Spring 2024 REI Groundwater Approach Training

This participatory presentation uses stories and data to examine characteristics of modern-day structural racial inequity.

This event is co-sponsored by the City of Charlottesville's Office of Social Equity and the City of Charlottesville's Office of Human Rights.

In this lively and participatory presentation, Racial Equity Institute organizers will use the groundwater metaphor, along with stories and data, to present a perspective that racism is fundamentally structural in nature. By examining characteristics of modern-day racial inequity, the presentation introduces participants to an analysis that most find immediately helpful and relevant.

What is the Groundwater Approach?

The Groundwater metaphor is designed to help practitioners at all levels internalize the reality that we live in a racially structured society, and that is what causes racial inequity. The metaphor is based on three observations:

1. Racial inequity looks the same across systems

2. Socio-economic difference does not explain racial inequity

3. Inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior