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DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

Diversity in the Boathouse: It Takes All of Us 

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Part of George Pocock’s living legacy within PRC is a reverence for the art of teaching. Learning to be antiracist is not easy. It will require patience, honesty and guts to integrate the George Pocock Rowing Foundation’s (GPRF) broad vision for inclusion into the PRC boathouse. As the original boathouse in a large and expanding GPRF network, PRC can set an example. We are sharing information, starting a dialogue, and writing a diversity plan with input from the PRC membership. Below are excerpts of letters we received from the GPRF board and the GPRF Director of Rowing Operations in June 2020 that guide PRC‘s approach. Following that is a living reference library compiled for PRC members. We welcome your input.

Resources

 This is an excellent overview of Arshay Cooper’s rowing experience and current goals.

Hearing the voices and views of black rowers, coaches and coxswains as they negotiate the traditional “WASP province” of the sport of rowing.

Coach Lizzie Simons explains how to work with veterans, foster children and nontraditional rowers in an urban environment.

Using his own company, Living Cities, as an example, Ben Hecht speaks to Fortune 500 executives about the necessity for going beyond racial diversity to racial equity.

2020 USRowing Convention: Making Our Youth and Collegiate Rowing Programs More Diverse and Inclusive

Inclusion in Rowing

A precise introduction to developing a welcoming environment to non-traditional rowers.

Recommendations from rowers of color to make rowing continually accessible to low income students and their families.

Interviews with rowers of color who emphasize the necessity of long term commitment to students from low income families.

USRowing’s thorough guide to starting, sustaining and succeeding as an inclusive boathouse.

RowNewYork and other East Coast boathouses’ recommendations for building and maintaining inclusion.

America Rows: Inclusion

Primer on Systemic Racism

Systemic Racism Explained

Microaggressions - What are they? Who is affected by them? How do we become aware of behaviors that we practice that perpetuate systemic racism?

Nina Berman discusses how and why White Americans need to educate themselves about systemic racism.

In this searing article,Ta-Nehesi Coates delineates the need for reparations for Black Americans, starting with slavery and concluding with the Black LIves Matter movement.

Harold Wallace lll gives a TED talk about “code-switching” , an essential survival tool for Black Americans and nontraditional persons in a white world.

Guidance from GPRF board: "People are being killed for the color of their skin. Let us be unequivocal. At the George Pocock Rowing Foundation, there is no place for racism. We support black lives matter. We do not accept or condone discrimination or violence in any way. Our policy is antiracism, period. We stand with the people listening, learning, marching and calling out injustice, and importantly, demanding an end to systemic racism against black people that has gone on far too long, cost far too many lives and prevented far too many people from achieving their dreams. That likely includes black kids and other kids of color who participate in Foundation programs, as well as who row at Northwest boathouses, including our own.   We recognize the responsibility individually and collectively to not just demand change, but to be the change (and that starts with us)."

 

Guidance from GPRF Director of Rowing Operations: "The death of George Floyd, embodying centuries of violence and racism, is hopefully a turning point in the history of our nation and our boathouses."

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Send additions, questions or comments to inclusion@pocockrowingcenter.org.

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