Free Anti-Racism Policy… and some advice

Before you download the toolkit, let’s talk about the trouble with anti-racism policies.

In many organizations, anti-racism policies are framed as a definitive step toward racial equity. These policies often contain broad statements of commitment, guiding principles, and sometimes even concrete actions. Yet, in practice, they rarely touch the deeper structures that uphold racial inequity.

The reality is that racism isn’t just about individual behaviors—it is embedded in the very policies that govern workplaces, schools, services, and products. Dress codes disproportionately penalize Black hairstyles and cultural dress. Parental leave structures reflect a bias toward nuclear family models, often disadvantaging racialized parents and caregivers. Hiring policies prioritize candidates who fit a predetermined (often white, Western, and middle-class) ideal, leading to exclusionary practices disguised as “culture fit.” Product testing has historically ignored Black and brown skin tones, non-Western facial features, and the needs of racialized communities.

When an organization drafts an anti-racism policy without explicitly requiring and demanding the investigation and redesign of these policies, what is it really doing? A statement of intent, no matter how strongly worded, does not fundamentally change the structures that perpetuate inequity. An anti-racism policy that does not have the power to disrupt and rebuild these policies is, at best, performative.

So why write it at all?

There is an argument that such policies can create a legacy of accountability, ensuring that future leadership remains committed to equity. A well-crafted policy could, in theory, mandate the ongoing review of policies that shape an organization’s operations. But if an organization is genuinely committed to equity, why must it be written before it is done? Shouldn’t the real work—investigating and redesigning inequitable policies—be the priority?

The IRCC Anti-Racism Policy Requirement

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced a new requirement: settlement organizations must have an anti-racism policy to access funding. At first glance, this seems like a necessary step toward ensuring these organizations operate equitably. But in practice, it risks burdening organizations—many of which are underfunded and overstretched—with an additional administrative task that may not meaningfully advance racial equity.

Anti-racism policies do not equate to anti-racist action. A document on its own does not dismantle inequities. If settlement organizations are required to have an anti-racism policy but are not also resourced or supported to investigate and redesign their operational policies—such as hiring, service delivery, or decision-making structures—this requirement does little more than create another bureaucratic hoop to jump through.

At QuakeLab, we initially planned to charge for an anti-racism policy toolkit to help organizations meet this new IRCC requirement. But the more we sat with the idea, the more it felt disingenuous to the work we’ve done so far and the values we’ve espoused. Selling a policy document, without also facilitating the deeper work of investigating and redesigning systems and structures, felt like playing into the very problems we critique.

So instead, we’re making our anti-racism policy toolkit free for settlement organizations to use. Not because we don’t believe in the value of our work, but because we know that most of these organizations are already stretched thin. We don’t want them spending critical resources on a document that, on its own, will not further equity.

But we also know that true equity work isn’t free.

We’d like to think of this as a means to an end: we provide this toolkit to help settlement organizations access funding, and in return, we ask those that have the resources to invest in the deeper work. Instead of charging for a static policy, we invite organizations to engage us in the process of investigating their existing policies, designing new ones, and, most importantly, building frameworks for the continuous review and redesign of policies to ensure they advance equity over time.

This isn’t charity. It’s a redistribution of resources to ensure the work that needs to be done actually gets done. Organizations with the means pay for our time and expertise, which in turn covers the cost of developing the toolkit and allows us to continue offering it for free to organizations that need it.

An anti-racism policy should not be a standalone document. It should be a trigger for deep, ongoing organizational work. It should demand the redesign of dress codes, hiring practices, procurement policies, benefits structures, and every other operational policy where racism is quietly embedded. If it doesn’t do that, then it’s just another document in a folder, gathering dust while inequity continues unchecked.

We don’t just want organizations to have an anti-racism policy. We want them to build policies that work.

QuakeLab CEO,

Sharon Nyangweso