Prof' john a' powell

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The Longest Lever Philanthropy Through a
Structural Lens

• Prof. john a. powell
• Kirwan Institute for the Study of
• Race Ethnicity
• 15 October 2004

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Overview

• Race, Racism, Disparities and Structures
• What is Structural Racism?
• Globalization and Structures
• Spatial Racism
• housing and opportunity through a structural
  lens
• Regionalism a structural response to
  fragmentation and segregation
• Framing the problem, Understand the solutions
• Maximizing our ability to create social change

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The problem of equality is so tenacious
because, despite its virtues and attributes,
America is deeply racist and its democracy is
flawed both economically and socially justice
for Black people cannot be achieved without
radical changes in the structure of our society
exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the
whole structure of our society. It reveals
systemic rather than superficial flaws and
suggests that radical reconstruction of society
itself is the real issue to be faced Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Race and Racism

• Race
• Biological determinism vs social construction
• Constituted through racial hierarchy
• Race does not exist in an objective sense, it is
  created by/through social/cultural structures

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Disparities Past Present

• Racial disparities exist across the US and the
  world.
• These disparities were historically established
  and reinforced through inscription in the laws
  and practices along lines of gender, race, class,
  religion, etc.
• In the U.S. and much of the world, todays
  policies and laws are supposedly neutral, yet
  groups are still experiencing disparities (in
  some cases increasing)
• Racial attitudes have been improving even when
  conditions have not.

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Structural Racism

• We have seen a move away from legal racism and
  personal prejudice to a racial hierarchy that is
  enforced through institutional/structural means.
• Example de jure segregation ? de facto
  segregation

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The Source of Disparities

• How do we understand these disparities if they
  are not explained by personal discrimination or
  explicit laws and policies? When do disparities
  matter?
• Three sources
• Biology Much less prevalent today, but the
  common 19th century theory of racial, ethnic, and
  gender inferiority.
• Individuals Culture Idea that individuals
  alone can (and should) rise above their
  conditions of poverty, and the idea of a
  defective culture of poverty.
• Structures Institutions States that even
  within neutral arrangements and without racist
  actors, disparities can still exist.

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Disparities Civil Rights Era Today

• The typical Black family had 60 as much income
  as a white family in 1968, but only 58 as much
  in 2002.
• Black infants are almost two-and-a-half-times as
  likely as white infants to die before age one a
  greater gap than in 1970.
• At the slow rate that the Black-white poverty gap
  has been narrowing since 1968, it would take
  until 2152, to close.
• African Americans had 55 cents in 1968 and only
  57 cents in 2001. At this pace, it would take
  Blacks 581 years to get the remaining 43 cents.
• While white homeownership has jumped from 65 to
  75 since 1970, Black homeownership has only
  risen from 42 to 48. At this rate, it would
  take 1,664 years to close the homeownership gap
  about 55 generations.

Source State Of The Dream 2004 (United for a
Fair Economy)
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Median Household incomes of racial and ethnic
groups (national)
SOURCE LEWIS MUMFORD CENTER 1990, 2000 CENSUS
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Disparities A matrix of oppression

• Because of the interaction between racism and
  patriarchy, disparities can be particularly
  egregious for poor women of color
• Single Mothers Living in Concentrated Poverty
  In 2000, 49 of families in concentrated poverty
  neighborhoods consist of female headed single
  parent families. In comparison female headed
  single parent families make up only 10 of all
  families nationwide. Source Urban Institute
  and U.S. Census Bureau

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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.
• We are increasingly moving toward racial
  hierarchy without racist actors.

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Structural Racism (SR) Approach

• The SR approach proposes evaluating the fairness
  of structures or institutional arrangements by
  how they function, and in their relationships
  with other structures/institutions.
• Look at results, not necessarily intentions
• How do they affect human agency?

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Globalization

• Shifting the economic unit increasingly it is
  regions (city-states) that are engaged with
  other regions
• need to be careful not to frame the debate in
  terms of scarcity and a winner-loser competition
  either intra- or inter-regionally

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Globalization

• Technology and economic trends are creating a
  more integrated, dynamic and interconnected world
  and a "global economy."
• Economic growth without social and cultural
  justice cannot be our idea of development.
• Development should be measured in terms of the
  quality of human life.

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Globalization

• Amartya Sen notes that we must also be careful
  not to give exclusive attention to means (ie
  income, wealth, etc) but to the ends desired and
  the capabilities required to pursue those ends.
• When we look at things within our framework of
  structures and opportunities, we can focus on
  those actions that maximize access to opportunity.

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Spatial Racism Using a Structural Racism
approach to understand segregation its causes
and effects
Space is how race plays out in American
society-and the key to solving inequities in
housing, transportation, education, and health
careSprawl is the new face of Jim
Crow. john powell
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Spatial Racism The Civil Rights Agenda for the
21st Century

• The government plays a central role in the
  arrangement of space and opportunities.
• Not neutral or natural

• Social and racial inequities are geographically
  inscribed
• There is a polarization between the rich and the
  poor that is directly related to the areas in
  which they live.

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Spatial Racism Not Natural or Neutral

• Civil Rights movement and the urbanization of
  people of color occurred in tandem during
  post-WWII America.
• While very real gains were being made against
  blatant exclusionary practices and a culture of
  discrimination, groundwork was being laid for
  persistent structural racism.
• Blacks moving to cities for opportunities, while
  opportunities leave the cities to the suburbs
• Same pattern beginning to repeat in first-ring
  suburbs today
• Latino/as also dealing with suburbanization

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Segregation Today

• Persists at very high levels for
  African-Americans
• At 65 (75 in many major metropolitan areas)
• Improving at an extremely slow pace
• Worst in Northern cities
• Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Chicago
• Southern cities more likely to be organized on
  county level

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Sprawl in the United States
Suburban population

• Suburban population doubled
• between 1950 and 1970

1950
1970
Suburbs
Central Cities

• By 2000 the suburbs
• contained over 2/3 of the
• metropolitan population
• Only 1/3 remained in the
• central cities

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• By pushing good jobs, stable housing, and
  educational opportunities further into the
  suburbs, sprawl creates areas of the central city
  that are locked off from access to meaningful
  opportunities.

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Fragmentation

• In 1942, we had 24,500 municipalities and special
  districts in the United States.
•   By 1992, that number had more than doubled to
  50,834.
•   Regions are now governed by an average of 90
  local governments.
•   It is the control that matters for equity
•  
• Zoning
• Planning
• Taxation
• Education
• Public Services

As many cities are moving quickly towards
becoming majority-minority areas, those same
cities are seeing their political decision making
capacities become less and less
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Concentrated Poverty

• Nearly 85 percent of high-poverty neighborhoods
  are located in metropolitan areas
• Residents of high poverty areas are mostly
  minority
• Nearly all of the increases in the number of the
  poor in high-poverty neighborhoods has occurred
  in central cities and inner-ring suburbs

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• EXAMPLE Concentrated Poverty in the Baltimore
  Region
• The accompanying map illustrates the high
  concentration of African Americans in Poverty
  (displayed in red) in the Baltimore region
• The map on the following slide indicates that low
  income housing tax credit projects are further
  concentrating impoverished residents in these
  areas

An example of an approach to a solution not
taking all structuraldynamics into consideration
andcreating problems of its own
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African American Population Distribution and Low
Income Housing Tax Credit Projects in the
Baltimore Area (Dark Colors Highest
Distribution) (Blue Dots LITC projects)
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Favored Quarter

• Has the majority of public infrastructure that
  fuels growth.
• Has vast majority of job growth.
• Because of fragmentation, able to wall itself off
  from regions social services
• Little affordable housing
• Little or no funding for public transit
• Wealthy schools with few poor children
• Etc

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African American Population Distribution in the
Milwaukee Area in 2000 (Dark Colors Highest
Distribution)
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Non-White Hispanic Population Distribution in the
Milwaukee Area in 2000 (Dark Colors Highest
Distribution)
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Median Household Income in the Milwaukee Area in
2000 (Dark Colors Highest Incomes)
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Spatial Racism

• Not always obvious/directly related to income
• Example In many cities African-Americans making
  more than 60,000 a year still live in less
  advantaged neighborhoods than whites making under
  30,000 a year
• The neighborhood gap is actually growing larger
  for the most affluent blacks and Hispanics
  (compared to whites with similar incomes) than
  for those close to the poverty level.

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SUBURBANIZATION

• 1950 60 of Americans in metropolitan areas
  lived in central cities
• 1990 over 70 of Americans in metropolitan
  areas live in the suburbs
• Suburbs overwhelmingly white
• However

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SUBURBANIZATION

• Both the number and proportion of the poor living
  in suburbs has increased steadily. In 1970 only
  20.5 percent of the nation's poor lived in
  suburbs. By 2000, that had grown to 35.9 percent.
  
• Minorities concentrated in first-ring suburbs,
  close to decaying cities
• People now commuting from suburb to suburb for
  work, school, and play. A growing population that
  has little to no connection to the central city
  at the heart of the metropolitan area.
• The number of "rich" suburbs--those with per
  capita incomes above 125 percent of the
  region's--has also increased.
• Exclusionary zoning
• source Census 2000

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Regionalism A possible structural approach to
spatial racism

• Economic and political power increasingly
  function at regional levels
• Regionalism represents an opportunity to
  reconstruct policies and institutions
• Regional policies influence communities and
  neighborhoods
• Can affect multi-faceted change

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The Need to Think in Terms of Opportunity

• Opportunity structures are the resources and
  services that contribute to stability and
  advancement
• Fair access to opportunity structures is limited
  by segregation, concentration of poverty,
  fragmentation, and sprawl in our regions for
  low-income households and families of color
• Because opportunity structures exist as a web a
  multi-faceted, equity-centered approach is needed
• Housing can been seen as a central spoke in the
  opportunity wheel

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Opportunity-Based Housing

• Affordable housing must be deliberately and
  intelligently connected to high performing
  school, sustaining employment, necessary
  transportation infrastructure, childcare, and
  institutions that facilitate civic and political
  activity
• Housing is a component of a larger set of
  interrelated
• structures that are both affected by housing and
  have impacts for the attainment of safe, stable
  housing.

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Regionalism Challenges

• Understand differences and determine a way to
  work together through alliances and
  collaborations
• Develop policy options that local communities can
  choose to suit their individual needs
• Make regionalism real and compelling to
  community-based groups
• Confront race as a significant factor in
  understanding policy issues

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Stuck on the Individual

• Why do policymakers prefer to narrowly frame
  persistent racial and ethnic disparities as
  individual and community problems?
• 1) They resonate with our deep beliefs about
  success and failure
• - personal responsibility
• - meritocracy
• (basketball/gym analogy)
• -where do these beliefs come from?

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Stuck on the Individual
2) We overestimate our civil rights
gains. -persistent disparities, etc 3) We
are often reluctant to acknowledge the legacies
of race -We often fail to acknowledge the ways
that race has been a fundamental axis of
social organization in the US - want to be
colorblind
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Stuck on the Individual
4) We often prefer to address symptoms rather
than the roots of social problems -can be
overwhelming to view the complicated,
entrenched nature of these disparities, rather
than focusing on fixing them individually 5) W
e are still struggling with the meanings of
race, racism, justice, and equality
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Crisis

• During times of crisis, there is increased
  fluidity in our structures and a greater
  potential for change
• Important time to effect change
• However, part of the focus of our change must be
  to create structures that are more responsive
  even during times of non-crisis

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Next Steps in an Equity Agenda Looking for the
longest lever

• Use a structural framework when looking at
  problems
• What issue has the potential to have a
  beneficial effect on other issues
• Be willing to question the views we are holding
• Methods of change we have been investing in that
  arent working
• Methods of change that resonate with our beliefs
  of how change should be able to be created
  instead of looking at other ways change could be
  created
• Must remain open to critique and fallibility
• Look for as of-yet untapped coalitions,
  non-traditional groups working for social change
• Business community gt Chicago Metro 2020
• Rise of faith-based organizations engaging with
  spatial racism

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Next Steps in an Equity Agenda Setting Goals

• Transactional vs. Transformational Change
• Can we always tell which is which?
• How do we envision transformational change when
  our desires and concepts of justice/equity are
  often formed by the structures we exist within?
• How do people with privilege seek to challenge
  that very privilege?
• Transformational change runs the risk of being
  irrelevant/transactional change runs the risk of
  always being reactionary

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Next Steps in an Equity Agenda Setting Goals

• Big problems do not necessarily require big
  solutions.
• Strategic transactional change can also be
  transformative.
• School funding policy reform
• Constrain sprawl through modified policies and
  laws (Oregon, Washington, Utah)
• Laws/policies which recognize disparate outcomes
  rather than acknowledging only intentional racist
  actions.
• Opportunity Based Housing (Mi, Wisk.)

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Approaching Change

• 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.
• 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.
• What does democracy mean?

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Democracy

• Full and meaningful participation should be
  guaranteed for all citizens of the region, so
  that these disparities are redressed and we can
  strive for a genuine democracy
• What is needed is a model that promotes racial
  equity at the regional level but does not
  sacrifice the political power base, communities,
  and social institutions of people of color

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Summary

• Segregation persists at extremely high levels
  and process towards integration is proceeding
  slowly or in same case not proceeding at all
• Racial and economic disparities persist in
  every life-area, including access to affordable
  housing, equal educational opportunities,
  sustaining employment, access to health care, and
  effective, affordable transportation

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Summary

• We need to use a structural racism lens to
  understand the meaning of these disparities and
  move beyond our focus on prejudice, intent,
  personal actions (not discarding that view, but
  making it more holistic)
• A SR Lens helps us understand the interactions
  between institutions and between institutions and
  people. It is necessary to look at
  metropolitan-wide strategies if we truly want to
  deconcentrate poverty, integrate our
  neighborhoods and schools, and equalize wealth
  and opportunity

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Summary

• We must expand our notion of what equality
  means, taking into account access to opportunity.
  We must offer solutions that do not seek to
  affect transactional change, but transformational
  change and stop pursuing avenues which arent
  yielding measurable results.

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