Building Muscle for Racial Equity Poverty Reduction Working
Building Muscle for Racial Equity Poverty Reduction Working Group Patricia Lally
What Does it Mean to Build Muscle? • Understand how racism works. Start with an understanding of history and structural conditions. • Take responsibility for eliminating institutional racism. • Confront your own biases. • Use race-explicit language. • Lift up intersecting oppressions. • Remember institutional racism favors White people at the expense of POC. • Talk about how racism harms all of us. • Shift the culture. • Make it a life practice.
MYTH: If you don’t allow yourself to think about race, you can never be biased.
The Use of Coded Words and Images to Reinforce Anti-Black Racial Bias. The text included “WHO DO YOU STAND WITH? DONALD TRUMP AND THE BETSY ROSS FLAG OR ANTIAMERICAN FLAG COLIN KAEPERNICK? ” Kaepernick’s skin was darkened to appeal to the readers’ Anti. Black Bias. A July 2019 fundraising email from the National Republican Congressional
The Deserving vs. The Undeserving
WHY? The difference, comes from a “double standard in deservingness. ” He described the double standard as follows: different portraits have their origins in what social psychologists call “ultimate attribution error. ” This error means that when whites struggle, their troubles are generally attributed to situational forces (e. g. , outsourcing); but when nonwhites struggle, their plight is more often attributed to dispositional traits (i. e. , poor work ethic). Consequently, whites are considered ‘more deserving’ than blacks. Michael Tesler, a political scientist at the University of California, Irvine
STRUCTURAL ISSUES NEED STRUCTURAL SOLUTIONS Historically redlined areas are today’s areas of low opportunity and/or at risk of gentrification. Black people are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system which then impacts other systems. Working full time does not close the racial wealth gap. * *The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap Brandeis University and Demos (2017)
Why do we use strategies that name and frame with race, instead of strategies that use universal or raceneutral approaches?
UNIVERSAL STRATEGIES NO EQUITY LENS – Do not account for historical and present context, desired outcomes for those most impacted RACE-NEUTRAL or COLOR-BLIND – Assume positive outcomes “for all” are implicit Class Mobility by Race Lack of Class Mobility by Race % likelihood will move from bottom 1/5 to top 1/5 by age 40 White 16% Black 3% Race % likelihood will still be counted among poorest by age 40 White 23% Black 51%
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 Americans with Disabilities Act Affirmative Action Programs TARGETED UNIVERSAL STRATEGIES EQUITY LENS – Account for historical and present context, desired outcomes for those most impacted RACE-EXPLICIT – Name, frame and operate using a racial equity lens in order to achieve positive outcomes for all
Why we use a Racial Equity Lens Serve as a check point for accountability to racial equity throughout the policy evaluation process. Create awareness of what’s at stake – the unintended consequences – and opportunities to increase racial equity. Provide a targeted universal approach to evaluate policies to achieve the best possible outcomes for all current and future residents of Washington State.
“A targeted universal strategy is inclusive of the needs of both dominant and marginalized groups, but pays particular attention to the situation of the marginalized group. ” john a. powell
The Dominant Narrative Perpetuates Racial Inequity “This [dominant] narrative will always produce durable, persistent and racialized poverty; built around just accepting and tolerating this societal problem by framing it as an individual issue. ” ~ john a. powell
REASONS FOR BEING POOR Universal Strategies: “All people” (Class) People of color (Race + Class) 1) Economic and social factors 2) Implicit racial bias and institutional and structural racism • NO EQUITY LENS – Do not account for historical and present context, desired outcomes for those most impacted • RACE-NEUTRAL or COLOR-BLIND – Assume positive outcomes “for all” are implicit
Narratives Matter Dominant Narrative • Personal/cultural failure • The poor deserve to be poor • Highly racialized because of disproportionate representation of people of color (Adapted from work by john a. powell) Equity Narrative • Structural failure • Caused by inequitable access to opportunity for wealth building and success • Explains the cycles of intergenerational poverty and the relevance of race, ethnicity and class
DOMINANT NARRATIVE Consciously or unconsciously seeking or avoiding individual blame. It’s their faults that they can’t succeed. It’s not my problem. Is that racist? Are they racists? I’m not racist. No action: Maintains status quo DIVERSITY ACCESS & INCLUSION NARRATIVE Calls the work “equity” while providing solutions focused on access and diversity. Is wellintended but focuses on preserving personal/institutional comfort. Tokenizing. Resistant. Afraid to challenge norms or be unpopular. We feature/serve POC already. We’re not perpetuating racism. We don’t have time to share decision-making processes or build relationships with all levels of employees or with the community. Let’s start a volunteer community advisory committee. Let’s invite more of “them” to committees, panels, etc. Transactional: Maintains status quo RACE & SOCIAL JUSTICE NARRATIVE Seeks structural solutions that build collective power; transforms institutions and systems. Is ethical and moral. Uses equity as a strategy to get to equality, justice and liberation. How is racism playing out in the fight against poverty? What is the impact? How am I/are we implicated in that? How is racism intersecting with other forms of oppression? How can we center the experiences and leadership of those who are most impacted? What is our role in supporting communities of color to build their own power? Transformational: Power shifts
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