The Groundwater Approach
Our name, our work, is rooted in the “Groundwater” metaphor, a simple tale of dying fish that goes like this:
If you have a lake in front of your house and one fish is floating belly-up dead, it makes sense to analyze the fish.
But if you come out to that same lake and half the fish are floating belly-up dead, what should you do? This time you’ve got to analyze the lake.
Now... picture five lakes around your house, and in each and every lake half the fish are floating belly-up dead! What is it time to do? We say it’s time to analyze the groundwater.
The Groundwater metaphor is designed to help practitioners at all levels internalize the reality that we live in a racially structured society, and that that is what causes racial inequity. In other words, we have a “groundwater” problem, and we need “groundwater” solutions. Starting from there, we begin to unlock transformative change.