Nationwide, city leaders and staff are making a concerted effort to address the racial inequities in their communities.
Advancing Racial Equity in Local Government by Rita Soler Ossolinski In the wake of the 2014 unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, the National League of Cities (NLC) created the Race, Equity, And Leadership (REAL) initiative to strengthen local leaders’ knowledge and capacity to eliminate racial disparities, heal racial divisions, and build more equitable communities. REAL offers tools and resources designed to help local elected leaders build safe places where people from all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds thrive socially, economically, academically, and physically. Since its inception, REAL has developed a portfolio that includes training, technical assistance, assessment work, and capacity building for city leaders. This work has connected REAL to leadership in over 400 cities — to leaders who are committed to using an equity lens in the design and delivery of city services and to pursuing equitable access to those services for all residents.
The Present Reality Our nation’s cities are currently grappling with overlapping crises, not one pandemic but two: the long-standing pandemic of systemic and structural racism and
COVID-19. With the virus, data quickly emerged highlighting significantly disproportionate numbers of infection and mortality for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Heightened awareness of these disproportionalities became a spotlight on racial inequities. When George Floyd was killed while handcuffed and in police custody on May 25, it became a moment of reckoning. COVID-19 is the virus; system failure is the crisis. The confluence of these two pandemics has sharpened the resolve among many city leaders to undertake the hard work of racial equity. NLC REAL is responding to inquiries, helping cities assess their readiness and define their desired outcomes.
The Data Data on disparities based on race undergird REAL’s approach to our work with cities, including the content and design of our training, assessments, technical assistance, and capacity building. Race is the single greatest predictor of one’s success in this country, and the data consistently bear this out. From infant mortality to life expectancy, race predicts how well one will
do. In education, employment, housing, health, and criminal justice, the data for BIPOC are clear and inform the reality. • By July 11, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID data tracker reported that in the United States 34 percent of cases and 17 percent of the deaths were among Latinx people, who make up 19 percent of the U.S. population; 20 percent of cases and 23 percent of deaths were among Black people, who make up 13 percent of the population; and 37 percent of cases and 50 percent of deaths were among white people, who make up 60 percent of the U.S. population. • In 2017–18, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that average graduation rates for white public high school students (89 percent) were 10 percentage points higher than the average for their Black peers (79 percent). • Pre-COVID, the Economic Policy Institute data showed that “Black unemployment is at least twice as high as white unemployment at the national level.” continued
Rita Soler Ossolinski is program director of the Race, Equity And Leadership (REAL) initiative of the National League of Cities and can be reached at ossolinski@nlc.org www.westerncity.com
Western City, November 2020
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