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john a. powell
Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
 Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law



                                 Lassiter Conference on Structural Racialization
                                                             UK School of Law
                                                             February 25, 2011
   Racial possibilities in the age of Obama

   Structural Racialization
     Arrangement of structures

   Public/Private?

   Corporate Prerogative and race

   Mind Science
     Challenging our biases
                                               2
   Why does race continue to play
    such a critical role in determining
    societal outcomes?

   Haven’t we entered a post-racial
    moment with the election of
    Barack Obama?

   While significant, Obama’s
    victory does not erase the
    persistent inequalities that
    hinder the life chances for
    marginalized groups                   3
   Black and Latino children are much more likely than
    white children to attend high-poverty schools
   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
   Minority home-seekers with good credit scores
    steered 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.                 4
     President Obama’s election “suggests that a sea change in
      race relations has already occurred”

     However, his “exceptional racial background” and the fact he
      was elected in the midst of national crises indicates “race
      hasn’t been overcome so much as temporarily superseded.”
       These crises could worsen racial resentment

     “race forms a basis for the exploitation and hoarding of
      material, political, and cultural resources; in turn, the same
      processes that facilitate racial stratification continually
      reconstitute race.”
    Source: Lopez, Ian Haney. Post-Racial Racism: Crime Control and Racial Stratification in the Age of Obama   5
   We have fluidity in terms of racial identities
     ▪ Situations affect who you are, how you identify.
       ▪ For example, it may not be until you’re in a
         room with full of people of a different race that
         you become truly aware of your own race.
       ▪ The British did not become “white” until
         Africans became “black.”

•   In order to notice race, society has to create this
    category/idea of race. After it is created, individuals
    can negotiate it using the social tools created by
    society.
                                                              6
 Although racial attitudes are improving, racial
  disparities persist on every level.
 Inequity arises as disenfranchised groups are left
  out of the democratic process.




                     Source: www.cartoonstock.com
                                                       7
   Membership, the most important
    good that we distribute to one
    another in human community
    (Michael Walzer)
    ◦ Prior in importance even to freedom
    ◦ Citizenship, a precondition to
      freedom
    ◦ Membership, a precondition to
      citizenship
   Distribution of membership
   Cost to not belong
                                        8
   The cost of membership in a democratic society
     Current estimate for family of four: $48,778*
        ▪ Over three times as many families fall below family
          budget thresholds as fall below the official poverty line

   How far do you fall (children in extreme poverty,
    skyrocketing bankruptcy rates, family homelessness)?
   Are all neighborhoods are neighborhoods of
    sustainable opportunity?
Source: James Lin and Jared Bernstein, What we need to get by. October 29, 2008 |
EPI Briefing Paper #224                                                             9
Conscious and                         Pattern
                                                                             Unconscious (i.e.                  recognition and
                                                                               implicit bias)                    generalization
                                        Categorization




                                           Inequalit
                                                                                                                 This may
                                               y
                                                                                                               change over
                                                                                                               time, but the
                                                                 Emulation
                   Hoarding and                                     and                                            whole
                   Exploitation                                  Adaptation                                     structure is
                                                                                                                highly inert


Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007.       10
Implicit   Structural
Bias       Racialization




                           11
   How race works today
     There are still practices, cultural norms and
     institutional arrangements that help create and
     maintain (disparate) racialized outcomes


   Structural racialization addresses inter-
    institutionalarrangements 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

                                                             12
Context: The Dominant Consensus on Race
                  National values                                        Contemporary culture



              Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
        Processes that maintain racial                              Racialized public policies and
                hierarchies                                            institutional practices



                                    Outcomes: Racial Disparities
   Racial inequalities in current levels of                   Capacity for individual and community
                well-being                                        improvement is undermined



                                     Ongoing Racial Inequalities
                                                                                                               13
Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004
•   One variable can explain
                      why differential outcomes.



…to a multi-dimensional understanding….
        •   Structural Inequality
            –   Example: a Bird in a cage.
                Examining one bar cannot
                explain why a bird cannot fly.
                But multiple bars, arranged
                in specific ways, reinforce
                each other and trap the bird.
                                                   14
•   Understanding the
    relationships among
    these multiple
    dimensions, and how
    these complex intra-
    actions change
    processes
    • Relationships are
      neither static nor
      discrete



                           15
Physical

          Social                               Cultural


                            Outcomes



These structures interact in ways that produce racialized outcomes for
different groups…                                                        16
Racialized…                Spatialized…              Globalized…
• In 1960, African-        • marginalized people     • Economic
  American families in       of color and the very
  poverty were 3.8 times                               globalization
                             poor have been
  more likely to be          spatially isolated
  concentrated in high-      from opportunity via    • Climate change
  poverty neighborhoods      reservations, Jim
  than poor whites.          Crow, Appalachian
                             mountains, ghettos,     • the Credit and
• In 2000, they were 7.3     barrios, and the          Foreclosure crisis
  times more likely.         culture of
                             incarceration.




                                                                            17
LOW OPPORTUNITY                       HIGH OPPORTUNITY

•   Less than 25% of students in         •   The year my step daughter
    Detroit finish high school               finished high school, 100% of
                                             the students graduated and
•   More than 60% of the men                 100% went to college
    will spend time in jail
                                         •   Most will not even drive by a
•   There may soon be no bus                 jail
    service in some areas                •   Free bus service
•   It is difficult to attract jobs or   •   Relatively easy to attract
    private capital                          capital
•   Not safe; very few parks             •   Very safe; great parks
•   Difficult to get fresh food          •   Easy to get fresh food       18
Which community would you choose?




                                    19
   How can we be sensitive to
    inter- and intra-group
    differences?
   How do the ladders or
    pathways of opportunities
    differ for different people?
   Every institution has built in
    assumptions, i.e. “stairways”
    are a pathway – but not for
    people in wheelchairs, baby
    strollers.

                                     20
…Some people ride the     …Others have to run up
“Up” escalator to reach   the “Down” escalator to
     opportunity                 get there

                                                    21
People are “differentially situated”
Not only are                           People are
people situated                        impacted by the
differently with                       relationships
regard to                              between
institutions,                          institutions and
people are                             systems…
situated
differently with                       …but people
regard to                              also impact
infrastructure                         these
                                       relationships
                                       and can change
                                       the structure of
                                       the system.




                                                      22
 We come from different places. Illuminating people’s
   different and shared experiences of oppression
   encourages collective action with others whose
   experiences may be slightly different.
    Young’s 5 Faces of Oppression: Different
     groups/people experience one or more of these
     faces throughout their lives
        Exploitation
        Marginalization
        Powerlessness
        Cultural Dominance
        Violence

                                                                                                    23
Source: Grassroots Policy Project. “Faces of Oppression.” http://www.grassrootspolicy.org/node/85
Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities
                                 Impacts on Health
                                          School Segregation
                                                 Impacts on Educational Achievement
                                                    Exposure to crime; arrest
                                                         Transportation limitations and other
                                                         inequitable public services

Neighborhood                                             Job segregation
 Segregation
                                                         Racial stigma, other psychological
                                                         impacts

                                                   Impacts on community power and
                                                   individual assets
Source: Barbara Reskin (http://faculty.washington.edu/reskin/)                                24
   Zoning laws prevent affordable housing
    development in many suburbs
   Municipalities subsidize the relocation of
    businesses out of the city
   Transportation spending favors highways,
    metropolitan expansion and urban sprawl
   Court decisions prevent metropolitan school
    desegregation
   School funding is tied to property taxes
                                                  25
   How we arrange structures matters
     The order of the structures
     The timing of the interaction between them
     The relationships that exist between them




     We must be aware of how structures are arranged
     in order to fully understand social phenomena
                                                        26
   One cannot have a just society unless the
    arrangement of institutions are just
                -John Rawls




                                                27
   The government plays a central role in the
    arrangement of space and opportunities
   These arrangements are not “neutral” or
    “natural” or “colorblind”
   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
                                                        28
   Racialized policies and structures:
     Promoted sprawl
     Concentrated subsidized housing
     Led to disparities between schools
      ▪ Achievement gap
      ▪ Discipline rates
      ▪ Funding disparities
      ▪ Economic segregation
      ▪ Graduation rates
      ▪ Racial segregation
                                           29
Photo source: (Madoff) AP   30
Today…
Institutions and structures
continue to support, not
dismantle, the status quo.
This is why we continue to
see racially inequitable
outcomes even if there is
good intent behind policies,
or an absence of racist
actors. (i.e. structural
racialization)
                               31
   A series of mutually reinforcing federal
    policies across multiple domains have
    contributed to the disparities we see today
     School Desegregation
     Homeownership/Suburbanization
     Urban Renewal
     Public Housing
     Transportation




                                                  32
 Distinction blurred
Examples:
 Private colleges
 Housing as a private good
  complemented by
  government policies
     GI Bill
     Expansion of highway system
     Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

                                    33
   Civil Rights Act of 1875 – equal treatment in
    “public accommodations”
     Citizenship clause and membership in political
     community

   Overturned by Supreme Court eight years later
     “The wrongful act of an individual, unsupported by
     any such authority, is simply a private wrong, or a
     crime of that individual”
                                                           34
   Private vs. public
                                           discrimination

                                          Tension between addressing
                                           state action vs. de facto
                                           conditions produced by
                                           “private” decisions


Source: CSUN Daily Sundial Newspaper
                                                                        35
“What the nation, through Congress,
has sought to accomplish in reference
to that race is, what had already been
done in every state in the Union for the
white race, to secure and protect rights
belonging to them as freemen and
citizens; nothing more. The one
underlying purpose of congressional
legislation has been to enable the black
race to take the rank of mere citizens.”




                                           36
"The distinction between government
and private action, furthermore, can
be amorphous both as a historical
matter and as a matter of present-day
finding of fact. Laws arise from a
culture and vice versa. Neither can
assign to the other all responsibility for
persisting injustices.”


                                             37
   Misidentifying the
    situation, not
    public vs. private    Public              Private
                                   Private
   Expansion of
    corporate
    prerogative
                                Domains
                             Corporate


   Corporate space
    diminishes public    Non-pubic           Corporate
    &private space
                                                         38
   Corporations under control of state for much of US
    history – serving a public function
   Natural entity theory:
    corporations as
    separate juridical
    entities with separate
    rights
   Fourteenth
    amendment and
    corporate
    personhood
                             Source: Terrence Nowicki Jr. ThisIsHistoricTimes.com   39
   Taney Court: states’ rights, anti-elitism and
    denial of citizenship to blacks
     “provided a coherent defense of both corporations
        and slavery in a rapidly democratizing union”
        (Austin Allen)
   Corporate dominance connected to whiteness
     “middle-stratum identity” (Martinot)
   Citizens United: expansion of corporate rights
    and reduction of civil rights
    Source: powell, j. and C. Watt.“Corporate Prerogative, Race, and Identity Under the Fourteenth
    Amendment.” Cardoza Law Review Vol. 32:3.
                                                                                                     40
   Capitalist Welfare State

   Property Owning Democracy

   John Rawls: Justice as Fairness




                                      41
CORNEL WEST: “…I don’t think President
Bush individually hates black people. His
policies were racist in effect and consequence,
and especially classist in terms of generating
misery among poor and working people,
disproportionately black and brown…And I
would say that even about the Obama
administration.” (Democracy Now!)

                                                  42
   The twentieth century has been
    characterized by three developments of
    political importance:
     1)the growth of democracy;
     2)the growth of corporate power; and
     3)the growth of propaganda as a means of
     protecting corporate power against democracy
     (Alex Carey)


                                                    43
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5_7Ap0gWMQ
                                             44
   Treasury report February 2011: “Reforming
    America’s Housing Finance Market”

   Does not mention role of segregation in housing and
    credit markets in subprime crisis

   Three options laid out: variations of privatization
     Potentially    mortgage costs, down payments,
                     fees/costs for FHA loans
   Disproportionate impact on people of color and low-
    income communities
                                                          45
Universal              Targeted
Programs               Programs



             Targeted
            Universalism


                                  46
   Targeted Universalism recognizes racial
    disparities and the importance of eradicating
    them, while acknowledging their presence
    within a larger inequitable, institutional
    framework
   Targeted universalism is a common framework
    through which to pursue justice.
     A model which recognizes our linked fate
     A model where we all grow together
     A model where we embrace collective
     solutions
                                                    47
48
49
50
   Only 2% of emotional
    cognition is available to us
    consciously

   Racial bias tends to reside in
    the unconscious network

   Messages can be framed to
    speak to our unconscious




                                   51
 Racial attitudes operate in our “unconscious” (also
  called “subconscious”) mind

 Usually invisible to us but significantly influences
  our positions on critical issues

 Negative unconscious attitudes about race are
  called “implicit bias” or “symbolic racism.”



                                                         52
How
messages are
   framed
affects how
  they are
 perceived.




          53
54
55
When scientists showed a similar sketch to people from East Africa - a culture
containing few angular visual cues - the family is seen sitting under a tree. The
woman is balancing an item on her head.

Westerners are accustomed to the corners and box-like shapes of architecture. They
are more likely to place the family indoors and to interpret the rectangle above the
woman's head as a window through which shrubbery can be seen.                      56
   Race is a social reality

   While we are hardwired to categorize in-
    group vs. out-group, we are “softwired” for
    the content of those categories

   Softwiring is social

   Racial categories and meaning
    can be constantly be reconfigured
                                                  57
High

                                          Pitied                                                      Esteemed
                                        Out-Group                                                     In-Group


 Warmth

                                           Despised                                                     Envied
                                          Out-Group                                                    Out-Group
              Low


                             Low                                                                                   High
                                                          Competence
Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007.   58
High
                                         Pity :                                                     Esteemed:
                                       women,                                                     Your own group,
                                       elderly,                                                   who you identify
                                       disabled                                                         with

  Warmth
                                    Despised:
                                                                                                        Envied:
                                     African
                                                                                                    Competent, but
                                   Americans,
                                                                                                    don’t really like
                                  Undocumented
                                                                                                     them: Asians
               Low                 immigrants

                             Low                                                                                  High
                                                         Competence
Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007.   59
   Unconscious biases are reflected in institutional
    arrangements

   Prejudice leads to outcomes, and the outcomes
    reinforce the stereotypes / prejudice




     Ex: Females aren’t good at math.
        Many females don’t take math classes.
                                                        60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqrkihlw-s

                                             61
   Our environment affects our unconscious
    networks
   Priming activates mental associations
     Telling someone a scary story activates a frame of fear

   Claude Steele’s “stereotype threat”:
     For example, tell students about to take a test that
       Asian students tend to do better than whites, and the
       whites will perform significantly worse than if they had
       not been primed to think of themselves as less capable
       than Asians

    Source: http://www.eaop.ucla.edu/0405/Ed185%20-Spring05/Week_6_May9_2005.pdf   62
    Experiment with 7th graders; ~50% white & 50% Black
        Given a list of values
         ▪ Experimental group: Choose the values that are most
           important to you and write why they are important
         ▪ Control group: Choose the values that are the least important
           to you and explain why
        End of semester – While Black students still did not do as
            well as whites, the Black students in the experimental
            group showed a 40% reduction in racial achievement gap

      Experiment was repeated with a group of college
       students and yielded a 50% reduction in the racial
       achievement gap
Source: Cohen, Geoffrey L.., Julio Garcia, Nancy Apfel, and Allison Master. (2006). “Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A
Social-Psychological Intervention.” Science 313(5791): 1307-1310,                                                             63
   Be aware of implicit bias in your life. We are
    constantly being primed

   Debias by presenting positive alternatives

   Consider your conscious messaging & language.
     Affirmative action support varies based on whether it’s
      presented as “assistance” or “preference”

   Engage in proactive affirmative efforts – not only
    on the cultural level but also the structural level
                                                                64
www.KirwanInstitute.org

                          www.race-talk.org
                          KirwanInstitute
                          on:

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It's not what you think: How structural dynamics and implicit bias reproduce racial hierarchy in the age of Obama

  • 1. john a. powell Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law Lassiter Conference on Structural Racialization UK School of Law February 25, 2011
  • 2. Racial possibilities in the age of Obama  Structural Racialization  Arrangement of structures  Public/Private?  Corporate Prerogative and race  Mind Science  Challenging our biases 2
  • 3. Why does race continue to play such a critical role in determining societal outcomes?  Haven’t we entered a post-racial moment with the election of Barack Obama?  While significant, Obama’s victory does not erase the persistent inequalities that hinder the life chances for marginalized groups 3
  • 4. Black and Latino children are much more likely than white children to attend high-poverty schools  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  Minority home-seekers with good credit scores steered 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. 4
  • 5. President Obama’s election “suggests that a sea change in race relations has already occurred”  However, his “exceptional racial background” and the fact he was elected in the midst of national crises indicates “race hasn’t been overcome so much as temporarily superseded.”  These crises could worsen racial resentment  “race forms a basis for the exploitation and hoarding of material, political, and cultural resources; in turn, the same processes that facilitate racial stratification continually reconstitute race.” Source: Lopez, Ian Haney. Post-Racial Racism: Crime Control and Racial Stratification in the Age of Obama 5
  • 6. We have fluidity in terms of racial identities ▪ Situations affect who you are, how you identify. ▪ For example, it may not be until you’re in a room with full of people of a different race that you become truly aware of your own race. ▪ The British did not become “white” until Africans became “black.” • In order to notice race, society has to create this category/idea of race. After it is created, individuals can negotiate it using the social tools created by society. 6
  • 7.  Although racial attitudes are improving, racial disparities persist on every level.  Inequity arises as disenfranchised groups are left out of the democratic process. Source: www.cartoonstock.com 7
  • 8. Membership, the most important good that we distribute to one another in human community (Michael Walzer) ◦ Prior in importance even to freedom ◦ Citizenship, a precondition to freedom ◦ Membership, a precondition to citizenship  Distribution of membership  Cost to not belong 8
  • 9. The cost of membership in a democratic society  Current estimate for family of four: $48,778* ▪ Over three times as many families fall below family budget thresholds as fall below the official poverty line  How far do you fall (children in extreme poverty, skyrocketing bankruptcy rates, family homelessness)?  Are all neighborhoods are neighborhoods of sustainable opportunity? Source: James Lin and Jared Bernstein, What we need to get by. October 29, 2008 | EPI Briefing Paper #224 9
  • 10. Conscious and Pattern Unconscious (i.e. recognition and implicit bias) generalization Categorization Inequalit This may y change over time, but the Emulation Hoarding and and whole Exploitation Adaptation structure is highly inert Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007. 10
  • 11. Implicit Structural Bias Racialization 11
  • 12. How race works today  There are still practices, cultural norms and institutional arrangements that help create and maintain (disparate) racialized outcomes  Structural racialization addresses inter- institutionalarrangements 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 12
  • 13. Context: The Dominant Consensus on Race National values Contemporary culture Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics Processes that maintain racial Racialized public policies and hierarchies institutional practices Outcomes: Racial Disparities Racial inequalities in current levels of Capacity for individual and community well-being improvement is undermined Ongoing Racial Inequalities 13 Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004
  • 14. One variable can explain why differential outcomes. …to a multi-dimensional understanding…. • Structural Inequality – Example: a Bird in a cage. Examining one bar cannot explain why a bird cannot fly. But multiple bars, arranged in specific ways, reinforce each other and trap the bird. 14
  • 15. Understanding the relationships among these multiple dimensions, and how these complex intra- actions change processes • Relationships are neither static nor discrete 15
  • 16. Physical Social Cultural Outcomes These structures interact in ways that produce racialized outcomes for different groups… 16
  • 17. Racialized… Spatialized… Globalized… • In 1960, African- • marginalized people • Economic American families in of color and the very poverty were 3.8 times globalization poor have been more likely to be spatially isolated concentrated in high- from opportunity via • Climate change poverty neighborhoods reservations, Jim than poor whites. Crow, Appalachian mountains, ghettos, • the Credit and • In 2000, they were 7.3 barrios, and the Foreclosure crisis times more likely. culture of incarceration. 17
  • 18. LOW OPPORTUNITY HIGH OPPORTUNITY • Less than 25% of students in • The year my step daughter Detroit finish high school finished high school, 100% of the students graduated and • More than 60% of the men 100% went to college will spend time in jail • Most will not even drive by a • There may soon be no bus jail service in some areas • Free bus service • It is difficult to attract jobs or • Relatively easy to attract private capital capital • Not safe; very few parks • Very safe; great parks • Difficult to get fresh food • Easy to get fresh food 18
  • 19. Which community would you choose? 19
  • 20. How can we be sensitive to inter- and intra-group differences?  How do the ladders or pathways of opportunities differ for different people?  Every institution has built in assumptions, i.e. “stairways” are a pathway – but not for people in wheelchairs, baby strollers. 20
  • 21. …Some people ride the …Others have to run up “Up” escalator to reach the “Down” escalator to opportunity get there 21
  • 22. People are “differentially situated” Not only are People are people situated impacted by the differently with relationships regard to between institutions, institutions and people are systems… situated differently with …but people regard to also impact infrastructure these relationships and can change the structure of the system. 22
  • 23.  We come from different places. Illuminating people’s different and shared experiences of oppression encourages collective action with others whose experiences may be slightly different.  Young’s 5 Faces of Oppression: Different groups/people experience one or more of these faces throughout their lives  Exploitation  Marginalization  Powerlessness  Cultural Dominance  Violence 23 Source: Grassroots Policy Project. “Faces of Oppression.” http://www.grassrootspolicy.org/node/85
  • 24. Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities Impacts on Health School Segregation Impacts on Educational Achievement Exposure to crime; arrest Transportation limitations and other inequitable public services Neighborhood Job segregation Segregation Racial stigma, other psychological impacts Impacts on community power and individual assets Source: Barbara Reskin (http://faculty.washington.edu/reskin/) 24
  • 25. Zoning laws prevent affordable housing development in many suburbs  Municipalities subsidize the relocation of businesses out of the city  Transportation spending favors highways, metropolitan expansion and urban sprawl  Court decisions prevent metropolitan school desegregation  School funding is tied to property taxes 25
  • 26. How we arrange structures matters  The order of the structures  The timing of the interaction between them  The relationships that exist between them  We must be aware of how structures are arranged in order to fully understand social phenomena 26
  • 27. One cannot have a just society unless the arrangement of institutions are just -John Rawls 27
  • 28. The government plays a central role in the arrangement of space and opportunities  These arrangements are not “neutral” or “natural” or “colorblind”  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 28
  • 29. Racialized policies and structures:  Promoted sprawl  Concentrated subsidized housing  Led to disparities between schools ▪ Achievement gap ▪ Discipline rates ▪ Funding disparities ▪ Economic segregation ▪ Graduation rates ▪ Racial segregation 29
  • 31. Today… Institutions and structures continue to support, not dismantle, the status quo. This is why we continue to see racially inequitable outcomes even if there is good intent behind policies, or an absence of racist actors. (i.e. structural racialization) 31
  • 32. A series of mutually reinforcing federal policies across multiple domains have contributed to the disparities we see today  School Desegregation  Homeownership/Suburbanization  Urban Renewal  Public Housing  Transportation 32
  • 33.  Distinction blurred Examples:  Private colleges  Housing as a private good complemented by government policies  GI Bill  Expansion of highway system  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 33
  • 34. Civil Rights Act of 1875 – equal treatment in “public accommodations”  Citizenship clause and membership in political community  Overturned by Supreme Court eight years later  “The wrongful act of an individual, unsupported by any such authority, is simply a private wrong, or a crime of that individual” 34
  • 35. Private vs. public discrimination  Tension between addressing state action vs. de facto conditions produced by “private” decisions Source: CSUN Daily Sundial Newspaper 35
  • 36. “What the nation, through Congress, has sought to accomplish in reference to that race is, what had already been done in every state in the Union for the white race, to secure and protect rights belonging to them as freemen and citizens; nothing more. The one underlying purpose of congressional legislation has been to enable the black race to take the rank of mere citizens.” 36
  • 37. "The distinction between government and private action, furthermore, can be amorphous both as a historical matter and as a matter of present-day finding of fact. Laws arise from a culture and vice versa. Neither can assign to the other all responsibility for persisting injustices.” 37
  • 38. Misidentifying the situation, not public vs. private Public Private Private  Expansion of corporate prerogative Domains Corporate  Corporate space diminishes public Non-pubic Corporate &private space 38
  • 39. Corporations under control of state for much of US history – serving a public function  Natural entity theory: corporations as separate juridical entities with separate rights  Fourteenth amendment and corporate personhood Source: Terrence Nowicki Jr. ThisIsHistoricTimes.com 39
  • 40. Taney Court: states’ rights, anti-elitism and denial of citizenship to blacks  “provided a coherent defense of both corporations and slavery in a rapidly democratizing union” (Austin Allen)  Corporate dominance connected to whiteness  “middle-stratum identity” (Martinot)  Citizens United: expansion of corporate rights and reduction of civil rights Source: powell, j. and C. Watt.“Corporate Prerogative, Race, and Identity Under the Fourteenth Amendment.” Cardoza Law Review Vol. 32:3. 40
  • 41. Capitalist Welfare State  Property Owning Democracy  John Rawls: Justice as Fairness 41
  • 42. CORNEL WEST: “…I don’t think President Bush individually hates black people. His policies were racist in effect and consequence, and especially classist in terms of generating misery among poor and working people, disproportionately black and brown…And I would say that even about the Obama administration.” (Democracy Now!) 42
  • 43. The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of political importance:  1)the growth of democracy;  2)the growth of corporate power; and  3)the growth of propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy (Alex Carey) 43
  • 45. Treasury report February 2011: “Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market”  Does not mention role of segregation in housing and credit markets in subprime crisis  Three options laid out: variations of privatization  Potentially mortgage costs, down payments, fees/costs for FHA loans  Disproportionate impact on people of color and low- income communities 45
  • 46. Universal Targeted Programs Programs Targeted Universalism 46
  • 47. Targeted Universalism recognizes racial disparities and the importance of eradicating them, while acknowledging their presence within a larger inequitable, institutional framework  Targeted universalism is a common framework through which to pursue justice.  A model which recognizes our linked fate  A model where we all grow together  A model where we embrace collective solutions 47
  • 48. 48
  • 49. 49
  • 50. 50
  • 51. Only 2% of emotional cognition is available to us consciously  Racial bias tends to reside in the unconscious network  Messages can be framed to speak to our unconscious 51
  • 52.  Racial attitudes operate in our “unconscious” (also called “subconscious”) mind  Usually invisible to us but significantly influences our positions on critical issues  Negative unconscious attitudes about race are called “implicit bias” or “symbolic racism.” 52
  • 53. How messages are framed affects how they are perceived. 53
  • 54. 54
  • 55. 55
  • 56. When scientists showed a similar sketch to people from East Africa - a culture containing few angular visual cues - the family is seen sitting under a tree. The woman is balancing an item on her head. Westerners are accustomed to the corners and box-like shapes of architecture. They are more likely to place the family indoors and to interpret the rectangle above the woman's head as a window through which shrubbery can be seen. 56
  • 57. Race is a social reality  While we are hardwired to categorize in- group vs. out-group, we are “softwired” for the content of those categories  Softwiring is social  Racial categories and meaning can be constantly be reconfigured 57
  • 58. High Pitied Esteemed Out-Group In-Group Warmth Despised Envied Out-Group Out-Group Low Low High Competence Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007. 58
  • 59. High Pity : Esteemed: women, Your own group, elderly, who you identify disabled with Warmth Despised: Envied: African Competent, but Americans, don’t really like Undocumented them: Asians Low immigrants Low High Competence Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007. 59
  • 60. Unconscious biases are reflected in institutional arrangements  Prejudice leads to outcomes, and the outcomes reinforce the stereotypes / prejudice  Ex: Females aren’t good at math. Many females don’t take math classes. 60
  • 62. Our environment affects our unconscious networks  Priming activates mental associations  Telling someone a scary story activates a frame of fear  Claude Steele’s “stereotype threat”:  For example, tell students about to take a test that Asian students tend to do better than whites, and the whites will perform significantly worse than if they had not been primed to think of themselves as less capable than Asians Source: http://www.eaop.ucla.edu/0405/Ed185%20-Spring05/Week_6_May9_2005.pdf 62
  • 63. Experiment with 7th graders; ~50% white & 50% Black  Given a list of values ▪ Experimental group: Choose the values that are most important to you and write why they are important ▪ Control group: Choose the values that are the least important to you and explain why  End of semester – While Black students still did not do as well as whites, the Black students in the experimental group showed a 40% reduction in racial achievement gap  Experiment was repeated with a group of college students and yielded a 50% reduction in the racial achievement gap Source: Cohen, Geoffrey L.., Julio Garcia, Nancy Apfel, and Allison Master. (2006). “Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention.” Science 313(5791): 1307-1310, 63
  • 64. Be aware of implicit bias in your life. We are constantly being primed  Debias by presenting positive alternatives  Consider your conscious messaging & language.  Affirmative action support varies based on whether it’s presented as “assistance” or “preference”  Engage in proactive affirmative efforts – not only on the cultural level but also the structural level 64
  • 65. www.KirwanInstitute.org www.race-talk.org KirwanInstitute on: