10 STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING HOW RACIAL INEQUITIES AFFECT LGBTQ COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

3. Connect these disparities to the specific histories of your grantee's populations. Learn how race has been defined for these populations

As argued persuasively by critical race theorists, race is not one specific biological trait—it's a social construct that shifts in meaning over time and across place. Further, as the Aspen Institute points out, these conceptions of race reveal "an unequal relationship between social groups based on the privileged access to power and resources by one group over another." Thus, organizations that serve people of color deal with incredibly diverse populations shaped by a host of factors. The key is to learn how these varied histories inform the nature of the grantee's work.

PrYSM is led by and for Southeast Asian youth, ages 18-24, largely from Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong and multiracial families. Many of these families are first-generation immigrants, including refugees who emigrated over the last four decades from war-torn, politically volatile and impoverished countries—and still struggle with the long-term material and psychological costs of those histories. Further, PrYSM's LGBTQ youth concurrently struggle with poverty, issues of identity and isolation, police harassment, and the discrimination and stigma associated with race, sexuality, gender identity, immigration and age, to name a few.