1. RENEWING BELOVED COMMUNITY
UNDERSTANDING STRUCTURAL RACIALIZATION
AND OPPORTUNITY
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
Presentation to Genesis
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
August 29, 2010

2. Overview
 My Opportunity Story: thinking through a structural
racialization lens
 A Brief Snapshot of Opportunity in the San
Francisco-Oakland-Fresno Area
 Renewing Our Communities
 Thinking, talking, acting in new ways
 Activity: Telling your own Opportunity Story

3. My Opportunity Story
Thinking through a structural racialization lens

4. My Opportunity Story
 I was born…
4

5. My Opportunity Story contd.
 I grew up…
5

6. My Parents
My parents were
sharecroppers in the
South.
They left the South
in search of
opportunity.
6

7. HOME
 They moved north
 They moved north seeking
opportunity and bought a seeking opportunity
house. and bought a house.
 Today I would say they  Today I would say
bought into a low
opportunity neighborhood. they bought into a
low opportunity
neighborhood.
7

8. My Old Neighborhood
8
The vacant grassy plots
are not parks.

9. Where I Grew Up
I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining
9
opportunity city.

10. It is also known as Detroit.
10

11. I now live in a high opportunity area.
11

12. A Tale of Two Neighborhoods…
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 100%
• More than 60% of the men will went to college
spend time in jail
• Most will not even drive by a jail
• There may soon be no bus service
in some areas • Free bus service
• It is difficult to attract jobs or • Relatively easy to attract capital
private capital
• Very safe; great parks
• Not safe; very few parks
• Easy to get fresh food
• Difficult to get fresh food
12

13. Some people ride the “Up” Others have to run up
escalator to reach the “Down” escalator to
opportunity get there
13

14. My Opportunity Story
 I was born…
14

15. My Opportunity Story contd.
 I grew up…
15

16. My Parents
My parents were
sharecroppers in the
South.
They left the South
in search of
opportunity.
16

17. HOME
 They moved north
 They moved north seeking
opportunity and bought a seeking opportunity
house. and bought a house.
 Today I would say they  Today I would say
bought into a low
opportunity neighborhood. they bought into a
low opportunity
neighborhood.
17

18. My Old Neighborhood
18
The vacant grassy plots
are not parks.

19. Where I Grew Up
I grew up in a low opportunity structure in a declining
19
opportunity city.

20. It is also known as Detroit.
20

21. I now live in a high opportunity area.
21

22. A Tale of Two Neighborhoods…
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 100%
• More than 60% of the men will went to college
spend time in jail
• Most will not even drive by a jail
• There may soon be no bus service
in some areas • Free bus service
• It is difficult to attract jobs or • Relatively easy to attract capital
private capital
• Very safe; great parks
• Not safe; very few parks
• Easy to get fresh food
• Difficult to get fresh food
22

23. Which community would you choose?
23

24. Some people ride the “Up” Others have to run up
escalator to reach the “Down” escalator to
opportunity get there
24

25. Opportunity is….
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 from
concentrated in high- 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.

26. Systems Thinking
We are all situated within “opportunity structures”
Physical
Social Cultural
Outcomes
These structures interact in ways that produce racialized outcomes for
different groups…

27. Structural Racialization
Context: The Dominant Consensus on Race
National values Contemporary culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that maintain racial hierarchies Racialized public policies and institutional
practices
Outcomes: Racial Disparities
Racial inequalities in current levels of well- Capacity for individual and community
being improvement is undermined
Ongoing Racial Inequalities
27
Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004

28. Who’s to blame?
28
Photo source: (Madoff) AP

29. Historic Government Role
29
 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

30. Example
The Government and Homeownership Policies: Redlining
“If a neighborhood is to retain
stability, it is necessary that
properties shall continue to be
occupied by the same social and
racial classes. A change in social or
racial occupancy generally
contributes to instability and a
decline in values.”
–Excerpt from the 1947 FHA
underwriting manual
30

31. Example: How historic Redlining impacts
opportunity in the Portland region today….
The areas of
lowest
opportunity
today
(lightest) are
also the same
areas that
were redlined
(red and
yellow)
beginning in
the 1930s.

32. From Redlining to Reverse Redlining…
Unsustainable
credit: The darkest
areas with the highest
concentrations of
persons of color also
have the highest
concentrations of
Notices of Defaults,
indicating
unsustainable
mortgage lending.
In Oakland, Big Bank
lenders made 70% of
their high-cost loans in
neighborhoods of
color.
Source: California Reinvestment Coalition. “From Foreclosures to Re-redlining: How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California

33. …And Reverse Redlining to Re-redlining:
Banks unwilling to work out loan modifications…
 In Oakland, there were an average of 21.87 foreclosures
for every loan modification made each month in the sample
report in 2009. In the US, there were 6.77.
Source: California Reinvestment Coalition. “From Foreclosures to Re-redlining: How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California
communities.” February 2010.

34. Re-redlining contd.:
And credit once again unavailable
In Oakland: Bank of
America, Citigroup,
and Wells Fargo are
more likely to deny
loans for
communities of color
than for non-minority
neighborhoods
In Oakland:
there were three
times as many
PRIME loans in
2006 than in
2008…
Source: California Reinvestment Coalition. “From Foreclosures to Re-redlining: How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California communities.” February
2010.

35. Today,
Institutions 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)

36. Lesson:
How we allocate our resources in
terms of People, Places, and
Linkages matters….

37. A Brief Snapshot of Opportunity for Children
in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fresno region
What are some key intervention points to
improve opportunity for children?

38. Focus: Children in Poverty
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES:
Child Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Metro Area
Black 28.0%
American Indian 16.0%
Asian/Pac. Islander 10.0%
Hispanic 15.0%
Non-Hispanic White 5.0%
Source U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census, Summary File 4.

39. What will the fallout from the recession
mean for our children?
 In 1999, child poverty was already alarming for
certain groups in the metro area, for example Black
children at 28%.
 We can expect that poverty rate for children will
only grow as the recession continues…
 As one pediatrician has warned, “We are seeing the
emergence of what amounts to a ‘recession
generation.’”
 Increases in child poverty, homelessness, and temporary
relief indicate that children across the U.S. are
experiencing “a quiet disaster.”
Source: Bob Herbert, “Children in Peril.” New York Times Op-Ed published April 20, 2009. Herbert is quoting Dr. Irwin
Redlener, president of the Children’s Health Fund in New York.

40. Focus: Segregation in Schools
EDUCATION:
Segregation of Public Primary School Students, Dissimilarity by
Race/Ethnicity (2007-08)
Metro Area
Hispanic---Non-Hispanic White 61.1%
Non. Hisp Asian---Non-Hispanic
54.9%
White
Non. Hisp. Indian---Non-Hispanic
35.4%
White
Non-Hispanic Black---Non-Hispanic
63.7%
White
Source National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data. Public Elementary/Secondary School
Universe Survey. Downloaded from Diversity Data.org

41. Focus: Poverty in Schools
EDUCATION:
Poverty Rate of School Where Average Primary School Student Attends
by Race/Ethnicity (2007-08)
Metro Area
Hispanic 63.3%
Non-Hispanic White 21.0%
Non-Hispanic Black 62.3%
Non-Hispanic American Indian 42.8%
Non-Hispanic Asian/Pac. Islander 36.6%
Source National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data. Public Elementary/Secondary School
Universe Survey. Downloaded from Diversity Data.org

42. What does segregation and poverty in
schools mean for our children?
 Research shows:
 A consistent “negative effect of high poverty concentrations
in school on students’ academic achievement.” (Trent, 1997)
 The poverty of a school, far more than the poverty of an
individual, determines students’ educational outcomes and
impoverished students do better if they live in middle-class
neighborhoods and/or attend more affluent schools.
(Schellenberg, 1998)
 When a school reaches a tipping point of 50%, all students
outcomes are depressed. And once poverty in a school
district reaches 60% or above, the district can no longer
rely on its own internal efforts to improve outcomes.
(Schellenberg, 1998)

43. Renewing our Communities
Growing opportunity for all

44. Strategies for Growing Together
 Think in new ways
 Talk in new ways
 Act in new ways

45. Transformative Thinking
 transformative thinking to combat structural
racialization; we need to find new approaches.
 personal and social responsibility are important: we
should maintain them in our advocacy and analysis
 approaches should consider the structures and
systems that are creating and perpetuating these
disparities and work to reform them for lasting
change.
 Challenging policies, processes, and assumptions 45

46. Talking in New Ways
I. How do we talk about race?
II. Targeted universalism—a new frame for dialogue
(beyond disparities)

47. I. How to Talk about Race
47
 Focus on structures and systems rather than explicit
individual action/reaction
 Focus on the subconscious—the implicit bias that is
stored within the mind
 Focus on relationships—build collaborations and
engage in real discussion

48. II. Targeted universalism as
communication strategy
 Moves beyond the disparities frame
 Focuses on the universal goals shared by all the
communities while being sensitive to the targeted
strategies that are responsive to the situation of
marginalized communities

49. Acting in New Ways
I. Engagement and empowerment
II. Targeted universalism as policy
III. Strategies for connecting to opportunity

50. I. Engagement and Empowerment
 The less resourced a community is, the more critical
organizing becomes

51. How Institutions can strengthen engagement
 Not just “outreach”. That is, anchor institutions cannot
simply make their offer and “sell” the community
hoping they will buy it.

52. II. Promote Universal Policies in Targeted Ways
• There is no “one size fits
all”
• “One vision, many
paths”
• Process:
• What is the goal?
• How do we tailor
strategies to different
groups, who are
differently situated, to
lift them to that goal?

53. III. Strategies for Connecting to Opportunity

54. Activity: Telling your own Opportunity
Story
Personal lens:
 What in my life and my parents’ life opened up and created opportunities for
me?
 What in my life and my parents’ life has restricted opportunity for me?
 How has this impacted me? How has it shaped the story of my life?
 How does access to and restriction from opportunity impact my children’s lives?
Community lens:
 Do opportunity structures exist in my community? What’s there, what’s missing,
and for whom?
 Are they responsive to community needs?
 How do I impact these structures? How can the community?

55. www.KirwanInstitute.org
www.race-talk.org
KirwanInstitute
on: