Building A Pro-Black World

Hierarchy and Justice

Cyndi Suarez

In today's organizational climate, where leaders are being held accountable for shifting their organization from a white supremacist culture to a more justice‐oriented one, critiques of hierarchy are a key leadership challenge. I often hear leaders express frustration at not knowing how to respond to these staff critiques of an organization's system, and staff members are often eager to lead even if they don't fully understand the system. However, this does not need to be the paradox it appears to be. Justice‐oriented hierarchies are not completely unknown. Organizations that use an organizing approach are often designed for leadership development, often with a membership model.

However, in my 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, I have never worked at an organization that exhibited a functional hierarchy. The observable hierarchy was often a racial one, with white people toward the higher end of the hierarchy as leaders, and staff members of color toward the bottom as frontline staff—if there were any staff members of color at all. Often, the lower‐level staff members do not understand how the whole organization works, don't trust that it works at the higher levels, and are stressed by the need to work around dysfunctions. Sometimes, the higher‐level staff members do not understand or see the whole organization either and are not able to offer a value for their benefits in the system. And, unfortunately, often the highest‐level ...