Housing is the Foundation for Everything

Hi Friends!

I don’t know if it’s the oppressive heat and humidity July has produced, but I’m feeling tired this week, friends. It is so uplifting to me to see the resources you’re finding and hear your thoughts about what you’re reading and learning. Thank you for sharing your journey with me.

Also, a warning — waiting until Friday to send you an update means this one is extra long. Enjoy!

One of you gave me permission to share your thoughts after my update a couple of weeks ago. They said, “I would add hopelessness to the pitfalls of confronting racism and trying to figure out what to do about it. In my own case, as I reconnected with this struggle after many years of largely ignoring it I found myself falling into periods of hopelessness. After expressing this to friends and colleagues who are people of color and getting back the consistent message that one must always remain hopeful I reflected on what my feelings were about and discovered yet another layer of white privilege. As a white person my hopelessness was really a defensive mechanism to allow me to emotionally distance myself from the struggle and that is something I could only do because I am white. And sharing it with people of color was just a selfish act that caused them to spend energy to prop me up. There is so much to be hopeful about and most are in accounts of people of color enduring despite all the systemic and other barriers.”

One of our partners in this work, Whytni H. Kernodle, had her op-ed published in the Washington Post, “Arlington has to do more to improve the lives of its black children” (6/26/20)

Congratulations to Samia Byrd in her appointment as the Chief Race and Equity Officer for Arlington County! I am very excited to see her impact on the work the County is doing. It will also be interesting to see how she coordinates with Arron Gregory at APS, who holds a similar role.

A friend shared a museum created by one of his previous professors called the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which includes a resource list and educational/curriculum materials.

I wanted to share the National PTA’s Diversity & Inclusion Toolkit information again because I believe its guidance can be used in many kinds of organizations. PTAs are not known for their diversity or inclusion, and there are steps we should be taking to be more representative of our school communities and to be more aware of the barriers preventing marginalized groups from participating. Simply inviting more people to attend doesn’t make your organization more welcoming.

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I was lucky enough to manage to listen to the webinar hosted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition with Nikole Hannah-Jones on July 7. It wasn’t recorded, unfortunately, so I wanted to share some of my major takeaways paraphrased from what she said:

- Housing is the foundation of well-being and opportunity. There’s a reason real estate agents focus on location. People with choices will forego a larger/nicer house for the advantages of location. That’s because your neighborhood comes with opportunities, resources, schools, shopping, parks, etc. This is why segregated housing has such a big impact over so many aspects of people’s lives. Controlling where Black people could/can live controlled everything else about their lives.

- Housing is more segregated in northern states than southern because the South had Jim Crow laws to control its very large Black population, whereas the North had a much smaller Black population (before the Great Migration at the turn of the 20th century). This meant that the North worked to contain Black people, largely through housing rules, led by the federal government. These mechanisms of social control avoided explicit laws enforcing segregation like the South had. But that meant that when segregation was outlawed, the South was more integrated than the North because they had never segregated their housing.

- The federal government and local governments have generally never enforced the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which is why housing and school segregation persists. White northern liberals have been a huge part of the resistance to the lack of enforcement, which continues today in opposition to low income housing as a method of integration — the resistance is too great in areas where there is not currently mixed income level housing, so it ends up being increased in areas where it already exists, furthering the persistence of segregation. Redlining harmed everyone — white people with choices moved out of integrated neighborhoods because the redlining laws limited their options for growing their wealth through housing.

- A tension exists between low-income housing advocates and fair housing advocates. Low-income housing advocates focus on the short-term immediate needs of low-income people who need housing. Fair housing advocates focus on systemic segregation and put their resources towards a smaller number of housing units built and take the time to fight to get those units in areas that resist integration. We need both efforts, but I imagine that they are sometimes at odds with each other.

- Most white Americans are fine with about 10% of Black people in neighborhoods and schools. The tolerance for low-income Black people is even lower. Black people currently make up about 13% of the American population. In order for integration to happen, a large population of white people has to decide that the change is worthwhile and has to work to make this change happen.

- Housing is directly connected to the wealth gap (separate from the income gap) because housing is the biggest generator of modern wealth. Home values in white and Black areas of a community are artificially controlled. And a lack of wealth means that income loss is particularly devastating for people because there is no safety net for covering basic costs.

- This is where the call for reparations comes from. The federal government has a societal debt to Black people in this country because of its theft from generations of their ability to build wealth — funds should be transferred to those communities to rectify this. Reparations means repair. It doesn’t mean that every white person has to get out their checkbook or lose something they have. Her three priorities for reparations are: (1) targeted investment in Black communities and schools; (2) commitment to enforce existing civil rights laws (including the Fair Housing Act); and, (3) individual cash payments to replace the wealth that was stolen and to give people the freedom to choose how to spend the funds. Opposition from white people is what is standing in the way of making this happen.

- When the face of a crisis becomes Black, there is a loss of sympathy for those affected by the crisis. We saw this happen with the current pandemic as well.

- White Americans are very fickle about supporting change. There have historically been periods of retrenchment after racial progress, including the 2016 election. She appreciates that individuals are trying to help, but believes that lasting solutions have to happen through the federal government. HR40 is a bill for reparations that has been in committee for 30 years. Local/municipal laws can address some of these issues, like segregated housing. Her suggestion was to mandate an equitable % of housing choices throughout the county/municipality, connected to new housing construction having to build multiple income levels of housing (not just a community of single family homes).

ADDITIONAL HOUSING RESOURCES:
- Andrew Van Dam writes about how “Black families pay significantly higher property taxes than white families, new analysis shows” (Washington Post, 7/2/20)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published “Worst Case Housing Needs: 2019 Report to Congress” (June 2020)
- Zach Tilly at the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) writes “New analysis from CDF: Housing Is a Racial Justice Crisis: Solutions for Children and Families During COVID and Beyond” (6/17/20)
- Watch a recording of the June 29 “National Call on COVID-19 Homelessness and Housing” from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and read their statement supporting “Calls to Divest from Criminal Legal Systems, Invest in Black Communities” (7/6/20)
- Ailsa CHange and Jonaki Mehta talk about “Why U.S. Schools Are Still Segregated — And One Idea To Help Change That” (NPR, 7/7/20)

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- The Hechinger Report has a series called “Critical Condition: The Students the Pandemic Hit Hardest”
- Joe Heim writes about a “Nonprofit project offers cash lifeline to District’s poorest” (Washington Post, 7/7/20) — I’m working to learn more about a similar effort here in Arlington, at least in the coordination of nonprofit organizations, and maybe even moving forward with a model like this one!
- Until We Are All Free — Racial Justice Art & Story Sessions activity guide
- From a recent Black Lives Matter email blast:
— Support Black Owned — listings of black-owned businesses in the country, organized by state and searchable by type and zip code
— EatOkra app — listings of black-owned restaurants
— Caroline Bologna collected a list of “50 Amazing Books By Black Authors From The Past 5 Years” (HuffPost 2/21/19)
— Njera Perkins collected a list of “10 Black-Owned Online Bookstores to Support White at Home” (AfroTech, 4/7/20)
- Leslie Mac is offering Allies in Action Virtual Bootcamp starting July 28
- White Awake is offering an online course for white men beginning August 16
- Jeannie Oakes, Anna Maier, and Julia Daniel at the Learning Policy Institute share “In the Fallout of the Pandemic, Community Schools Show a Way Forward for Education” (7/7/20)
- Black Lives Matter at School has released a 2020 National Student Voter Toolkit, in collaboration with The Electoral Justice Project (EJP), which is also sponsoring The Breathe Act.
- The John Mitchell Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race has recorded videos from their Mondays in June series of conversations, and is a great resource.

RELATED TO POLICING:
- LaColectiVA shared their Defund NOVA Police Demands (via SURJ NoVa)
- Black Lives Matter shared “What Defunding the Police Really Means”

Dig in and learn something new.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.

Let's Get To Work

Hi Friends,

Welcome to our newest members — the group continues to grow! We are happy to have each and every one of you engaging in this work.

On this last day of June, which is also Pride Month, I’d like to share some specific resources:
- GiveOUT Day (TODAY!) — a national day of giving for the LGBTQ+ community.
- Learn about CasaRuby, a local organization dedicated to providing social services and programs and is run and led by transgender women of color.
- Andrew Nguyen writes about “Ways You Can Support the Black LGBTQ+ Community” (The Cut, 6/4/20)

SELF-WORK RESOURCES:
- Sarah Bellamy writes about “Performing Whiteness” (Paris Review, 6/8/20)
- Gene Demby asks “Why Now, White People?” (Code Switch, NPR, 6/16/20)
- American University is hosting a Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice, and you can watch the webinar recordings for free on their website
- Ruth Marcus writes “If you don’t believe systemic racism is real, explain these statistics” (Washington Post, 6/12/20) — especially the quote from Radley Balko, “To declare the system racist is not to brand those who participate in it as intentionally, repugnantly, guilty of prejudice.”
- Sydney Trent writes about “Young Asians and Latinos push their parents to acknowledge racism amid protests” (Washington Post, 6/22/20)
- Benita Talati writes “Marching Will Not End Racism” (Arlington Magazine, 6/23/20)
- Tim Hughes writes “It’s Way Past Time to Step Up, White People” (Arlington Magazine, 6/24/20)

- Perry Stein writes about “In debate over school shuttle, Capitol Hill parents confront race, equity — and their commutes” (Washington Post, 6/17/20) — keep resource hoarding in mind when you read this. Nikole Hannah-Jones talks about this specifically: “What I’m dealing with are public schools which are publicly funded for the public good. Every child should walk into a public school and get the same education. Those are the parents that I’m speaking to. What we are finding are parents who say they believe in a common good but they want a public school that operates like a private school — you can screen out the kids you don’t want, you can hoard resources in the school, you can hoard all the best teachers, you can determine what curriculum you’re going to get. And if that means that two miles down the road, another publicly-funded school doesn’t get any of that, then so be it. That, to me, is the height of hypocrisy.” (The Atlantic, 12/14/17)

- Travis M. Andrews writes about how “These best friends created a wildly popular Google doc about how to be an ally to the black community” (Washington Post, 6/19/20). Their website/organization, Justice in June, is really well organized for anyone new to this work and it’s an amazing resource. Please check it out!

- Jamil Zaki writes about how “Calls for racial justice gained steam with empathy” (Washington Post, 6/20/20) — the dynamic between empathy and power, including “By contrast, high-status individuals don’t have to understand others’ perspective to survive. This is one way privilege works its way into our minds. Not only are privileged people exempt from material struggles, they can comfortably ignore everyone else’s.” Empathy is a learned quality and needs to be exercised regularly, like a muscle. It’s directly connected to white privilege.

OPPORTUNITIES TO LISTEN AND LEARN:
- Caitlin Gibson writes about “What five black fathers are saying to their children about this historic moment” (Washington Post, 6/19/20)
- Robert McCartney writes “Police critic says officers need more money and less stress, along with greater accountability” (Washington Post, 6/22/20)
- Jerry Brewer writes “What we see in a flag or a noose or a black racer is telling. We can do better.” (Washington Post, 6/24/20) Also check out Black Lives Matter’s “What Matters” Episode 5 “Talking Activism with Bubba Wallace.”
- Integrated Schools podcast, Episode 22 “I Hope They Hear It In Our Voices” (from 5/15/19)
- Caroline Randall Williams writes “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument” (New York Times, 6/26/20)
- Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Stephen Colbert have a conversation (Mashable, 6/26/20)

RESOURCES FOR THE WAY FORWARD:
- Curtiss Sarikey writes about “School-Based Health Centers: Trusted Lifelines in a Time of Crisis” (Learning Policy Institute, 6/18/20) — what if we pushed for this kind of model in Arlington schools, bringing resources to school locations (and community centers and other strategic locations, much like food/supply distribution efforts have emerged during the crisis) to provide ongoing support to residents and families in a cohesive way. One of the things concerning me for the sustainability of our efforts to serve vulnerable residents is the fact that families trying to access support (food, rent assistance, etc.) have to spend significant time and resources accessing these things, traveling to many different sites over the course of a week, and repeat this week after week. Centrally located full-service centers would make a HUGE difference and schools are already a trusted community resource. How do we think about this for Arlington?

- Sergio Peçanha presents clear statistics to illustrate American racism in “These numbers show that black and white people live in two different Americas” (Washington Post, 6/23/20). I’m including this resource in this section because I believe that each one of us has expertise or interest in at least one of the areas illustrated by the article (infant and maternal mortality, housing, poverty, unemployment, education, criminal justice). This means that each of us can take an intentional interest in addressing systemic racism where we are already passionate and/or experienced. And if you don’t have a connection to one of those already, please choose one and commit to learning about it and speaking up about it.

- One on one conversations are often how minds are changed. Integrated Schools offers an “Awkward Conversations Guide” for discussing schools and the choices families make about which ones their children attend.

- The Inclusive Schools Network shares information about the importance of resilience and the difficult challenges facing both students and teachers as we move towards the upcoming school year.

ACTIONS TO TAKE:
- The Legal Aid Justice Center has a petition for protecting renters in Virginia
- Sign up for and support Arlington for Justice
- Register for and watch “A live Conversation With Pulitzer Prize-Winning Creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones” on July 7 from 2:00–3:00 pm. Unfortunately, this event will not be recorded.
- VOICE has a petition for preventing evictions during the pandemic
- Integrated Schools has a webinar for families thinking about schools and racial justice on July 13.
- Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR) has a Community Chat on July 7 and other events scheduled throughout the summer.
- Hollaback has lots of bystander intervention trainings and resources on their website.
- Service Never Sleeps Virtual Allyship Program (5 sessions on Weds from 1–2:30 pm starting July 1)
- VACOLAO is hosting an Information Session for Service Providers on Policies and Issues: Immigration, Housing, and Worker Rights During the Covid-19 Crisis — July 1 from 11–12. Register here.

Please feel free to reach out anytime, if you have questions, are struggling with something in particular, or have resources to share. We’re here to support each of you in your anti-racist journey.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.

Pity and White Saviorism

Hi Friends!

I hope you’re well and healthy and enjoying the mostly mild summer weather we’ve been having!

I want to talk this week about a common detour that white people experience when they are new to anti-racist work. When a person emerges from their bubble of ignorance into the reality of white supremacy and racism, they can experience a range of emotions, from pain to embarrassment to guilt to shame. This is normal. Often, a white person will start reading and learning and trying to understand how they could have been blind to so much discrimination, unaware of the lived realities of many of their community members. Sometimes, this process will lead us down the path of pity and white saviorism. This can easily happen because many of the sources that discuss slavery and the persistent disadvantages people of color experience (because of systemic racism) also portray people of color solely as victims and not as agents of survival, resilience, and change.

You can see pity at work in the recent article about MONA considering expanding into South Arlington. While the intentions of the people raising concerns about the silence around racism in the community and within the group (because nearly all groups have some racism) were good, the white saviorism, the “poor South Arlington families” assumptions, are offensive and misguided.

This is why the self-work must continue. We have to recognize these pitfalls along the road and work to unlearn them, too. White supremacy is not a box of confederate flags and racist imagery that we can just leave behind at the dump. It’s woven into everything, so as we move along the continuum towards anti-racism, we have to keep shedding its influence and keep resisting its attempts to corrupt us anew.

Some great resources for you this week:

- “THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE” from Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, ChangeWork, 2001. Get ready. This one will set you back on your heels — I see myself in so much of this. More work to do!

- A group member created and shared “A Brief History of How Black Lives Matter Actions Have Impacted Policing in Arlington, Virginia, in June 2020 (So Far), Upcoming Events, and More Ways to Keep the Action Going”

- “Helpful Rebuttals For Racist* Talking Points” from @CharCubed • Inspired by: @sujoy_shah, which sheds a lot of light on how to have these conversations and also undermines a lot of the doubts we might have about these topics.

- “Race and Privilege: An Overdue Conversation” is an incredible guide for having conversations about race with another person. I’m very excited to have this and to be able to model future conversations on this guide.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.