MoveSmart.org is 'slightly delayed blogging' (there's limited wifi access in the room; this will be udpated as frequently as possible) for the IDHR-sponsored “Race & Public Policy: A Dialogue to Remember” on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at the Thompson Center.

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10:40am – Bobbie Wanzo, the deputy director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, calls the room to order and introduces the panel. She frames the discussion as a celebration of Human Rights Day 2009, for which the United Nations has set as a theme “celebrating diversity”. She notes that IDHR is a 'human rights' agency and operates out of a human rights framework. IDHR has produced brochures and materials in 11 languages (and is working to expand into even more) and has staff that is fluent in Spanish, Polish, and Korean. They have trained more than 12,000 individuals over the past year.

10:45am -Wanzo introduces Terry Keleher, who is a writer for RaceWire and is the director of the Midwest Office of the Applied Research Center (ARC). He introduces a 10-minute video from a conference that ARC hosted at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The conference was focused on pro-active solutions to get us closer to equity and inclusion; all of the speakers were recorded and the video is a “best of” reel from that event. Keleher says that when we're not directly addressing equity we are often contributing to racism. There is research that most people harbor bias towards other social groupings, and the higher you rank in that bias the more likely you are to discriminate (you can take the quiz online at Project Implicit). He says that we have a structure of racial inequality that we cannot just ignore, we cannot wish it away. He concludes introduction by noting that we are going to be addressing race explicitly but not exclusively – there are many dynamics of human rights.

NOTE: ARC is having their next national conference in Chicago on September 24-25, 2010; you can get more information here.

10:52am – The ARC video plays http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0R8pPj0UaQ

11:05am – Marian Honel, the Fair Housing Dierector at the Illinois Department of Human Rights, takes over after the video and notes that she'll be asking a number of questions to the panelists. Panelists include Jim Bennett, the Midwest Regional Director for Lambda Legal. Other panelists include Delmarie Cobb, owner of The Publicity Works, Rene Luna of Access Living, and Doug Schenkelberg, the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights.

11:09am – Honel's first question for the panel is, “For the communities that you work with, what kind of racial disparities do you see; are they being addressed; and are things improving, getting worse, or staying the same?”

11:10am - Luna is the first panelist to address the question and begins by saying that the intersection of race and disability is often overlooked. He notes that the movement for disability rights began as a white, middle class movement. He says that the major legislation passed in the 1970s that advanced disability rights and equity were not well implemented and it wasn't until the ADA in the 1990s that real teeth were added to the laws. He feels that many have benefited from the laws and there is more inclusion of folks with disabilities, but that the issues of race has been largely ignored by the disability rights movement. Luna thinks that this is going to be the next wave of the movement – a close examination of these intersections. He notes that at Access Living, the vast majority of clients are African American and poor and that very few – only about 10% - are Latino (out of more than 400 clients/year).

11:15am – Luna notes that people of color with disabilities don't have access to integrated, affordable, and accessible housing – and that those in the housing world frequently look at affordability but not accessibility. He tells of a Latino friend who used a manual wheelchair and was looking for an apartment; he knocked on the door with a “for rent” sign and was told by the landlord that “there's places for people like you” and that he should “go live in a nursing home.” Access Living filed a successful fair housing complaint, but this type of discrimination still occurs at a very high rate. He notes that the same is true in education and employment – discrimination is high but if you are a person of color or a woman then those rates increase dramatically.

11:18am – Schenkelberg opens by applauding IDHR for hosting events and forums like this one – most agencies like IDHR around the country don't engage with the community in this way. He discusses how as you add layer-upon-layer to the problem the situation gets worse. He cites the high stats on poverty in Illinois – 670,000 individuals in Illinois are extremely poor and the vast majority of them are African American. He notes that in the world of policy advocacy, there is seldom a frank discussion of this fact and its implications. He notes that when you add the layer of gender and disability to this matrix, the stats “go off the charts”.

11:22am – Schenkelberg notes that the economic downturn has hit people of color and the poor the hardest, and despite some initial hope that this might have offered an opportunity to address these challenges in a new and dynamic way but that “hasn't come to pass”.

11:23am – Cobb is the next speaker, and she opens by noting that “black people have been on the bottom of the totem pole” and that this has been the fact for decades. She talks about the prevalence of vacant lots in African American neighborhoods and the implications it has for the tax base in those communities. She applauds the discussion on the presidential campaign trail about how “education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century”, noting that the education disparities that exist aggravate the poverty and violence that we see in some communities.

11:27am – Cobb says that African Americans “are going backwards” and traces it back to the OJ Simpson trial, noting that since then in popular culture bringing up race was “playing the race card”. She notes that “this is not a game and no one is playing a card” and says that she gets indignant when reporters or other folks ask her about it. She says that the gains that African Americans have made are eroding quickly and that as long as others define the problems and challenges for that community those challenges will be getting worse.

11:29am – Bennett is the next speaker and begins by noting that he is not an expert on race and that is part of the challenge for them; they take very few cases (about 20 at any given time) that they feel have potentially big impacts and that if they aren't taking cases that reflect complex diversity then they are missing some of those elements.

11:32am – Bennett notes that the intersection of race and sexual orientation/identity make for a complex situation in many states. Where discrimination against LGBTQ folks is legal (and maybe even encouraged), landlords and others who wish to discriminate against people of color have “cover” to exclude them from opportunities based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.

11:34am – Honel asks the second question, “For the communities you work with, if racial disparities were more widely understood and acknowledged, do you think it would make a difference? What are some strategies you are using to advance equity and inclusion?”

11:36am – Luna begins his answer by noting that the intersection of race and disability aggravates poverty. He notes that the issue of leadership is key – folks who work in government and sit on commissions tend to be white and that there need to be more people of color with disabilities in those leadership roles. He says that there are so many social barriers that folks are not able to get to the top and become the directors. “We can't make change if we're not sitting at the table.”

11:38am – Luna says that many who are disabled are depressed, not because of their physical or mental situation but because of the social and economic isolation that society places on individuals with disabilities. He speaks to the importance of developing a new, more diverse generation of leaders for the disability movement, noting that there is too much of a focus on what people can't do rather than what they can do. He cites as a second strategy “economic development,” noting that there are concentrations of people with disabilities in poor communities. Luna says that Access Living is looking at incubator and other economic development programs as a way to help folks with disabilities rise out of poverty.

11:42am – Schenkelberg notes that in the world of anti-poverty work there is a concern with talking about race too much as it brings up images of “the welfare mom” and that, in the process, folks go too far to the other end and don't recognize the role that race plays in poverty. He also notes that it can't just be a conversation about discrimination but must take a systemic look – our systems are set up in a way that aggravates inequality. At Heartland, he notes that they take a human rights-based approach, talking about it in a very comprehensive way (civil rights, economic rights, cultural rights, political rights, social rights). He says that all of them are intertwined and indivisible, and that using this framework is a good way to keep race at the front of conversations about poverty. He notes that policy is getting better at the “respect” end of this framework (how do we respect someone's human rights?), but that there is little progress on the “fulfillment” end of this framework (how to we fulfill someone's human rights?).

11:48am – Cobb begins by noting that she views the world through politics, and that here in Chicago “it is a contact sport” - and that politics is all about public policy. She says that we elect folks to make sure that they have your best interests at heart. She says that now is a golden opportunity because we have an African American in the White House. She notes that although she was part of the Hillary Clinton campaign, those who know her understand that her life's work is to focus on advancing the status of African Americans. She notes that politics is about being strategic, and that is one of the things that she loves about it.

11:52am – Cobb wonders what would happen if we could convince everyone that we all have a stake in advancing the African American community. “If you've got a whole group of people on the Southside and the Westside who are not getting the education that they should, you may have someone who could find a cure for AIDS but you'll never know.”

11:54am – Bennett says that it is a political game for LGBTQ rights as well, and that they have to win out not only in the court of law but also the court of public opinion. He talks about what happened in California, where they were successful in the courts but not with public opinion. He notes that folks were looking for someone to blame and many pointed the finger at African Americans and Latinos.

11:58am – Bennet tells a story of trying to push for a civil union bill in Chicago and one elected official said to them, “Well, I would support this but I don't have any gays or lesbians in my district.” In response to this perception that gay rights are a white issue, they moved their annual event the next year to the Mexican Fine Art Museum and had hundreds of people of color who are GLBTQ attend the event. He closes by talking about the initiatives that Lambda has taken to recruit African Americans and Latinos to the gay civil rights bar.

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noon to 12:35pm - lunch break
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12:37pm - Keleher opens the afternoon discussion by asking folks in the room what they would like to discuss. One woman talks about how she was the victim of a crime and friends and even the 911 operator assumed the perpetrator was black when, in fact, he was white. Another woman notes that she attends many events like this and wonders how we might go beyond preaching to the choir. A man in the audience notes that the lack of care for the mentally ill has not been addresses and adds an entirely new and complex layer to the discussion.

Note: To see notes from a similar presentation Keleher did earlier this year, please see this post.

12:42pm - Keleher notes that there's a distinction between diversity and equity. The fight over school diversity, he says, was not about simple integration but about equity. He says that racial justice is not the same as diversity, nor the same as equality, but rather about equity. He describes the key values and ideas of racial justice as equity, inclusion, equal opportunity, dignity, fairness, and shared power and resources.

12:45pm - He speaks to the importance of, when we see something wrong, not just pointing it out but being proactive about what we would prefer to see in its place. He explains that "colorblindness" believes that we can overcome racism by ignoring race and denies the existence of systemic racism before noting that the "race debate" has two sides - those who would conceal racism and those who attempt to reveal racism. 

12:48pm - "If you're not playing with the race card, you're not playing with a full deck."

12:53pm - Keleher selects four volunteers from the audience for a mock debate and divides the room into four large groups around each volunteer. He says that each group / team is going to prepare their volunteer around the following statement. Teams 1 and 3 agree with the statement, Teams 2 and 4 disagree with the statement.

The foreclosure crisis was caused by people borrowing more than they should have - many of whom hapened to be low-income people of color - but it was not about racism.

1:05pm - After working in small groups, the room re-assembles and the first two volunteers come to the front of the room for "The Race Debate". Each side gets two minutes to argue for their teams position, with no rebuttal. The second set of volunteers come up and have a different format - they are told that they each have 3 minutes to speak but that they can interrupt the other person. The difference in the discussion is immediately apparent - Team 3, representing the "dominant framework" interrupts Team 4 within seconds. The rest of the room gets in on the action, applauding and encouraging the Team 4 representative throughough the discussion.

1:11pm - Keleher opens the debriefing by talking about how important broader frames are so critical, citing the naming of the welfare reform push of 1996 - draped in the language of "personal responsibility." He teases from the audience that the side supporting the dominant framework relied on sarcasm, mythology, and an emphasis on talking about "the here and now."

1:17pm - The next slide highlights some of these strategies to "conceal racism" - denying and exceptionalizing, coding and scapegoating, and deflecting and confusing.

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Editors note: lost a few updates due to a technical glitch. Many thanks to Abdi Maya, who organized this fantastic event and contributed her notes, which are pasted below.

1:18pm - Arguments to Downplay the fact that Racism is involved: It’s about Individual Responsibility: We’ve heard that frame a lot in the past instead of talking about systemic inequalities. This is a very clever way to have these “dominant frames” embedded into policies.

-   ex./ Personal responsibility Reconciliation Act of 1976
-   ex./ “Welfare queen” Regan’s south side woman story – very racialized stereotypes that resulted in very punitive policies – goal of punishing this individual. Later, reporters found there was no such woman just a composite of stereotypes. Yet, that image is still with us.

Sarcasm: from those who do not want to engage in a real discussion about racism
Appealing to popular American ideals and myths about “the dream”: “bootstrap theory”
Dismissal Outright: asking what credibility do you have as a person of color? Dismissed not over what the person is saying, but because of who is saying it.
“Get over it!” – as soon as things are put into historical contexts.
Accumulated Advantages v. Disadvantages: less wealth relative to white people , having to rely more on public services

We must be able to name inequality and not talk about things out of contexts. But be ready to defend your position.
Additional Tactics Used to Downplay Racism: Denying and Exceptionalizing, Coding and Scapegoating, Deflecting and ConfusingWhen trying to reveal racism: name it, frame it and explain it. “RACE” “RACISM” “INEQUALITY”

1:25pm  - “The same values and principles we are tying to lift up of equity, access, inclusion are the same in our public debate.” Leading with Race puts a discussion of racial inequities In the foreground of the public debate."

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1:29pm - Keleher speaks to the importance of addressing not just the symptons but the systems that create them - undrestanding that the institutional shapes and molds the personal is critical. "Shift from 'who's a racist?' to racial inequality."

1:32pm - He closes by noting, "We need to illuminate racism in order to eliminate racism."