Latinosass Educational and Economic Opportunities in the U'S' Through a Structural Racism Lens

1
Latinos/ass Educational and Economic
Opportunities in the U.S. Through a Structural
Racism Lens
Hiram José Irizarry Osorio, Research
Associate Latino Law Summit 2005 Columbus,
OH October 20, 2005.
2
Collaborators

• KIs Research Associates
• Denis Rhoden, Jr.
• Stephen Menendian
• Angela Stanley
• Samir Gambhir

3
Agenda

• AWARENESS
• Regional Equity Index (REI)
• Sample Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
• Columbus, OH MSA
• Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA PMSA
• Miami, FL PMSA
• New York, NY PMSA
• Ohios Education Segregation
• Race, Structural Racism (SR), and Latin America
• Understanding
• Intervention
• Concluding Comments
• New Paradigm
• AGENDA Multiple Fronts
• ACTIONS Coalition-building and Long-term

4
AWARENESS
5
AWARENESS

• Disparities for Latinos exist regarding
  educational and economic opportunities (and
  attainment).
• These problems are not uni-dimensional, thus, our
  solutions need to be complex, multi-pronged, and
  long-term.
• There is a need for a new paradigm based on
  connectedness.

6
Regional Equity Index (REI)
7
REI What Could an Equity Index Measure?

• The framing capability of an index along the
  dimensions of space, time and interests allows
  for useful socioeconomic comparisons and policy
  implication analysis.

8
REI What Could an Equity Index Measure?

• The purposes of this Equity Index is to compare
  the level of justness and fairness
  experienced by different racial groups using a
  series of observations with the experiences of
  Whites as a reference point.

9
REI A Race-Based Equity Index as an Information
Tool

• The quantitative assessment of equity requires a
  benchmark and a series of observations for
  comparison.
• For the purposes of this study the White
  population was chosen as the benchmark and
  Non-White groups as comparative observations.

10
REI Indicators

• Employment
• Education
• Neighborhoods
• Mobility
• Housing

11
REI Indicators

• Employment
• This indicator selects variables which allow for
  the analysis of labor force quality and access
  for each racial category.

12
REI Indicators

• Education
• This indicator selects variables which allow for
  the analysis of the adult (25 and older)
  populations educational outcomes in terms of
  level of education as well as the level of
  poverty experienced by school-aged children by
  racial category.

13
REI Indicators

• Neighborhoods
• This indicator selects variables which allow for
  the analysis of the concentration of poverty at
  the neighborhood level, and the proportion of
  vacant properties within a neighborhood by the
  racial composition of the neighborhood.
• These variables serve as a proxy for incivility,
  lack of investment, and general social
  dislocation.

14
REI Indicators

• Mobility
• This indicator selects variables which allow for
  the analysis of the relative ease of access to
  the regional job market as well as a households
  ability to reach the growing job opportunities in
  periphery settings.

15
REI Indicators

• Housing
• This indicator selects variables which allow for
  the analysis of the financial propensity of
  households by race/ethnicity to afford a
  median-price home and the financial strain
  experienced by homeowners.

16
Results by Region For Latino Disparity
17
Sample MSAs
18
Sample MSAs

• Columbus, OH MSA
• Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA PMSA
• Miami, FL PMSA
• New York, NY PMSA

19
Latino Groups U.S. and our 4 MSAs
Source Neighborhood Change Database, 2000
20
Median HH Income 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
21
Median HH Income 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
22
Per Capita Income 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
23
Per Capita Income 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
24
Below Poverty 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
25
Below Poverty 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
26
College Educated 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
27
College Educated 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
28
Professional 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
29
Professional 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
30
Unemployed 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
31
Unemployed 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
32
Vacant Housing 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
33
Vacant Housing 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
34
Homeowners 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
35
Homeowners 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
36
Median Home Value 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
37
Foreign Born 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
38
Foreign Born 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
39
Recent Immigrants 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
40
Recent Immigrants 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
41
Language other than English 1990
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
42
Language other than English 2000
Source Separate and Unequal Database Mumford
Center, SUNY Albany U.S. Census Bureau
43
The proportion of Latinos in the Columbus MSA is
relatively small.
44
Latino population change is strongest at the
edges of Franklin County
45
Between 1980 and 1990, the region saw limited
shifts in the number of new households falling
below the poverty line.
46
The 2000 snapshot illustrates a regional
dispersion of adults over the age 25 not
possessing a High School Diploma.
47
Latinos are heavily clustered in southern and
central Los Angeles.
48
Between 1970 and 2000, there has been a shift in
the concentration of Latinos to north as well as
south LA.
49
Between 1980 and 1990, poverty grew among Latinos
living in central Los Angeles, while southern LA
saw no change.
50
In 2000, significant portions of central Los
Angeles and parts of Northern and Southern LA
Latinos over the age 25 did not possess a High
School Diploma.
51
Latinos are concentrated in central city and its
vicinity.
52
Suburban shift of Latinos between 1970 and 2000
to central and north west areas of the county is
evident
53
Poverty Change between 1980 and 1990 suggests
increased poverty among Latinos living in
Northwest Miami. The central areas did not see
much change.
54
In 2000, fewer Latino areas, compared to other
MSAs, had above 50 of the population over the
age of 25 not possessing a High School Diploma.
55
The proportion of Latinos in the city is
concentrated in the Bronx and parts of Manhattan,
Queens and Brooklyn.
56
Population shifts have shown Latinos leaving New
York City for suburban environments.
57
Between 1980 and 1990, the region saw increases
in concentrated poverty in Upper Manhattan and
the southeast Bronx, and improvements areas like
Rockland County in the number of new households
falling below the poverty line.
58
The 2000 snapshot illustrates strong
concentrations of adults over the age 25, not
possessing a High School Diploma, in the central
city areas.
59
Ohios Education Segregation
60
E.g., Latinos in Columbus Schools

• Latinos are affected by the long history of
  segregation policies in the Columbus School
  system and its modern legacy.
• 1955 Brown v. Board of Education ( addressed de
  jure segregation)
• 1973 Keyes v. Denver School District No. I
  (addressed de facto segregation)
• 1973 Penick v. Columbus Board of Education
  (addressed de facto segregation)
• i.e. boundaries of the Columbus school district
  into a residential development redline.

61
Before Brown

• From 1804 until the passage of the Fifteenth
  Amendment in 1870, Blacks were stripped of most
  citizenship rights in Ohio.

62
Before Brown

• An 1829 state law barred blacks from attending
  property tax-funded common schools. As a result,
  Columbus blacks built their own school in 1840.
  Eight years later, the Ohio Legislature
  authorized the creation of segregated schools.
• In 1888, the Ohio Supreme Court declared
  segregated schools to be unconstitutional.

63
Before Brown

• In the absence of legally sanctioned segregation,
  a caste-conscious code of custom had taken firm
  root in Columbus by 1910.
• During the postwar real estate boom, white
  developers began using restrictive covenants and
  deeds and exclusionary zoning to preserve the
  racial homogeneity of the new suburbs and
  subdivisions.

64
Before Brown

• Federally underwritten long-term loans sparked an
  explosion of single-family home building from
  which blacks were solidly excluded by a number of
  discriminatory strategies.

65
Before Brown

• As a result of these tactics and policies,
  Columbus became a city with increasing
  residential segregation. It was easy for the
  Board of Education to manipulate attendance
  boundaries to reinforce the racial transition of
  neighborhoods.
• The result was five all black schools by 1943.

66
Brown in the North

• By the 1960s, the Supreme Court had yet to
  address the question of whether or not Brown v.
  Board of Education applied to the de facto
  segregation of northern school systems.
• In 1973, The Supreme Court ruled in Keyes v.
  Denver School District No. I that even though no
  statutory dual system ever existed, the
  foreseeably segregative acts of board members and
  administrators constituted unconstitutional state
  action.
• By rendering the distinction between de facto and
  de jure school segregation virtually irrelevant,
  Keyes threw open the door to desegregation in
  northern and western cities.

67
Penick v. Columbus Board of Education

• A coalition of Columbus civil rights groups filed
  suit in 1973 marking the start of twelve years of
  school desegregation litigation in Columbus in
  the case of Penick.
• Penick wound its way to the Supreme Court of the
  United States where the Court upheld the finding
  of the District Court and Sixth Circuit Court of
  Appeals that the Columbus School Board had
  pursued and was pursuing a course of conduct that
  had the purpose and effect of causing and
  perpetuating segregation in the public schools in
  violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

68
Penick

• The Penick decision illustrated additional means
  by which the Columbus School board had sustained
  segregation new school siting, optional and
  discontiguous attendance zones, gerrymandered
  pupil assignment boundaries, and race-based
  employment and appointment practices.
• Although school authorities do not have control
  over the housing segregation in Columbus, the
  Court found that the actions of school
  authorities had a significant impact upon housing
  patterns. The interaction of housing and schools
  operates to promote the segregation of each.
• The apparent racial neutrality of neighborhood
  schools only served to obscure and preserve the
  symbiotic efforts of housing developers and city
  school officials to maintain segregation.

69
Implementation

• Although Penick was successfully implemented,
  desegregation in Columbus failed to ensure equal
  educational opportunity not because it was
  intrinsically incompatible with the citys steady
  geographic and economic growth.

70
Implementation

• Before the first buses rolled in 1979, the threat
  of desegregation had turned the boundaries of the
  Columbus school district into a residential
  development redline. Busing simply solidified
  and intensified this already extant process.

71
The Aftermath of Penick

• The city borders were diverging since 1965. The
  growing suburban areas disengaged Columbus's
  growth from the growth of the Columbus schools.
  The health of the city school district was
  sacrificed to the expansion of the city itself.
  This resulted in concentration of poor and
  African American students within the central city
  school district and the emergence of a
  politically powerful form of defensive activism
  within white suburban systems (NIMBY).
• Almost instantaneously, Penick shaped and
  solidified residential development patterns in
  Columbus, transforming the entire city school
  district into a no new housing zone. Other
  private and public resources inexorably followed
  the migration to the suburbs sewer lines, water
  mains, roads, property taxes, political clout,
  commercial development, employment opportunities
  creating a cycle in which the exodus of
  resources worsened the districts existing woes,
  in turn accelerating the exodus of resources.

72
Percentage of Students of Color in
Predominantly-Minority Elementary and Secondary
Schools
Trends in School Segregation in the U.S.
Source Barbara Reskin, http//faculty.washington.
edu/reskin/AALSdiscrimsys5.ppt
73
Disparate High School Graduation Rates
74
Disparate Highest Degree Attainments
75
Race, SR, and Latin America
76
Defining Race

• Historically, biological definitions of race
  explained (and produced) the secondary status of
  people of color.
• Cultural understandings have more recently been
  used to explain disparities which persist.
• In contrast, we suggest that race
• is a social construction
• Is produced as dialectical and hierarchical
• gives power to white peopleto legitimize the
  dominance of white people over non-white people.
  (Western States Center 2)
• and distributes benefits (and disadvantages)
  accordingly.

77
Latin America and Race

• Structural racism reproduces races. (Manning
  Marable)
• Mestizaje links Latin American nations BUT there
  is also a hierarchy of mixed nations, according
  to a global scale of whiteness. (Peter Wade)

78
Latin America and Race

• Diversity within homogeneity this ambivalence is
  no accident but one of the central paradoxes of
  nationalism (i.e., hierarchy of class, culture,
  region, and race). (Peter Wade)

79
Structural Racism
How do we understand racial disparities if they
are not explained by personal discrimination or
explicit laws and policies?

• Structures are sets of mutually sustaining
  schemas or relationships and resources that
  empower and constrain social action and that tend
  to be reproduced by that social action. (Sewell)
• Structural racism is both a model for
  understanding the reality of how racism functions
  and a way to refigure necessary intervention.

80
Understanding Structural Racism

• Focuses on
• Racialized outcomes instead of racist individuals
• Interactivity between institutions (regardless of
  intent)
• De facto disadvantage as a result of the
  historical legacy of discrimination

81
Considerations for an SR Response

• In order to respond to the network of power
  shaping SR, the interconnecting relational web
  within which individuals live and act must be
  investigated and articulated.
• Multiple levels of leadership that cut across
  fields and borders must be identified and
  mobilized.
• We must consider the larger relationship between
  opportunity structures and institutional
  inequities.

82
SR approachExample of Interconnections
83
SR Frameworks Contributions

• Put in a different manner
• Giving them fish
• Exclusion, but with charity.
• Letting them fish
• De jure inclusion, BUT the magical assumption of
  equal opportunities.
• Teaching them to fish
• Amending past exclusion, questioning the magical
  assumption of equal opportunities, BUT still
  assuming that the arrangements are fine and there
  is something wrong/missing with them.

84
SR Frameworks Contributions

• Proposed Extensions of the latter by an SR
  approach,
• Making sure that the teaching to fish is
  working
• Monitoring outcomes judging teaching coherence
  AND its capability-enhancing characteristics.
• Learning to fish together
• This action of monitoring, while inclusive, must
  also be a TWO-WAY STREET because as Seneca stated
  The process is a mutual one. People learn as
  they teach. Hence, questioning the arrangements
  TOGETHER.

85
Concluding Comments
86
New Paradigm

• Our society cannot be de-racialized solely by
  material redistribution (e.g., redistribution of
  wealth), nor by only achieving numerical
  diversity in our institutions (affirmative
  action).
• Deliberate collective action to address the
  presence and construction of boundaries of
  exclusion is required.
• This approach must promote connectedness, not
  isolation.
• Such connectedness should be explicit and
  constitutive of this new paradigm.

87
Connectedness

• This is NOT SOLELY a remedy to lift up the poor
  and people of color, but a recognition and
  embracing of our differences within our greatest
  commonality Humanity.
• Without re-conceptualizing structures
  relationships everyone will come up short.
• Hence, deconstructing exclusionary boundaries
  benefits everyone it lifts us all, spiritually
  and pragmatically.
• Although boundaries have been redrawn countless
  times, they always deprive people of color of
  full membership to the detriment of ALL members
  of society.

88
AGENDA

• Labor market supply-side strategies
• E.g., Funding Equity, not equality
• Mobility strategies
• E.g., Opportunity-based housing
• Labor-market demand-side strategies
• E.g., Transitional social safety nets
• Anti-discrimination strategies
• E.g., Monitoring the enforcing of existing
  mechanisms

89
ACTION

• We need to build coalitions at the grass-root
  level where the communities are.
• We need to differentiate between electoral and
  goal oriented coalitions. E.g.,
• Mayor Bradley coalition from 1973-early 1990s
• Mayor Villaraigosa 2005 coalition
• vis-à-vis
• Proposition 209 (L.A. AGENDA)

90
Coalition Building

• In general, successful and lasting multiethnic
  and multiracial coalitions require
• similar ideologies
• common interests
• strong leadership

91
Successes and Barriers in Los Angeles

• Successes
• Electoral Coalitions
• Mayor Bradley coalition from 1973-early 1990s
• Mayor Villaraigosa 2005 coalition
• Non-Electoral Coalitions
• Community-based issue oriented organizations such
  as the Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance

• Barriers
• Changing structural arrangements
• Racial and ethnic tensions
• Demographic and population changes
• Spatial structure of Los Angeles
• Competition for jobs between Latinos and Blacks

92
Barriers in New York

• The Great Anomaly
• New York has all the resources that would suggest
  the ability to create and sustain liberal
  multiracial and multiethnic electoral coalitions
  for the purposes of incorporation, but such
  efforts have been largely unsuccessful. Why?
• New York remains a strong political machine
  culture.
• New Yorks Latino and Black populations are
  diverse and politically divided.
• The notion of liberalism has changed in such a
  way that minority political empowerment no longer
  advances the interests of White liberals.

93
ACTION

• We need transformative thinking to actualize this
  new paradigm.
• Materially and Culturally dialectic, discursive,
  relational.

94
ACTION

• We can make progress toward realizing a new
  paradigm but we need to work together and
  question what we have/are today in order to be
  able to achieve that craved EQUAL HUMANITY, in a
  Socratic sense.

95

• As Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela states
• I am not truly free if I am taking someone
  elses freedom, just as surely as I am not free
  when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed
  and the oppressor alike are robbed of their
  humanity.

96
www.KirwanInstitute.org
97
References

• Sheldon Danziger, Deborah Reed, and Tony N.
  Brown, Poverty and Prosperity Prospects for
  Reducing Racial/Ethnic Economic Disparities in
  the United States. UNRISD, 2004.
• Manning Marable, Structural Racism and American
  Democracy Historical and Theoretical
  Perspectives. UNRISD, 2001.

98
References

• William H. Sewell, Jr., A Theory of Structure
  Duality, Agency, and Transformation. American
  Journal of Sociology, Volume 98, Number 1 (July)
  1-29, 1992.
• Peter Wade, Racial Identity and nationalism a
  theoretical view from Latin America. Ethnic and
  Racial Studies Vol. 24 No. 5 (September), pp.
  845-865, 2001.