RENEWING BELOVED COMMUNITYUNDERSTANDING STRUCTURAL RACIALIZATION AND OPPORTUNITY
john a. powellExecutive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and EthnicityWilliams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law
Presentation to Genesis
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
August 29, 2010
Overview
My Opportunity Story: thinking through a structural racialization lens
A Brief Snapshot of Opportunity in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fresno Area
Renewing Our Communities Thinking, talking, acting in new ways
Activity: Telling your own Opportunity Story
Thinking through a structural racialization lens
My Opportunity Story
My Opportunity Story
I was born…
4
My Opportunity Story contd.
I grew up…
5
My Parents
6
My parents were sharecroppers in the South.
They left the South in search of opportunity.
HOME
They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.
Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.
They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.
Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.
7
My Old Neighborhood
The vacant grassy plots are not parks.
8
Where I Grew Up
I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining opportunity city. 9
It is also known as Detroit.10
I now live in a high opportunity area.
11
A Tale of Two Neighborhoods…
• Less than 25% of students in Detroit finish high school
• More than 60% of the men will spend time in jail
• There may soon be no bus service in some areas
• It is difficult to attract jobs or private capital
• Not safe; very few parks
• Difficult to get fresh food
• The year my step daughter finished high school, 100% of the students graduated and 100% went to college
• Most will not even drive by a jail
• Free bus service
• Relatively easy to attract capital
• Very safe; great parks
• Easy to get fresh food
12
Low Opportunity High Opportunity
13
Some people ride the “Up” escalator to reach
opportunity
Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there
My Opportunity Story
I was born…
14
My Opportunity Story contd.
I grew up…
15
My Parents
16
My parents were sharecroppers in the South.
They left the South in search of opportunity.
HOME
They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.
Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.
They moved north seeking opportunity and bought a house.
Today I would say they bought into a low opportunity neighborhood.
17
My Old Neighborhood
The vacant grassy plots are not parks.
18
Where I Grew Up
I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining opportunity city. 19
It is also known as Detroit.20
I now live in a high opportunity area.
21
A Tale of Two Neighborhoods…
• Less than 25% of students in Detroit finish high school
• More than 60% of the men will spend time in jail
• There may soon be no bus service in some areas
• It is difficult to attract jobs or private capital
• Not safe; very few parks
• Difficult to get fresh food
• The year my step daughter finished high school, 100% of the students graduated and 100% went to college
• Most will not even drive by a jail
• Free bus service
• Relatively easy to attract capital
• Very safe; great parks
• Easy to get fresh food
22
Low Opportunity High Opportunity
Which community would you choose?
23
24
Some people ride the “Up” escalator to reach
opportunity
Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there
Opportunity is….
Racialized…• In 1960, African-
American families in poverty were 3.8 times more likely to be concentrated in high-poverty neighborhoods than poor whites.
• In 2000, they were 7.3times more likely.
Spatialized…• marginalized people
of color and the very poor have been spatially isolated from opportunity via reservations, Jim Crow, Appalachian mountains, ghettos, barrios, and the culture of incarceration.
Globalized…• Economic
globalization
• Climate change
• the Credit and Foreclosure crisis
Systems Thinking We are all situated within “opportunity structures”
Outcomes
Social
Physical
Cultural
These structures interact in ways that produce racialized outcomes for different groups…
27Ongoing Racial Inequalities
Outcomes: Racial Disparities
Racial inequalities in current levels of well-being
Capacity for individual and community improvement is undermined
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that maintain racial hierarchies Racialized public policies and institutional practices
Context: The Dominant Consensus on RaceNational values Contemporary culture
Structural Racialization
Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004
Who’s to blame?
28Photo source: (Madoff) AP
Historic Government Role
A series of mutually reinforcing federal policies across multiple domains have contributed to the disparities we see today School Desegregation Homeownership/Suburbanization Urban Renewal Public Housing Transportation
29
ExampleThe Government and Homeownership Policies: Redlining
“If a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes. A change in social or racial occupancy generally contributes to instability and a decline in values.”
–Excerpt from the 1947 FHA underwriting manual
30
Example: How historic Redlining impacts opportunity in the Portland region today….
The areas of lowest opportunity today (lightest) are also the same areas that were redlined (red and yellow) beginning in the 1930s.
From Redlining to Reverse Redlining…
Unsustainable credit: The darkest areas with the highest concentrations of persons of color also have the highest concentrations of Notices of Defaults, indicating unsustainable mortgage lending.
In Oakland, Big Bank lenders made 70% of their high-cost loans in neighborhoods of color.
Source: California Reinvestment Coalition. “From Foreclosures to Re-redlining: How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California communities.” February 2010.
…And Reverse Redlining to Re-redlining: Banks unwilling to work out loan modifications…
In Oakland, there were an average of 21.87 foreclosures for every loan modification made each month in the sample report in 2009. In the US, there were 6.77.
Source: California Reinvestment Coalition. “From Foreclosures to Re-redlining: How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California communities.” February 2010.
Re-redlining contd.: And credit once again unavailable
In Oakland: Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo are more likely to deny loans for communities of color than for non-minority neighborhoods
Source: California Reinvestment Coalition. “From Foreclosures to Re-redlining: How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California communities.” February 2010.
In Oakland: there were three times as many PRIME loans in 2006 than in 2008…
Today,
Institutions continue to
support, not dismantle, the
status quo. This is why we
continue to see racially
inequitable outcomes even
if there is good intent
behind policies, or an
absence of racist actors. (i.e.
structural racialization)
How we allocate our resources in terms of People, Places, andLinkages matters….
Lesson:
What are some key intervention points to improve opportunity for children?
A Brief Snapshot of Opportunity for Children in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fresno region
Focus: Children in Poverty
Source U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census, Summary File 4.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES:Child Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Metro Area
Black 28.0%
American Indian 16.0%
Asian/Pac. Islander 10.0%
Hispanic 15.0%
Non-Hispanic White 5.0%
What will the fallout from the recession mean for our children?
In 1999, child poverty was already alarming for certain groups in the metro area, for example Black children at 28%.
We can expect that poverty rate for children will only grow as the recession continues… As one pediatrician has warned, “We are seeing the
emergence of what amounts to a ‘recession generation.’”
Increases in child poverty, homelessness, and temporary relief indicate that children across the U.S. are experiencing “a quiet disaster.”
Source: Bob Herbert, “Children in Peril.” New York Times Op-Ed published April 20, 2009. Herbert is quoting Dr. Irwin Redlener, president of the Children’s Health Fund in New York.
Focus: Segregation in Schools
EDUCATION:Segregation of Public Primary School Students, Dissimilarity by Race/Ethnicity (2007-08)
Metro Area
Hispanic---Non-Hispanic White 61.1%
Non. Hisp Asian---Non-Hispanic White
54.9%
Non. Hisp. Indian---Non-Hispanic White
35.4%
Non-Hispanic Black---Non-Hispanic White
63.7%
Source National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data. Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey. Downloaded from Diversity Data.org
Focus: Poverty in Schools
Source National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data. Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey. Downloaded from Diversity Data.org
EDUCATION:Poverty Rate of School Where Average Primary School Student Attends by Race/Ethnicity (2007-08)
Metro Area
Hispanic 63.3%
Non-Hispanic White 21.0%
Non-Hispanic Black 62.3%
Non-Hispanic American Indian 42.8%
Non-Hispanic Asian/Pac. Islander 36.6%
What does segregation and poverty in schools mean for our children?
Research shows: A consistent “negative effect of high poverty concentrations
in school on students’ academic achievement.” (Trent, 1997)
The poverty of a school, far more than the poverty of an individual, determines students’ educational outcomes and impoverished students do better if they live in middle-class neighborhoods and/or attend more affluent schools. (Schellenberg, 1998)
When a school reaches a tipping point of 50%, all students outcomes are depressed. And once poverty in a school district reaches 60% or above, the district can no longer rely on its own internal efforts to improve outcomes. (Schellenberg, 1998)
Growing opportunity for all
Renewing our Communities
Strategies for Growing Together
Think in new ways Talk in new waysAct in new ways
45
Transformative Thinking
transformative thinking to combat structural racialization; we need to find new approaches.
personal and social responsibility are important: we should maintain them in our advocacy and analysis
approaches should consider the structures and systems that are creating and perpetuating these disparities and work to reform them for lasting change. Challenging policies, processes, and assumptions
Talking in New Ways
I. How do we talk about race?II. Targeted universalism—a new frame for dialogue
(beyond disparities)
I. How to Talk about Race
Focus on structures and systems rather than explicit individual action/reaction
Focus on the subconscious—the implicit bias that is stored within the mind
Focus on relationships—build collaborations and engage in real discussion
47
II. Targeted universalism as communication strategy
Moves beyond the disparities frame
Focuses on the universal goals shared by all the communities while being sensitive to the targeted strategies that are responsive to the situation of marginalized communities
Acting in New Ways
I. Engagement and empowermentII. Targeted universalism as policy
III. Strategies for connecting to opportunity
I. Engagement and Empowerment
The less resourced a community is, the more critical organizing becomes
How Institutions can strengthen engagement
Not just “outreach”. That is, anchor institutions cannot simply make their offer and “sell” the community hoping they will buy it.
II. Promote Universal Policies in Targeted Ways
• There is no “one size fits all”
• “One vision, many paths”
• Process:• What is the goal?• How do we tailor
strategies to different groups, who are differently situated, to lift them to that goal?
III. Strategies for Connecting to Opportunity
Activity: Telling your own Opportunity Story
Personal lens: What in my life and my parents’ life opened up and created opportunities for
me?
What in my life and my parents’ life has restricted opportunity for me?
How has this impacted me? How has it shaped the story of my life?
How does access to and restriction from opportunity impact my children’s lives?
Community lens: Do opportunity structures exist in my community? What’s there, what’s missing,
and for whom?
Are they responsive to community needs?
How do I impact these structures? How can the community?
www.KirwanInstitute.org
KirwanInstituteon:
www.race-talk.org