{"id":948,"date":"2026-09-17T15:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/?p=948"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:32:53","slug":"how-we-treat-our-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/?p=948","title":{"rendered":"How We Treat Our Organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is just as important as how we treat ourselves.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Being \u201cwoke\u201d is important to understanding what is happening in our communities. But awareness alone is not enough. If we want to change our communities, we need structures capable of turning awareness into sustained action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why groups and formal organizations matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations allow us to take on complex tasks that are ongoing and extend across communities. They protect individuals by allowing the work to continue even when one person is attacked, exhausted, or forced to step away. They also allow leaders to be replaced without bringing the entire effort to a halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But organizations do not sustain themselves. People do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And one of the most important characteristics those people must bring to an organization is honesty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honesty is fundamental to trust, and trust is fundamental to group dynamics. When honesty breaks down, trust begins to disappear. Once trust is gone, the organization becomes vulnerable to division, suspicion, and eventually collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebuilding trust is possible, but it is rarely comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It usually requires conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members have to be willing to confront what caused the loss of trust. They have to talk about what happened, acknowledge their own roles, and be honest about what needs to change. When that process succeeds, conflict does not destroy the organization. It can actually strengthen it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also why organizations must understand the difference between conflict and dysfunction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conflict is not necessarily the enemy. Avoiding conflict can be far more dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When an opposition wants to weaken an organization, one of the easiest strategies is to encourage infighting. Create suspicion. Question people’s motives. Turn members against one another. Attack the organization’s honesty and credibility. Once trust begins to disappear, the group becomes easier to fracture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A strong organization recognizes this tactic and does not allow conflict to become division. Instead, it addresses the underlying problems honestly and keeps its attention on the organization’s purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is similar to what we mean when we talk about a strong marriage. A healthy marriage does not exist because the people involved never disagree. It exists because they have learned how to communicate, confront problems, accept criticism, and work through disagreements without destroying the relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations need the same discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silence is not always peace. Sometimes silence is conflict avoidance. Failing to raise a legitimate grievance can become its own form of dishonesty. Problems that are never discussed do not disappear. They grow beneath the surface, weaken trust, and eventually make the organization ineffective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why we have to be willing to speak up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to talk honestly about how our organizations are performing. Are they fulfilling their purpose? Are they accountable to the people they were created to serve? Are their leaders being honest? Are they making decisions that advance the organization’s mission?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes leaders simply get distracted. Sometimes they lose sight of the original purpose. Members who speak up can help bring an organization back into focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is not disloyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is stewardship.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have been trained to avoid conflict, and that training is affecting our ability to make things better. Conflict is normal. It is part of holding one another accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We understand this when it comes to our children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We expect young people to receive criticism and learn from it. We have systems designed to make performance visible: report cards, parent-teacher conferences, evaluations, and requirements that parents remain engaged. These systems exist because we understand that people need feedback and accountability in order to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere along the way, many of us stopped applying those same principles to ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As adults, we often resist evaluation. Leaders sometimes resist having their performance examined. Organizations sometimes become places where criticism is absorbed by the group but never reaches the individuals who need to hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if we are serious about improving our communities, we have to be willing to examine ourselves as honestly as we examine everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also have to confront the particular challenges facing the Black community. If we believe that our communities are not achieving the quality of life and economic outcomes we want, then we cannot simply point outward. We have to examine the institutions we have built, the leadership we have accepted, and the accountability systems we have\u2014or have failed to\u2014put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being \u201cwoke\u201d cannot simply mean being aware of what is happening around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awareness without accountability is not enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can individually become aware. We can identify injustice. We can recognize problems. But once we move into a group or organizational structure, we sometimes allow that structure to shield us from accountability. The organization absorbs the criticism, while individual members avoid confronting the behaviors that created the criticism in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That has to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We build organizations because we believe organized action can accomplish things that individuals cannot accomplish alone. Block clubs, civil rights organizations, neighborhood associations, advocacy groups, and even short-term protests all exist because people understand the power of collective action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But collective action requires collective responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we create organizations to improve our communities, then we have a responsibility to be good stewards of those organizations. That means protecting their mission, demanding honesty from their leaders, accepting legitimate criticism, confronting conflict rather than hiding from it, and making sure that the organization continues to serve the purpose for which it was created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The health of our organizations is a reflection of how seriously we take the work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we want better communities, we need better organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if we want better organizations, we have to be willing to hold ourselves\u2014and each other\u2014accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being “woke” means little if we are unwilling to hold ourselves – and our organizations – accountable. Awareness may expose the problems in our communities, but it takes honest, disciplined, and sometimes uncomfortable work to actually change them.<\/p>\n

We have become too comfortable protecting organizations from criticism and too hesitant to challenge leaders when they fail. But silence is not unity, and avoiding conflict is not accountability. If we want stronger communities, we have to stop hiding behind our organizations and start taking responsibility for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-papers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoodresearch.org\/TTR\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}