New RoAR bases its work on the following principles developed by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond:

Undoing Racism®

Racism is the single most critical barrier to building effective coalitions for social change. Racism has been consciously and systematically erected, and it can be undone only if people understand what it is, where it comes from, how it functions, and why it is perpetuated.

Learning from History

History is a tool for effective organizing. Understanding the lessons of history allows us to create a more humane future.

Sharing Culture

Culture is the life support system of a community. If a community’s culture is respected and nurtured, the community’s power will grow.

Analyzing Power

As a society, we often believe that individuals and/or their communities are solely responsible for their conditions. Through the analysis of institutional power, we can identify and unpack the systems external to the community that create the internal realities many people experience daily.

Developing Leadership

Anti-racist leadership needs to be developed intentionally and systematically within local communities and organizations.

Gatekeeping

Persons who work in institutions often function as gatekeepers to ensure that the institution perpetuates itself. The gatekeeper becomes an agent of institutional transformation by operating with anti-racist values and networking with those who share those values and maintain accountability in the community.

Identifying and Analyzing Manifestations of Racism

Acts of racism are supported by institutions and are nurtured by societal practices that reinforce and perpetuate racism.

Maintaining Accountability

Organizing with integrity requires that we be accountable to the communities struggling with racist oppression.

Networking

We recognize that the growth of a movement for social transformation requires networking – “building a net that works.” Networking means building principled relationships based on humane values.

Undoing Internalized Racial Oppression

Internalized Racial Oppression manifests itself in two forms:

• Internalized Racial Inferiority
  The acceptance of and acting out of an inferior definition of self given by the oppressor is rooted in the historical designation of one’s race. Over many generations, this process of disempowerment and disenfranchisement expresses itself in self-defeating behavior.
• Internalized Racial Superiority
  The acceptance of and acting out of a superior definition is rooted in the historical designation of one’s race. Over many generations, this process of empowerment and access expresses itself as unearned privileges, access to institutional power, and invisible advantages based upon race.