Impact of a Community Divided: Moving Forward

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Impact of a Community Divided Moving Forward

• john a. powell
• Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
  and Ethnicity
• Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
  Moritz College of Law
• Presentation for the Anti-Defamation League
• Weaving Our Community Speaker Series
• Thursday, May 29, 2008

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Presentation Overview

• Challenges
• Data on segregation, residential isolation,
  economic health
• Equitable Regionalism
• Understanding linked fate
• Insights from Cleveland, OH
• New opportunities to exploit
• Understand the role of framing
• Implicit bias
• Recommendations

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Challenges in Detroit

• Assessing the situation

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Detroits Demographics Race
http//factfinder.census.gov
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Residential Segregation / Integration
The dissimilarity index refers to the proportion
of one racial group that would need to relocate
to another neighborhood for that racial group to
be distributed across the metro area like the
reference racial group. "0" absolute
integration "100" absolute segregation
http//www.censusscope.org/us/m2160/chart_dissimil
arity.html
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Population changes in Southeast Michigan have
shifted much of the regions population to the
suburbs.
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Detroit City Suburb Disparity

• Regional City-Suburb Disparity Index 2000
  Economic well-being rankings
• Detroit Ranks 306 overall out of 331 regions (1
  is best, 331 worst)
• Breaking down that data

http//mumford.albany.edu/census/CityProfiles/Prof
iles/2160msaProfile.htm
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Comparative Regional Socio-Economic Health
Detroit and its Peer Regions
Detroit fares poorly in respect to socio-economic
health when compared to other large regions and
regions in the Great Lakes.
Ranking calculated from a 8 indicator index
measuring various economic, population and
socio-economic conditions for the metropolitan
regions.
Index Factors Business Starts, Job Change,
Poverty, Educational Attainment, Unemployment,
Population Growth, Housing Development, Vacancy
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Undercapitalized Cities Threats

• Population decline or stagnation regional sprawl
  and fragmentation
• Brain drain
• Declining tax base resulting in poor services
• Home value depreciation or stagnation
• Vacant land and foreclosure
• Concentrated poverty and severe racial isolation
• Employment de-concentration and limited new
  commercial/ residential investment
• Some gentrified neighborhoods may exist, but the
  majority of urban neighborhoods are in decline

Source For more information see Building a
New Framework for Community Development in Weak
Market Cities, prepared by Community Development
Partnership Network (April 2003)
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Undercapitalized Cities Opportunities

• Dense, efficient urban design, often with good
  public transportation and waterfronts
• Eds and meds (prominent educational and medical
  facilities)
• Cultural assets (museums, historic architecture,
  sports teams)
• History, regional identity
• People!
• Opportunity in disguise budget constraints ?
  new priorities (fix it first, regional
  collaborations)

Source Restoring Prosperity The State Role in
Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities by
Jennifer S. Vey, The Brookings Institution (May
2007)
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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?
• 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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Equitable Regionalism

• Understanding linked fate
• Insights from Cleveland

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We are all caught up in an inescapable network
of mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects
all indirectly. -The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
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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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Capital Market Credit crunch
Banks, police and courts saddled with foreclosures
Families lose their homes, wealth and safety
SUBPRIME LENDING We didnt care about the
canary...
Affected neighborhoods are being reduced to
ghost towns
Reduced spending and retail flight
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Why should others care about equity and inclusion?

• Why should those who are not marginalized care
  about equity challenges?
• A region and all its residents share a linked
  fate the problems affecting one community will
  eventually prove detrimental to the entire region
• To thrive, regions must be competitive in the
  global economy
• Inequality is a sign of an economically/socially
  inefficient region, where proper investments are
  not made in human capital, and where much of the
  population can not meet its creative potential

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Inequities Impact Everyone

• Isolation from opportunity results in lost
  productive and creative capacity, depriving a
  metropolitan area of its ability to compete and
  innovate
• Inequities create artificial impediments to
  economic development and affordable housing
• Disparities drive sprawling physical growth
  without job or population growth
• All of this can ultimately harm the quality of
  life for all residents

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Disparities and Regional Health

• Wasted Creative Capacity
• The wasted creative capacity associated with a
  lack of social, economic and educational
  opportunity drags down the competitive strength
  of the entire region.
• Fragmented Economic Voice
• To attract investment in the global economy,
  regions must act collectively to promote
  themselves, and they must align key
  infrastructure and assets to be more innovative,
  efficient and competitive.

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Disparities and Regional Health

• Inefficient Infrastructure and Government
  Services
• Regions that are highly fragmented into hundreds
  of local governments are often inefficient with
  respect to infrastructure and government
  services.
• Paying for Exclusion
• Residential segregation is fueled by exclusionary
  housing policies, but these policies come at a
  price for all residents.

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Disparities and Regional Health

• Sprawl and Quality of Life
• Residents keep moving in order to chase the
  elusive opportunities left in the region.
• The Central Citys Untapped Potential
• Urban areas are cultural, educational and medical
  centers and a signpost of regional health and
  identity.

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Disparities

• The greater the disparities, the more strain that
  is placed on the entire region.
• Regions within countries that have more equal
  incomes grow more quickly than those that do not.
• In a study of 85 U.S. cities and their suburbs,
  regions that had the largest income gap between
  those in the suburbs and those in the cities also
  had the slowest income and job growth for
  everyone. 

http//dollarsandsense.org/archives/2004/0704tilly
.html
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Reconsidering Disparities

• Data on disparities is not well-received when the
  numbers call attention to a group that is already
  stigmatized.
• Disparities do not always cause a decline in
  productivity.
• Example Back when women did not have a major
  presence in the workforce, their absence was not
  a hindrance to productivity due to the fact that
  they did not compete for jobs.
• So, are disparities always a problem?
• When do disparities become a communication
  problem?
• When do disparities become a policy problem?

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Understanding Spatial Segregation
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The Web of Opportunity

• Opportunities in our society are geographically
  distributed and often clustered throughout
  metropolitan areas.
• This creates winner and loser communities, or
  high and low opportunity communities

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The Distribution of Opportunities

• Opportunities should be fairly distributed
• Achieving a fair distribution, however, should
  not be looked at as a zero sum situation
• One group of people need not be lowered in
  order to lift up another group
• Focused efforts that create more opportunities
  for the poor can help expand the regional "pie,"
  not just re-divide it
• Instead, we should work to lift up all
  communities
• We need to think of ourselves as united We,
  the people

Pastor, Manuel Jr, et al. "Ch. 5  Only as Strong
as the Team."  Regions That Work  How Cities and
Suburbs Can Grow Together. Globalization and
Community, Vol. 6. Minneapolis U. of Minnesota
Press, 2000. 
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Exploring Opportunities

• Marginalized communities should be well connected
  to opportunities
• Fair access to these opportunity structures is
  limited by various spatial arrangements and
  policies, such as sprawl, exclusionary zoning,
  and fragmentation

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Sprawl, Inequity, and Economic Opportunity

• A 2001 Brookings Institution study found a
  significant relationship between fragmentation
  and job decentralization in the 100 largest metro
  areas.
• Job decentralization (or job sprawl) blocks
  access to employment for residents of the central
  city and inner-ring suburbs.

Job Sprawl in Michigan
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Sprawl, Fragmentation, and Housing Opportunity

• Sprawl and fragmentation reduce access to the
  housing market for low income residents
  (especially people of color).
• Suburban zoning regulations artificially drive up
  the cost of housing and do not allow enough
  rental housing.
• New housing is unaffordable to low income
  residents and most people of color.
• Disinvestment in the inner city reduces
• the asset value (wealth) of homeowners in inner
  city neighborhoods.

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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 the entire region?
  Future pathways of success?

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Transformative Change

• Transactional vs. Transformative
• A transactional approach assists individuals but
  does not alter the larger system of structures.
  It asserts that institutions are arranged
  appropriately individuals just need to
  negotiate them better.
• A transformative perspective changes the
  arrangement of societal structures and
  consequently alters relations to opportunity.

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Equitable Regionalism

Equitable regionalism affirms the need for every
community to have a voice in the resource
development and future of the region. It builds
and sustains region-wide, collaborative
institutions with inclusive representation and a
common goal improving the health of the whole
and expanding opportunity for all people and
communities across the region. Equitable
regionalism requires comprehensive and strategic
investment in people and neighborhoods.
Regionalism Growing Together to Expand
Opportunity for All. 2007. Summary report, pp.
1-2.
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Equitable Regionalism

• Regional equity is more than just reducing
  disparities
• In practice Providing opportunities in
• Housing
• Education
• Workforce development
• Economic development

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Why Regional Cooperation is Important to Regional
Health

• Equity based regional policies address the
  following
• Regional school strategies to address segregation
  and concentrated school poverty
• Regional affordable housing strategies
• Regional transportation/mobility strategies
• Strategies to curb sprawl and reinvest in
  existing neighborhoods (with infrastructure and
  other resources)
• Strategies to make decisions regionally and to
  share resources (taxes)

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Equitable Regionalism

• The citys economic future is dependent on its
  most plentiful natural resource, human capacity
  and innovation
• Without addressing the social, racial and
  interregional inequities facing the region, the
  future of the entire region is compromised

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Regional Equity An opportunity based approach

• Strategies for connecting to opportunity
• A people-focused approach that gives families
  more choice in where to live and go to school
• An in-place strategy that seeks to bring
  investment and resources into distressed
  communities
• A linkages approach that connects low-income
  neighborhoods and residents to opportunity
  through improved transportation and social or
  business networking

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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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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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The Role of Housing

• Affordable housing must be deliberately and
  intelligently connected to
• high performing schools, sustainable employment,
  necessary transportation infrastructure,
  childcare, and institutions that facilitate civic
  and political activity.

Housing is a component of a larger set of
interrelated structures that are both affected by
housing and have impacts on the attainment of
safe, stable housing.
Housing is critical in determining access to
opportunity.
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Economic Segregation and Racial Segregation in
Public Schools Cleveland and Akron, OH High
poverty schools (Red and Yellow) are concentrated
in African American neighborhoods (areas in Gray)
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Successes in Cleveland

• Achieving success in Cleveland was a process that
  took approximately three years.
• In June 2007, the city created a position in the
  Mayors Cabinet for a Chief of Regional
  Development.
• An anti-poaching agreement was enacted.
• Avon Lake interchange
• 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers practice facility

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New Opportunities

• Understanding the role of framing
• Implicit bias

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Framing

• How messages are framed affects how they are
  perceived
• Conversations about race and diversity must be
  honed to ensure that messages are effective

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Race and Framing Hurricane 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.
• Racial attitudes are often internally
  conflicting.
• A persons conscious beliefs can disagree with
  his/her implicit biases.
• 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.

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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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Priming

• Priming activates mental associations.
• Telling someone a scary story activates a frame
  of fear
• Claude Steeles stereotype threat
• Example 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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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 We, the people

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Talking About Race ---- (Dont)

• -- Present disparities only
• -- Frame action as robbing Peter to pay Paul
  (zero-sum)
• -- 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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The Role of the Environment

• An areas environment can affect our unconscious
  networks, attitudes, and interests.
• Attitudes respond to public policies, financial
  circumstances, etc.
• When a clash of discourse occurs, the question
  remains Is it a problem of design? Human
  nature?
• Financial circumstances? Something else?
• How do we move the discourse
• in a different trajectory?

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Moving Forward

• Recommendations

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Linked Fates Transformative Change

• Our fates are linked, yet our fates have been
  socially constructed as disconnected (especially
  through the categories of gender, race, class,
  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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Recommendations

• Move discussions about race beyond the personal
  and psychological
• Recognize that people are rarely moved by facts
• We are not completely rational beings
• Values, emotions/feelings must be taken into
  consideration
• Continue to take a regional approach when working
  to revitalize and transform Detroit
• Look to other cities that have achieved successes
  to serve as models for Detroits progress

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Coalition Building

• 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 to revitalize the
  region

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Questions or Comments? For More Information
Visit Us On-Linewww.KirwanInstitute.org
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Appendix
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Quick Quiz

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Question 1

• What is the most racially segregated region of
  the United States?

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Answer 1

• What is the most racially segregated region of
  the United States?
• Midwest and Northeast

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Question 2

• What region of the United States is the most
  racially integrated?

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Answer 2

• What region of the United States is the most
  racially integrated?
• South

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Question 3

• In the North Carolina presidential primary, 91
  of blacks voted for Obama, but a large percentage
  of blacks voted for Clinton. Can you explain
  this?

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Answer 3

• In the North Carolina presidential primary, 91
  of blacks voted for Obama, but a large percentage
  of blacks voted for Clinton. Can you explain
  this?
• Bill Clinton (1992 1996)

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Question 4

• Prior to 1964, white men typically voted
  Democratic, especially in the South. Following
  1964, they rarely do. What provoked this change?

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Answer 4

• Prior to 1964, white men typically voted
  Democratic, especially in the South. Following
  1964, they rarely do. What provoked this change?
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
• the Southern Strategy

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Southern Strategy Call Me, Harold
Click on black square to the left
OR http//www.youtube.com/watch?vkkiz1_d1GsA