Racial Equity Truthtellers: 'We have a rightful place at the table'
Raised in Hawaii by a single mother, Pat Gonzales-Rogers operates from a cultural and moral precept. In his role as executive director at the Bears Ears Coalition, responsibility to his community is always at the forefront of his career.
Gonzales-Rogers explained that the Hawaiian word “kuleana” loosely translates to mean "responsibility." You have a responsibility to your people, and regardless of your position, there’s always a place for you. “If I’m not in this position,” Gonzales-Rogers said, “I’m probably called to another, and there’s a place for me. We all have a call to serve.”
When asked about his journey to his current position, Gonzales-Rogers credited being surrounded by strong, deliberate, intentional women very early in his life. A reflection of this can be seen through his staff. “My staff are all female and all native except one,” he said. “I see these things come to fruition after a 30+-year career.”
Speaking further on his career journey, he mentioned working for the Yale School of Management. For him, this experience shows that knowledge can come from anywhere and that education can lead us down paths we never thought possible. Ultimately, we need to be open-minded about where our path is taking us.
Racial equity in the conservation and philanthropy spaces
Racial equity is crucial, especially in conservation and philanthropy. While the spaces of conservation and philanthropy have become mainstream in recent years, Gonzales-Rogers noted that they were paid for by the blood and treasure of people of color. The original stewards and conservators were people of color. “So while the space now has an opening or insert for greater participation,” Gonzales-Rogers said, “I look at it in allegory that they still want to control it.”
In some regards, Gonzales-Rogers understands why some of this rationale is correct. In many ways, he said, it can be compared to the relationship between parent and child. When the parent uses their own money to fund the child’s ambitions, the parent feels obligated to control how that money is used. The same is true, he said, of anyone who has operated in a seat of power and doesn't want to give that up. Instead of looking at the situation as giving up a seat of power, it should be viewed as a way to allow an organization to have more efficiency in fulfilling its mission.
A rightful place at the table
So what does racial equity really mean? Gonzales-Rogers explained that the idea of racial equity is that on the surface, we all operate on the same even field. While this is a great goal to strive for, those within the space know that this rarely happens.
Gonzales-Rogers said that it is important to note that no one is looking for a special benefit but to simply operate in the same space as those making decisions that affect their communities. For years, people of color have often been told, through institutional constriction, that they have a space, but it’s a small one. It’s a space that’s already been envisioned and typically limited in power to voice opinions.
When speaking about the process in which board members are chosen, Gonzales-Rogers offered a personal example for context and why the process needs to change.
“I’ve gone through the process and series of interviews almost like applying for the national security agency, and then at the end I was offered a position on a board,” Gonzales-Rogers recalled. “Then I found that a person not of color, but someone I know has money, didn’t go through all the interviews that I had to go through. They were just asked to serve on the board.”
It is institutionalized subtleties like the above example that shed light on the bigger problem of choosing who gets a seat at the table. According to Gonzales-Rogers, we often see this narrative applied to celebrities and other people with money and power. He said that he has no problem going through an arduous process, as long as that same process is applied to everyone else. These are subtleties that most people don’t realize but that still need to be addressed.
Connecting talent with community
Patrick Gonzales -Rogers (Photo credit: Bears Ears Coalition)
It is common practice for large organizations to use recruiters to fill positions that directly serve communities of color. The problem is, Gonzales-Rogers said, is that many of the people chosen for these positions have never even worked in these communities, nor do they have any established relationships. So why are they the gatekeepers for such important conditions to these institutions relative to communities of color?
Gonzales-Rogers explained that through this process, the "gatekeepers" are allowing this kind of institutionality to filter out and "vanilla-ize" the positions. This frequent practice is typical in senior management or executive teams. “The exponential effect is huge because once a person gets into that organization, they may also be running a grant program that delivers $5 to $10 million per year minimally,” Gonzales-Rogers said. “So you might be talking about $100 million in your community and how that gets diluted just through the beginning sequence of this recruiter.”
When discussing racial inequity examples like this with others, it can sometimes be difficult for those outside the community to understand where the disconnect lies. Gonzales-Rogers stressed that these aren’t isolated incidents taken out of context. These are issues that all people of color must go through that should be recognized and addressed.
“If you still turn to ‘we need diversity training,’ you’ve missed the entire train,” Gonzales-Rogers said. “There is a reckoning and reconciliation coming, and again, we’re not asking for a special seat – we’re asking for the same hard seat that you sit on but to be at the table and to discuss all the items, not just those you chose for us.”
The role of philanthropy in addressing racial disparities
In some instances, many organizations don’t understand why these conversations about racial inequity are still present among beneficiaries they have supported. Some view their monetary contributions as justification to rationalize the silencing of discussions on racial disparities. To that narrative, Gonzales-Rogers responded, “So because you threw some nickels at me, I’m supposed to shut up?”
While he has profound gratitude for the funding, he also understands that these strategic moves are made because they benefit the funding organizations themselves. Moreover, he said, coalitions like Bears Ears are only getting fractions of the funding others receive. Gonzales-Rogers explained that two-thirds of foundation funding goes to about six of the largest conservation groups, all of which are majority white-led. The remaining third is then dispersed among hundreds of organizations led by people of color. They’re essentially fighting for scraps.
In reflecting on these issues, the question of how the philanthropy space can help address these disparities comes to the forefront. Gonzales-Rogers offered insight to how this can be done. He suggested that those in the conservation space collectively get past the watered-down versions of ourselves and create a space for trust. When everyone has a seat and voices their opinions and those of their communities, you’ll have a much more vibrant deliverable, he argued.
“Your stated mission will be hitting on all cylinders, so your objectives will be achieved and that is why you do this,” Gonzales-Rogers said. “Without it, they’re only fulfilling about 60% of their mission. If we were at the table, they could totally fulfill their mission.”
Replenishing the forest
For Gonzales-Rogers, his staff is his greatest accomplishment. His staff of young, strong women of color are the seeds that create the forest. His role is to replenish the forest. “If I have any kind of signature to leave behind, it’s my staff,” he said. “I think if you were to approach any of them, I'm certainly flawed, but does he love us, does he walk the walk with his talk? The answer would be most definitely yes.”
Addressing racial equity and understanding his responsibility to his community have jointly been the emphasis and structure around Gonzales-Rogers’s entire career. His fight is a lifelong journey to doing his part in serving his community. He openly encourages anyone interested in conservation work to use racial equity as a lens for broader change.
"We do this because we have a rightful place at the table,” he said. “To the organizations that work with us, I say 'you will get a much better product in which your missions and objectives will be accomplished if you give us that rightful place at the table.' That's why we do the work we do.”
To hear more from Pat, listen to the podcast below or watch his presentation from our past webinar, Moving Toward Racial Equity: Action and Accountability in Environmental Funding. Join us for our upcoming webinar, Environmental Philanthropy's Post-Election, Anti-Racist Response on Tuesday, December 1 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m CT. Visit the InDEEP events page to register.