Midwest Leadership Conference

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Midwest Leadership Conference

• john powell
• The Kirwan Institute for the
• Study of Race and Ethnicity
• October 2, 2003

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Racism-The Shift from the Explicit to the Covert

• While individual attitudes towards race appear to
  have improved over the past decade, institutional
  change has not.
• Society has transformed from explicitly racist
  laws and attitudes to the superficially
  race-neutral policies. Both work to isolate
  people of color from opportunities.
• A characteristic feature of structural racism is
  its ability to conceal and disguise its true
  nature, which causes it to be an insidious force.
  

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Understanding Structural Racism

• Theoretically neutral policies and practices can
  function in racist ways. Laws and institutions
  need not be explicitly racist in order to
  disempower communities of color they need only
  to perpetuate unequal historic conditions.
• These policies and practices are not neutral
  however, and as a result the burdens are
  distributed unevenly.
• This creates the most disturbing effect of our
  current structural arrangement the inescapable
  disparities that people of color face across
  every arena.

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Effects of Structural Racism

• Disparities are symptoms of structural racism.
• Simply recognizing disparities is not enough, we
  need to examine our assumptions surrounding them.
  
• Disparities in the early 20th century were caused
  by genetic differences. Today they are attributed
  to defects in culture. Is there any difference
  in these viewpoints?
• Inequality is built into the system. Disparities
  are not a sign that the current system isnt
  working, they are a sign that it is working
  exactly as it is supposed to.

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Effects of Structural Racism

• Over the course of the last century, racism
  leaped from being inscribed in our laws to being
  inscribed in our land.
• Wealth reproduces opportunity. The present
  arrangement will continue to increasingly
  perpetuate disparities if left unchecked.
• The damages of structural racism are wreaking
  havoc on the economy, health, psychology, and the
  quality of life and education of our society and
  its members.

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Effects of Structural Racism Segregation

• Suburban sprawl and segregation exacerbate
  concentrated poverty and are perhaps the greatest
  obstacles to achieving a more inclusive society.
• Racial segregation makes it politically easy to
  limit the number of government jobs within the
  ghetto, to reduce its public services, to keep
  its schools understaffed and underfunded, and to
  close its hospitals, clinics, employment offices,
  and other social support organizations.
• Geographic isolation makes it difficult for
  segregated groups to form political coalitions
  with others, to end policies inimical to their
  self interests or to promote policies that might
  advance their welfare.

• Source American Apartheid Douglas S. Massey
  Nancy A Denton

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Effects of Structural Racism Income and Wealth
Disparities

• Disparities exist on many levels individual,
  group, neighborhood, city, and nation.
• Regardless of educational, occupational, and
  demographic characteristics, wealth is racially
  disparate.
• Middle class blacks possess fifteen cents for
  every dollar of wealth held by middle-class
  whites.
• The average white Americans median net worth is
  twelve times that of black Americans.
• It is twice as difficult for blacks to obtain a
  mortgage as it is for whites with comparable
  incomes.
• It is three times as difficult for blacks to gain
  employment in the service sector as whites.

• Racial Healing Confronting the Fear Between
  Blacks and Whites Douglas S. Massey Nancy A
  Denton
• Face to Face The Changing State of Racism in
  America J Waller

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Effects of Structural Racism Income and Wealth
Disparities
Median Household Incomes of Racial and Ethnic
Groups
SOURCE LEWIS MUMFORD CENTER 1990, 2000 CENSUS
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Effects of Structural Racism Education

• Per pupil spending is 21 when comparing white
  children with children of color
• Minority schools are most often high poverty
  schools with less qualified teachers, higher
  dropout rates, and lower test scores.

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Effects of Structural Racism Education
Source U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract
of the United States 2000, Population
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Effects of Structural RacismThe Justice System

• Racial biases exist in areas such as
• Racial profiling
• Arrests
• Indictments
• Access to adequate legal representation
• Jury selection
• Incarceration rates

Source The Aspen Institute Roundtable
Structural Racism and Community Revitalization
Project
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Effects of Structural RacismThe Justice System
Number of Sentenced Prisoners under State or
Federal Jurisdictionby Gender, Race, Hispanic
Origin, 2000
Source U.S. Department of Justice
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Structural Constraints

• Personal racism is a sign of structural racism.
• The choices people make are within constraints.
  We cannot look only to the choices that are being
  made, but must also focus on those that are
  available to them.
• Institutional and public arrangements are
  influencing our private choice.
• People are making rational choices given the
  constraints, but are the constraints rational?

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Reform Within Constraints

• St. Louis racial problems date back to pre-Civil
  War days. Racial polarization prevails with the
  metropolitan area ranked the 13th most segregated
  area in the country.
• Education has also been of particular concern,
  but despite the best efforts across the area,
  schools are more segregated today than they were
  in 1990. Why?
• We are attempting reform within our current
  constraints instead of addressing the structures
  in place.

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Challenging the Constraints

• We need to look beyond what we are doing now to
  what we could be doing.
• While it is important, it is not enough to
  alleviate individual symptoms. To make lasting
  change we need to get to the root of the greater
  societal ills.
• Including people where they once were excluded is
  a step in the right direction, but it is not
  enough. We need to examine the policies and
  politics which led to their exclusion in the
  first place.
• Keeping the institution as is requires that those
  who are coming in conform. Instead we should give
  them a voice to help reform and shape a new
  institution.

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Approaching Change Start With the Problem

• Focus on the desired outcome rather than the
  process.
• We look at the process and think everything
  appears neutral, which causes us to believe the
  current inequity is the result of individual
  choice. These choices are made within
  institutional constraints.
• If we want to alleviate inequities we need to
  start with the problem, then work our way back
  through the institutional arrangements which are
  creating these conditions.
• We cannot invest the same into two distinct
  groups and expect fair results. Those who are
  starting in the disadvantaged group will be
  perpetually behind. This is especially true when
  discussing the distribution of wealth, which
  grows exponentially.

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Approaching Change Redistribution of Resources

• The status quo needs to be disturbed in order to
  create more wealth and opportunity, which can
  then be distributed in a more equitable way.
• We need to alleviate inequality while assuring
  those in power that doing so will benefit
  everyone-shift the perspective from that of a
  non-zero-sum game.
• Alleviating inequality is not us versus them, but
  rather in everyones best interest.

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Nonprofit Organizations and Structural Racism

• Nonprofits organizations are a perfect place to
  begin combating the effects of structural racism.
  Historically they have acted as catalysts for
  social change.
• Nonprofits organizations have a responsibility to
  stand up against the current racial disparity
  because they inherently advocate for those least
  powerful and marginalized in society.
• There is a need for a more open and forthright
  discussions about the responsibility of the
  nonprofit community in furthering racial justice.

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Nonprofit Organizations and Internal Constraints

• Nonprofit organizations have their own
  constraints based on sources of funding, board
  interests, etc.
• Working within this paradigm ultimately places
  some limitations on nonprofits.
• Structures within need to be considered, as they
  define and shape the organizations mission and
  approach.
• The implied role of nonprofits is to advocate and
  care for those who are marginalized in society.
  The larger structures that are creating this
  underclass need to be considered as well,
  including those within the organizations.

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Approaching Change

• To bring about policy change, structural racism
  needs to be approached from a partnership
  perspective.
• We need transformative thinking to combat
  structural racism. We do not need to increase our
  efforts in directions that have shown little
  success in the past, instead we need to find a
  new approach. This approach should consider the
  structures that are creating and perpetuating the
  inequity, and work to reform them for lasting
  change.