The Multi-Racial Relationships Project

The goal of this project is to contribute to the work of dismantling systemic racism and racial inequity.

Increasingly, social change agents understand that relationships are as critical to sustained and long-term change as activism, politics and policy; writer and activist adrienne maree brown has written that, in the work of social transformation, “relationships are everything.”

The theory that drives our research is that strong multiracial relationships are an essential and powerful tool in the long work of dismantling racism. The project assumes that biological race is a myth, unsupported by science and social history, created and maintained to support and enforce the subjugation of particular ethnic and cultural groups. Racism, however, is alive and well, costing lives, degrading humanity, and limiting access to economic opportunity and basic human rights.

Many of us at the ILI are members of multi-racial families, with parents, partners and/or children whose skin color is different from each other’s and who don’t share the same experience of racism. In order to be in loving family with each other, we see each other as fully human, transcending race. At the same time we acknowledge racism, and our differing realities, ancestral histories, and experiences.

This project centers the stories of adult members of multi-racial families, with parents, partners and/or children whose skin color is different from each other’s and who don’t share the same experiences of racism and racial history. We are seeking 100 participants to volunteer their perspectives for this project and hope to hear your story.

ILI senior research associates are conducting interviews with 100 adult members of multi-racial families. Participants will not be paid, or benefit financially from this research.

Upon completing the interview process, transcripts of these conversations will be carefully read by a multi-racial team to identify common themes, experiences and insights. From those readings, the core team will generate findings.

Our timeline is to complete interviews by the end of May 2022, analysis by Mid-July, and to generate and begin implementing change strategies by September 2022.

We anticipate that the findings from our research will lend themselves to published materials, public webinars and events, and resources for organizations and community groups.

When our findings are established, we will develop a targeted strategy to drive change at those levels and through social media.

This project is led by Karena Montag, MFT, Founding Co-Director of STRONGHOLD and Lucinda Garthwaite, Ed.D., Founding Director of the Institute for Liberatory Innovation. Karena and Lucinda are members of multiracial families.

For questions regarding this research, contact Jordan Laney, Senior Research Associate & Research Coordinator, at jordanlaney@liberatoryinstitute.org