john a powell presentation aug 26

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The Structure of Disparities: Advancing Structural Equality

john a powellKirwan Institute for theStudy of Race and Ethnicity

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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 …

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

+ Race in the U.S. 3The United States

continues to be strongly divided by race.

Nationally, the black unemployment rate tends to be about twice as high

as the white rate.A black male born in 2001

has a 32% chance of spending time in prison at

some point in his life, a Hispanic male has a 17% chance, and a white male

has a 6% chance.

http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf

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Framing Matters

Both these perspectives are true –how we frame issues of race matters.

Consider the false dichotomies we often use when we think and talk about race. These binaries are actually frames.

Black / White

Post-racialism / Civil Rights

Race is not important / Race matters

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• Racial attitudes getting better, but disparities continue to persist -- how do we explain the persistence of disparities in a post-Civil Rights U.S.?

• Move from de jure segregation to de facto segregation

• Move from explicit racist laws/attitudes to seemingly neutral structures that reproduce disparities

• Shifting the focus from attitudes to manifestation - stop focusing on racial intent as determining factor in talking about existence of “racism”

5Towards a Structural View

+Colorblindness v. Color-Consciousness

Colorblindness The logic: Since we know race is socially

constructed (not scientific), we should eliminate racial categories

This perspective assumes “that the major race problem in our society is race itself, rather than racism.”

Attempting to ignore race is not the same as creating equality

Source: john a. powell. “The Colorblind Multiracial Dilemma: Racial Categories Reconsidered.” (1997)

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African-American men were 1.8x more likely than white men to be unemployed in 1980, by 2000 that had risen to 2.4x more likely – 2007 estimates indicate this has increased even further. If incarcerated populations are included in the jobless count, African-American men are now over 3x more likely than white men to be unemployed, a larger disparity than even the 1950s.

Disparities: Snapshots

+What’s happening now?

Video of unemployment growth in the United States

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CLICKPICTUR

ETO

STARTMOVIE

+What’s happening now?

But unemployment is not equal…..

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5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

J-07 S-07 N-07 J-08 M-08M-08 J-08 S-08 N-08 J-09 M-09M-09 J-09 S-09 N-09

Black Latino White Total

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The Black-White disparity in incarceration was close to 3-1 in 1930. Today it is higher than 8-1, and still increasing exponentially. Incarceration for drug-related offenses peaked at a 20-1 disparity in the mid 90s and is currently holding steady at 15-1.

(In 2007, nearly 7% of African-American children had one or both parents currently in prison, a higher percentage than ever before in history)

The likelihood of a poor African-American child living in concentrated

poverty compared to her white counterpart was about 3x in the

1960s, it is now 7.2


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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 under poverty gap has been narrowing since 1968, it would take until 2152, to close.

For every white dollar earned, African Americans earned 55 cents in 1968 – and only 57 cents in 2001.


IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT DISPARITIES, BUT WE CAN’T IGNORE THEM

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THE RACIAL LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED DRASTICALLY FROM 1947-2006, YET INCOME DISPARITIES ARE ESSENTIALLY UNCHANGED

+Where are we at?

LOCALLY

INSERT MAPS/DATA ROCHESTER SPECIFIC

UPSTATE NY SPECIFIC

+Structural Racialization

How race works today: There are still practices, cultural norms and institutional arrangements that help create & maintain (disparate) racialized outcomes

Structural racialization addresses inter-institutional arrangements and interactions. It refers to the ways in which the joint operation of institutions

produce racialized outcomes. In this analysis, outcomes matter more than intent.

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+ Term Clarification

Why “structural racialization” as opposed to “structural racism?”

• When you use the term “racism,” people are

inclined to see a specific person -- a racist.• By using the term “racialization,” a racist is

not necessary to produce structural outcomes. Instead, institutional interactions generate racialized outcomes.

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+Structural Racialization Produces Racialized Outcomes

16 Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004

+Structural Racialization Analysis Applied

Exclusionary Zoning

Subsidized Housing Policies

Discriminatory and Unfair

Lending

Racial Steering and

Discrimination

A Housing Market that

Does Not Serve the Population

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Housing Challenge

s

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Example: A bird in a cage

Examining one wire cannot explain why a bird cannot fly.

But multiple wires, arranged in specific ways, reinforce each other and trap the bird.

Understanding Structural Arrangements

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+Situatedness

Different communities are situated differently with respect to institutions.

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Community A has no

insurance and no hospitals in

the area.

Community B has no

insurance, but there’s a

hospital down the street.

Community C has access to

both insurance an a hospital.

Example: Universal Healthcare

+ Racialized Structures

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Structures and policies are not neutral. They unevenly distribute benefits and burdens.

Source: Barbara Reskin. http://faculty.uwashington.edu/reskin/

+Introducing Systems Thinking

Relationships are neither static nor discrete.

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One Dimensional: One variable explains differential outcomes

Multidimensional: The individual bars working together to cage the bird

… to an understanding of processes and relationships

A B

+Systems ThinkingThink in loops, not just

cause & effect

Disparities may be reinforcing

Gains in one area are often undone over timebecause of structures – not intent

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Lower EducationalOutcomes

Increased Flight of Affluent Families

Racial & Economic

Neighborhood

Segregation

SchoolSegregation

&Concentrate

d Poverty

MutuallyReinforcing

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Post WWII FHA Loans - mostly available for whites only and new suburbs being built had racial covenants - (less than 1% of African-American Households able to receive mortgages from 1930-1960)

By 1984, When GI Bill mortgages had mostly matured White net worth = $39,135 AA net worth = $3,397

By 2002 Avg white wealth = $88,000 and Avg AA wealth = $8,000

WEALTH DISPARITIES GROW EXPONENTIALLY IN A CAPITALIST SOCIETY

WITHOUT STRONG PROGRESSIVE TAXATION

FHA Loans – Racialized Input

+Systems Thinking

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Black ghettos have come to contain a disproportionate share of the nation's poor, creating an intensely disadvantaged environment that only blacks face. The key issue, in the end is not whether it is race or class that explains the plight of African-Americans in the late twentieth century but how race and class interact to produce barriers to black socioeconomic progress that are unique in their intensity, severity and durability.

Douglas Massey The Nation

Urban sprawl is the new face of Jim Crow john powell

Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

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Spatial Aspects of Opportunity

+ Who Lives in Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods?

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OVER 3.1 MILLION AFRICAN AMERICANS LIVED IN CONCENTRATED POVERTY NEIGHBORHOODS IN 2000, BLACKS AND LATINOS REPRESENT NEARLY 3 OUT OF 4 RESIDENTS IN THESE NEIGHBORHOODS

NEARLY 1 OUT OF 10 BLACKS LIVED IN A CONCENTRATED POVERTY NEIGHBORHOOD IN 1999, COMPARED TO 1 OUT OF 100 WHITES

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Detroit, MI Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI New York, NY Newark, NJ Chicago, IL Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, OHBuffalo-Niagara Falls, NY Cincinnati, OHSt. Louis, MONassau-Suffolk, NY Bergen-Passaic, NJPhiladelphia, PAIndianapolis, IN Miami, FL Kansas City, MO

15 most segregated metro areas

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BOLDED CITIES are 9 out of the 10poorest major metro areas in the US

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PERCENTAGE OFBLACKS LIVING UNDER POVERTY

MIAMI (1)BUFFALO (9)ST LOUIS (11)CLEVELAND (13)CINCINNATI (15)MILWAUKEE (16)NEWARK (18)



A few other stats……

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WORST CHILDHOOD WELLBEING

DETROIT (1)NEWARK (4)CLEVELAND (7)ST LOUIS (8)BUFFALO (12)CINCINNATI (13)MILWAUKEE (14)PHILLY (17)

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MOST VIOLENT CRIMESPER CAPITA

ST LOUIS (1)DETROIT (2)PHILLY (7)MIAMI (8)CLEVELAND (19)BUFFALO (21)

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Detroit, MI Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI Newark, NJ Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, OHBuffalo-Niagara Falls, NY Cincinnati, OHSt. Louis, MOPhiladelphia, PA

What do these cities have in common?

Highly Segregated“Northern”Rapid Expansion into Suburbs in 1950sDe-industrialization // “Rust Belt”Jurisdictional FragmentationMostly African-American Urban Core

+Systems Thinking

Non-Linear Small changes large effects or large changes no effects

Dynamic Not only are the parts always changing, but so is the

relationship between the parts and how they effect each other

Not concerned with “prime cause”, concerned with relationships and structure

Good for answering questions about complex/messy problems

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RACIAL MEANING

RACIAL DISPARITIES

RACIAL ATTITUDES

RACE

+Systems Thinking: Three Types of Problems

Easy, Complicated, Complex [messy]

Easy Problems -> baking a cake, fixing a car, diagnosing an illness

Complicated problems -> building a rocketship, designing a statewide curriculu, managing a hospital

Compelx

+Systems Thinking

Three types of problems

Following a Recipe• The recipe is essential•Recipes are tested to assure replicability of later efforts•No particular expertise; knowing how to cook increases success•Recipe notes the quantity and nature of “parts” needed•Recipes produce standard products•Certainty of same results every timeComplicated (Problem)A Rocket to the Moon␣ Formulae are critical ␣ and necessary␣ Sending one rocket␣ increases assurance that next will be ok␣ High level of expertise ␣ in many specialized fields + coordination␣ Separate into parts␣ and then coordinate␣ Rockets similar in␣Complex (Mess)Raising a ChildFormulae have only a limited applicationRaising one child gives no assurance of success with the nextExpertise can help but is not sufficient; relationships are keyCan’t separate parts from the wholeEvery child is uniquecritical ways␣ High degree of certainty of outcome␣ Uncertainty of outcome remains

+Systems Thinking: Input lingers through feedback effects Think of a guitar and speaker and microphone

Guitar -> Speaker -> Microphone -> Speaker -> Microphone

Not only can note continue “playing” long after someone set the guitar down, it can continue to get louder

+Systems Thinking: Input lingers through feedback effects

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Post WWII FHA Loans - mostly available for whites only and new suburbs being built had racial covenants - (less than 1% of African-American Households able to receive mortgages from 1930-1960)

By 1984, When GI Bill mortgages had mostly matured White net worth = $39,135 AA net worth = $3,397

By 2002 Avg white wealth = $88,000 and Avg AA wealth = $8,000

FHA Loans – Racialized Input

+Systems Thinking: Policy Resistance

TODAY’S PROBLEMS WERE OFTEN YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION


Widening Highways

Problem: Highways are too crowded

Solution: Make highways wider

Result: Highways are less crowded -> driving becomes more desirable -> more people drive ->

Problem: Highways are too crowded again

TODAY’S PROBLEMS WERE OFTEN YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION


Brown vs Board of ED Strategy – If we could address educational disparities from

very young, other disparities would start to work themselves out

Schools seen as key battleground for both Civil Rights activists and Civil Rights opponents

What else was happening at the time? Suburbanization and beginnings of urban sprawl Jurisdictional Fragmentation Construction of a myth of “America = Suburb” 50 years later -> do we still have white schools? Do we

still have unequal schools?


BAD OLD DAYS PICTURE

+Systems Thinking: Initial Disparities Reinforce Themselves In 1980s -> lots of operating systems vying for

dominance ->

Microsoft Windows starts being used in some businesses

Other businesses start using MS to make compatibility easier

Soon – computers coming with Windows preinstalled, all corporations using Windows

Until -> major disruptions -> mobile computing OS becomes less important

+Systems Thinking: Initial Disparities Reinforce Themselves

Disparities in college readiness

Academic challenges

Unable to compete for high-

paying jobs

Widening income gap

THEN CONTINUES INTERGENERATIONALLY

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Concluding Thoughts

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+ Eliminating Structural Racialization

A solely top-down approach to eliminating structural racialization will not work…but neither will a solely bottom-up.

Community members must be involved and given a voice to help shape a new paradigm.

Hence, coalition and community building are key elements in any strategy for challenging structural racialization.

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A Transformative Agenda

Transformative change in the racial paradigm in the U.S. requires substantive efforts in three areas:

Talking about race: Understanding how language and messages shape reality and the perception of reality

Thinking about race: Understanding how framing and priming impact information processing in both the explicit and the implicit mind

Linking these understandings to the way that we act on race and how we arrange our institutions and policies

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US has one of the highest percentages of childhood poverty, infant mortality, and incarceration in the world, despite its affluence as a country. It has lower life expectancies than most industrialized countries, and the least social mobility of any industrialized country.

The single largest predictor of wealth in the United States is the wealth of your

parents

The US is in the “top” countries for the average wealth of a national elected representative compared to the average wealth of its citizens.

The US has one of the highest rates of income inequality and wealth inequality (Gini Coefficient) in the industrialized world.

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+Wrapping it Up

Political Structures are not subordinate to us as individuals – nor are our values in a vacuum

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+ Linked Fates…Transformative Change

Our fates are linked, yet our fates have been socially constructed as disconnected, especially through the

categories of race, class, gender, nationality, religion…

We need to consider ourselves connected to - instead of isolated from -“thy neighbor”

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“We need to look at the individual in terms of

many different relationships to him/herself, many

things in relationship to his/her community and

to the larger community, not just in isolation. If

we take this approach seriously, it affects how we

see the world, how we experience ourselves, how

we do our work, and helps move us to a truly

inclusive paradigm.”

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~john a. powell

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www.KirwanInstitute.org

KirwanInstitute on:

www.race-talk.org

john a powell presentation aug 26

Documents

white men

structure of disparities

thestudy of race

income disparities

white family

white infants

structural racism

persistence of disparities