There are some things we know: Puppies are cute. Snow is cold. Racism is bad. But how much do we really know about racism? How did it start? How is it perpetuated? How come, according to an article in last week’s New York Observer, all of Condé Nast has one top editor of color out of 29? Why haven’t we had a black president? Why are more young black men in prison than in college? I think I’m open-minded and socially aware, yet I don’t have any of the answers.

The People's Institute has been confronting the underlying foundations of these kinds of questions for more than 25 years. Founded by community activists Ron Chisom and the late Jim Dunn in 1980, the organization’s mission is “to develop more analytical, culturally-rooted and effective community organizers.” Chisom and Dunn discovered early on, though, that the biggest barrier to achieving this goal was racism. Enter their Undoing Racism program, an approach taught in the form of workshops, classes, and seminars throughout the country. It’s about “undoing institutionalized beliefs about how the color of your skin affects who you are and what you’re entitled to,” says a story about TPI in the Times Picayune. “Part of the training is bringing those assumptions about skin color and privilege to light.”

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I spent a long time searching for principles on raising racial awareness. But unlike “things you can do to help the environment,” there are no glib solutions for examining and not buying into institutionalized racism. What you can do, though, is contact The People’s Institute about their Undoing Racism workshops and look over their anti-racist principles for organizers. Whatever your race, you can also check out these books: Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity by Beverly R. Tatum; Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice by Paul Kivel; and Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America by Joseph R. Barndt. A little self-education plus being open to difficult conversation can help us all in our goal to become enlightened, loving catalysts for change.

Photo by Dopiaza