Many Hues, One Humanity

Written By: Joelle Adeleke

Lucretia Berry

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts have grown in attention over the past few years as brands place a higher 

priority on brand social responsibility. But Lucretia Berry has been in the area for long before 2020.

Berry described herself as a wife, scholar, educator, and speaker. She, along with her husband, created and run 

Brownicity, a non-profit that provides courses and workshops on anti-racism.

“I am a Black woman who was raised in the south during the 70s,” Berry said. 

She was the first generation in her family to attend fully integrated public schools K through 12. Despite that, she said, she was very much socially segregated outside of school.She is in an interracial marriage with her white husband and has two multiethnic (a term she said she preferred over biracial) daughters.

She said that the way her parents treated race affected how she viewed it. In her family, talking about race wasn’t viewed as a taboo or uncomfortable. She said her parents felt that they needed to equip their Black children to thrive in a hyper racialized society.

So, then, as a child, I was aware of race at work. I could see patterns,” Berry said. “Because in our home, we name things that happened and we didn't—there was no silence or shame around talking about race.” 

She said that upon going to Graduate school, she was able to put academic terms to those experiences.

Faith was an important factor to Berry’s work in DEI. She started out creating her course, What Lies Between Us, with the target audience of church leaders, since that’s who she was experienced working with. However, she Berry said there’s a big gap between how we’ve been racialized and embodying antiracism.

“And oftentimes, people think that you can just maybe jump that gap in one workshop or something like that, or with one book,” Berry said. 

However, she said that transition takes time, just like anything complex.

She likes to use a plant seed metaphor. There’s a seed, and it needs to grow roots, sprouts, and bloom. It needs to not only be cared for, but given time.

“And so you don't get to just invite a speaker and say, we've checked our diversity box, or we've checked our DEI box, or we've checked our anti racism box,” Berry said. “It requires commitment, and [intention], and at least four years.”

One of the courses they offer is called What Lies Between Us. She initially created it for church leadership, since that was what she was most experienced with, but she created another version without the Biblical references as well for secular institutions.

“And so as I was putting the book together, yes, I was calling on, yes, my faith for how to love people through this work, and calling on my education background, the pedagogy—like how do I shape this so they understand so they understand part one first before they move on to part two, and then part two helps them move on to part three, and part three helps them move on to part four,” Berry said. “And that is called scaffolding.”

As she was writing, she kept leaders in mind. Due to her background in education, she already knew how to structure the course to be effective. Her goal was to make it so leaders didn’t have to go through the process of creating a course like this, and just focus on getting the information to the people who needed to receive it.

As a part of that work, this past February Berry released Hues of You, a children’s activity book written by Berry and 

illustrated by Adia Carter.

“And that book essentially helps caregivers be able to foster positive connection, identity conversations around phenotype, and race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, racism,” Berry said.

She said she has a new book coming out this August that called Teaching For Justice and Belonging: A Journey For Educators and Parents.

“It's all about supporting the developmental growth process for educators and parents so that we can cultivate curiosity, justice and belonging the way that kids deserve,” Berry said.

To people interested in going into DEI, Berry said to remember that the field requires commitment, patience, and persistence. It’s better to think about it that way instead of one-time workshops.

“I want Brownicity is just to be this example of how to guide people in truth and hope,” Berry said. “But at the same time, I hope that eventually Brownicity is not needed, that ultimately it will be obsolete.”