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Archive for Racial wealth divide

The DCF's Southern Delaware office

2021 and changes ahead

Posted by Stuart Comstock-Gay 
· Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020 
· No Comments

It’s time to lean into a new normal. If ever a year required us to re-think how things have been done, it’s this one. And the renewed reckoning on racial equity in America is most certainly part of that new normal.

We at the DCF have been deeply focused on Covid response work over the past nine months. During this time, we’ve also reflected more deeply on the growing Black Lives Matter movement, and protests and organizing across the nation. We had the chance to welcome Wes Moore and to engage hundreds of Delawareans in discussions about the deep history of racial inequality, and the need that all of us be part of building a society that is inclusive and equitable.

A big part of how we at the DCF are working on these issues starts with what we learned from the Community Equity Project cohort, a group of Delaware leaders – people with experience addressing equity issues – who met for over a year to define a shared vision around racial equity. We are pleased to release the report of recommendations from this cohort, which will help us continue driving important conversations statewide.

Out of that group’s work, there are six commitments the DCF is making now and for the long-term:
• Make racial equity an explicit priority in all the work of the DCF.
• Increase the impact of resources invested in the community that focus on racial equity.
• Encourage civic discourse – spark conversations throughout Delaware on racial equity issues.
• Shine a light on research and data through our communications channels and events.
• Continue to bring together and rely on the expertise of the Community Equity Project cohort to move the work forward and build broader partnerships.

Those five bullets are only the beginning, and only scratch the surface of course. They have led to specific actions. A new board equity committee – chaired by former federal Judge Greg Sleet – is meeting to develop metrics and resources for the work. Our Wes Moore Building Opportunity event is leading to continued community conversation about how and where Delawareans can engage in this work. We will be launching a new grants program focused on organizations led by people of color. We will be working with consultants to review our own practices – organization-wide – to ensure we are implementing the best practices to ensure perspectives of people of color are represented, heard and honored.

It’s also only the beginning of our work. We know that over time, work on racial equity issues will evolve, improve, and change. And we are committed to being in this work for the long haul.

I also want to thank and honor the people who participated in the Community Equity Project cohort, who are helping lead us to these changes. They are: Daniel Atkins, Rosa Colon-Kolacko, Rebecca Cotto, Dorothy Dillard, Kim Graham, Marshala Lee, Shyanne Miller, Michael Minor, Cimone Philpotts, Jaclyn Quinn, Shardae White and Christian Willauer. Read more about them here. A shout-out also to Social Contract, the outstanding consultants who helped design and coordinate the process.

I urge you to take a look at the report. Each section provides important insights and suggestions.

• Developing an Equity Lens describes the cohort’s work to define equity, and to understand and adopt an equity perspective.
• Empowering Communities provides an overview of the centrality of communities in the journey toward equity and offers recommendations for placing communities and their work at the forefront of the equity journey.
• Restructuring for Impact focuses on the organizational changes necessary to transform structures and processes to support and ensure equity.
• Institutionalizing Equity addresses the changes necessary in public awareness and education as well as in policies and law to shift toward equity.
• The Evolution of the Community Equity Project describes the goals, participants and process of the Community Equity Project.

The year ahead is going to be a momentous one. As we begin to ramp out of the pandemic, we need to keep our eyes on the changes we need to pursue. And in our vision of a Delaware that serves all, racial equity simply must be part of the equation.

A movement, not a moment…and some day…

Posted by Stuart Comstock-Gay 
· Friday, November 20th, 2020 
· No Comments

My synapses are firing, and I’m full of appreciation and joy!

Last night, hundreds of you joined us in a discussion with Wes Moore – about race, structural racism, hope, and passion. We also heard from a local panel, featuring Bebe Coker, Rev. Edwin Estevez, Alonna Berry and Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, responding to Wes and sharing their thoughts about where we are, and where we need to go.

Thank you to everybody who participated.

There is so much to digest and think about, but a few items stuck hard with me.

The racial awareness that has come about in 2020 is not, said Wes, because of something different that happened this year vs. last. Killings of, and harassment of, black men and boys have been with us for a long time, and are not going away. What’s different now is that we are in a movement, not a moment. And at some point, we will reach a time when we will say, “Can you believe racial justice was something people had to fight for?”

Wes also reminded us that we do not have the luxury of “looking past race,” when race remains the most accurate predictor of life outcomes in America.

Wes reminded us that every person’s story matters, and every story is interesting “because it is that person’s story.” Unfortunately, we too often don’t know people’s stories until it is too late.

And there’s not really room to discuss the powerful statements by all of our panelists. Suffice it to say, they were great.

Finally I appreciate that so many of us want to make progress. In his book Five Days, Wes says, “The figures in this book were each, in their way, fighting to prevent the tragedy of Freddie Gray from playing out again and again…In their small victories and looming failures, they revealed to me the importance of individual changemakers and the indispensable necessity of collective action.”

As for us at the DCF, we believe that collective and individual action to reduce racial inequities is and must remain central to all of our work. The work is not just a one-time thing, but will imbue all we do.

We are engaging in this work in a number of ways.

• Right now, in partnership with the Rodel Foundation, we are pleased to say that we will support a Delaware participant in the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund, a national initiative co-chaired by Wes.

• We are developing new grant opportunities focused on better supporting and investing in leaders of color, the organizations they lead, and the communities they serve.

• We are implementing recommendations of the fellows who were part of our Community Equity Project – their work will be featured on the DCF website in the upcoming weeks.

• And we are continuing to participate with the Delaware Racial Justice Collaborative being coordinated by our partners at the United Way of Delaware.

We are on a path. And we all have a part to play. And (using Alonna Berry’s metaphor), while none of us alone can move the wall, we all need to work hard on moving our individual bricks.




Wilmington’s Racial Wealth Divide

Posted by Stuart Comstock-Gay 
· Friday, April 26th, 2019 
· No Comments

“Economic inequality has expanded over the past decade, shutting the windows of opportunity to millions of Americans. In urban centers, this growing inequality has manifested through gentrification and the continued concentration of poverty in communities of color.”
– Racial Wealth Divide in Wilmington, Prosperity Now and JP Morgan Chase, March 2019

We have spent considerable time here at the DCF talking about the Opportunity Gap in America – and in Delaware. There are many issues that fuel this gap…education, employment, family connections, family stability, crime…

In addition to those factors, we also know that race is at the front of Opportunity Gap drivers. The new report from Prosperity Now and JP Morgan Chase – “Racial Wealth Divide in Wilmington,” brings that fact home in powerful way. The report – issued in March – shows that racial economic inequality is not just embedded across the country, but that economic racial divide is deeply enmeshed in Wilmington. For instance, in Wilmington, the overall median income is $40,065, a full $15,000 below the national median income. But notably, the median income of black residents is only $30,034, and for Latinos it’s just under $33,000. For whites that number is over $60,000.

We’ve seen this data before. It peppers the entirety of the DelawareFocus website. But this new report goes deeper, addressing issues like the cost-burden to renters and the wealth divide – a particularly pernicious and long-lasting divide. It discusses the education divide, where only 64% of Latinos in Wilmington have a high school degree, compared to over 80% of Blacks and Asians, and 90% of the white population.

All of us need . And the authors – Prosperity Now and JP Morgan Chase – challenge all of us. We need to better understand this historical divide. And we need to start doing something new. For one, the organizations behind the report will be launching the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative here in Wilmington, providing new leadership.

In a future blog, I’ll talk about DCF’s new equity cohort, a group of 12 Wilmington area community activists and leaders who are going to look at equity in Wilmington, and come up with recommendations for our work.

In the meantime, we look forward to partnering with our colleagues involved in this work, and commit to addressing the challenges in a more active way.

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