talked about. This culture that if you speak out, if you do things and kind of go against the grain, if you ask questions that may be uncomfortable in the meeting, that again, you could be jeopardizing your career. You could be jeopardizing your advancement. And this happens.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: There are rules, sometimes that are unspoken. You know who to say what to. That, again, they have consequences to it. How do you actually deconstruct those? How do you actually change that culture? One of the things I oftentimes say, and I do a lot of consulting work around this, is again, I can walk into an organization or Association? And usually within five minutes, actually I get a really good sense of, again, the culture of fear that has actually permeated throughout the organization.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You'd be surprised at how many places that I come and I'm asked to speak and to consult and to do workshops and I can't even finish through where I get the people who actually work there who are complaining that. This happens and this happens and when you said that, this happens. The culture is very prevalent, is very in your face. That again, you know that there's an order.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: There's a hierarchy. And there's certain boundaries that you don't cross. So how do you learn to identify that? You see a lot of people who actually engage in racial climate surveys, culture surveys in terms of assessing the climate and how different groups are actually experiencing in the workplace. If you haven't done that, that's a good starting point.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, people are oftentimes immobilized with those different fears, ranging from social concerns or even kind of apprehensions about maintaining their jobs. And again, oftentimes for some, those fears causes them not to act. And some of those fears are-- they're real. So I'm not saying that these aren't real barriers.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: I'm actually looking at the social science research to try to support this, so that you're not just stuck with my opinions. But to see that what actually causes us to not actually engage in some of the things that we profess we value in. Just a few. And again, I feel like now they're starting to actually overlap and you're starting to get the point that even job security.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So how do we protect against this? That you actually could run the risk of losing your job. You could run the risk of being promoted-- or not being promoted, being demoted. So again, it's important to actually kind of think about those things. And so as we think about anti-racist, the tool-kits-- and I believe the ally one is already available for you.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: But there's one geared towards Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. And there's a third anti-racist toolkit that's coming out. How do you keep these things in mind as you're developing those tool-kits, as you're implementing those, as you're encouraging members of the scholarly community to actually engage in some of this work? How do we protect against job security?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So again, raising these issues of racial inequity, regardless if you're in scholarly industry, regardless if you're in education or entertainment or wherever you might find yourself, oftentimes leads people to actually fall in, again, disfavor with others. Again, how do you engage in this work and not make others feel uncomfortable? Even if you're doing everything you're supposed to do, even if you're being polite, even if you're being very strategic in how you're doing it, the uncomfortableness is necessary.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Again, there won't be change within your organization, within your space without it. So again, how do you actually work with colleagues and supervisors who might feel threatened by this value that you have? This desire that you have to actually, again, open up the scholarly industry? And today we're focused on racial equity, but again, that doesn't mean that that doesn't actually bleed out into thinking about what this looks like in terms of gender and other ways in which people actually identify, age and ability.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It becomes a blueprint for how you actually can transform the SSP community from within. I think we're in this time where we're faced with this dual pandemic of COVID-19, as well as racism. And it seems to provide an excellent opportunity to redefine how we do things. There is no return back to the normal. This is the biggest pause maybe in the history of the world. That we have an opportunity to pause.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And as we start to integrate back into society, if we start to integrate into ways in which we do things, how do we change our focus? So there's not just trendy. So we don't have to wait until someone else dies at the hands of a police officer before we actually re-look at our commitment to addressing racial justice. That in a few months, once racial issues are no longer the hot topic, once racial equity and anti-racism is no longer the buzz words, that you're still going to actually engage in the work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do we get to that? How do we use this as a time to restructure things? And maybe one of our last ones is looking at the lack of accountability. This is, like, the so what. Accountability is the engine that really drives these initiatives. You want people to engage in this work? You want those who don't value anti-racist work to actually engage in it?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Well, how are they being evaluated? Is it tied to merit pay? Is it tied to how they're being evaluated? One of things you oftentimes say in the industry is that you measure what matters. How are you measuring these things? How are you measuring racial disparities within your organization, within the spaces that you occupy? As we see, the again, accountability is, again, what separates the wishers in life from the action takers.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And there's accountability on a personal level, on an organizational level. A lot of different ways in which we can think about accountability. On a peer level, how we hold each other accountable to these things. So again, without accountability, again, we're going through the motions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And again, dealing with the administrative edits that, again, oftentimes their instructions and ways in which we're actually instructed to do things that are actually counter to an anti-racist perspective. They're antithetical to anti-racist perspective. But we do them in order to maintain the peace. But what we do them in order to, again, maintain our jobs, which are important.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So this is really, when we think about this, this is thinking about it from a board level, from those that are actually in positions of power. How do we do these things, not just from a bottom up, but from a top down? Because if there is a buy-in from the top down, then again, this stuff doesn't work. If people at the top down, if they're not uncomfortable, the stuff doesn't work.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: So the key is, how do we make sure that everyone's on board with this? How do you hold them accountable? Which again, it goes beyond bottom line. How do you hold them accountable for doing some of this important work? Who are you voting for? Who are you nominating for board positions and presidents positions?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And what is their track record for doing this? And how are you holding them accountable? And how are you supporting them? How are you leveraging your positions to make sure that they're actually doing these things? Or again, are we kind of just going with the motion as we see with sports industry and other places that, again, they're donating money, but not really taking actions.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: It's easy to donate some of that money. So again, how do we actually keep these things in the forefront as we think about changing what we value, how we actually do things within the industry, so that you actually can become the front runners or the lead thinkers in doing some of this work? I don't know another profession, as a professor, that's more important than the scholarly industry. That you are the gatekeepers of information.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That's incredibly important. That you all kind of gatekeep and what comes from the scholarly publishing community is what we consider to be the canon, some of the most important canons in counseling, in psychology, and in education, and other industries-- economics, the body of literature and books and articles that we deem to be important. And so how do we do that in ways that are equitable, if we don't actually hear all the voices?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do we center the marginalized voices? It requires us to take an anti-racist perspective. It requires us to say, what's good for the minority is actually good for the majority. How do we open it up to other countries, improve access in terms of their publishing opportunities? These are, again, questions that we have to think about. Again, we're in a very good position to think about how do we lead the change moving forward.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so one of the things that oftentimes I lead with-- or I leave with-- is again, well, let me give you some tips and strategies for overcoming those barriers. But maybe I misled you. Because the reality is if I were to stay here and to give you tips and strategies of how to overcome some of those personal and professional barriers, I would actually just be re-perpetuating what I talked about in terms of the intention-behavior gap.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: That I can give you strategies, but again, it doesn't mean that you're going to do anything with them. And so let me leave you with one strategy, just one strategy. One thing that I see the missing link is-- so if we go back to the slide that looks at the us running on that map, us running the race for moving our intentions and letting them flow into actual behaviors, and we think about what's missing?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: What helps us get over those hurdles? What helps us get over those barriers, both the professional ones and the personal ones? Well, I'll say one word. Courage. That there's a lack of courage. A courage to step up and to speak out and to take risk. This is what we need to get over. You don't need more steps.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You don't need a new framework. You don't need a new guideline. In order to move our intentions into to actions, we need courage. Courage to actually build authentic relationships. Or how about the courage to actually stand against the status quo? To develop compassion and empathy?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To see ourselves and others? And we know and-- again, as a clinical mental health counselor, what I know is that empathy is actually-- and perspective taking-- is actually, it's pretty hard when the person you're asked to demonstrate it with is different from you. So what if you're in a position of power and privilege?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And in terms of race, there's a hierarchy that exists, not just in the United States, but globally, where you have whites who are on top and Blacks who are on the bottom and everyone else is actually in between. So if you're in the position-- again, and I believe we live in a racially hierarchical society, where you're at the top, how do you develop compassion and empathy for those who are actually at the bottom?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How do you leverage that privilege to uplift others? To provide a platform for others to actually have a voice? How about openly disagreeing with colleagues? Just the courage to do that. These aren't multi-million dollar initiatives. These are small risks that actually take courage. The courage [INAUDIBLE] of echoes a colleague's comment in the moment.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: You hear a microaggression or someone asks you the question, and you back them up. We oftentimes undermine the importance of an echo, to have someone else there. And if you're a person of color, it's nice when there's someone else who's actually speaking up and it doesn't have to be, especially if you're in a predominantly white space. So we think about allies and how they actually can speak up.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How they actually can bear the flag and can bear the burden of actually doing some of this work, especially when it comes to racial equity within scholarly publishing industry. The courage not to remain silent on these issues. Understand that there is no such thing as neutrality. There is no gray area. Either you're engaging in anti-racist behavior or you're not.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Either you're anti-racist or you're not. Either you're racist or you're anti-racist, but you're not in-between. And let me kind of remix something that Beverly Tatum, who's an author who I love to read, talked about in terms of racism, anti-racism. She said, you know what, you could think about anti-racist as this. And she gives four different illustrations.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And only one of them is considered anti-racist. And so the other ones, by the definition, would be considered racist. Let's say, if you were in a walking escalator and it's moving towards racism, it's moving towards white supremacy, and you're on there. You see the direction in which is going and you walk in that direction with it, that's person one, walking towards white supremacy, walking towards racism.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Then you have person two, who sees the escalator moving in the same direction and say, you know what, I'm not OK with that. And so they stay still. They're not walking towards it. However, the escalator is still moving. They're still going that direction. Neutrality doesn't work. Then you have person three, who sees that walking escalator.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: They see the direction it's going. And then they turn and they go the opposite direction, but they're walking in a pace is so slow that the escalator is actually still moving them towards white supremacy, still moving them towards racism, in terms of being complicit with it. Then you have person four, the last person, who sees the walking escalator, who actually-- who turns and they're walking.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And they're walking at a pace that actually they're making some traction. Four people. Only one is considered anti-racist. And the reality is, is which one are you? Which one are you? As we think about courage-- which, again, in terms of being OK to upset others, that, again, conflict is a very natural thing, constructive confrontation.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: The courage to actually put the anti-racist toolkit into practice. Not to learn the lingo. Not to say I read it. But to say, how do we put this into practice? And there are practical steps. I've read the entire manual. It's filled with strategies and things that you actually can do.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Being OK with discomfort. The realization that, you know what, you can be extremely safe and extremely uncomfortable at the same time. I wish this was more interactive, because I want to poll you right now to say, which one of you are comfortable? How comfortable are you right now? Like, where are you in terms of your level of discomfort?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Or have you been offended yet? Are you offended by what I'm saying, what we've been talking about? Maybe you've already checked off. You already stopped the video. Maybe you are still uncomfortable. Maybe you are offended, but you're still listening. You still hear. And I salute you.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And I say to continue to push through that discomfort. And let me just kind of finish up that, again, when we think about courage, that courage-- and this is one of my favorite quotes-- is not really the absence of fear or the fear of personal things that can be done to you or fear of losing your job. It's not that you don't have fear, but it's rather the judgment that, again, something else is more important than your fear.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To speak up is more important than my fear. To ask a hard question is more important than being liked by everyone. To do something is more important than just the perception that, again, I'm an ally. Again, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Or should we say someone else is more important than the fear. And what I do is close with, again, the importance of actually thinking about courage is one of the missing links that can help us actually overcome some of those hurdles that stop us from actually turning our intentions into behaviors. That is actually a necessary precursor to any sustainable change or action. Without really that underlying disposition of courage, again, those actions, those behaviors are less likely to happen.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Because oftentimes, our actions, our behaviors are an outgrowth of courage. And so really what I encourage you-- the charge for you today-- and when I say you, I mean the SSP community-- is set to develop and to cultivate and to leverage that courage. To have hard conversations. To be OK with not being liked.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: To be OK asking uncomfortable questions. To be OK bringing up the importance of accountability. Because again, what you hold the key of information is being gatekeepers of what's published in terms of our scholarly communities, which is extremely important, because policies are actually informed by what's published in the scholarly community, practices, laws. So there's an incredible responsibility, incredible opportunity now to think about, again, how do we redefine what we're doing within our industry, so that It's more just, so it's more inclusive, so it's more equitable for others?
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: How are we providing opportunities for others to, again, leverage their experiences and their worldviews? To, again, enhance it and to challenge our profession? How do we critique the profession? You only critique what you love. So again, thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you. I look forward to some Q&A. And I hope that you have an opportunity to, again, interact with one another, as well.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS: And so I wish you the best. Please stay safe. And again, I'm excited to partner with you in terms of thinking about next steps moving forward. Thank you, all.
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