Advancing Racial Equity The Role of Government
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San Jose Executive Leadership Session November 6, 2019 Government Alliance on Race and Equity Dwayne S. Marsh Leslie W. Zeitler Advancing Racial Equity The Role of Government
Transcript of Advancing Racial Equity The Role of Government
San Jose Executive Leadership Session
November 6, 2019
Government Alliance on Race and EquityDwayne S. Marsh
Leslie W. Zeitler
Advancing Racial Equity
The Role of Government
Welcome
Your Facilitators
Introductions
• Name, department, and role
• What progress have you witnessed in the City’s growing
commitment to advancing racial equity?
• What would enable your department to take a more
active role in doing this work?
Objectives:
• Continue to build understanding of the role of institutions in
relation to racial equity
• Explore how San Jose can more effectively operationalize
and organize for racial equity, with an emphasis on what
department heads need to build progress
• Explore the possibilities for San Jose in building on its work to
date advancing racial equity
• This is just the beginning….
• Take space, make space
• Build and maintain brave space.
• What is said here, stays here
• What is learned here, leaves here
• Offer what you can, ask for
what you need
• One mic, one conversation
Our learning environment
Our Five Functions
Policy Development
Narrative Shift Institutional and Sector
Change
Movement and Capacity
Building
Research
A national network of government working to achieve racial
equity and advance opportunities for all.
✓ Core network – 67 104 178 members and growing!
✓ Two dozen state agencies
✓ Expanded network - 30 states / 150+ cities
✓ Provide tools to put theory into action
Government Alliance on Race & Equity
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Government Alliance on Race & Equity
WashingtonSeattleTacoma
CaliforniaAlameda CountyBAAQMDMarin CountyMerced County
OaklandRichmondSan Francisco PUC
OregonMetro
Multnomah County
Portland
MinnesotaMetropolitan CouncilMinneapolis
Minneapolis Parks & Rec BoardSt. Paul
WisconsinDane CountyMadison
Michigan\Ottawa CountyWashtenaw CountyMDCR
TexasAustin
IowaDubuqueIowa City
VirginiaFairfax County
KentuckyLouisville
MassachusettsBoston
PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia
New Mexico Albuquerque
WA
OR
CA
MT
ID
NV
AZ
UT
WY
CO
NM
TX
OK
KS
NE
SD
ND
MN
IA
MO
AR
LA
MSAL
GA
FL
SCTN
NC
IL
WIMI
OH
IN
KY
WV VA
PA
NY
ME
VT
NH
NJ
DE
MD
D.C.
MA
CT
RI
Government Alliance on Race & Equity
WashingtonHWMPLakewoodLynnwoodKing CountyKing County Housing AuthorityOlympiaPort of SeattlePuget Sound Regional CouncilSeattleSeattle Housing AuthoritySpokane Regional Health DistrictTacomaTukwilaVancouverWA DCYF
CaliforniaAlameda CountyBAAQMDBARCBARTBerkeleyCA Air Resources BoardCA Dept of Public HealthCA DSSCA EPACosumnes CSDCulver CityElk GroveHaywardLAHSALA MetroLong BeachMarin CountyMerced CountyMetropolitan Transportation Commission
Monterey County Napa CountyNevada CountyOaklandRichmondSacramentoSalinasSan Diego Sustainability DepartmentSan Francisco CountySan Francisco BCDCSan JoseSan Mateo CountySanta Clara County (3 depts)Santa MonicaShasta CountySolano CountySonoma CountyState Coastal CommissionState Coastal Conservancy
OregonEugene
Lane County Equity
Metro
Multnomah County
Multnomah County Drainage
District
OR Governor’s Office of DE&I
OR Housing & Community
Services
OR Youth Authority
Portland
Port of Portland
MinnesotaHennepin CountyHC Judicial CourtsLeague of MN CitiesMankatoMetropolitan CouncilMinneapolisMinneapolis Parks & Rec BoardNorthfield
Minnetonka
Ramsey CountyRichfieldRochesterSaint AnthonySt. PaulVisit St. PaulWashington County
WisconsinAppletonDane CountyMadisonMiddletonMilwaukee CountyCity of Milwaukee Health Dept.
MichiganGrand RapidsMacomb CountyMDCROttawa CountyWashtenaw CountyIllinois
Chicago Public HealthCook CountyPeoria
TexasAustinDallasDallas ISDSan AntonioWaco
IowaCedar RapidsDes MoinesDubuqueIowa CityWest Des Moines
VirginiaAlexandriaArlingtonFairfax CountyRichmondVirginia Dept of Health North Carolina
AshevilleCarrboroChapel HillCharlotteCity of DurhamDurham CountyGreensboroMecklenburg CountyOrange County Health DepartmentOrange CountyRaleigh
District of ColumbiaCouncil of the District of Columbia
South CarolinaSpartanburg
KentuckyLouisville
TennesseeChattanoogaKnoxville
FloridaGainesvillePalm Beach CSD
MassachusettsBostonBrooklineCambridge Dept of Equity & Inclusion
PennsylvaniaAllegheny CountyLancasterPhiladelphiaPittsburghURA Pittsburgh
MarylandBaltimore Bureau of Budget & Research MgmtMontgomery CountyTakoma Park
New YorkNew York CityNY State Dept of Health
ConnecticutCommission on Equity and Opportunity
New MexicoAlbuquerque
ColoradoBoulder County
Boulder
Denver
Fort Collins
MissouriKansas City
KansasLawrence
California Leads the Way
2015
Alameda County (2016-18)
Bay Area Regional Collaborative (2017-18)
City of Berkeley (2016-17)
Contra Costa County (2016-18)
Marin County (2016-18)
Monterey County (2017-18)
City of Oakland (2016-18)
Napa City/County (2016-18)
City of Richmond (2016-18)
City of Salinas (2017-18)
City and County of San Francisco (2017-18)
San Francisco PUC (2016-18)
San Francisco Planning (2016-17)
San Joaquin Valley PHC (2017-18)
City of San Jose (2018)
San Mateo County (2017-18)
Santa Clara County (2016-118)
Solano County (2016-18)
Sonoma County (2018)
CA Department of Housing and Community Development (2016-18)
CA Department of Public Health (2016-18)
City and County of Sacramento (2016)
Merced County (2016-18)
San Joaquin Valley Public Health Consortium (2017-18)
Los Angeles County (2016-18)
City of Long Beach (2016-18)
City of Pasadena (2016)
Culver City (2017-18)
Santa Monica (2017-18)
Humboldt Cohort
California Leads the Way
Santa Barbara County (2017)
Ventura County (2017)
City of Arcata, College of Redwoods, HSU, Community Leaders (2016-17)
2018
Capitol CohortAir Resources Board, Arts, Coastal Commission, Community Services and Development, Corrections,
EPA, Housing and Community Development, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Research, Public
Health, Social Services, Strategic Growth, Transportation (2018)
24.5 million residents in California jurisdictions participating in GARE
National best practice Normalize
• A shared analysis and definitions
• Urgency / prioritize
Organize
• Internal infrastructure
• Partnerships
Operationalize• Racial equity tools
• Data to develop strategies and drive results
Visualize
Why we lead with race
• Racial inequities deep and pervasive
• Racial anxiety on the rise – race is often an elephant
in the room
• Learning an institutional and structural approach can
be used with other areas of marginalization
• Specificity matters
Impacts of Racism
various sources
In the city of Seattle,
reducing the African
American unemployment rate
to that of whites would
generate an additional $25
million in tax revenue.
Impacts of Racism
various sources
By 2040, the Twin Cities will have a 30
percent skill gap if they do not eliminate
their racial inequities.
Impacts of Racism
various sources
If contracting were proportional to
racial breakdowns in New York City,
enterprises led by people of color
would procure an additional $8
billion annually.
Current context
Pastor & Benner , 2015
The greater the income gaps between rich and
poor, the more likely the region is to lose jobs
during economic shocks and the longer it will
take to recover.
Current context
PolicyLink, 2015
Normalizing Racial Equity
• All men are created equal
• With liberty and justice for all
• Government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the earth
Values and realities
History of government and race
Government explicitly creates
and maintains racial inequity.
Initially explicit
Discrimination illegal, but “race-neutral” policies and practices perpetuate
inequity.
Became implicit
Proactive policies, practices and
procedures that advance racial
equity.
Government for racial equity
Current context of race:
Equity? Equality?
What’s the difference?
Racial inequity in the U.S.
From infant mortality to
life expectancy, race
predicts how well you
will do…
Racial equity means:
Closing the gaps so that race does not predict one’s
success, while also improving outcomes for all
• To do so, have to:
✓ Target strategies to focus improvements for those
worse off
✓ Move beyond services and focus on changing
policies, institutions and structures
DE&I are NOT a single concept
Courtesy City of Portland
Humans need meaning.
• Individual meaning
• Collective meaning
Only 2% of emotional cognition is
available consciously
Racial bias tends to reside in our
unconscious brain
We unconsciously
think about race
even when we do
not explicitly
discuss it.
How We Think
The Unconscious Mind
Schemas: the “frames”
through which our brains
help us understand and
navigate the world:
1. Sort into categories
2. Create associations
3. Fill in the gaps
Schemas
Help us organize information into broader categories. They largely reside in the subconscious.
✓Objects
✓Human beings
Schemas are social. They exist
in and are shaped by our
environment.
What color are the following lines of text?
• Vqeb peow ytro
• Cvur zxyq brrm
• Vqeb peow ytro
• Xoc jbni oew mne
• Green
• Black
• Blue
• Red
What color are the following lines of text?
• Green
• Black
• Blue
• Yellow
What color are the following lines of text?
The evaluation of one group and its members
relative to another.
Source: Unconscious (Implicit) Bias and Health Disparities: Where Do We Go from Here?
We all carry bias. Acting on
bias can be discriminatory and
create negative outcomes for
particular groups.
Bias
Explicit bias
Expressed directly
Aware of bias / operates consciously
Example – Sign in the window of an apartment building – “whites only”
Implicit bias
Expressed indirectly
Unaware of bias / operates sub-consciously
Example – a property manager doing more criminal
background checks on African Americans than
whites.
Screened auditions account for up to 46% of the increase in the percentage of females in symphony orchestras since 1970.
Examples of implicit bias
Claudia Goldin, Cecilia Rouse:
The Impact of "Blind" Auditions on Female Musicians (1997)
Job search – Identical resumes, apart from names.
White-sounding names – 50%
more callbacks than African-
American sounding names.
Susan Smith
LaKeshaWashington
Examples of implicit bias
What to do with bias?
• Suppressing or denying biased thoughts can actually
increase prejudice rather than eradicate it.
• Openly acknowledging
and challenging biases
allows us to develop
strategic interventions.
What creates
different outcomes?
Institutional Explicit
Institutional Implicit
Individual Explicit
Individual Implicit
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 focusing 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.
Institutional/Explicit
Policies which explicitly discriminate against a group.
Institutional/Implicit
Policies that negatively impact one group unintentionally.
Individual/Explicit
Prejudice in action –discrimination.
Individual/Implicit
Unconscious attitudes and beliefs.
Examples from your organization –
Individual racism:
• Bigotry or discrimination by an individual based on race.
structural
institutional
individual
Institutional racism:
• Policies, practices and procedures that
work better for white people than for
people of color, often unintentionally or
inadvertently.
Structural racism:
• A history and current reality of institutional
racism across all institutions, combining to
create a system that negatively impacts
communities of color.
Structures are a part of our lives:
What We Mean by Structural Racial Inequity:
“Structural Racism” points to multiple
institutions
The ways our public and private
institutions interact to produce barriers
to opportunity and racial disparities.
Intent to discriminate is largely
irrelevant
Structures just do what they do, often
invisibly, and reinforce disinvestment
and disparities.
What Works
Tools to Change
Organizational Culture
Racial Equity Concepts
▪ Advancing Racial Equity: The Role of Institutions – introduction to the
role, responsibilities and opportunities for government to advance racial
equity. Focus on normalizing racial equity as a core value with clear
definitions of key terminology, operationalizing racial equity via new
policies and institutional practice,
▪ Using a Racial Equity Tool – instruction and practice on how to use a racial
equity toolkit within policy, program and budget decision-making processes.
Participants gain skills by using the tool with their own lines of business that
they would like to assess from a racial equity perspective.
Racial Equity Concepts
▪ Communicating for Racial Equity –This training provides tools for both
interpersonal communication and communicating with the media and
broader outside audiences.
▪ Developing a Racial Equity Action Plan – Developing a Racial Equity
Action Plan entails putting ideas and understanding into action, including
building organizational infrastructure across the breadth (all functions) and
depth (up and down hierarchy), using a Racial Equity Tool, and developing
and implementing strategies.
▪ Tools for Organizational Change – Hands-on exercises to discuss moving
organizational change within government. Content is tailored to meet
participants’ needs, and includes stakeholder analysis, power and politics,
and tipping point theory.
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
In Santa Clara County the
Public Health Department has
led an institutional
transformation process that
started with budgeting and
now engages the entire
County.
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
In San Antonio, two Racial Equity CEO
have normalized the conversation across
the breadth of their 13,000 employees
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
In Minneapolis the City’s newly
revised comprehensive plan,
Minneapolis 2040, eliminates
exclusionary zoning for single-family
housing.
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
In Saint Paul City the staff followed
the lead of Mayor Melvin Carter
and eliminated late fines in its
library system.
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
The City of Asheville was recently
awarded the North Carolina G.
Herbert Stout Award for Visionary
Use of GIS in support of the City’s
Mapping Racial Equity program.
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
Fairfax County departmental
leaders took a giant step towards
addressing racial inequity in the
county juvenile justice system with
their One Fairfax plan.
What Works: National Landscape
various sources
In Tacoma and Oakland,
equity indexes have been
created that set a baseline for
tracking their respective
progress in shaping equity
outcomes in their communities.
Racial Equity Analyses
Race in institutional policiesFederal Housing
Administration
Interstate System
Streetlights
Process Product
What is a Racial Equity Tool?
Actively inserts
racial equity into
decision making
processes
When to use a Racial Equity Tool?
Often
Early
1• Desired results
2• Analysis of data
3• Community engagement
4• Strategies for racial equity
5• Implementation plan
6• Communications and accountability
What is a Racial Equity Tool process?
Who should use a Racial Equity Tool?
Elected officials Government staff Community
• Key decision-making opportunities that influence
outcomes.
• Cumulative impacts of many small choices can be
as significant as the impacts of big decisions.
• Less likely to replicate the status quo.
Choice Points
Reflections from the
San Jose Core Team
Reflections on Organizing
▪ How has the Learning Year process influenced how you view the work of
the City of San Jose?
▪ What benefit was there of learning about racial equity in a collective
setting with other jurisdictions?
▪ What opportunities do you see to infuse racial equity more deeply in
the operations and mission of San Jose?
▪ What counsel would you have for colleagues who are just learning
about the emphasis on racial equity about what to expect next?
Small Groups
▪ How do you imagine the work of San Jose will be stronger with a more
intentional focus on racial equity? Consider both internal efforts with staff
and leadership, and external efforts with partners and the community. What
reinforcements might be needed to overcome challenges?
▪ Drawing from your perspective and experience, how does the Core Team
ensure that interested departments can effectively explore their potential
contribution to this work through additional attention to racial equity?
▪ What will you need as a leader in the jurisdiction to be effectively
equipped to promote and support efforts to advance racial equity?
Large Group
▪ Top 3 takeaways from your small group discussion
▪ How can leadership support the implementation of
institutional transformation around racial equity?
▪ What resources will be most helpful to leverage this work,
from GARE and elsewhere?
The Road Forward
Advancing racial equity
Effective, inclusive
democracy
Contact information
Dwayne S. Marsh
Leslie W. Zeitler
www.racialequityalliance.org
