ERASE Races: The American Unity Movement

The funding would serve as seed for the growth and expansion of the ERASE Races nonprofit. The nonprofit aims to bring resolution to the centuries old problem of "race" in America by serving as a clearing house for organizations invested in education, relationship, service and mentoring in 115 cities in America. I began this project in 2018 and traveled to 112 cities across the country in 2019 preparing to kick off a revisit of the 112 cities in 2020. That was temporarily halted by Covid. The seed money would be used to fund the virtual National Office of the Executive Director, consisting of a National Coordinator and a National Fundraiser. The National Office would then begin a city by city rollout of 1 city coordinator and 1 fundraiser per city. The city personnel would be responsible for generating "city funding" via sponsorships (local or national), donations (private and public) or merchandising. The generated funding would then support the creation and operation of the formed "city committees" consisting of personnel from the 7 areas of influence, Family, Faith, Education, Business, Government, Media and Arts & Entertainment. This would be the ERASE Race team in each city supported by the National Office.

My name is Carlen Charleston, the Executive Director of ERASE Races a 501 (c) 4 nonprofit out of Tomball, TX. I am 58 years old and spent 20 years as a Marine Corps officer after graduating from University of North Texas. After retiring the USMC in 2005 I taught high school for 12 years at two different schools in the Houston area. It was through this experience that I began realizing how we are all much the same. The first high school was in an economically disadvantaged part of Houston and the second high school was quite the opposite. I realized while working on a Master's Degree in Leadership that "race" was created as a social construct and that it causes us all to believe things about "others" that are simply not true. After teaching for 12 years, in 2018, I answered the call to do something about the "racial" issues and division in America. I began ERASE Races as a way to transcend the idea that we are different because of our skin color. We have studied the issue and determined from every possible angle that "race" is the problem. We should therefore, "ERASE Race." "Race" divides, we UNITE. 

ERASE Races endeavors boldly to solve the problems of "race" in America, described by most as "racism." This fundamental distinction is not only what sets us apart but is necessary for resolution of this centuries old problem. We address it in 3 ways. Talk, Walk and Work. Talk. A large portion of our work is in teaching the art of dialogue. It's more than simply talking and it serves as a mean to value and respect each other. Once we can Talk, we can begin "Walking" together as we create the plans necessary to bring about the much-needed change in our homes, cities and states. Understand that "Walking" is separate and distinct from the education in communication that happens as we Talk. Only after we know how to "Talk," will we be ready to "Walk" together as a team to do the "Work." The "Work" is the execution of plans that were created because we "talked" about them and we "walked" through them. Therefore we can now do the "Work." Work is the mechanism by which we do "good" for all mankind.

The approach that we use at ERASE Races is unique in that we have to "walk" daily in what we say is "the solution." If we believe that Talk, Walk, and Work is the answer, then we have to model that in our daily interactions. This is important because with each week in America, we have another opportunity to foment hate and division as we see police misconduct or rioting and looting. With forces mounted on polar extremes of the social and political spectrum, we stand in the middle attempting to bring these diverse forces to the middle where we can begin the Talk, Walk, Work cycle. We are not only the problem in this country, we too can be the solution. Our approach does two things chiefly. It challenges all to be open and transparent with each other, what we call "the showing," because we must be true to each other and ourselves and this takes us into deeper relationships than we have ever been before, what we call "the knowing."  If we succeed, we succeed together and if we fail, we fail together. The innovation here is the commitment to "togetherness."

We are designed to impact humanity through the relationship development aspect of our project.  Humans were not created to simply get along or simply to exist on this planet. No, we were put here to see how much good "we" could do before exiting this earthly realm. So without regard to what people are doing individually, whatever their vocation, trade or service, we will create relationships between demographically diverse groups to begin the training necessary to serve humanity.  The training in each city is estimated at 2 years with weekly meetings for dialogue and planning, and it culminates in a city extravaganza organized by the people of the city (city committees). The training consists of communication and dialogue workshops, community service projects, mentorship, leadership and character development. All of this is done in a culturally diverse setting, virtually if necessary. The 7 areas of influence (city committees) using the "talk, walk, work" paradigm will change the city dynamic, the human dynamic and most importantly, the personal dynamic of relationship with American society as the benefactor. "Race" was intentionally created to divide us. We must be as intentional in our aim to unite.