Kirwan Institute - Ohio State University

  

Panels and Workshops

* Please click the track titles to link to the panel and workshop descriptions.

 

Track: Thinking about Race

• Mass Incarceration as the New “Jim Crow”
• Politics, Culture, and Inequity: Structural Racism in Education
• Race and Spirituality
• Reclaiming Integration and the Language of Race in the Aftermath of Parents v. Seattle and Meredith v. Jefferson County: A Racial Formative Approach
• "Raceing California:" Lessons in Transformation from the California Ballot Initiative Wars
• Race and Management in the United States: Past and Present
• Transforming the Dialogue on African American Males
• Race and Racial Theory Contested
• International Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity: A Dialogue
• Advancing Racial and Structural Justice in an Age of Mass Incarceration and Colorblindness
• Race, Housing and Opportunity: Critical Housing Challenges and Policy Solutions to Address Racial Disparity and Improve Housing Opportunity for All
• Culture, Context, and the Meaning of the Color Line
• Back to the Future? The Re-emergence of a Biological Conceptualization of Race

 

Track: Communicating about Race

• More Than a Messenger: The Media Role in Shaping Our Racial Landscape
• “What makes me White?” A Film Screening/Discussion with Aimée Sands
• FILM: Afro@Digital
• FILM: Eye of the Storm
• FILM: Race - The Power of an Illusion: Episode 3
• FILM: Short Film by Sally Koan from Center for Community Change?
• Interrogating the Complexities of Black Political Attitudes
• Telling Stories Out of School: A Narrative about Opportunity and Race
• Talking (Productively) about Race
• FILM: What’s Race Got to Do with It?
• FILM: One Drop Rule
• Issues in the Literary Representation of Race
• Talking about Race and Poverty - or Not
• The Color of Justice: Talking about the Death Penalty and Race
• Reframing Race: Lessons from the Diversity Advancement Project
• Racial Wealth Inequality and Alternative Strategies
• Reframing Initiatives for Social Justice: Using “Equity” and “Opportunity” to Frame Social Justice Policy
• A Multicultural Society! Challenges and Successes in Overcoming Racism in Canada
• Transforming Public Discourse on Racial Justice: The Long Term View
• Leading with Race: Framing Issues with a Racial Equity Lens
• Post Civil-Rights Political Leaders: Racial Authenticity and Multiracial Coalition Building Strategies
• FILM: The Other Europe

 

Track: Acting on Race

• Lessons We Still Haven't Learned: How Our Federal Housing Policies Can Be Redesigned to Support Integrated Schools
• Lessons of New Orleans: A Structural Racism Perspective
• Organizing to Undo Racism
• Promoting Race and Diversity in the Policy Making Arena
• African Americans and Immigrants: Breaking Down Barriers, Building Bridges
• How Do You Create A Cohesive Campus Community?
• Addressing Structural Racism in Communities: Challenges and Opportunities
• Equitable Access to Financial Services
• African Diaspora Dialogues: Building Black Bridges
• Dismantling Structural Racism: Applying a Racial Equity Theory of Change
• Assessing and Developing Racially Equitable Policies
• Whose Work is Integration?
• Philanthropy and Racial Equity: Opportunities and Challenges
• Diversity: Identifying and Leveraging Business Opportunities
• Debunking Canadian Myths - and Achieving Racial Justice in Canada

 

  

 

Track: Thinking about Race
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Mass Incarceration as the New "Jim Crow"
Panel	Michelle Alexander; Associate Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Khalilah Brown-Dean; Assistant Professor, Yale University Maya Harris; Executive Director, ACLU of Northern California Marc Mauer; Executive Director, The Sentencing Project Dorsey Nunn; Program Director, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Michael Pinard; Professor, University of Maryland School of Law Panelists will explore the parallels between mass incarceration and earlier forms of racialized social control. The presenters will strive to begin a conversation about how we can most productively frame and talk about the role of race in the criminal justice system given that mass incarceration now functions to create a highly marginalized underclass (or "caste") that is demonized and locked out of the mainstream society and economy. The purpose will not simple be to deplore current realities, but rather ideas, questions, and insights that point the way towards a truly transformative approach to criminal justice reform.
Politics, Culture, and Inequity: Structural Racism in Education
Panel	Antwi A. Akom; Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University Roslyn Arlin Mickelson; Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte Fred L. Pincus; Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland Baltimore County How do economic, political, and cultural institutions interact to cause race and class inequalities at all levels of education? Panelists will focus on the impacts of policies, rather than on the intention – or lack of intention -- behind them. Groups with no intention to discriminate can implement policies that have negatively affect already disadvantaged groups. Discrimination without malice can be just as harmful as intentionally discriminatory policies.
Race and Spirituality
Panel	Mushim Ikeda-Nash; Vice-President of Operations, East Bay Meditation Center David Loy; Besl Family Chair Professor, Xavier University Marguerite Spencer; Senior Researcher, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity The presenters will explore Buddhists’ concepts of “lack” and “emptiness” and how they relate to an understanding of race and racism from a scholar-activist’s perspective. The moderator will introduce Christian doctrine into the discussion to expand the dialogue on the interaction between race and spirituality.
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Reclaiming Integration and the Language of Race in the Aftermath of Parents v. Seattle and Meredith v. Jefferson County: A Racial Formative Approach
Panel	Joshua Bassett; Director, Institute for Social Progress, Wayne County Community College District Erica Frankenberg; Post-Doctoral Fellow in Education, Michigan State University R. L’Heureux Lewis; Assistant Professor, The City College of New York – CUNY Christopher T. Sweeten; PhD Candidate, University of California, Los Angeles The Supreme Court’s recent rulings in Parents v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County, while offering qualified support for educational integration, nonetheless rejected two moderately effective voluntary school integration programs on the basis of their specific uses of race as a factor in producing integrated classrooms. The rulings reflect a dominant colorblind view of race that severely limits the ability of civil rights advocates to redress a wide range of inequalities that had hitherto been approached via explicit applications of racial discourse and racial identity politics. The panelists will consider how the language of race can be reclaimed as an effective strategy of empowerment in the colorblind era.
“Raceing California:" Lessons in Transformation from the California Ballot Initiative Wars
Panel	Gary Delgado; President Emeritus, Applied Research Center Daniel HoSang; Assistant Professor, University of Oregon Ruby Tapia; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University Raceing California is a new documentary film by Gary Delgado. Before the film, Daniel HoSang, a professor of Ethnic Studies and Political Science at the University of Oregon and a former community organizer, will offer a presentation of the history of racialialized ballot initiatives of California in the post-World War II era. While many view the conflicts of the 1990s as a break from California's historic commitment to civil rights, throughout the postwar era California’s system of direct democracy has proved to be a reliable bulwark against many leading civil rights and anti-discrimination issues, including fair employment protections, fair housing legislation, school desegregation, and inclusive language policies.
Race and Management in the United States: Past and Present
Panel	Elizabeth Esch; Assistant Professor, Barnard College Nick De Genova; Assistant Professor, Columbia University David Roediger; Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Panelists will challenge audience members to think about the ways in which the management of labor in the US has also centrally involved the management of specific races and claims, however spurious, of racial knowledge. Professor Roediger considers the origins of “race management” in slavery and settler colonialism and the prevalence of the use of competition among immigrant “races” in securing productivity. Professor Esch speaks to the ways in which managerial claims of being able to manage races facilitated the spread of the US empire, enabling imperialists to overcome significant racist objections to empire by proclaiming a US genius for “race development.” Professor De Genova presents his work on contemporary management and the differing ways that it cast[e]s Black and Latino/a workers.
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Transforming the Dialogue on African American Males
Panel	Adrienne Dixson; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University James Moore III; Associate Professor, The Ohio State University Daniel Newhart; Research Associate, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity George Wilson; Associate Professor, University of Miami Panelists will engage the following critical questions: (1) What is the importance of specifically focusing on African American male issues? How can we think about African American males in ways that initiate and support transformative projects around race? (2) How can we communicate ways of thinking in a transformative way about African American males to the public, who, despite differences, have fates tied to those of Black males? (3) How can we actively support and create transformative initiatives targeted towards African American males, and encourage communities to actively respond and implement those initiatives?
Race and Racial Theory Contested
Panel	Steve Martinot; San Francisco State University Stephen Menendian; Research Associate, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity Howard Winant; Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director, Center for New Racial Studies Drawing on the insight that race is both a noun and a verb, the presenters will elaborate the implications of the history of racialization and identify key contradictions that define racial politics, identity, and social structure in the 21st century.
International Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity: A Dialogue
Panel	Jean Martin Ouedraogo, Le CRAN Ramaswami Mahalingam; Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Specific cultural, economic, and social structures shape approaches to thinking and acting around race and ethnicity within varied regional, national, and international contexts. The presenters will examine how these different contexts and understandings influence international coalition-building in the struggle against racism and discrimination. They explore policies that can be developed and implemented at the national and international levels to create real opportunities for all.
Advancing Racial and Structural Justice in an Age of Mass Incarceration and Colorblindness
Panel	Eric Cadora; Director of Justice Mapping Center in New York City Keith Lawrence; Research Associate, Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change Susan Tucker; Director, The After Prison Initiative This panel will be a moderated discussion on three themes critical to the advancement of racial and structural justice in the current context of racialized mass incarceration: (1) New concepts, language and definitions of race, crime, punishment and security for a colorblind America; (2) The integration of fragmented efforts for advancing racial and structural justice, and the “seeding” of racial equity ideas in justice and related “opportunity” institutions; and, (3) The need to leverage, link, and mobilize movement opportunities offered by current global, historical, environmental, and other dynamics.
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Race, Housing and Opportunity: Critical Housing Challenges and Policy Solutions to Address Racial Disparity and Improve Housing Opportunity for All
Panel	Hazel Morrow-Jones; Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Education, College of Engineering and Professor, City and Regional Planning Department, The Ohio State University Jason Reece; Senior Researcher, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity Jim Rokakis; Treasurer, Cuyahoga County Ohio Phil Tegeler; Executive Director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council If poor communities of color are the “canary in the coal mine” of the national housing economy, we all have an immediate interest in paying close interest to them. Panelists will review the housing trends and issues disproportionately affecting communities of color, including predatory lending, affordability, and “exotic” mortgages. They will explore the relationships between those developments and dynamics within the larger housing market more generally. Finally, they will suggest some targeted housing policies to address racial disparities in the housing market and improve housing opportunity for all.
Culture, Context, and the Meaning of the Color Line
Panel	William A. “Sandy” Darity, Jr.; Professor, Duke University Art Goldsmith; Jackson T. Stephens Professor of Economics, Washington and Lee University Darrick Hamilton; Assistant Professor, Milano, The New School for Management and Urban Policy Joni Hersch; Professor of Law and Economics, Vanderbilt University The panelists will present research that speaks to the ambiguity of racial identity. Their work discusses the role of skin shade and differences in skin shade to highlight the ambiguity of race, examines the endogeneity of race to Latino identification in the United States; and explores the economics of the color line across cultures.
Back to the Future? The Re-emergence of a Biological Conceptualization of Race
Panel	Douglas Crews; Professor of Anthropology and Public Health, The Ohio State University Reanne Frank; Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University Andrew Grant-Thomas; Deputy Director, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity, The Ohio State University Jeffrey McKee; Professor, Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University That race is a "social construction" is widely regarded as a truism in the social sciences, at least as a rhetorical matter. In 1994, however, the publication of The Bell Curve marked open, popular re-engagement with the relationship between race and genetics and its implications for social outcomes and social policy. A decade later, the FDA approved a race-targeted drug for the first time, a heart failure drug for African Americans. Recent developments in genetic science lead some to argue that race remains a useful proxy for genetic variations meaningful in the health context. Still more recent comments by Nobel Laureate James Watson have renewed concerns among many about the destructive ends such arguments could be made to serve, especially with respect to racial attitudes and public policy. What, then, is the evidence for the biological basis of race? What do we know, what don't we know, and what remains to be learned? What is the relationship between race, understood in biological terms, and race, defined in sociological terms? How can we take advantage of the promise of genetic science without falling prey to the pitfalls of biological reductionism? Where are we headed?
Track: Communicating about Race
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More Than a Messenger: The Media Role in Shaping Our Racial Landscape
Panel	Janine Jackson; Program Director, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) Bruce A. Jacobs; Author and Speaker Jim Myers; Author and Former Reporter for Gannet/USA Today The presenters will explore such issues as: (1) Fairness or bias in media coverage of race; (2) The effect of ownership centralization (e.g., poll-driven design of news content, corporate owners pushing local TV affiliates for cheaper and more attention-getting material) on coverage of race and on popular ideas about race? (3) The effect of coverage of 9/11, the Iraq war, Katrina, and the "War On Terror" on the nation’s racial sensibilities; (4) The rise of the highly emotional, theatrical talk show, now an industry staple, and its impact on racial ideas and discourse; (5) The role of hip-hop (both the commercial hip-hop industry and the Internet/ independent hip-hop media) in defining and redefining race; (6) The role of technology (e.g., YouTube, bloggers) in how people now obtain and transmit racial ideas and stories (such as the Jena 6), and how this may affect the racial climate in general.
“What makes me White?” A Film Screening/Discussion with Aimée Sands
Workshop	Aimée Sands; Independent Documentary Filmmaker, Aimée Sands Productions Designed as a gentle tool for both the classroom and diversity training workshops, What makes me White is a personal and poetic exploration of whiteness as a learned racial identity. Emmy award- winning filmmaker Aimée Sands takes a uniquely inquiring and personal approach in this 15-minute documentary, inviting audiences to ask difficult questions of themselves about the role of race in their lives.
FILM: Afro@Digital
Film	http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0155&s (52 min; race, international, technology, access to opportunity)
FILM: Eye of the Storm
Film	http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0160&s (26 min; that famous blue eye/brown eye study)
FILM: Race - The Power of an Illusion: Episode 3
Film	http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0149 (56 minutes)
FILM: Short Film by Sally Koan from Center for Community Change?
Film	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqmj2EybIQI
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Interrogating the Complexities of Black Political Attitudes
Panel	Ray Block, Jr.; Assistant Professor, Florida State University Vince Hutchinson; University of Michigan Harwood K. McClerking; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University Melynda J. Price; Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky Law School Ismail White; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University, and Visiting Professor, Princeton University The presenters will explore the contours of black political attitudes toward current policy issues. Their focus will be on the complexities of black opinion and they will interrogate claims that African Americans function as a monolithic group. Much of the discussion will focus on the practical implications of this knowledge about the sophistication and complexity of black political attitudes. How do we frame messages about complex policy issues in ways that appeal to a broad, multiracial public? Should different strategies be employed when addressing traditional race-based public policies than when addressing issues ostensibly unmarked by race? Further, in what ways must policy advocates frame issues to appeal to the diversity of African American attitudes and are these strategies so different from what is necessary to appeal to the diversity of attitudes found among other Americans?
Telling Stories Out of School: A Narrative about Opportunity and Race
Workshop	Susan Eaton; Research Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School This workshop will present a rich, fact-based, clear and compelling alternative “narrative” for why racial and ethnic inequalities manifest themselves in schools. The presenters will render visible many of the invisible barriers to equal educational opportunity, including racial and economic segregation/isolation, the effect of recent criminal justice policy on neighborhoods of color, and the effect of violence exposure and health-related disparities on children most likely to attend schools of concentrated disadvantage that produce lower test scores. While recognizing the importance of closing the troublesome achievement gap, equal attention will be paid to the “opportunity gap” that clearly affects a child’s ability to reach his or her potential in the classroom.
Talking (Productively) about Race
Workshop	Phillip Mazzocco; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University at Mansfield The workshop will explore a number of dominant cognitive frames that help to increase opposition to proactive racial policy. The presenters will demonstrate how persuasive communications can be produced that both counter these dominant but pernicious frames and capitalize on other frames to produce maximum persuasive effectiveness. The workshop will highlight relevant research, both published and ongoing. Working in groups, participants will have the opportunity to create and receive feedback on their own persuasive communications.
FILM: What’s Race Got to Do with It?
Film	http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0188&s (49 min; race, gender, education, diversity, talking about race)
FILM: One Drop Rule
Film	http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0127&s (44 min; colorism)
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Issues in the Literary Representation of Race
Panel	Adeleke Adeeko; Professor, The Ohio State University Anne Langendorfer; Ph.D. Student, The Ohio State University James Phelan; Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, The Ohio State University The focus of this panel is on representations of race in selected texts of African literature and African American literature, and, thus, on different ways in which authors seek to communicate about race as well as on ways in which critics respond to those representations, and ultimately on the consequences of both the authorial communication and the critical response. While keeping these broad goals in mind, the individual papers will hone in on especially salient features of the communicative exchange in the texts under discussion. Adeleke Adeeko will focus on how recent African fiction holds out a cosmopolitan ideal. Anne Langendorf will examine the challenges that Charles Chestnutt's short fiction presents to readers today. James Phelan will analyze the multiple voices of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Talking about Race and Poverty - or Not
Panel	Matthew Nisbet; Assistant Professor, American University Margy Waller; Director, The Mobility Agenda at Inclusion The presenters explore public opinion survey research over time and framing science research on poverty and race. They will consider the implications of this research for building public will to support public and private policies that address issues of poverty and discrimination. The discussion will highlight a new framework for discussion -- “social inclusion” in the US.
The Color of Justice: Talking about the Death Penalty and Race
Workshop	David Harris; Managing Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School Rachel Lyon, Associate Professor, Bentley College, Media and Culture The nexus between race and the death penalty has been noted for many years. To be sure, the relationship has been muted in recent years, as methods of execution have been sanitized and black men have been joined by Latinos and other people of color. This discussion group will explore the extent to which we, as a society, are making an active choice, or whether, if given more complete information and a clearer picture of the alternatives, we might choose differently? The workshop will begin with an overview of the landscape on race and the death penalty, a sketch of the privations of communities of color, and a review of the bias that pervades the criminal justice system. Participants will be challenged to think about ways to change the frame of reference from white victims – a theme that has been used throughout history to justify the execution of blacks – to the needs of communities and how to address them. Discussion will begin with clips from our joint project, Race to Execution, a new documentary, narrated by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.
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Reframing Race: Lessons from the Diversity Advancement Project
Workshop	Jacob Faber; Researcher, Center for Social Inclusion Phillip Mazzocco; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University at Mansfield Lynne Wolf; Advocacy Coordinator, Center for Social Inclusion How do diversity advocates regain ground and win the long-term fight for support of race-conscious policies that can achieve diversity and build opportunities for all of us? New research begins to suggest promising possibilities. Created in 2004 after the University of Michigan Supreme Court affirmative action cases, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Center for Social Inclusion formed the Diversity Advancement Project (DAP). The DAP seeks to broaden public understanding of and support for the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in our country’s public and private institutions. The workshop will share project results from Michigan, insights about how advocates can begin to apply these findings to their public education work, and plans for future site testing. Facilitators will also share tools developed on the basis of the Michigan work.
Racial Wealth Inequality and Alternative Strategies
Panel	William A. “Sandy” Darity, Jr.; Professor, Duke University Jessica Gordon Nembhard; Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park William E. Spriggs; Chair, Department of Economics, Howard University Omari H. Swinton; Assistant Professor, Howard University The presenters will discuss wealth inequality by race, the policy history that brought the country to its present circumstances, and some nontraditional strategies to address the problem and reduce racial wealth gaps.
Reframing Initiatives for Social Justice: Using “Equity” and “Opportunity” to Frame Social Justice Policy
Panel	Frank Fernandez; Executive Director, Community Partnership for the Homeless Jason Reece; Senior Researcher, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity Brenda Terrell; Principal, Brenda Y. Terrell & Associates Dizzy Warren; Executive Director, National Resource Center for the Healing of Racism How can an organization or community use the “Opportunity Communities” or equity model to promote social justice? What obstacles might the organization or community face in trying to do so? Is “opportunity” a strong frame to talk about issues of racial, social, and regional equity? How can the opportunity frame be used to build diagnostic consensus and support for initiatives that promote opportunity and social justice and all?
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A Multicultural Society! Challenges and Successes in Overcoming Racism in Canada
Panel	Mirlande Demers; Chair, National Anti-Racism Council of Canada & Chair, National Youth Anti-Racism Network Catherine Latouche; Mirlande Demers’ attendant Albert McLeod; Team Leader, United Against Racism; Project Director, Kani Kanichihk/United Against Racism Estella Muyinda; Executive Director, National Anti-Racism of Canada Victor Wong; Executive Director, Chinese Canadian Association The National Anti-Racism Council of Canada (NARCC) a network of national, community-based organizations that provide a national voice against racism, racialization and all other forms of related discrimination in Canada will speak to the diverse issues that impact on racialized communities within a multicultural society. Our panel presentation and discussion is divided into three parts. The first part is an introduction of NARCC, in which you will learn of NARCC's background, its membership and accomplishments, as well as the challenges we face to sustain such an important organization. The second part will be a discussion of specific issues such as how Aboriginals and racialized group members live within the context of a multicultural society, the understanding of multiculturalism and the undercurrent debates on racism, racial profiling, religion reasonable accommodation, reparation and redress for historical wrongs and how communities have worked to get governments in conversation and had them respond positively. a) Challenges Canadian Equality seeking Non-Government Organizations face in sustaining their mandate. b) Reasonable accommodation, racism and hate, what are the linkages? c) What politics and unmet expectations of Multiculturalism mean to Aboriginals in Canada. d) Redress/Reparations for historical wrongs: A Case Study: (this title may change) The third part will be a dialogue with participants on the issues discussed.
Transforming Public Discourse on Racial Justice: The Long Term View
Panel	Lark Corbeil; Founder/Managing Editor, Public News Service Malkia Cyril; Executive Director, Youth Media Council/Center for Media Justice Makani Themba-Nixon; Executive Director, The Praxis Project In order to develop strategic communications that is truly transformative of the public conversation, racial justice advocates must understand the various “mechanisms of meaning” that shape why and how people believe what they do about racism, race, and privilege. This interactive panel will explore how effectively “talking about race” involves our engagement in new ways of “thinking” about race – and even requires a new concept of what we mean by strategic communications.
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Leading with Race: Framing Issues with a Racial Equity Lens
Workshop	Terry Keleher; Midwest Director, Applied Research Center Jarad Sánchez; Research Associate, Applied Research Center This workshop will include a series of exercises that examine the value of explicitly addressing race when engaging contemporary social issues. The “Race Debate” exercise illustrates how race can be revealed or concealed and how colorblindness – downplaying race and denying racism – can be contrasted with racial justice, whereby racism is acknowledged and equity advanced. A racial framing exercise illustrates how the storyline can readily be shifted from a colorblind, personal responsibility frame to a color-conscious, institutional accountability frame. Facilitators will present and discuss a real issue campaign that “leads” with race.
Post Civil-Rights Political Leaders: Racial Authenticity and Multiracial Coalition Building Strategies
Panel	Sekou Franklin; Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University Andra Gillespie; Assistant Professor, Emory University Melissa Harris-Lacewell; Associate Professor, Princeton University Tyson King-Meadows; Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Princeton University Visiting Fellow Wendy Smooth; Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University The presenters will focus on the emergence of the new, post civil rights political leadership whose backgrounds differ substantially from those of their predecessors. The focus will be on the strategies these candidates employ and on how they frame conversations regarding race. The discussion will reevaluate the “deracialization” strategy as a means of building multiracial coalitions. Panelists will focus on the recent candidacies and governing strategies of political figures those such as Harold Ford, Deval Patrick, Corey Booker, Michael Steele, and Barack Obama. What works and what doesn’t work in how these candidates talk about race? How have these leaders responded to charges of racial inauthencity? If these candidates represent the prospects for future coalition building in light of their evolving race-talk strategies, does the future look bright or bleak?
FILM: The Other Europe
Film	http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0194&s (58 minutes)
Track: Acting on Race
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Lessons We Still Haven't Learned: How Our Federal Housing Policies Can Be Redesigned to Support Integrated Schools
Panel	Demetria McCain; Director of Advocacy & Education, Inclusive Communities Project Philip Tegeler; Executive Director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council In the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision in the Seattle/Louisville voluntary school integration case, we have seen renewed calls to link housing and school policy to promote school integration. This panel will explore the political, legal, bureaucratic, and other structural barriers that stand in the way of such linkages, and panelists will suggest a transformative agenda to begin to align school and housing policies. Panelists will draw from their experiences with policy reform in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, the HOPE VI Public Housing Revitalization Program, and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Lessons of New Orleans: A Structural Racism Perspective
Workshop	Chester Hartman; Director of Research, Poverty & Race Research Action Council The August 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes were virtually unprecedented in the extent of their destruction and disruption. In all significant areas – evacuation, relief, rehousing, schooling, public health, and other significant elements of personal, family, and community life – race/racism and poverty played powerful, even decisive roles. Disparities by race and class abounded, and still do more than two years later. This workshop will explore these disparities and the reasons for them, including the inadequacy of government actions and policies, and work toward creating lessons and models applicable not only to similar disasters in the future, but also to the conditions that existed in New Orleans prior to Katrina and that still exist in metropolitan areas throughout the US.
Organizing to Undo Racism
Workshop	Monica Dennis; Organizer & Media Relations Coordinator, The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond Martin Friedman; Organizer, The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond Effective community and institutional change happens when those who are agents of transformation understand the foundations of race and racism and how they continually function as a barrier to community self determination and self sufficiency. The workshop will emphasize learning from history, developing leadership, maintaining accountability to communities, creating networks, undoing internalized racial oppression and understanding the role of organizational gatekeeping as a mechanism for perpetuating racism.
Promoting Race and Diversity in the Policy Making Arena
Panel	Diallo Brooks; Director of Legislative Relations, The Center for Policy Alternatives Tobi Jaiyesimi; Hunter College Joan Javier; National Field Manager, The Center for Progressive Leadership Nate Loewentheil; Executive Director, The Roosevelt Institution Lynne Wolf; Advocacy Coordinator, Center for Social Inclusion An overview of the mission of the Roosevelt Institution, a nonpartisan, nonprofit national network of campus-based student think tanks will be presented. The focus of the conversation will be on the need to promote diversity within progressive organizations, particularly policy organizations, and how this relates to the Roosevelt Institute’s work on Participatory Democracy (one of the Institute’s three “Challenge” areas for the year).
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African Americans and Immigrants: Breaking Down Barriers, Building Bridges
Panel	Gerald Lenoir; Coordinator, Black Alliance for Just Immigration Nunu Kidane; Network Coordinator, Priority Africa Network Catherine Tactaquin; Executive Director, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Leah Wise; Executive Director, Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network A panel of African American and immigrant rights activists will discuss the impact of racism, globalization, and immigration on the building of a movement for social and economic justice in the United States. The presenters will talk about the barriers they need to overcome to promote bridge-building between their respective communities, and the strategies they employ in their organizations’ efforts to do so.
How Do You Create A Cohesive Campus Community?
Workshop	Georgina Dodge; Assistant Vice Provost, Office of Minority Affairs Rick Livingston; Associate Director, Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities Rebecca Nelson; Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director, Multicultural Center Janaki Vijayaraghavan; Graduate Administrative Associate, Multicultural Center This workshop will be an active conversation and brainstorming session focused on the processes a university should consider if it seeks to develop a cohesive campus community centered on respect, diversity, and intellectual integrity. Workshop facilitators will discuss some of the practices that can be used to draw a diverse campus population together in substantive and meaningful ways.
Addressing Structural Racism in Communities: Challenges and Opportunities
Panel	V. Elaine Gross; President, ERASE Racism Jean-Claude Icart; CRIEC, Department of Sociology, University of Quebec at Montreal Sally Leiderman; President, Center for Assessment and Policy Development Julie Nelson; Acting Director, Seattle Office for Civil Rights Maggie Potapchuk; President, MP Associates Forthcoming
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Equitable Access to Financial Services
Panel	Vanessa Gail Perry; Assistant Professor, George Washington University Patricia A. McCoy; George J. & Helen M. England Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law Gregory D. Squires (Professor, George Washington University The presenters will explore the implosion of the subprime market, the increase in predatory lending, and the various causes and costs of these developments. Homeownership and the financial resources essential for homeownership are critical for the creation of equitable and sustainable communities. Panelists will examine persistent discriminatory barriers in the nation’s housing and housing finance markets and describe a set of policies that would greatly reduce those barriers.
African Diaspora Dialogues: Building Black Bridges
Workshop	Gerald Lenoir; Coordinator, Black Alliance for Just Immigration Nunu Kidane; Network Coordinator, Priority Africa Network The workshop facilitators will lead a discussion of the work of the Priority Africa Network (PAN) and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area organizations that have sponsored dialogues between African Americans and black immigrants. These series of dialogues have uncovered layers of misconception and stereotypes by African immigrants on what “being Black” means within the historic and contemporary context of the United States. African Americans, too, have had to face difficult issues of race and identity when in a room of Blacks who are not part of the historic treatment of people of color in the United States. The Diaspora Dialogues foster understanding of the historic divisions among communities that have fragmented and weakened them all. The overall goal is to contribute to the building of a unified movement for social and economic justice for people of African descent and people of color.
Dismantling Structural Racism: Applying a Racial Equity Theory of Change
Workshop	Keith Lawrence; Research Associate, Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change The Racial Equity Theory of Change (RETOC) is a step-by-step guide designed by the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change for those working to reduce racial outcome disparities in particular sectors or geographic contexts. It is a prerequisite for strategic and action planning, designed to help planners apply a structural racism analysis systematically at the front end of those processes. Using examples from various sectors, this workshop will discuss six important steps toward clarifying what is to be changed in a given outcome area, and the capacities and resources essential for bringing about these changes.
Assessing and Developing Racially Equitable Policies
Workshop	Terry Keleher; Midwest Director, Applied Research Center Jarad Sánchez; Research Associate, Applied Research Center This interactive workshop will highlight innovative tools for advancing racial equity in the policy arena. Some of the tools to be presented include: (1) the Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, which creates a framework for establishing equitable policy-making standards, assessing legislative proposals, grading legislators on race-related votes and developing equitable policy initiatives; (2) the Racial Impact Assessment, which provides a guide for developing equitable policies; and, (3) “Race and Public Policy: A Dialogue,” a short video and discussion guide that sparks public conversation about the importance of highlighting how policies can replicate or reduce racial inequities.
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Whose Work is Integration?
Workshop	Rob Breymaier; Executive Director, Oak Park Regional Housing Center Barbara Heisler Williams; Executive Director, Fund for an OPEN Society Dr. Kien Lee; Principal Associate, Association for the Study and Development of Community (ASDC) Caty Royce; Program Associate, Fund for an OPEN Society Leonardo Vazquez; Director, Professional Development Institute, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University This workshop aims to push us toward a common understanding of the work/meaning of integration. The facilitators will contend that because academics and practitioners approach the study and practice of integration from many different lenses, we have not developed a common understanding of this shared work – what it means, what it looks like, or how to describe or measure it. To achieve integration in multiple spheres, including the economic, civic, and social, a multi-disciplinary approach is required. So that we may work more effectively and efficiently, a common understanding of our meaning, our goals, and the benefits of our work is needed.
Philanthropy and Racial Equity: Opportunities and Challenges
Panel	Lori Villarosa; Director, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity) Leticia Alcántar; Director of Programs, Akonadi Foundation Alvin Starks; Associate Director, Fellowships and Racial Justice Initiative, Open Society Institute Forthcoming
Diversity: Identifying and Leveraging Business Opportunities
Panel	Anne Carter; Vice President and Diversity Director, The Huntington National Bank Susan Josephs; Professor and Dean, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University Karla Rothan; Executive Director, Stonewall Columbus Melissa Torres; Director, International Programs Office/CIBER, The Ohio State University The claim that racial, ethnic and other kinds of diversity make good business sense is regarded as a truism in some circles and as mere "political correctness" in others. This panel, comprising researchers, corporate leaders, and non-profit leaders, will engage the question of why instituting diversity as a value and practice is a sound business decision. They will describe specific steps organizations have taken to improve diversity and its benefits in the workplace, and point the way to the kinds of additional innovations that will be needed to fully realize those benefits in the future.
Debunking Canadian Myths - and Achieving Racial Justice in Canada
Panel	Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Professor of Political Science, Ryerson University of Toronto Avvy Go; Clinic Director, Metro Toronto Chinese & South East Asian Legal Clinic Michael Kerr; Coordinator, Karuna Community Services Uzma Shakir; Executive Director, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario The popular Canadian narrative is that Canada has successfully achieved racial harmony across the many diversities of its population. The reality is an entirely different story. The purpose of this panel is to debunk the myth of racial harmony in Canada, provide a critical analysis as to why the Multiculturalism Policy and the Charter have largely failed to advance ethno-racial equality, and highlight the Colour of Poverty Campaign. The Campaign is an ongoing community-based partnership effort to engage racialization, the growing racialization of poverty, increasing levels of social exclusion and marginalization of racialized communities, and to work toward the institutional, structural and systemic changes that are needed.
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