Equity

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

HOBT Staff know that Minnesota has some of the widest racial disparities in the country and that disparate treatment of people of color is built into our institutions. We acknowledge that progressive people running progressive institutions get caught in the trap of maintaining old ways of doing things.

Culture change takes time and commitment. We certainly do not claim to have fully addressed HOBT’s White Supremacy Culture, but staff, board, and artists have a shared understanding that only by fully embracing this work can we carry the organization forward.

HOBT Culture Change Resources

HOBT has invested time and resources since summer 2017 to better understand ourselves as an organization and to identify what changes will be necessary to more authentically represent the communities present in HOBT’s core neighborhoods.

We have much more to learn. Here are some of the resources we have engaged with to deepen our understanding and commitment to action.

  • Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture Explores fifteen characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, how they show up, and what we can do to address them.
  • Me & White Supremacy  Originally a workbook, Me & White Supremacy is now a book! Me & White Supremacy leads readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
  • My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem My Grandmother’s Hands invites each of us to heal the racial trauma that lives in our bodies.
  • The Intercultural Development Inventory. Over the summer of 2018, all board and staff completed an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) assessment and attended a one-on-one session with a certified IDI assessor to review assessment results and individual development goals.
  • Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown In the summer of 2017, the HOBT board engaged in a training session to begin the process of understanding our own culture as individuals and as an organization as a way to better understand our relationship with other cultures. All board, staff, and MayDay artists were provided copies of adrienne maree brown’s EMERGENT STRATEGY, and participated in group discussions aimed at building common vocabulary around the change work we want to do together.
  • Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice in the summer and fall of 2021 staff were provided copies of this book. Staff read and engaged in hour long conversation every other week for several months to discuss chapters of the book and how the principles the book lays out relate to the theatre’s work.