Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion

Keynote AddressJanuary 30, 2009

john a. powellExecutive Director, Kirwan Institute for the

Study of Race and Ethnicity & Williams Chair In Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz

College Of Law

Opportunity for All: Inequity, Linked Fate and Social

Justicein Detroit and Michigan

OverviewReport update: a few things have changed since

summer…Economic recessionSubprime catastropheProposed auto relief packagesTARPPresident Obama’s proposed stimulus plan

August report findingsHow does race matter today?How do we think (consciously or not) & talk about

race?How do we re-think policy to be genuinely inclusive?Where do we go from here?

Crisis … Etymology: Middle

English, from Latin, from Greek krisis, literally, decision, from krinein to decide

The Chinese symbol for crisis is a combination of the symbols for danger and opportunity

Courtesy Hill Holiday Communications

Danger…Michigan has been in a recession for five yearsUnemployment rate 3x 2000 levelsClose to 20% of the Michigan population are on

some form of public assistance (state record)Food banks strugglingDoctors reporting more anxiety and depression130,000 Michiganders ran out of regular

unemployment benefits by 9/20081.7 million residents have “basic skill challenges”½ the people employed nationwide by the Big 3

live in MI

Danger…No industry or state is immune …

Sad Day For Microsoft: 5,000 Laid Off, Ear

nings And Revenues Down

Cascading layoffs hit workers at Pfizer, Caterpillar, Home Depot; no relief in sightBy JEANNINE AVERSA , Associated Press Last update: January 26, 2009

                                      

       

Opportunity…Detroit’s “frog in a pot” is cooked.

Everyone else’s is just warm…

19th Century

21st Century

Detroit …the epicenter of changeDetroit historically redefined manufacturing

worldwide and has many advances to be proud of: Innovation (product & process)Mass-marketing, affordabilityIntegrated work forceUAW integration Pay, benefits lifted an entire generation into the

middle classNow that manufacturing is being re-thought and

re-engineered globally, Detroit is at the epicenter of change and the dislocations of change

Detroit’s lessons…The dislocations of change do not impact

everyone equallyBailout and stimulus packages have inherent

priorities and valuesIs everyone represented at the table to

rebuild not only Detroit -- but a nation and a world challenged by: RecessionManufacturing, technology & communications

shiftsClimate change / environmental sustainabilityMajor demographic shifts

Detroit’s lessons con’t… For every step toward diversity and inclusion, did we

take two steps back? (We are conflicted…and learning)Integrated workplace … but not residential neighborhoodsBetter pay and benefits … but gender inequalityBuilding urban anchors … but federal and state $$ for

suburbsSeparate is unequal … Milliken v. BradleyA generation was lifted into the middle-class via industry

jobs…but will slide backward without education and training…this was a historical anomaly. The CEO of Nationwide

Insurance recently said there is not one job across the entire company for someone without a college education

You say crisis, I say opportunity“You never want a serious crisis to go to

waste," Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's new chief of staff, told a Wall Street Journal conference of top corporate chief executives A crisis creates a sense of urgencyNo one can deny that the system is brokenAn opportunity to learn what worked and what

did notDepression….New DealCivil War … Reconstruction2008-2009 Recession … ?

Detroit’s experience is criticalWe can’t predict the future, but we can

think about how to move forwardHow do we nurture an adaptable work force?What are the critical infrastructures for the

21st century?What is sustainable growth?How do we balance the needs of capital and

labor?What is government’s role?

Opportunity: stimulus $ is public $What are our public values for the next

century?Fair investment in all people Economic and environmental sustainabilityAccountability – personal, institutional, and

regulatoryDid the bank bailouts advance these

values?Executive Pay Limits May Prove ToothlessLoophole in Bailout Provision Leaves Enforcement in Doubt(Washington Post, 12/15/08)

Economist explains why

credit still frozen

Opportunity: green infrastructureLeading civic, business, environmental &

transportation coalition (America 2050) advocates for “Fix, Phase, Green, Train, Count”Fix: Fix-It-FirstPhase: Phase in strategic projects, job training,

capacity building in construction, engineering and project management

Green: Prioritize projects that promote healthy & compact communities

Train: Invest in job training and make jobs accessible to people in hardest hit communities

Count: Funding must be set aside to assess impact, results

Green infrastructure con’t…“Not just any old infrastructure will do”Divide country into “megaregions” (like Boston-to-

DC corridor) and ask governors to work together on projects that transcend state boundaries

Instead of new highways, fix-it-firstEmphasize mass transit Retrofit old buildingsUpdate antiquated water and wastewater systems

Source: Armando Carbonell, “A blueprint for a green agenda” Boston Globe Dec. 4, 2008.

Opportunity: stimulus planning How do we make it fair, sustainable,

accountable?Incentives for inclusion of people of colorInvestment in public transit (prioritize

projects that connect people to jobs)Grants and loans for small and minority-,

women-, and community-disadvantaged businesses

Collect data by race and gender to understand impacts of economic recovery policySource: Maya Wiley, Center for Social Inclusion

Opportunity: foreclosure reliefHow do we make it fair, sustainable,

accountable?Sustainable credit options for low-income

families and credit-deprived neighborhoods (fair investment in all communities)

Living-wage jobs and “green” housing standards (economic and environmental sustainability)

Disciplined, fair and flexible underwriting standards; a robust retooling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and an overhaul of financial regulation (accountability)

August Report Key FindingsOver 1/3 of the region’s population lives in

an area of low opportunity1 out of 4 Wayne County households pay

more than 30% of their income for housingLess than 4% of the African Americans in

the region live in areas of high opportunityNearly 1 million African Americans live in

low opportunity areas in the regionMore than half of the region’s Latino

population lives in low opportunity areas

Racial Disparity and Opportunity

Education and Poverty

OpportunityMappingHigh opportunity

exclusive to suburban areas of greater Detroit

Limited access to opportunity in inner-city Detroit

90% of regional African Americans live in an area of low-opportunity

How does race work today?There are still practices, cultural norms and

institutional arrangements that help create & maintain (disparate) racialized outcomesWe call this “structural racialization”It is a very different way of looking at race from “Is

he a racist?”The way race matters changes over time

(progress/retreat)We must consider how we each stand differently

with respect to our opportunities for work, education, parenting, retirement…

We must understand the work our institutions do, not what we wished they would do

…in order to make them more equitable and fair

History shapes our present & future

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We were separated from each other…

http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/sugrue.html

Detroit’s “Wailing Wall” being constructed

Opportunity still plays out across space

Measures of segregation (i.e. the “dissimilarity index”) have nudged downward a tiny bit but are still high

Outward growth can pull resources away from existing communities

The “favored quarter” has a disproportionate share of high quality opportunity structures

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Segregation leads to disparate (racialized) outcomes

Lower EducationalOutcomes

Increased Flightof Affluent

Families

Neighborhood Segregation

SchoolSegregation &

Concentrated Poverty

But…what does your neighborhood have to do with your IQ?Living in “concentrated disadvantage” reduces student

IQ by 4 points, roughly the equivalent to missing one year of school Sampson, Robert et. al., “Durable effects of concentrated disadvantage on verbal ability among African-

American Children.” PNAS 105(3): 845-852.

Children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development

In high-poverty communities, children have levels of lead in their blood that are nine times above average. High levels of lead are linked to attention deficit disorder and irreversible loss of cognitive functioning

Sources: Cookson, Clive. “Poverty mars formation of infant brains.” Financial Times.com 2/16/2008. (The biggest negative effects were found on language and memory.) ; Richard L. Canfield, Ph.D., et. al., (April 17, 2003). “Intellectual Impairment in Children with Blood Lead Concentrations below 10 µg per Deciliter.” New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 348, no. 16: 1517-1526. Joel T. Nigg et. al, “Blood Lead Levels Associated with Clinically Diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Mediated by Weak Cognitive Control.” Biological Psychiatry Vol. 63, Issue 3: 325-331.

Do we have the conditions for a meritocracy?

High OpportunityLow OpportunityDifferent opportunities for children

What happens if we don’t change?

Figure from Atkinson and Wial, “Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth through a National Innovation Foundation,” Brookings Policy Brief available at http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/04_federal_role_atkinson_wial.aspx

How do we do it?

Put your outcome first: what do you want to achieve?

Work backwards from there … how do you achieve it, for everyone?

Understand our linked fatesTalk about race – it is part of the American

story

Outcome: every school a high performing school…how?No school has concentrated poverty rate over 40%

Concentrated poverty reduces everyone’s performance

Early childhood educationResearch shows critical growth in early years

Link P-12 to Universities, community colleges, hospitalsConnect to anchors & their resources

District magnet & charter schoolsSchool-to-career programs; collaborative educationDe-trackingService learning

Understand and communicate our linked fates

Racialized structures and policies have created the correlation of race and poverty. People assume that only people of color are harmed.

BUT: these effects are far reaching and impact everyone – we share a linked fate

Example: credit tightened for everyone after the subprime fiasco

Talking about Race…post Obama

A post-racial society? Anxiety over racial identity … and humor

Tracy Morgan accepting a Golden Globe for 30 Rock

“I am the face of post-racial America. Deal with it, Cate Blanchett!”

Talking about race…productively

Acknowledge racial progressRecognize our racial history and connect it to

our futureExplain how past injustices still matter today

Create empathetic spaceEveryone needs help now and then; we all

want to do betterWe share deep values, concerns, and hopes

Provide potential solutionsWe need to be able to articulate what we

support - not just what we oppose.Martin Luther King, Jr. did not start a speech with: “I

have a complaint…”http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2008/12/talking-about-race-in-the-obama-era/

Acknowledge “Implicit Bias”Most of us have implicit

(unconscious) biases that can impact our behavior and understanding We are complex,

conflicted internally, and our biases can be activated (+ or -) without consciously recognizing it

We need to talk about race in ways that are not divisive

Talking about race … productively

Don’t frame issues around “what’s fair”

Reinforce the belief of opportunity for all

Assert that system flaws hurt everyone

Don’t focus on who or what is responsible for present inequities

Steer the conversation toward the results being sought (i.e., a quality education for everyone)

Don’t focus on exceptional individuals

Talk about where systems we all rely upon break down and how we can fix those systems

UNPRODUCTIVEUNPRODUCTIVE PRODUCTIVEPRODUCTIVE

Frameworks Institute Message Brief: Framing Race

What is a truly universal policy? “Universal” policies are often based on a non-

universal standard (i.e. social security: able-bodied white males working outside the home full-time for pay)

Instead, a targeted universal strategy is inclusive, but pays particular attention to the needs of those falling behindEx: Every school a performing schoolWhat does each school need to get there?What does each student, family, teacher,

community need?What are their strengths and constraints?

Undercapitalized Regions Undercapitalized

regions are characterized by significant urban decline (population loss, vacancy, limited investment)

Undercapitalized regions are highly fragmented and have stark racial and social disparities

The Core “Rust Belt” Region tends to be undercapitalized today

Rust Belt cities in comparison…

Unemployment Rates

Undercapitalized CitiesCharacteristics

Population decline or stagnation

Home value depreciation or stagnation

High poverty, disrupted social networks and concentrated poverty

Vacant land and declining tax base

Employment de-concentration and limited new commercial/residential investment

Single gentrified neighborhood may exist, but majority of neighborhoods are in decline

ThreatsContinued disinvestment

and declineContinued isolation of

central city from opportunity and investment

Existing tools for community development (place based affordable housing projects) may be accelerating central city decline

Sinking tide lowers all boats

Source: Building a New Framework for Community Development in Weak Market Cities, prepared by Community Development Partnership Network (April 2003)

Targeted neighborhood planning and use of funds for redevelopment activities

Promote access to suburban opportunity structuresEx: Opportunity-based regional affordable

housing strategiesRegional coalition building (equitable regionalism)

Ex: Build coalitions among local governments, business community, CDC’s, philanthropic institutions and anchor institutions

Strongly encourage reinvestment Stimulate private sector (subsidies, market

analysis)

Strategies for Undercapitalized Cities

Strategies for Undercapitalized Cities con’t…Promote economic development strategies that

widen opportunity for low-income residentsLeverage place-rooted anchor institutions for

equitable revitalizationImprove resident mobility with equitable

transportation policiesReclaim & rehabilitate vacant and abandoned

propertyMake all neighborhoods in the region

neighborhoods of high opportunityIncrease affordable housing in high-opportunity

neighborhoods

Source: Shared Prosperity, Stronger Regions: An Agenda for Rebuilding America’s Older Core Cities by PolicyLink

Multi-pronged strategy

Thank you! Questions or comments?

www.Kirwaninstitute.org