1. Government: a Tool for Racial Justice
October 2013

2. By the People, For the People,
……Of the People
Our country’s founding principles speak of equal
treatment under the law and access to freedom
and opportunity for all.
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3. A Winding Road
Our nation has
Post Racial? Color Blind?
struggled to live up to its
ideals. Throughout our The end of “Big Government”
history, government
Immigration and Nationality Act
itself has sometimes
exacerbated inequities
The Civil Rights Era
in our society and has
also been an important
lever of change, a
The New Deal
protector of
Jim Crow
fundamental rights and
a provider of tools for
Reconstruction
opportunity and
Emancipation
advancement.
Trail of Tears

4. At Public Works, we are working to
understand how we . . .
• Recognize the historical and structural racism that has been imbedded in
public systems and continues to exacerbate inequities, but also realize
that it is through government that our most important strides towards
justice and equity have been realized;
• Understand that some anti-government sentiment is directly tied up in
racial bias, both implicit and explicit;
• Find a way to uphold (at least aspirationally) the need for
robust, supported and correctly-focused public systems as tools for
shared prosperity and racial equity;
• Engage communities of color in the effort to reclaim and rebuild
government . . .
. . . while also engaging
all Americans in these questions?
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5. Government can
be a tool for racial
justice or
injustice.
How do we
reclaim it for the
common good?

6. Strategies for reclaiming our
government as a tool for racial justice
•
Critique without
Undermining
•
•
Avoid “Otherizing”
•
Widen the Circle of
Concern
•
Connect Equity and
Interdependence
•
Places not Faces
Unpack Systems of
Inequity
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7. Critiquing our government without
undermining it
• Many may believe that the primary task
is to call out and critique all the ways
government is failing to advance equity
and justice. We believe a different
approach is necessary.
• We don’t want to make excuses for
government when it fails to live up to
its ideals.
• Instead, we want to articulate and
support what those ideals are and
should be, while highlighting what
needs to change to make it successful.
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8. As this example shows, our typical critiques often
cue up damaging stereotypes about government …
Once again the actions of our city housing
department show that it’s all about who you know
if you want to get anything done. If you don’t have
big money and political clout you can’t get any
response out of that bureaucratic mess of an
agency. As always our working-class communities
of color are just overlooked. But we are taxpayers
too! We paid our share into the city coffers and we
should be getting some attention and services in
return.
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9. As this example shows, our typical critiques often
cue up damaging stereotypes about government …
Once again the actions of our city housing
department show that it’s all about who you know
if you want to get anything done. If you don’t have
big money and political clout you can’t get any
response out of that bureaucratic mess of an
agency. As always our working-class communities
of color are just overlooked. But we are taxpayers
too! We paid our share into the city coffers and we
should be getting some attention and services in
return.
Just Politics
Consumer-Thinking
The Bureaucratic Blob
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10. A Formula for Constructive Criticism
1.
2.
3.
4.
Open the critique by focusing
on the public mission and
purpose that is at stake.
Explain how these public
systems can and should
benefit us all and be part of
the solution.
Critique by explaining how
the public system is not living
up to its core purpose.
End with the action we need
to take together to address
the failing/problem.
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11. An Example of Constructive Criticism
One of the most important jobs of our city
government is to help create clean and safe
neighborhoods where residents can live, work and
play. Unfortunately, our housing department is not
living up to that essential responsibility and
neighborhoods are not prioritized equitably. This
system needs to address the inequities that are
impacting our communities of color in order for our
whole city to thrive. It is time for all of us to work
together to get this public agency back on track and
focused on community needs.
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12. An Example of Constructive Criticism
One of the most important jobs of our city
government is to help create clean and safe
neighborhoods where residents can live, work and
play. Unfortunately, our housing department is not
living up to that essential responsibility and
neighborhoods are not prioritized equitably. This
system needs to address the inequities that are
impacting our communities of color in order for our
whole city to thrive. It is time for all of us to work
together to get this public agency back on track and
focused on community needs.
Mission and Purpose –
Why it Matters
Civic Thinking
Critique
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13. Be Cautious about “Otherizing”
We “otherize” whenever we label people by their temporary situations or class
status, when we refer only to the ‘beneficiaries’ of public programs rather than
highlighting how public systems benefit all of us, and when we characterize
each other as being somehow an “other” -- outside of the rest of society..
For example, we need to
be cautious about using
terms like “vulnerable
families,” “disadvantaged
minorities,” “blighted
neighborhoods,” or “at-risk
youth.”
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14. “Otherizing” triggers notions of
Separate Fates and Consequences
• Allows people to place the concerns of otherized
groups “over there” and not connected to our entire
community;
• Makes it much harder to make the connection
between opportunities and structural factors;;
• Prevents people from seeing why a problem matters
to us all and we all are part of the solution; and
• Allows people to see our government as benefitting
‘other’ people and not all of ‘us.’
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15. Defining situations not people
A strategy for overcoming a tendency to otherize is to ensure
that our communications answer the following questions:
• What are the barriers to opportunity for residents, community
members?
• What are the systemic causes of this situation?
• How has this impacted overall well-being and community
resiliency and strength?
• What is the systemic call to action we all must take?
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16. We must unpack the systems of inequity

17. We need to help people to see the many systems at
play and how they are connected.
For example, the neighborhood you live in is
connected to the barriers and/or opportunities you
have in education, which is connected to the barriers
and/or opportunities you have in employment
opportunities, which is connected to access to
healthcare, and so on.
As Anat Shenker-Osorio explains,
“When we stick merely to describing how things are
and leave open the question of how they came to
be, we’re leaving room for folks who benefit greatly
from inequality to narrate why it exists.”

18. Robust, supported
and correctlyfocused public
systems can and have
been used for shared
prosperity and racial
equity. Part of the
solution moving
forward is to uphold
and reclaim a tool we
already have – our
government.
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19. We can widen the
Circle of Concern
and acknowledge the value of a
sense of belongingness
We need to ask ourselves who
we are leaving out and why?
Are we communicating in
ways that shrinks – rather
than widens– the circle of
concern?

20. “Winning in the long term, though, requires getting
people to think of the "other" as being inside their
circles. That is entirely possible to do, as the
abolition, civil rights, feminist, sexual liberation and
many other movements have proven. But it takes a
complement of cultural interventions alongside the
political ones, advanced over five, 10, even 30 years. The
cultural project has to establish the
stories, images, and archetypes that prime a person
to expand rather than shrink the circle of concern.
That project requires us to deal with how race is lived in
America, not just how it is legislated. How do we widen
the circle of concern? Foster interdependence – a
shared fate?”

21. Articulate “Everyone-ness”
• Use inclusive language – “us,”
“we,” “our,” the systems “we”
built.”
• Describe a community’s
situation as temporary rather
than a permanent state of
being.
• Explain how the problem
matters to everyone so they
can see themselves in the
solution.
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22. Build a Case for
Equity and Interdependence
• Assert that the reduction of inequities is
mutually beneficial for all members of society.
• Help audiences move from an understanding of
separate and competing fates to shared fate.
• Nest discussions about equity in a story about
“community” goals.
• Use “our” public tools to build community and
reduce inequity.
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23. Places not Faces
We can expand the circle of concern by comparing the inequities
between communities rather than just individuals or selected
groups, and the systems that cause those inequities. For example, it is
common to highlight the stark differences in the unemployment rates
for specific racial groups with little attention to the lack of public
infrastructure and opportunity in particular communities. Shifting
from Faces to Places can help contextualize the challenges the
community is facing.

24. Replace Faces…...… …..with Places
Unemployment rates in Michigan for
the two largest communities of
color, African Americans and
Hispanics, have been
disproportionately higher, sometimes
double, in comparison to their white
counterparts for at least the last 10
years. In 2011, African Americans had
an unemployment rate of
20.1%, Hispanics of 10.7%, and whites
of 8.9% . Michigan currently ranks 2nd
highest in African American
unemployment among the 50 states.
For our communities to thrive and
succeed, we need ample job
opportunities in Michigan that allow
our children and families to have the
quality of life we all deserve. This has
not been the case for many years in
Michigan. In some cities, for every job
opening there are 10 people seeking
employment. This makes it difficult
for our communities to prosper and
unevenly impacts our communities
of color. We can do better by making
sure that we create more jobs in the
places that need it the most.
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25. To rebuild support for an active governmental role in
creating opportunities and reducing inequities, we must:
• Values: Reclaim the notion of
government as a tool for
racial justice
• Systems- Thinking: Lift up
the systems that benefit all of
us and the need to invest in
them equitably
• Interdependence: Reinforce
our shared fate and how
improved equity benefits all
of us.
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26. “When Americans accept their differences in a
context of certain shared principles and
values, the myriad cultures present and
emerging here become wellsprings of
spiritual strength and social justice in a
great, transnational experiment. A more
multicultural America offers an exciting
opportunity to extend freedom and
democracy to people who haven't had it
before and to enrich it for those who have.”
- Jim Sleeper

27. For more information about talking about the intersection of race and
the role of government, we encourage you to visit www.publicworks.org.