Widerstand Anti-racism Resources are Now in the Public Domain

I have written a few times about my role with Widerstand Consulting, which is a non-profit [501(c)(3)] focused on helping organizations with addressing systemic barriers within their environments. Since its inception, Widerstand has worked with many organizations across the U.S. by providing training and anti-racism audits/assessments. However, over the past 18 months, shifting priorities and external pressures have led many organizations to step back from diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility (DEIA), and anti-racism work, making it difficult for Widerstand to continue its mission. Therefore, the organization has closed.

As part of our closing procedure, we decided to place 12 of our anti-racism resources - including a resource list - in the Internet Archive. All of these resources can be used by any organization as they work to become more anti-racist. I encourage you to use this link and review what we have put in the Internet Archive. You can download what interests you. Please tell your colleagues about this and encourage them to use our materials.

What do I mean that these can be used by anyone? We have placed a license on each of the documents which denotes that they are now part of the public domain. This enables you to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, with no conditions. We have done this so what we have learned will continue.

If you are unaware of what the Internet Archive is, it was begun in 1996 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. The Internet Archive contains webpages, newspapers, audio, video, books, images, and software programs. Like a paper library, the Internet Archive provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Today the Internet Archive contains more than 1 trillion items, which now includes materials from Widerstand.

I am sad that focus on DEIA has decreased in the U.S. as priorities have shifted. This work does have its ebb and flows, and so I look forward to when organizations are again eager to eliminate systemic barriers in their structure. In my sadness, I am also overjoyed that our documents may help others continue this work. May those documents become part of the building blocks for the future.