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Creating Justice in a Multiracial Democracy

Creating Justice in a Multiracial Democracy

New Will for Evidence-Based Policies That Work

Edited by Alan Curtis

Published by: Teachers College Press

Imprint: Teachers College Press

420 Pages, 156.00 × 229.00 mm

Paperback
9780807769942
Published: November 2024

£32.00

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Hardcover
9780807769959
Published: November 2024

£96.00

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Description
Contents
Authors

American democracy is at an inflection point. Will we stride toward the 22nd century with evidence and will? Or will we lurch fearfully backwards, reinscribing the white supremist domination of the 19th century?

After hundreds of urban protests in the 1960s, the presidential Kerner Commission, composed mainly of privileged white men, concluded, "It is time to make good the promise of American democracy to all citizens--urban and rural, white and Black, Spanish surname, American Indian and every minority group." Today it still is time--to reduce racial injustice, economic inequality, and poverty.

Since the Kerner Commission, there has been little or no progress in some areas, and in other ways things have gotten worse. Yet the visionaries on these pages are passionate about how the problem is not lack of resources, nor a dearth of knowledge on the economic, education, youth investment, criminal justice, public health, and housing policies that work. Rather, the problem is that America still does not have the "new will" the Kerner Commission concluded was needed to scale up what works.

How to create "new will?" We need to identify those who are thwarting majoritarian preferences. Use strengthened voter rights and new messaging techniques to advance Dr. King's economic justice movement based on both class and race. Weave the middle class into the coalition. Know that perfect unity is not necessary for effective collaboration. Better expose the exploitation of Americans by the privileged and the rigged system with its big myth of market fundamentalism. Make clear how that exploitation is smoke-screened by cultural deniers. Build moral language and moral fusion coalitions to revive the heart of democracy and advance a Third Reconstruction. Recover a moral commitment to long-term struggle. Balance outraged intensity with bridge-building persuasion. Don't just preach to the choir--but recognize that the choir is where, to use John Lewis' phrase, good trouble starts. Strengthen the role of nonprofit organizations. Base action on evidence and science, not on ideology, supposition, disinformation, and misinformation. Advocate for how universities can better engage their communities. And create a Harry Belafonte-like infrastructure of hope and empathy through the visual arts, monuments, and the performing arts. Through this book, and through its companion volume--the republication of the original Kerner Report of 1968--we commit to enhancing the movement and healing our divided society.

Book Features:

Brings together public and private sector decision-makers, seminal thinkers, activists, advocates, students, and commonsense change-oriented scholars to address a broad range of economic, education, youth investment, criminal justice, public health, and housing issues requiring urgent action.
Cuts through campaign rhetoric to focus on evidence and science, not on ideology, supposition, disinformation, and misinformation.
Examines what we have learned since the Kerner Commission and updates trends in economic, education, police reform, youth development, public health, and housing policies.
Identifies what works and what doesn't work.
Offers core lessons and takeaways for creating new political will to reduce racial and economic injustice, inequality, and poverty.

Contributors: William Barber, Jared Bernstein, Cornell William Brooks, LaTosha Brown, Elliott Currie, Linda Darling-Hammond, Robert Faris, Michael Feuer, John Jackson, Margaret Morton, Janet Murguia, Naomi Oreskes, Claudia Pena, Lisa Rice, Loretta Ross, Richard Rothstein, Anat Shenker-Osorio, Dorothy Stoneman, Michelle Williams, Valerie Wilson, Felicia Wong, Julian Zelizer.

Contents

Foreword
Wes Moore
Governor of Maryland

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Alan Curtis
President and CEO
Eisenhower Foundation

PART I: WHAT EVIDENCE-BASED
POLICY WORKS?

Economic and Employment Policy

1. Should the Federal Government Play a Role in Racial Equity?
Of Course
Jared Bernstein

2. The New Economics and the Rebalancing of Power
Felicia Wong and Matt Hughes

3. Guidez-Faire:
Why Capitalism Needs Effective Governance
Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

4. Worker-Centered and Race-Conscious Policy Are
Essential for Equity and Economic Justice
Valerie Wilson and Adewale Maye

Education and Youth Development Policy

5. The Long Quest for Equitable Educational Opportunity
Linda Darling-Hammond

6. Building Loving Systems to Create One America
for All Children
John H. Jackson and Zakiyah Ansari

7. A New Great Society
Randi Weingarten

8. Action to Reaffirm: Equity, Racial Justice, and the Future
of College Admissions
Dwayne Kwaysee Wright and Michael Feuer

9. Act Now! Invest in America’s Youth
Dorothy Stoneman and Mary Ellen Sprenkel

Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Policy

10. Police Reform: Where Do We Go From Here?
Neil Gross

11. Race, Transparency and Policing: Practical Advice From One
Pracademic’s Point of View
Branville Bard Jr.

12. Two Justice Systems—Separate and Unequal
Kim Taylor-Thompson

13. One in Five: Progress and Pushback in Lowering the
Lifetime Likelihood of Imprisonment for Young Black Men
Nazgol Ghandnoosh

14. Violence in Post-pandemic America: Hard Truths and Enduring Lessons
Elliott Currie

Housing and Neighborhood Investment Policy

15. Scaling Economic and Housing Justice
Lisa Rice, Michael Akinwumi, and Nikitra Bailey

16. What the Kerner Commission Got Wrong and How
We Can Get It Right: Remedying Segregation
Requires Recognizing Its True Origins
Leah Rothstein and Richard Rothstein

Public Health Policy

17. An Accidental Public Health Manifesto
Michelle A. Williams

18. U.S. Health Care Policy, the Evidence, and the Will
for Change: What Will It Take to Transform Decades
of Evidence Regarding U.S. Race-and Income-Based
Health Disparities to a “Will for Change”?
Herbert C. Smitherman Jr., and Anil N. F. Aranha

Latino, Native American, and Asian American Policy Perspectives

19. The Power of Stories
Janet Murguía

20. E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, (We Are) One
Sindy M. Benavides

21. Kerner Commission Report: 21st-Century
Native American Perspective
Judith LeBlanc

22. United Against Hate: How Asian America
Is Standing Up
George Huynh

PART II: HOW TO CREATE NEW WILL?

Dr. King, Economic Justice and Moral Fusion

23. Reviving the Heart of Democracy
Rev. William Barber II

24. An Email and an Epistle for American Democracy
Cornell William Brooks

Persuasion, Democracy, and Voter Rights

25. Values, Villain, Vision: Messaging to Mobilize Our
Base and Persuade the Conflicted
Anat Shenker-Osorio

26. A New North Star to Lead Us to a Representative
Democracy That Is Just and Equitable for All
LaTosha R. Brown

27. Calling In as Compassionate Activism
Loretta J. Ross

Media, Evidence, and Misinformation

28. When Our “Truth-Tellers” Won’t Tell Us the Truth:
Looking Back at the Kerner Commission Report and
Ahead to a Transformed Media Landscape
Ray Suarez

29. “Little Brother Is Watching Big Brother”:
The Flawed Media Lens on Policing and Racism
Julian E. Zelizer

30. Race and Media in a Polarized Society
Robert Faris

31. A More Evidence Based Policy Agenda
Justin Milner

The Visual Arts, Monuments, and the Performing Arts

32. Carry History, Hold Truth: Art in the Public Realm
Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Margaret S. Morton, and Lena Sze

33. Healing Toward New Will
Claudia Pena

34. Art as Translation
Carlton Mackey

35. Regenerating the Body of Culture
brooke smiley

36. The Art Will. . . A Musing on Life in the Performing Arts:
A Case Study for NEW WILL
Lisa Richards Toney

Index
About the Editors and Contributors