Perceptions of and by Black Men

Since the mid-20th century, the United States has seen an enormous shift in public attitudes toward black-white relations, segregation, and blatant prejudice. At the same time, racial tensions, obstacles, and stereotypes continue, and Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds hold divergent understandings of discrimination and the causes of racial disparities.3

Besides contributing to a negative civic environment, stereotypes matter because they may undermine support for efforts to reduce racial disparities. If white people view African Americans as lazy, they are less likely to support government anti-poverty programs. Or, if it is commonly believed that black people are unintelligent or violent, it will hinder efforts for school or neighborhood integration, for example. And if black people believe these negative things about their own group, it may contribute to low self-esteem and other problems.

Public opinion research suggests that positive and negative views toward black people may be grounded in multiple arenas. In other words, while one might assume that a particular experience or aspect of a person’s background would cause an individual to feel either positively or negatively toward a racial group, or to ascribe to one of two opposing views (black people are hardworking or lazy, etc.), research suggests that responses toward a racial group may have different antecedents and be multifaceted.

For example, in research conducted by Patchen, Davidson, Hofmann, and Brown in 1977, they found that:

Positive behaviors toward black people are predicted by racial contact, while negative behaviors are predicted by aggressiveness and family/peer racial attitudes.

Lipset and Schneider, in their 1978 analysis of the Bakke case, and Katz and Hass in their study of “Racial Ambivalence and American Value Conflict” (1988) found that:

Positive attitudes toward black people are based in humanitarianism (sympathy toward the disadvantaged), while negative attitudes are based in individualism (self-reliance).

The conscious attitudes about racial and ethnic groups reviewed in this section probably tell only one small part of the story, and subsequent sections (for example, discussions of personal responsibility and altruism) are highly relevant to attitudes of racial groups as well.

Though it has become less of a focus in recent years, public opinion research has at times measured public assessments of different racial groups, including their character traits. For example, when a Harris poll (2009) asked respondents to rate various racial and ethnic groups on a thermometer scale “with 1 meaning extremely negative and 100 meaning extremely positive,” Americans overall give the highest ratings to “white Americans” (83.2) and the lowest ratings to “Hispanic/Latino Americans” (77.7). Respondents give almost identical ratings to “Black/African Americans” (79.9), “Chinese Americans” (79.9), and “Asian Americans” (79.7).

Many studies over the years have found that people are willing to assess groups on a variety of image traits with no description other than racial category. In research done by the National Opinion Research Center in 2010, people were asked to place racial groups on a 1 to 7 scale, with one end of the scale anchored by a particular trait and the other anchored by its opposite trait. Pluralities of survey respondents opted out of rating blacks or whites on intelligence, work ethic, and (to a lesser extent) wealth. However, of those who did give ratings, more said whites are intelligent than said blacks are intelligent (44 percent gave “intelligent” ratings for whites, 30 percent for blacks), and the same pattern held for “hard working” (37 percent for whites and 20 percent for blacks), and “rich” (41 percent and 7 percent, respectively) (see Figure 1).

Source: National Opinion Research Center, August 2010

More black men experience significant challenges than white men, have higher levels of worry, and are harsher in their judgment of black men. Even so, more are focused on achieving success in a career, on living a religious life, and are optimistic about a bright future. In just about every area, black men are their own harshest critics, as well as the most optimistic that things will get better.

Many black men have faced traumatic experiences in their lives. In a Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard 2011 study entitled “The Race and Recession Survey,” more black men than white men report having a close friend or relative who was murdered (61 percent and 29 percent, respectively), wrongfully arrested (31 percent, 16 percent), or the victim of a violent crime (25 percent, 18 percent). In only one area surveyed in this study have more white men than black men experienced a challenge — getting laid off or fired from a job (62 percent of white men, 54 percent of black men), a gap closed since the start of the recession (see Figure 2). Now, 27 percent of black people and 21 percent of white people say they have been laid off or lost a job in the past year, and more black people than white people say they are unemployed (44 percent and 40 percent, respectively) or underemployed (17 percent and 12 percent,  respectively).

Source: Washington Post/KFF/Harvard, April 2006

It follows that more black men cite high levels of worry about a range of concerns. Compared with white men, more black men are worried about every problem surveyed, from access to health care to getting arrested. A note of caution: This particular set of findings is based on a survey that occurred two years prior to the economic crash in 2008. It is highly likely that the same questions today would show far higher levels of worry on most measures, but particularly on economic measures. Important dynamics would likely remain unchanged: the gap in levels of worry between white and black men, as well as the high levels of worry on multiple issues among black men (see Figure 3).

Source: Washington Post/KFF/Harvard, April 2006

According to the 2006 Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard study, “African American Men Survey,” in rating a series of problems facing black men, black men themselves are more likely than other audiences to rate a range of problems facing them as severe, including not taking education seriously enough (91 percent), becoming involved in crime (88 percent), drug and alcohol abuse (87 percent), not being responsible fathers (85 percent), not having good jobs (85 percent), HIV/AIDS (82 percent), poverty (77 percent) and, lastly, discrimination (68 percent) (see Figure 4). Black women’s ratings are similarly high, while white men and women are not as grim in their assessment of the problems facing black men. Asked to choose the single biggest problem facing black men, 31 percent of black men chose “not taking their education seriously enough.”

Source: Washington Post/KFF/Harvard, April 2006

Note that many of these “problems” — not taking their education seriously enough, not being responsible fathers, becoming involved in crime, etc. — can be read as admonishment of black men or black families. Black men are their own harshest critics in this regard.

Black men and white men report very different priorities. For example, according to the Washington Post/KFF/Harvard 2006 study, compared with white men, black men put more importance on being successful in a career (76 percent of black men, 56 percent of white men), living a religious life (70 percent, 44 percent), being respected by others (76 percent, 59 percent), and standing up for their racial or ethnic group (76 percent, 33 percent) (see Figure 5).

Source: Washington Post/KFF/Harvard, April 2006

Black men are harshly critical of the priorities of black men generally, saying that black men put too little emphasis on education (69 percent), health (66 percent), their families (48 percent), and getting ahead at work (43 percent), and too much emphasis on sports (49 percent), maintaining a tough image (41 percent), and sex (54 percent) (see Figures 6a and 6b). Black men and black women tend to give far harsher ratings on these measures than white men and white women have of black men’s priorities, except the areas of maintaining a tough image and sports, where opinions converge.

Source: Washington Post/KFF/Harvard, April 2006

Though black respondents express significant worries and see a great number of problems facing black men, they still express great optimism about their future. Fully 85 percent of black respondents are optimistic about their future, compared with 72 percent of white respondents. A majority (59 percent) of black respondents say, “America’s best times are yet to come,” while a majority (53 percent) of white respondents take the alternative view, “America’s best years are behind us.” Overall, ratings on this measure have been surprisingly stable for the last 10 years, with just one noticeable shift shortly after the stock market crash at the end of 2008, with more people than ever (57 percent) saying that the “best times are yet to come.” Sixty percent of black respondents believe their child’s standard of living will be better than theirs, while just 36 percent of white respondents agree. (Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University, 2011)

Finally, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2009 report, “Racial Attitudes in America,” people   may see socioeconomic status as more relevant than race when it comes to dictating shared values. Both black and white respondents see values between the races as converging, while values between classes may be diverging. Majorities of both white (70 percent) and black (60 percent) respondents say “the values held by black people and the values held by white people have become more similar.” But as black respondents consider class, a majority (53 percent) say the “values held by middle class black people and the values held by poor black people have become…more different.” Only 22 percent of black respondents say, “Middle class blacks and poor blacks have a lot in common.”

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Disparities and Discrimination

Issues of race and race policy are understood by most Americans as being about individuals and relationships, not systems and structures, and that means the explanation for gaps in achievement are often understood as resulting from personal successes or failures rather than external influences.

Therefore, even if people recognize that disparities exist, they often blame disparities on individual failures alone, not systemic influences. Furthermore, if people recognize that discrimination exists, many think it is solely due to personal prejudice and do not see the influence of institutional racism. Overcoming this dynamic will be a central challenge for those who seek policy solutions.

Knowledge of disparities

White survey respondents recognize that disparities, such as economic disparities, exist between black and white Americans. However, research suggests that respondents, particularly white respondents, underestimate the size of the gaps. In an analysis by Kaplowitz, Fisher, and Broman entitled “How Accurate are Perceptions of Social Statistics about Blacks and Whites” (2003), in rating statistics, black respondents offered larger gap estimates than white respondents in three of four areas (excepting family income).4

Furthermore, white respondents tend to believe things are getting better for black men as a group (according to 58 percent of white men and 50 percent of white women surveyed), while black men are far more mixed in their views. Only 29 percent of black men believe things are getting better for black men as a group, while 34 percent believe things are getting worse, and 36 percent say things are staying about the same. (Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University, 2006)

But would more accurate knowledge help or hurt efforts to address disparities? If people had more accurate knowledge of the disparities that exist, would it inspire them to address them? Or would it just feed negative stereotypes?

The answer to this question depends in large part on people’s reasoning for why disparities exist. Even   if there is widespread agreement that there are inequities between white and black Americans, there is a fundamental disagreement about the cause of inequities. According to Nicholas Winter (2008), some attribute disparities to individual factors, such as individual effort, while others attribute disparities to structural factors.

The General Social Survey (GSS), a survey conducted periodically since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago that tracks opinions of Americans on a large range of issues, routinely asks questions designed to measure people’s understanding of structural vs. individual influences on disparities, such as economic disparities. Asked to explain why on average blacks “have worse jobs, income, and housing than white people,” respondents choose responses rooted in both individual and structural explanations. Equal percentages choose a measure grounded in individual responsibility (“motivation to pull themselves up”) and structural obstacles (“have the chance for education”). Few choose the blatantly prejudiced belief that black people have less ability to learn. One-third point to discrimination, a measure that white and black people may understand very differently. (GSS, 2010, NORC; see table)

More accuracy in pinpointing the breadth and depth of disparities is unlikely to matter if people continue to hold onto explanations for disparities that absolve government or other structures from responsibility. The next section discusses three different types of responsibility for disparities that are addressed in survey data, and whether or not each leads to public support for collective action.

Who’s responsible?

This section discusses three perspectives regarding responsibility for disparities and   solutions:

Interpersonal responsibility — Disparities exist because of those who demonstrate prejudice in their interpersonal relationships; therefore, prejudiced individuals are responsible for disparities and attitude change is the solution.

Structural responsibility — We all share responsibility in creating systems that allow disparities; therefore, institutions and structures continue to perpetuate disparities, and policy change is the solution.

Personal responsibility — Responsibility for achieving their own success belongs to individuals; therefore, it is up to individuals to create their own solutions.

Before further discussion of responsibility, it is important to describe people’s understanding of discrimination, and how it shapes their views of disparities and responsibility for action.

“Discrimination” is an issue that can be understood as “interpersonal” (meaning how individuals treat each other, or “individual racism”) or “structural” (meaning racism that is embedded in systems and institutions, or “institutional racism”). These marked differences in understanding often go unstated in public opinion surveys. In fact, surveys frequently ask questions that imply the existence of individual racism only, and obscure the role of structures.

Discrimination — widely divergent views

While Americans of differing races agree that discrimination continues in the United States, they assess the prevalence and consequences of discrimination differently. Black respondents are far more likely than white respondents to assert there is “a lot” of discrimination, that racism is “widespread,” and that it leads to a number of consequences.

Overall, 69 percent say there is “a lot” or “some” discrimination against African Americans. Black respondents are more likely to say there is discrimination (82 percent, 43 percent “a lot”) than white respondents (70 percent, 13 percent “a lot”) or Latino respondents (54 percent, 19 percent “a lot”). (Pew, 2009) Similarly, black respondents believe racism against blacks is widespread in the United States (72 percent), but whites are divided (49 percent widespread, 48 percent not widespread). (Gallup, October 2009)

The marked difference between black and white respondents occurs even among the youngest age groups. While 61 percent of black youth agree with the statement, “it is hard for young Black people to get ahead because they face so much discrimination,” just 43 percent of white youth agree. (Black Youth Project, University of Chicago, 2005)

At the same time, the Pew Research Center found in its 2008 “Political and Economic Survey” that a majority (53 percent) of Americans believe the country is making progress in addressing discrimination against minorities. Among a number of challenges, this is the one area in which people think the country is making progress. Even so, young people are skeptical that discrimination will be eliminated — just 11 percent of black youth and 4 percent of white youth say that it is very likely racism will be eliminated during their lifetime. (Black Youth Project, University of Chicago, 2005)

For black respondents, discrimination matters in part because it leads to serious consequences — such as gaps in income and education (see Figure 7). Far fewer white respondents believe racial discrimination is a major factor leading to these gaps.

Responsibility — interpersonal relationships

As noted above, one way of understanding what racial bias is “about” is grounded in interpersonal relationships. In this view, the problem is seen through the lens of how individuals treat each other; therefore, the solution is attitude change and stripping culture of stereotypes on an individual level.

A main focus in public opinion research has been the investigation of “relationships” between people of different races. In these types of questions, the focus is interpersonal: do people of different races get along, have people been treated unfairly by other individuals due to race, etc. The unstated assumption is that discrimination is based on interpersonal relationships and if people would treat each other fairly, disparities would close.

Most Americans believe that race relations are good, that problems will be worked out, and that more dialogue will help.

According to a Hart/McInturff survey for NBC/Wall Street Journal (2010), majorities across races believe relationships between the races are “good,” with white respondents rating race relations slightly more positively than black respondents — 72 percent of white respondents and 66 percent of black respondents say relations between whites and blacks are “very” or “fairly good.” These ratings jumped in the January 2009 Hart/McInturff survey, just prior to Barack Obama’s inauguration as president. In fact, at that time significant percentages of both white and black respondents believed race relations had gotten better since Barack Obama’s election (46 percent and 40 percent, respectively), but numbers dropped one year later (19 percent and 22 percent, respectively, said “better”).

A Gallup poll from October 2009 showed that a majority (56 percent) believe relations between the races will eventually be worked out. Overall, the ratings have improved since the early 1990s, hitting a high of 67 percent in November 2008.

In looking at the issue from the “interpersonal” perspective, conversation is viewed as a valid solution. Most people believe greater dialogue about race would bring the races together (56 percent overall). Black respondents in particular believe this is true (70 percent). (Gallup, 2009)

Personal slights (being treated with less respect, receiving poor service, etc.) are often the focus of survey questions that purport to measure discrimination. Many black Americans, particularly black men, report that they have experienced this kind of behavior.

Between one-quarter and one-third of black men say they have experienced mistreatment by others due to their race very or somewhat often in their “day-to-day life” including: “people act as if they think you are not smart” (35 percent of black men experience this “very” or “somewhat often”), “people act as if they are afraid of you” (34 percent), “you receive poor service” (29 percent), “you are treated with less respect” (28 percent) and “people act as if they think you are dishonest” (28 percent) (see Figure 9). As a point of comparison, responses among white respondents are in the single digits in each category.

Perceptions of discriminatory treatment vary widely by race. Many black respondents believe that blacks in their community are treated less fairly than whites are, while far fewer white respondents have a similar perception. Note the wide discrepancy in responses between white and black respondents on every measure of discrimination tested. (Gallup, June 2007) Unfair treatment by police is the only category with a considerable percentage of white respondents seeing a problem. Fully 73 percent of black respondents say they see blacks in their community treated less fairly “in dealing with police, such as traffic incidents” while 31 percent of white respondents say blacks in their community are treated less fairly in dealing with police — a 42 percentage point gap. There are similar gaps between the races in their observation of unfair treatment on the job (53 percent and 12 percent, respectively), in downtown stores (47 percent, 13 percent), in neighborhood shops (42 percent, 9 percent) and in places of entertainment (40 percent, 11 percent). (Gallup, 2007) Note: This series of questions straddles both the “interpersonal” and “structural” understandings of the issue of discriminatory treatment, since some examples, such as treatment by police, concern institutions.

The prevalence of the “interpersonal” understanding of this issue embedded throughout public opinion research is troubling for those who care about changing culture and policy. When something as serious as discrimination is commonly trivialized in surveys as being mainly about personal interactions, it obscures the widespread, systemic obstacles and prevents people from seeing the role of collective action and policy change.

Responsibility — structural

Though experts and advocates understand the influence of institutional racism, surveys rarely explore this dynamic. Public understanding of the influence of structures or systems in leading to gaps in achievement is a very limited area of inquiry. Like the questions about relationships and unfair treatment, the few questions that explore some aspect of systemic influences demonstrate opposing views between racial groups.

For example, black Americans see the need for the country to make more changes to achieve equal rights (which implies national policy change), while white Americans disagree. A majority (54 percent) of white respondents believe “our country has made the changes needed to give Blacks equal rights with whites” while just 36 percent believe “our country needs to continue making changes to give Blacks equal rights with whites.” Black respondents feel very differently, with 81 percent believing more changes need to be made. (Pew, 2009) On the economy, most black people said that the economic system is “stacked against Blacks/Black men” while white Americans said that “the system is fair to everyone.”

A split sample experiment demonstrates that some groups may be more willing to see the system as “stacked against Black men” than against black people generally. A majority of black respondents believed America’s economic system is stacked against black men (56 percent of black men and 62 percent of black women agree) while white respondents think the system is fair to everyone (57 percent of white men and 47 percent of white women agree). Responses by black men and white women are consistent across both versions of the question. Black women, however, are more willing to say the system is stacked against black men (62 percent) than it is against blacks as a group (49 percent), and white men become less willing to assert the system is fair to everyone when asked whether the system is stacked specifically against black men rather than blacks as a group (dropping from 69 percent to 57 percent, a 12 percentage point decline). (Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University, 2006)

Even though most white respondents believe “the system is fair,” most also recognize that black men face more obstacles advancing in the workplace than white people or black women. While black men are particularly likely to assert this is true (79 percent of black men say they face more obstacles than whites), even white men, the group least likely to acknowledge discrimination, agree black men face more obstacles than whites (59 percent). (Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University, 2006)

These limited findings may indicate a foundation on which to build. It may be possible, indeed necessary, to highlight in our conversations the structures that impede black male achievement, so that people more readily recognize the systemic causes of disparities.

Responsibility — personal

With the influence of systems and policies invisible to many, all people, including black men, look to personal responsibility to explain success or failure. In this view, racial disparities exist because individuals of different races are not trying as hard as necessary to achieve. Black respondents have shifted toward a personal responsibility perspective to explain gaps in black achievement since the mid-1990s.

As a general stance, Americans overwhelmingly believe in personal empowerment and self-determination. Given two choices, 82 percent of Americans side with the view that “everyone has it in their own power to succeed” while only 12 percent side with the view “success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside of our control.” Fully 77 percent of blacks believe in self-determination, a far higher percentage than in the mid-1990s when it stood at 66 percent. (Pew, 2009)

Majorities of blacks (61 percent) and whites (58 percent) agree that “Most people who want to get ahead can make it if they’re willing to work hard,” while fewer choose the alternate view, “Hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people” (36 percent of black respondents and 41 percent of white respondents). (Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University, 2011) Two thirds of all respondents (69 percent) side with the view, “people get ahead by their own hard work,” while the remainder say “lucky breaks or help from other people” are equally important (20 percent) or more important (10 percent). (National Opinion Research Center, 2010)

When race is added to the consideration, most assert that people are responsible for their own fate and place little fault on discrimination.

Given two choices, most Americans side with the view, “Blacks who can’t get ahead in this country are mostly responsible for their own condition” over the alternate view, “Racial discrimination is the main reason why many Black people can’t get ahead these days” (67 percent and 18 percent, respectively). White respondents are particularly likely to side with individual responsibility (70 percent), but even a majority of black respondents agree (52 percent). A majority of white respondents have pointed to individual responsibility since Pew started asking this question in the mid-1990s, and this view has gained traction among black respondents in recent years. (Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and Pew Sociological and Demographic Trends Project, 2009)

A majority (56 percent) of Americans believe the problems facing black men are more a result “of what Black men have failed to do for themselves” than “of what white people have done to Blacks.” White men are most likely to point to individual failure (63 percent), as do 59 percent of black men, 56 percent of black women, and 51 percent of white women. (Washington Post/KFF/Harvard, 2006) Finally, in a series of interviews conducted by Yankelovich/Radio One in 2007, fully 84 percent of black respondents agreed that “Blacks need to be more responsible for themselves as individuals.”

What is unclear, however, is whether “be more responsible for themselves” has the same narrow interpretation across the black community as it would in American culture more broadly. For example, the last statement, “Blacks need to be more responsible for themselves as individuals” might be interpreted as a call for collective action by the black community, for the black community, by at least some people. The same study found 71 percent of blacks saying it is important “to stick together to achieve gains for the community” and that the black “New Middle Class”5 segment was the “most likely to believe that problems in the Black community can best be solved by Blacks and that Blacks need to be more responsible for themselves.” (Yankelovich, 2007) So it may be that in some instances and for some segments of the black community, “personal responsibility” includes collective action.

Generally, the “personal responsibility” approach undermines a role for government in addressing disparities. On a scale of 1-7, where 1 indicates “the government in Washington should make every effort to improve the social and economic position of blacks” and 7 means “the government should not make any special effort to help blacks because they should help themselves” a plurality of black respondents side with the statement that government “should make every effort to improve” their lives (44 percent choose 1-3) over the government making no “special effort … because they should help themselves” (23 percent 5-7). White respondents answer in the reverse (12 percent government help, 54 percent help themselves). (American National Election Studies, 2008)

The rise in the perception that personal responsibility explains success or failure among black Americans has not yet replaced belief that prejudice hinders achievement.

In 2007, 82 percent of black respondents said that it was “important for parents to prepare their children for prejudice.” (Yankelovich) Black men assert that black parents need to both encourage their children that anyone can be successful with hard work, and warn them that they will have to work harder to get credit and that unfairness exists. Few, however, go so far as to say that most white people aren’t trustworthy (see table).

As communicators consider approaches to discrimination, disparities, and stereotypes, these largely invisible tectonics of “who’s responsible?” underlie public understanding and need to be taken into account. If a person believes discrimination is largely a thing of the past, or that discrimination is solely about interpersonal slights and personal racism, or that success is due solely to personal pluck, then a policy conversation seems irrelevant.

The Obama effect

The election of the nation’s first black president had a beneficial effect on people’s assessment of race relations. However, research suggests that Barack Obama’s administration has not ushered in a new era of support for racial policies.

While Americans may have many critiques of Barack Obama, the idea that he is providing preferential treatment to the black community is not typically one of them (though there are some conflicting notions in the research). Only 12 percent overall, and only 13 percent of white respondents, believe that he is “paying too much attention” to blacks. In comparison, more people think he pays too much attention to banks and financial institutions (33 percent), business corporations (25 percent), gays and lesbians (21 percent), and labor unions (17 percent). Black respondents report satisfaction with the level of attention the President is giving to “the concerns of Blacks”: 80 percent say he is giving the right amount of attention, 13 percent say “not enough,” and just 1 percent say “too much.” (Pew, 2009)

In “Change or More of the Same: Evaluating Racial Attitudes in the Obama Era” by Vincent Hutchings (2009), there is little proof that the election of a black president indicates increased support for policies   to address racial gaps. Some research suggests that the racial divide on racial policy matters is as wide as ever.

Furthermore, recent research warns that one consequence of Barack Obama’s election may be that people are less likely to believe discrimination is a problem. In pre- and post-election surveys, one researcher noted an 11-percentage point decline in the view that there is “a lot” or “some” discrimination against blacks. More than one in four, or 27 percent, of those surveyed revised their assessment of discrimination downward, and this shift occurred across a range of demographic groups. Declines in ratings of discrimination are associated with an increase in negative views of blacks and increased opposition to affirmative action and immigration. (Valentino, 2011) While it is too soon to know if this portends future obstacles in building public support for policies, advocates should be attentive.

Finally, President Obama’s real influence on the electorate may be more about mood than policy — he lifted black Americans’ assessment of race relations and progress. Americans overall are more likely to believe that Obama’s election made race relations better rather than worse (41 percent better, 22 percent worse), and this view is even more prevalent among black Americans (53 percent better, 20 percent worse). Americans are optimistic that Obama’s presidency will make race relations better (61 percent), a view that is especially held by black Americans (79 percent). (Gallup, October 2009) In fact, just prior to his inauguration, surveys showed a jump in the percentage saying relations between the races are “good.” (Hart/McInturff, 2010)

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Communications Directions

In some respects, there has been a significant amount of research recommending message directions  on issues of race. However, much of this research is limited in its utility, either because it was designed  to accomplish a narrow goal (and therefore is ineffective or even harmful for broader goals), or  because its focus is so broad it can be difficult to demonstrate effectiveness in advancing specific policy objectives. Most important, even those who have studied and recommended framing directions on these issues for some time are struggling to refine their recommendations and prove they can have an impact in policy debates. Much work still needs to be done.

A consistent question in communications strategies to build support for policies that will address racial disparities is whether to deliver messages that are explicitly “about” race, knowing that some explicit racial messages reduce support for equitable policies. Should advocates focus on race or class, or on race or place?

Highlighting or avoiding race

In a paper prepared for Ohio State University’s Kirwin Institute, “The Dangers of Not Speaking About Race,” Philip Mazzocco (2006) suggests that highlighting race, a color-conscious approach, can be effective in reducing discrimination and lead to support for racial policies. Though this particular research is limited to college students and should be viewed with caution, the general perspective is shared among some social scientists who suggest race consciousness is a necessary precursor to problem solving. (For more on this see Social Science Literature Review: Media Representations and Impact on the Lives of Black Men and Boys by Topos for The Opportunity Agenda, October 2011.)

From a communications perspective, much of the research sponsored by the FrameWorks Institute has cautioned about framing the conversation as being about “race” or “racism.” Strategists often promote messages that avoid race and instead focus on a broader value or connection (e.g., opportunity for all; disparities in place, not race). Using a series of frame experiments, some explicitly referring to race, some not, Gilliam and Manuel (in The Illogic of Literalness: Narrative Lessons in the Presentation of Race Policies, 2009) conclude that communicators should start with core values, not race:

…while it is true that racism as a value did have some positive effects, they were, in the main, about half as effective as exposing people to core American values that did not cite historical discrimination as an explanation for disparities in society. The fact that more generalized treatments were able to elevate support for policies that were specifically targeted to racial and ethnic minorities makes these effects even more compelling. It suggests a kind of disjunctive irony – in order to garner support for race-based policies, advocates need to begin the conversation by invoking broader core American values. Being literal about racism in the public dialogue about race is not the most effective way to build public will for progressive race policy reforms.

While starting the conversation in a different place may have utility, avoiding race completely is unlikely to achieve targeted racial equity policies. For example, based on research designed to develop effective communications for affirmative action, Westen Strategies, in “Neutralizing the  Affirmative Action Debate” (2009), recommends the following as the top-performing message against the opposition message in dial testing. This message avoids a focus on race (instead highlighting gender and age discrimination), denounces discrimination in all its forms, and positions the issue as being about “flexibility to ensure fair treatment” rather than “quotas.” It is easy to see how the following text would score well on a dial test — it is hard to disagree with. But it is unclear whether it builds support for affirmative action more broadly.

In this country, we don’t believe in discriminating against people, regardless of their color, ethnic background, sex, or age, and government shouldn’t tie the hands of employers or colleges with inflexible rules that prevent them from making sure every qualified candidate gets a fair chance. We all know that women don’t get hired or promoted in a lot of companies the same way as men, particularly if they took time off to raise their kids, [and all of us should care about that] whether we’re women, fathers, or husbands. We all know that employers look differently at older workers than younger ones, and we shouldn’t be telling a 55-year-old guy, [“Sorry, there’s no place for you here,”] when he got laid off from a job. And we all know that underfunded rural or urban schools with crumbling walls and 1980s textbooks put kids at a disadvantage, whether they’re black, white, or brown. We need to let business and educational leaders act responsibly and flexibly to make sure everyone is treated fairly, without resorting to quotas or one-size-fits-all programs that don’t do right by anyone.

Avoiding race may be an attractive short-term strategy, but over the long term it may also avoid the central issues and lead to no significant change in public understanding or culture.

Two other promising directions that have received some limited attention are: begin with structures/ systems first and then connect to race; and emphasize positive connections and interdependence among racial groups rather than differences.

Structures/Systems

One promising approach is to highlight a broken or flawed system of which all Americans are part, and then bridge to the dynamics of race. For example, Americans value education, want to improve the education system, and recognize that urban, black communities often have the weakest schools. Problematically, without careful framing, this approach can lead to blaming the individual (thinking that parents are at fault) or toward highlighting another problematic dynamic (such as “class” or “poor people”), rather than focusing on weaknesses in the system.

One tool that has been identified that keeps attention focused on systems and resources rather than individuals is the “Prosperity Grid” simplifying model. The basic idea is to communicate   a

metaphorical grid that underscores the role of resources and institutions in creating opportunity and prosperity. Communities, including the black community, for example, can be characterized as having more or less access to the resources afforded by the Prosperity Grid. Aubrun, Brown, and Grady, in their 2006 work, Moving Beyond Entrenched Thinking About Race: The Homeowner/Stakeholder Effect, note that:

Experts say the most prosperous communities have thriving institutions that provide opportunity, like quality schools, community banks and so on. Think of it as a Prosperity Grid, where everyone, all parts of the community, can plug into and benefit from these institutions of opportunity…

Another approach that keeps attention focused on systems and resources, while advocating the value of opportunity, demonstrates an ability to lift support for policies:

Lately there has been a lot of talk about social conditions in America. Some people believe  that African-American communities still face many barriers to opportunity. They have more declining school budgets, restrictive lending practices, and fewer health professionals. The American Dream has always relied on creating an environment where everyone has an opportunity to achieve — including African Americans. According to this view, we need to devote more attention to ensuring that every community — including African American communities — provides an opportunity to succeed for all its residents. This will result in a better quality of life and future prosperity for the nation as a whole. Please tell us if you have heard this explanation of why we should allocate societal assets to improving conditions in African American communities. (Gilliam & Manuel, 2009)

It should be noted that while Gilliam and the FrameWorks Institute have recommended a number of frames to address issues of race, in their survey research, the message listed above was the only one of several messages tested that lifted policy support while also bridging to a conversation about race. Other messages that didn’t test well in the survey should still be considered promising approaches, but ones that need further development.

Connections and interdependence

A dynamic that hinders broad-based support for change is people’s inability to see their connections to others. Sixty percent of white respondents reject the idea that what happens generally to black men in this country will have something to do with what happens in their own life. (Washington Post/ Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University, 2006) Cueing zero-sum thinking increases the sense that members of other racial groups are competitive threats and is likely to undermine support for policies to address disparities. In “Perceptions of Racial Group Competition,” Bobo and Hutchings (1996) wrote:

Perceptions of competitive group threat thus involve genuinely social-psychological processes that are not reducible to a single cause nor to purely individual-level psychological dynamics… We find that perceptions of competition and threat from other racial groups can be reliably measured. Such perceptions, while not acute in our data, are fairly common. Substantial percentages (though typically less than 50 percent), of Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians perceive members of other groups as zero-sum competitive threats for social resources… Perceptions of group competition tend to be based on a mix of racial alienation, prejudice, stratification beliefs, and self-interest. (Bobo & Hutchings, 1996)

Instead, can communications create a sense of shared fate, a sense that what happens to one segment of society affects all of society? Individualistic thinking leads to competition between the races:

However, rather than decreasing perceptions of threat, individualistic thinking tends to encourage Whites to view Asian Americans and Latinos as competitive threats, to encourage Asians to view Latinos as competitive threats, and to encourage Blacks and Latinos to view Asians as competitive threats. (Ibid.)

So can creating a sense of interdependence alleviate competition between the races? Survey experiments with affirmative action policy suggest that redefining the issue as one that affects society more broadly helps build support even for subgroups.

For example, with no priming, 63 percent support affirmative action programs for women and just 50 percent support affirmative action programs for racial minorities. When primed with a question about affirmative action for women first, support for affirmative action for minorities increased by 7 points. This occurs because people respond based on criteria for the first question they hear, then end up using the same lens to judge the subsequent question:

The theoretical explanation for this shift in views is what Schuman and Presser (1981, p. 28; also see Moore 2002, pp. 82–3, for an operational definition) term “consistency” effects. When asked first about either type of AA [affirmative action] program before being asked about the other type (what Moore termed a “non-comparative context”), people make their evaluations based on whatever criteria they bring to mind. But when asked about the second type of AA program after having been asked about the first type (a “comparative context”), many people will make their evaluation of the second type of AA program in comparison with their evaluation of the first. Thus, many respondents who first said they support AA programs for women then feel obligated (when asked the second question) to express support for AA programs targeted to racial minorities. Similarly, people who first said they oppose AA for racial minorities are then less inclined to turn around and support it for women (when the latter question is asked second). The comparative context thus elicits a “norm of reciprocity” (Schuman and Presser 1981, p. 28) leading to more consistent expressions of support for each type of AA program than are found in the noncomparative context. (Wilson, 2010)

Some suggest that people view gender inequality through a lens of shared interest (we are all affected by gender inequality), while racial inequality is not typically viewed through an interdependent lens (Winter, 2008), so perhaps the prime puts people in an interdependent mindset rather than a competitive mindset.

In addition, qualitative testing of an interconnectedness approach shows promise in helping people see that addressing racial disparities benefits all of society. In quantitative research that followed the qualitative study, however, analysis demonstrated that the following prime had effects on support for child and youth development policy, but not other policies:

Lately there has been a lot of talk about how we are all connected in our country. Some people believe that we will only succeed when all parts of the nation are in good shape. Problems of poor health and education that happen in one part of the nation end up affecting us all. For this reason, moving ahead as a country requires promoting programs and improving services everywhere so that we all benefit from our interconnection. According to this view, all communities must be able to realize their potential and contribute to the country. Have you heard this explanation of why we should allocate societal assets to recognize the connections among communities? (Gilliam & Manuel, 2009)

Note also that this prime included no racial cues, so it is unclear how it would perform in the context of a conversation about racial disparities. Interconnectedness is core to the progressive narrative and will be an important element of conversations on race. However, it is a direction that needs more development and testing before communicators can use it with confidence.

Communicators should be cautious about how they deploy a connectedness message. Sometimes strategists recommend messages that cue negative connections using fear, failure, or prevention (e.g., educate now or pay for prison later). Using racial problems as a threat to meet our short-term policy goals is likely to exacerbate the long-term problems in perception. Note the following examples from a series of framing experiments. The general prevention prime was effective in lifting policy support, but when it was translated to a prevention prime emphasizing race (with negative connections) it lost effectiveness:

Lately there has been a lot of talk about prevention in our country. Some people believe that we should prevent health and education problems before they occur. When we don’t address them, they eventually become worse and cost more to fix. For this reason, it is important to promote programs and improve services that keep problems from occurring in the first place. According to this view, we can save lives and money if we make good prevention programs easier for everyone to access. Have you heard this explanation of why we should allocate societal assets to prevention?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about social conditions in America. Some people believe   that preventing problems in African American communities is important because they will eventually become everyone’s problems. Preventing declining school budgets, restrictive lending practices, and a scarcity of health professionals in African American communities will prevent worse problems in the future. According to this view, we can prevent further damage to our nation by devoting more resources to addressing these problems in African American communities before they become more serious. Please tell us if you have heard this explanation of why we should allocate societal assets to preventing problems affecting African American communities. (Gilliam & Manuel,  2009)

Solutions orientation

Finally, a “best practice” that is often overlooked by communicators is the importance of highlighting solutions. Advocates can easily assume that if people just know how terrible a problem is, how much of a crisis is on the horizon, they will rise up to fix it. Instead, people can easily become paralyzed with inaction because they become overwhelmed by seemingly intractable problems. They cannot imagine what the solutions could be. Lynn Davey offered this idea in her 2009 FrameWorks Institute message brief, “Strategies for Framing Racial Disparities”:

One of the common mistakes made by advocates in all fields is the tendency to bury solutions messages deep in their communications material, while routinely according inordinate  attention to defining the problem. … When people are presented with effective solutions, they are able to more clearly understand where the system breaks down and how we might fix it.

Reorienting communications around solutions, rather than problems, will go a long way toward building support for public policies.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

There is a significant body of work exploring public opinion of race relations, experiences with discrimination, differences between races in how they understand this issue, and so on. Yet most research largely seeks to understand the “snapshot” of public opinion — where opinion currently stands and the variables that influence a particular view — rather than how to change opinion.

Still, this overview provides important insights about how people understand the nature of the problem. Implicitly, discrimination is often viewed as being about relationships and personal interactions, not systemic bias or policy. Disparities can easily be blamed on lack of personal ambition or hard work. The role of systems and structures has to become more apparent if we hope to spark broad-based support for policy change.

Importantly, issue conversations often trigger competition between races, as though success is zero-sum and what is “given” to one group is “taken” from another. Instead, we need to find communications strategies that join people in common purpose and shared fate, while not erasing race in the process.

Specifically, communicators should consider the following  recommendations.

Conduct new research and message testing, designed with precise, short-, mid-, and long-term goals in mind. The limited message development that has been done on these issues tends to lie at either end of a continuum. Either it is done in service of a narrow goal (e.g., pass “bill X”) or a vague, ill-defined goal (e.g., talk about race). Or,  it has not yet proven its ability to create change. We  need to define specific goals relevant to improving the achievement of black males to which we can hold our strategy accountable.

Sharpen objectives and strategies for different audiences. Clearly this research suggests different starting  points  for  the  conversation  with  different  racial  groups. Black Americans  are  far  more  likely to see the systemic flaws that lead to disparities and support government action (though the personal responsibility  perspective  is  gaining  ground),  while few white  Americans  even  recognize  the  breadth and severity of traditional  discrimination,  let  alone  institutional  racism. What  is  the  call  to  action  for core, mobilizable audiences within communities of color? What call to action makes sense for opinion influencers in white communities? These and similar questions must be asked and focused on.

Develop frame flips and unifying narratives. The old storylines have limited ability to gain traction. This analysis points to the need for a frame  flip  and  a  unifying  narrative  to  break  through  deeply entrenched views on these issues. Specifically, new framing on this issue needs to:

  • Mend the in-group/out-group cycle and establish a sense of “us.”
  • Reinforce shared fate and interdependence.
  • Avoid the competitive and zero-sum assumptions that are so prevalent in public perceptions of these issues.
  • Look for ways to characterize the unique challenges facing black men and solutions to the challenges without inadvertently implying that other groups will have less opportunity, e.g., “breaking down obstacles” instead of “addressing disparities.”
  • Emphasize effective solutions. Focus on structures, systems, and policies, not personal offenses.
  • Do not lose sight of or avoid race and racial disparities in the conversation.

Engage audiences around specific issue categories. Harmonize the broad overarching narrative about black male achievement with specific issue categories that most matter to black men – jobs and income, education, and criminal justice. Gains in image and perceptions matter  most when they lead to real gains in closing disparities in these areas.

Works Cited

Allstate/National Journal (2011). Heartland Monitor Poll IX, N=1000 telephone interviews with adults nationally, with oversamples of African-Americans (n=305), Hispanics (n=304), and Asians (n=110). May 18-22, 2011. http://www.allstate.com/Allstate/content/refresh-attachments/Heartland_IX_data. pdf.

American National Election Studies (2008). Time Series Study, N= 2,099 – 2,312 adults nationally.

Amodio, David M. (2009). Intergroup anxiety effects on the control of racial stereotypes: A psychoneuroendocrine analysis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45,  60-67.

Aubrun, Axel, Andrew Brown and Joseph Grady (2006). Moving Beyond Entrenched Thinking About Race: The Homeowner/Stakeholder Effect. The FrameWorks  Institute.

Black Youth Project, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago (2005). “The Attitudes and Behavior of Young Black Americans: Research Summary.” http://www- news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/070201.blackyouthproject.pdf.

Bobo, Lawrence, and Vincent L. Hutchings (1996). Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer’s Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context. 61 American Sociological Review, 951, 956.  http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/bobo/pdf percent20documents/ PRacial.pdf.

Davey, Lynn (2009). “Strategies for Framing Racial Disparities: A FrameWorks Institute Message Brief.” Washington, DC: FrameWorks Institute. http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/toolkits/race/ resources/pdf/disparitiesmessagebrief.pdf.

Diuguid, Lewis and Adrienne Rivers (2000). “The media and the black response.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 569, 120-134.

Dyck, Joshua J., Laura S. Hussey (2008). The End of Welfare as We Know It? Durable Attitudes in a Changing Information Environment. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 72:589–618.

Gallup Organization trends, with particular attention to surveys fielded Oct. 16-19, 2009 and June 5– July  6,  2008. http://www.gallup.com/poll/1687/Race-Relations.aspx.

Gallup Organization (2007). Survey of 2,388 interviews with national adults, aged 18 and older, was conducted June 4-24, 2007, including oversamples of blacks and Hispanics. http://www.gallup.com/ poll/28417/most-americans-approve-interracial-marriages.aspx.

Gallup Organization for Phi Delta Kappa (2006). June 11–July 5, 2006, n = 1,007 telephone interviews with adults nationally. From the iPOLL Databank, The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University  of  Connecticut. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html.

Gilens, Martin. (1999) Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gilliam Jr., Franklin and Manuel, Tiffany (2009). The Illogic of Literalness: Narrative Lessons in the Presentation of Race Policies. Washington, D.C.: FrameWorks  Institute.

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (2009). Pew Economic Mobility Survey. January 27-February 8, 2009, n=1000 Respondents (2119 Unweighted), 400 African American Oversample (517 total cases, unweighted), 400 Hispanic Oversample (520 total cases, unweighted), 300 Youth (under age 40) Oversample (497 total cases, unweighted). http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/Poll_ Questionnaire.pdf.

Harris Interactive (2009). Committee of 100. January 5 – 30, 2009. N = 1,221 telephone interviews with adults nationally, with an oversample of 206 Chinese Americans. Full Report: http://survey. committee100.org/2009/files/FullReportfinal.pdf Topline Results: http://survey.committee100.org/2009/ files/ToplineResultsfinal.pdf.

Hart/McInturff (2010). The NBC/Wall Street Journal Survey. January 10-14, 2010, n=1,002 adults. http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A_Politics/Politics_Today_Stories_Teases/ FI9500.pdf.

Hart/McInturff (2009). The NBC/Wall Street Journal Survey. June 12-15, 2009, n=1,008 adults. http:// msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/090617_NBC-WSJ_poll_Full.pdf.

Hutchings, Vincent L. (2009). Change or More of the Same? Evaluating Racial Attitudes in the Obama Era. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 5 2009, pp. 917-942.

Jost, John T., Jaime L. Napier, Huida Thorisdottir, Samuel D. Gosling, Tibor P. Palfai, & Brian Ostafin, (2007). “Are needs to manage uncertainty and threat associated with political conservatism or ideological extremity?” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 989-1007.

Kaplowitz, Stan A., Bradley J. Fisher, Clifford L. Broman (2003). How Accurate are Perceptions of Social Statistics About Blacks and Whites? Effects of Race and Education. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 67:237–243.

Katz, Irwin, and R. Glen Hass (1988). “Racial Ambivalence and American Value Conflict: Correlational and Priming Studies of Dual Cognitive Structures.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 55:893–905.

Link, Michael, and Robert Oldendick (1996). ‘‘Social Construction and White Attitudes toward Equal Opportunity and Multiculturalism.’’ Journal of Politics 58:149–68.

Lipset, Seymour M., and William Schneider (1978). “The Bakke Case: How Would It Be Decided at the Bar of Public Opinion?” Public Opinion 1:38–44.

Mazzocco, Philip (2006). “The Dangers of Not Speaking About Race.” Prepared for the Kirwin Institute, Ohio State University, May 2006. http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mazzocco.pdf.

National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago (2010). March 15 – August 12, 2010, 2,043 personal interviews with adults nationally. From the iPOLL Databank, The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html.

Opinion Research Corporation for Cable News Network & Essence Magazine (2008). March 26- April 2, 2008. N = 2,184 telephone interviews with adults nationally including an oversample of blacks; a total of 1014 African-American respondents. From the iPOLL Databank, The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html.

Patchen, Martin, James Davidson, Gerhard Hofmann, and William Brown (1977). “Determinants of Students’ Interracial Behavior and Opinion Change.” Sociology of Education 50:55–75.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2011). “A Tale of Two Fathers.” May 26-29 and June 2-5, 2011. N= 2,006 adults nationally. Includes a Pew Research Center analysis of the National Survey of Family Growth. http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/06/fathers-FINAL-report.pdf.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2010). The 2010 Political Independents Survey, August 25 – September 6, 2010, n=3509. http://people-press.org/files/legacy-questionnaires/658.pdf.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and Pew Social and Demographic Trends Project (2009). Racial Attitudes in America II, October 28 – November 30, 2009, whites n=1447, Blacks  n=812, Hispanics n=376. http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/blacks-upbeat-about-black-progress- prospects.pdf.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2008). Political and Economic Survey, December 3-7,  2008, n=1,489. Topline: http://people-press.org/files/legacy-questionnaires/480.pdf.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (April 2007). No Child Left Behind Survey, April 18- 22,  2007, n=1508. Topline: http://people-press.org/files/legacy-questionnaires/337.pdf.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (January 2007). The 2007 Values Update Survey, December 12, 2006 – January 9, 2007, n=2007. http://people-press.org/files/legacy-questionnaires/312.pdf.

Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRA) for Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2011). “January 2011 Political Survey.” January 5-9, 2011. N= 1,503 adults nationally.

Smith, Tom W. (1990). Ethnic Images. GSS Topical Report no. 19. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.

Tesler, Michael and David O. Sears (2010). Is the Obama Presidency Post Racial? Evidence from his   First Year in Office, Prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 22-25, 2010. (Much of this paper appears as Chapter 8 in Tesler, Michael and David O. Sears. 2010. Obama’s Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a Post-Racial America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.)  http://mst.michaeltesler.com/uploads/sample_4.pdf.

Tuch, Steven A., Lee Sigelman, Jason A. MacDonald (1999). The Poll – Trends Race Relations and American Youth, 1976 – 1995. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 63:109–148.

Valentino, Nicholas A. and Ted Brader (2011). The Sword’s Other Edge: Perceptions of Discrimination and Racial Policy Opinion after Obama. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 2, Summer 2011, pp. 201-226.

Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University (2011). The Race and Recession Survey, January 27 to February 9, 2011, n=1,959, oversamples of 501 African Americans and 501 Hispanic Americans. http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/8159-T.pdf.

Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University (2006). African American Men Survey, March 20 to April 29, 2006, n=2,864. http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7526.pdf.

Westen Strategies/Lake Research (2009). “Neutralizing the Affirmative Action Debate.” June 26-30, 2009. Online dial test with 1,200 likely voters nationally.

Wilson, David C. (2010). Perceptions about the Amount of Interracial Prejudice Depend on Racial Group Membership and Question Order. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 2, Summer 2010, pp. 344–356.

Wilson, David C., David W. Moore, Patrick F. McKay, and Derek R. Avery (2008). Affirmative Action Programs for Women and Minorities Expressed Support Affected by Question Order. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 3, Fall 2008, pp. 514–522.

Winter, Nicholas J. G. (2008). Dangerous Frames: How Ideas about Race and Gender Shape Public Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Yankelovich/Radio One (2007). October – November 2007, N=3400 interviews (web and phone) with black Americans ages 13-74. http://blackamericastudy.com.

Notes:

1. Few surveys include enough interviews to analyze responses by African-American men in isolation, though we include these findings when possible. Further, very few of the surveys in this review offered subgroup analysis among other racial and ethnic groups. Our references to views of other ethnic groups are therefore limited.

2. American National Election Studies (2008); Allstate/National Journal, Heartland Monitor Poll IX (2011).

3. Researchers should have healthy skepticism about whether self-professed views of race and ethnicity tell the whole story. Several dynamics have been shown to influence survey response including social desirability, question wording and context, and perceived race of interviewer. In addition to the results reported on here, readers should look to the Topos social science literature   review for The Opportunity Agenda, October 2011, Social Science Literature Review: Media Representations and Impact on the Lives   of Black Men and  Boys.

4. Using data gathered in 1995, researchers found that white and black respondents dramatically underestimated the racial gap in “out-of-wedlock births” (actual gap in 1995 was 46.1 percent, white and black respondents averaged 16.1 percent and 23.1 percent, respectively); both groups underestimated the gap in “family income” (actual gap was $12,500, white and black respondents estimated $9,410 and $9,500, respectively); both groups underestimated the racial gap in the “average income of male college graduates” with white respondents underestimating the size of the gap more than black respondents (actual gap was $6,600, white and black respondents estimated $2,370 and $5,860, respectively); and finally, white respondents underestimated the racial gap in poverty rates while blacks who responded gave higher than the actual number. (According to Kaplowitz, the actual gap in percent in poverty was 22.3, white and black respondents estimated 17.9 and 25.3, respectively.)

5. The “Black New Middle Class” is defined in the study as follows: “the best educated, most employed and wealthiest segment  is mostly between the ages of 25 and 44 and is the most technologically forward segment” of the survey population.

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In Play

Acknowledgements

This report was made possible in part by a grant from the Four Freedoms Fund at Public Interest Projects, Inc. Project support from Unbound Philanthropy, Ford Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York also helped support this research and collateral communications materials. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors.

The research and writing of this report was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media with consultation from The Opportunity Agenda.

We would also like to thank the individuals who served on the Advisory Committee for this research.

Judith A. Browne- Davis, Advancement Project
Ellen Buchman, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Mariana Bustamante, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
Leonie Campbell-Williams, Asian American Justice Center
Adela De La Torre, National Immigration Law Center
Norman Eng, New York Immigration Coalition
Alexandra Filindra, Taubman Center for Public Policy & American Institutions, Brown University
Louie Gilot, Border Network for Human Rights
Lucas Guttentag, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
Margaret Huang, Rights Working Group
Benita Jain, Immigrant Defense Project
Angela Kelley, Center for American Progress
David Lubell, Welcoming America
Vivek Malhotra, ACLU National
Clarissa Martinez, National Council of La Raza
Meghan McDermott, Global Action Project
Shuya Ohno, National Immigration Forum
Shaady Salehi, Active Voice
Ellen Schneider, Active Voice
Catherine Tactaquin, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, Center for Community Change
Nadine Wahab, Rights Working Group
Eric K. Ward, Center for New Community

Executive Summary

Project Background

The Opportunity Agenda commissioned GfK to conduct an online survey of three important constituencies to evaluate support and messaging around comprehensive immigration reform and its elements. The survey was conducted among African-American Likely Voters (AAs), Hispanic Likely Voters, and White Progressive Likely Voters (WPs). For each group, about 300 interviews were conducted between February 22 and March 5, 2010. The survey covered the following subjects:

  • The current political climate for immigration reform, including its relative importance, the desire for immediate action, and the values people associate with immigration.
  • Support levels for the core narrative – “We need workable solutions that uphold our values and move us forward together” – as well as for a Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) proposal, from its most basic form (path to legal status) to several alternative detailed proposals.
  • Support for the possible elements of reform.
  • Testing messages the progressive community could likely use in the debate.
  • Head-to-Head testing of messages from the pro-reform and anti-reform sides of the debate.
  • Likelihood of taking actions to support reform and pro-reform candidates.
  • Demographics for balancing the sample and providing profiles of key attitudinal groups.

Key Findings

  • There is broad support across all groups for the core narrative focused on “workable solutions that uphold our nation’s values, and move us forward together.” Majorities of these consistencies (51% – 63%) support immigration reform, defined as a process for illegal immigrants already in the country to register and live here legally, before they hear anything about it.
  • There is also near-unanimity in the importance of welcoming immigrants into the social fabric.
  • While support for reform exists, urgency for reform does not. Most agree the system is broken, but immigration is a relatively lower priority issue in today’s climate. However, most (but not all, especially among WP) would like to see the issue addressed this year.
  • Across all three major demographic groups surveyed, “Law and Order” is the top value that likely voters seek embodied in immigration policy. Among AAs and WPs likely voters, “Respect for American Culture” is a strong second, followed by “Equality” and “Fairness.” Hispanic voters do have a somewhat different values profile than either African American or White Progressive voters, but they are by no means entirely dissimilar. Hispanics, too, rank “Law and order” first, with “Fairness,” “Opportunity,” and “Respect for American Culture” clustered together in the second tier.
  • The dominant values running through the persuadable block of voters centers on Law and Order and Respect for American Culture. However, Persuadables also react positively to messages that focus on basic rights, practical solutions, and attacks on big business. Avoiding attacks on enforcement, while addressing basic rights and the contributions (taxes paid) of undocumented workers will help maximize support for CIR.
  • Hispanic voters empathize more with immigrant aspirations for opportunity and family unification, but they, too, place “Law and Order” at the top of the list of values that immigrant policy should promote.
  • Public opinion toward CIR is highly elastic within these three groups. That is, the majority of likely voters polled is “in play” and can be attracted to and repelled from reform depending on what elements they understand any such proposal to contain. One-third of the sample favored reform each time they were asked about it, and just 6% did not favor reform (either opposed it, or were on the fence) each time they were asked about it.
  • CIR enjoys widespread support across the target groups, and support builds when CIR is defined by specific policies. The research indicates that policies are paramount, and there is wider latitude in the choice of messages used to win support for CIR.
  • In all three demographic groups, the three most popular elements of CIR are, in order, the requirements to: 1) pay taxes, 2) pass a criminal background check, and 3) register with the government.
  • Even with the fluidity in commitment to CIR, there is support for reform across each of the groups from the outset, and support grows and is largely sustained as the debate is put into more contexts. At the outset (Q4), AAs show the lowest support for reform (51%), and Hispanics the highest (63%). Within each of these three target groups, the overall pattern of opinion stability is remarkably similar (and will be explored in much more detail in the next section of this report).
  • The group of voters who resist supporting CIR includes some of the most progressive, as indicated by their much stronger emphasis on the need for immigration policy to promote opportunity.
  • Respondents defined as “persuadable” were drawn to support CIR with a number of harder-line policy elements, but their reactions to more progressive messages is also generally positive.
  • Across several message pairings that tested two messages head-to-head, pitting a progressive message against an anti- reform message, the progressive message prevails.

Reforming HUD’s Regulations to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the assistance that a wide range of fair housing experts, researchers, and former federal officials provided in the preparation of this report. We are particularly grateful for the input of Roger Bearden, Marianne Engelman Lado, Sara Pratt, Florence Wagman Roisman, and Philip Tegeler.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Summary of Recommendations

  1. The AFFH Requirement and the Analysis of Impediments Process
  2. Current AFFH Regulations

II.  Problems with Current Enforcement

  1. Problems with the AI Process for Jurisdiction-Wide Compliance
  2. Failure to Further Fair Housing in Specific Programs and Activities
  3. Lack of Integration with other Equal Opportunity Provisions

III.  Recommendations to Improve the AFFH Regulations

  1. Reforming  the Jurisdiction-Wide AI Process
  2. Clear  Fair Housing Metrics
  3. Data Collection Guidelines
  4. Improved Public Input Mechanisms
  5. Accountability Measures
  6. Ensuring Fair Housing Compliance in Individual Federally Funded Projects
  7. Elements of the Opportunity Impact Statement

IV.  Improving Enforcement and Funding Decisions
V. Incorporating Examples
Appendix: Proposed Regulations

Executive Summary

We are pleased to submit recommendations toward the revitalization of HUD’s duty to administer its programs and activities “in a manner affirmatively to further the policies of [the Fair Housing Act].”1 This responsibility is crucial to the Department’s mission “to increase homeownership, support community development and increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination,”2 and to our nation’s pursuit of greater and more equal opportunity for all.

The economic and social benefits of fair housing and stable, integrated communities for people of all backgrounds are well documented.3 And the principle that federal funds and subsidies administered by the Executive Branch are not to be used for discriminatory purposes is a longstanding and well- accepted corollary to the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the laws.4

Accordingly, the duty to “affirmatively further fair housing” (AFFH) applies not only to programs administered directly by HUD, but also to public and private housing and urban development activities receiving federal funding from HUD or any other federal agency.5 With respect to these fund recipients, moreover, the AFFH requirement fits within a broader framework of existing regulations prohibiting all forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities.6 As such, the AFFH mandate has the potential to trafnsform America’s communities over time and to redress our nation’s troubling legacy of housing discrimination and residential segregation, often at the hands of government.7

Yet, despite some important advances over the years, research and experience show that the promise of the AFFH duty has never been fully realized. Existing regulations do not provide adequate specificity, procedures, or accountability measures, especially as they relate to federal fund recipients. Enforcement over the years has been largely passive and, at times, non-existent. And the AFFH obligation has never been adequately integrated with other equal opportunity protections governing federally funded programs.

For these reasons, we are particularly pleased that the Department is engaged in reformulating the AFFH regulations and their enforcement. We believe that each of the shortcomings described above can be overcome through this process, and that federal funding can contribute to the kind of fair and equitable housing that benefits our entire society.

The recommendations that follow focus on HUD’s responsibilities relating to recipients of federal funds engaged in housing and urban development activities. Although we do not address in this report HUD’s direct administration of activities such as the Section 8 voucher program, we support the recommendations made in this regard by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and other fair housing and public interest groups.8

Summary of Recommendations

Based on a large body of research and experience, we recommend the following changes to HUD’s AFFH regulations and implementation, discussed in greater detail herein, as they relate to federally funded activities:

  1. That the Department monitor and enforce grantees’ jurisdiction-wide affirmative fair housing obligations through a revised Analysis of Impediments process that includes: (a) clearly stated metrics for the assessment of fair housing impediments and actions to overcome them; (b) explicit guidelines for data collection and analysis by HUD and its grantees; (c) modernized mechanisms for public input; and (d) a meaningful system of pre- and post-award review.
  2. That, in addition to the jurisdiction-wide AI process, the Department require fund recipients to conduct and submit periodic assessments of the fair housing and other federally-protected equal opportunity impacts of specific programs and activities undertaken with federal funds.
  3. That both jurisdiction-wide and program-specific processes incorporate the consideration of indicators of housing opportunity supported by established research and experience; and
  4. That the Department complement submission requirements and technical assistance to fund recipients with a rigorous system of periodic, unannounced audits of a subset of applicants and recipients to be chosen through random selection and other factors.

This report describes in further detail each of these recommendations, as well as the considerations behind them and suggested implementation methods. We look forward to working with the Department, as well as with fund recipients and civil society partners, to make these and other changes a reality.

I.          The AFFH Requirement and the Analysis of Impediments Process
Section 3608(e)(5) of the Fair Housing Act requires HUD to “administer the programs and activities relating to housing and urban development in a manner affirmatively to further the policies of [the Fair Housing Act].”9 The Act seeks “to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States”;10 to “remove the walls of discrimination which enclose minority groups”;11 and to foster “truly integrated and balanced living patterns.”12 In other words, the Fair Housing Act requires HUD to proactively promote non-discrimination, residential integration, and equal access to the benefits of housing.

Section 3608 imposes an “affirmative” obligation, requiring HUD to do something “more than simply refrain from discriminating . . . or from purposely aiding discrimination by others.”13 To the contrary, “[a]ction must be taken to fulfill, as much as possible, the goal of open, integrated residential housing patterns and to prevent the increase of segregation[.]”14 Furthermore, HUD has an obligation to act regionally where necessary to further the goal of integrated housing.15

The mandatory provisions of Section 3608 apply not only to HUD, but also to its grantees.16 Thus, HUD will have violated Section 3608(d)(5) when it is “aware of a grantee’s discriminatory practices and has made no effort to force it into compliance with the Fair Housing Act by cutting off existing federal financial assistance to the agency in question.”17

And the requirement applies beyond HUD-funded activities as well, extending to all “programs and activities relating to housing and urban development” that are administered within the purview of Federal regulatory or supervisory authority.18 These programs and activities include those “operated, administered, or undertaken by the Federal Government; grants; loans; contracts; insurance; guarantees; and Federal supervision or exercise of regulatory responsibility (including regulatory or supervisory authority over financial institutions).”19 In other words, HUD’s regulations should set out the AFFH obligations applicable to all federal funding entities, including but not limited to HUD itself, as well as their respective grantees.

Executive Order 12892, signed by President Clinton in 1994, provides that “the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, to the extent permitted by law . . . promulgate regulations . . . that shall,” among other things:

(3) describe the responsibilities and obligations of executive agencies in ensuring that
programs and activities are administered and executed in a manner that furthers fair
housing; (4) describe the responsibilities and obligations of applicants, participants, and
other persons and entities involved in housing and urban development programs and
activities affirmatively to further the goal of fair housing; and (5) describe a method to
identify impediments in programs or activities that restrict fair housing choice and
implement incentives that will maximize the achievement of practices that affirmatively further fair housing.20

a.         Current AFFH Regulations
In contrast to that robust mandate, current HUD regulations implementing the AFFH duty in the federal funding context provide only a skeletal outline of steps necessary to uphold the duty. For example, HUD regulations governing Community Development Block Grants, 24 C.F.R. Part 570, provide that:

The [Housing and Community Development Act of 1974] requires the state to certify to
the satisfaction of HUD that it will affirmatively further fair housing.   The act also
requires each unit of general local government to certify that it will affirmatively further
fair housing. The certification that the State will affirmatively further fair housing shall
specifically require the State to assume the responsibility of fair housing planning by (1)
Conducting an analysis to identify impediments to fair housing choice within the State;
(2) Taking appropriate actions to overcome   the effects of any impediments identified
through that analysis; (3) Maintaining records reflecting the analysis and actions in this
regard; and (4) Assuring that units of local government funded by the State comply with
their certifications to affirmatively further fair housing.21

Similarly, 24 C.F.R. Part 91, governing fund recipients’ Consolidated Plans (“Consolidated Submissions for Community Planning and Development Programs”), merely repeats the AFFH certification requirement. For instance, 24 C.F.R. § 91.225(a) provides that entitlement communities receiving funds under specified Community Planning and Development programs must certify “satisfactory to HUD,” that they “will affirmatively further fair housing, which means that [they] will conduct an analysis to identify impediments to fair housing choice within the jurisdiction, take appropriate actions to overcome the effects of any impediments identified through that analysis, and maintain records reflecting the analysis and actions in this regard.”22

Under current practice, the Analysis of Impediments (AI) is not submitted to or approved by HUD, although Consolidated Plan guidelines indicate that each jurisdiction “should maintain its AI and update the AI annually where necessary.”23 In other words, HUD’s role in the current AI process is a largely passive one that relies on the commitment and proficiency of federal fund recipients. Nor do the regulations provide sufficient guidance as to the minimally necessary indicators or actions that an AI should contain.

The Fair Housing Planning Guide, last published by HUD in 1996 and available online,  24 provides more detailed guidance and recommendations for fulfilling the fair housing requirements of the Consolidated Plan and CDBG regulations. The Consolidated Plan process is driven in large part by individual jurisdictions, which must themselves “take and/or describe specific actions and initiatives relevant to the preparation of the consolidated plan,”  25 based on consultation and coordination with state and local agencies, groups, and organizations working within the particular jurisdiction. To provide guidance to individual jurisdictions, the Planning Guide sets forth a series of questions and considerations that the jurisdictions should take into account in developing their Consolidated Plan, and concerning, among others: collaboration and partnership in developing the plan; leadership of the process; citizen participation as part of the plan development; the analyses necessary to assess housing and homelessness needs and the relevant housing market; and a strategic plan for the jurisdiction going forward.  26 The Planning Guide describes HUD’s review of the Consolidated Plan by stating, “the Department will carefully review the performance indicators under the Consolidated Plan to measure the jurisdiction’s progress toward meeting its goals,” and that “HUD is committed to working with communities to make the process productive and the results real.”  27

II.         Problems with Current Enforcement

While the Fair Housing Planning Guide provides useful information, there is a significant and detrimental gap between the highly general requirements of the current AFFH regulations and the highly specific and often voluntary recommendations in the Planning Guide and related documents. Concretizing these elements as regulations rather than solely in administrative guides or memo- randa is crucial, because of the legal authority that regulations carry within and outside the Federal government, as well as the deference that courts afford agency regulations that construe statutory provisions within their domain.  28 Importantly, moreover, the current regulations do not fulfill the Secretary’s obligation to “promulgate regulations” that “describe the responsibilities and obligations of applicants, participants, and other persons and entities”  29 or that “describe a method to identify impediments . . . and implement incentives that will maximize the achievement of practices that affirmatively further fair housing.”  30 More broadly, the current regulations fail to fulfill the letter or spirit of the Fair Housing Act.

In addition to the facial shortcomings of the current AFFH regulations, experience in the field has made clear that these existing mechanisms, while necessary, have been insufficient in practice to further fair housing.31 In particular, (1) the jurisdiction-wide AI process, as described in current regulations, fails to prescribe specific criteria and metrics for assessing and remedying impediments to fair housing; (2) the current AI and Consolidated Plan system does not facilitate monitoring of, or compliance with, AFFH or other Equal Opportunity requirements in specific federally-funded projects; (3) the factors considered by the current process are overly narrow to assess and promote fair housing; and (4) there is a lack of credible or effective pre- or post-award review. We describe these problems in somewhat greater detail below.

b.         Problems with the AI Process for  Jurisdiction-Wide Compliance
A range of housing experts, civil rights groups, and former HUD officials have documented the inadequacy of the current AI process. For example, according to testimony by Dr. Jill Khadduri, who “[d]uring the final 17 of [her] 26 years at HUD . . . was Director of the Division of Policy Development,”32 instead of evaluating a grantee’s AI to determine whether its project or program should have been funded, HUD field staff “simply look[] for the certification that the jurisdiction ha[d] completed such an analysis at some time, which may [have been] several years earlier.”33 It was “very rare,” she testified, that a prospective grantee’s Consolidated Plan (which certifies that the AI has been completed, actions are being taken to overcome identified impediments, and records are maintained reflecting the analysis and action) was “disapproved at the field office staff level and even rarer that the disapproval [wa]s sustained by higher-level HUD decision-makers and a jurisdiction [wa]s denied its funding allocations.” 34

Similarly, a bipartisan fair housing panel chaired by former HUD Secretaries Cisneros and Kemp found that the AI process is ineffective, due largely to the absence of specific regulations regarding the necessary elements of an AI, or the criteria for approval:

HUD does not require that AIs be reviewed or approved . . . as a condition of funding
and there are no HUD regulations that identify what must be included in an AI, not even
a requirement that efforts must be made to reduce existing segregation, consider
residential living patterns in the placement of new housing, or promote fair housing
choice or inclusivity. 35

The same report noted that “HUD requires no evidence that anything is actually being done as a condition of funding, and it does not take adverse action if jurisdictions are directly involved in discriminatory action or fail to affirmatively further fair housing.”36

Similarly, the current mechanisms provide insufficient data for monitoring, compliance, or enforcement. Collecting and analyzing data regarding characteristics of Americans benefited or burdened by HUD programs is crucial to protecting and furthering fair housing. Accordingly, the Fair Housing Act provides that the Secretary shall:

annually report to the Congress, and make available to the public, data on the race,
color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, and family characteristics of persons
and households who are applicants for, participants in, or beneficiaries or potential
beneficiaries of, programs administered by the Department to the extent such
characteristics are within the coverage of the provisions of law and Executive orders
referred to in subsection (f) of this section which apply to such programs (and in order to
develop the data to be included and made available to the public under this subsection,
the Secretary shall, without regard to any other provision of law, collect such information
relating to those characteristics as the Secretary determines to be necessary or appropriate).  37

Yet, the current AFFH system fails reliably to collect or analyze the data necessary to fulfill the Department’s responsibility. As a result, even potential individual complainants who suspect a broader pattern of noncompliance are often frustrated by a lack of reliable information.

In practice, moreover, jurisdictions have not uniformly analyzed demographic housing patterns, or identified significant impediments relating to race and other characteristics covered by the Fair Housing Act. As you know, Westchester County recently settled a suit alleging that, in the face of strong evidence of racial segregation within the county, Westchester repeatedly certified that it was affirmatively furthering fair housing using the existing AI process.38Although Westchester submitted periodic AIs and continued to receive HUD funding, plaintiffs documented that the county’s AIs failed to mention race discrimination or racial segregation, and included “no analysis of whether [those dynamics] might operate to diminish fair housing choice.”39 Using an analysis which a federal court later invalidated,40 Westchester County argued that income was a “better proxy for determining need than race when distributing housing funds,” and that race was “not among the most challenging impediments” to fair housing in Westchester.41

Experience shows that the Westchester County case is just the tip of the iceberg regarding non-compliance and the failure of the AI process to hold grantees accountable.

More robust and modernized public input mechanisms are also needed. In the case of Westchester County, plaintiffs provided evidence that the historically segregative impact of the county’s hous- ing policies was furthered in part because “Westchester refused to identify or analyze community resistance to integration on the basis of race and national origin as an impediment.”42 If HUD had enabled, or Westchester County had allowed, fair housing advocates or community members within the region to submit public comments or research specifically addressing the resistance of particular communities within the county to integration, the county would likely have been required publicly to take those considerations into account and work against them in its housing policy, in order to receive approval of its AI.

a.         Failure to Further Fair Housing in Specific Programs and Activities
Historically, the Department has applied the AFFH requirement only at a generic, jurisdiction-wide level, inquiring what a putative fund recipient plans to do to advance fair housing across its jurisdiction, and detached from any specific, federally-funded project.43While this is an important inquiry, it means that even close scrutiny of a grantee’s AI is unlikely to spot plans or actions by the grantee that could, nonetheless, hamper fair housing or affirmatively discriminate, in violation of the AFFH requirement.

For example, a jurisdiction’s AI might identify discrimination by private real estate agents as a major impediment to fair housing, and propose specific action to address that impediment—e.g., through   law enforcement and educational efforts. However, the same jurisdiction might simultaneously pursue a pattern of siting federally-subsidized affordable housing in a segregative manner and in locations that are physically distant from employment, schools, and other opportunities.

The jurisdiction-wide AI process, even with the improvements that we recommend, will be insufficient to ensure that federal dollars further fair housing. Nor is relying solely on individual complaints sufficient to further fair housing at this important level.

While the AI and Consolidated Plan system, at best, ensures that entities receiving federal funds are doing something to address some impediments to fair housing, the text of the Fair Housing Act commands that the Secretary “administer the programs and activities relating to housing and urban development in a manner affirmatively to further the policies of this title.”  44

The jurisdiction-wide AI process must be complemented by a more specific program-based obliga- tion. While individually policing every federally subsidized housing activity may not be feasible, there is a need for an “institutionalized method” to further fair housing in these programs and activities.  45

c.         Lack of Integration with other Equal Opportunity Provisions
In addition to inadequately implementing the AFFH requirement, the current approach disconnects the AFFH inquiry from the other equal opportunity protections that HUD must also enforce in federally-funded projects, such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination, whether intentional or in effect, in any federally funded program or activity.46 For example, HUD regulations, 24 C.F.R. Part 1, separately detail the equal opportunity obligations of federal fund recipients under Title VI, and require reporting on compliance:

Each recipient shall keep such records and submit to the responsible Department
official or his designee timely, complete, and accurate compliance reports at such times,
and in such form and containing such information, as the responsible Department official
or his designee may determine to be necessary to enable him to ascertain whether the
recipient has complied or is complying with this part 1. In general, recipients should have
available for the department racial and ethnic data showing the extent to which members
of minority groups are beneficiaries of federally assisted programs.  47

Additional HUD regulations govern non-discrimination on the basis of gender in education pro- grams or activities receiving federal funds (Part 3); equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability (Part 7); nondiscrimination based on disability (Parts 8 and 9); and small, minority, and women’s business enterprises (Part 85).

The AFFH requirement is qualitatively different from most of these other obligations, because it is an affirmative duty to further fair housing, rather than a “negative” duty to refrain from discriminating intentionally or in practice. Nonetheless, in many cases the data collection, reporting, and nondiscrimination obligations that these various provisions impose on HUD and its grantees are similar or overlapping. In the name of efficient and effective equal opportunity enforcement, and to streamline grantees’ reporting obligations, the Department’s implementation of the AFFH duty should be coordinated with the enforcement of other equal opportunity obligations attached to federal funds, wherever possible.

III.        Recommendations to Improve the AFFH Regulations

In order to address the serious shortcomings of the current AFFH regulations as they relate to federally funded activities, we recommend:

  1. That the Department monitor and enforce grantees’ jurisdiction-wide affirmative fair housing obligations through a revised Analysis of Impediments process that includes (a) clearly stated metrics for the assessment of fair housing impediments and actions to overcome them; (b) explicit guidelines for data collection and analysis by HUD and its grantees; (c) modernized mechanisms for public input; and (d) a meaningful system of pre- and post-award review.
  2. That, in addition to the jurisdiction-wide AI process, the Department require fund recipients   to conduct and submit periodic assessments of the fair housing and other federally-protected equal opportunity impacts of specific programs and activities undertaken with federal funds.
  3. That both jurisdiction-wide and program-specific processes incorporate the consideration of indicators of housing opportunity supported by established research and experience; and
  4. That the Department complement submission requirements and technical assistance to fund recipients with a rigorous system of periodic, unannounced audits of a subset of applicants and recipients to be chosen through random selection and other factors.

We discuss these elements in greater detail below.

a.         Reforming the Jurisdiction-Wide AI Process
With respect to the current system of jurisdiction-wide analysis of impediments and remedial action, we propose clear and strengthened metrics, data collection, public input mechanisms, and account- ability measures.

          i.          Clear Fair Housing Metrics

Definition of Impediments

In order effectively to fulfill the AFFH duty, HUD regulations should expressly provide that potential impediments to fair housing that should be assessed include, but are not limited to:

  • Any public or private actions, omissions, policies, or decisions which have the purpose or  effect of restricting housing choices or the availability of housing choices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national  origin.48
  • Any public or private actions, omissions, policies, or decisions which have the purpose or effect of segregating or concentrating residents based on race, color, religion, disability, or national origin.49
  • Any public or private actions, omissions, policies, or decisions which have the purpose or effect of limiting access to opportunities associated with housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin.50

This regulatory language would clarify, based on established law, that impediments to fair housing (a) may arise from private as well as public sources; (b) may result from actions and failures to act, as well as from official policies; (c) may stem from intentional discrimination or from facially neutral actions that deny fair housing in practice; and (d) can entail segregative forces as well as exclusionary or discriminatory ones.

The proposed criteria also make clear that impediments to fair housing may take the form of limited access to opportunities associated with housing—such as a municipality’s pattern of siting low-income, disproportionately minority housing in locations distant from education, employment, health care, or other opportunities associated with viable residential housing.

Action to Overcome Impediments

The regulations should provide that the grantee’s proposed actions to overcome the effects of any impediments identified through its analysis must promise, realistically and meaningfully, to reduce those effects and affirmatively to further fair housing. In other words, there must be a nexus between the identified impediments and the proposed activities, and the proposed remedial efforts must demonstrate, objectively and to the Department’s satisfaction, that the impediments are likely to be reduced as a result of the proposed  activities.

In addition, the regulations should provide that federal funds must not be used in a manner that will exacerbate or perpetuate impediments to fair housing, whether identified in the Analysis of Impediments or otherwise. And they should make clear that post-award analyses and status reports must document the implementation of proposed and other actions to address impediments to fair housing and provide sufficient data and information to document the effectiveness and impact of those actions.

ii.         Data Collection Guidelines
Collection of relevant, accurate data is crucial to the furtherance of fair housing. Accordingly, revised HUD regulations should provide that jurisdictions must include in their analyses of impediments the collection and reporting of relevant demographic patterns and concentrations of racial, ethnic, religious, linguistic, or income groups, as well as people with disabilities, as reflected in federal, state, and other reliable sources of data and information. The Analysis of Impediments must apply that demographic data, along with other relevant information, in assessing any impediments to fair housing as defined above. Where possible, the analyses should use GIS or other established mapping systems to provide a graphical representation of residential patterns.  51

The AFFH regulations, or an associated guidance, should further define segregative and integrative housing impacts in particular by employing a specific definition of minority concentration, such as whether a census tract is occupied by a population that is more than 12% above the percentage of that population in the jurisdiction and metropolitan area as a whole.  52 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has used a similar approach in the fair employment context, advising agency officials and employers that “A selection rate for any race, sex, or ethnic group which is less than four-fifths (4/5) (or eighty percent) of the rate for the group with the highest rate will generally be regarded by the Federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact, while a greater than four-fifths rate will generally not be regarded by Federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact.”  53

Collecting data on race and ethnicity, and specifically identifying areas of racial and ethnic segregation within metropolitan areas, can typically be accomplished using existing   sources. Following the decennial censuses of 1990 and 2000, HUD had the Census Bureau produce special extracts of census data on the housing conditions of households by racial and ethnic group and by income categories that follow HUD’s definitions (i.e., income categories are defined relative to local median incomes).  54This data is available at the census tract level for each jurisdiction administering the HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs.  55

Collecting data on disability can also be accomplished by relying on the data HUD currently collects on disability at the household level for public housing and Section 8 residents, as well as from census sources. An assessment about the need for accessible units will require further data that indicates the current need for affordable housing by people with disabilities, the current number of accessible units, and the number of proposed accessible units. HUD field staff already have the authority to require higher percentages of units for people with disabilities in new construction.56

HUD also has household-level administrative data sets for the public housing, voucher, and Section 8 project-based assisted housing programs that include information on the location of units and on the income and racial characteristics of the households assisted in each unit.57 Particular considerations of any racially segregative impact must be made in tandem with considerations of segregation based on physical or mental disability, familial status, and other factors, which have similarly influenced the landscape of housing policies.  58

In order to facilitate compliance with this requirement, we recommend that HUD provide data and mapping tools through an updated web portal designed to serve fund recipients, applicants, and other interested parties. The revised site could be planned, for example, to coincide with the release of 2010 Census figures.

iii.        Improved Public Input Mechanisms
We largely endorse the existing provisions, 24 C.F.R. § 91.105, setting out the requirements for citizen participation plans in the Consolidated Plan process, and recommend that they be uniformly applied and enforced. We recommend adding, however, that in addition to the methods set out at § 91.105, jurisdictions make preliminary assessments of impediments and proposed actions, including maps where possible, available to the public for comment through a user-friendly online interface.

iv.        Accountability Measures
A crucial deficiency in the current AI system is that HUD staff does not routinely review the content of AIs to ensure their accuracy, substance, or likelihood of success. Accordingly, in addition to our recommendation that the regulations designate specific criteria, data requirements, and include actions designed to reduce identified impediments, we recommend a mandate that AIs and updates be filed with the agency and, to the greatest extent possible, that HUD staff review the AI submission through documentary and onsite investigation before the approval or continuation of federal funding.

We recognize that current HUD staffing may be inadequate for the pre-approval review of all AI submissions. Accordingly, in addition to seeking appropriations for expanded staff, we recommend that HUD use a system of unannounced audits of select AIs and updates at pre- and post-approval stages, with sufficient frequency to create needed incentives for full  compliance.

Here, consistent with the recommendations of the Anti-Discrimination  Center,  59 we recommend that HUD develop a rigorous AFFH auditing program based on a modified Internal Revenue Service model. The IRS engages in three basic types of enforcement: (1) focusing on areas of high yield, both for specific impact and general deterrence against a particular type of evasion or taxpayer profile;(2) responding to information about non-compliance; and (3) conducting random audits.60 Each category fosters general deterrence; the last is noteworthy and effective because of its unannounced and unpredictable nature.61 That is, deterrence is not enhanced by giving taxpayers a road map of what kinds of evasion are unlikely to be pursued, but rather by doing enough facially random enforcement work across the board so that all taxpayers understand that noncompliance places them at risk.  62

Similarly, HUD should conduct a significant number of random, unannounced audits and, in addition, target for scrutiny jurisdictions that have: (a) significant levels of demographic segregation or exclusivity; (b) significant barriers to fair housing choice (like exclusionary zoning or a lack of affordable housing); and/or (c) a history of fair housing complaints or noncompliance.  63

Audits, and all AFFH investigations, must combine documentary review with onsite visits to verify facts on the ground, speak with affected communities, and provide visible accountability. In some instances, fair housing testers will also be appropriate—for instance, to determine whether grantees are distributing housing services and information fairly.

Additionally, in the context of CDBG funds, the current rule stating that the Consolidated Plan, within which the initial AI will be provided, is “deemed approved 45 days after HUD received the plan, unless before that date HUD has notified the jurisdiction that the plan is disproved,”64 should  be explicitly revised to authorize a delay in notification in order to request and receive additional information or otherwise ensure compliance.

Post-Approval investigations should, in addition, review and attempt to verify the implementation of actions set out in the AI for effectiveness, as well as actions left out of initial or subsequent AIs. The regulations should also disfavor projects that may affirmatively further fair housing in one narrow respect, while having a disparate or segregative effect in another respect. For example, a proposal for mixed income housing that would be integrated in its predicted  occupancy, but  would overwhelmingly displace minority homeowners and renters, should be  disfavored for funding.

The revised AI requirement should attach at as early a stage as possible, so that information regarding fair housing impact may inform the design, prioritization, and selection of projects, instead of serving merely as a final hurdle to be overcome.

Finally, whether through pre- or post-approval review, where data comparisons or other information in an AI shows either a failure to meet affirmative obligations or a prima facie case of intentional or disparate impact discrimination, funding must be denied or halted pending further investigation and, where appropriate, referral for enforcement action.

At the same time, the regulations should make clear that approval of an AI, Consolidated plan, or funding by the Department does not constitute an administrative determination of compliance with substantive fair housing obligations.

In sum, we believe that incorporating these recommendations explicitly into HUD’s AFFH regulations for jurisdiction-wide compliance will rapidly lead to more effective and uniform furtherance of fair housing in the Department’s activities.

b.         Ensuring Fair Housing Compliance in Individual  Federally-Funded Projects
In addition to reforming the jurisdiction-wide AI process, proper enforcement of the AFFH duty, as well as coordination with other equal opportunity enforcement obligations, requires attention to the particular uses to which federal funds are directed. Specifically, we recommend that an Opportunity Impact Statement (OIS) requirement be used to ensure that specific federally funded programs or activities comply with the AFFH duty and all other applicable equal opportunity requirements.

The OIS mechanism that we set forth in this memorandum would offer a uniform, “institutionalized method”  65 to monitor, analyze, and ensure compliance with the AFFH obligation, while also facilitating compliance with other applicable equal opportunity laws.  66 It would utilize a framework that is widely used for assessing intended and unintended effects on opportunity in other areas of public policy.  67 And, once implemented, it would streamline review and ease the administrative burden on Department staff and fund recipients by consolidating diverse statutory and regulatory obligations.

Accordingly, we  recommend  that  HUD  promulgate  additional  regulations  requiring  preparation and submission of Opportunity Impact Statements by putative and actual fund recipients, to ensure compliance with AFFH and other equal opportunity requirements in the implementation of specific housing and development projects receiving federal funds. Until such time as pre-approval review    of all submissions is feasible, we recommend documentary and onsite audits of selected OIS submissions on a pre-approval and post-approval basis. The random and targeted audit system that we recommend for jurisdiction-wide compliance reviews.

i.          Elements of the Opportunity Impact Statement
With respect to specific proposed or actual federally-funded programs or activities, the OIS would provide sufficient information to assess compliance with all applicable federal equal opportunity obligations. It would address, at least, the following questions:

  1. The statistical relationship between the relevant demographics (i.e., statutorily covered char- acteristics) of the recipient jurisdiction as a whole, including relevant metropolitan areas,69 and those of people and neighborhoods to be impacted positively or negatively by the federally-funded project, in terms of affordable and accessible housing, displacement or homelessness, employment, environmental hazards, contracting opportunities, and physical access to community services and amenities.
  2. Projected impact on residential segregation or concentration on the basis of covered charac- teristics in the recipient jurisdiction and regionally.
  3. Availability of affordable housing opportunities for populations facing the greatest barriers to social mobility (i.e., people under 200% of the federal poverty level), as well as levels of foreclosure.
  4. Likelihood that people with disabilities facing the greatest barriers to community integration (e.g., individuals living in overly institutionalized settings) have greater access to community- based housing opportunities.
  5. Projected creation and equitable access to, where relevant, employment, business enterprise, education, and health care opportunities as a result of the federally-funded project.
  6. Alternative plans and approaches proposed or considered, with particular attention to any alternatives projected to have a less disparate impact.
  7. Mechanisms to facilitate public knowledge of, and participation in, decision making, including for people with disabilities and limited English proficiency, and particularly relating to information about fair housing and equal opportunity impacts.
  8. Provisions to prevent and redress racial, sexual, or other harassment within federally-funded programs and institutions.  70
  9. GIS mapping, where practicable, graphically representing the demographic impact of programs or activities in relation to the jurisdiction and region as a whole.
  10. Affirmative policies, plans and activities to promote fair, integrated housing, to counteract any discriminatory effects identified by the above information, and to ensure conformance with the Uniform Relocation Act.  71

Each of the above factors relates to an existing obligation for federal fund recipients, including either explicit or implicit data collection and record-keeping requirements. And other agencies have, at times, pursued enforcement approaches that model those described here. Most recently, in fulfilling its non-discrimination obligations in the administration of federal funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Federal Transit Administration recently denied funding for a project of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District after a review of relevant demographic and other information revealed that the project would have be discriminatory in practice based on race. The FTA sought additional information from BART, elicited public input, and attempted to negotiate a less discriminatory alternative. When that failed, on February 12th of this year, the agency denied federal funding for the project.  72

Numerous other models exist in the federal system for the kind of data collection and pre-award review described here. For example:

  • Executive Order 12898 requires that “each Federal agency, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall collect, maintain and analyze information on the race, national origin, income level, and other readily accessible and appropriate information for areas surrounding facilities or sites expected to have substantial environmental, human health, or economic effect on the surrounding populations, when such facilities or sites become the subject of a substantial Federal environmental administrative or judicial action. Such information shall be made available to the public unless prohibited by law . . . .”73
  • All employers with 100 or more employees must file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission an Employee Information Report (EEO-1), detailing the racial, ethnic, and gender demographics of its workforce, disaggregated by job category, pursuant to Section 709(c), Title VII, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and
  • Pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,74 covered jurisdictions must submit all voting changes to the Attorney General—through the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice—or a three-judge court, to determine if they have a discriminatory purpose or effect, and are therefore legally void.75

These forms of administrative review have been administered for years or decades without any undue burden to fund applicants or agency resources. In addition, the Opportunity Impact Statement process that we propose will bring greater uniformity and predictability to AFFH compliance, while facilitating better-informed funding decisions by the agency.76

IV.        Improving Enforcement and Funding Decisions

Again, regulatory accountability is crucial to the success of these reforms. Thus, where data comparisons or other information in an OIS shows either a failure to meet affirmative obligations or a prima facie case of intentional or disparate impact discrimination, funding must be denied or halted pending further investigation and, where appropriate, referral for enforcement action.

Again, the FTA’s recent denial of funds to BART—after documentary review, notice and public comment, a request for further information, and negotiation—provides an important model.

In addition to the denial or cessation of funding for housing or urban development programs or activities, all federal agencies should aggressively monitor their programs and retain the option of providing conditional funding.77 Conditioning of funding would permit, for example, a housing project to be funded only if it were to be located within a specific set of census tracts, or have an increased number of accessible units.

More proactively, in those instances in which the Department is charged with selecting among proposed projects and jurisdictions, we recommend that an Opportunity Impact Statement system be used and considered among the criteria for selection, with a preference given to applicants showing both non-discrimination and an effective plan affirmatively to further fair housing.

As with the jurisdiction-wide AI review, we recommend pre-approval review of OIS submissions where possible, and a system of unannounced documentary and onside audits to provide meaningful incentives for compliance.

The regulations should make clear, however, that approval of funding by the Department does not constitute an administrative determination of substantive compliance with applicable legal obligations.

V.         Incorporating Examples

In providing needed guidance to agency staff, applicants, and recipients of federal funds, we  recommend that the revised regulations provide illustrative examples of compliant and non-compliant conduct and criteria.

As a template for these requirements, we recommend that HUD look to similar guidelines set forth in the Department of Transportation’s regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  78 These regulations explain:

  • For projects funded under the Federal Aviation Administration, recipients must “select the site least likely to adversely affect existing communities,” where “there are two or more sites having equal potential to serve the aeronautical needs of the area,” and “[s]uch site selection shall not be made on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”  79
  • For projects funded by the Federal Highway Administration, “[t]he State shall not locate or design a highway in such a manner as to require, on the basis of race, color, or national ori- gin, the relocation of any persons,” and that “[t]he State shall not locate, design, or construct a highway in such a manner as to deny reasonable access to, and use thereof, to any persons on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”  80
  • For projects funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, the “[f]requency of service, age and quality of vehicles assigned to routes, quality of stations serving different routes, and location of routes may not be determined on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”  81

HUD regulations implementing the AFFH duty and other equal opportunity obligations should provide analogous examples, customized to housing and urban development contexts.

Conclusion

Based on research, experience, and consultation with a broad range of experts, we believe that the reforms recommended here will significantly improve the fulfillment of HUD’s duty affirmatively to further fair housing while providing greater clarity, guidance, and uniformity to Department staff, stakeholders, and the public.

Appendix:
Proposed Regulations

AFFIRMATIVELY FURTHERING FAIR HOUSING IN FEDERAL  FUNDING DECISIONS — MODEL LANGUAGE

Sec.

1.1            Purpose.
1.2            Implementation.
1.3            Analysis of Impediments.
1.4            Opportunity impact statements.
1.5            Additional oversight and review mechanisms.
1.6            Examples of Compliant and Non-compliant conduct and criteria.

AUTHORITY: Exec. Order 11063 (1962), the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(5) (1968), Exec. Order 12892 (1994), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d (2003), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (1973).

§ 1.1     Purpose.

The purpose of this section is to ensure that all executive departments and agencies administer their programs and activities relating to housing and urban development in a manner affirmatively to further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §3601-3619, and consistent with other applicable provisions ensuring equal opportunity and freedom from discrimination. In particular, it enumerates the processes, mechanisms, and actions that must be undertaken in this regard by entities receiving Federal financial assistance for programs or activities relating to housing or urban development, as well as certain Federal oversight procedures.

§ 1.2     Certification and Documentation of Affirmative Furtherance of Fair Housing.

(a)  Certification: Every application for Federal financial assistance to carry out a program or activity to which this part applies shall, as a condition to its approval and the extension of any Federal financial assistance, certify that it will affirmatively further fair housing across its jurisdiction, and shall provide documentation supporting that certification. Pursuant to the certification, the applicant shall engage in a process of fair housing planning which shall include: (1) Conducting an analysis to identify impediments to fair housing choice within the jurisdiction; (2) Identifying and taking appropriate actions to overcome the effects of any impediments identified through that analysis; and (3) Maintaining records reflecting the analysis and actions proposed and taken in this regard. Where the applicant is a State, its certification shall, in addition, provide assurance that units of local government funded by the State comply with their certifications affirmatively to further fair housing.

(b)  Impediments: For purposes of this part, potential impediments to fair housing that shall be assessed include, but are not limited to:
(i) Any public or private actions, omissions, policies, or decisions which have the
purpose or effect of restricting housing choices or the availability of housing choices
on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national  origin.
(ii) Any public or private actions, omissions, policies, or decisions which have the
purpose or effect of segregating or concentrating residents based on race, color,
religion, disability, or national origin.
(iii)Any public or private actions, omissions, policies, or decisions which have the
purpose or effect of limiting access to opportunities associated with housing on the basis
of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin.

Limitations on access to opportunities associated with housing, for purposes of this part, shall include barriers based on geographic location which unequally impede access to public transportation, employment, educational, health, entrepreneurial, or related opportunities, as well as community- based housing opportunities for people with disabilities.

(c) Data collection: Applicants shall collect and include in their analyses of impediments and proposed actions relevant data and information documenting demographic housing patterns and concentrations of racial, ethnic, religious, linguistic, family, or income groups, as well as people with disabilities, as reflected in federal, state, and other reliable sources of data and information.

§ 1.3    Submission and Review

(a)  Submission: Applicants shall submit to the relevant agency or department, through such method as the Secretary shall designate, a completed analysis of impediments and proposed actions to overcome them, supported by relevant demographic data and other verifiable information. Such submission shall be made at least once every 4 years, with updates submitted annually.

(b)  Oversight and review: Submissions must demonstrate, to the Secretary’s satisfaction, that analyses of impediments are complete and accurate, that actions proposed or undertaken to overcome the effects of any impediments are well tailored and sufficiently resourced meaningfully to overcome those effects, and that the program or activity, taken as a whole, will affirmatively further fair housing.

(i) Pre-approval review: To the greatest extent possible, the department or agency shall review applicants’ submissions under this section through documentary and onsite investigation before the approval or continuation of funding. Where pre-approval review is not possible, the department or agency shall provide post-approval review as quickly as possible.

(ii) Opportunity to comment: If, after reviewing all documents and data, the department or agency concludes that the analysis of impediments was substantially incomplete or the actions proposed or taken were inadequate to address the identified impediments, the department or agency will provide notice to the applicant that it believes that the duty affirmatively to further fair housing has not been met and will provide the jurisdiction an opportunity to provide further documentation or justification.

(iii) Post-approval investigations: Post-approval, submissions will be regularly reviewed by the department or agency, including for compliance, effectiveness of actions, and changed circumstances, as well as the sufficiency of initial submissions where pre-approval review has not occurred.

(iv) Noncompliance determinations: Where the department or agency determines, based on the totality of the circumstances, a failure affirmatively to further fair housing, it shall issue a public notification of noncompliance and shall deny or halt Federal financial assistance pending further negotiations and, where appropriate, referral for enforcement action.

(v) Effect of approval: Because the fair housing obligation is an ongoing one, approval of an Analysis of Impediments, Consolidated Plan, or Federal financial assistance by the department or agency does not constitute a determination of compliance with applicable legal obligations.

§ 1.4    Compliance in the Implementation of Specific Programs and Activities: Opportunity Impact Statements

Before directing Federal financial assistance toward specific programs or activities relating to housing or urban development, applicants and awardees shall prepare and submit to the relevant department    or agency an Opportunity Impact Statement documenting the projected or actual impact of such programs or activities on fair housing and on related aspects of Federally protected equal opportunity based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability status, gender, and familial status.

(a)  The following steps must be completed before undertaking a new Federally funded program or activity, or before renewing funding for an existing program or activity:

(i) Data collection: Funding applicants and recipients shall collect data regarding the demographic composition of the jurisdiction, including metropolitan region or regions within which their program or activity will be located, and on the populations whose access to adequate and integrated housing would be burdened and benefitted by negative and positive impacts of the project/program. Where applicable, projects must explicitly collect data on, and consider, the following factors:

a.  Racial and socioeconomic integration: The statement shall explicitly consider whether the project will promote or discourage integrated housing and neighborhoods on the covered bases, and whether it will include and enhance housing opportunity, mobility, and affirmative fair housing measures, as required under existing law.

b.  Affordable housing integration: The statement shall explicitly consider whether provi- sions for more affordable housing are integrated into new project designs and whether the project includes measures to ensure that the populations with the greatest barriers to upward mobility (under 200% of the federal poverty level) have access to more quality housing.

c.  Displacement and related burdens: The statement shall explicitly consider whether anticipated displacement due to the project, if any, will disproportionately burden members of particular demographic groups or have either segregative or integrative effects.

d.  Accessibility of new housing units: The statement shall explicitly consider the extent to which new housing units are equally accessible to individuals and families across the covered characteristics, or if any burdensome procedures disparately impact these communities.

e.  Effect on people with disabilities: The statement shall explicitly consider whether the project increases the residential integration of individuals with disabilities and whether populations of people with disabilities who are facing the greatest barriers to community integration (e.g., individuals living in overly institutionalized settings) have access to community-based housing opportunities.

(ii) Public input and participation: After collecting data regarding the impact on equal oppor- tunity of a proposed or ongoing project, public comment on preliminary findings shall be facilitated such forms as community meetings, written public comments, and academic and social science research and analysis, online portals, and geographic information system mapping. The methods adopted, taken as a whole, must be accessible to affected community members, including people with disabilities and populations with limited English  proficiency.

(iii) Submission: Applicants and awardees shall submit to the relevant department or agency, and make available to the public in an accessible format, the Opportunity Impact Statement, as well as a Statement of Actions planned or undertaken to ensure that the program or activity affirmatively furthers fair housing and otherwise ensures compliance with applicable nondiscrimination provisions.

(iv) Agency analysis of Opportunity Impact submissions: Where the use of Federal funds for a particular program or activity requires approval by the department or agency, submission of the Opportunity Impact Statement and Statement of Action shall be a necessary condition for approval.

(b)  Oversight and review: Submissions must demonstrate, to the Secretary’s satisfaction, that Opportunity Impact Statements are complete and accurate, that actions proposed or undertaken to overcome barriers to opportunity are well tailored and sufficiently resourced meaningfully to overcome those barriers, and that the program or activity, taken as a whole, will affirmatively further fair housing.

(i) Pre-approval review: To the greatest extent possible, the department or agency shall review applicants’ submissions under this section through documentary and onsite investigation before the approval or continuation of funding. Where pre-approval review is not possible, the department or agency shall provide post-approval review as quickly as possible.

(ii) Opportunity to comment: If, after reviewing all documents and data, the department or agency concludes that the submission was substantially incomplete or the actions proposed or taken were inadequate to address the identified barriers, the department or agency will provide notice to the applicant that it believes that the duty affirmatively to further fair housing or otherwise comply with equal opportunity provisions has not been met and will provide the jurisdiction an opportunity to provide further documentation or justification.

(iii) Post-approval investigations: Post-approval, submissions will be regularly reviewed by the department or agency, including for compliance, effectiveness of actions, and changed circumstances, as well as the sufficiency of initial submissions where pre-approval review has not occurred.

(iv) Noncompliance determinations: Where the department or agency determines, based on the totality of the circumstances, a failure affirmatively to further fair housing or unlawful discrimination, it shall issue a public notification of noncompliance and shall deny or halt Federal financial assistance pending further negotiations and, where appropriate, referral for enforcement action.

(v) Effect of approval: Because the fair housing and equal opportunity obligations are ongoing ones, approval of an Opportunity Impact Statement and Action Plan, or Federal financial assistance by the department or agency does not constitute a determination of compliance with applicable legal obligations.

(c) Funding determinations: Where the department or agency must decide among competing applications for the provision of Federal financial assistance to housing or urban development projects, it shall, to the extent possible and as permitted by law, consider Opportunity Impact Statements and Action Statements as factors in its decision making, providing a preference for applications that will maximize the furtherance of fair housing and the expansion of equal opportunity.

§ 1.5    Additional Oversight and Review Mechanisms

(a) Monitoring and enforcement: Federal departments and agencies shall regularly monitor programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance through documentary and onsite investigations. Among other methods, departments and agencies may select for particularized investigation applicants and awardees at random or based on data, complaints, or other information indicating impediments to fair housing or a failure fully to address existing impediments.

§ 1.6    Examples of Compliant and Non-Compliant Conduct and Criteria

The following are illustrative examples of compliant and non-compliant conduct and criteria:

  • For projects funded under CDBG or HOME grants, recipients should select the viable site most likely to promote residential integration and least likely to maintain or exacerbate existing levels of segregation, based on based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability status, and familial status.
  • In administering federal tax credits through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, state housing agencies should prioritize directing tax credits to suburban jurisdictions that do not currently have any or much subsidized housing, with the requirement that those developments achieve racial, as well as economic, integration, and promote racial non-discrimination and desegregation. In administering these tax credits, decisions about sites should be made by the state, rather than by private third parties.

Notes:

1. 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(5) (2010).

2. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mission.

3. See, e.g., Margery Austin Turner & Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, The Benefits of Housing Mobility: A Review of the Research Evidence, in Keeping the Promise: Preserving and Enhancing  Housing  Mobility  in  the  Section  8  Housing  Choice  Voucher  Program  9 (Philip Tegeler et al., eds., 2005).

4. See, e.g., Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d (2003) (prohibiting discrimination based on race in federally funded programs or activities); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (1973) (prohibiting discrimination based on disability in federally funded programs or activities); Exec. Order 11246, 30 Fed. Reg. 12319 (1965) (requiring affirmative action in employment decisions by federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors); Exec. Order 12898, 59 Fed. Reg. 7629 (1994) (requiring that no racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or other group of people should bear disproportionate environ- mental burdens resulting from industrial, commercial, or government operations or policies); see also Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983) (non-profit institutions engaging in racial discrimination may not claim tax exempt status under the U.S. Tax Code).

5. See 42 U.S.C. § 3608(d) (“All executive departments and agencies shall administer their programs and activities relating to housing and urban development . . . in a manner affirmatively to further the purposes of this title and shall cooperate with the Secretary [of Housing] to further such purposes”).

6. See, e.g., HUD Title VI Regulations, 24 C.F.R. § 1.1-1.10 (2009); HUD Age Discrimination Act Regulations, 24 C.F.R. pt. 146 (2009); HUD Title IX Regulations, 22 C.F.R. pt. 229 (2009); Department of Transportation Title VI Regulations, 49 C.F.R. § 21.1-21.3 (2009); Department of Energy Title VI Regulations, 34 C.F.R. pt. 100 (2009).

7. See, e.g., Douglas Massey & Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Har- vard Univ. Press 1993).

8. See Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, The  Future of Fair Housing: Report of the Natonal Commission on Fair  Housing and Equal Opportunity, App. A: Emerging Fair Housing Legislative and Regulatory Issues (2008); Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Current Projects: The Housing Mobility Initiative.

9. 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(5) (2010).

10. 42 U.S.C. § 3601 (2010).

11. Evans v. Lynn, 537 F.2d 571, 577 (1975) (citing 114 Cong. Rec. 9563 (statement of Rep. Celler)).

12. Trafficante v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 205, 211 (1972) (citing 114 Cong. Rec. 3422 (statement of Sen. Mondale)).

13. N.A.A.C.P. v. Sec’y of Hous. and Urban Dev., 817 F.2d 149, 155 (1st   Cir. 1987).

14. Id. (quoting Otero v. N.Y. City Hous. Auth., 484 F.2d 1122, 1134 (2d Cir. 1973)).

15. See, e.g., Thompson v. Hous. and Urban Dev., Civ. Act. No. MJG-95-309, at 143 (D. Md. 2006) (“HUD must take an approach to its obligation to promote fair housing that adequately considers the entire Baltimore Region.”); Gautreaux v. Chi. Hous. Auth., 503 F.2d 930, 937 (7th Cir. 1974) (“To solve problems of the ‘real city’, only metropolitan-wide solutions will do”), aff’d, 425 U.S. 284, 299 (1976) (“The relevant geographic area for purposes of the respondents’ housing options is the Chicago housing market [including the Chicago suburbs], not the Chicago city limits”).

16. 42 U.S.C. § 5309(b), as amended (2006); see also Langlois v. Abington Hous. Auth., 234 F.Supp. 2d 33, 73, 75 (D. Mass. 2002) (“When viewed in the larger context of Title VIII, the legislative history, and the case law, there is no way—at least no way that makes sense—to construe the boundary of the duty to [AFFH] as ending with the Secretary. . . . [t]hese regulations unambiguously impose mandatory requirements on the [public housing authorities] not only to certify their compliance with federal housing laws, but actually to comply”); Massachusetts Dep’t of  Hous. and  Comm. Dev., Affirmative  Fair  Housing  and  Civil  Rights  Policy  9  (2009) (“[F]ederal executive orders indicate that HUD is to extend its duty to affirmatively further fair housing to the recipients of its funding. Federal Executive Order 12259 followed by Executive Order 12892 provide that federal agencies shall require applicants or participants of federal agency programs relating to housing and urban development to affirmatively further fair housing”).

17. Anderson v. City of Alpharetta, Ga., 737 F.2d 1530, 1537 (11th Cir. 1984) (citing Client’s Council v. Pierce, 711 F.2d 1406, 1422-23);

Gautreaux v. Romney, 448 F.2d 731, 739 (7th Cir. 1971)).

18. See Exec. Order No. 12892, at Sec. 1 (1994); 42 U.S.C. § 3608(d) (2010).

19. Exec. Order No. 12892, at Sec. 1.

20. Id. at Sec. 4(a).

21. 24 C.F.R. § 570.487(b)(1)-(4) (2010).

22. 24 C.F.R. § 225(a)(1).

23. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Community Planning and Development, Guidelines for Preparing Consolidated Plan and Performance and Evaluation Report Submissions for Local Jurisdictions [hereinafter Guidelines for Preparing Consolidated Plan], 18 (2010).

24. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Fair Housing Planning Guide, Vol. 1 (1996).

25. Guidelines for Preparing Consolidated Plan, supra fn 23, at 3.

26. Id. at 3-12.

27. Fair Housing Planning Guide, supra fn 24 at ii.

28. See, e.g., Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala, 512 U.S. 504, 512 (1994); Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984); HUD Tenants Coal. v. United States Dep’t of Hous. and Urban Dev., 274 Fed. Appx. 124 (3rd Cir. 2008).

29. Exec. Order No. 12259, 46 Fed. Reg. 1253 (1980).

30. Exec. Order No. 12892, 59 Fed. Reg. 20 (1994) (emphasis added).

31. See, e.g., James R. Breymaier, The Need to Prioritize the Affirmative Furthering of Fair Housing: A Case Statement, 57 Clev. St. L. Rev. 245, 248 (2009); Florence Wagman Roisman, Keeping the Promise: Ending Racial Discrimination in Federally Financed Housing, 48 How. L.J. 913 (2005); American Civil Liberties Union, et al., Coalition Letter to HUD Secretary Martinez on Key Civil Rights Issues in the New HUD Administration (March 2001).

32. Dr. Jill Khadduri, Former Director of the Division of Policy Development at HUD, Testimony in Support of Thompson v. Hous. and Urban Dev., Civ. Act. No. MJG-95-309 (D. Md. 2006), 3. See also id. at 9 (“HUD has significant ability to influence decisions made by local governments and states on the use of block grant funds to create desegregated housing opportunities”).

33. Id. at 19.

34. Id.

35. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, supra fn 8.

36. Id. These identified shortfalls were in addition to reported failures by HUD to incorporate the AFFH requirement into its direct admin- istration of Section 8, public housing, and related programs administered directly by the Department.

37. 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(6) (2010).

38. See Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro N.Y. v. Westchester County, 495 F.  Supp. 2d 375, 377-78   (S.D.N.Y. 2007).

39. Michael Allen, Counsel, Relman & Dane, PLLC, Testimony to the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Public Hearing 3 (Sept. 22, 2008).

40. See Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro N.Y., supra fn 38, at 387

41. Allen, supra fn 39, at 3.

42. Id.

43. See, e.g., 24 C.F.R. § 570.487(b) (2009) (“The certification that the State will affirmatively further fair housing shall specifically require the State to assume the responsibility of fair housing planning by (1) Conducting an analysis to identify impediments to fair housing    choice within the State . . . ”).

44. 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(5) (2010) (emphasis added).

45. Exec. Order No. 12259, 46 Fed. Reg. 1253 (1980).

46. See Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d-1 to 2000d-7 et seq. (1964); see also Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (1964); Title IX of the Education Amendments, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (1972); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (1973); the Americans with Disabilities Act, 423 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213, as amended (1990).

47. 24 C.F.R. § 1.6(b) (2010).

48. See Fair Housing Planning Guide, supra fn 24, at 2-8.

49. Trafficante v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 205, 211 (1972) (recognizing “integrated and balanced living patterns” as a purpose of the Fair Housing Act) (citing 114 Cong. Rec. 3422 (statement of Sen. Mondale)); Otero v. New York City Hous. Auth., 484 F.2d 1122, 1134 (2d Circ. 1973); Metro. Hous. Dev. Corps v. Village of Arlington Heights, 558 F.2d 1283, 1289-1290 (7th Cir. 1977); Shannon v. HUD,   436 F.2d 809 (3d Cr. 1970). See also Thompson v. Hous. and Urban Dev., 220 F.3d 241 (D. Md. 2006) (case spurred by the demolition of a high rise public housing development, with plans to locate replacement housing in neighborhoods with similar levels of segregation); Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro N.Y. v. Westchester County, 495 F. Supp. 2d 375, 377-78 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) (finding Westchester County subject to liability under the False Claims Act for making little or no effort to determine where low-income housing was being placed, or to finance homes and apartments in communities that opposed affordable housing).

50. See 42 U.S.C. § 3604(b) (2010) (“it shall be unlawful . . . [t]o discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith . . . .”); 24 C.F.R. §100.70(d)(4) (2010) (“discriminatory housing practices” include “[r]efusing to provide municipal services…because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin); see also United States v. Yonkers Bd. of Educ., 837 F.2d 1181 (2nd Cir. 1987) (noting the interrela- tionship of housing segregation and school access and invalidating discriminatory zoning and siting choices); Southend Neighborhood

Improvement Ass’n v. County of St. Clair, 743 F.2d 1207, 1209 (7th Cir. 1984) (Section 3604 generally “forbids discrimination in making available or providing services related to housing”); NAACP v. Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co., 978 F.2d 287 (7th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 503

U.S. 907 (1993) (Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in provision of homeowners insurance).

51. See The Joint Center Health Policy Institute & The Opportunity Agenda, Using Maps to Promote Health Equity (2009). Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Utilizing GIS to Support Advocacy and Social Justice: A Case Study of University-Led Initiatives 17 (2009). (“The [Kirwan] Institute may provide maps and GIS-based analysis to internal work groups within public agencies, or may provide public reports directly to policy-makers to raise awareness around a specific advocacy concern or issue”).

52. Cf. Equal Employment Opportunity Comm’n, Uniform Employee Selection Guidelines, at Sec. 15(1)(c); (similarly establishing a percentage-based framework to identify an adverse discriminatory impact).

53. 41 C.F.R. pt. 60-3.4(d) (1978).

54. Khadduri, supra fn 32 at 39.

55. Id.

56. See 29 U.S.C. § 794 (2010); 24 C.F.R. 8.22(c) (2010); 24 C.F.R. 8.26 (2010).

57. Khadduri, supra fn 32, at 39-40.

58. See, e.g., Arlene S. Kanter, A Home of One’s Own: The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and Housing Discrimination Against People with Mental Disabilities, 43 Am. U. L. Rev. 925 (1994) (discussing the history of housing segregation based on mental disability).

59. Memorandum from Anti-Discrimination Center, Inc. to Hon. John Trasviña, Assistant Secretary, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Op- portunity 2 (Oct. 26, 2009).

60. Id.

61. Id.

62. Id.

63. Id.

64. 24 C.F.R. § 91.500 (2009).

65. Exec. Order 12250, 28 C.F.R. pt. 41 (1980).

66. In addition to the Fair Housing Act, the following civil rights laws, among others, apply anti-discrimination requirements to programs funded by HUD: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d (2003); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29

U.S.C. § 794 (1973); Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213, as amended (1990); the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Age Discrimination Act of 1975, 42 U.S.C. 6101 et seq. (1978); Title IX of the Education Amendment Acts of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (1972); Exec. Order 11246, 30 Fed. Reg. 12319 (1965) (requiring affirmative action in employment decisions by federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors); Exec. Order 12898, 59 Fed. Reg. 7629 (1994) (requiring that no racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or other group of people should bear disproportionate environmental burdens resulting from industrial, commercial, or government operations or policies); and HUD regulations enacting the foregoing requirements, see, e.g., HUD Title VI Regulations, 24 C.F.R. § 1.1-1.10 (1973); HUD Age Discrimination Act Regulations, 24 C.F.R. pt. 146 (2009); HUD Title IX Regulations, 22 C.F.R. pt. 229 (2009).

67. See Marc Mauer, Racial Impact Statements as a Means of Reducing Unwarranted Sentencing Disparities, 5 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 19, 32 (discussing current use by policymakers of environmental impact statements, fiscal impact statements, and health impact statements).

68. See supra Section III(a)(iv).

69. See Thompson, supra fn 15, at 143; john powell, Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity, Remedial Phase Expert Report in Support of Thompson, at 40 (“In order to remedy the harms of its failure to desegregate and further fair housing, HUD must pursue metropolitan-wide strategies”); Memorandum from Anti-Discrimination Center, supra fn 59, at 7 (“Segregation and other barriers to fair housing choice developed and operate regionally; barriers can only be overcome effectively with a regional approach. There needs to be a funding pool that is limited to those metropolitan regions that have agreed to pool housing opportunities across borders, and to locate such housing in a manner that facilitates racial and other forms of integration”).

70. On November 13, 2000, HUD published a proposed regulation outlining the application of the Fair Housing Act to acts of sexual harassment in the housing context. However, HUD never issued final regulations. Sexual harassment in housing repeatedly has been the subject of complaints and litigation. See National  Commission  on  Fair  Housing  and  Equal  Opportunity, The  Future  of  Fair Housing  App. A  (2008).

71. 42 U.S.C. § 4600 et seq. (1970).

72. Letter from Peter Rogoff, Administrator, Federal Transit Administration, to Steve Heminger, Executive Director, Metropolitan Trans- portation Commission, and Dorothy Dugger, General Manager, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Feb. 12, 2010).

73. Exec. Order 12898, 59 Fed. Reg. 32 (1994).

74. 42 U.S.C §1973c.

75. While Section 5 of the VRA is viewed as an extraordinary remedy, federalism considerations do not apply where, as here, agency oversight relates to the use of federal funds.

76. In addition to the solicitation of new information on specific proposed or ongoing projects of HUD recipients, the following existing research or data, among others, should be consulted, as necessary, to judge the impact on fair housing opportunity of new programs and the siting of new housing: the locations of all current affordable housing, including tax credit properties, state and locally funded housing, and private housing; income and poverty rates of populations served by new housing; records of foreclosure within the area targeted; reports on the green areas and recreational spaces increased or decreased by a project; the U.S. Census Bureau’s report on housing patterns; the American Community Survey; and the expanded data regarding occupancy patterns (including race, ethnicity, and disability) now federally required for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC”) program. For more information on specific types of suggested fair housing research, see National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, supra fn 70, at XI. The Necessity of Fair Housing Research.

77. See Exec. Order No. 12892, Sec. 5 (setting forth agency enforcement provisions for the AFFH requirement).

78. 49 C.F.R. § 21 (1970).

79. 49 C.F.R. § 21, App. C(a)(1)(viii).

80. 49 C.F.R. § 21, App. C(a)(2)(vi) and  (vii).

81. 49 C.F.R. § 21, App. C(a)(3)(iii)

Memorandum: The Relationship Between Racial Integration and the Duty to Further Fair Housing

I.   Introduction

This memorandum discusses the contemporary relevance of residential integration to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s affirmative fair housing duties. Based on our review of legal jurisprudence, social science research, and expert opinion, we recommend a framework for incorporating integration considerations into housing and urban development decision-making.

In some ways, the topography of 21st century America reflects a thriving diversity in our country’s population: for example, as of the 2000 Census, Latinos comprised 12.5% of the population, up from 9% in 1990,1 and the number of Asian Americans had increased by 48% since 1990.2  The 2010 Census will no doubt show far greater diversity, including in formerly homogeneous areas. These shifting demographics raise the question of how best to further fair housing across all communities, especially where the implications of racial segregation may differ among different ethnic groups.  Drawing on a thorough review of legal and social science research, as well as expert opinion, we conclude that racial integration remains a compelling directive of far-reaching relevance. Even as diversity is flourishing, patterns of segregation have held fast in cities throughout the nation. Those who inhabit them know that too often, segregated neighborhoods are not “separate but equal,” but rather are encumbered by the continuing effects of discrimination and isolation from opportunity. Even those who arrive in search of new beginnings – the many immigrants settling in communities across the country – frequently find their paths to opportunity impeded by the inequities that surround them.

Integration closes many of those gaps, while offering people of color the same benefits that accrue to all of us when our horizons are expanded: richer social networks to tap and opportunities to learn from those around us.

The continuing need to address residential segregation and its causes is a crucial aspect of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s mandate to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH)3 should reflect that objective. While AFFH has a wide scope, it takes shape from the FHA’s core aims: “to provide, with constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States;”4 to “remove the walls of discrimination which enclose other minority groups;”5 and to foster “truly integrated and balanced living patterns.”6 In other words, the Fair Housing Act requires HUD proactively to promote non-discrimination, residential integration, and equal access to the benefits of housing – and these duties extend throughout the country, and to all ethnicities.

New immigrant communities and majority-minority jurisdictions add additional complexity, which we discuss below. But while demographic changes should be considered in assessing how to further fair housing, those changes do not remove or circumvent the integration mandate. As we discuss below, the FHA’s focus on segregation is of continuing and widespread relevance. Thus, while HUD funds may still be used to improve the choices and opportunity available to segregated communities, we believe that AFFH rules should include a strong presumption that decision-making and implementation will seek to foster residential integration and will not perpetuate or deepen existing segregation.

 II.  Legal Mandate

 A.  The Fair Housing Act and Integration

As noted above, integration is not a peripheral concern of the Fair Housing Act – rather, it constitutes one of the Act’s core directives. Since the FHA’s passage, courts have interpreted it to assert that integration is a focal fair housing mandate. In Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.,7 a cornerstone case of fair housing law, the Supreme Court held that, beyond advancing individuals’ freedom of choice, the FHA was intended to ensure the benefits of integration for “the whole community.”  This principle was reinforced by the ruling in Gladstone, Realtors v. Bellwood, where the Court granted white plaintiffs standing on the basis that the “transformation of their neighborhood from an integrated to a predominantly Negro community is depriving them of ‘the social and professional benefits of living in an integrated society;’”8 see also Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman.9  In Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Township of Willingboro, the Court again noted that through the FHA, Congress made “a strong national commitment to promote integrated housing.”10 The authors of the Act emphasized, for example, the troubling fact that “an overwhelming proportion of public housing . . . in the United States directly built, financed and supervised by the Federal Government — is racially segregated.”11 As with the FHA generally, the mandate to AFFH is grounded in these legislative concerns about segregation: Congress “enacted section 3608(e)(5) to cure the widespread problem of segregation in public housing.”3

The principle that integration is an essential aim of the Fair Housing Act has resonated throughout subsequent decisions delineating the FHA’s proper application, in contexts that include, but transcend, public housing.  This line of cases includes: Otero v. New York City Housing Authority (finding that the New York City Housing Authority “is under an obligation to act affirmatively to achieve integration in housing. The source of that duty is both constitutional and statutory”), Park View Heights v. City of Black Jack (“[t]he primary objective of Title VIII is, as Vice-President Mondale said, when a Senator, to replace the ghettos ‘by truly integrated and balanced living patterns’…This objective is one that Congress considered to be of the highest priority and in order to achieve it, courts must construe the provisions of Title VIII broadly”), Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. v. Village of Arlington Heights (actions perpetuating segregation “will be considered invidious under the Fair Housing Act independently of the extent to which it produces a disparate effect on different racial groups”), Huntington Branch, NAACP v. Town of Huntington (courts should consider the “segregative effect of zoning ordinances,” as the perpetuation of segregation is a violation of the FHA), Altschuler v. HUD (through the AFFH provision, “Congress imposed on HUD a substantive obligation to promote racial and economic integration in administering the section 8 program”); as well as in Shannon v. HUD (holding that under its AFFH duty, HUD is required to make an “informed decision on the effects of site selection or type selection of housing on racial concentration,” and stating that “[i]ncrease or maintenance of racial concentration is prima facie likely to lead to urban blight and is thus prima facie at variance with the national housing policy”).13

While the Fair Housing Act’s passage was precipitated by concern over African American ghettos, numerous applications over the life of the statute have addressed barriers to the integration of other communities.  Examples of this include: United States v. Secretary of HUD, 239 F.3d 211 (2d Cir. 2001); Davis v. New York City Housing Authority, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19965 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 30, 1992); NAACP v. City of Kyle, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51226 (W.D. Tex. June 16, 2006); Hispanics United v. Village of Addison, 988 F. Supp. 1130 (N.D. Ill. 1997); Huntington Branch NAACP v. Town of Huntington, 844 F.2d 926, 937 (2d Cir. 1988); Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, Inc. v. Westchester County, New York, 668 F. Supp. 2d 548, 564 (S.D.N.Y. 2009); United Farmworkers of Florida Housing Project, Inc. v. Delray Beach, 493 F.2d 799 (5th Cir. 1974); Jaimes v. Toledo Metropolitan Housing Authority, 715 F. Supp. 835 (N.D. Ohio 1989).14 In short, the courts have made clear that the integration mandate applies to all American communities, not just African Americans.  Nor would it be legally appropriate, in any event, to interpret the Act differently as applied to different ethnicities.

B.  Other HUD Regulations and Provisions Addressing Integration

Just as the concerns with segregation are clear in the FHA’s roots, they are also evident in its branches: a number of existing FHA regulations direct attention to the aim of furthering integration.  These include:

  • Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Regulations, requiring participants in housing programs to reach out to ethnic groups to promote integration.15

Public housing authority program requirements regarding the location of new and renovated projects. This regulation prohibits the siting of new construction projects in:

  • An area of minority concentration unless (A) sufficient, comparable opportunities exist for housing for minority families, in the income range to be served by the proposed project, outside areas of minority concentration, or (B) the project is necessary to meet overriding housing needs which cannot otherwise feasibly be met in that housing market area. An “overriding need” may not serve as the basis for determining that a site is acceptable if the only reason the need cannot otherwise feasibly be met is that discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, or national origin renders sites outside areas of minority concentration unavailable; or
  • A racially mixed area if the project will cause a significant increase in the proportion of minority to non-minority residents in the area.16
  • Nondiscrimination in Federally Funded Programs of HUD, prohibiting recipients from “subject[ing] a person to segregation or separate treatment in any matter related to his receipt of housing, accommodations, facilities, services, financial aid, or other benefits under the program or activity.”17

C.   Integration and the AFFH Duty

While HUD has considerable discretion in determining the most effective means of AFFH, “that discretion must be exercised within the framework of the national policy against discrimination in federally assisted housing, and in favor of fair housing.”18 The duty to AFFH requires that HUD actively promote the FHA’s aims. It also requires that HUD responsibly administer its funds with an eye to their racial impact. Thus, HUD must ensure that the programs it funds promote fair housing goals. See, e.g., Gautreaux v. Romney (stemming the flow of HUD funding after determining that defendants perpetuated segregation); United States ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro N.Y., Inc. v. Westchester County.19 HUD must also consider each project’s potential effect on racial segregation. Shannon v. HUD; see also, e.g., Project B.A.S.I.C. v. Kemp, stating that “this Court recognizes that desegregation is not the only goal of national housing policy. HUD also has an obligation to generally meet low-income housing needs. This, however, does not mean that HUD can avoid its affirmative duty under the Fair Housing Act” to consider the “effect of its actions on the racial and socioeconomic composition of the surrounding area.”20

Because Section 3608 imposes an affirmative obligation, it requires more than that the government “simply refrain from discriminating themselves or from purposely aiding discrimination by others” in addressing race.21 Rather, the Department must take active measures to achieve the FHA’s aims.22

Although the mandate to AFFH has lacked explicit parameters over much of its lifetime, it is clear that the aim of promoting racial integration lies at the provision’s heart. Thus, AFFH requires that “action must be taken to fulfill, as much as possible, the goal of open, integrated residential housing patterns and to prevent the increase of segregation[.]”23 HUD has been held to have an AFFH duty – despite the absence of any “specific actions or remedial plans” structured by §3608 – requiring “a commitment to desegregation. [HUD’s] failure to attain this standard can constitute an actionable statutorily violative practice.”24

Attempts to supplant the consideration of race in housing policy, if found to perpetuate segregation, will also be found to violate this AFFH obligation. See Langlois v. Abington Housing Authority, stating that “Section 8 residency preferences violate the affirmative furtherance principle when their institution would fortify predominantly white communities against minority entry;” United States ex rel . Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, Inc. v. Westchester County, New York, 25 stating that “[t]he HUD Guide’s requirement that [funding] grantees analyze segregation [as part of their obligation to AFFH] is “firmly rooted in the statutory framework and caselaw….While the County was certainly not required to follow every specific suggestion or every recommendation in the HUD Guide, it cannot be completely wide of the mark regarding the suggestions relating to the central goal of the obligation to AFFH – to end housing discrimination and segregation – and still be considered compliant with its AFFH obligations,” and that using income as a proxy for race was not sufficient.26

HUD’s Fair Housing Planning Guide, as referenced in the Westchester27 case, also addresses the duty of racial integration. The Guide states that HUD “is committed to eliminating racial and ethnic segregation….Additionally, the Department will use all of its programmatic and enforcement tools to achieve this goal.” The Guide also instructs grantees regarding their obligations pertaining to integration, for example:

  • Grantees must conduct analyses of impediments to fair housing, which must “describe the degree of segregation and restricted housing by race, ethnicity, disability status, and families with children; how segregation and restricted housing supply occurred; and relate this information by neighborhood and cost of housing.”28
  • Public housing authorities are encouraged to use scattered site, low-density housing acquisition as means to deconcentrate racially impacted public housing.29
  • States and local governments are encouraged to undertake regional FHP, with the aim of overcoming segregation.30
  • In completing their Analyses of Impediments, states “can use available data… to gauge whether impediments to fair housing choice exist and whether there are State regulatory policies, practices, and procedures that encourage segregation by race, income, and/or disability….Upon completion of their AIs, States should take actions that are responsive to the identified impediments.”31

III.   Integration in a Multi-Cultural America

As noted above, the legal integration mandate imbedded in the Fair Housing Act generally, and the AFFH duty in particular, applies across all racial and ethnic groups. Indeed, in the Supreme Court’s seminal Trafficante decision, it recognized the standing of white residents of a segregated white community based on “the loss of important benefits from inter-racial associations.”32 Courts have found that segregation of a variety of groups violates the Act.33

As we detail below, the desire for integrated communities is shared by contemporary communities of color.  But it is worth noting here that the integration mandate has never been solely a matter of fulfilling the individual choices of African Americans or other minorities. Rather, the Fair Housing Act promotes integration in large part because of its benefits to society as a whole. Lack of enthusiasm, or even opposition at the individual level is not alone sufficient to justify governmental support of segregation.34  Thus, while individuals are free to self-segregate for any number of reasons, government may not enforce that choice,35 and HUD funds may certainly not be used to effectuate or perpetuate it.

That said, we detail below that there is strong evidence that different communities of color generally desire integrated neighborhoods, that past and present discrimination remain barriers to fulfilling that desire in the housing mandate, and that integrated living patterns benefit all groups in significant ways.

IV.   Neighborhood Preferences and Causes of Segregation

A large body of research and experience shows that, while most minorities would prefer to live in integrated neighborhoods, they are denied this choice through a combination of segregative forces, including persistent discrimination, the legacy of historical barriers, white response to stereotypes, and narrow options for where they can affordably live.

While one study on Latino communities found that “it makes a difference whether immigrants or their descendants live in an ethnic neighborhood as a result of discrimination or due to their own choice or preference,”36 the meaningful ability to make such a choice is elusive for too many people. Thus, in a St. Louis study, even those residents who stated a preference for living in their West Side neighborhood (with a high concentration of immigrants) also noted a lack of affordable options elsewhere, and were discouraged by concerns about discrimination.37 Other research confirms that while blacks frequently remain segregated despite income, “as Latinos and Asians improve their socioeconomic class standing, their rates of segregation from whites decrease.”38

A body of opinion data indicates that most racial minorities would prefer to live in integrated neighborhoods, though some are hesitant to be pioneers in areas where they envision encounters with prejudice. For example, one study found that “African- Americans overwhelmingly prefer 50-50 areas, a density far too high for most whites –and that their preferences are driven not by racial solidarity or neutral ethnocentrism but by fears of white hostility. Moreover, almost all blacks are willing to move into largely white areas if there is a visible black presence. White preferences also play a key role, since [w]hites are reluctant to move into neighborhoods with more than a few African Americans.”3

Like blacks, both Latinos and Asian Americans have been found to prefer neighborhoods that are approximately 50% Latino or Asian and 50% white. Notably, only 17% of Asian Americans (in a study of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans in Los Angeles) preferred the option of an all-Asian neighborhood when asked about integrating with whites.40 Opinion research has also found that “[o]nly a trivial percentage of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians express objection to living in a largely white neighborhood. The figure is below 10% for each of the minority groups.”41

Because people of color tend to seek greater levels of integration than do whites, even as minorities seek to leave behind their traditional neighborhoods in search of a more integrated life, white prejudice can turn this goal into a fleeting horizon. As minorities integrate communities, their increased population may reach a “tipping point” that causes whites to seek housing elsewhere. Such “‘[t]ipping’ can be seen clearly in cities from all regions of the country, both “sun-belt” and “rust-belt” and both the North and the South, and in cities with both large and small minority shares.”42 However, “tipping points are higher in cities with more tolerant whites, underscoring the role of white preferences in tipping and the dynamics of segregation.”43 While whites are most reluctant to live side- by-side with significant numbers of black neighbors, other races may trigger this as well: one poll found that one-sixth of whites would be upset if a “substantial number” of Chinese Americans moved into their neighborhood, 44 while low-income Asian Americans have been found more likely to cause white flight than either wealthier Asian Americans or Latinos.45 Thus, even where minorities seek to integrate, segregation may be re-imposed on them as whites retreat.

Segregation can become self-perpetuating in part due to negative stereotypes formed about non-white neighborhoods and their attendant lack of services.46  As one researcher stated, “[f]or blacks, Latinos, and Asians, economic and social advancement is associated with greater proximity and similarity to white Americans. For whites, integration – especially with blacks – brings the threat of a loss of relative status advantages. As a result, attitudes on an issue like racial residential integration are likely to have very different meanings to whites than to members of any of the minority groups, even comparatively affluent Asians.”47

Historically and today, people of color – including Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, as well as blacks – have been subject to discrimination limiting their options in housing. As with African Americans, segregation of other minority communities has been perpetuated by both governmental and private forces, including persistent discrimination in sales by white homeowners;48 disparities in the provision of banking and credit;49 and land use practices. Past practices often sculpt current realities, as in East L.A., where a history of restrictive covenants and other discrimination against Mexican Americans in Los Angeles has concentrated Latinos.50

Like other minorities, Asian Americans have grappled with the effects of both restrictive zoning and individual prejudice. For instance, some of the nation’s earliest zoning ordinances were enacted to contain the Chinese,51 and at least through the 1970s, “Asian families were reluctant to search for housing outside of Chinatown[s] because of racial discrimination… many whites refused to sell to Asians.”52  In Seattle, restrictive covenants barring the sale of land to Asian Americans were pervasive in the first half of the twentieth century, except for a few neighborhoods. As a result, “[p]eople of color had little chance of finding housing except in the central neighborhoods of Seattle.”53

Compared with whites, minorities of all races and ethnicities struggle to obtain fair credit to live where they wish.54 This problem is compounded by inaccurate information among minorities regarding the accessibility of housing.  For instance, in a 2003 survey conducted by Fannie Mae, 78% of Spanish-speaking Latinos55 and 43% of blacks believed that loan applicants were required to have perfect a credit rating in order to qualify for a mortgage; 71% of Spanish-speaking Latinos and 51% of blacks believed that applicants with any debt, or who don’t always pay their bills on time, wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage.56

Discrimination in sales and rentals also continues, as minorities are steered toward homes in segregated neighborhoods. In 2003, an Urban Institute report submitted to HUD concluded that “significant discrimination against African American and Hispanic homeseekers still persists in both rental and sales markets of large metropolitan areas nationwide,” with discrimination against Hispanic renters unchanged since 1989.57 For instance, a fair housing audit in Fresno, California, found that Latino prospective renters encountered discrimination 77% of the time, while African American did so 74% of the time;58 in San Antonio, a rental audit yielded discrimination rates of 68% against African Americans and 52% against Latinos.59  A 2001 housing audit in Houston60 found that: 80% of African Americans, and 65% of Hispanics were treated differently when they sought to rent. The abuse of limited English speaking Latino immigrant communities is widespread in the rental and sale of housing. The immigrant Hispanic community is the fastest growing population in Houston. Abuse is manifested in many ways, such as contracts with exorbitant interest rates on mobile home sales, and the charging of rent based on the number of people in a unit. Recently many apartment complexes have been requiring Spanish speaking applicants to provide additional written information, more than normally asked of ‘Americans,’ in a divisive and potentially discriminatory practice.61

Asian Americans are often overlooked in analyses of housing discrimination, but many also encounter disparate treatment when seeking homes, for example in being informed of housing availability and in obtaining financing assistance.62 The 2003 Urban Institute study shows that Asian Americans face significant and consistent levels of discrimination in searching for housing in large metropolitan areas.63

Native Americans, too, find their housing choices shaped by racial steering. The Urban Institute found a “pattern of treatment that favors whites and ultimately limits the housing choices and increases the cost of housing search for American Indians. Discrimination against American Indian renters ranges from 25.7 percent in New Mexico to 33.3 percent in Minnesota, averaging 28.5 percent across all three states. These levels of discrimination are high compared to national estimates for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians and Pacific Islanders.  In all three states, American Indian renters were significantly more likely to be denied information about available housing units than comparable whites.”64 Although approximately two-thirds of Native Americans lives outside of reservations or designated tribal areas,65 racial steering still limits individuals’ living choices.

While anti-­‐discrimination enforcement, by HUD and others, ensures that such practices do not reach the pervasive levels of the past, discrimination still contributes to the channeling of minorities into segregated neighborhoods.

V.   Benefits of Integration and Harms of Segregation

The harms of segregation and benefits of integration have been well-documented,66 and touch on all ethnic groups. While Americans increasingly inhabit a multi-ethnic society, opportunities continue to be distributed along racial lines. As a result of continuing inequities, segregation and poverty travel together; race makes itself felt not only in the socioeconomic disparities between individuals, but also though the compound effects of concentrated poverty. Segregation also concentrates other effects of discrimination, such as the disproportionate lack of financial and other services; and perpetuates negative stereotypes, sapping confidence and undermining inter-ethnic cooperation. These harms are not limited to black communities: they also resonate in Latino and Asian American neighborhoods, including those of recent immigrants.

While integration is vital to ameliorating the socioeconomic injustices that follow racial boundaries, it is also an important end for the American community at large. As the Supreme Court held in Gladstone, we all have an interest in “the social and professional benefits of living in an integrated society.”67  The pursuit of residential integration provides richer social interactions, enables a wider base of professional and other contributions to draw upon, and mirrors that of educational settings in that it endeavors to create opportunities to learn from each other.68 Like minorities, whites stand to gain from policies that advance integration. Currently, whites are distinguished as America’s most segregated ethnic group: “the average white person in US cities and suburbs lives in a neighborhood that is overwhelmingly white (about 84%) and thus offers little exposure to other racial or ethnic groups.”69

A.   Concentration of poverty and other financial inequities

Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and many Asian nationalities70 on average earn less than whites;71 but it is the distribution of poverty, not the gap between individuals alone, that has a particularly harmful effect on segregated communities. Minorities are much more likely to live in areas of concentrated poverty, meaning that poverty’s social effects reverberate and are amplified throughout their communities.72 Thus, poor blacks and Native Americans were three times more likely than poor whites to live in extreme- poverty areas.  Poor Latinos and Asian Americans were both roughly twice as likely.73

Even when income disparities don’t loom, segregated neighborhoods still suffer more sharply from the effects of poverty because of its distribution. For example, in Riverside- San Bernardino in 2000, “the median household incomes of blacks and whites were $42,600 and $46,600, the smallest black-white difference in any of the 50 metros with the largest black populations. Yet the average black home in Riverside was located in a neighborhood with a poverty rate (18 percent) that exceeded the rate for the corresponding white neighborhood by 42 percent. The former also had 24 percent more unemployment, 24 percent fewer college-educated residents, and 12 percent fewer home- owners.  The median household income for Hispanics, $40,700, also was fairly close to the white median. But the neighborhood poverty rate for the typical Hispanic household exceeded the “white” neighborhood rate by 45 percent.  And the Hispanic neighborhood had 26 percent more unemployment, 35 percent fewer college graduates, and 12 percent fewer homeowners.”74 Segregation combines with structural inequalities to magnify socioeconomic deficits for minorities.

Differences in income derive partially from a spacial mismatch between job sites and minority residences, in part due to lack of business investment in minority neighborhoods. Where blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans were most segregated from whites residentially, they also experienced the greatest mismatches between their residences and available jobs.75 Additionally, the very fact of segregation limits the job and other opportunities available to minorities by constricting their social networks.76

As with other minorities, the segregation of Asian Americans can concentrate poverty and other socioeconomic detriments. “Model minority” stereotypes mask the reality that Asian Americans are widely diverse, with average levels of income and educational attainment varying significantly among nationalities.77 53.3% of Cambodians, 59.9% of Hmong, 49.6% of Lao, and 38.1% of Vietnamese over the age of 25 have less than a high school education, and while Asian Americans are more likely than whites to have incomes over $75,000, they are also more likely to have incomes under $25,000.78 As with blacks and Latinos, high poverty rates among many Asian American sub-groups mean that communities where those ethnicities cluster are characterized by financial deprivation and its attendant effects.

Segregation also creates barriers to building wealth, as financial discrimination in lending and other services further inflicts communities with high concentrations of minorities. Banks and businesses are less likely to invest in neighborhoods with high concentrations of minorities; such neighborhoods continue to be undercapitalized in comparison to economically comparable white neighborhoods.79 Even controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, minority neighborhoods have higher concentrations of payday loans.80

Racial bias in finance also affects individual borrowers living in segregated communities, as reflected in the distribution of subprime loans: borrowers residing in zip codes whose population is at least 50% minority are 35% more likely to receive loans with “prepayment penalties” than financially similar borrowers in zip codes where minorities are less than 10% of the population; high-income African Americans in predominantly black neighborhoods are three times more likely to receive a subprime purchase loan than low-income white borrowers in predominantly white neighborhoods.81

These disparities are not limited to blacks: blacks, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos pay higher rates for home mortgage loans than whites do, even controlling for factors such as income and credit history.82  Subprime foreclosures are concentrated  in predominantly minority – particularly black, Latino, and Native American – neighborhoods.83 For example, in one Arizona county, while Latino borrowers held 11.9% of home loans, they were 34.7% of the foreclosures. As a direct result of each foreclosure, the value of surrounding homes also falls.84 Because of such disparities, minority neighborhoods “will be disproportionately likely to suffer vacant and abandoned properties, as well as increases in crime and decreases in property values, which have been found to result from foreclosure activity.”85

B.   Other effects of discrimination on segregated communities

In addition to financial disparities and their attendant effects, high-minority areas suffer from the concentrated effects of myriad forms of discrimination. Such areas are disproportionately exploited in the siting of environmental hazards, even controlling for income levels.86 Minorities are also more likely to be stranded without adequate local services, as municipal incorporation (which generally bundles and delivers those services) often bypasses segregated communities.87 See, e.g., Committee Concerning Community Improvement, et al., v. City of Modesto, County of Stanislaus, Stanislaus County Sheriff (plaintiffs with FHA claim were residents of predominantly-Latino neighborhoods, which were unincorporated “islands” surrounded by Modesto; and which lacked basic infrastructure such as sewer lines, sidewalks, and storm drains);88Lopez v. City of Dallas, Texas89 (alleging that Dallas provided inferior municipal services to residents of Cadillac Heights); Kennedy v. City of Zanesville (alleging decades-long discriminatory government policy of refusing to provide clean water to neighborhood due to its racial makeup). 90

Segregation can exert a particularly harmful influence on children: studies have shown that minority students who attend diverse schools have higher high school and college graduation rates, as well as being aided by the ability to “connect to social and labor networks that lead to higher earning potential as adults.”91 Integrated schools also confer important benefits in the form of lessons about the value of intercultural cooperation.92 The direct link between integrated schools and integrated communities is clear.93 Yet while segregation in schools mirrors residential patterns, it can be even more sharply felt; due to demographic trends, segregation rates among children can be even higher than among the general population.94 School quality is directly impacted by the financial costs of segregation noted above: as incomes and property values are lower, so is the tax base from which schools (and other services) draw.

C.   Residential Distance and the Perpetuation of Stereotypes

While segregation is measured by physical distances, it also reflects social distances that hold members of different races permanently at bay. By facilitating exposure to other cultures and contact among individuals, racial integration can dispel harmful stereotypes and help to dismantle the discriminatory cycles that perpetuate racial distrust. Numerous studies demonstrate that meaningful contact between members of different races significantly reduces prejudice among racial groups.95 For instance, in the educational setting, studies of voluntary integration plans demonstrate that students in racially diverse educational environments feel comfortable with, and prepared to work and interact with, members of other races.96

VI.   Relevance of Integration on Grounds Other Than Race

Just as racial integration is a necessary element of the AFFH duty, integration on other covered grounds is also important. In addition to considering race and ethnicity, AFFH should encompass the fair housing rights of those with disabilities, as well those of various national origins, religions, and familial status, to participate equally in society without the constraints of segregation.

The integration obligation regarding the disabled is reflected in existing law, including Executive Order 13217, which provides that the federal government should ensure placement of individuals with disabilities, whenever possible, in community settings rather than institutionalized environments; HUD’s regulations on discriminatory housing practices, which prohibit “assigning any person to a particular section of a community, neighborhood or development, or to a particular floor of a building, because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin;”97 and criteria used by HUD in the competitive selection process for awarding funds for the development of housing and supportive services for people with disabilities, which are intended to avoid high concentrations of people with disabilities in one project, or on one site, and that reward siting features that are shown to “facilitate [residents’] integration into the surrounding community and promote their ability to live as independently as possible.”98

Furthermore, housing integration efforts amongst people with disabilities has been shown to yield positive effects. During the 1970s, a wave of legal decisions assisted in shifting housing priorities from institutionalization to community based assistance.99 In addition to increasing scrutiny of rights violations occurring in these institutions, studies testing alternatives to mental health treatment demonstrated positive benefits on employment, self esteem and social groups for patients placed in community placement programs.100

Currently, discourse pertaining to people with disabilities emphasizes the goal of “normalization,” which provides for the integration of people with disabilities with “patterns of life and conditions of everyday living which are as close as possible to the regular circumstances and way of life of society.”101 These objectives seek to address both the integrative potential and therapeutic benefits that residential integration of people with disabilities provides.102

The residential integration of persons of various religions similarly offers both inter- and intrapersonal benefits to communities involved.  Exposure to groups from different backgrounds provides a forum for informal learning,103 while emphasis on acknowledging and valuing diversity allows community members to feel comfortable within the broader society.104 A recent British study on faith-based housing associations demonstrated greater cooperation among different faith-based groups, leading to “greater community cohesion,” through increasing “dialogue” and “understanding” between the numerous religious communities.105 Additional studies also illustrate the broad impact of religious diversity on group identification and their contributions to “mainstream culture.”106

VII.   Fair Housing and Immigrant Communities

While is clear that desegregation is a crucial consideration in effectively furthering fair housing, it is also important to be sensitive to the varying needs of different communities. This is clear, for instance, in the context of relatively recent immigrants, who are characterized by abundant variation in socioeconomic status and other attributes. As noted in the section on integration above, average levels of income and educational attainment vary significantly among nationalities, and the character of ethnic “enclaves” can vary broadly as well.

Such neighborhoods, though they are frequently segregated by race and ethnicity, can sometimes be an important stepping stone in immigrants’ path to opportunity. As one scholar has noted, “enclave neighborhoods are especially important in facilitating the socioeconomic incorporation of immigrants faced with language and skill barriers. The concentration of linguistically isolated and poor Asian Pacific Americans affirms this central function of enclave neighborhoods. Moreover, it is consistent with the demography of enclave neighborhoods that a larger share of the foreign-born reside in concentrated neighborhoods relative to other neighborhoods types, with only a small share of homeownership indicating a concentration of rental housing and a denser environment.”107

While recognizing the transitional benefits that these neighborhoods provide, however, it is important to recognize that their segregated character takes a toll on the housing and other opportunities of their residents. Thus, while many Asian Americans tend to be well off relative to other Americans, in New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, urban Chinatowns “have high rates of poverty and linguistic isolation as well as minimal levels of APA homeownership;” many other enclaves, of both urban and suburban location and of various ethnicities, have similar features.108  This pattern is not all-encompassing: other enclaves, for instance, have more recently been settled by middle- and upper class immigrants, and may be “suburban settings…which are quite affluent indicated by high levels of median household income and APA homeownership.”109 However, in general it has been found that “for blacks, Hispanics, and Asians living in metropolitan areas with a high percentage of foreign-born residents (gateway communities) higher education and, to a lesser extent, higher income are associated with higher rates of residential integration with whites.”110

As with native-born minority communities, segregation of immigrants can concentrate poverty and its effects. The Pew Center has documented sharp declines in non-citizens’ income over the past several years, as well as disproportionate unemployment among Latino immigrants.111  Immigrant communities have the added burden of linguistic isolation. For example, among Asian Americans, based on the 2000 Census, 46% of Vietnamese households are linguistically isolated; 41% of Korean households are linguistically isolated; 35.3% of Chinese households are linguistically isolated; 34.8% of Hmong households are linguistically isolated; 11.1% of Filipino households; and 10.8% of Asian Indian households are linguistically isolated.  By comparison, only 4.1% of all U.S. households are linguistically isolated.112 24% of Asian schoolchildren are ELLs, as are 31% of Latinos.113

While some minorities – especially recent immigrants – do benefit in some ways from living together in close-knit enclaves, research finds there are both “profits” and “deficits” attached to such communities.114 Thus, while immigrants in these neighborhoods enjoy the accessibility of same-language services and ready access to social networks, they are also likely to suffer from poor educational opportunities, lower housing values (partly attributable to designation as an “ethnic neighborhood”), and low- quality, dilapidated infrastructure.115 While some services are more readily accessible, others are lacking. For instance, “[t]he severe underrepresentation of Latinos in fields such as law, the health professions, and teaching has led to a deepening crisis – namely, an astonishing scarcity of educators, legal service providers, and health care providers with the linguistic resources and cultural sensitivity to serve the growing Latino community.”116 Even as “ethnic enclaves offer assistance to new arrivals, from help in finding housing to securing a job and child care, obtaining familiar food, and celebrating religions and cultural traditions….ethnic enclaves can also be constraining, in that they limit contact with English speakers, who tend to have higher incomes, greater educational attainment, and valuable social networks.”117

One influential study on the dynamics of immigrant assimilation found that “[w]hile children from high socioeconomic status immigrant families in suburbs may likely achieve similar levels of success to their [white] native peers, immigrant families in inner cities are likely to be attended by serious difficulties facing the children of their neighboring native minorities…Ethnic enclaves in communities with strong socio- economic resources may provide support to help assimilation into the middle class. In socioeconomically unprivileged communities, however, assimilation may mean downward social mobility (e.g., high school dropouts, youth delinquency, gang affiliation) because those communities lack the resources necessary to help poor families to steer children from local peer pressures and oppositional cultures.”118

Such barriers to achievement often are reflected in local schools. “New immigrant families tend to reside, at least initially, in lower-cost central city and older ring suburban neighborhoods. This trend places newly arriving school-age children – especially Latino and Asian American students – in schools already troubled by declining resources.”119 As discussed above, residential segregation, because it leads to school segregation, can burden immigrant children with linguistic as well as spacial isolation. Language differences also deter parental participation in schools with heavy immigrant enrollment.120

Additionally, children of immigrants gain from integration with peers who are native speakers of English. As a group of experts explained in a recent Supreme Court brief, “integration benefits advance the interests of [English language learners, i.e. ELLs] as well, who experience segregation particularly acutely, and who experience particular challenges and harms as a result of their racial and linguistic isolation in disadvantaged schools. Despite [the Supreme] Court’s holding in Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 (1974) that ELL students have a right to a “meaningful and effective” education, a large proportion of ELLs are poorly-served in schools characterized by ethnic and linguistic isolation and concentrated poverty. Because ELLs are so likely to attend school with other ELLs and to live in racially and linguistically isolated neighborhoods, they have few contexts in which to interact with English-proficient peers. Integrated schools can create meaningful opportunities for this peer interaction.”121

Just as it is important to note that immigrant enclaves carry benefits as well as deficits for their inhabitants, it is also important to note that the benefits are not inextricably tied to a high degree of segregation. Among immigrants, degrees of integration fall along a varied spectrum: for instance, among Asian Americans in Los Angeles, Filipinos were most likely to live in racially mixed communities; Vietnamese, to live in majority-white communities; and Koreans, to live in either racially-mixed or majority-white communities.122 Those of Vietnamese and Filipino ethnicity were approximately as likely to live in majority-Latino neighborhoods as they were to live in neighborhoods where the majority were their own ethnicity; and all three groups were relatively unlikely to live in neighborhoods where the majority were Asian Americans of another ethnicity.123 Additionally, the composition of ethnic “enclaves” takes a multiplicity of forms and meanings. Surveys taken in Los Angeles found that “about 40% of Chinese American respondents identified Chinatown as a ‘most’ or a ‘very’ important center of business, cultural and social activity in their daily lives, while almost two-thirds identified the San Gabriel Valley similarly. Well over 80% of Korean- and Vietnamese- Americans either identified Koreatown or Little Saigon as a “very” or “most” important center of life or in fact lived in those neighborhoods. As with the tendency to form close friendships [with members of the same ethnicity, as also captured by this poll], this tendency is notably more visible among the newer immigrant groups.”124 Yet, as noted above, the majority of those respondents live in integrated neighborhoods, and even neighborhoods that may leap to mind as marquis ethnic settings in fact reflect an integrated reality – for example, Los Angeles’ commercially vibrant Koreatown is predominantly Latino and only approximately 20%  Korean.125

In some cases, as patterns of immigrant settlement (particularly among the middle- and upper-class) shift to the suburbs, “traditional enclaves . . . have evolved into a symbolic community serving as cultural centers” while the majority of the population that patronizes them lives elsewhere.126 The symbolic value of such neighborhoods to some Asian-Americans is illustrated by the efforts of California Filipinos to designate official Filipino Towns that could serve as “visible spatial communities,” after urban renewal and gentrification drove residents from sections of cities including San Francisco, Honolulu and Seattle.127 While illustrating the importance of ethnic communities, these recent endeavors are the result not of segregative settlement patterns, but rather of concerted community efforts and of hard-won entrepreneurial and political capital – in other words, enabled by the same sort of access to resources and networks that heightened segregation is likely to impede.

VIII.   Proposed Standards and Criteria for Promoting Integration Across Geographic, Racial, and Other Community Characteristics

HUD’s mandate to AFFH requires that fair housing policy navigate the range of communities across the United States, complete with their myriad demographic features and competing priorities. While applications in the field may vary, AFFH’s foundational objectives – to promote non-discrimination, residential integration, and equal access to the benefits of housing – stand as universal directives. As we have discussed above, segregated communities most often arise because of direct or indirect discrimination and restricted choice. And they most often have a detrimental effect on majority and minority group members alike, across America’s various racial and ethnic communities.  This is not to say that members of minority groups may never rationally choose a neighborhood in which their group predominates, or that no benefits can ever flow from that choice. Rather, the law is clear that neither the Federal government nor its grantees may further segregation or ignore achievable integration in the implementation of their programs and activities.

Accordingly, we believe that AFFH rules should include a strong presumption that decision-making and implementation will seek to foster residential integration and will not perpetuate or deepen existing segregation. This presumption should apply, moreover, across all of the jurisdictions receiving HUD support, and across racial, ethnic, and other covered groups and characteristics. Guidelines should make clear that activities which perpetuate or deepen segregation, or that avoid integrative options, will constitute “red flags” warranting further scrutiny and the expectation that funding will be denied, terminated, or rescinded.

At the same time, however, we believe that the presumption against non-integrative uses could conceivably be rebutted in certain narrow, clearly defined circumstances. If, and only if, a proposed or existing use of Federal funds will both (a) substantially increase choice across identity groups; and (b) substantially increase access to other types of opportunity, we believe that a non-integrative approach might be considered under the following circumstances:

  • Where the fund recipient is a municipal jurisdiction that is overwhelmingly racially homogenous, the use of funds would substantially increase choice and opportunity for residents of low-opportunity neighborhoods, and no metropolitan or regional approaches are possible. In other words, where there is “no one to integrate with,” and resources would achieve other important fair housing goals. For example, Community Development Block Grants could be used for the rehabilitation of structures and the construction of public facilities in such areas.
  • Where funds would increase choice and access to opportunity, would support the transition of new immigrants into American and local society, and would simultaneously facilitate the longer-term integration of community members into the broader jurisdiction or region. That is, jurisdictions may be able to use HUD assistance to maximize transitional assistance to new immigrants in existing immigrant “launch pad” communities.
  • Where funds are unlikely to have either a positive or negative impact on integration, but will increase choice and opportunity in low-opportunity segregated neighborhoods. This circumstance is most likely to arise when funds are used for purposed other than affordable housing creation. Accordingly, these principles do not prevent HUD from investing in the improvement of majority- minority neighborhoods, for instance through improved infrastructure or connection to municipal services. Examples of programs through which such funds could be allocated include Community Development Block Grants and the Initiative for Renewal Communities and Urban Empowerment Zones, as well the Public Housing Capital Fund and (working in tandem with the Department of Energy) the Weatherization program.

The most difficult question, in our view, arises when a majority-white jurisdiction seeks to create or expand the availability of affordable housing within a segregated, low- opportunity neighborhood, based in part on expressed demand from that community’s residents – in other words, where minority residents’ expressed “choice” is for expanded housing in their existing, segregated neighborhood.

In our view, HUD funds should rarely if ever be used for this purpose. First, as noted, research shows that people of color typically prefer integration over segregation, especially under low-opportunity conditions. Second, the Fair Housing Act and AFFH obligations do not exist to facilitate minority preference but, rather, to ensure non- discrimination, integration, and access to opportunity – conditions that do not exist in the above scenarios. And third, experience shows that there will frequently be integrative alternatives available to the jurisdictions, such as siting affordable housing at the juncture of existing majority and minority neighborhoods, and in high opportunity locations.

Again, this conclusion does not prevent the use of HUD funds to improve the choices and opportunity available to segregated communities. Rather, it prevents the use of these funds to perpetuate or deepen residential segregation.

Finally, it is worth stating that access to HUD programs, activities, and assistance is a limited resource that must be allocated strategically by the Department and consistent with applicable statutory priorities and parameters. Avoiding applications that would undermine the national interest in integrated communities is an important part of that interest.

IX.   The Practical Importance of Attending to Racial Dynamics

Experience shows that failing to consider racial dynamics, or using socioeconomic status as a proxy for race, will frustrate the achievement of the Department’s mission and mandate. Programs implemented in the past have often been missed opportunities for furthering integration, as insufficient consideration was given to racial dynamics. For instance, the Massachusetts Low and Moderate Income Housing Act (nicknamed the Anti-Snob Zoning Law) successfully facilitated the construction of subsidized housing throughout the state by allowing developers to bypass local zoning practices. However, the law has been criticized for benefiting mostly whites and for having “exacerbated racial segregation:” only one-third of the housing was for families, while the remainder was occupied by elderly (white) local residents.128

In the Mount Laurel Cases, the New Jersey Supreme Court struck down a local exclusionary zoning ordinances and required towns in the state to construct their “fair share” of affordable housing.129 In the wake of the remedial phase, however, it was found that minorities were underrepresented in the new inclusionary developments, despite heavy demand. Although desegregation had been a stated goal of the program, it was an unrealized one; segregation in New Jersey has since increased.130The resulting construction chiefly “helped low-income suburbanites retain residency in their areas rather than open up new opportunities for urban people of color.”131 According to opportunity expert John Powell, New Jersey faltered by applying “the false premise that race issues can be reduced to poverty issues,” and mistakenly left the issue of residential segregation to the local authorities’ discretion.132

In contrast, Montgomery County’s inclusionary zoning law, requiring new large developments to provide affordable units, has primarily benefited minorities; the Maryland county is now regarded as “one of the nation’s most racially and economically integrated communities.” Although the program does not apply explicit racial criteria, it includes specific mechanisms to achieve integration. It succeeds by giving the local housing authority (which maintains a long waiting list of people of color) control over a large portion of the units; and by distributing the units by a widely-advertised lottery (thus avoiding the discriminatory tendencies of the housing market).  In other cities, similar ordinances lacking such features have failed to ease segregation.133

Especially as we become an increasingly diverse society, it is important that HUD help integrated neighborhoods to flourish. Multifaceted approaches to sustaining integration should be an important consideration in furthering fair housing. An examination of cities in various regions of the United States found that stable, diverse communities typically exhibit common features, including the co-existence of multiple ethnic groups, attractive infrastructure (such as high-quality housing stock), the availability of affordable housing, and relationships with banks and real estate agents.  Governmental forces can help nurture such communities, by ensuring access to financial support (such as loans for housing maintenance and business incubation), fostering diversity through anti- discrimination laws, public education measures, and other means.134 Additionally, efforts to integrate individuals should be sensitive to their needs. In terms of countering prejudice, integration has the strongest impact when it results in “meaningful contact,” that is, when “members of different groups have equal status, common goals, are in a cooperative or interdependent setting, and have support from authorities.”135 To the extent possible, HUD and its grantees should coordinate their work with that of other agencies 136 to facilitate integration: for example, with language instruction programs; inclusive vocational training and apprenticeship tracks; and by providing funding to inter-­‐ethnic community organizations.

X.  Additional Considerations

HUD’s AFFH imperative to further integration touches upon all HUD-funded activities, as well as all “programs and activities relating to housing and urban development” that are administered within the purview of Federal regulatory or supervisory authority.137 In addition to the principles described in Section VIII, a number of complimentary strategies can be used to further integration.  For instance:

Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Programs:

HUD should take steps to expand housing options for Section 8 voucher recipients, the majority of whom are minorities,138 in order to further integration by expanding individual choices. Portability requirements among public housing authorities are frequently discretionary, and can raise hurdles for families who seek to move between jurisdictions (even though PHAs are required not to discourage families from making use of portability).139  Procedural obstacles to movement among PHA jurisdictions should be analyzed and addressed.140 For example, among other strategies, HUD should consider implementing regionally-based administration of Section 8 programs in the place of PHA-run programs, to facilitate mobility and counteract NIMBYism among individual PHA jurisdictions.141 Currently, the Section 8 Guidebook142 states that PHAs must provide families with information about available neighborhoods within the PHA’s jurisdiction, as well as about the advantages of moving to a low-poverty neighborhood, but does not require that PHAs provide an in-depth counseling program. Counseling, which has been shown to have measurable benefits, should be provided for both voucher landlords and recipients.143 HUD should also further integration in Section 8 voucher use by affirmative marketing of rental openings in areas of low minority concentration.

HOME Investment Partnerships Program:

Siting of HUD-funded housing should require a comprehensive Opportunity Impact Statement,144 which would include an explicit inquiry into the proposed project’s effect on racial and socioeconomic integration, choice, and access to opportunity. In determining whether a project is to be located in an area of minority concentration, both local and regional data should be considered. Public input should be solicited from potentially impacted communities, including individuals of limited English proficiency. In addition to furthering fair housing, efforts to include Asian Americans in these planning processes should comport with President Obama’s Executive Order restoring the White House Advisory Commission and Interagency Working Group to address issues concerning the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, requiring HUD to, among other things, “identify Federal programs in which AAPIs may be underserved and improve the quality of life for AAPIs through increased participation in these programs…[to] increase public-sector, private-sector, and community involvement in improving the health, environment, opportunity, and well-being of AAPIs; [and to] foster evidence-based research, data-collection, and analysis on AAPI populations and subpopulations, including research and data on public health, environment, education, housing, employment, and other economic indicators of AAPI community well being.”145

Community Development Block Grants:

As with other HUD-funded projects, the CDBG allocation process should encompass an Opportunity Impact Statement146 that explicitly addresses integration.147  HUD should ensure that grantees comply with requirements that they enact plans for diverse citizen participation in planning decisions, as indicated in the Fair Housing Guidebook.148 These plans should encompass outreach to immigrant groups, including people of low English proficiency. As informed by this citizen participation and by robust data collection measures, CDBG spending should redress the effects of discrimination and segregation by ameliorating inequities in service provision, infrastructure, and other programs. HUD should also ensure that CDBG recipients comply with fair housing and nondiscrimination laws, as specified in its Toolkit on Crosscutting Issues for CDBG.149 Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds (a component of CDBG) should be used to expand opportunities in integrated areas.

Increased Outreach and Anti-Discrimination Enforcement for Ethnic Groups:

To promote greater choice in housing, fair housing enforcement funds should be increased and targeted to counter discrimination against all minorities. While blacks suffer the highest reported rates of housing discrimination, enforcement efforts frequently fail to reach other groups. For example, “[t]he inadequacy of efforts to engage Latino communities in the enforcement process and poor federal funding for nonprofit fair housing organizations that serve Latino communities raise further barriers [to fair housing].  Finally, the under-representation of Latinos in the enforcement system itself is a central concern, as is the perceived lack of responsiveness to Latinos at various stages within that system.  Consequently, many Latinos are reluctant to file claims, believing that nothing will come of them . . . Native American advocates describe urban Indians as a forgotten minority and contend that government outreach to this group is minimal, leaving many Native Americans unaware of existing support services.”150 For recent immigrants, HUD’s Fair Housing Guide encourages Grantees to study “problems faced  by immigrant populations whose language and cultural barriers combine with lack of affordable housing to create unique fair housing impediments;” HUD should ensure that meaningful efforts are made to address such impediments.151

XI.   Conclusion

As HUD formulates AFFH guidelines for today’s communities, integration remains a compelling mandate.  HUD should assess ways in which it can further integration for all ethnicities, particularly through improved data collection and robust impact assessment practices. In doing so, HUD will advance key aims of the Fair Housing Act, as well as endowing communities with the lasting benefits of both diversity and opportunity. The Opportunity Agenda would welcome the chance for additional discussion regarding these and other elements of fair housing and opportunity for all.


Notes:

1. U.S. Census Bureau, Rankings and Comparisons Population and Housing Table 1.

2. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, Census 2000 Brief: The Asian Population 1 (Feb. 2002).

3. 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(5) (2010).

4. 42 U.S.C. § 3601 (2010).

5. Evans v. Lynn, 537 F.2d 571, 577 (1975) (citing 114 CONG. REC. 9563 (statement of Rep. Celler)).

6. Trafficante v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 205, 211 (1972) (citing 114 CONG. REC. 3422 (statement of Sen. Mondale)).

7. Id.

8. Gladstone, Realtors v. Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 112 (1979).

9. Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363, 376-7 (1982) (acknowledging Gladstone’s precedent that standing could be granted on grounds of deprivation of the “benefits of interracial associations that arise from living in integrated communities free from discriminatory housing practices,” but remanding due to insufficiency of allegations on other grounds).

10. Linmark Assocs., Inc. v. Twp. of Willingboro, 431 U.S. 85, 95 (1977).

11. 114 CONG. REC. 2528; see also 114 CONG. REC.   2281.

12. See Clients’ Council v. Pierce, 711 F.2d 1406, 1425 (8th Cir. 1983).

13. Otero v. New York City Hous. Auth., 484 F.2d 1122, 1133-35 (2d Cir. 1973); Park View Heights v. City of Black Jack, 605 F.2d 1033, 1036 (8th Cir. 1979) (internal cites omitted), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 905 (1980); Metro. Hous. Dev. Corp. v. Vill. of Arlington Heights, 558 F. 2d 1283, 1290 (7th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1025 (1978); Huntington Branch NAACP v. Town of Huntington, 844 F. 2d 926 (2d Cir.), aff’d per curium, 488 U.S.

14. Segregation of Asians and Latinos has also been addressed in the educational setting, as in: Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78, 85 (1927); Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Indep. School District, 324 F. Supp. 599 (S.D. Tex. 1970); Keyes v. School District No. 1, 413 U.S. 189 (1973); Gonzales v. Sheely, 96 F. Supp. 1004 (D. Ariz. 1951); Hernandez v. Texas, 347 U.S. 475, 479-80 (1954); Santamaria v. Dallas Indep. Sch. Dist., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83417 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 16, 2006).

15. 24 C.F.R. §§ 200.600 et seq. (2010).

16. 24 C.F.R. § 941.202 (2010); see also 24 § CFR 983.57 (2010), for similar language governing site selection for project-based voucher programs.  See HUD NOTICE: H-09-19, issued Dec. 7, 2009, stating that since 2003, “‘[m]inority neighborhood (area of minority concentration)’ has been defined as one where any one of the following statistical conditions exist: (1) the neighborhood’s percentage of persons of a particular racial or ethnic minority is at least 20 percentage points higher than the percentage of that particular racial or ethnic minority in the housing market area; (2) the neighborhood’s total percentage of minority persons is at least 20 percentage points higher than the total percentage of minorities in the housing market area; (3) in the case of a metropolitan area, the neighborhood’s total percentage of minority persons exceeds 50 percent of its population. The term ‘non-minority area’ is defined as one in which the minority population is lower than 10 percent.” Note that “[s]o far as the court can determine, nothing in any statute, regulation, or policy, or the administrative record, defines ‘area of minority concentration’ or ‘racially mixed area.’ The lack of a statutory or regulatory definition leaves substantial room for HUD to interpret these terms.” Glendale Neighborhood Ass’n v. Greensboro Hous. Auth., 956 F. Supp. 1270 (M.D.N.C. 1996). See also Philip Tegeler, The Persistence of Segregation in Government Housing Programs, in Xavier de Souza Briggs, ed., THE GEOGRAPHY OF OPPORTUNITY (Brookings Institution Press 2005).

17. 24 C.F.R. § 1.4(b)(1)(iii) (2010).

18. Shannon v. HUD, 436 F.2d 809, 819 (3d Cir. 1970); see also Jaimes v. Toledo Metro. Hous. Auth., 715 F. Supp. 835, 839 (N.D. Ohio 1989); Project B.A.S.I.C. v. Kemp, 776 F. Supp. 637, 642 (D. R.I. 1991).

19. Gautreaux v. Romney, 448 F.2d 731 (7th Cir. 1971); United States ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Ctr. of Metro N.Y., Inc. v. Westchester County, 668 F. Supp. 2d 548 (S.D.N.Y. 2009).

20. Shannon v. HUD, 436 F.2d 809 (3d Cir. 1970). See also: Graves v. Romney, 502 F.2d 1062 (8th Cir. 1974); Altshuler v. HUD, 686 F.2d 472 (7th Cir. 1982); Project BASIC v. Kemp, 776 F. Supp. 637, 642-3 (D. R.I. 1991) (internal cites omitted); Pleune v. Pierce, 765 F. Supp. 43, 47 (E.D.N.Y. 1991).

21. NAACP v. Sec’y of Hous., 817 F.2d 149, 155 (1st Cir. 1987).

22. See Shannon v. HUD, 436 F.2d 809 816, noting that “in 1949 the Secretary…possibly could act neutrally on the issue of racial segregation. By 1964 he was directed…to prevent discrimination…In 1968 he was directed to act affirmatively to achieve fair housing.”

23. Id., citing Otero v. N.Y.C. Hous. Auth.. 484 F.2d 1122, 1134 (2d Cir. 1973).

24. Thompson v. HUD, 348 F. Supp. 2d 398 (D. Md. 2005). See also Florence Wagner Roisman, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in Regional Housing Markets: The Baltimore Public Housing Desegregation Litigation, 42 Wake Forest L. Rev. 333 (Summer 2007).

25. Langlois v. Abington Hous. Auth., 234 F. Supp. 2d 33, 77 (D. Mass. 2002); United States ex rel. Anti- Discrimination Ctr. of Metro New York, Inc. v. Westchester County, 668 F. Supp. 2d 548, 564 (S.D.N.Y. 2009).

26. Cf Walker v. City of Mesquite, 169 F.3d 973 (5th Cir. 1999), striking down a racially-based siting requirement for new housing in a Texas desegregation decree. The court found that the requirement that new construction be sited in majority-white areas was not narrowly tailored, as a formula based on poverty rates would be effective. See also discussion of Walker by Philip Tegeler, The Future of Race-Conscious Goals in National Housing Policy, in PUBLIC HOUSING AND THE LEGACY OF SEGREGATION (Margery A. Turner et al. eds., The Urban Institute Press 2009).

27. United States ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Ctr. of Metro New York, Inc. v. Westchester County, 668 F. Supp. 2d 548, 564 (S.D.N.Y. 2009).

28. HUD, Fair Housing Planning Guide at 2-28.

29. Id. at 5-17.

30. Id. at 2-11.

31. Id. at 3-6.

32. Trafficante v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 210 (1972) (while minority groups were damaged the most from discrimination in housing practices, the proponents of the legislation emphasized that those who were not the direct objects of discrimination had an interest in ensuring fair housing as they too suffered).

33. See, e.g., Gladstone, Realtors v. Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91 (1979); United States v. Sec’y of HUD , 239 F.3d 211 (2d Cir. 2001); Davis v. New York City Hous. Auth., 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19965 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 30, 1992); NAACP v. City of Kyle, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51226 (W.D. Tex. June 16, 2006); Hispanics United v. Vill. of Addison, 988 F. Supp. 1130 (N.D. Ill. 1997); Huntington Branch NAACP v. Town of Huntington, 844 F.2d 926, 937 (2d Cir. 1988); Anti-Discrimination Ctr. of Metro New York, Inc. v. Westchester County, New York, 668 F. Supp. 2d 548, 564 (S.D.N.Y. 2009); United Farmworkers of Florida Hous. Project, Inc. v. Delray Beach, 493 F.2d 799 (5th Cir. 1974); Jaimes v. Toledo Metro. Hous. Auth., 715 F. Supp. 835 (N.D. Ohio. 1989).

33. 24 C.F.R. §§ 200.600 et seq. (2010).

34. See Green v. County Sch. Bd., 391 U.S. 430 (1968); Bailey v. Ryan Stevedoring Co., Inc., 528 F.2d 551 (5th Cir. 1976).

35. See Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948); NAACP v. Town of Huntington, 844 F. 2d 926 (2d Cir. 1988).

36. Eva Dick, Residential Segregation of Immigrants on St. Paul’s West Side, 38 CURA REP. 1 (Spring 2008) at 10.

37. Id.

38. Camille Zubrinsky and Lawrence Bobo, Prismatic Metropolis: Race and Residential Segregation in the City of the Angels”, 25 SOC. SCI. RES. 335, 339; (1996) (citing Denton and Massey, 1988; Massey and Fong, 1990.); see also Ingrid Gould Ellen, Continuing Isolation: Segregation in America Today, in SEGREGATION: THE RISING COSTS FOR AMERICA 271 (James H. Carr et al. eds., 2008).

39. Maria Krysan & Reynolds Farley, The Residential Preferences of Blacks: Do They Explain Persistent Segregation?, 80 SOC. FORCES 3, 937-80 (2002).

40. Camille Z. Charles, Can We Live Together?, in The Geography of Opportunity at 59-61 (William J. Wilson et. al. eds., Brookings Institution Press 2005).

41. Lawrence Bobo, Attitudes on Residential Integration: Perceived Status Differences, Mere In-Group Preference, or Racial Prejudice?, 74 SOC. FORCES 3, 883-909 (1996).

42. David Card et al., TIPPING AND THE DYNAMICS OF SEGREGATION IN NEIGHBORHOODS AND SCHOOLS  25 (2006).

43. Id.

44. Morrison Wong, Chinese Americans, in ASIAN AMERICANS: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND ISSUES 137 (Pyong Gap Min ed.   2006).

45. Ellen, supra fn 38, at 272.

46. “In all likelihood, there are reciprocal effects with attitude shaping location decisions to as great an extent as resources, information, and other considerations allow, while the experience of particular neighborhoods, group relations, and status and service considerations then come to reshape attitudes.” Bobo, supra fn 41, at 900, 902 (citing Galster 1989; Sigelman & Welch 1993).

47. Id. at 904.

48. DOUGLAS S. MASSEY & NANCY A. DENTON, AMERICAN APARTHEID: SEGREGATION AND THE MAKING OF THE UNDERCLASS 91  (Harvard  University  Press 1993).

49. Id. at 104-105; describing study of how loan distribution had negative correlation with black populations in Dallas and Milwaukee neighborhoods, at 107.

50. Steven W. Bender, Knocked Down Again: An East L.A. Story, 12 HARV. LATINO L. REV. 109, 114-118 (2009). Covenants and their effects are also described in, E.g., Kevin R. Johnson, Hernandez v. Texas: Legacies of Justice and Injustice, 25 CHICANO-LATINO L. REV. 153 (discussing history of restrictive covenants and other discrimination against Japanese-Americans and Mexican Americans in California and Texas); see also Hernandez v. Texas, 347 U.S. at 471, 481.

51. See In re Lee Sing, 43 F. 359 (N.D. Cal. 1890).

52. John Yen Wong, Still Separate and Unequal: A Public Hearing on the State of Fair Housing in America.

53. Amicus brief of AAJC et el. in Parents Involved v. Parents Sch. Distr. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701 (2007) (citing  ART  CHIN & DOUG CHIN, UPHILL: THE SETTLEMENT & DIFFUSION OF THE CHINESE IN SEATTLE,  39 (Shorey Original Publication 1973) (“[T]he Chinese moved into the First Hill and Beacon Hill areas [located in the central district] only because they were the only districts not covered by the restrictive covenant.”).

54. Nat’l Fair Hous. Alliance, 2008 Fair Housing Trends (2008).

55. Defined as those who spoke primarily Spanish at home.

56. Kathleen Engel & Patricia McCoy, From Credit Denial to Predatory Lending, in SEGREGATION: THE RISING COSTS 94 (James H. Carr et. al. eds., Routledge 2008).

57. Margery A. Turner et. al, Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 2 – Asians and Pacific Islanders (March 2003), at ii

58. Fair Hous. Council of Fresno County, Fair Housing Audit of Fresno County (1995); see also John Yinger, Evidence on Discrimination in Consumer Markets, 12 J. OF ECON. PERSP. 2, (1998).

59. San Antonio Fair Hous. Council, San Antonio Metropolitan Area Rental Audit (1997).

60. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census 2000. (In 2000, Houston was 42% white, 25% black, and 37% Latino).

61. Daniel Bustamante, Executive Director of the Greater Houston Fair Housing Center, Testimony on Housing Discrimination in Houston, TX (hearings conducted by National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, 2008) at 2.

62. Turner et. al., supra fn 57, at 3-8.

63. Id.

64. Margery A. Turner et. al, Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 3 – Native Americans (Sept. 2003), at iii.

65. U.S. Bureau of the Census, We the People: American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States (2006; based on 2000 Census data), at 14;

66 See, e.g., MASSEY & DENTON, supra fn 48.

67. Gladstone, Realtors v. Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 112 (1979).

68. As one group of advocates phrased it in that context, “Ample studies have shown that exposure to students from a wide range of backgrounds enhances the educational experiences of all students, whether Caucasian American or minority. Thus, Asian Pacific American students, and all other students, benefit from racial and ethnic diversity… Achieving such diversity constitutes a compelling governmental interest.” Brief of Amici Curiae National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, Asian Law Caucus, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, et al. in support of respondents in Grutter v. Bollinger, et al., 539 U.S. 306 (2003) and Gratz, et al. v. Lee Bollinger, et al., 539 U.S. 244 (2003), on Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in 10 ASIAN L.J. 295.

69. Xavier de Souza Briggs, More Pluribus, Less Unum? in THE GEOGRAPHY OF OPPORTUNITY at 24 (Brookings 2005).

70. Stacey Lee, The Truth and Myth of the Model Minority: the Case of Hmong Americans, in NARROWING   THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 171 (Paik et. al. eds.  2007).

71. See MEIZHU LUI ET AL., THE COLOR OF WEALTH (2006).

72. See The State of Opportunity in America (The Opportunity Agenda 2006) at 118-19.

73. Lisa Robinson and Andrew Grant-Thomas,  Race, Place, and Home: A Civil Rights and Metropolitan Opportunity Agenda (Civil Rights Project 2004); (citing Jargowsky 2003).

74. Id. at 22.

75. Id. at 25.

76. See MASSEY & DENTON, supra fn 48, at 109, 161.

77. ANGELO ANCHETA,  RACE, RIGHTS, AND THE ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 113 (Rutgers Univ.  Press 1998); see also Robert Teranishi, Southeast Asians, School Segregation, and Postsecondary Outcomes, (NYU Commission on Asian American Research in Higher Education 2004).

78. Lee, supra fn 70, at 172.

79. Id. at 135, 206 (citing data revealed by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act).

80. JAMES H. CARR & NANDINEE K. KUTTY, SEGREGATION: THE RISING COSTS FOR AMERICA, at 121-23 (Routledge 2008).

81. Nat’l Fair Hous. Alliance, supra fn 54, at 22.

82. Engel & McCoy, supra fn 56, at 92.

83. Id. at 97-98.

84. Id. at 100.

85. Furman Center, The High Cost of Segregation: Exploring the Relationship Between Racial Segregation and Subprime Lending (November 2009); see also Jarrett Murphy, Race and Space: Segregation and Foreclosure in Huffington Post.

86. See, e.g., discussion in Mary Frances Berry et al., Not in My Backyard: Executive Order No. 12,898 and Title VI as Tools for Achieving Environmental Justice, (U.S. Comm’n on Civil Rights, 2003) at 13 et seq.

87. Nat’l Research Council, Governance and Opportunity in Metropolitan America 31 (Altshuler et. al. eds. 1999) (citing Burns 1994).

88. Comm. Concerning Cmty. Improvement v. City of Modesto583 F.3d 690 (9th Cir. 2009).

89. Lopez v. City of Dallas,  2004 US Dist. Lexis 18220 (ND Tex. Sept. 9, 2004).

90. Kennedy v. City of Zanesville, 505 F. Supp. 2d 456 (SD Ohio 2007).

91. Nat’l Comm’n on Fair Hous. and Equal Opportunity, The Future of Fair Housing (Dec. 2008) at 2. See also DENTON & MASSEY, supra fn 48, at 169 (discussing the positive results of school integration as a result of housing integration achieved by Gautreaux v. Chicago Hous. Auth.).

92. See Advancing Equality Amicus Brief; “in Jefferson  County, about 90% of the students report “that exposure in the curriculum to diverse cultures and experiences has helped them to better understand points of view different from their own,” citing Kurlaender & Yun, Is Diversity a Compelling Educational Interest? Evidence from Jefferson County, in DIVERSITY CHALLENGED: EVIDENCE ON THE IMPACT OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 111, 123 (G. Orfield & M. Kurlaender eds. 2001).

93. See, e.g., discussion in Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority, 503 F.2d 930; Keyes et al. v. School District No. 1, Denver, CO. et al., 413 US 189 (1973); the Kerner Comm’n Report also noted the connection, Schwemm at 5-5.

94. McArdle, Race, Place, and Opportunity: Racial Change and Segregation in the Chicago Metropolitan Area: 1990 – 2000, Part I, at 24 (The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University).

95 Thomas F. Pettigrew & Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory, 90 J. OF PERSONALITY & 11 SOC. PSYCH. 751 (2006) (reviewing and analyzing over 500 empirical studies).

96. Linda Hamilton Krieger, Civil Rights Perestroika: Intergroup Relations After Affirmative Action, 86 CAL. L. REV. 1251, 1276-2191 (1998).

97. 24 C.F.R. § 100.70(c)(4) (2010).

98. 72 Fed. Reg. 11683, 11725 (Mar. 13, 2007).

99. Henry Korman, Clash of the Integrationists: The Mismatch of Civil Rights Imperatives in Supporting Housing for People with Disabilities, 26 ST. LOUIS U. PUB. L. REV. 3, 14-15 (2007).

100. Leonard I. Stein & Mary Ann Test, Alternative to Mental Hospital Treatment, 37 ARCH GEN PSYCH, 394-5 (1980).

101. Arlene S. Kanter, A Home of One’s Own: The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and Housing Discrimination Against People with Mental Disabilities, 43 AM. U.L. REV. 925, 961.

102. John v. Jacobi, Federal Power, Segregation and Mental Disability, 39 HOUS. L. REV. 1231, 1253 (2003).

103. Regents of the Univ. of CA v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 313 fn 48 (1978).

104. Marjorie A. Silver, Rethinking Religion and Public School Education, 15 QLR 213, 227-228 (1995).

105. John Flint, Faith and Housing in England: Promoting Community Cohesion or Contributing to Urban Segregation?, 36 J. OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUD. (2) 255, 269.

106. Tseming Yang, Race, Religion and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion, 73 IND. L.J. 119, 130-3.

107. Tarry Hum & Michela Zonta, Residential Patterns of Asian Americans, in TRANSFORMING RACE RELATIONS 209 (Paul M. Ong, ed. 2000).

108. Id. at 209- 213.

109. Id. at 210- 213; see also Wong, Morrison, Chinese Americans, in ASIAN AMERICANS: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND ISSUES 135 (Pyong Gap Min ed.   2006).

110. Briggs, supra fn 69, at 27 (citing Clark and Blue 2004).

111. Rakesh Kochhar, Decline in Income for Non-Citizen Immigrant Households, 2006-2007 (Pew Center 2008).

112. “Linguistically isolated” refers to a household in which no one over the age of 14 speaks English “very well,” (i.e. English proficient); AALDEF, Left in the Margins: Asian American Students & the No Child Left Behind Act (2008).

113. Id.

114. Eva Dick, Residential Segregation of Immigrants on St. Paul’s West Side, 38 CURA REP. 1 (Spring 2008).

115. Id.

116. Brief of Latino Organizations as Amici Curiae, Parents Involved v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701 (2007) at 27-28 (nos. 05-908, 05-915).

117. Briggs, supra fn 69, at 25.

118. Min Zhou, Divergent Origins and Destinies, in NARROWING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 125 (Paik et. al. eds. 2007).

119. Deborah McKay and Jeffrey Vincent, Housing and Education, in SEGREGATION: THE RISING COSTS FOR AMERICA 133 (James H. Carr et al. eds., 2008).

120. See, e.g., Lee, supra fn 70, at 181.

121. Brief of Latino Organizations as Amici Curiae, Parents Involved v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No.1, 551 U.S. 701 (2007),  at 25.

122. T. Lee, Racial Attitudes and the Color Line(s) at the Close of the Twentieth Century, in TRANSFORMING RACE RELATIONS 113 (Paul M. Ong, ed. 2000) (findings are based on Los Angeles Times polls conducted in stages through 1997).

123. Id.

124. Id. at 114.

125. Pyong Gap Min, Korean Americans, in ASIAN AMERICANS: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND ISSUES 237 (2006).

126. Tarry Hum & Michela Zonta, Residential Patterns of Asian Americans, in TRANSFORMING RACE RELATIONS 209 (Paul M. Ong, ed. 2000).

127. Id. at 208, describing how “[i]n the mid-1990s, there was “strong interest among Bay Area Filipinos to create a visible spatial community that will generate a political presence as well as celebrate Filipino cultural heritage and practices. The development plans include[d] senior housing to accommodate those who may need easy access to the conveniences of ethnic services and products.” Community efforts in  1980s and 90s Los Angeles resulted in the designation of a Historic Filipino Town, and a coalition of  Filipino nonprofits was involved with the development of the SoMa area in San Francisco. See also Augusto Espiritu, Filipino Americans, in MULTICULTURALISM IN THE UNITED STATES: A COMPARATIVE GUIDE TO ACCULTURATION AND ETHNICITY (John D. Buenker, ed., Greenwood Press 2005).

128. Myron Orfield, Land Use and Housing Policies to Reduce Concentrated Poverty and Racial Segregation, 33 FORDHAM URB. L. J. 877 (2006) (citing Roisman, Opening the Suburbs to Racial Integration: Lessons for the 21st Century, 23 W. NEW ENGLAND L. REV. 65, 73-75 (2001)).

129. Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mt. Laurel, 92 N.J. 158 (N.J. 1983).

130. Orfield, supra fn 128, at 13-14.

131. Id. at 15.

132. Id.

133. Id. at 16.

134. Philip Nyden et al., The Emergence of Stable Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities: A Case Study of Nine U.S. Cities, 8 HOUS. POL’Y DEBATE 491 (1997); see also Orfield, supra fn 128, at 19-21. 135 C. Aberson, C. Shoemaker, & C. Tomolillo, Implicit Bias and Contact: The Role of Interethnic Friendships, 144 J. OF SOC. PSYCHOL. 335, 335 (2004).

136. See Nat’l Comm’n on Fair Hous. and Equal Opportunity, The Future of Fair Housing (Dec. 2008) at 52, proposing that a revived “President’s Fair Housing Council should select two to three pilot projects to develop a track record and demonstrate the viability of cross-agency collaboration in support of fair housing.”

137. See Exec. Order No. 12892, at Sec. 1 (1994); 42 U.S.C. § 3608(d) (1968).

138. HUD, A Picture of Subsidized Households (2008).

139. HUD, Chapter 2: Expanding Housing Opportunities and Mobility, in Housing Choice Voucher Program Guidebook 2.8 (2008).

140. See Mary Cuningham & Philip Tegeler, “Portability and Housing Choice: Preserving the Right to Inter- Jurisdictional Portability Using a Central Reserve Fund, in Keeping the Promise: Preserving and Enhancing Housing Mobility in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program (Poverty & Race Research Action Council 2005).

141. See Philip Tegeler, Housing Segregation and Local Discretion, 3 J.L. & POL’Y 209, 230 (1994).

142. HUD, supra fn 139.

143. John Goering, The MTO Experiment, in The Geography of Opportunity 141 (Brookings 2005). See also Gene Rizor, Essential Elements of Successful Mobility Counseling Programs, in Keeping the Promise: Preserving and Enhancing Housing Mobility in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program (Poverty & Race Research Action Council 2005).

144. See The Opportunity Impact Statement: Expanding the American Dream (The Opportunity Agenda).

145. Exec. Order No. 13515: Increasing Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs (October 14, 2009).

146 See The Opportunity Impact Statement: Expanding the American Dream (The Opportunity Agenda).

147. Nat’l Comm’n on Fair Hous. and Equal Opportunity, The Future of Fair Housing (Dec. 2008).

148. See U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development’s Homes and Communities website, Community Development Block Grant Program; see also Fair Housing Guidebook, at 1-5, 2-12 through 2-14.

149. HUD Toolkit on Crosscutting Issues Module V.

150. Lisa Robinson & Andrew Grant Thomas, Barriers to Housing – Race, Place and Home: A Civil Rights and Metropolitan Opportunity Agenda (Harvard Civil Rights Project 2004).

151. Fair Housing Guidebook at 2-19.

Ten Lessons for Talking About Racial Equity in the Age of Obama

Experience from around the country shows that discussing racial inequity and promoting racial justice are particularly challenging today. Some Americans have long been skeptical about the continued existence of racial discrimination and unequal opportunity. But with the historic election of an African American president, that skepticism is more widespread and more vocal than ever. President Obama’s important political victory, in other words, threatens to eclipse the large body of evidence documenting the continuing influence of racial bias and other barriers to equal opportunity. The current economic crisis, moreover, has fostered a welcome discussion of socioeconomic inequality, but often to the exclusion of racial injustice.

This memo sets out 10 principles that can help facilitate productive communications on racial justice problems and solutions. It is intended for communications with “persuadables”—that is, audiences who are neither solidly favorable nor unfavorable on these issues, but are capable of persuasion through the right approaches. This includes large segments of the U.S. public, as well as many journalists, policymakers, and opinion leaders who influence the public debate. The recommendations are derived from public opinion and media research as well as practical experience over the last year.

1. Lead with shared values: Opportunity and the Common Good. Starting with values that matter to most Americans helps audiences to “hear” our messages more effectively than do dry facts or emotional rhetoric. It is important for advocates to communicate the change they are working for and why that change matters.

EXAMPLES:

In discussing racial equality, the most important values tend to be…

  • Opportunity:

Everyone deserves a fair chance to achieve his or her full potential.

  • Community:

We are all in it together and have a shared responsibility to protect “The Common Good.”

  • Mobility:

Where we start out in life should not determine where we end up; everyone who works hard should be able to advance in society.

Together, these values help to counter the “on your own” mentality that can erode support for social policies. Our research also shows solid support for the notion that freedom from racial discrimination is a basic Human Right that all people should enjoy. The ideals of Fairness and Equality are also important in this context, but should be combined where possible with Opportunity and the Common Good.

2. Show that it’s about all of us. A winning racial justice message is not just about the rights and interests of people of color but rather about our country as a whole and everyone in it. It explains that it’s not in our moral or practical interest as a society to exclude any group, community, or neighborhood, or to tolerate unequal opportunity or discrimination. And it backs up that premise with practical as well as symbolic facts and arguments.

EXAMPLE:

  • Federal regulators allowed predatory subprime lenders to target communities of color, only to see that practice spread across communities, putting our entire economy at risk.

3. Over-document the barriers to equal opportunity—especially racial bias. Many audiences are skeptical about whether racial bias still exists in America, and believe (or want to believe) that equal opportunities are open to all. Be specific about the mechanisms that deny equal opportunity; gather comprehensive and reliable data and prepare a stable of examples to make a convincing and compelling argument. Instead of leading with evidence of unequal outcomes alone—which can sometimes reinforce stereotypes and blame—we recommend documenting how people of color frequently face stiff and unequal barriers to opportunity.

EXAMPLE:

  • DON’T begin by discussing the income gap between whites and African Americans; DO lead with facts like the 2003 California study that found that employment agencies preferred less qualified white applicants to more qualified African Americans;1 or the Milwaukee and New York studies demonstrating that white job seekers with criminal records were more likely to receive callbacks than African Americans with no criminal records.2

4. Acknowledge the progress we’ve made. With an African American in the White House, it’s especially important to acknowledge that our country has made progress over the years regarding race relations and equal opportunity. Doing so helps persuade skeptical audiences to lower their defenses and have a reasoned discussion rooted in nuanced reality rather than rhetoric.

EXAMPLE:

  • We have made real progress on equal opportunity in our country, from the major gains in college enrollment made by women of color over the last 30 years to the substantial increase in people of color elected to offices around the country. But, unfortunately, many barriers to equal opportunity remain, and it is in our nation’s interest to address them.

5. Present data on racial disparities through a contribution model instead of just a deficit model. When we present evidence of unequal outcomes, we should make every effort to show how closing those gaps will benefit society as a whole.

EXAMPLE:

  • The fact that the Latino college graduation rate is 32 percent of the white rate3 also means that closing the ethnic graduation gap would result in over one million more college graduates each year4 to help America compete and prosper in a global economy—it’s the smart thing to do as well as the right thing to do.

6. Be thematic instead of episodic: Select stories that demonstrate institutional or systemic causes over stories that highlight individual action. Compelling human stories can inspire action and capture the attention of reporters, lawmakers, and other audiences. But research shows that individual stories—be they positive or negative—also drive audiences toward “personal responsibility” and individual action as the causes and solutions of social problems (ignoring root causes and systemic policy solutions). We recommend prioritizing human stories—preferably in groups—that are inherently systemic or thematic, backed by strong research and statistics.

EXAMPLES:

  • To demonstrate racial bias in the criminal justice system, interviews with a drug treatment professional, a public defender, and people of different races recovering from addiction can be combined with an Amnesty International report finding that 71 percent of crack cocaine users are white, but 84 percent of those arrested for possession were African Americans—fewer than 6 percent were white.5
  • Native American leader Elouise Cobell was the lead plaintiff in groundbreaking litigation challenging federal mismanagement of trust funds belonging to more than 500,000 individual Native people.Her story and those of representative families in the lawsuit helped to tell a compelling human story with systemic cases, solutions, and implications.

7. Carefully select vehicles and audiences to tell the story of contemporary discrimination. Modern discrimination still includes some old-school bigotry, but more frequently it involves nuanced and less visible forms, such as covert, implicit, and structural bias, and the continuing effects of past discrimination. What’s more, our national diversity extends far beyond the traditional black-white paradigm that anchored 20th century racial discourse. It is important to communicate the modern face of discrimination, yet many audiences have no frame of reference for such a conversation. We recommend carefully tailoring the depth and detail of the message to the medium and audience. Educating reporters and policymakers on background before big stories break is also time well spent.

EXAMPLE:

  • A TV news sound bite is too little time to explain structural bias to a general audience; an op-ed, public hearing, or speech may provide a better opportunity to do so. By contrast, a TV press event can be a good place to show the racial diversity of our nation through visuals, backdrops, and spokespeople.

8. Be rigorously solution-oriented. Audiences who understand that unequal opportunity exists may, nonetheless, believe that nothing can be done about it, leading to “compassion fatigue” and inaction. Wherever possible, we should link our description of the problem to a clear, positive solution and action.

EXAMPLE:

  • Asian Americans often face particularly steep obstacles to needed health care because of language and cultural barriers, as well as limited insurance coverage. Reforms like better training for health professionals, English language learning programs, and community health centers can reduce those racial barriers while improving the health of all.

9. Link racial justice solutions with broader efforts to expand opportunity. For most of us, racial justice is one essential aspect of a broader social justice vision. Linking our goals to broader solutions that directly touch everyone can engage new audiences and build larger, more lasting constituencies.

EXAMPLE:

  • Research points to a number of strategies for promoting quality, inclusive education for all children. They include investing in early childhood and universal pre-K programs, as well as creating attendance zones and strong schools to promote a diverse learning environment.

10. Use Opportunity as a bridge, not a bypass. Opening conversations with the ideal of Opportunity helps to emphasize society’s role in affording a fair chance to everyone. But starting conversations here does not mean avoiding discussions of race. We suggest bridging from the value of Opportunity to the roles of racial equity and inclusion in fulfilling that value for all. Doing so can move audiences into a frame of mind that is more solution-oriented and less mired in skepticism about the continued existence of discrimination.

EXAMPLE:

  • It is in our nation’s interest to ensure that everyone enjoys full and equal opportunity. But that’s not happening in our educational system today, where children of color face overcrowded classrooms, uncertified teachers, and excessive discipline far more often than their white counterparts. If we don’t attend to those inequalities while improving education for all children, we will never become the nation that we aspire to be.

Applying the Lessons

VPSA: Value, Problem, Solution, Action.

One useful approach to tying these lessons together is to structure opening communications around Value, Problem, Solution, and Action. For example:

Value: Your opportunity to get a home loan on fair terms shouldn’t depend on what you look like or where you come from.

Problem: But research shows that people of color are significantly more likely to be given high-interest, subprime loans than are white borrowers, even when those borrowers’ incomes and ability to pay are the same. In fact, the racial gap is greatest among upper-income borrowers. That racial bias hurts us all by driving up foreclosure rates, reducing tax revenues, and ravaging neighborhoods, and it violates our values as a nation.

Solution: We can address these destructive practices through a federal consumer credit agency with the authority to prevent discriminatory and predatory lending schemes. By ensuring access to fair credit on fair terms, we can save thousands of homes, prevent thousands of bankruptcies, and help get our economy going again.

Action: Tell your member of Congress to support a consumer protection agency with strong equal opportunity enforcement authority.


Notes

1. J. Bussey and J. Trasvina, “Racial Preferences: The Treatment of White and African American Job Applicants by Temporary Employment Agencies in California” (Berkeley, Calif.: Discrimination Research Center, December 2003).

2. D. Pager, “The Mark of a Criminal Record,” American Journal of Sociology, 108, No. 5 (2003), 937-75.

3. National Center on Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2007 and 2008, Table 9; available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_009.asp.

4. This calculation refers to the data from footnote 3, and is based on the premise that the Latino population ages 25 to 29 would be graduating college at the 2008 white rate of 37.1%, as opposed to the 2008 Latino rate of 12.4%.

5. Amnesty International, Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States (New York: Amnesty International USA, 2004).

6. Files, J. (2004, April 20). One Banker’s Fight for a Half-Million Indians. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/20/us/one-banker-s-fight-for-a-half-million-indians.html?pagewanted=1

African Americans and Immigration

This memo lays out recent research with African American audiences and offers ideas about talking with them about immigration reform. However, it should be noted that while there do exist some strategies for talking effectively to African American audiences in particular, the key strategy should be to stay with the overall Reform Immigration for America campaign narrative of workable solutions, values, and moving forward with urgency and leadership.

The research cited here consisted of eight focus groups in Seattle, Chicago, Richmond, and New York with African American, U.S.-born Latino, and progressive white audience conducted by Lake Research Partners. The groups occurred on May 11, 18, 20, and 21 respectively. This summary focuses on findings with African American voters.

African American Focus Groups Participants:

  • Were firmly in a problem and solution-oriented frame of mind;
  • Generally supported immigration reform, and – along with U.S. born Latino and progressive white voters – were not in a punitive mood and reject harsher aspects of any proposal;
  • Were motivated by values of Equality and Fairness:
    • Equality: No group or nationality of immigrants ought to be treated differently than any other.
    • Fairness: Both fairness to immigrants and fairness to American citizens. The system treat people fairly but should not allow immigrants to collect benefits or receive opportunities that citizens cannot get (which they believe to be happening).
  • Did not know much about the immigration system, laws, and specific problems, even those who are highly attentive and engaged;
  • Had little appetite for restrictionist or xenophobic rhetoric;
    • But did not perceive the existence of an extreme or ideological debate. Explicitly linking anti- immigrant voices to racist or other extreme groups will probably only work with very attentive or sophisticated audiences.
  • Drew clear distinctions between documented and undocumented immigrants;
    • Held largely favorable views of legal immigrants; had some concern that they get benefits African Americans do not.
    • Worried that undocumented immigrants were straining public systems, lowering wages, providing too much competition for jobs. Held strong beliefs that immigrants receive benefits African Americans do not.
  • Tended to believe that immigrants should learn English, but not necessarily that it be a requirement;
  • Recognized that undocumented workers are often exploited and almost universally considered employers to be more at fault than their undocumented workers.

Successful Messages

Overall:

When it comes to immigration, we need workable solutions that uphold our nation’s values, and move us forward together. We need to fix our system so that individuals who contribute and participate can live in the United States legally. That means creating a system where undocumented immigrants can register, get legal, learn English, and apply for citizenship.

Tailoring the Message for African American Audiences

  • Focusing only on wrongs to immigrants can sometimes draw resentment from African American audiences who feel that their communities continue to experience many of the same wrongs, but that no one cares.
  • African Americans see their story and place in America as unique and do not like the idea that messages might attempt to “piggyback” onto the Civil Rights movement.
  • Any message that singles out black people or treats them as somehow separate from other Americans is likely to be perceived as patronizing.
  • More successful among African Americans was a populist, anti-corporate message that pins the blame for the still broken system on the appetite of big business for cheap, easily controlled labor. (However, it should be noted that this message did poorly with college-educated white voters who saw it as un-Obama like. So it won’t work in instances where messages are meant for broader consumption)

It just doesn’t make sense that we could have an immigration system that’s been broken for so long when Americans want it fixed. One reason for this is that Big Business likes cheap labor that they can control. We need a system that protects workers from exploitation and allows us to all rise together. What we don’t need is those with only an eye on greed and profit dictating how the immigration system should work.

  • Messengers are key. The strongest messenger in support of comprehensive reform and immigrants in general is President Obama. To be consistent with language the president is likely to use, it will be best to avoid more confrontational language.

One of President Obama’s central messages has been that our policies must recognize that we’re all in it together, with common rights and responsibilities. As a candidate, Obama promised to pass comprehensive immigration reform in his first year in office because he understood that our broken immigration system does not reflect those American values. Now it’s time for us to stand with him against the forces of intolerance who would rather play politics with people’s lives than solve real problems.

The State of Opportunity in America

Acknowledgements

This report was written by Meredith King Ledford, MPP, and reviewed by Juhu Thukral and Ross Mudrick of The Opportunity Agenda.

This report was made possible in part by a grant from The Libra Foundation. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the report’s authors and The Opportunity Agenda.

The Opportunity Agenda would like to thank the following individuals for their invaluable comments and assistance in the preparation of the report: Algernon Austin, Ph.D., Director of the Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Program, Economic Policy Institute; Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project; and Brian Smedley, Ph.D., Vice President and Director of the Health Policy Institute, The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

We would also like to thank Eric Mueller and Ramona Ponce of Element Group, and Tony Stephens of The Opportunity Agenda, for their work on the design process. This report was produced using green and recycled materials, at Fine Print INC.

Opportunity in America

This report documents America’s progress in protecting opportunity for everyone who lives here. By analyzing government data across a range of indicators, it reports on the state of opportunity for our nation as a whole, as well as for different groups within our society.

Opportunity is one of our country’s most cherished ideals and one of our most valuable national assets. The promise of opportunity inspires each generation of Americans—regardless of race, ethnicity, class, gender, or national origin—to strive to reach his or her full potential. Fulfilling this promise not only benefits each of us individually, but also society as a whole. In order to capitalize on our nation’s potential, we must ensure that the doors of opportunity are open to all Americans as we work to move forward together.

The Current Economic Crisis

As this report goes to press, the nation is facing the most daunting economic crisis since the Great Depression, including steep increases in unemployment, home foreclosures, and lost assets. Yet, because public sources of governmental data generally reflect a time lag of a year or more, much of the full brunt of today’s economic trauma is not reflected in this report. On many indicators of opportunity, the present reality is likely far worse than the most recent available year’s statistics would suggest. The quickly changing economic environment emphasizes the importance of creating a centralized, public, online system that provides “real-time” access to government opportunity data as it becomes available, disaggregated by demographic and regional differences. Such a system would greatly aid governmental, academic, and civil society groups in their efforts to protect opportunity under challenging circumstances, and we recommend that the federal government take action quickly to establish it. In the interim, however, we provide here some of the most recent available data regarding opportunity during the current economic crisis.

Unemployment, Foreclosure, and Bankruptcy

As of early 2009, the economic outlook was dismal. According to three key indicators–the unemployment rate, the foreclosure rate, and the bankruptcy rate—economic opportunity was severely limited. Jobs were scarce, particularly in communities of color. As of February 2009, 12.5 million people were unemployed, putting the overall unemployment rate at 8.1%. Men were more likely to be unemployed than women–the rate of unemployment was 8.1% for adult males as compared to 6.7% for adult females. African Americans, with an unemployment rate of 13.4%, were nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as whites, whose rate was 7.3%. The rate for Latinos was also disproportionately high, at 10.9%. However, Asian Americans had a lower than average rate of unemployment, at 6.9%.1

The January 2009 foreclosure rate showed that a mainstay of the American dream and a historical path to wealth accumulation–homeownership–was increasingly out of reach even for those who had once been on their way to achieving this dream. RealtyTrac, a national online database of foreclosed properties, reported that between January 2008 and January 2009, the foreclosure rate2 increased 17.8% to 1 in every 466 U.S. housing units.3

As a result of the economic downturn, many Americans found themselves unable to keep up with their mortgage, credit card, and auto loan payments, which in turn led to a sharp increase in bankruptcy filings. According to the January Credit Trend report by Equifax, Inc., one of the largest U.S. credit bureaus, the bankruptcy rate increased 25% between January 2008 and January 2009. The same report showed that almost 7% of all homeowners were behind 30 days or more on their primary-residence mortgages in January 2009, up by more than 50% since January 2008. Moreover, 4.2% of payments on credit cards were at least 60 days late, up 29.5% since January 2008, and 1.9% of borrowers of auto loans from carmakers were 60 days behind on the loans, an 18.8% increase from January 2008.4

Our Assessment of Opportunity for 2009

Because achieving full and equal opportunity is a core national commitment, it is essential to measure our success in fulfilling that commitment, just as we measure our nation’s economic health and military preparedness. By gauging how the nation fares in protecting opportunity, we can build on our successes and address those areas where we are falling short.

In February 2006, The Opportunity Agenda released The State of Opportunity in America. The report analyzed and measured the nation’s progress along six values of opportunity, mentioned below. An update one year later, in the 2007 report, found that despite some positive changes, significant opportunity gaps persisted in wages, education, housing, the criminal justice system, health care, and other areas. In some important areas, such as access to health care, opportunity had significantly decreased.

Now, in 2009, examination of these and other opportunity indicators finds that access to full and equal opportunity is still very much a mixed reality. The nation has made great strides in increasing opportunity in some areas and for some communities, but many groups of Americans are being left behind in ways that hard work and personal achievement alone cannot address. A review of the latest two years of available data reveals that opportunity in the United States remains at a crossroads.

Why Measure Inequality?

As our analysis indicates, different American communities often experience starkly different levels of opportunity, and there is real reason to believe that the current crisis is affecting some communities far more severely than others.

For example, in recent years, Latino and African American families have already found themselves struggling to push forward and maximize opportunity. Latino families actually experienced a decrease in real median income even as the country experienced an increase in its gross domestic product.5 Latinos consistently had the highest participation in the labor force of America’s major racial and ethnic groups between 2000 and 2007. Their decline in real median income highlights their diminishing returns, in terms of income, from their work.6

African Americans also did not attain lasting economic security when the American economy was gaining ground, especially when considering the subprime mortgage crisis. From 2000 to 2004, African Americans were building wealth through homeownership. During this time, the homeownership rate for African Americans increased from 47.2% to 49.1%.7 However, between 2006 and 2007, the rate declined 1.5%, returning it to its 2000 level of 47.2%.8 This decline may be explained by African Americans’ disproportionate representation in the subprime mortgage market, which has had a high rate of foreclosure.9 Subprime mortgages, while sometimes beneficial to individuals who have less-than-perfect credit records, are often aggressively marketed to the elderly, people of color, and low-income individuals regardless of credit history.10

These data are indicative of a larger threat to opportunity and security in America. Research has found that a basic standard of living that provides financial security for a family of four costs $48,788 annually. Unfortunately, 29.8% of families have incomes below this amount.11 African American and Latino families fare even worse: 53.0% of African Americans and 57.4% of Latinos have incomes insufficient to achieve a basic standard of living.12

The Opportunity Agenda views opportunity through the lens of our most deeply held values: Security, Equality, Mobility, Voice, Redemption, and Community. This report measures the degree to which we as a society are living up to these values, and incorporating them into our most critical decisions. Key findings of this year’s report include:

Security

Americans believe that we are all entitled to a basic level of education, economic well-being, health, and other protections necessary to human dignity. Recent years saw only two areas where opportunity for security increased—decreases in heart disease and cancer mortality rates—while other indicators were mixed or reflected declines in opportunity.

Access to health insurance is one indicator of security. While the number of people without health insurance decreased overall and for most racial and ethnic groups, Asian Americans experienced an increase in lack of coverage. Moreover, Americans also experienced increases in out-of-pocket health care costs and the rate of delaying medical care due to cost.

Regarding economic security, the overall poverty rate did not change significantly between 2006 and 2007—12.5%, or 37.3 million people, lived below the poverty threshold of $10,590.13 However, the overall child poverty rate increased, as did the poverty rates for children of color. The overall child poverty rate was 18% (13.3 million children) in 2007, an increase of 3.4% since 2006.14 Poverty rates also increased for naturalized citizens and noncitizens. Additionally, although poverty rates for most groups of workers decreased, African American workers experienced an increase in poverty.

Finally, the unemployment rate increased significantly for all groups.

Our overall assessment indicates that opportunity for security declined for the years examined.

Equality

Ensuring equal opportunity means not only ending intentional discrimination, but also removing unequal barriers to opportunity. The wage gap is a crucial indicator of equality. In 2007, women’s median income was 78.2% of male median income, reflecting no significant change from 2006.15 Nevertheless, opportunity improved with respect to the gender wage gap, because white and Latina women made some strides toward closing their respective gaps.

The race and ethnicity wage gap continues as well. The wage gaps between African Americans and whites and Latinos and whites increased during this time. In 2007, African American individual median income was 75.2% of white median individual income, compared to 77.4% of white median individual income in 2006, a 2.9% increase in the gap. The increase in the Latino-white wage gap was smaller, increasing 2.0%.16 In the same time period, the gap between white individual median income and Asian American individual median income decreased.17

Regarding asset-building, a significant gap persists between whites and African Americans. However, the racial gap in households with debt or very few assets decreased between these two groups.

Gaps in educational achievement are also key indicators of equality. The gap in high school dropout  rates between African Americans and whites and Latinos and whites increased. However, the race and ethnicity gap in high school degree attainment decreased. In terms of college degree attainment, the gap between Latinos and whites closed significantly.

Finally, the racial gap in incarceration rates decreased for women, but increased for men.

Our overall assessment indicates that equality of opportunity was mixed for the years examined.

Mobility

Every person in America should be able to fulfill his or her full potential through effort and perseverance. Where a person starts in life economically, geographically, or socially should neither dictate nor limit his or her progress and achievement. In terms of individual median income, only whites took a meaningful step forward. However, median family income increased overall and for white and African American families. Furthermore, distribution of income by family increased, meaning that the share of family income for low- and middle-income families increased.

Education is a key indicator for mobility. High school degree attainment did not significantly change for the overall population or most groups, but it did increase significantly for Latinos. However, the high school dropout rate for women and African Americans rose. Finally, college degree attainment increased overall and for all groups.

Our overall assessment indicates that opportunity for mobility improved for the years examined.

Redemption

Americans believe strongly in the value of a chance to start over after misfortune or missteps. Access to drug treatment for prisoners and voting rights after completion of sentence improved. However, opportunity decreased as related to the incarceration rate, and to the increased incarceration of immigrants.

Our overall assessment indicates that opportunity for redemption was mixed for the years examined.

Community

A shared sense of responsibility for each other is a crucial element of opportunity. While public opinion that government has a responsibility to those who need assistance increased, trust in the government declined.

Another key indicator of community is racial segregation in schools. In the twelve years from 1993-94 to 2005-06, k-12 public education segregation significantly decreased for white and American Indian students, but significantly increased for African American, Latino, and Asian American students.

Our overall assessment indicates that opportunity for community was mixed for the years examined.

Moving Forward

From the assessments across these values, we found that, despite some areas of improvement, opportunity for all Americans is at risk, and millions of Americans are facing an opportunity crisis. These past few years have seen an economy in turmoil, impaired financial mobility, marginal prospects for educational advancement, and a broken health care system. These conditions thwart the nation as a whole as it strives to be a land of opportunity for the 21st Century. At the same time, women, people of color, and moderate- and lower-income individuals and families are being hardest hit and left behind as they face multiple barriers to opportunity.

Despite positive news in some areas such as overall degree attainment, representative government, and distribution of family income, these indicators reflect a nation in which opportunity is at grave risk across multiple dimensions. The ability of American families to make a better life for their children is stifled by increased child poverty; accessing health care is increasingly difficult; and more Americans are behind bars in federal prisons. And despite an historic presidential election, equality of opportunity has declined for millions of Americans, with the wage gap faced by Latinos and African Americans increasing, and Latina and African American women making less than 70 cents for every dollar made by men overall.

These barriers are a problem not only for individuals and families, but also for our economy and nation as a whole. They also present an opportunity. Addressing them now would translate to thousands more college graduates prepared for a 21st Century global economy, millions of healthier children in stronger communities, higher wages and greater productivity for American workers, far fewer mort- gage defaults and bankruptcies, and far less strain on our social services and justice system. Conversely, the areas of improved opportunity revealed by our analysis represent a foundation and lessons on which to build as the nation works to restore the American dream for everyone who lives here.

Recommendations Toward Fulfilling Opportunity for All Americans

This report holds important implications for policymakers, civic leaders, and all Americans concerned about the state of opportunity in the United States. Through bold leadership, innovative policies, and the participation of the American people, the nation’s elected leaders can ensure the promise of opportunity in America.

Security

A range of opportunity-expanding policies can enhance the security of our nation and its residents, especially in the context of economic, health, and safety concerns. Our recommendations include:

  • Assist low-income families and insecure communities in moving into the middle class.

Problems of poverty and income insecurity can be reduced by expanding policies that promote living wage standards; job training and skill-building for the 21st Century global economy; access to affordable child care; quality education; and temporary financial assistance programs. Ways to support low- income communities include promoting mixed-income housing; encouraging regional planning to address inequality between urban and suburban jurisdictions; and supporting public transportation programs that reliably and efficiently help people who live in areas of high unemployment to commute to areas of high job growth and opportunity. Use of an Opportunity Impact Statement in assessing the best use of public resources and infrastructure will maximize positive impact on insecure communities. (See Community recommendations for description of an Opportunity Impact Statement.)

  • Help low-income families develop assets.

Policies that help poor and low-income families to develop financial literacy and long-term assets like savings accounts, homeownership through fair and appropriate loans, and savings for college education are critical to supporting secure communities. These strategies shift the emphasis of poverty reduction from solely providing cash assistance to helping poor and low-income families acquire resources necessary to achieve greater financial security. Promising approaches include creating individual savings accounts; expanding the earned income tax credit and child tax credit; reducing asset limits for public benefit programs; and implementing anti-predatory lending measures.

  • Eliminate disparities in access to affordable quality health care and the tools for healthy living.

Health inequality and insecurity must be addressed by federal, state, and local efforts to develop a universally accessible, comprehensive, and equitable health care system. This includes ensuring the fulfillment of Americans’ human right to quality health care; providing greater financial commitment to local community-based health centers; increasing access to healthy foods and safe playgrounds for all Americans; providing safe, confidential, and reliable access to contraception and other reproductive health care needs in a manner that is linguistically and culturally appropriate; and creating clean environments that eliminate toxic air and water quality.

Equality

There is a continued need for vigorous enforcement of existing equal opportunity protections and strengthening of human rights laws and standards. Our recommendations include:

  • Increase the staffing and resources that federal, state, and local agencies devote to enforcing human rights and equal opportunity laws. Particularly in light of this year’s unprecedented federal economic recovery investments, there is a need to strengthen the capacity of the Coordination and Review Section in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. This Section is charged with the immense task of coordinating civil rights enforcement across federal agencies, and has not historically been utilized effectively. It is also critical that the offices for civil rights in federal and other agencies be fortified to properly protect equal opportunity. In light of substantial economic stimulus spending targeting job creation and infrastructure, and past neglect of civil rights enforcement, White House oversight and inter-agency coordination of these efforts are warranted. Increased attention to civil rights enforcement will result in concrete steps forward in opportunity for all Americans, whether it is in equal wages and work opportunities, fair housing, education, or other areas of public spending.
  • Institute, at the federal level, an Interagency Working Group on Human Rights and develop a U.S. Commission on Civil and Human Rights. Given America’s role as a leading player in establishing a human rights framework, it is important that we make a clear commitment as a nation to our obligations to protect and strengthen human rights both here at home and abroad. An Interagency Working Group on Human Rights can play a proactive role in ensuring that U.S. international human rights responsibilities are implemented and coordinated domestically among all relevant executive branch agencies and departments. In addition, there is a need to restructure and strengthen the existing U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, transforming it into an effective U.S. Commission on Civil and Human Rights. This body would operate as a national human rights commission, which would provide expertise and oversight to ensure that we progress toward provision of full human rights for all. Both of these institutions will address disparities as they affect racial and ethnic groups, women, and members of marginalized communities.
  • Improve methods and resources for detailed data collection for the general population and groups. It is critical that government, researchers, and everyday Americans have access to information that is disaggregated to help identify and resolve trends in unequal opportunity. This report illustrates that data currently available is limited. Improved data collection by all levels of government can assist in identifying discriminatory patterns in employment, education, housing, lending, and the criminal justice system, and lead the way to development of innovative solutions. For example, data can be used more effectively to better detect potential bias in the employment context by comparing companies’ workforce diversity with the composition of an area’s qualified workforce. We  therefore recommend a centralized, public, online system that provides “real-time” access to government opportunity data as it becomes available, disaggregated by demographic and regional differences.

Mobility

Renewing socioeconomic mobility requires that we ensure access to quality education, skill-building programs, and other gateways to wealth building and human development. Our recommendations include:

  • Promote early childhood and K-12 school programs that improve the quality of education and graduation rates. Innovative policies that invest deeply in children’s education and improve graduation rates can reap great rewards in mobility over a lifetime. Promising strategies include universal pre-k; increased funding to under-resourced schools; integrated services that address family and community needs; expanding the school day to increase time spent on learning; and providing programs for English Language Learning that promote integration and education for immigrant children.
  • Invest in comprehensive and integrated education efforts that expand opportunity for all. Education remains a path to mobility throughout our lifetimes. This means that investments must be made in education on financial literacy, including debt and business counseling, saving, and asset- building; job training and skill-building programs for a 21st Century global economy; educating incarcerated people for reentry; linguistic and cultural competence for immigrants; and reducing the financial barriers to college, with a special focus on increasing the share of need-based grants over student loans. It is critical that job training programs emphasize preparedness for quality jobs that pay a living wage and are tailored to the differing skills of all workers.
  • Expand living wage laws at the federal, state, and local levels to help ensure that full-time minimum wage earners can support their families. Living wage laws at the local level ensure that city or county governments will not contract with businesses that pay workers wages less than is needed to live above poverty levels, given local economic conditions. A focus on living wage— rather than merely on a minimum wage that rarely meets basic needs—would serve to close racial, ethnic, and gender gaps in wages, and also move all Americans closer to achieving financial stability for their families.

Redemption

The nation’s criminal justice policies should protect the public, deter future offenses, and provide restitution to victims. However, they should also restore and rehabilitate individuals and communities whose lives are affected both directly and indirectly by criminal justice policies. Our recommendations include:

  • Prioritize crime prevention, rehabilitation, and reentry over increased incarceration. There has been a growing trend toward incarceration as a problem-solving tool, particularly in low-income and minority communities, as reflected in high incarceration rates and persistent racial disparities. Criminal justice policy that supports opportunity requires successful crime prevention strategies while fostering rehabilitation and productive reentry. Such strategies include expanding availability of substance abuse treatment, both broadly in society and for those mired in the criminal justice system; basing criminal sentencing on individualized culpability, control, and circumstances,  rather than on mandatory minimum sentencing policies that have exacerbated racial and ethnic inequality; expanding use of restorative justice programs; ending the sentence of life without parole for youth; and promoting appropriate re-entry policies that provide support, living wage  jobs, and restoration of voting rights for people who return to society from prison and work to re-integrate into their communities.
  • Expand community policing—a crime-prevention strategy that emphasizes community input, collaboration, and tailored responses to crime and disorder. Policing policies should promote neighborhood safety, address community needs, and protect opportunity and human rights. Many community policing models emphasize a problem-solving framework that shifts the emphasis  from arrest and punishment to addressing community needs. Other models encourage prevention strategies that engage and provide support to youth and families. Such approaches are especially helpful where there is an increase in the homicide rate for communities of color. This policing framework draws heavily on the goals and law enforcement needs of the community, which suffers most when crime is poorly addressed and redemption is denied.
  • Promote workable immigration policies that uphold our national values. Increasing incarceration of immigrants, either for violations of civil immigration law or for arrests related to nonviolent criminal acts, is not a realistic policy solution for addressing immigration. Immigrant detention, especially of families and children, is harmful and counter to our national ideals of dignity, redemption, and the protection of vulnerable people. Immigration enforcement should shift back to the federal level, proven supervised release practices should replace detention, and a realistic pathway to citizenship should be adopted.

Voice

Many factors influence the diversity of voices that participate in the national discourse. Such participation is a key factor in achieving equal access to opportunity, both through focusing dialogue on the needs of underrepresented communities and by creating a venue for demanding accountability and transparency for actions taken by the public and private sectors. Our recommendations include:

  • Ensure and expand political participation among diverse groups of Americans. In order to achieve democratic participation and representation that reflect the full spectrum of American life, we need the active political participation of all groups in our communities. Central to this goal is equal access to the vote, with policies that address complications caused by geographic and language barriers, faulty voting equipment and infrastructure, inadequately trained poll workers, state laws disenfranchising people with felony convictions, and other state and federal policies that disproportionately limit voting among marginalized groups. For example, Election Day voter registration is a promising practice used by a growing number of states, as are laws restoring the voting rights of people emerging from prison.
  • Promote local ownership and operation of new and traditional media outlets. Deregulation and consolidation in the media and telecommunications industries have resulted in diminished opportunity for independent media that address the needs of diverse groups to gain a foothold. It is critical to ensure the participation of communities of color in political and cultural life by creating opportunities for diverse voices to affect the public discourse on issues that matter to them.
  • Bridge the remaining digital divide among diverse communities. The expanded availability of communications and digital technologies can and should result in concrete benefits for all sectors of American life. Equitable investment in digital infrastructure across communities will create economic and educational opportunities for all Americans, including information about financial literacy and local resources such as access to healthy foods and recreational spaces. Furthermore, protecting Net Neutrality is a key step in ensuring that the internet remains a diverse and democratic forum for all communities.

Community

Inclusive policies that tap the strength and contribution of all our diverse communities are crucial to the progress of our nation. Our recommendations include:

  • Evaluate public expenditures through the lens of an Opportunity Impact Statement. All levels of government can and should use a new policy tool—an Opportunity Impact Statement—as a requirement for publicly funded or authorized projects, especially those that are tied to economic recovery. Examples of potential projects that might require such an assessment include school, hospital, or highway construction, or the expansion of the telecommunications infrastructure. The statements would explain, based on available data, how a given effort would expand or contract opportunity in terms of equitable treatment, economic security and mobility, and shared responsibility, and they would require public input and participation. In addition to leading to concrete investments that move all Americans forward together, this participatory tool can help restore Americans’ trust in the government.
  • Make expanding opportunity a condition of government partnerships with private industry. Government agencies at all levels can and should require public contractors to invest in communities by paying a living wage tied to families’ actual cost of living for that particular locale; insisting on employment practices that promote diversity and inclusion; and ensuring that new technologies using public resources or receiving other benefits include public interest obligations and extend service to all communities.
  • Develop practical immigrant integration policies that assist newcomers in attaining full participation in the social, cultural, and political life of our nation. Given the important role that immigrants play in America’s cultural and economic life, it is critical that we create effective and inclusive immigrant integration policies. These include programs that educate new Americans about their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, in civic participation, and relating to law enforcement and other institutions. An important element of these policies is assisting new Americans in learning English and providing multilingual access to necessities like healthcare and basic rights like voting for citizens. A key corollary to this is the need to better equip our infrastructure and communities to incorporate diverse new members. These efforts should be pursued alongside immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Measuring Opportunity —  Our Method of Assessment

For this report, we assessed the progress of opportunity by examining many of the same indicators as in The State of Opportunity in America, released in 2006. We measured “change” in opportunity by reviewing 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005 data from mainly federal sources (Note: for a small number of indicators, the most recent official data is from 2004). For the indicators available, we calculated the percent change over the most recent year that data was available (i.e. from 2006 to 2007 or 2005  to 2006). For certain indicators, we measured a gap or a disparity between subpopulations and the majority population. For example, in the instances of racial and ethnic gaps, the white population served as the comparison group and in the instances of gender gaps, men served as the comparison group.

Change in opportunity for one indicator in the community dimension—k-12 public school segregation— was measured using longer trend data. We assessed public school segregation using enrollment data in public schools over a thirteen-year period from the 1993-94 to 2005-06 school years. Additionally, change in opportunity for three indicators in the redemption dimension–drug treatment for prisoners, voting rights while imprisoned, and voting rights after completion of sentence–was measured by assessing the passage of legislation over a one-year period.

Racial and Ethnic Categories

Each indicator calculated the change over the time period for the nation as a whole, as well as disaggregated by gender, race and ethnicity, and income when data was available. Because the data sources were largely federal, racial categories for many of the indicators in this report are the same as the racial and ethnic categories utilized by the federal government. Hence, the racial categories are defined as the following:

  • White: any person who self-identified as white only and non-Hispanic.
  • Black: any person who self-identified as black only.
  • Asian: any person who self-identified as Asian only.
  • American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN): any person who self-identified as AIAN only.
  • Hispanic: any person of any race who self-identified as Hispanic.

Because the Hispanic ethnicity category is not mutually exclusive from the race categories, there is some double counting of individuals who identified as black and Hispanic, Asian and Hispanic, and AIAN and Hispanic when federal sources were used. However, the white race category includes only individuals who identified as white in federal sources.18 Additionally, American Indian and Alaska Native data is rarely available in federal sources, which explains its large absence in this report. In a few instances, in which the data sources utilize different racial categories, this report’s indicators do as well. (Note: In the narrative of this report, we use these terms—African American, Latino, and Asian American—rather than the categories used in the sources in recognition that they are the prevailing terminology for race and ethnic categories.)

Limitations

We recognize that opportunity may be defined and measured in many ways. This assessment is limited in its ability to capture all dimensions of opportunity. Annual data were not available for some indicators, and therefore, some indicators that were in the original report and the 2007 update were omitted from this report. In addition, we encountered significant limitations in the data related to opportunity that government and other institutions collect. For example, data are often unavailable or are inadequate for many racial and ethnic groups other than whites, African Americans and Latinos.

Further, these broad racial and ethnic categories often fail to adequately capture the diversity within U.S. racial and ethnic groups, which may vary considerably on the basis of immigration status or nativity, primary language, cultural identification, and area of residence. A full assessment of opportunity should include a consideration of how opportunity varies along these dimensions. For example, we did not find group information such as variations among Asian American and Hispanic nationality groups.

Similarly, federal data are rarely presented disaggregated by both race and ethnicity and measures of social class or socioeconomic status. Yet the opportunity barriers for low-income whites may differ in important ways from those of more affluent whites and some communities of color. We encourage researchers to examine how opportunity indicators differ by race, ethnicity, gender and income, and to explore their interaction. We also urge federal, state, and local governments to collect and disaggregate data along the broader spectrum of dimensions discussed  above.

Nonetheless, by assessing progress across a range of opportunity indicators, as this report  does, we hope to provide a summary of how the nation is experiencing opportunity today. To see all of the indicators and for more information, please visit www.opportunityagenda.org.

Notes:


1. “The Employment Situation: February 2009,” The Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 6, 2009.

2. The foreclosure rate includes filings of default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.

3. “Foreclosure Activity Decreases 10 Percent in January,” RealtyTrac, Inc.

4. “Factbox-Equifax US consumer credit trends for January,” Reuters.

5. Austin, Algernon and Maria Mora, Hispanics and the Economy: Economic Stagnation for Hispanic American Workers, throughout the 2000s, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper #225. October 31, 2008, pg. 1-2.

6. Ibid.

7. Austin, Algernon, Reversal of Fortune: Economic Gains of 1990s overturned for African Americans from 2000-2007, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper #220. September 18, 2008, pg 6.

8. Ibid, and US Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership, “Annual Statistics 2007,” Table 20.

9. Austin, Algernon, Reversal of Fortune: Economic Gains of 1990s overturned for African Americans from 2000-2007, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper #220. September 18, 2008, pg 6.

10.  For more information on subprime loans and predatory lending practices, see Subprime Loans, Foreclosure, and the Credit Crisis: What Happened and Why? – A Primer, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University and Women are Prime Target for Sub- prime Lending: Women are Disproportionately Represented in High-Cost Mortgage Market, The Consumer Federation of America, December 2006.

11. Lin, James and Jared Bernstein, What We Need to Get By, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper #224. October 29, 2008, pg. 2.

12. Ibid., pg. 6.

13. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, “Historical Poverty Tables – People”, Table 24 and U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, “Historical Poverty Tables – People”, Table 1.

14. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, “Historical Poverty Tables – People”, Table 3.

15.  U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements, “Historical Income Tables – People” Table P-36. 16  U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements, “Historical Income Tables – People” Table P-4.

15. Ibid.

16. See the “note” section at the end of any federal source to find the definition of racial categories used.

17. Ibid.

18. See the “note” section at the end of any federal source to find the definition of racial categories used.

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