“Design a Racist Organisation” by Sipho Eric Ndlovu

antiracism organisational change racism training Mar 04, 2026
black man with hair in braids, looking at his fingers whilst thinking

The room often greets me first. And allows me to introduce my music and Strawberry Words (the training company) designed ‘love cards’, and so creating a psychologically safe environment. Each detail makes up a symphony as I walk through, and I prepare to hold space for something difficult and necessary: a conversation about racism. 

I believe psychological safety isn’t built through instruction but through vibration, through rhythm that allows people to settle into presence. (Living with what sometimes feels like a violent stammer has humbled me into this realisation.) Once the room steadies, I introduce an exercise that always unsettles and illuminates in equal measure: “Design a Racist Organisation.” An exercise designed by antiracist educator Judith Katz.

It sounds outrageous, and that is precisely the point. Participants are asked to imagine, with uncomfortable honesty, what policies, structures, recruitment methods, and social cultures would deliberately sustain racial inequity. However, whilst maintaining the visual that it is in fact NOT a racist organisation and instead inclusive & equal.

Participants are encouraged to explore what language would be used on recruitment material.  The makeup of senior leadership: who would belong, and who would be excluded?

 As the design unfolds, laughter fades. Realisation sets in. People start recognising that the organisation they’re describing already exists, in systems, in workplaces, sometimes even in themselves. The exercise exposes the architecture of racism not as an abstract moral failing but as a design choice, something humans have built and can therefore question how we work to unbuild.

By the end, the room feels different. The same genre of music plays again, but now it sounds like release. People look at one another with a mixture of relief and responsibility. And that is the quiet work of anti-racism: transforming discomfort into clarity, and clarity into action.

Image credit: Pradeep Kaur

Talking about racism can seem difficult and uncomfortable. This CPD accredited course provides a foundational education on racism to help to increase racial literacy which includes building confidence to speak about and deal with issues concerning race. It provides a language through which meaningful conversation can take place (particularly in the workplace).

Time to Talk about Race Online Course

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