Talking About Race: Moving Toward a Transformative Dialogue

1
Talking About Race
Moving Toward a Transformative
Dialogue

• Tom Rudd, Senior Researcher
• Student-Faculty-Staff Brown Bag
• Michael E. Moritz College of Law
• February 5, 2009

2
Presentation Overview

• What is race?
• Why should we talk about race?
• Why is it difficult to talk about race in a
  transformative way?
• What are the consequences if we do not
  talk about race?
• Energizing a transformative dialogue
• Strategies for effective inter-racial dialogue

3
What Is Race

• Biology?
• All humans today are 99.9 genetically identical,
  and most of the variation that does occur is in
  the difference between males and females and our
  unique personal traits.
• Anatomical Traits?
• Anatomical traits that are thought to identify a
  particular race are often found extensively in
  other populations.
• Self-Identification?
• When asked to provide personal family information
  for the 2000 census, about 7 million people
  reported that their ancestry included two or more
  races.
• Social Construction
• Social scientists generally agree that race is a
  socially constructed phenomenon. The American
  Anthropological Associations statement on race
  states that physical variations in the human
  species have no meaning except the social ones
  that humans put on them.

Social Constructs - Definitions of Key Race
Relations Terms. Accessed at
http//racerelations.about.com/od/skillsbuildingre
sources/g/socialconstruct.htm
3
4
Why We Should Talk About Race

• Research suggests that even when we are not
  talking about race, we are thinking about it.
• Race has been, and continues to be a strong force
  in determining how opportunity and resources are
  distributed in our society.
• Race influences many of the important decisions
  we make in our personal, professional, and social
  lives where we live, who our friends are, which
  political candidates we vote for, which social
  programs we support

4
5
Why We Should Talk About Race Challenging
Implicit Bias

• Implicit Bias
• Research suggests that most of us are guided by a
  set of very subtle symbolic attitudes that
  develop over time from our earliest
  experiencesattitudes like racial prejudice or
  liberal/conservative political ideology.
• These attitudes, operating in our unconscious
  (also called subconscious) mind are usually
  invisible to us and can control our position on
  critical issues like affirmative action and
  school integration.
• Negative unconscious attitudes about race are
  called implicit bias or symbolic racism.

5
6
Why We Should Talk About Race Challenging
Implicit Bias

• Very often, unconscious attitudes about race are
  in conflict with attitudes located in our
  conscious mindwhat we believe we think about
  race.
• Drew Westen writes that our unconscious
  attitudes are less egalitarian than our conscious
  attitudes and that most White Americansincluding
  many who hold consciously progressive values and
  attitudesharbor negative associations toward
  people of color.
• When we talk about race, we have the opportunity
  to
  examine and challenge our implicit bias
  and
  reinforce our conscious beliefs.

6
The Political Brain The Role of Emotion in
Deciding the Fate of the Nation,
7
Why It Is Difficult to Talk About Race in a
Transformative Way

• Implicit bias
• U.S. history of violence, repression, and
  injustice toward people of color
• Feelings of resentment, guilt, and hostility
• Color blind racism
• Strategic color blindness fear of being
  labeled a racist
• Lack of information about consequences of racial
  inequality
• Failure to actively envision how a true
  Democracy should look

8
Consequences of Not Talking About Race

• Colorblind racism is reinforced.
• Race-based social economic inequality is
  trivialized.
• Prevailing notions of group privilege and social
  hierarchy are strengthened.
• A post racial attitude gains salience.

8
9
Colorblind Racism

• Since the civil rights acts of the 1960s, racism
  is a thing of the past.
• There is full equality in the society now that
  all people have rights under the law.
• All Americans have an equal opportunity to
  achieve successPresident Obama, Oprah Winfrey,
  and Tiger Woods are proof
• Our cities are hyper-segregated not because of
  structural racialization but because people of
  color choose to live only with other people of
  color no matter how negative the environment
  might be.

9
10
Ignoring Racial Disparities

• Poverty rates for African Americans and Native
  Americans are nearly double the national poverty
  rate.
• Across the country, the high school drop out rate
  for White students was 6.0 in 2005 while the
  rates for African American and Latino students
  were 10.4 and 22.4 respectively.
• In Columbus (Ohio) the 2003-2004 high school
  graduation rate in city schools was 40.9
  compared to 82.9 percent in the suburbs.
  Roughly 60 of students in Columbus city schools
  are African American compared to some 12 in
  Columbus suburban schools.
•  In 2007, 31.8 of Whites had attained four or
  more years of college compared to 18.7 for
  Blacks and 12.7 for Latinos.
• Native Americans die from tuberculosis at a rate
  650 higher than the general population and are
  four times more likely to die of diabetes.

Data Sources Ohio Department of Education U.S.
Bureau of the Census Infoplease.com
10
11
Emerging Post Racialism

• No more excuses.
• Race doesnt matter any more.
• An African American president proves that race
  doesnt matter.
• Now, everybody has an equal chance.
• There are no more racial barriers.

11
12
Moving Toward A Transformative Dialogue What
We Need to Do

• Reassess the importance of Individual racism.
• Understand and illuminate structural
  racialization.
• Rethink the current connection between merit
  and Democratic values.
• Promote targeted universalism.
• Expose the linked fate of all Americans.
• Reject false dichotomies.
• Create space for everyone in the dialogue.
• Understand the work that race is doing in
  
  the society.

12
13
A Transformative Dialogue Reassess the
Importance of Individual Racism

• The word racism is commonly understood to refer
  to instances in which an individual intentionally
  or unintentionally targets others for negative
  treatment because of their skin color.
• This individual view of racism is too limited.
• Our society is a complex system of organizations,
  institutions, individuals, processes, and
  policies.
• Racialized outcomes are created and perpetuated
  by interactions and arrangements within this
  system.

RACIALIZED OUTCOMES DO NOT REQUIRE RACIST ACTORS.
13
14
A Transformative Dialogue
Understand Structural Racialization

• A structural racialization perspective helps us
  to see the connections between seemingly
  independent opportunity structures. For
  example
• The federal government accelerated White
  migration to the suburbs by subsidizing home
  mortgages for Whites through the National Housing
  Act of 1934.
• As Whites left the cities, the quality of housing
  and schools declined.
• Today, hyper-segregation in metropolitan regions
  leads to low performing schools.
• Low performing schools are linked to high drop
  out rates and low rates of educational
  attainment.
• Low educational attainment is linked to poor
  diet.
• Poor diet is linked to poor health.
• Poor health is linked to lowered life expectancy.
  

14
15
A Transformative Dialogue
Understand the Importance of Framing

• Framing is the way that messages about race are
  presented to their audiences.
• Framing is also the way that these messages are
  actually seen and
  interpreted by audiences.
• Frames appeal to both conscious and unconscious
  
  attitudes. If information does not fit
  an individuals
  
  internal frame, it will probably be
  rejected.
• Labels are important
• Affirmative Action Special
  privilege Reverse Discrimination
• Equal Opportunity Fundamental
  American Value

15
16
A Transformative Dialogue Challenge The
Conventional Meaning of Merit

• Merit is traditionally used to award opportunity
  and resources to privileged populations.
• Merit reinforces feelings of entitlement and
  social hierarchy.
• Traditionally, merit measures what individuals
  have done, not what they might do.
• Merit can be used creatively to energize
  Democratic values. For example
• In college admissions, merit is measured on the
  basis of past academic achievement and
  performance on standardized tests
• This practice leads to an unbalanced distribution
  of opportunity and a lack of substantive
  diversity in the academy
• Democratic Merit challenges the academy to
  operationalize merit in a way that promotes the
  conditions necessary for a thriving democracy and
  to define and use merit as an incentive system to
  reward those actions that a society values.

17
A Transformative Dialogue
Promote Targeted Universalism

• Universal policies that are race-neutral do not
  address the multiple opportunity barriers that
  impact populations of color.
• Targeted universalism is a strategy that
  addresses the needs of marginalized groups while
  also addressing the needs of the larger
  population.
• Targeted universalism recognizes that different
  groups are situated differently relative to the
  institutions, opportunities, and resources
  available in the society.
• Targeted universalism requires policies that
  proactively connect all people in a geographic
  region to jobs, stable housing, and good schools
  while recognizing the unique spatial
  situatedness of African American and Latino
  communities.

powell, john a. Race, Place, and
Opportunity. The American Prospect Sept. 22,
2008. Accessed at http//www.prospect.org/cs/art
icles?articlerace_place_and_opportunity
17
18
A Transformative Dialogue
Expose Our Linked Fate

• Too often, we envision race as a system that
  separates groups from each other with durable
  boundaries around each group.
• This view supports the notion that disparities
  impacting one group have no impact on other
  groups.
• Talking about race creates an opportunity to
  expose and illuminate the linked fate that is
  shared by all Americanshow inequality for some
  groups impacts the entire society.

Negative economic consequences for ALL AMERICANS
Reduced competitiveness in the global economy
Low-performing inner-city schools
Inequality in educational opportunity
18
19
A Transformative Dialogue
Reject False Dichotomies

• Too often, we polarize what we believe to be
  true.
• Honest or Dishonest
• Hard Working or Lazy
• Liberal or Conservative
• Republican or Democrat
• These false dichotomies distort our view of the
  world, obscure a more nuanced assessment of
  reality (some conservatives have liberal ideas),
  and create barriers to a transformative dialogue
  on race.

20
A Transformative Dialogue Bring Everyone to
the Table

• Too often, issues that touch on race and social
  justice are perceived as Black issues or White
  issues.
• In the U.S., issues about racial equality,
  opportunity, and social justice are fundamentally
  issues about Democracy.
• Everyone has a stake in guaranteeing that
  Democratic principles are fully implemented in
  the society.
• So, everyone is a stakeholder in the
  transformative dialogue on race

21
A Transformative Dialogue
Understand the Work That Race Does

• Although race is an abstract social construction,
  it continues to be a dominant force in American
  society.
• Investigating and understanding the work that
  race does in the society can assist in bringing
  about a true Democracy where
• opportunity is not limited by race, ethnicity or
  class
• democratic ideals inform social policy
• all people recognize and embrace the universal
  responsibility that each person has for the
  welfare of every other person.
• The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and
  Ethnicity is deeply engaged in this
  investigation

22
Strategies for Effective Inter-Racial Dialogue
About Race
23
Strategies for Effective Inter-Racial Dialogue
About Race
24
Strategies for Effective Inter-Racial Dialogue
About Race
25
Suggested Readings

• Blanding, Michael. Can We Talk? Ed.magazine
  Fall (2007). http//www.gse.harvard.edu/news_even
  ts/ed/2007/fall/features/race.html
• Datum, Beverly Daniel. Talking about Race,
  Learning about Racism The Application of Racial
  Identity Development Theory in the Classroom.
  Harvard Educational Review 62.1 (1992).
  http//www.stockton.edu/teaching/bildner/TalkingA
  boutRace.pdf
• Eliasoph, Nina. Everyday Racism in a Culture
  of Political Avoidance Civil Society, Speech,
  and Taboo. Social Problems 46 (1999) 479-502.
• Grant-Thomas, Andrew and Gary Orfield, eds.
  Twenty-First Century Color Lines Multiracial
  Change in Contemporary America. Philadelphia
  Temple University Press, 2008.
• Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and
  Ethnicity. Talking About Race Resource
  Notebook. Columbus, Ohio 2008.
• http//4909e99d35cada63e7f757471b7243be73e53e14.g
  ripelements.com/publications/Talking_about_race_re
  source_notebook_June_2008_1.pdf
• Mazzocco, Philip. The Dangers of Not Speaking
  About Race A Summary of Research Affirming the
  Merits of a Color-Conscious Approach to Racial
  Communication and Equity. Kirwan Institute for
  the Study of Race and Ethnicity, May 2006.
  http//4909e99d35cada63e7f757471b7243be73e53e14.gr
  ipelements.com/publications/TheDangersofNotTalking
  AboutRaceMay2006.pdf
• Morrison, Toni. On the Backs of Blacks. Time 2
  Dec. 1993 57. http//www.time.com/time/magazin
  e/article/0,9171,979736,00.html
• powell, john a. Race, Place, and Opportunity.
  The American Prospect Sept. 22, 2008.
  http//www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articlerace_p
  lace_and_opportunity
• Thinking Change Race, Framing and the Public
  Conversation on Diversity What Social Science
  Tells Advocates About Winning Support for Racial
  Justice Policies. Prepared by the Center for
  Social Inclusion for the Kirwan Institute for the
  Study of Race and Ethnicity, The Ohio State
  University (August 2005). (http//www.diversity
  advancementproject.org/media/ThinkingChange.pdf)

26
433 Mendenhall Laboratory 125 South Oval
Mall Columbus, OH 43210 Phone (614)
688-5429 Fax [phone] www.kirwaninst
itute.org