Being honest about racial justice
At his memorial service, George Floyd’s family said he died from a “pandemic of racism.”
We at Brookings Metro grieve for Floyd and others who have lost their lives to the same disease. And we mourn our leadership in Washington for dividing our weakened nation even further. Yet our Black colleagues and friends have been hurting far longer from regular injustices and failures of leadership. My own ache pales in comparison.
A big part of my pain comes from the fact that I direct a leading think tank on cities—and U.S. cities and broader policies have failed our Black community.
The list of cities where the victims of police violence have made headlines—Minneapolis (George Floyd), Louisville (Breonna Taylor), Baltimore (Freddie Gray), Chicago (Laquan McDonald), Cleveland (Tamir Rice), Sacramento (Stephon Clark), and St. Louis/Ferguson (Michael Brown)—are all places in which our program has worked or had partnerships over the last 20 years. While there are so many dynamics that shape the lives of these young men and women, there is need for deep introspection about our role in a system that has allowed for their lives to be cut short because of the color of their skin.
At the local level, many of you have been on an authentic journey with Brookings Metro and one another to create more inclusive economies. Along the way, Black leaders in our network have forcefully challenged the norms and structures that non-Black leaders have long preserved. There have been tough conversations, setbacks, and steps forward, and an acknowledgement that uniting in purpose often requires embracing tension. As the pandemic re-exposes underlying structures of racial inequality, we must work through that discomfort to ensure that the eventual economic recovery creates a more racially inclusive society.
If we’re being honest, we know the recurring tension that comes up in most rooms with well-intentioned business and civic leaders. You’re told one can’t talk about race and racial equity when creating an economy that works for everyone. It’s too divisive and makes the work a social agenda when we need to bring everyone together around an inclusive economic agenda.
And so to bring along more private sector allies, we’ve been bringing evidence to bear on a business case for inclusion. That diversity and inclusion is good for the economy.
This moment demands that we go back to the basics. That a strong economy is essential to a healthy civil society. A strong economy sets the conditions for all people and communities to thrive. It does not systematically underinvest in Black people and communities. When we underinvest in the skills and education of Black people, we limit their ability to innovate, form businesses, and earn incomes that fuel local economies.
When we allow exclusionary zoning to persist, and disinvest in the homes and neighborhoods of Black people, we curb their ability to accumulate wealth that pays for the postsecondary educations or new small business ventures that enable intergenerational mobility.
When we fail to hire and promote Black people or appoint them to corporate boards, we dismiss their expertise and experiences, which have been proven to make workplaces more creative, profitable, and effective in decisionmaking.
When we don’t pay sufficient wages to our disproportionately Black essential workforce, we rob them of their dignity and ability to afford adequate food, health care, and housing for themselves and their families.
And when local law enforcement deprives Black Americans of their most basic rights and freedoms, we allow our communities to suffer death, destruction, and the loss of trust on which our society depends.
For Brookings Metro to be a genuine partner in making cities beacons of racial justice and opportunity, we have our own work to do. To that end, we commit to the following:
- We will learn and reflect on our own privilege. We will take the time to learn about structural racism and reflect on our role as private individuals and as representatives of an influential, predominantly white institution. We will commit to being anti-racist. Resources include this powerful exploration of race in the South from our friends at the E Pluribus Unum Fund, this racial equity framework from Brookings’s Rubenstein Fellow Rashawn Ray, a new book by Metro’s own Andre Perry on the devaluation of Black communities, and these compilations of anti-racism readings suggested by Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham or by my research assistant Reniya Dinkins.
- We will use our platform to center and uplift Black voices. We will share our platform with Black partners and their organizations so their leadership and expertise can visibly shape broader change. We are proud to stand with Tawanna Black of Minneapolis-St. Paul (who has issued her own powerful call to action), Pamela Lewis and Anika Goss of Detroit, Rodney Sampson of Atlanta’s Opportunity Hub, and others we have been fortunate to follow. We will incorporate their vision in our work and ask them to hold us accountable.
- We will commit our talent to shaping anti-racist policies and practices. We will evaluate how existing narratives, systems, and policies reinforce the status quo, and will proactively dismantle or overhaul them. Some recent pieces by Brookings experts offer suggestions for policing reforms, reparations, and what mayors and governors can do now to tackle racism.
- We will accelerate adoption of diversity, equity, and inclusion goals in our operations. We have started capitalizing Black in our writings and set DEI goals in our HR practices, staff professional development, research agenda, outreach and local engagements, and culture of respect and collegiality. We must accelerate these efforts and interrogate our progress.
In his Letter from Birmingham City Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr lamented, “I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’…Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
It is a sobering rebuke that “lukewarm" alliances have prevailed thus far. Today is truly a day to change. Today is the day to vigorously commit to partner with our Black and non-Black colleagues to the presence of justice. And today is the day we should be judged by what we do now with this moment. I hope you join us in this fight for justice.
Amy Liu
Vice President & Director,
Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings
