Professor john a. powell, Haas Diversity Research Center, Director

1. StructuralRacialization, Implicit Bias, and Racial Equity Professor john a. powell, Haas Diversity Research Center, Director and The Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion University of California, Berkeley Presentation for the Northwest Area Foundation August 17, 2012

2. What Are the Structuresthat Influence Our Society? Education Economic Transportation Food Housing Justice Healthcare Communications

3. Understanding Structures as Systems • These structures are not neutral • The implicit/unconscious helps to create them • Structures are systems • Systems are non-linear, complex, and function through feedback

4. Towards Systems Thinking • Understanding structures as systems requires looking for patterns and relationships • Systems thinking necessitates focusing on outcomes rather than intents or inputs

5. Differential Positioning in Structures We are all situated within structures but not evenly These structures interact in ways that produce differential outcomes

6. Differential Positioning in Structures Not only are people situated differently with regard to institutions, people are situated differently with regard to infrastructure People are impacted by the relationships between institutions and systems… …but people also impact these relationships and can change the structure of the system.

7. Differential Positioning in Structures • How are women situated vis-à-vis men in the job market? • How are people with disabilities positioned within transportation? • How are undocumented immigrants positioned in the justice system?

8. The Circle of Human Concern • Differential positioning in these structures is a way to understand who inhabits the circle of human concern as a full member and who is pushed out of it

9. The Circle of Human Concern Non-public/non-private

10. The Circle of Human Concern Citizens Children Mothers Elderly Felons Undocumented Non-public/non-private Space

11. Contextualizing Disparities • How do we understand the resulting problems? • Disparities in one part of a structure are not isolated from others • They need to be contextualized in relation to other structures, such as housing, education, employment, among others

12. Mechanisms of Marginalization • There are similar mechanisms of marginalization within structures that work across social groups (women, immigrants, blacks, people with disabilities, Native Americans) • However, these social groups are not uniformly positioned in structures

13. Differential Racialization • Structural racialization is when systems and processes produce and reproduce unequal outcomes along racial lines with or without intent • It is a relational process (i.e. groups are racialized in relation to other groups) • To go beyond the “Black-White” binary, we need to look at the “field of racial positions” (Kim 1999) that includes the public representation and groups relative positioning

14. Difference & Inequality • An individual’s particular “co-formation” of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, language, religion, citizenship status, able-bodiedness, and geographic location marks how they are positioned in these structures as well as in concepts and stories • We can always refer to structural marginalizations along multiple axes of difference (i.e. structural gender marginalization) Bacchetta, Paola. 2007

15. Five Faces of Oppression 1. Exploitation
2. Marginalization 
3. Powerlessness 
4. Cultural Dominance
5. Violence Source: Young, Iris Marion (1990). “Five Faces of Oppression,” in Justice and the Politics of Difference

16. Five Faces of Oppression • Groups are differentially situated in relation to these forms of dehumanization • A group may be high in one area, but low in another • A group’s relational positioning may also differ in different geographies • Oppressing others through Othering and dehumanization become easier to do if done a lot

17. Considering the Unconscious Mind

18. Back to the Future • There is strong evidence that we are becoming more racially tolerant on a conscious level • Yet, more racially anxious on an unconscious level

19. The Role of the Unconscious Mind • People are meaning-making machines. • Individual meaning • Collective meaning • Only 2% of emotional cognition is available to us consciously • Racial bias tends to reside in the unconscious network We unconsciously think about race even when we do not explicitly discuss it

20. Our Brains in Action Please state the color of the text Green Red Blue Black Black Green Red Blue Black Red Blue Green Green Blue Black Green

21. And now, in Greek If you are a Greek speaker, this will show this works in any language. If you are not – how much easier it is now! But why? Remember: state the colour of the text                

22. Awareness Test Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqrkihlw-s

23. Understanding Implicit/Unconscious Bias • People’s conscious values and beliefs are only part of how they process information and make decisions • Many biases affecting behavior towards others reside in the unconscious mind

24. Understanding Implicit/Unconscious Bias • In other words, people who consciously value racial or other forms of equality can act and make decisions based on biases without even being aware that they have any biases at all • Implicit/unconscious bias is when a person’s actions are motivated by unconscious processes.

25. How Implicit/Unconscious Bias Leads to Discrimination • When one holds a negative stereotype about a group and meets someone who fits the stereotype s/he may discriminate against that individual • It occurs even among persons who are not consciously prejudiced

26. Priming • Our environment affects our unconscious networks • Priming activates mental associations • Telling someone a scary story activates a frame of fear • Claude Steele’s“stereotype threat”: • For example, tell students about to take a test that Asian students tend to do better than whites, and the whites will perform significantly worse than if they had not been primed to think of themselves as less capable than Asians. Source: http://www.eaop.ucla.edu/0405/Ed185%20-Spring05/Week_6_May9_2005.pdf

27. Counteracting Unconscious Prejudice and Stereotypes • Individuation: focus on the individual attributes of specific person versus categorization or perceiving person through filter of their social group Source: Burgess, Van Ryn, Dovidio, and Saha, J Gen Intern Med (2007); Williams, 2012

28. Social Cognition: Warmth and Competence Pity : women, elderly, disabled High Esteemed: Your own group, who you identify with Warmth Despised: African Americans, Undocumented immigrants Envied: Competent, but don’t really like them: Asians Low Competence Low High Source: Douglas Massey. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2007.

29. Bringing Together Implicit Bias and Structural Racialization Implicit Bias Culture and Communication Structural Racialization Systems Approach Power Organizing

30. The Problems of Race Neutral Poverty Programs and Policies • Poverty interventions must consider the multiple underlying mechanisms of marginalization • When purportedly ‘neutral’ programs and policies for poverty alleviation are overlaid on already racialized practices, norms, and institutional arrangements, it is likely to not only leave such arrangements undisturbed, but perpetuate and exacerbate them

31. Imagining a New Paradigm • What is an alternative vision? • A model where we all grow together • A model where we embrace collective, yet differentiated solutions • A vision that requires collective action to be successful

32. Towards Targeted Universalism 32 • This strategic framework starts with identifying the universal goals for allin education, health, civil rights, employment, etc. • Our strategies much be targeted based on the different situatedness of groups

33. Towards Targeted Universalism • The framework should support the identification of specific obstacles in particular geographies and structures and stories that limit certain populations from reaching those goals

34. Towards Targeted Universalism • Strategies are tailored to address the specific needs and situatedness of targeted populations • They may be geographically particular based on needs and resources in different locations • It is difficult to effectively benefit one group while leaving others marginalized

35. Towards Targeted Universalism • Strategies often work on multiple scales based on the nature of the problem • They enable networks of institutions (funders, service providers, advocacy groups) with different assets/contributions to work together through linkages

36. Creating Interventions • Interventions need to focus on the following: • Targeting structures and (un)conscious bias • Healing the breach of exclusion created through racialized disparities • Creating a process of inclusion based on fairness • A focus on racial equity has broader implications for social relations and systems in our society • These disparities effect the well-being of our entire society, not just marginalized communities

37. Creating Interventions • If structural conditions are informed by implicit bias, then what is the organizational structure that can engage this? • How do you strategically fund to address this? • Analyze the problems, create multi-scalar interventions, and fund to build capacity • This necessitates a flexible network, not just organizations or coalitions • It also needs funding over the long term

38. Reflections on Situatedness • How are we each differentially situated in structures? • How do our own conscious and unconscious biases affect our philanthropic work? • Where are the groups we fund situated? • How are we situated vis-à-vis the groups we fund?

39. Challenges in Practice • In light of differential situatedness, how are collective decisions made regarding the targeted allocation of resources to different groups to meet universal goals? • What are the challenges of framing and allocating resources in this way? • For example, can perceived notions of scarcity be overcome by framing investments in a particular group as also investments in the social fabric of our society?

40. Challenges in Practice • While targeted universalism provides is an important framework for developing communications and informing policy and programming, it will not do all of the necessary work • What other strategies need to be considered to deal with unintended consequences, unanticipated resistance, implementation problems, etc.?