Today’s Face, Tomorrow’s Future

Friends of Talladega College MeetingNew York, NY

October 11, 2005

NYC ACS 06/24/08, 07/17/08, 09/17/08

Overview of the DayToolkit Assumptions, Definitions, POV

Glimpse of Toolkit Components We Will Use:• Child Welfare Fact Sheet

• What’s Race Got to Do With It?

• Racial Equity Impact Analysis

• How to Talk About Race

Q and A and Next Steps

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Our Starting Assumptions . . .

• Class Matters. Poverty is a significant obstacle to success. Yet, within-class racial disparities remain.

• Race Matters, too. Almost every indicator of well-being shows troubling disparities/ disproportionality by race within class groupings.

• Place Matters. Access to resources is connected to spaces (rural, urban, suburban), and these spaces may be “racialized.”

• Personal Responsibility & Self Determination Matter. Everyone should have a voice in matters that affect them.

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Our Starting Assumptions (continued)

• Disparities are often created and maintained through policies and practices that contain barriers to opportunity.

• The only way to close gaps is with an intentional focus on race.

• Given the right message, analysis, and tools, people will work toward racial equity.

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Definitions/Distinctions

• Race -- a social/political construct used to confer advantage and disadvantage

• Social identity (what others assign) and self identity (how we name ourselves)

• Ethnicity and culture -- shared history, values, language, traditions that are sources of strength; these also can be “racialized”

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Doing Work Around Race: Various Valuable Approaches

Our Approach: Anti-racism (focus on policies and

practices)

Other Valuable Approaches:•Prejudice reduction•Healing and reconciliation•Diversity/multiculturalism•Democracy building

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What is Racial Equity?:

Racial equity is achieved when advantage and disadvantage cannot be predicted by race

This can be measured!

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What are Embedded Racial Inequities?

The effects of public and private sector policies and practices that produce:

• the accumulated advantages for whites as a group

• the accumulated disadvantages for

people of color as a group

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What are Embedded Racial Inequities? (continued)

These effects are reinforced by:

• Differential perceptions and images of people of color and whites (stereotypes)

• Dominant U.S. norms and values

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Back Stories to Racial Disparities/Disproportionality often involve inequitable

policies and practicesSo…..

to demonstrate how policy advantages & disadvantages

accumulate:

POP QUIZ!

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What Single Policy from Decades Ago Contributed to

These Present-Day Outcomes?

• Homeownership disparities • Neighborhood disparities• Surveillance & assessment disparities• Health disparities• Wealth disparities

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What Single Policy from Decades Ago Contributed to

These Present-Day Outcomes (continued)

In short, what policy strongly contributed to opportunity-rich or opportunity-poor settings/circumstances for raising kids & the judgments accompanying each?

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The GI Bill: A Story of Embedded Racial Inequity

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Philip’s Story

Child Born Father’s GI Bill: FHA Consequences Consequences Right After Status & VA loans for Child’s for Child’sWWII Education Well-being in

Adulthood

Low-income, White Able to use Family borrowed Philip getsWhite veteran, high low-interest from home equityprofessional

school mortgage to support child’s job, buys own

diploma, from provisions to college educationhouse, Philadelphia move family (first in family to

inherits from public go to college)appreciated

housing to house segregated whensuburban fatherhome ownership dies

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Thomas’s Story

Child Born Father’s GI Bill: FHA Consequences Consequences Right After Status & VA loans for Child’s for Child’sWWII EducationWell-being in

Adulthood

Low-income, Black Could not access Family could not Thomas worksBlack veteran, high home loan b/c of afford to send in minimum

school racially-restrictive child to college;wage jobs,

diploma, from underwriting high school continues toPhiladelphia criteria; family diploma is from live in family

remained in rental under-resourcedhome,

housing in the city segregated schoolconsiders

joining the Army, has to

borrow $when fatherdies to givehim decentfuneral

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Juan’s Story

Child Born Father’s GI Bill: FHA Consequences Consequences Right After Status & VA loans for Child’s for Child’sWWII EducationWell-being in

Adulthood

Low-income, Latino Could not access Family could not Juan worksLatino veteran, high home loan b/c of afford to send in minimum

school racially-restrictive child to college;wage jobs,

diploma, from underwriting high school continues toTexas criteria; family diploma is from live in family

remained in rural under-resourced home, rental housing language

marries segregated and newcomer raciallyLatina, sends segregated part of

school family’s limited

income to herextended

familyin Mexico

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Fast Forward to Today . . .

Philip’s Children: Thomas’ and Juan’s Children:

Philip gives children his father’s They have no houses to appreciated house inherit

They live in thriving communities They live in disinvested communities

Their college education’s paid At work, they complete college on work study and by home equity student loans, with subsequent starting debts to pay back

Philip establishes trust fund Thomas and Juan have few personal assets to leavefor grandchildren grandchildren

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Fast Forward to Today . . .

Neighborhood-Based Opportunities include good schools, accessible jobs, affordable quality services, fair financial & retail outlets, safe recreational space, etc.

How Do “Opportunity-Rich” and “Opportunity-Poor” Neighborhoods Affect the Kids/Families You Serve Today?

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GI Bill

Racial Segregation, City & Suburbs

Desegregation Produces Class Separation w/in Communities of Color

Out-migration of Jobs from Inner City, Resource Disinvestment from Schools, Infrastructure

Opportunity-Poor Neighborhoods for Lower-Income Families of Color

Heightened Surveillance & Stigma from Authorities: Hospitals, Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, Police, School Administrators, Etc.

Disproportionate Expulsion from Mainstream Institutions(Schools, Homes) & Intake into Deep End Systems

Drugs& Drug Law Disparities Disparities in Family

Supports & Individual Treatment, Which Lengthen Stay in Deep End Systems

POSSIBLE PATHWAY FROM THE GI BILL TO CURRENT CHILD WELFARE/JJ/EDUCATION DISPARITIES

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Era of Equal Opportunity Policies (50s, 60s, and 70s)

Opportunity Victories . . . But Inequitable OutcomesMendez vs. Westminister Schools today Brown vs. Board of Education remain racially segregated and still unequal in terms

of access to resources.

Fair Housing Act of 1968 Discrimination persistsin zoning, real estate practices, and lending.

Affirmative Action Largest beneficiaries havebeen White women.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 More elected officials of colorbut w/o adequate resources in urban areas to govern effectively; redistricting to erode political power;ballot box inequities.

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Era of Retrenchment (80s, 90s, 00s)

Challenge to Opportunity Victories Inequitable Outcomes

English Only Laws as state referenda Deprives civil rights (e.g. vote,

legal proceed-ings, and

education) for those with limited English proficiency

“Racial Privacy” Act as state referenda If it had passed, no data for accountability to promote equity in education, public contracting, or employment

Anti-affirmative action legal challenges Erode the small employment and education gains that have been made and increase the likelihood of return to previous practices

How do Child Welfare Policies Map in Terms of Victories & Retrenchment for Racial Equity?

Adoption & Safe Families Act 1997– quicker permanency but quicker termination of parental rights (impact on incarcerated mothers, who are disproportionately women of color)

Family Preservation & Support 1994/Promoting Safe & Stable Families 1997 – Do disparities exist in terms of who gets services?

Multi-Ethnic Placement Act 1994/Interethnic Adoption Provisions 1996 (MEPA-IEPA) – “Diligent recruitment largely ignored” (Race Matters Consortium: MEPA-IEPA)

Others?

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Bottom Line

Being classified as Black, Asian, Native American or Latino has never carried, and still doesn’t carry, the same advantages as being classified as White.

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Reasons for Hope• FEDERAL POLICIES and POLITICS

GAO report on disproportionality in CW

DMC work within JJ

• STATE & LOCAL POLICIES

Subsidized guardianship (disproportionately supports caregivers of color)

Disproportionality and Disparity child welfare efforts

• ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES

Your work!

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What’s different about work

that uses an embedded racial inequities lens?

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What’s different about work that uses an embedded racial inequities lens?

• Makes the case differently

• Does the actual work differently

• Shapes the message differently

RACE MATTERS

Slides for DVD Making the Case

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Making the Case: Telling a different story of race TOOL: Fact Sheets

Different from what?Typical focus on the individual

How is it different?Focus on structural explanations for racial disparities (i.e., policies and practices)

(e.g., News magazine report on pedestrian fatality and racially-drawn public transportation routes)

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Making the Case: Looking at data and analyzing the problem differentlyTOOL: What’s Race Got To Do With It?

Different from what?Across the board aggregated data or quick assumptions on the

basis of simple disaggregation

How is it different?Data are always disaggregated by race and deeply analyzed

(e.g., school suspensions and expulsions)

What’s Race Got to Do with It?:Value of the Tool

• Prompts the need for disaggregated data & guides what to do with it

• Organizes discussion to uncover the “back stories” for disparities

• Identifies possible intervention points for change

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The Tool: What’s Race Got to Do With It?

• For data that show disproportionality and disparities across racial/ethnic groups, what are the possible explanations?

• Do these explanations themselves contain disparities? If so, what causes those?

• How can we unbundle diversity and equity issues? How can we focus on structural rather than individual issues?

• What does this discussion suggest for possible policy or practice interventions to reduce racial disparities/disproportionality?

•  •  •  •  •  

RACE MATTERS

Slides for DVD Doing the Work

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Doing the Work: Defining success differentlyTOOL: Racial Equity Impact Analysis

Different from what?• Generic, across-the-board outcomes

How is it different?• Equitable outcomes (e.g., juvenile detention)

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Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiatives

Detention rate for Latino youth decline by 43% from 1997–1998 to 1999–2000. During that time, the average daily population of the detention center dropped from 49 to 37.

The Racial Equity Impact Analysis: Value of the Tool

• Encourages broad participation in discussion

• Turns generally good ideas into ones that can close racial gaps (Move from necessary to sufficient policies and practices)

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• Are all racial/ethnic groups who are affected by the policy/practice/decision at the table?

• How will the proposed policy/practice/decision affect each group?

• How will the proposed policy/practice /decision be perceived by each group?

• Does the proposal ignore or worsen existing disparities?

• Based on the above responses, what revisions are needed in the policy/practice/decision under discussion?

The Tool: Racial Equity Impact Analysis

RACE MATTERS

Slides for DVD Shaping the Message

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Shaping the Message:Talking about issues differentlyTOOL: How to Talk About Race

Different from what?Divisive, rhetorical, and individually focused

messages

How is it different?Leading with values that unite instead of divide;

bundlingsolutions with problem descriptions; leading with

structural and embedded issues

(e.g., community good over interest group; predatory lending before financial literacy)

How to Talk About Race:The Value of the Tool

• Helps frame discussions on racial equity in a way that engages diverse audiences

• Organizes a story that focuses on the structural explanations behind disparities

• Bundles possible solutions to address disparities with the problem

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The Tool: How to Talk About Race• Start the message with a value or “big idea” that virtually everyone

shares related to the issue

• Identify the barriers standing in the way of that big idea

• Provide the data that document the consequences of the barriers

• Identify strategies to address the barriers

How the Race Matters Tools are Used

Use Toolkit Fact sheet as a template to develop your own fact sheets

Improve publications – lift up racial inequities and communicate about them effectively

Improve policies & practices – ensure that these are more likely to have racially equitable results

“Hard-wire questions” about racial equity into staff guidelines for shaping policy priorities and presenting data

Train partners to use racial equity lensRequest Racial Equity Impact Analysis on all legislation

affecting kids

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Q & A

How might the Race Matters Toolkit help you?

The entire toolkit is available at:

http://www.aecf.org/KnowledgeCenter/PublicationsSeries/RaceMatters.aspx