How to Talk about Education and Race

What We Know

To achieve justice for people who are Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American through increased learning after high school, we must help people understand why that’s important, what systemic barriers exist, and how they can make a difference.

We can’t enter the conversation at an advanced stage of the journey—we must meet people where they are. This means we shouldn’t confuse them with terms such as “equity,” which means different things to different people. Or alienate potential allies by putting them on the defensive.

At Lumina, we recognized that we needed to equip ourselves—and our partners—to have these conversations. And now we’re sharing what we’ve learned in the form of research and tools you can take and apply to your own efforts.

We believe that everyone has a right to real opportunity. No matter where you come from, what you look like, or how much money your family has, everyone should have what they need to learn, grow, and thrive. But opportunity is not yet equal in America: It’s still decided by who you are and where you come from.

Policies, practices, and beliefs—rooted in history and still affecting people today—keep many people of color from receiving the education and building skills they need to become informed citizens and succeed in a global economy. These systemic barriers unfairly hold back people who simply want a better education and a better life.

We can make opportunity for them real by taking real action together to remove obstacles these students encounter and make education work better for everyone. When we ensure real outcomes for every individual, we can right wrongs and realize just and fair outcomes for all.

Self Assessment

How should I talk about race?

Take this assessment of your values and your audiences to receive tailored advice to help you talk fearlessly and authentically about the need to achieve racial justice. You can adapt this Equity Frame to support communication of every kind for any audience.

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NATIONAL SURVEY FINDINGS

Here's what Americans believe about opportunity and the pitfalls of talking about "equity"


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EQUITY TALKING TOOLS

How you can take action

Are you a Lumina grantee, nonprofit, or just want to communicate about racial equity in a way that makes sense for your community or the people you serve or need to persuade?

Use Lumina’s Message Manual to reach people, start conversations, and shift mindsets.

EQUITY TALKING TOOLS

How To Weave Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Into Your Communications

The Communications Network's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Project provides tools, research, case studies, and guidance to help teams integrate practices that support racial equity in their communications work.

Visit ComNet's DEI site
RESOURCES

Get Help Talking About Racial Justice

A gathering of several people. Two Black men are engaged in a conversation with a white guy in the foreground.
OUR EXPLORATION OF RACE AND SOCIETY

How we talk about racial justice and equity

At Lumina, we hold ourselves accountable for making a difference. We begin by explicitly addressing the role race plays in perpetuating unjust educational outcomes. With every passing day, we realize we can—and must—do more to lift our voices and elevate our actions to build a fair and just society for people who have long been prevented from realizing their potential. Click through to learn more about our journey, which is nowhere near complete.

Our Journey Toward Racial Justice
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Righting historical wrongs is essential, regardless of what the Supreme Court might say.

For many Black and brown students, real opportunity remains elusive. That’s why we must stay committed to the broader struggle for shared prosperity.
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Sounding the alarm: National leaders commit to helping Black learners

There are 600,000 fewer Black learners in college today than a decade ago, resulting in devastating lost opportunities. More than half of that decrease hit community colleges, once a popular choice for Black students pursuing better jobs and wages.
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Race-Conscious Affirmative Action

An expected national ban on the consideration of race in college admissions will threaten the racial and ethnic diversity of students at selective colleges unless these colleges fundamentally alter their admissions practices. Race-Conscious Affirmative Action: What’s Next finds that selective colleges barred from considering race and ethnicity in their admissions decisions may be able to partially claw back some racial/ethnic diversity using class-conscious admissions practices, but they will be extremely unlikely to enroll student bodies that come close to mirroring the demographic diversity of the high school class.
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The requirements for handing out state financial aid can impact students of color negatively, but we can change that

The way many states choose to dole out financial aid could have the “unintentional consequence of disproportionately excluding Black and Hispanic students,” new research shows.
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Proven strategies help some college students, but not all. We have to fix that.

There’s good news and bad in a new report on college student success rates. While many U.S. colleges are improving graduation rates for full-time students, we continue to see achievement gaps for Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic students, students 25 and older, and part-time students.
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Honoring Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Community College Programs

In 2019, Native communities in northern rural Wisconsin and Nicolet Area Technical College (Nicolet College) embarked on a plan to establish pathways to postsecondary education for Indigenous learners. The goal was to create a curriculum and grant credit for prior knowledge in Native culture, governance, history, and language toward a technical certificate and associate degree. The project closely adhered to Native pedagogy and ways, and curriculum was developed by Indigenous leaders and members of area tribes with the support of college faculty and staff.
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