Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation is a nonprofit racial justice organization with roots in Oakland. Race Forward's mission is to build awareness, solutions, and leadership for racial justice by generating transformative ideas, information, and experiences.
History
Race Forward was founded by Gary Delgado in 1981 and was known as the Applied Research Center until 2013. Delgado remained in leadership until 2006, after which point Rinku Sen became Executive Director. In 2017, Race Forward merged with the Center for Social Inclusion and is now under the leadership of Glenn Harris, former President of the Center for Social Inclusion. Rinku Sen remained with the organization as Senior Strategist.
Activities
Race Forward advances racial justice through research, media, and leadership development. The work of Race Forward focuses on finding ways to re-articulate racism in order to draw more attention to the systemic racism that pervades society. This work is based in an intersectional understanding of race and the impact of racism alongside other social issues. Race Forward emphasizes three principles: using specific and plain talk to say what you mean about race issues; focusing on impact rather than intention; and using strategic terms as well as moral arguments. The organization has published important research reports and editorials on issues such as millennials and their attitudes towards race, environmental issues and grassroots organizing, race and religion, and police accountability. Race Forward uses research on community demographics and shifting populations of Black communities to understand and support community organizing efforts. Race Forward has endorsed the Movement for Black Lives.
Publications
Publications from Race Forward include: Beyond the Politics of Place: New Directions in Community Organizing in the 1990s Deliberate Disadvantage: A Case Study of Race Relations in the San Francisco Bay Area Education and Race Crisis: How California Teaching Policies Aggravate Racial Inequality in Public Schools
"Cruel and Usual: How Welfare 'Reform' Punishes Poor People Welfare Reality Mapping the Immigrant Infrastructure
Multiracial Formations Race and Recession
Race Forward publishes the daily news site Colorlines, published by Executive Director Rinku Sen. Colorlines was initial a magazine, and it transformed into a website in 2010. In 2015, Race Forward launched an interactive multimedia tool called "," designed to highlight race and gender inequality in service industries.
