RACIAL EQUITY
Racial Equity is a core value of SOPHIA - these words open SOPHIA’s official Racial Equity Statement, which affirms our unwavering commitment to racial justice, equity, and inclusion—a commitment that began over 20 years ago and continues to guide our work today.
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The Racial Equity Committee plays a vital role in ensuring that every SOPHIA committee and task force operates through an inclusive lens. This team helps embed equity into our organizational practices, decision-making, and community engagement efforts.
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While Waukesha County remains predominantly white and Christian, our local communities are becoming more diverse each year. For example, the City of Waukesha has a Latinx population of approximately 25%, and the county is home to growing Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist populations as well.
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SOPHIA strives to build meaningful relationships across all lines of race, faith, gender, and socioeconomic background—because we believe our communities are strongest when everyone has a seat at the table.
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Contact us for more information on the Racial Equity Task Force.
SOPHIA
RACIAL EQUITY STATEMENT
Racial Equity is a Core Value of SOPHIA. Diverse voices, opinions, and ideas are actively encouraged and embraced by our organization. Our commitment to Racial Equity promotes a just, fair, respectful, and inclusive community for everyone in our organization and through Task Force actions - therefore, affecting the institution/policies we work to improve.
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SOPHIA is open and responsive to constructive feedback about racist attitudes or behaviors displayed within our organization, intentional or unintentional. Mistakes are forthrightly identified. We agree to graciously call each other in when needed to discuss mistakes and concerns. Patience, genuine caring, and compassion are practiced in our mutual effort to understand oppression, both overt and systemic.
SOPHIA is characterized by an intentional identity as an antiracist organization. Our antiracist identity permeates our organizational culture, values, norms, and behaviors. Diverse racial, cultural, and economic groups enjoy full participation and shared power in all aspects of our mission, structure, policies, and practices. People of color lead the work we do and are always involved in the decision-making process.
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SOPHIA embraces and champions policies that provide for individual dignity and dismantle structural racism in Waukesha County. We strive to build clear lines of accountability to people of color and racially oppressed communities that may be directly impacted by our work. We strive for racial liberation and social justice. We embrace diversity as a gift and believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and inclusivity.
LAND & LABOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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SOPHIA recognizes historical injustices. We acknowledge the we occupy the ancetral homeland of indigenous people, from the mound builders (700 BC) to the current day Potawatomi. We acknowledge the past and present harm and injustice casued by colonialism and genocide to the indigenous Tribes of Wisconsin. We acknowledge the past and continued economis benefits that colonizers have gained from the forced and enslaved labor of African and Indigenous people. The legacy of colonialism and slavery persits today. We are committed to work towards racial equity, inclusion, liveration, and the dismantling of all oppressive social and economic systems.