Four leaders discuss dynamics at work in the U.S. racial equity landscape and opportunities to transform them for liberated futures.
On a panel titled “The State of Race in the United States”, AFRE Board Members—constitutional lawyer Ann Beeson, civil rights lawyer Damon T. Hewitt, narrative and social justice leader Jee Kim, and economist and equity activist Manuel Pastor—make sense of contemporary challenges to racial equity in the U.S.
Their conversation was held last November as part of Homecoming, a convening of our community of more than 100 racial justice leaders working across South Africa and the U.S. Their incisive readings of the landscape—particularly of a growing right-wing counter-movement against progressive political organising—are remarkably prescient of the trends we see today.
Watch the video of the conversation below.
Key Takeaways
The work of multiracial solidarity
Researchers at U.S. public policy organisation, the Brookings Institution, estimate that the country’s population will be minority-white by 2045. Commentators often view this data point as proof that the U.S. is headed toward a multiracial utopia defined by equity and justice. But Los Angeles-based economist and equity activist Manuel Pastor argues that such an outcome is not inevitable.
Manuel's observations are based on challenges to multiracial solidarity that became apparent in Los Angeles when a recording of a conversation among LatinX elected representatives, that was riddled with bigoted, anti-Black sentiment, was made public. "One mistake we could make is to think that demography means destiny," he says.
Despite this incident, Manuel notes that many of California’s communities of colour do share deep solidarity, carefully cultivated over time. “The story of California is about movement organising to form common identity…by having difficult conversations about political differences, and doing the hard work of finding the highest point of struggle,” he says. This kind of solidarity, he observes, will be critical for ensuring that predicted demographic changes do translate to greater equity and justice for Black communities and all communities of colour.
Organising that anticipates backlash
Nearly three years after millions of people joined marches for racial justice following the police murder of George Floyd, many structures that disadvantage Black people across the U.S. have yet to be transformed.
Instead, we find ourselves amid a virulent right-wing, anti-Black countermovement attacking Black history in education, Black people’s voting rights, and rights to bodily autonomy in ways that disproportionately impact Black trans and cis women. “So much of what we’re seeing in the U.S. is a backlash to movement,” civil rights lawyer Damon T. Hewitt observes.
Such backlash is not new in American political history, and it's in that awareness that Damon and narrative strategy leader, Jee Kim identify the work of long-term political organising that anticipates backlash as critical to sustained change.
Building power beyond cities
Drawing on research with her colleagues and partners at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Ann Beeson identifies the mainstreaming of white supremacist ideologies in the Republican party as a significant threat to racial justice. Notably, the rise in right-wing ideology is producing a parallel rise in political violence, typified by the January 6 insurrection, across the country. “What happened on January 6 has grown into a powerful political movement," she observes.
Ann specifically identifies local institutions like school boards in smaller towns and rural areas, as key sites where the right-wing backlash is occurring. She argues for greater support of those working for racial justice in those contexts. "Too often, in the United States, we focus on our cities…to the detriment of our local communities," she says.
A new inside-outside strategy
Manuel also calls attention to the ways in which personal transformation has emerged as central to racial justice work in recent years.
Contrasting with the inside-outside strategy of a previous era in movement that focused on building power inside and outside of institutions, Manuel suggests that contemporary movement’s focus on healing the racial trauma that many changemakers carry is a new kind of inside strategy.
"The new inside-outside strategy is, 'how do we do healing work, understanding the pain and trauma that people bring into these circles?’,” he says. “How do we connect that to making change in the world?” Seeking answers to these questions, he argues, is a key dimension of racial justice work today.
Panellists
Ann Beeson
Chief Program Officer
Southern Poverty Law Center
Ann Beeson is the Southern Poverty Law Center's Chief Program Officer, where she oversees programs to fight hate and dismantle white supremacy, advance learning for justice in schools and communities, and preserve and continue the legacy of the civil rights movement through the SPLC’s Civil Rights Memorial Center. With 25 years of experience as a civil rights lawyer, non-profit CEO and philanthropy executive, Ann has transformed institutions and embraced a wide range of innovative strategies to advance social change.
Damon T. Hewitt
President & Executive Director Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Damon T. Hewitt is the President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Hewitt has more than 20 years of civil rights litigation and policy experience, including prior leadership roles in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sectors. Formerly, as executive vice president at the national Lawyers’ Committee, he coordinated the organisation’s strategic, programmatic, and operational efforts to advance the fight for racial justice.
Jee Kim
Fellow
The Roosevelt Institute
Manuel Pastor
Professor of Sociology
University of Southern California
As a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, Jee Kim examines the power of individual worldviews and social paradigms. Prior to joining Roosevelt, Kim was the founding executive director of the Narrative Initiative, a think-and-do tank committed to making equity and justice common sense. He served the same role at 18MillionRising.org, a platform built to increase the political power of Asian Americans using social media and technology.
Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC.