When Race Is Erased, Harm Does Not Disappear
Across institutions and communities, words like racial equity, DEI, poverty, immigration, and Black and Indigenous communities are quietly being softened, swapped out, or removed. But changing the language does not change the lived realities those words describe.
In a recent Retreat Center Collaboration community session led by Arleen N. Peterson, executive leader for Relational Services with the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, retreat center leaders gathered to tell the truth, stay present through discomfort, and explore what this moment requires of our organizations.
When we can no longer name the work
Many organizations are hearing a version of the same message: keep doing the work, just don't call it that. But as Arleen asked plainly: What happens to the work when we can no longer name what it is responding to?
The language may disappear, but racism, poverty, and systemic barriers remain. When specific language is stripped away, energy goes into re-languaging rather than addressing issues, responsibility fades, and staff begin to self-censor out of fear. Ultimately, "everyone is welcome" replaces the harder question of who actually feels safe and supported.
Looking inside our institutions
Dominant organizational culture rarely announces itself. It often shows up in subtle ways—conflict avoidance disguised as kindness, urgency that leaves no room for community input, or perfectionism that prevents action. Arleen invited every center to sit with a central question: Where is comfort being treated as the measure of whether a conversation is safe?
How erasure spreads
Erasure moves along a distinct pathway: when a word changes, the narrative changes, organizational priorities shift, budgets follow, programs are altered or dropped, and ultimately communities bear the consequences. Tracing real choices back along this pathway allows centers to see where different decisions can be made.
Where healing must show up
Racial healing cannot exist without deep truth-telling that moves beyond the individual and into relationships and community practice. True accountability must show up in concrete places: our budgets, who we invite to the table, whose stories get told, and how we protect our language and narratives.
Retreat centers can remain places rooted in transformation and liberation, but beautiful locations are no substitute for being accountable to the change that is needed.
Small-group breakout conversations were not recorded.
Resources
The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond: anti-racist community organizing; a participant recommended their multi-day Undoing Racism workshops for organizational cohorts
