1. The Continuing Significance of Race:
Insights for the Philanthropic
Community
john a. powell
Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law
San Francisco Foundation & the Akonadi Foundation
October 19, 2009. San Francisco, CA

2. Today‟s Conversation
• The continuing significance of race
• Kirwan‟s work
o Stimulus / ARRA: FairRecovery.org
• The role of philanthropy
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3. THE CONTINUING
SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE
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4. Are we post-racial (yet)?
President Barack Obama
Inauguration Day 2009 4

5. A Post-Racial Society? No.
• Obama‟s victory does not change the facts:
o Black and Latino children are much more likely than white
children to attend high-poverty schools
o A white man with a criminal record is three times more likely
than a black man with a record to receive consideration for a
job
o Minority home-seekers, many with good credit scores, are
steered disproportionately to high-cost, sub-prime
mortgages, thus devastating their communities in light of the
foreclosure crisis
By prematurely proclaiming a post-racial
status, we ignore the distance we have yet
to travel to make this country truly a land of
equal opportunity for all, regardless of racial
identity. 5
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6. History shapes our present & future
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7. We were separated from each other…
•
Detroit‟s “Wailing Wall”
being constructed
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7 http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/sugrue.html

8. Opportunity still plays out across space
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• Measures of segregation (i.e.
the “dissimilarity index”) have
nudged downward a tiny bit but
are still high
• Outward growth can pull
resources away from existing
communities
• The “favored quarter” has a
disproportionate share of high
quality opportunity structures
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9. Segregation leads to disparate (racialized) outcomes
School
Lower
Segregation &
Educational
Concentrated
Outcomes
Poverty
Increased
Neighborhood Flight
Segregation of Affluent
Families
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10. From Redlining
to Reverse
Redlining
A historical view of
redlining zones in
Philadelphia and areas
of foreclosure in
minority communities
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11. Foreclosure Crisis
•African American borrowers are
estimated to lose between 71 and
122 billion dollars in wealth, while
Latino borrowers will lose 76 to 129
billion.[1]
•Subprime loans are three times
more prevalent in low-income
neighborhoods than in high-income
neighborhoods; they are five times
more likely in African American
neighborhoods than in white
neighborhoods.[2]
[1] Ellen Schloemer, Center for Responsible Lending, Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to
Homeowners, 16 tbl.6 (2006). 11
[2] U.S. Dep‟t. of Hous. & Urban Dev., Unequal Burden: Income and Racial Disparities in Subprime Lending in America (2000).

12. Race Matters
• Barring the existence of widespread, explicit, individual
racism, what accounts for the differences in the
situatedness of white and non-white Americans?
• How should these disparities be addressed? How do we
talk about race?
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13. New Sites of Racialization
• Structural Racialization: the processes and practices of
inter-institutional arrangements that continue to distribute
racialized outcomes in part because of our different
situatedness.
• Implicit Bias: ambivalence that unconsciously impacts
our racial meaning and practices
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14. Why We Need to Talk about Race
• To not talk about race is to talk about race.
• Race plays a critical role in the creation and perpetuation of
many social, political, and organizational structures that
control the distribution of opportunities.
• Race affects all aspects of our lives.
• We must address race to understand the history of our
nation‟s democracy and the future well-being of its people.
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15. Understand and Communicate our Linked Fates
• Racialized structures and policies have created the
correlation of race and poverty. People assume that only
people of color are harmed.
• BUT: these effects are far reaching and impact everyone –
we share a linked fate
• Example: credit tightened for everyone after the subprime
fiasco
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16. THE WORK OF THE KIRWAN
INSTITUTE
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17. Kirwan‟s Mission & Vision
• Mission
o Contribute meaningfully to the body of research and
scholarship on race and social justice with a focus on
marginalized populations
 Reframe the way we talk about, think about, and act
on race
 Increase the general understanding that despite many
differences, human destinies are intertwined
 Ensure that all research and scholarship has explicit
or implicit policy implications
• Vision
o Stimulate and facilitate transformative change to bring
about a society that is fair and just for all people
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18. Transformative Agenda Around Race
• Reframing the way we talk about, think about, and act on
race
o Investigating how explicit and implicit messages about race
impact our attitudes and behaviors
o Framing research findings to maximize policy impact
o Creating effective strategic messages that resonate with
“open but skeptical audiences”
 Advocating for and researching the benefits of diversity
 Supporting affirmative action
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Source: Lester, Julius. Let’s Talk About Race

19. Kirwan‟s Perspective: Structural Racialization
• Structural Racialization
o Investigating and challenging institutional arrangements
that cause and perpetuate social inequality
o Explaining the incompleteness of racial animus to
understand racialized outcomes
o Examining the impact of inequality over time -
tems Theory “cumulative causation”
e: Systems Thinking:
A D
E
C » An understanding of systems theory helps us
to understand the dynamics of structural
B racialization
n
s. E
19 Causation is reciprocal, mutual,

20. Opportunity Mapping
Inequality has a geographic
footprint
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21. K-12 Education and School Integration
o Illuminating the benefits of school
integration
o Investigating the structural causes of
educational inequality
o Partnering with school districts to
amend their school assignment plans
in light of Parents Involved
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22. Working With Communities – Cleveland, OH
Advocating for a regional Promoting minority
perspective business development
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23. Other work
• Exploring how implicit bias affects the ways in which
messages are received and processed
• Examining the opportunities and challenges of African
American – immigrant alliances
• Studying digital inequality
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24. Fair Recovery
• Our Recovery Platform
o Recovery fund investments must be marked by full
transparency and accountability
o Families and communities hit hardest by the economic
crisis merit focused attention in the recovery process
o Investments must promote equity and expand
opportunity for all (targeted investment)
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25. 25

26. Recovery Program: Challenges & Opportunities
• Opportunities
o Massive investment in State‟s and communities
o Neighborhood based investment (NSP)
o Potential for Job Creation
o Green Economy
• Challenges
o Primary focus only on ARRA
o Most funds stabilizing existing programs in State Budgets
o Most funds not “on the street” as this time
o Use of existing programs and pipelines to get funds out to
communities (many agencies involved)
o Capacity challenges and other barriers for contracting to
MBE‟s and DBE‟s 26
o Lots of data (little of it useful for answering questions around
equity)

27. When are funds disbursed to communities?
ARRA Tota l Projected Spending by Yea r
$120
$108
$100
$80
$63
Billions
$60
$48 $49
$40 $37
$23
$20
$14
$9
$6
$3
$0
As of July As of Sept 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
'09 '09
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28. 28

29. Allocation of ARRA Funds from the GAO
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30. Toward a Just Economic Recovery
• What are these billions of dollars actually fixing?
o Are we only fixing the „status quo‟?
o Are we transformative yet?
o Are opportunity gaps shrinking?
30 30

31. Mind the Gap & Fix the Gap
• Reduce the existing disparities between communities of
color both in terms of people and places while growing
the economy for all
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32. Florida: Equity and Recovery Initiative
• Collaborating with the Miami Workers Center and RISEP
• Tracking the impact of the economic crisis and the impact of
ongoing economic recovery activities
o Looking at impact across lines of
race, ethnicity, class, gender and geography
• Tracking is complicated due to the
limited funding released at this time
and data access challenges
o Mixed methods approach
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33. Funds in Florida
Federal Contracted Funds to Florida-Based Businesses, by Type
$300.00 $284.67
$250.00
$221.14
$200.00
Millions
$150.00
$108.30
$100.00
$51.80
$50.00 $31.71
$23.73 $20.03
$6.33 $5.38
$0.00
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34. THE ROLE OF PHILANTHROPY
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35. Ways to Produce Change
• How do foundations think about ways in which you
can make change?
3 options:
1) Do what‟s “fair” - a lot of people receive a little
help
2) Triage – help those who are in the worst situation
3) Transformative – figure out what went
wrong in order to correct it
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36. Transformative Change
• What can foundations do to produce transformative
change?
o Collaborate and focus your efforts
 Allocate your money strategically – a little bit in a
lot of places is not as effective as focused efforts
that can later be replicated elsewhere
o Invest in learning models
o Invest in communications models and capacities
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37. Opportunities for Philanthropy
• Employ strategic communications regarding race
o Help push national dialogue to overcome the common binary
of (1) we‟re in a post-racial world where race „doesn‟t matter‟;
(2) we‟re stuck in the past where race is „everything‟
o Emphasize productive discussions around race that
thoughtfully inform policy design and advocacy
• Capacity building
o Increase the participation of marginalized groups in policy
design
o Improve data collection, monitoring, and evaluation of state
and federal programs
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38. Opportunities for Philanthropy Related to the Stimulus
• Draw on your experience and research
o Present a clear, informed perspective regarding
communities of color that have been devastated by the
economic recession
• Foundations need to proactively shape and direct the flow
of money.
o Intervene in the public dialogue:
 Targeting the flow of stimulus money dispersed to
states
 Connecting education and housing policy through
the targeted use of LIHTC funds
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39. For more information: www.KirwanInstitute.org
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