By Manuel Pastor, Jennifer Ito, and Vanessa Carter USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) Commissioned by The Generations Initiative
April 2015
Acknowledgements
First, our deepest appreciation goes to the Generations Initiative and to Hilary Pennington for bringing vision and leadership to this important issue. The Generations Initiative was an effort funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ford Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation to identify and accelerate strategies that leverage our diversity as a national asset to benefit all generations. This is one of five reports commissioned by The Generations Initiative. The others are a policy report developed with Generations United, a communications and message frame report by FrameWorks Institute, a set of recommendations for philanthropy, and a report profiling best practices. For this report, we thank Hilary and also Jill Blair for their review of early drafts and for their patience throughout the entire process. Second, we could not have done this without our research team at USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, especially Data Analyst Jared Sanchez for his fastidious work on the data and figures, Data Manager Justin Scoggins for helping provide the methodological explanations for the technical appendix, and Data Analyst Madeline Wander for providing context on Charlotte, Seattle, and Fresno based on her field research visits to those places. Our gratitude also goes to Communications Specialist Gladys Malibiran, Senior Center Administrator Jacqueline Wong, and Graphic Design Intern Chrystal Li for their assistance with communications strategy, layout, and design. Finally, a special thank you to our “next generation” of research assistants: Jessica Medina (USC) for sifting through case studies and prior reports, Stephanie Canizales (USC) for grounding the analysis in academic literature, Floridalma Boj Lopez (USC) for culling through our interviews, Sheila Nem (UCLA) for jumping on board at a moment’s notice, Walter Thompson-Hernandez (Stanford) for providing background context on the regions we considered, and Heddy Nam (USC) for being a meticulous jack-of-all trades. Their commitment to justice and learning for justice inspires us to do better. We hope that that urge to do better – to honor both the young and the old by working together to create a world where conversations are frank, data drives policy, and opportunities are in abundance – will inform others in building a stronger future for the next generation and for America.
USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) Page 1
Table of Contents
List of Figures
2
Executive Summary
4
Introduction
9
Understanding the Gap: A Nation Transformed
11
Charting the Gap: Data for Deliberation
18
Flipped in Fresno: Majority People of Color Metro
26
Shakin' it up in Charlotte: Smaller Majority White Metro
s 36
Tilting in the Twin Cities: Larger Majority White Metros
45
Conversing the Gap: Frames and Facts
55
Frame the Conversation…
56
1.…Around Mutual Gains 56 2.…To Imagine the (Fact-based) Possibilities 58 3.…Around the Need for Public Investment 58 4.…To Get Real About Race 60
Forge Ahead…
61
5.…by Tracking Progress with Metrics that Matter 63 6.…by Shoring up Civic Capacity for the New America 64
Bridging the Gap: Concluding Thoughts
66
References
67
Appendix
A
: Technical Appendix 73
Appendix
B
: List of Data Points to Explore for Regional Presentations 76
Appendix
C
: Frameworks Institute’s Gaps in Understanding between Experts and Public 79
Image Credits
80