JCCI Releases 5th Annual Race Relations Progress Report

The Jacksonville Community Council Inc (JCCI) released its 2009 Race Relations Progress Report during the Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Breakfast on January 8th at the Prime Osborn Convention Center. This is the fifth edition of the annual report that examines progress in addressing racial disparities and improving race relations in Jacksonville.

The 2009 report examines perceptions about race gained by annual survey and hard data that portray the realities of race and racial disparities across the Jacksonville community. Created as the result of JCCI’s 2002 citizen-led study, Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations (PDF), the progress report provides historical data spanning as much as 25 years across six areas: Education; Employment and Income; Housing and Neighborhoods; Health; Justice and the Legal System; and Civic Engagement and the Political System.

Jennifer Chapman of Fidelity Investments and Broderick Green of the Chamber’s Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership led the team that reviewed this year’s report and presented their findings at Friday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Breakfast. “Eliminating racial disparities in our community is not only a moral imperative – it’s an economic one,” Chapman and Green stated. Among highlights in the 2009 report is the widening black-white gap in the perception of whether racism is a problem in Jacksonville. This hinders the community’s ability to come together to take action and solve the real problems that exist, according to the JCCI report.

The report reflects mixed signals in the area of education, where graduation rates improved but racial disparities widened. Of great concern were growing racial disparities in the areas of employment and income, fueled by the recession, where black minority populations were hit especially hard. Positive indicators included perceptions of neighborhood safety, heart disease death rates, declining homicide rates, voter turnout, and black felony inmate admissions, although significant racial disparities in several of these areas.

Copies of the report were distributed at the MLK Breakfast and are available in hard copy from the JCCI offices or online at www.jcci.org. For more information contact JCCI at 904-396-3052.

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Videoconference: Education and Health Disparities

Here's a press release of some interest. The indicators we use often deal with this intersection of educational and health disparities. This videoconference should be really good. 

15th Annual Summer Public Health Research
Institute and Videoconference on Minority Health

Announcement

Please join 1,000 other participants in 45 states and 6 countries for the 15th Annual Summer Public Health Research Videoconference on Minority Health. When? Tuesday, June 9, 1:30-4:00pm EDT Where? Webcast, C-band satellite, and Tate-Turner-Kuralt building auditorium (at UNC Chapel Hill) - see www.minority.unc.edu Topic: "Breaking the Cycle: Investigating the Intersection of Educational Inequities and Health Disparities" Featuring: Reginald Weaver, Vice President, Education International; Past President, National Education Association Dina Castro, M.P.H., Ph.D., Scientist, UNC FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Nicholas Freudenberg, Dr.P.H., Distinguished Professor, Program in Urban Public Health, Hunter College School of Health Sciences/City University of New York Lillian A. Sparks, J.D., Executive Director, National Indian Education Association Moderator: Howard Lee, M.S.W., Executive Director, North Carolina Education Cabinet This interactive session will be broadcast with a live audience in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt auditorium at the UNC School of Social Work and can be viewed over the Internet (webcast) and c-band satellite. Questions will be taken from studio and broadcast participants by email and toll-free telephone. For more information: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/ To view on your personal computert: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/broadcast/ To view with a group: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/broadcast/sites.cfm To register a viewing site: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/broadcast/ To register for the studio audience at the TTK auditorium: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/studio/ (Note: If you have registered for the Videoconference you will receive an email by 6/4 reconfirming your registration and giving specific information for receiving or attending the broadcast.) To read the abstracts, agenda, and speaker biographies: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/abstracts.cfm, www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/agenda.cfm, www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/spkrbios/. To download materials (publicity, slides when they become available, attendance sheet for group sites): www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/materials/. Answers to frequently asked questions: www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/faq.cfm This year's Videoconference is presented by UNC Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Minority Health Project (ECHO). Funding comes from the Dean's Office of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, UNC FPG Child Development Institute, UNC Center for Development and Learning, Counseling and Wellness Services (UNC Campus Health Services), NC Health Careers Access Program, Sheps Center for Health Services Research, UNC American Indian Center, UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, UNC College of Arts & Sciences, and a growing list of cosponsors (www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2009/cosponsors.cfm). This activity is supported by an educational donation provided by Amgen. Please thank them - and consider joining them or providing an endorsement. Vic Schoenbach ( www.unc.edu/~vschoenb/) Director, Minority Health Project [Please support the Minority Health Project! www.minority.unc.edu/support/] UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Cookie Newsom Director of Diversity Education and Research UNC Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs _________________ * 20+ health disparities-related broadcasts and seminars are available as on-demand webcasts at www.minority.unc.edu/resources/webcasts/

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The State of Black America 2009

Many of you know I'm heavily involved with Jacksonville's annual Race Relations Progress Report. A critical component of community indicators, in my opinion, is understanding the disparities and disproportionalities in those indicators -- measuring the progress of a community means understanding how that progress is distributed among members of that community.

That's why I always look forward to the release of the next State of Black America report by the National Urban League.

The report is garnering more attention this year, with the results of last November's presidential election providing a critical context to understanding the conversation around race and opportunity in the United States. That may be why this year's report is subtitled "A Message to the President."

Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist at the Miami Herald, offered some insights into the challenges of measuring racial progress. In this CNN commentary, Pitts explains:

Psychology professor Richard Eibach was reported last year in the Washington Post as having found that in judging racial progress, white people and black ones tend to use different yardsticks. Whites use the yardstick of how far we have come from the nation we used to be. Blacks use the yardstick of how far we have yet to go to be the nation we ought to be.

The most complete picture, of course, requires both measures. But who can be surprised that blacks and whites each tend to gravitate toward the measure that is most forgiving of their individual groups, that shoves the onus for change off on the other? The black yardstick, after all, leaves black people no obligation other than to demand justice and equality from white people. The white yardstick requires of white people only that they exhort black people to become more self-reliant and take more responsibility for their own problems.

Pitt goes on to explain why we need to measure using both yardsticks, and praises the National Urban League for doing so.

The bigger idea of thinking about how we measure -- what our "yardstick" is -- is an important one for any of our indicator systems. It's more than thinking about what our goals/targets might be, but whether we should measure toward a goal or from a baseline. It raises questions about how we describe the data -- are we better than we used to be or not where we ought to be?

I like the questions raised. I also like the National Urban League's annual report. Check it out and let me know what you think.

ETA: Check out this op-ed piece for an example of conflicting yardsticks.

ETA2: Also see this discussion of why measuring race matters.

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JCCI Releases Race Relations Progress Report

The Jacksonville Community Inc. (JCCI) has just released its fourth annual Race Relations Progress Report, measuring indicators of racial disparity throughout the Jacksonville community.

The report, which can be found here, contains indicators of perceptions of racism and discrimination, as well as measures of existing disparities and their trend in education, employment and income, neighborhoods and housing, health care access and outcomes, justice and the legal system, and in the political process and civic engagement.

The report is informed by a 50-question survey, conducted immediately following the 2008 Presidential election, of 1500 Jacksonville residents, including 400 white, 400 black, and 200 Hispanic residents. The full survey instrument and data set, along with separate cross-tab information for each racial and ethnic group, is available here.

The report was released at the community's annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast to an attendance of approximately 1,800 civic leaders. Reactions to the report, which included the progress made in reducing racial disparities, the areas of priority for further action, and the increasingly diverse population of Jacksonville, were significant. Also speaking at the breakfast was Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space.

News coverage included the following:

MSNBC: Annual Report Still Finds Racial Disparities in Education, Income
Latino Business Review: Study: Blacks, Hispanics Treated Disparately on Loans
Fox 30 News: City Releases Race Relations Report (view telecast online or read transcript)
Jacksonville Business Journal: Race Relations Report Cites Disparities
First Coast News: Businesses see Jacksonville's International Face
The Florida Times-Union: JCCI Report: Education Gains, But Race Relations Still an Issue
First Coast News: Race Relations Study Shows More Work Remains
The Florida Times-Union: Q&A with First Black Woman in Space

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Quantifying Racism in Cities

The Freakonomics blog has a provocative article asking What is the most racist city in America? The author of the article, Sudhir Venkatesh, asks for input on "quantifying racism" and suggests a "racism index" might allow someone to identify which city was the most racist. (He suggests it might be Boston, as his example.)

The article is generating a number of comments, primarily anecdotal -- "I lived in this city and it was awful" -- with a few suggestions for indicators such as hate crimes or interracial marriages as potential measures of racism.

We've been talking about indicators of racial disparity over the past year or so on this blog. I'm interested in your comments on specific measures of racism in the community. How would you/do you measure racism? What would you reply to the Freakonomics folks?

We're promised a follow-up article on social science research on measuring racism, and I'll pass that along when it appears. If you have a specific project or examples of indicators that you're working on or that you think is worth sharing, please pass it on.

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Race Matters

As part of our continuing conversation about indicators of racial disparities, I'd like to draw your attention to some good work by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (from whom we get KIDS COUNT.) The specific project is called Race Matters, and they describe it as a

"toolkit is designed to help decision-makers, advocates, and elected officials get better results in their work by providing equitable opportunities for all. The approach described in the toolkit deals specifically with policies and
practices that contribute to inequitable outcomes for children, families, and
communities. The toolkit presents a specific point of view on addressing unequal opportunities by race and simple, results-oriented steps to help you achieve your goals. The following tools are designed to help you make the case, shape the message, and do the work."

A key component of the work is providing data to support your efforts (pdf). They have some interesting counsel on how to present data on race-based indicators that's worth discussing. (Warning: Long post follows!)

The goal of the workdook on data is straightforward.

"The guide hopes to assist you to produce data presentations that more
intentionally speak to the circumstances of all children. By lifting up ways in
which racial inequities shape opportunities differently, and identifying how to
remove barriers to opportunity, your data will be a resource that speaks more
clearly for everyone."

How do we do that? Here's what they suggest:

• Select your indicators carefully. They point out that it's "easier to change what you measure than change what you don't." In particular, they advise using structural indicators over individual indicators. They prefer system-oriented indicators over people-oriented indicators, for at least two reasons. First, because structurally-oriented indicators lend themselves to structurally-oriented solutions, and the framework they're using is that of structural racism. Secondly, they fear a "blame the victim" approach where indicators are used to reinforce stereotypes or look to individual behavior changes to address needs. When the impacts on individuals need to be shown, then the framework or structure of the data presentation should lend itself easily to a structural interpretation.
  
  I found this conversation quite interesting. Every effort to measure indicators relies on inherent cultural assumptions and civic biases, as pointed out by David Swain at the recent conference of the National Association of Planning Councils. Race Matters is clear about where its assumptions and values frameworks are, which is important -- you can't do this work without making explicit what your assumptions are. However, I suspect the issue is bigger than that -- you can't measure indicators of racial disparities without serious community work and reflection about your role in the community and your organizational relationship to the issue at hand.
  
  In a recent effort to describe the development of our Race Relations Progress Report in Jacksonville, I wrote about an earlier attempt to create such an indicators report. Several factors resulted in that report not happening, but the relevant lesson is here:

JCCI had operated under the assumption that its experience with measuring
and presenting data objectively was sufficient to tackle this new
initiative. Instead, JCCI had to develop the community trust and cultural
competency necessary to create a community indicators report specifically
focused on the experience of a specific racial or ethnic group. The vision for
the report had to come through a different, open community process and be shaped from within the target community in order to combat “skepticism about the benevolent intentions of the larger (white) Jacksonville community in relation to African-Americans’ quality of life” and “distrust of information generated outside the African-American community.”Measuring the African-American experience against the broader community vision would have meant evaluating what it meant to be black in Jacksonville against an external standard; before JCCI could re-address the issue of race-based community indicators, the organization had to revisit its core assumptions about community indicators.

I suspect that even the most well-intentioned framework can't overcome the need for trust-building and cultural-competency work around issues of race and ethnicity. And given trust and cultural competency, the framework may well be less important (or modified to fit local needs). The assumption that presenting data in a certain way reinforces stereotypes is, in itself, somewhat of a stereotype, after all.

• Choose asset-focused indicators whenever possible. While deficit-focused data can be "dramatic and alarming", Race Matters points out, and mobilize action, broader support is available with asset-based data. Assets-focused indicators, they suggest, "make it easier not to stigmatize families or individualize explanations for shortcomings." They
  are more likely to be "aspirational," while the steady drumbeat of negative news may serve to de-motivate the community.
  
  While I tend to agree in general on asset-based indicators, sometimes the results can get silly. We've tried publishing "employment rates" (rather than unemployment rates) or "percentages of babies born at healthy birth weights" (rather than low-birthweight infants.) Two things happen. People who understand data have to do the math in their heads to get the numbers that they're familiar with. And the result may seem like unnecessary contortions to avoid facing unpleasant news.
  
  When we released the first Race Relations Progress Report in Jacksonville, some members of the (white) community feared unrest in the streets if the negative data became publicized. The truth was very different. People in our African-American community already knew how bad things were. In general, it was the white community that was surprised, while the black community was surprised that they were surprised.
  
  Asset-based is fine. Just don't try to sugar-coat unpleasant truths. We have found that most people (white and black) have significant misperceptions about the extent of racial disparities in the community, and that the only way to address them honestly is to present the plain truth. You can't solve a problem until you admit it exists. And attempts to make it seem "not that bad" miss the point.
  
• Selections of graphics, photos, and quotes. Race Matters advises you to use illustrations carefully, and "avoid imagery that moblizes stereotypes, such as picturing a child of color (no matter how precious looking that child is) beside a deficit-focused indicator." Not a bad suggestion, but be careful not to get too cutesy in making every photo appear staged. In Jacksonville, we avoided photos altogether for the first report, since the concern over image was starting to obscure the substance.
  
  In later efforts, like our targeted Infant Mortality study addressing racial disparities in infant deaths, photos were used but chosen with care. Good advice here.
  
• Organization of the text. "The sequence of data matters," says Race Matters. How you structure the report helps tell the story you're intending, and indicators of race, income, and place tend to be "over-arching" indicators they should go first. As our Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations study put it, "Beyond particular factors related to personal prejudice, institutional practices, or individual choices, the pervasive effects of disparities in education and income mutually reinforce one another and deepen all other disparities." Because of that, we place those two set of indicators right up front.
  
• Opening essay/letter to the reader. Race Matters recommends the letter to the reader found in the 2007 Data Book from Kentucky Youth Advocates (http://www.kyyouth.org/) as a way of setting the tone for the report. The summary/introduction to the report is critical. We have the content of that letter developed by our citizen review panel as they share what they think the most important take-aways are from the data presented. What does this all mean? Frame the data up front, so people will understand what they read as they approach the data. Again, be explicit in your values and purposes approaching the work, and the reader won't have to guess your motivation while reading the data presented. (Our key driver for the first report was to present inarguable information that could not be misinterpreted. That's not an easy aspiration.)
  
• Consistent disaggregation. Race Matters points out, and I echo heartily, that where at all possible disaggregate your data by race and ethnicity the same way from indicator to indicator -- and when you can't, explain why! People get offended if they feel like their particular information was withheld or deemed less important than someone else's, and a simple explanation up front keeps you from months of conversations afterwards. Trust me on this one.
  
• Deep analysis of disparities within a structural frame. Race Matters says, "the danger of not offering structural explanations as a frame for disparities is that this can mobilize readers' default prejudices about individual- and group-based explanations for inequities." I'll add that the danger of framing the indicators with only structural explanations is that you move far beyond a factual report to an advocacy position, and not all data support that position. A report that isn't willing to consider institutional, individual, and internalized racism as three interdependent components within a collusive system misses an opportunity to stand as the bedrock for community conversations about how to address racial disparities.
  
  If your report is to move a particular agenda, then by all means structure the data to support that agenda. But be prepared to have your report dismissed out of hand by anyone who does not support your policies. To have a report that transforms the community conversation, present the facts unabashedly without trying to explain why. Don't let your point of view interfere with someone coming to grips with unpleasant truth! The problem in communities tends to be (1) misperceptions about reality and (2) a failure to face that reality. Shared reality-based understanding of the problem is a precondition to shared action, and you can't leapfrog that process. To quote me again:

Generalizing Jacksonville’s experience suggests this: because racial disparities are widespread and significant, understanding them is a necessary first step for any effort in community improvement. Communities that bypass these important measures generally fail to understand, plan for, or address underlying fractures in the foundation of their community, and the efforts are usually not successful because of this. On the other hand, the implications of developing a shared understanding of actual racial disparities in the community are staggering; if lack of progress and arguments about public policy are rooted in misperceptions, reaching a shared, reality-based perception of the problem moves the community much closer to finding solutions. This was the experience in Jacksonville: tangible progress and shifts in public policy became not just possible, but inevitable, with a shared understanding of the problem.

• Recognition of cultural variation in indicator applicability. Race Matters makes an important point here -- not all numbers mean the same thing in different cultural settings. Be careful. Here's another place where cultural competency is a prerequisite for quality work.
  
• Need for solutions bundled with problem description. This depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're moving an agenda, then yes; if you're measuring community progress and want to take the role of independent, trusted data source, then by all means NO. In my opinion, the best indicator reports are descriptive, not prescriptive. Prescriptive reports get written backwards -- the recommendations drive the selection of data. Descriptive reports form a shared basis of understanding that allow the community to decide together what to do about the problem. (That shared understanding usually leads to a consensus for action, by the way. See Beyond the Talk for an incredible example.)
  
• Getting "picky" about words and charts. I heartily agree. Be very, very careful what words you use. Have people read your report prior to publication and search for opportunities to misunderstand you. If it can be misinterpreted, it will be.
  

I'm interested in your feedback as well. Overall, I really appreciate this effort from Annie E. Casey. Their mission and my organization differ slightly, so some of their recommendations don't fit our work -- but what they've put together is an incredibly important addition to the field. I highly recommend it as a starting point for your community initiative.

Your reactions?

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Presenting Data: Case Study on Racial Disparities and Imprisonment

One of my interests in community indicators is measuring progress towards eliminating racial disparities. After considerable community dialogue around the issue, it became clear that, at least in my community, we needed a shared set of data to move from divergent perspectives to a shared understanding of reality. We also needed an unimpeachable data set for community accountability, and an objective way to tell if our community initiatives were working.

That being said, I started reading James R. Council's blog entry on America's Prison Crisis from a data presentation perspective (I was more interested in what data he was using and how he was sharing that data than in the conclusions he was reaching or their policy implications -- it's an occupational hazard sometimes.)

I saw some ways he used information that I thought were worth discussing, above and beyond the specific issue. (Though I highly recommend reading his piece for its intended effect as well -- the data are about real people, first and foremost. But I think you'll get that from the examples I'd like to share.)

Here's some of the data he presents:

1. The U.S. has 2.2 million prisoners. He takes that data point and relates it as a percentage of a larger set -- That "makes up 25% of the world’s prisoners in a country that holds 5% of the world’s total population." The 2.2 million number is now in context.

2. He continues to put the numbers in context by putting it in a population ratio -- 740 per 100,000. He then puts that in context by comparing the U.S. to countries we might want to be like, and countries we don't want to be like:

By contrast Libya, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan, countries whose rulers were rated in 2005 by Parade Magazine as the world’s worst dictators, have far lower reported rates of incarceration; the lowest is 57/100,000 in Pakistan and the highest is 207/100,000 in Libya (Fraser 2007). Other western democracies such as France, Germany, and England and Wales have 93, 98 and 140 per 100,000 respectively (Snacken 2006). The only European countries that rival America’s incarceration rates are Belarus and the Russian Federation with 554 and 595/100,000 (Snacken 2006).

3. He then establishes a trend line for a context over time. "America hasn’t always had such a high prison population. From the 1940s until the early 1970s, the incarceration rate in the U.S. hovered around 100/100,000 (Young 2007)."

4. Now that he has your attention, he turns to racial disparities. He takes the data on disparities and focuses attention on another contextual factor: the disparities in incarceration compared to disparities in economic, education, or other social indicators.

In his testimony before the Joint Economic Committee on October 4, 2007, Harvard University professor Bruce Western stated that, “young black men are now more likely to go to prison than to graduate college with a four-year degree, or to serve in the military” (2007). He goes on to say:

The large black-white disparity in incarceration is unmatched by most other social indicators. Racial disparities in unemployment (2 to 1), nonmarital childbearing (3 to 1), infant mortality (2 to 1), and wealth (1 to 5) are all significantly lower than the 7 to 1 black-white ratio in incarceration rates. (2007)



By this point, he had my attention. Then he began discussing the policies and practices that led to this point. It's an interesting discussion, found here.

Here's my takeaway:

• Data gain power/meaning in context.
• That context can include comparisons to communities we think we are like (or better than), or communities we think we are not like.
• The context can also include a cluster of other indicators to highlight where the problem isn't just bad, it's much worse than the other problems we already know are bad.
• And the data can be stronger than the soundbite -- compare:
  
  Over 40 years have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and the passing of landmark civil rights legislation. But looking at the contrast in incarceration rates between Black and White Americans, we seem to have a long way to go before we become a nation that, “judges a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character."
  
  with this:
  
  [Byron Eugene Price's graph shows that], “by 2017, there will be more Blacks in prison (an estimated 2 million) than Blacks enslaved in 1860 (1.9 million).”
  
  What are your thoughts?
  

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JCCI Releases 3rd Race Relations Indicators Report

At the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Jacksonville, Florida, the Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) released its third Race Relations Progress Report, a series of community indicators measuring racial and ethnic disparities in the quality of life of Jacksonville.

Community indicators reports, in their aggregations, sometimes miss the real story in the community -- if the quality of life is measurably different for different people in the community, the averages can be meaningless or misleading.

This is the third annual report card on racial disparities that JCCI has released. Take a look. I've added some of the local comments on the report for you to read.

Columnist Ron Littlepage writes:

When I was a youngster, blacks couldn't drink from the same water fountains I did. That separation held true for public restrooms, and I've never forgotten the pain and embarrassment of being refused service at a restaurant when accompanied by a black friend. I was reared in the Bible Belt, but the Bible's teachings certainly weren't being followed.

With the optimism of youth, I saw a better society in the future, one where race didn't determine relationships. And there have been positive changes. The "whites only" and "for coloreds" signs are gone. Blacks have made gains in the business and political worlds.

But now as I approach 60, it's clear that my generation has failed just as past generations had when it comes to race. That was evident last week when the Jacksonville Community Council Inc. released its annual report on the progress of race relations in Jacksonville.

"All indicators demonstrate unacceptable disparities between white and black residents," the report concludes. Those disparities are in education, employment and income, neighborhoods and housing, health, the legal system, and political and civic engagement.

Blogger (and strong community activist) Tony Allegretti added:

... JCCI's Race Relations Progress Report. This is the single most depressing report I have ever read. Grab it (and all their other work) here. If you don't have time, let me read you the only bold sentence in the Executive Summary: All indicators demonstrate unacceptable disparities between white and black residents. That will make cold eggs seem colder.

The editorial page of the local paper commented on the report:
As we honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps the greatest American of his generation in helping this country fulfill its promise of "one nation, under God," we search for a guidepost.

Jacksonville Community Council Inc. provides an annual guide with its Race Relations Progress Report. It was released recently at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast.

Bill Bond, who led the JCCI review committee, told the roughly 2,000 people at breakfast that the city's murder rate is "appalling." And he said we should "cry ourselves to sleep" over the high infant mortality rate. How true.

Yet, he said, we are a "city of courage" that has been willing to take bold steps.

In a news article about the report,

Compiling a race relations report, which was one of the recommendations of the 2002 JCCI study "Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations," is something the JCCI has done for the past three years. [Commiteee Chair Bill] Bond said the most positive aspect of the report is that the JCCI still is committed to taking an annual look at the issue.

"At least we're talking about these things," [NAACP President Isaiah] Rumlin agreed. "Twenty years ago, we weren't doing that."

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Measuring Racial Disparities

On April 16, 1963, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote the following in a Letter from the Birmingham Jail: “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; 2) negotiation; 3) self-purification; and 4) direct action.”

Today, we're relearning the same lessons. We've talked about the importance of measuring racial disparities in a community, because you can't solve a problem until you admit it exists. We've also talked about resources available to begin 'collecting the facts to determine whether injustices exist'. We've even talked specifically about data sources for small-area economic disparity indicators.

Now a new report from MP Associates and The Aspen Institute, "Community Change Processes and Progress in Addressing Racial Inequities", dives deeper into the need to measure indicators of racial disparity to assess need and track progress toward addressing structural racism in communities.

From the report:

A multi-pronged strategy moves sites toward long-term outcomes. Racial equity is a complex issue that requires a many-faceted response. The variety of tactics used by most sites in our sample include: public policy advocacy, report cards to track progress, community convening and engagement, technical assistance, policy assessment, skill-building workshops, and focus groups.

Data are an essential tool for change. Data help to engage residents and policy makers in CCIRs [community change initiatives that focus explicitly on racial inequities] by exposing racial and ethnic inequities within the community. The process of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data—on housing, health care, education, and other social justice issues—helps to make strategies and interventions more focused and results-oriented.

Data development requires an investment of time and expertise. Often, data on racial disparities at the community level aren’t readily available or widely known. CCIRs overcome this hurdle by collecting their own data, through focus groups or surveys, and by organizing community events where they share the information and stimulate broad ownership of the community-change effort.

The report also suggests the following questions, in a section entitled "Challenges From the Field":

Using data accurately. Data can be intimidating and daunting to people unaccustomed to working with statistics. Data can also be manipulated to reinforce stereotypes and blame the victim. Major issues in using data are:

• What sources of support (government, media, organizations) are trying to advance their agenda through the data? Who trusts these sources and who does not?
• Some people find meaning in what they hear and observe, while others rely on statistics. How do the data represent people’s learning styles, worldview, and culture?
• Who is posing the questions behind the data? Who is analyzing the data? Who is interpreting the story based on the data?
• Are the data being aggregated by racial and ethnic subgroups within major racial categories to determine whether strategies need to be different for different groups?
• To what degree are residents involved in determining what data to collect; in collecting, analyzing, and framing the data; and in determining a response?

Maggie Potapchuk has done a tremendous job in this report identifying the need for and challenges with using data to create community change around the issues of racial inequities. The timing couldn't be better, as we're putting together our annual update of our Race Relations Progress Report right now.

Do you measure racial disparities as part of your community indicators project? Do you have a separate report card on race inequalities? E-mail me with links to your reports and we'll see if we can build a community of practice around these issues.

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An Australian Reaction to the OECD Forum

The full article is linked on the news feed, but because it will likely rotate off soon, I thought I'd share an interesting excerpt from Geoffrey Woolcock's article titled "It's the society, stupid!"

Woolcock pulls together data from a number of interesting sources, including children's perceptions of the future and social equity research, to question the reliance on economic indicators as a sole (or even primary) measure of the happiness or well-being of a country. He then ties in his reaction to the OECD World Forum's efforts to examine indicators of progress. What he says echoes what those of us in the community indicators field have been saying for years. I just like the way he says it:

Given that ultimately happiness is an entirely subjective phenomenon, perhaps true understanding of individual happiness is mistaking the means for the ends. Various social movements, most prominently the environmentalists, have long questioned untrammeled growth and continue to provoke us to engage instead in a much broader debate about how whole societies define and measure progress, beyond the baseline index of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

These questioners are starting to come from more diverse places, whether it be a few private sector corporations increasingly influenced by the social aspects of triple-bottom line accounting or the Australian Bureau of Statistics whose Mapping Australia’s Progress is lauded internationally for its efforts to collate an impressive array of non-economic measures such as volunteering and perceptions of trust and safety.

But the rub for governments in publicly presenting such indicators is in the inclusion of some of the more confronting aspects of progress, including measures of citizenship, human rights and democracy. Incorporating these aspects into 100 indicators of well-being across 18 of the 30 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the economists Rod Tiffen and Ross Gittens in their 2004 book How Australia Compares, ranked Australia a lowly 15th.

These broader ambitions in measuring wellbeing were the focus of a major OECD conference held last month, Measuring the Progress of Societies, challenging the world’s sharpest statistical minds to answer the key question: how can we measure how our societies are really doing?
The conference undoubtedly helped elevate the political importance of long-standing alternative measures to the GDP such as the Genuine Progress Index and the Global Peace Index, as well as the impressive work establishing community indicators of sustainable progress emerging in Australia.

There is much to be achieved but if such gatherings are to be effective, they will help elevate fundamental markers of progress like bridging the vast discrepancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians’ life expectancy to start competing alongside the earnest daily recital of the fortunes of the Nikkei, Dow Jones and All Ordinaries indices. And they might also do justice to the famous libertarian philosopher J.S.Mill’s thoughts dating back to the 1850s: “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.”

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Race and Economic Indicators

Recently on the NNIP listserve, someone requested data resources for measuring economic indicators by race at the community level. Here's a quick compilation of many of the responses:

http://www.fairdata2000.com/SF3/contrast_charts/index.html provides city and county-level profiles using 2000 Census Cummary File 3 data.

http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/ uses Census data as well as data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Center for Health Statistics for a broader look at metro-area profiles.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/ is the Census Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates which provides poverty and income estimates by race.

The Mumford Center analyzes Census data by race for metro areas at http://mumford.albany.edu/census/data.html

The American Community Survey allows you to build customized data sets. You can get household income, family income, median family income, per capita income, and aggregate household income by race, poverty status by race, median earnings by race, food stamps by race, and employment status by race. See http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/CTGeoSearchByListServlet

Local school data on free/reduced-price lunch program participation can be a useful, local(school-specific) proxy for family income by race. Local sources will vary, though usually the state will provide the information needed.

If you have other specific data sources for measures of income by race and ethnicity, please let me know. See also Indicators of Racial Disparity for more information.

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Social Justice and Racial Equity

Effective Communities, LLC has created a new website, JustPhilanthropy.org. The site is committed to increasing racial equity and social justice through providing six "pathways to progress."

The site identifies gaps (PDF document) or disparities in how people are treated, and provides a list of data sources for specific indicators (PDF) so that you can measure these disparities in your own community.

JustPhilanthropy.org also highlights case studies of communities and programs that make a difference.

From their website:

Improving social justice and racial equity remains a challenge to society. Data consistently show gaps or disparities in the performance of our public systems, private markets and everyday life. For example…

On Bourbon Street, African Americans have to wait longer for service and are charged more for drinks than Whites, on average.

Around the country, applications for home mortgages submitted by African Americans are rejected at a higher rate than those submitted by Whites, even when the applications are identical.

African American children start school at greater risk, on average, than White school children. They ultimately finish their schooling with less satisfactory prospects, earning less and having less to invest in their homes, their health or their children. These prospects are then passed on to the next generation with less than Whites, on average.

Most people, on hearing these examples, acknowledge “That’s not the way it should be. It goes against basic American principles of fairness. We should be able to fix that.” Fixing that goes by many names: closing the gaps, leveling the playing field, removing structural barriers, and addressing root causes.

The results of such efforts to "close the gaps" should be that, on average, blacks and Whites experience the same waiting times and prices at bars and restaurants, and are subjected to the same decision-making rules when applying for a mortgage, and find equally beneficial environments and opportunities in health and in school.

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Can philanthropy, in any of its many forms, stimulate progress in social justice and racial equity? The question is the basis of our inquiry; the answers, cast as a work in process, motivate this Web site.

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Benchmarking progress: Many funders want to see measurable results. Measuring results assumes that we know and agree which "bottom lines" are important to achieve. Measuring results also assumes we have appropriate and reliable measuring tools. In fact, neither is the case. One purpose of this project is to advance the field's understanding of progress -- what it means in context, how to notice it, and how to advance it. Ultimately the results to be measured in the gaps data: Are the gaps closing?

If you haven't started measuring racial disparities as part of your community indicators efforts, this website provides the tools, data links, and reasons why you should get started.

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Indicators of Racial Disparity

In 1998, The Council of Economic Advisers for the President's Initiative on Race released a report: Changing America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic Origin. The Presidential Foreword stated:

We face a variety of racial challenges in our country, many of them deeply rooted in our history. If we are to harness the great opportunities within these challenges, we must better understand the contours and nature of racial issues.

By providing much needed information about racial disparities, this statistical chartbook provides the basis for an informed discussion about the problems faced by people of different races and backgrounds in America. There is much good news here, with improvements over the past 20 years for all Americans in education, in economic status, and in health. But in far too many areas, there are still troubling disparities between people of color and other Americans. ...

A decade from now, I hope that people will look back and see that this Initiative made a difference by supplying much needed information, encouraging conversation, and inspiring concrete actions to provide equal opportunity for all Americans. I hope that when we revisit the facts and trends presented in this book, we will see much progress in closing racial gaps.

The Initiative was launched June 1997, and a decade later we can examine the indicators to see changes.

One systematic treatment of indicators of racial disparity (at least the disparities between African Americans and whites in America) is The State of Black America, by the National Urban League. Beginning in 2004, The State of Black America includes an "Equality Index," which consists of five weighted indices measuring inequalities in economic progress, health, education, social justice, and civic engagement. The 2004 report begins by making the point that:

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States counted an African American as 3/5 of a person for purposes of taxation and state representation in Congress, an Index value of 0.60. How much progress has been made in the United States in the past 216 years? The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, corrected this injustice, but according to the Equality Index, Black America still only stands at 0.76.

In 2005, the Los Angeles Urban League and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles applied the same metrics to their community, developing The State of Black Los Angeles (PDF) report. They reported an Equality Index of 0.98 for Asian residents, 0.69 for Black residents, 0.71 for Latino residents, and 1.00 for White residents (who served as the benchmark.)

Another effort to measure racial disparities on a local level is the Jacksonville Community Council Inc.'s Race Relations Progress Report. First published in 2005 as a response to a 2002 study, Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations, the 2006 update examines progress (or lack of same) towards eliminating race-based disparities in the quality of life across six areas: employment and income, education, health, neighborhoods and housing, justice and the legal system, and the political process and civic engagement. The 2006 report also references a 1946 report (PDF) on racial disparities in Jacksonville, Florida, which provides a fascinating perspective on progress as well as a sobering reminder of the problems that remain.

While many communities have been paying attention to racial disparities in individual fields (indicator reports health disparities or educational achievement gaps are fairly prevalent), a growing number of communities are beginning to document the broader scope of quality-of-life disparities faced by people of color. A fairly new report I recently was given is The State of the State for Washington Latinos: 2006, which takes a detailed look at issues ranging from education and employment to health care, juvenile delinquency, housing and homeownership, and voting rights and political mobilization.

Take a look.

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