Race, Power and Policy: Dismantling Structural Racism

Race, Power and Policy: Dismantling Structural Racism

This is a workbook meant to be used in a weekend long session with followup to help people intergrate learning. Prepared for National People’s Action by the Grassroots Policy Project, the 38 page document contains an Introduction, 5 sections, Appendix, and History of Racialization Timeline. Here's an excerpt from the Introduction:

In this workshop, we will explore how and why the Martin Luther King Jr.s statement "Racism still occupies the throne of our nation” is a more accurate depiction of the role that race plays in our society today than the statement "We are living in a post-racial society." We will do this by emphasizing the role of race in shaping all of our economic and social institutions throughout US history as well as the cumulative effects of racialization, which include race-based inequities and disparities. In addition, we look for the linkages between systems of racial oppression and persistent economic oppression. We draw lessons from the rich history of struggles for racial and economic justice. Finally, we explore ways in which social change organizers can bring racial justice into all areas of our work, and how, in doing so, we can achieve more fundamental and systemic levels of change in society.

The key points we will emphasize in this workbook are:

1. Racism is dynamic and ever-changing. The critical aspect of racism that we must address today is the accumulation and incorporation of long-standing
racialized practices into all of our social and economic structures

2. Structural racialization is a system of social structures that produces and reproduces cumulative, durable, race-based inequalities.

3. Racialized outcomes do not require racist actors. Focusing on individual instances of racism can have the effect of diverting our attention from the structural changes that are required in order to achieve racial justice.

4. Organizers need to explicitly and implicitly challenge all manifestations of racism and racialization in our work and in our organizations.

Anti-racism

Spanish Language version is available.

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Text

Table of Contents:
Introduction............................................................................Page 4
Section 1. Racialization Throughout U.S. History....Page 6
Highlights
History of Resistance
Section 2. Race and the Political Economy.............Page 11
Race and Markets
Race and the Role of Government
Controlling Community Assets
Section 3. Forms of Racism ....................................Page 15
Four Forms of Racism
Structural racism and a systemic analysis
Section 4. Framing and Communications..............Page 18
Getting Framed
Worldview and Race
Elements of a racial justice worldview
Section 5. Developing Racial Justice Policies ........Page 24
Guide to Racial Justice Policy Development
Worksheet for Policy Development
Targeted Universalism
Appendix...........................................................Page 32
Sample stories from the history of racialization
Racialization of Citizenship Examples
Glossary of Terms
History of Racialization Timeline ...................Page 38