TRUE DEMOCRACY?Racial Equity Opportunities for Government and Our Communities

Convening on Racial EquityGlenn Harris, President

August 6th, 2014Twin Cities, MN

Do you work for…

A. CommunityB. Local GovernmentC. Regional GovernmentD. PhilanthropyE. AcademiaF. Business

I believe we can end racial inequity.A. Strongly AgreeB. Somewhat AgreeC. NeutralD. Somewhat DisagreeE. Strongly Disagree

Racial inequity in the U.S.

1) Think of a number between 1 and 10

2) Multiply that number times 93) If it is a two digit number add

them together (for example 32 would be 3+2=5)

4) Subtract 55) Convert to a letter (a is 1, b is 2,

etc.)6) Country starts with that letter.7) Animal that starts with that

letter.8) Fruit that starts with that letter.

Family

Tuskegee

The Center for Social InclusionCSI is a national policy strategy organization working to transform structural barriers to opportunity for communities of color, and ensure that we all share in the benefits and burdens of public policy.

Ideas 

Leadership 

Communications 

StructurallyTransformative

Policies

Leadership Communications

1. It’s not about the individual

Frames Filters to make sense of the world. A collection of anecdotes and stereotypes, that

individuals use to respond to events. They largely reside in the sub-conscious. They exist in and are shaped by our

environment.

Source: Unconscious (Implicit) Bias and Health Disparities: Where Do We Go from Here?

Explicit bias

Expressed directly

Aware of bias

Operates consciously

Example -- “I like whites more than Latinos.”

Implicit bias

Expressed indirectly

Unaware of bias

Operates sub-consciously

Example -- sitting further away from a Latino than a

white individual.

• When conductors were placed behind a screen, the percentage of female new hires for orchestral jobs increased 25% – 46%.

Examples of implicit bias

What is Bias?

• Suppressing or denying prejudiced thoughts can actually increase prejudice rather than eradicate it.

• Research has confirmed that instead of repressing one’s prejudices, if one openly acknowledges one’s biases, and directly challenges or refutes them, one can overcome them.

Institutional/Explicit

Policies which explicitly discriminate against a group.

Example: Police department refusing to hire people of color.

Institutional/Implicit

Policies that negatively impact one group unintentionally.

Example:Police department focus on street level drug arrests.

Individual/Explicit

Prejudice in action – discrimination.

Example:Police officer calling someone an ethnic slur while arresting them.

Individual/Implicit

Unconscious attitudes and beliefs.Example:Police officer calling for back-up more often when stopping a person of color.

structural

institution

individual

Individual racism:Pre-judgment, bias, or discrimination by

an individual based on race.

Institutional racism:Policies, practices and procedures that

work better for white people than for people of color, often unintentionally.

Structural racism:A history and current reality of institutional

racism across all institutions. This combines to create a system that negatively impacts communities of color.

(Race and Social Justice Initiative)

Structural Inclusion

Deep education Equitable policies Operationalizing equity in our institutions

Structural Inclusion

2. Talking about race right

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

LIMITED GOVERNMENT

The Meta-Frames and Race

How race gets triggered cognitively

Implicit Bias:

Unconscious bias

developed through

networks of association

on race

Symbolic Racism: The use of images, code words, and metaphors that implicitly signal race

Using symbols

to trigger

unconscious racism

Our Fiscal Policy Debate: 2012

“I don’t want to make black [sic] people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.”

Rick Santorum, 2012 Iowa Campaign

Messages on healthcare and the race wedge

1. Chose policy debates where race has played a big role Healthcare reform Finance reform

2. Developed 1 minute storyboards/commercials Emotional, visual, and ready to deploy

3. Pitted the following against conservative message: Race-explicit messages Race-implicit messages Race-neutral messages

4. Gave the test online to 900 registered voters using a dial-test

Goal: To craft effective and usable messages that blunt the race wedge

Which message framing was most successful?

A. Explicit race equityB. Implicit race equityC. Race neutralD. Conservative

Message ResultsAfter each message, we asked respondents:On a scale of 0 to 100, how much do you agree or disagree with the message you just saw? Please give a rating from 0 to 100, where 100 means you totally agree, and 0 means you totally disagree.

A progressive explicit race message wins by 22 points in the South

Conservative

No race

Implicit race

Explicit race

63.9

68.1

70.2

76.2

Average agree/disagree rating (0-100)

Changing minds

Most importantly, the best way to change attitudes is to change behavior.

Attitudinal change tends to follow behavior change.

Requires both short and long-term approaches.

RSJI Employee Survey 2012

“Examine impact of race at work”

“Actively promoting RSJI changes”

“Dept and City making progress”

3. Government is ours

“Racial equity government priority”

“Progress on racial equity”

“Schools are good or very good”

RSJI Community Survey 2012

Government is the single largest employer of communities of color.

15% of Latinos are employed by government. Public agencies are the single largest employer

for Black men, and the second most common for Black women.

Government and race

Local governments shed nearly 1 million employees since employment in the sector hit its peak in September 2008.

Largest contraction of public sector jobs since 1945.

Government and race

Individual

informal grou

p

form

al group

nonprofit

union

governmen

tTend toward – Tend toward – Informal FormalLocal interest Broad InterestsVoluntary ProfessionalIssue/identity Focused Geographic FocusCollective Decision Making Hierarchical

Modes of community participation

Outside-Inside Strategies

What is Power?

What is Politics?

politicalconcept

politicalaction

Van Jones’s “Heart Space/Head Space Grid” from Rebuild the Dream (2012)

Rational

Political concept

Politicalaction

Emotional

Rational

Political concept

Politicalaction

Emotional

HEADSPACE

Head space

Where Rational + Conceptual meet Think tanks, academics and policy wonks Facts and rational arguments One cannot make meaningful, effective, and

lasting change without a sober view of the data combined with sound policy prescriptions

Rational

Political concept

Politicalaction

Emotional

HEADSPACE

HEARTSPACE

Heart Space

Here emotions have sway Great storytellers, artists, preachers, and other

resonant communicators Energizing emotions shared: feelings of love and

rage, contempt and compassion, pride and shame

Needed for inspiration and motivation

Rational

Political concept

Politicalaction

Emotional

HEADSPACE

HEARTSPACE

OUTSIDEGAME

Outside game

Where emotion and action meet Activists, organizers and volunteers Action not based on their immediate, rational self

interest, but on what feels right- what moves their heart

Rational

Political concept

Politicalaction

Emotional

HEADSPACE

HEARTSPACE

OUTSIDEGAME

INSIDEGAME

Inside game

Where reason meets action Elected officials, paid lobbyists, party operatives,

staff members at legislative and bureaucratic levels

People who have enough power, standing, access or influence to impact the behavior of the decision makers

Natural home of the deal maker- cold blooded maneuver and necessary compromise

Which do you find more comfortable?

A. Head SpaceB. Heart Space

Rational

Political concept

Politicalaction

Emotional

HEADSPACE

HEARTSPACE

OUTSIDEGAME

INSIDEGAME

Head and heart

All four quadrants are important depending on the stage of making change.

The key is a dynamic balance.

Aligning strategies

Outside Alignment Inside AlignmentOrganizing community Organizing staff and leadership

Build inside capacity- having a strategy to support inside change agents

Build community capacity by leveraging resources and sharing inside information

Mobilizing community to share their case

Creating avenues for dialogue between outside and inside voices

Power + Love

I believe we can achieve racial equity.A. Strongly AgreeB. Somewhat AgreeC. NeutralD. Somewhat DisagreeE. Strongly Disagree

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