Does unfair discrimination really exist?

Posted on February 13, 2012 by

A reader writes in response to my last post: “I have great difficulty to believe there are legal impediments in the area of discrimination. I used to live in a fully integrated neighborhood in Chevy Chase near DC, where everybody who could afford to live there was able to move in without the slightest impediment. I also have difficulty understanding the connection with philanthropy. Maybe the author could clarify the connection.” 

Truthfully, there are an amazing number of legal impediments “in the area of discrimination.”   Take housing — while it’s possible that a person of color, let’s say African-American, who has found the home he/she wants to buy and who has the full purchase price in hand may be able to buy without legal impediment, this situation is far from typical.

Studies consistently show that African-Americans looking for a home are steered away by realtors from largely White neighborhoods into predominantly Black neighborhoods, yet this is illegal.  Studies also show that African-Americans are more frequently denied mortgages or given mortgages with more onerous terms even when they present the same qualifications as Whites, and this is illegal too.

The recent mortgage foreclosure crisis has revealed other problems.  African-Americans are faced with more predatory loan practices, and African-Americans at risk of defaulting on their mortgage are less frequently helped and therefore pushed into default than Whites in the same predicament.   The rental market shows additional problems of discrimination, with disproportionate harassment by landlords leading to eviction.

It’s very common for people to think that such problems don’t happen in their community, even when the data (and other people’s experience) show otherwise.  While the efforts by ERASE Racism reported in my post are limited to discrimination in one region of New York (and who thinks such problems exist on Long Island, of all places?!), these same problems of lax enforcement of fair housing laws are found virtually everywhere.

Here is the link to Montgomery County’s (where Chevy Chase is located) fair housing enforcement efforts, and here, for the sake of comparison, is New Orleans.  For more on fair housing enforcement and advocacy see here and here.

It has taken the efforts of advocacy organizations such as ERASE Racism to insist on better rules and more effective law enforcement.  Every state and city has such advocacy efforts, which are typically non-profit organizations funded largely by philanthropy, from individual donors to local and national foundations, on web pages like this.

The reality of unfair housing discrimination even after it was made illegal shows the persistence of the problem.  Housing discrimination is an arena like others where perhaps well-meaning people who don’t think of themselves as racist nevertheless benefit from a system that produces results that favor Whites over others.  I’m not suggesting such people are racist, but that the (housing and finance) systems are racist; this is referred to as institutional or structural racism.  Worsening the problem is that solutions that ignore race in favor of income, class, poverty, or opportunity are inadequate for erasing the racism that remains.

* * *

Posted by Steven E. Mayer, Ph.D. / February 13, 2012

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A pointed attack on inequity

Posted on February 6, 2012 by

“Throughout the history of the United States, public officials have used the rule of law to deny equal opportunities to African Americans.”

Strong language, almost shocking in its clarity.  It’s how Elaine Gross of ERASE Racism begins her January “Message from the President.”

ERASE Racism is a regional organization (based in Nassau County on Long Island, NY) that leads public policy advocacy campaigns to promote racial equity in areas such as housing, community development, public school education and public health.

Its M.O. is to work directly against the formal, legalized barriers to equity and the disparate impacts of seemingly benign policies and actions.  If public officials have used the rule of law to deny equal opportunities to African Americans, as her introductory statement charges, one must direct efforts to re-design the rules of law to be more equitable.  Sometimes the problem is badly conceived law, other times it’s badly implemented law enforcement, but the two together have led to wide disparities in housing, community development, public school education, and public health.

Working with data and the power of persuasion, “we expose forms of racial discrimination and advocate for laws and policies that help eliminate racial disparities,”  Ms. Gross says.

Three important victories:

Through its participation in a governor-appointed Regional Economic Development Council, ERASE Racism was a leader in  inserting policy language that “increases the diversity of Long Island housing stock by producing affordable non-age restricted rental housing, affirmatively marketed, and without residency requirements.”

Its research report, “Long Island Fair Housing: A State of Inequity,” along with a press conference and coverage from Newsday, Long Island’s daily newspaper, educated a largely-surprised Long Island audience on the extent of housing segregation throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties.  Momentum was created and co-operation gained  from Nassau county leadership at the highest levels, resulting in  new “fair housing” laws that provide an administrative enforcement system and strong civil penalties for violations.

In marking the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Supreme Court school desegregation case, ERASE Racism brought together local colleges and universities, developed a conference and monograph, “Brown v. Board of Education: The Unfinished Agenda,” which attracted over 600 people.  It increasingly engages those in the region about the need for  structural changes in the public education system.  One current project: developing an index to monitor disparities on the input side of public education, such as disparate college readiness curriculum, disparate teacher quality, and disparate levels of poverty, all of which in turn correlate with disparate student outcomes.

In discussing these with me, Ms. Gross concluded with these important lessons. “It’s very easy to miss the mark in addressing structural impediments to equity if one is not looking very specifically at race.  One can substitute the language of economic disparities, or talk of the benefits of diversity, but one still has to look at the racial equity impact of policy decisions.  And in doing that one has to be straightforward and persistent.  It’s not only the work that gets you into headlines that’s important, it’s laying the groundwork, building the relationships, connecting with people who can do the heavy lifting that’s important.  And having funders that recognize the value of these steps.”

February 3, 2012 / Steven E. Mayer, Ph.D.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Walking the Talk

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

It’s a rare foundation that demonstrates the value of its grantmaking, its leadership role, and its values.

But that’s what the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation did.  Its motivation to make evident the benefits of its work lay in its own convictions:

  1. that discretionary grantmaking can be powerful, especially if pursued through five fields of interest in which the nonprofit communities themselves get to define and promote their own goals.
  2. that the CF’s  core values of Generosity, Inclusiveness and Engagement are excellent values to promote through the discretionary funds and leadership role of a regional community foundation.
  3. that development of more discretionary funds is in the community’s best interest and therefore a priority of the community foundation.

DSACF hired us, the Effective Communities Project, to address these evaluation opportunities, which we did through a series of focus groups to nominate the primary qualities of “benefit” experienced by recipient organizations, followed by an on-line survey of these recipients to estimate the extent of these particular benefits.

It worked out well.  Almost all recipients of grants from discretionary funds were included in the project.  They certainly got the message that the CF cares, that it listens, that it wants to learn, and that it sees itself as partner in the quest to legitimize and secure  discretionary funds that benefit the region.   Through this evaluation inquiry the CF could  show its colors and hear well-expressed views of what community benefit looks like in its region.   The focus groups in particular became a series of organizational learning events, with sharing across organizational boundaries, and highlighting themes around which the CF can communicate its value.

Another thing.  As DSACF’s vision statement makes clear, the values of Generosity, Inclusion and Engagement are important ones for the region.   Since we already had grantees’ attention, staff and board wanted us to check out how well these key values are playing out and being influential.  Here, too, it became clear that it was  beneficial simply having the discussion about what generosity, inclusion, and engagement even look like at a community or organizational level.  One could easily say these discussions themselves manifest generosity, inclusion, and engagement!

Several lessons for discretionary fund development became clear as well.  The stories of accomplishment told by focus group participants make very clear the value of discretionary grants.  From these stories Effective Communities Project could present specifics, themes, and numbers – which all make great talking points to any prospective donor.

In addition to these immediate benefits, which (BTW, for those evaluators present) flow directly from the process of this inquiry, came a number of suggestions for beefing up the CF’s grantmaking policies and practices. Completed in October, the report of findings and suggestions  are being studied and discussed by staff, and then committee, and then full board – and then a larger public.

* * *

Steven E. Mayer, Ph.D. / January 16, 2012

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment