Framing Conversations about Race and Racial Equity

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Framing Conversations about Race and Racial Equity john a. powell Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law YWCA Leadership Forum on Equity & Inclusion September 21, 2009 Cleveland, OH

Transcript of Framing Conversations about Race and Racial Equity

Page 1: Framing Conversations about Race and Racial Equity

Framing Conversations about Race and Racial

Equityjohn a. powell

Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and EthnicityWilliams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of

Law

YWCA Leadership Forum on Equity & Inclusion

September 21, 2009Cleveland, OH

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Today’s Conversation

Thinking, Talking, and Acting on Race Transformatively

Framing

Implicit bias

Colorblindness / Color-Consciousness

Effective messaging

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Key Takeaways

The question is not should we talk about race; the question is how to talk about race constructively.

Conversations about race and diversity must be honed to insure that messages are effective.

Themes such as linked fate can help people understand that institutional arrangements affect all people.

Our values and structures impact each other. It’s not enough to have the right values. We need the right structures.

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Race in the Media

‘You lie’ a Sign of

Bigger Race Issue,

Ga. Congressmen

Say

Carter’s

Racism Charge Sparks War of Words

Scenes from Post-Racial America: The Outburst Edition

Stop Hating

On Black

Female

Athletes

Race Issue Lingers Over Health Care Debate, With Possible Political Consequences

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Race in the U.S.The United States continues to be strongly

divided by race.Nationally, the black unemployment rate

tends to be about twice as high as the white rate.

A black male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life, a Hispanic male has a 17%

chance, and a white male has a 6% chance.

http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf

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Framing Matters

Both these perspectives are true – how we frame issues of race matters.

Consider the false dichotomies we often use when we think and talk about race. These binaries are actually frames.

▪ Black / White

▪ Post-racialism / Civil Rights

▪ Race is not important / Race matters

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Framing

How messages are framed

affects how they

are perceived.

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False Dichotomies and Framing

From which top hat will the magician pull a bunny?

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False Dichotomies and Framing

Neither one. When a question is framed as a dichotomy, it is difficult to think outside of the “either – or”

mindset.

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Framing: “Reverse Racism” / “Affirmative Action”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3ZL3O2NNus

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Affirmative Action – “Preference” vs. “Assistance”

http://www.publicagenda.org/red-flags/affirmative-action-preferences-special-efforts

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Affirmative Action – “Preference” vs. “Assistance”

http://www.publicagenda.org/red-flags/affirmative-action-preferences-special-efforts

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Implicit Bias

People have multiple networks that may be activated without our awareness.

Depending on the situation, one network becomes dominant over the others

Even though we may fight them, implicit biases reside within us…

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Our Unconscious Networks What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks What colors are the following lines of text?

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Implicit Bias – Unconscious Modeling

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Awareness Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqrkihlw-s

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How to Debias – Consider the Opposite

Repeatedly exposing people to admired African Americans can may help counteract pro-white / anti-black IAT results…

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How to Debias – Negative Examples

BUT, a more productive strategy is to show both admired African Americans and infamous whites.

Joy-Gaba, J . A., & Nosek, B. A. (in press). The Surprisingly Limited Malleability of Implicit Racial Evaluations. Social Psychology.

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Transformative Discourse

Effective Messaging

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Race Neutrality?

The question is not if we should talk about race, but how we should talk about race.

Race-neutral tactics may appear to have appeal, but in reality, we’re not seeking race-neutrality – we’re seeking racial fairness.

Are we colorblind or color-conscious?

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Colorblindness v. Color-Consciousness

Colorblindness

The logic: Since we know race is socially constructed, we should eliminate racial categories

This perspective assumes “that the major race problem in our society is race itself, rather than racism.”

Attempting to ignore race is not the same as creating equality

john a. powell. “The Colorblind Multiracial Dilemma: Racial Categories Reconsidered.” (1997)

Is colorblindness an appropriate shift in how we perceive race?

NO. Colorblindness will not end racism.

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Colorblind video

Click here to connect to video on colorblindness from RaceWire / ARC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Fo9Cl4vX0

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Colorblindness v. Color-Consciousness

Color-Consciousness

Policies and interventions need to address race; otherwise they will only provide partial solutions to problems that are grounded in race

Acknowledging race through a multicultural frame can reduce prejudice

Color-consciousness fosters an appreciation of each group’s contributions to society

Philip Mazzocco. “The Dangers of Not Speaking About Race.” 2006

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Dissecting the Discourse

Who’s the hero?

Who’s the goat?

Understand the structure of the story

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Emphasize Connectedness

Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008

‘My Brother’s Keeper’

Click on maroon square to play the video clip.

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Framing Conversations

Unity: Focus on terms that bring people together rather than those that are divisive

“Us/them” mindset a “we” perspective

“We, the people…” recognizes “All the people”

Linked fate: The fates of all people are linked

We need to understand the effect that institutional arrangements have on all individuals.

Annie E. Casey “Race Matters” Toolkit – How to Talk About Race. http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/howtotalkaboutrace.pdf

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Create Empathetic Space Build connections through personal narratives

“I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas… I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.”

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Underscore shared, deep values

Unity Security Opportunity

Community

Mobility Redemption

Fairness Liberty

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Framing Our Values

Structures

Values

Our values and structures impact each other.

It’s not enough to have the right values. We need the right structures.

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Cleveland

Cleveland has moved from being highly fragmented to adopting a more regional approach.

Formed the Cuyahoga County nonprofit land bank

Opened a regional public STEM high school - “MC2 STEM”

Created a position of Chief of Regional Development for the City of Cleveland

Resource sharing, such as police

Aligning our values with our structures

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Achieving Transformative Change Transformative change in the racial paradigm in the

U.S. requires substantive efforts in three areas:

Talking: Understanding how language and messages shape reality and the perception of reality.

Thinking: Understanding how framing and priming impact information processing in both the explicit and the implicit mind.

Acting: Linking these understandings to the way that we act on race and how we arrange our institutions and policies.

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For more information:

www.KirwanInstitute.org

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Appendix

More on Talking About Race

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Talking About Race - Don’t Present disparities only

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

Photo source: Lester, Julius. Let’s Talk About Race

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Talking About Race - Do

Anchor the discussion to narratives that resonate with your audience

Make sure everyone can see themselves in the story

It’s about “us,” not just “those people”

Acknowledge that individualism is important – but that the healthiest individual is nurtured by a community invested in everyone’s success

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Effective Messaging Everyone needs help now and then; we all want to do

better We share deep values, concerns, and hopes

Addressing the problems that have a racial footprint has implications and benefits for all members of society, not just marginalized groups

Linked fate – everyone benefitshttp://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2008/12/talking-about-race-in-the-obama-era/

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Additional Suggestions

Provide potential solutions: articulate what we support - not just what we oppose.

▪ Martin Luther King, Jr. did not give a speech about “I have a complaint…”

Acknowledge racial progress

Recognize our racial history and connect it to our future

Explain how past injustices still matter today

http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2008/12/talking-about-race-in-the-obama-era/

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4 Frames Commonly Used When Discussing Race

1) Minimize the existence of disparities

“The racial ‘playing field’ is level.”

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2) Blame culture for racial inequality rather than societal structures or white privilege

“They are lazy and lack motivation. They just need to work harder.”

Source: Bonilla-Silva (2003) Racism Without Racists & Mazzocco (May 2006) “The Dangers of Not Talking About Race.”

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4 Frames Commonly Used When Discussing Race

3) Racial phenomena is “natural”

“They’d rather be with their ‘own kind’ anyway.”

*************

4) Focusing on individuals and their traits, assuming that we all start from the same “position” in society

“We should all be judged as individuals based on our personal merits. No one should receive special privileges. It’s not fair.”

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Transformative Framing of Race

Don’t frame issues around “what’s fair”

Reinforce the belief of opportunity for all

Assert that system flaws hurt everyone

Don’t focus on who or what is responsible for present inequities

Steer the conversation toward the results being sought (i.e., a quality education for everyone)

Don’t focus on exceptional individuals

Talk about where systems we all rely upon break down and how we can fix those systems

Not constructive Constructive

Frameworks Institute Message Brief: Framing Race