The Colour of Poverty: Provincial Forum on the Racialization of Poverty Ryerson University, Toronto,

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The Colour of Poverty Provincial Forum on the
Racialization of PovertyRyerson University,
Toronto, Ontario April 28-29, 2008

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

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The Colour of Poverty Campaign

• The Colour of Poverty Campaign is inspiring,
  proactive, multi-disciplinary and dedicated
• We have much to learn from it and the Canadian
  approach
• To build on and contribute to this vital
  campaign, I will offer some food for thought
• Show Me the NumbersThen What?
• Frameworks for Talking about Race
• From Transactional to Transformative Change
• Coalition Building and Collaboration
• Examples of Our Work

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Canadian Points of Pride

• Canadian Multiculturalism Act
• Not just anti-discrimination, but pro-integration
• Canadas Action Plan Against Racism
• Clear definition of Real Equality (Equality of
  Outcome)
• Clear goals (i.e. Strengthen the role of civil
  society)
• Sophisticated data and research
• Court Challenges Program
• What are the remaining obstacles?

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The colour of poverty

• What do the data tell us about race, immigration
  poverty?

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Poverty by the numbers
Source Urban Poverty Report 2007 by the
Canadian Council on Social Development
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Immigration by the numbers
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Visible minorities by the numbers
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Immigration by geography
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Race and poverty in Toronto

• of ethno-racial groups in Toronto living below
  Statistics Canadas low income cut-off
• European 10.8
• South Asian, East Asian, Caribbean, South and
  Central American 20
• Arab and West Asian 30
• African 40
• Source M. Ornstein, Ethno-Racial Groups in
  Toronto, 1971-2001 A Demographic and
  Socio-Economic Profile

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The data tell the storyor do they?

• If you do not have any data, you do not even have
  a place to start BUT
• Once you have data, what do you do with it? How
  do you use it to move policy?
• In the U.S., we have mountains of databut our
  individualistic framing often limits policy
  responses
• It is not just a data questionit is a narrative
  question (Who are we? What do we value? Why are
  people poor?)

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U.S. Spotlight Hurricane Katrina

• We have all sorts of data to support an
  understanding of systemic racial and economic
  segregation.and its deadly results

REUTERS/SHANNON STAPLETON
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE)
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but how did we understand Katrina?
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Implicit Bias

• We unconsciously think about race even when we do
  not explicitly discuss it
• People have various networks or frames that may
  be activated without our awareness
• Even though we may fight them, implicit biases
  reside within us
• Often these biases are socially unacceptable or
  embarrassing, so we try to hide them.
  Nevertheless, our unconscious networks are still
  operating
• "Call Me, Harold" ad (VA Senate Race)
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vkkiz1_d1GsA
• The Willie Horton/ Dukakis on Crimehttp//www.yo
  utube.com/watch?vEC9j6Wfdq3o

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Priming

• Priming activates mental associations.
• Telling someone a scary story activates a frame
  of fear
• Claude Steeles stereotype threat
• Ex if you tell students about to take a test
  that Asian students tend to do better than
  whites, whites will perform significantly worse
  than if they had not been primed to think of
  themselves as less capable than Asians.

http//www.eaop.ucla.edu/0405/Ed18520-Spring05/We
ek_6_May9_2005.pdf
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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?
• Vqeb peow ytro
• Cvur zxyq brrm
• Vhrn wwte zytn
• Xoc jbni oew mne
• Zre ytu vee mkp

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?
• Red
• Blue
• Black
• Green
• Brown

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?
• Sky
• Grass
• Dirt
• Coal
• Stop sign

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?
• Dirt
• Sunshine
• Sky
• Grass
• Stop sign

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?
• Green
• Blue
• Brown
• Red
• Black

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Frameworks for Talking about Race

• How messages are framed affects how data are
  understood
• Four frames are activated when we discuss racial
  disparities
• Minimize the disparities
• Blame culture
• Disparities are natural
• Focus solely on the individual

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Frame One Minimize the Disparities

• Examples
• Things may not be entirely equal, but its not
  nearly as bad as it used to be.
• The racial playing field is level.

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Frame Two Blame Culture

• Culture is blamed for racial inequality, rather
  than social structures or white privilege
• Examples
• Blacks are lazy and lack motivation.
• We get what we deserve in life. If some racial
  groups arent doing as well as others, people
  just need to work harder.

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Frame Three Racial Phenomena is Natural

• Examples
• Racial segregation in housing is natural. After
  all, they prefer to live by themselves instead of
  interacting with us.
• Theyd rather be with their own kind anyway.

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Frame Four Focus on the Individual

• Assume that all people start in the same position
  in society
• Examples
• We should all be judged as individuals based on
  our personal merits. No one should receive
  special privileges. Its not fair.
• People like Tiger Woods, George Lopez, and Oprah
  Winfrey are proof that anyone can be successful
  in America.

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Why Talk about Race?

• Race plays a critical role in the creation and
  perpetuation of many social, political, and
  organizational structures that control the
  distribution of opportunities.
• By not talking
• Inequality is reinforced racial disparities are
  masked
• Color-blindness takes precedence
• Our understanding of our linked fate is
  diminished
• Class (or immigration in Canadian context?)
  becomes a proxy, despite its descriptive and
  prescriptive inadequacy
• We must address race to understand barriers to
  the fulfillment of the promise of democracy

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Implicit bias and proxies

• It has been argued that racist messages work only
  when they are coded or undercover. Why?
• Because they have to subvert the tension that
  people experience when their values (anti-racist,
  egalitarian) conflict with their observations
  (racial isolation, poverty concentration)

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Talking About Race (Do)

• Frame the discussion using the norms values
  of the audience anchor to their narratives
• In the story you tell, make sure everyone can
  see themselves in the story (its about us, not
  just those people)
• Underscore shared, deep values (connectedness,
  good health, a sustainable and productive future)
• Acknowledge that individualism is important
  but that the healthiest individual is nurtured by
  a community invested in everyones success
• Propose policies that are universal and targeted

Sen. Barack Obama's race speechhttp//www.youtub
e.com/watch?vzrp-v2tHaDo
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Talking About Race ---- (Dont)

• -- Present disparities only (four frames!)
• -- Frame action as robbing Peter to pay Paul
• -- Separate out people in need from everybody
  else
• -- Glide over real fears, shared suffering, or
  the fact that people are often internally divided
  
• -- Dismiss the importance of individual efforts

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Moving from talking to doing

• You have built a shared understanding
• A multi-racial, cross-domain coalition is in
  place
• You have identified strategic intervention
  points
• How do you move forward?
• Address the implementation gap
• Show that change is possible and successful (i.e.
  Wake Co., N.C. transformative solution)
• Determine a shared definition of success (how
  will we know our policy has worked?)
• Set aside resources and time for evaluation and
  monitoring. Is it working? If so, publicize it!
  If not, change it!

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The Implementation Gap

• A 1999 survey explored the racial attitudes of
  young Americans (ages 18 - 29)
• A majority (54.5 percent) said that it was
  unlikely that the United States would elect a
  black president in the near future.
• In contrast, in the 1996 General Social Survey,
  93.5 percent of those under the age of 30 said
  that they would vote for a black presidential
  candidate nominated by their party.
• This might suggest that while young Americans
  express rhetorical support for a black president,
  they know that their own attitudes and those of
  other Americans make such an eventuality
  unlikely.

http//www.hamilton.edu/news/polls/racesurvey/defa
ult.html
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Structural racism

• Racism need not be individualist or intentional
• Institutional and cultural practices can
  perpetuate race inequality without relying on
  racist actors
• Racialized systems impact institutional
  arrangements and particular institutions -- with
  consequences for the entire society
• Institutional discrimination
• Inter-institutional discrimination

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The racialization of poverty

• Exile
• Isolation
• Punitive policy
• Exclusion or marginalization
• across multiple domains
• Prolonged
• Cumulative causation

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Cumulative causation

• Rebecca Blank coined cumulative causation
• In the U.S., while whites are poor in greater
  numbers, people of color are more likely to be in
  prolonged poverty and suffer the cumulative
  effects of such (poor health, lack of labor
  market experience, inadequate education)
• Single-issue policies do not adequately address
  the multiple oppressions of poverty
• Rebecca Blank, It Takes a Nation A New Agenda
  for Fighting Poverty (1997)

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The harms of poverty exclusion

• Events that damage a communitys vital
  reparative institutions (educational, spiritual,
  child-centered) are particularly devastating
• Children raised in poor families with low social
  status experience unhealthy levels of stress
  hormones, which impairs their neural
  developmentpermanently
• poverty depresses children, healing,
  communities, and democracy

Sources Lambert, Craig. Trails of Tears, and
Hope. Harvard Magazine (March-April 2008)
Cookson, Clive. Poverty mars formation of
infant brains. Financial Times.com 2/16/2008.
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Transformational vs. transactional solutions

• Transformative solutions begin with the
  assumption that causation is multiple, mutual,
  and cumulative
• Transformational Institutions need to be
  rearranged to support individual and collective
  values of (mutuality, equity, and democracy)
• vs. Transactional Institutions are arranged
  appropriately -- individuals just need to
  negotiate them better

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Shifting Paradigms From Transactional to
Transformational

• We must understand racism and poverty from (at
  least) three perspectives
• Structural (importance of institutions)
• Conceptual (relationship of multiple categories
  of difference)
• Spatial (the footprint of marginalization)

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Institutional structures differ across countries

• The conceptualization of poverty differs
• Role of the state (i.e. Rawls distinction
  between welfare capitalist society and a
  property-owning democracy)
• A nations history, geography and demography
• Working definitions of poverty (insufficient
  income vs. capacity to live life one has reason
  to value)
• Culture, stories, framing (Horatio Alger vs. It
  takes a village)

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Shifting Paradigms Structural Change

• Structures act as filters, creating cumulative
  barriers to opportunity
• Institutions should affirmatively promote
  participation from all individuals
• For the poor, this participation is limited from
  lack of power, influence, and choice

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Conceptual Change Race

• It is a social construct
• Role in the perpetuation of social, political,
  and organizational structures that control access
  to opportunity
• Cycle of Cumulative Causation
• Race is a web, or matrix of factors of
  disadvantage culminating, and feeding off each
  other creating a vicious cycle of cumulative
  causation

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Class (or newcomer) as a proxy?

• In U.S., class is thought to be a good proxy for
  race
• Correlation between race and class does exist
• Less politically controversial
• BUT
• Class is complex and multidimensional
• Class may be understood even less than race, but
  it is both a cultural and economic formation
• Sois it race versus class?
• Class analysis cannot do the work of a race
  analysis alone -- We need to understand the
  relationship between race and class to understand
  either one

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Shifting Paradigms Understanding spatial
segregation
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Racialization and spatialization of poverty

• In 1960 in the U.S., African-American families in
  poverty were 3.8 times more likely to be
  concentrated in high-poverty neighborhoods than
  poor whites
• In 2000, they were 7.3 times more likely
• In 2006, 68.3 of all immigrants in Ontario lived
  in the census metro area (CMA) of Toronto
• Are racialized immigrants spatially segregated?

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What does it mean to be a newcomer?

• Different immigrant/newcomer experiences in
  different countries, contexts
• Japanese newcomers 16th Century
• Who is an immigrant in France?
• In U.S., huge challenge to build African-American
  and Latino coalitions around shared definition of
  citizenship
• Time, circumstances of your mobility the
  resources you bring

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What does it mean to be average?

• Bill Gates walks into a barthe average net worth
  is now 100 million
• Averages can hide vast disparities
• How can we be sensitive to inter- and intra-group
  disparities?
• Targeted universalism first to those most in
  need
• 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, etc.

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Solutions data needs processes

• As well as developing protocol for multi-scaled,
  institutional data collection
• Supplemental data collection
• Can be non-governmental collected hosted (i.e.
  Mumford Center in U.S.)
• Local volunteers, residents, students
• Example of racial profiling data in U.S.
• started by student volunteers
• Data collection can drive understanding

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Equity as a Diagnostic Tool

• The Miners Canary metaphor
• Disparities facing communities of color are
  indicators of larger societal challenges
• Example Subprime debaclefalling value of
  dollar linked to subprime crisis

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Can we do better?

• Is there an alternative way to think about how
  society arranges its institutions?
• Can we think not about mere parity or
  redistribution, but growing all of Canada?
  Future pathways of success?

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High-synergy Society

• Individual good is linked to community
  advancement
• vs. low-synergy society, where individual gains
  at the expense of each other and our community
  (Ruth Benedicts work)
• Change the way we think about ourselves, our
  communities
• changes institutional arrangements

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Low-synergy Society

• Exacerbates inequalities by limiting
  opportunities for
• Self advancement and civic contribution
• Mobility
• Wealth creation
• Health
• Inequalities drag down everyones health -- even
  literally

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Linked Fate

• Racialized structures and policies have created
  the correlation of race and poverty. People
  assume that only people of color are harmed.
• In reality, these effects are far reaching and
  impact everyone linked fate

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Linked FatesTransformative Change

• Our fates are linked, yet our fates have been
  socially constructed as disconnected (especially
  through the categories of class, race, gender,
  etc.)
• We need socially constructed bridges to
  transform our society
• Conceive of an individual as connected toinstead
  of isolated fromthy neighbor

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Interconnectedness

• Collaborate and focus on coalition building
• Recognize the interconnectedness of our being and
  our fate
• Reject the myth of scarcity
• Strengthen our democracy
• Promote the political, economic, spiritual, and
  psychological health of all

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Coalition Building

• Move from transactional level to a deeper
  transformative level
• Coalition across groups, space, ideology
• Ethics of connectedness and linked fate
• Structures, policies, institutions actively
  disconnect us whereas they could proactively
  connect us

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Coalition Building and Collaboration

• Action-linked intervention should focus on
  multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalitions
• Leadership and coalition building will be vital
  to creating the political momentum for change
• Regional actors must have an inclusive series of
  conversations that foregrounds equity
• The capacity to coordinate and move various
  initiatives forward must be developed
• Residents can assist in developing public support
  for the policy reforms needed

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Collaboration Looking for the Turning Point

• Instead of focusing on the tipping point, we need
  to better define what we require to reach the
  turning point
• What convergence of positive actions will
  accelerate action?
• Pushing beyond the turning point threshold
  requires an intervention strategy to positively
  transform the physical, social, economic, and
  political environment

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Kirwan Institute work

• Conceptual work (structural racism, democratic
  merit, law review articles)
• Strategic advising (school system restructuring
  in light of Parents)
• Communities of Opportunity mapping and framing
  projects (Chicago, Austin, Baltimore)
• Technical and data assistance (GIS, statistics)

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Communities of Opportunity

• Everyone should have fair access to the critical
  opportunity structures needed to succeed in life
• Affirmatively connecting people to opportunity
  creates positive, transformative change in
  communities

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Cleveland Equitable Regionalism

• Commissioned by the Presidents Council
• Funding from the Cleveland Foundation
• First major discussion on regionalism structured
  and led by African American and City leadership
• Moves away from city versus suburb model

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Building Support Putting Racial Disparities On
the Map

• Opportunity Mapping
• Racial disparities often have a spatial component
• Maps provide a strong visual
• Opportunity mapping provides us with a tool for
  analyzing the dynamics of opportunity within a
  metropolitan area
• Value from layering various opportunity domains
  (education, health care, transportation, jobs)

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Methodology Indicator Categories (Workshop)

• Education
• Student/Teacher ratio? Test scores? Student
  mobility?
• Economic/Employment Indicators
• Unemployment rate? Proximity to employment? Job
  creation?
• Neighborhood Quality
• Median home values? Crime rate? Housing vacancy
  rate?
• Mobility/Transportation Indicators
• Mean commute time? Access to public transit?
• Health Environmental Indicators
• Access to health care? Exposure to toxic waste?
  Proximity to parks or open space?

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Thompson v. HUD
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Baltimore Opportunity and Subsidized Housing

• Subsidized housing opportunities in Baltimore are
  generally clustered in the regions lowest
  opportunity neighborhoods

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Thank you! Questions or Comments?
www.KirwanInstitute.org