The Continuing Significance of Race: Insights for the Philanthropic

Community

john a. powell

Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and EthnicityWilliams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law

San Francisco Foundation & the Akonadi Foundation October 19, 2009. San Francisco, CA

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Today’s Conversation

• The continuing significance of race

• Kirwan’s worko Stimulus / ARRA: FairRecovery.org

• The role of philanthropy

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THE CONTINUING SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE

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Are we post-racial (yet)?

President Barack Obama

Inauguration Day 2009

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A Post-Racial Society? No.

• Obama’s victory does not change the facts:o Black and Latino children are much more likely than white

children to attend high-poverty schools

o A white man with a criminal record is three times more likely than a black man with a record to receive consideration for a job

o Minority home-seekers, many with good credit scores, are steered disproportionately to high-cost, sub-prime mortgages, thus devastating their communities in light of the foreclosure crisis

By prematurely proclaiming a post-racial status, we ignore the distance we have yet to travel to make this country truly a land of equal opportunity for all, regardless of racial

identity.

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History shapes our present & future

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We were separated from each other…

•

http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/sugrue.html

Detroit’s “Wailing Wall” being constructed

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Opportunity still plays out across space

• Measures of segregation (i.e. the “dissimilarity index”) have nudged downward a tiny bit but are still high

• Outward growth can pull resources away from existing communities

• The “favored quarter” has a disproportionate share of high quality opportunity structures

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Segregation leads to disparate (racialized) outcomes

Lower Education

alOutcomes

Increased Flight

of Affluent Families

Neighborhood

Segregation

SchoolSegregation

&Concentrate

d Poverty

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From Redlining to Reverse Redlining

1935

2003A historical view of redlining zones in

Philadelphia and areas of foreclosure in

minority communities

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Foreclosure Crisis •African American borrowers are

estimated to lose between 71 and 122 billion dollars in wealth, while Latino borrowers will lose 76 to 129 billion.[1]

•Subprime loans are three times more prevalent in low-income neighborhoods than in high-income neighborhoods; they are five times more likely in African American neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods.[2]

[1] Ellen Schloemer, Center for Responsible Lending, Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners, 16 tbl.6 (2006).

[2] U.S. Dep’t. of Hous. & Urban Dev., Unequal Burden: Income and Racial Disparities in Subprime Lending in America (2000).

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Race Matters

• Barring the existence of widespread, explicit, individual racism, what accounts for the differences in the situatedness of white and non-white Americans?

• How should these disparities be addressed? How do we talk about race?

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New Sites of Racialization

• Structural Racialization: the processes and practices of inter-institutional arrangements that continue to distribute racialized outcomes in part because of our different situatedness.

• Implicit Bias: ambivalence that unconsciously impacts our racial meaning and practices

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Why We Need to Talk about Race

• To not talk about race is to talk about race.

• Race plays a critical role in the creation and perpetuation of many social, political, and organizational structures that control the distribution of opportunities.

• Race affects all aspects of our lives.

• We must address race to understand the history of our nation’s democracy and the future well-being of its people.

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Understand and Communicate our Linked Fates

• Racialized structures and policies have created the correlation of race and poverty. People assume that only people of color are harmed.

• BUT: these effects are far reaching and impact everyone – we share a linked fate

• Example: credit tightened for everyone after the subprime fiasco

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THE WORK OF THE KIRWAN INSTITUTE

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Kirwan’s Mission & Vision

• Mission

o Contribute meaningfully to the body of research and scholarship on race and social justice with a focus on marginalized populations

Reframe the way we talk about, think about, and act on race

Increase the general understanding that despite many differences, human destinies are intertwined

Ensure that all research and scholarship has explicit or implicit policy implications

• Vision

o Stimulate and facilitate transformative change to bring about a society that is fair and just for all people

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Transformative Agenda Around Race• Reframing the way we talk about, think about, and act on

race

o Investigating how explicit and implicit messages about race impact our attitudes and behaviors

o Framing research findings to maximize policy impact

o Creating effective strategic messages that resonate with “open but skeptical audiences”

Advocating for and researching the benefits of diversity

Supporting affirmative action

Source: Lester, Julius. Let’s Talk About Race

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Kirwan’s Perspective: Structural Racialization

• Structural Racialization

o Investigating and challenging institutional arrangements that cause and perpetuate social inequality

o Explaining the incompleteness of racial animus to understand racialized outcomes

o Examining the impact of inequality over time - “cumulative causation”

» An understanding of systems theory helps us to understand the dynamics of structural racialization

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Visualizing Systems Theory

The Newtonian Perspective:

A B C D E

Social phenomena may be understood by breaking down

the sum of the constituent parts.

Systems Thinking:

A D

C

B

ECausation is reciprocal, mutual,

and cumulative.

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Inequality has a geographic footprint

Opportunity Mapping

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K-12 Education and School Integration

o Illuminating the benefits of school integration

o Investigating the structural causes of educational inequality

o Partnering with school districts to amend their school assignment plans in light of Parents Involved

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Working With Communities – Cleveland, OH

Advocating for a regional perspective

Promoting minority business development

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Other work

• Exploring how implicit bias affects the ways in which messages are received and processed

• Examining the opportunities and challenges of African American – immigrant alliances

• Studying digital inequality

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Fair Recovery• Our Recovery Platform

o Recovery fund investments must be marked by full transparency and accountability

o Families and communities hit hardest by the economic crisis merit focused attention in the recovery process

o Investments must promote equity and expand opportunity for all (targeted investment)

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Recovery Program: Challenges & Opportunities

• Opportunitieso Massive investment in State’s and communitieso Neighborhood based investment (NSP)o Potential for Job Creationo Green Economy

• Challengeso Primary focus only on ARRA o Most funds stabilizing existing programs in State Budgetso Most funds not “on the street” as this timeo Use of existing programs and pipelines to get funds out to

communities (many agencies involved)o Capacity challenges and other barriers for contracting to

MBE’s and DBE’so Lots of data (little of it useful for answering questions around

equity)

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When are funds disbursed to communities?

$37

$48 $49

$108

$63

$23

$14$9

$6$3

$0

$20

$40

$60

$80

$100

$120

As of July '09

As of Sept '09

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Bill

ions

ARRA Total Projected Spending by Year

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Allocation of ARRA Funds from the GAO

Toward a Just Economic Recovery

• What are these billions of dollars actually fixing?

o Are we only fixing the ‘status quo’?

o Are we transformative yet?

o Are opportunity gaps shrinking?

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Mind the Gap & Fix the Gap

• Reduce the existing disparities between communities of color both in terms of people and places while growing the economy for all

Florida: Equity and Recovery Initiative

• Collaborating with the Miami Workers Center and RISEP

• Tracking the impact of the economic crisis and the impact of ongoing economic recovery activities

o Looking at impact across lines of race, ethnicity, class, gender and geography

• Tracking is complicated due to the

limited funding released at this time

and data access challenges

o Mixed methods approach32

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Funds in Florida

$6.33 $5.38$23.73 $20.03

$31.71$51.80

$221.14

$108.30

$284.67

$0.00

$50.00

$100.00

$150.00

$200.00

$250.00

$300.00

Mill

ions

Federal Contracted Funds to Florida-Based Businesses, by Type

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THE ROLE OF PHILANTHROPY

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Ways to Produce Change

• How do foundations think about ways in which you can make change?

3 options:

1) Do what’s “fair” - a lot of people receive a little help

2) Triage – help those who are in the worst situation

3) Transformative – figure out what went wrong in order to correct it

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Transformative Change

• What can foundations do to produce transformative change?

o Collaborate and focus your efforts

Allocate your money strategically – a little bit in a lot of places is not as effective as focused efforts that can later be replicated elsewhere

o Invest in learning models

o Invest in communications models and capacities

Opportunities for Philanthropy

• Employ strategic communications regarding race

o Help push national dialogue to overcome the common binary of (1) we’re in a post-racial world where race ‘doesn’t matter’; (2) we’re stuck in the past where race is ‘everything’

o Emphasize productive discussions around race that thoughtfully inform policy design and advocacy

• Capacity building

o Increase the participation of marginalized groups in policy design

o Improve data collection, monitoring, and evaluation of state and federal programs

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Opportunities for Philanthropy Related to the Stimulus

• Draw on your experience and research

o Present a clear, informed perspective regarding communities of color that have been devastated by the economic recession

• Foundations need to proactively shape and direct the flow of money.

o Intervene in the public dialogue:

Targeting the flow of stimulus money dispersed to states

Connecting education and housing policy through the targeted use of LIHTC funds

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For more information: www.KirwanInstitute.org