56 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 301 — 2020 Racial Equity Institute (REI) The Racial Equity Institute (REI)43 is a limited liability corporation based in Greensboro, North Carolina, that offers training throughout the US, although much of its work is concentrated in the southeastern United States and in North Carolina.44 REI’s principal offering is a series of two-day institutes in a sequential pattern (Phase I and Phase II). The workshops are offered (typically) to groups of 30–40. The organization recommends that participants repeat the Phase I Institute several times (at a reduced cost) prior to participating in Phase II. REI offers an abbreviated form of the Phase I Institute entitled the “Groundwater Approach” for organizations/constituencies seeking an introduction (three- to four-hour workshop) to the program content. The curriculum of the Phase I Institute includes: • An in-depth historical and contemporaneous analysis of the structures and policies that sustain inequity on the basis of race/ ethnicity, specifically in the US • The power of implicit bias and how it affects our decisions and policy making and how it is socialized within larger systems • The relationship between racism and poverty • The concept of power and its relationship/interplay with systems, institutions (policies) and communities, particularly communities of color • The historical and enduring construction of “race” and how it has been leveraged throughout history to create disadvantage for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and create advantage for people of majority cultures and identities • Definitions of race and racism • Internalized racial oppression (colorism) The REI Phase I Institute content forms the basis for moving into a deliberately anti-racist frame, further explored in the Phase II Institute. Following a review of the core concepts presented in Phase I, this experience focuses on the development of racial identity and the