New report examines failure to implement Kerner Commission recommendations
The Haas Institute today announced the release of a critical new report by Senior Fellow Richard Rothstein and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian that looks at the consequences of the failure to implement the recommendations issued in the 1968 Kerner Commission report. "The Road Not Taken: Housing and Criminal Justice 50 Years after the Kerner Commission Report" examines what has and has not changed for Black Americans since the more-than 150 race-related uprisings in 1967 which prompted the formation of the Kerner Commission to investigate the underlying causes of the civil unrest. Our new report shows the persistence of stark racial inequalities across the US to this day in housing segregation and criminal justice. "The Road Not Taken" was produced as a follow-up to the "Race & Inequality in America: The Kerner Commission at 50 conference" hosted last year at UC Berkeley in coordination with the Economic Policy Institute and Johns Hopkins University. A press release summarizing the report's findings can be found here.
To complement the new report we've also released a 10-minute conference video recap, and a blog post by Nirali Beri that sheds light on the 1966 Hunters Point uprising as a key moment of social transformation in the Bay Area.
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This week we also released the third installment of our "Residential Segregation in the San Francisco Bay Area" report series which features a new interactive map showing how the Bay Area is more segregated now than it was in previous decades. The map, created by Arthur Gailes, allows users to switch between six different measures of segregation to examine and compare how segregation patterns have changed over the past five decades. Among the key findings of the report are that seven of the Bay Area's nine counties experienced increases in segregation in recent decades, and that the most dramatic increases in this segregation occurred in Napa, Sonoma, and Marin counties. Check out the map here, read the report here, and see the press release here. Coverage of this research was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Segregation is also a theme of a new book by Haas Institute-affiliated faculty Rucker C. Johnson, who teaches at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Johnson recently presented a talk on his book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, which was covered by C-Span. The book charts the decades since Brown v. Board of Education first mandated the desegregation of schools in 1954, and illustrates how well-funded, integrated schools are a critical gateway to social mobility. Also see Johnson's commentary in The Washington Post and Crisis Magazine.
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The Color of Law, the widely acclaimed book by Haas Institute Senior Fellow Richard Rothstein, has been turned into a short animated video by filmmaker Mark Lopez. The piece, Segregated By Design, which premiered last month at documentary festivals, examines the forgotten history of how policies enacted by federal, state and local governments segregated every major metropolitan area in the country. Watch the film.
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In the newest episode of our Who Belongs? podcast, we talk with Luisa Blue, Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) about Asian Pacific Islander (API) civic engagement. Blue, the highest ranking leader of API background in the US labor movement, says "Invest, invest, invest.. No more lip service. There are great API community organizations out there that don't have the resources, but can do a lot with limited resources, in a way that most people don't understand that they can." This episode of Who Belongs? was produced as part of the Institute's Civic Engagement Narrative Change project.
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The Haas Institute Disability Cluster's report "State of Change" was presented last week to members of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth. The report, authored by UC Berkeley's Ella Callow, cluster member Sue Schweik, and doctoral candidate Lucy Siriani, discussed the history and current day impact of ableist laws and policies on disabled families.
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Trusting the Leadership and Power of Latinx Communities. In a new article for our Civic Engagement Narrative Change project, Leo Murrieta writes that his experience tells him "that most candidate campaigns underappreciate and underutilize many of the supporters and volunteers best suited to expand turnout and bring fresh ideas on behalf of those most in need of progressive change. Latinx volunteers in particular are often seen as just Spanish-language vessels for pre-set scripts on the phones and at the doors." Read the article.
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New video on "Disabled Ecologies: Living with Impaired Landscapes," a recent talk by scholar Sunaura Taylor, sponsored by our Disability Studies cluster. “While work within Disability Studies has long examined the ways in which the environment constitutes disability, centering disabled ecologies helps expose how disability in turn shapes the environment," Taylor said. "A point that opens up generative possibilities for understanding how perceptions of disability constitute our understandings of environmental harm.” Watch the video.
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Othering & Belonging Conference Resources. Many resources from last month's Othering & Belonging conference are available online. On the conference site you'll now find videos of the mainstage talks, presentations from speakers, our curricula on Bridging and Breaking, The Circle of Human Concern, and Targeted Universalism, and much more. Check it out.
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The Haas Institute's targeted universalism framework was cited as inspiration for new legislation proposed by a California assembly commission in an article entitled "Legislative plan provides 'roadmap' for boosting early ed access in California" published by Education Dive.
Emmanuel Saez, member of our Economic Disparities research cluster, was highlighted in a Bloomberg Business Week article about his work with Berkeley colleague and longtime collaborator Gabriel Zucman. The article explores their findings on wealth inequality in the US and how the super-rich hide their wealth. Read the article
Haas Institute Director john a. powell was interviewed on the podcast For the Wild about our "othering & belonging" and "targeted universalism" frameworks, as well as ideologies of supremacy, global dislocation, rethinking citizenship, and how we can co-create shared visions and practices of humanity that bring us back into belonging. Listen to the interview.
Henry A. Brady, member of our Religious Diversity and Diversity and Democracy faculty clusters and dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, spoke with behavioral economist Elizabeth Linos about how to implement good public policy by focusing on needs of the people who serve in government in an interview for UCTV. Watch the interview.
Lisa Garcia Bedolla, member of our Diversity and Democracy faculty research cluster, was quoted in an article "California primary becomes a tantalizing prize for 2020 Democrats," published in The Telegraph. "Candidates will have to reach out to a more diverse electorate sooner," she said. "That should affect field strategy and policy proposals."
Global Justice Program Director Elsadig Elsheikh was interviewed on KPFA about the latest political developments in Sudan. Listen to the interview.
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- June 7: Immigration Reform in Californian Agriculture and the Tech Industry. A workshop to discuss the consequences of labor shortages and immigration policies in Californian agriculture and the tech industry.
- We're seeking an administrative assistant. Learn more about the role here.
- See our past and upcoming events here.
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