What is the Accountability Panel?

No person or group of people are immune from inheriting identity-based biases of their society. Given this reality, we need to constantly work on understanding and minimizing our identity-based biases. Additionally, given that there are dominant groups and groups that have been oppressed in the U.S., accountability also means that those of us occupying positions of power and privilege via our identity markers and roles should be accountable to those who are members of groups that have been oppressed or marginalized. At Justice by Desgin, we seek out co-conspirators who can help us to see and name our blind spots and biases and help to hold us accountable.  We also actively seek out and strive to center collective voices from groups that have been marginalized and ask our co-conspirators to help ensure we accuretly represent such collective voices without apporiating the work of others. In short, our Accountability Panel reviews all lessons throughout our curricula to help reduce our blind spots and biases present in our lessons, and better ensure accurate centering and representing of marginalized voices without apporpiating.

Who is on the Accountability Panel?

Our Accountability Panel is made up of a diverse group of people, including educators, experts in racial, gender, and/or class studies, and advocates for social justice.  The panel currently includes people who identify as Black, LatinX, Native American or White; people who identify as women, men or transgender; and people who have intersections at different combinations of listed identity markers. We are always adding members to the panel to increase diversity and accountability. If you are interested in being an accountability panel member, please contact us on our Contact Us page and let us know your interest in the notes section.