PWN recognizes that to more fully embody racial justice, we must deepen our analysis of white supremacy, anti-Blackness and racial trauma. This includes deepening our understanding of the ways white supremacy culture is embedded in our own organization, including our strategies and practices, so that we can address them.  We also acknowledge that as a national organization working on a tight budget, we depend greatly on technology, which can be racialized. We must better understand how we collectively interrupt and intervene in the ways PWN and the broader field of HIV/AIDS perpetuate white supremacy both consciously and unconsciously, even in our everyday work. This is difficult but necessary work that we have been engaged in more formally for the past few years. We have dedicated time and resources to educate ourselves, be self-reflective, and have difficult conversations around racial harm within our organization and the broader field. We know that this work will take time and that Black women, non-Black women of color, and white women are differently impacted by white supremacy. For that reason we commit to this work for the long haul, to act and to move at the speed of trust.

To strengthen our commitment to racial justice and to be in greater alignment with as an organization, we commit to the following over the next 5 years:

Internally

  1. Develop a shared analysis around racial justice including an understanding of structural racism, white supremacy and anti-blackness, including ways that white supremacy impacts our work culture as an organization and intentional practices to shift that.
  2. Move beyond the black/white binary in our analysis of race and integrate intersectionality into our racial justice work.
  3. Center healing from racial injustice, harm and trauma within the work of PWN in order to keep racial justice at the forefront.
  4. Develop a process to acknowledge and address racial harm within the organization and acknowledge the impact on black women including practices for accountability and navigating power and privilege.
  5. PWN’s board and leadership will be reflective of the epidemic and led by women of color living with HIV. We will invest in leadership development for women of color living with HIV to ensure they have the support and resources to lead PWN.
  6. Acknowledge the leadership and labor of black women within PWN who have kept racial justice at the forefront. Understand that the healing of black women within the organization from racial harm is essential for the healing of PWN.
  7. Commit to courage: We will challenge ourselves to have brave conversations about race, racism, and racial harms within PWN to model the necessity and possibility of these conversations to our broader membership and community.

Externally

  1. Develop and implement training around racial justice for PWN membership.
  2. Develop a plan to expand and implement a racial justice lens in the field.
  3. Work with our partners to support their efforts to amplify racial justice in their work and to address anti-blackness.

To accomplish this, PWN has developed a racial justice workplan which will be revisited and updated at least twice annually.