|  |
 |
|
An employment counselor, a state senator and a spoken word poet were among the community members nominated for the second-annual Facing Race Ambassador Award.
R. James Addington, training and organizational development consultant for Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI), was honored as this year's award recipient at an April 8 ceremony in Saint Paul along with the seven other nominees.
Addington designated a $10,000 cash grant to Saint Paul Area Council of Churches, which houses MCARI, to further their working in creating an anti-racist East Metro community.
Since 2002, the Facing Race initiative of The Saint Paul Foundation has generated discussions among people of all backgrounds to provide a greater understanding of race issues and what the community as a whole can do to make it a more open and equitable society. The Facing Race Ambassador Award was created to honor individuals who excel in creating opportunities for people of all races to understand the impact of racism.
Go to What's Happening for the complete news release.
For more than 40 years, R. James Addington has been involved in the struggle for racial justice—throughout Minnesota, other parts of the United States and several other nations. “As a young man I was in high school and college during the civil rights movement,” he says, “and was deeply impacted.”
After spending several years working for racial justice in the southwest United States, on Chicago’s West Side, and in countries around the world, Addington brought his organizing and leadership development efforts north to the Twin Cities in 1985.
He and his late wife, Imani-Nadine, were the founding co-directors of the Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI). He served as co-director of MCARI until 2007. As co-director, he took the lead in shaping the training and institutional transformation models MCARI uses today—many of which are useful to other organizations doing similar work. He continues his work with MCARI as a training and organizational development consultant.
MCARI strives to help people understand the difference between individual prejudice and racism. MCARI trains teams within organizations to analyze the impact of racism and to develop a plan to move beyond those negative impacts.
During Addington’s time with MCARI, some 20,000 people were involved in its programming. He has worked with more than 100 institutions to break down the structures of racism that hurt the productivity of organizations and the individuals within them.
“I’m deeply convinced this is one of the core issues facing our society,” says Addington. “It’s difficult for me to imagine doing anything differently with my life right now.”
|
|
|
|
|
R. James Addington
Listen to the radio broadcast about the award by KFAI reporter Maria Almli
