For nearly two decades, Solid Ground has taken a critical look at the many ways racism and racial disparities contribute to poverty – and we continually strive to break down barriers People of Color (POC) face in our community due to racism.
There is a direct line between racism and the disproportionate ways POC are impacted by lack of access to affordable housing and adequate food, and challenges navigating pathways out of poverty to stability.
Because of our work and mission “to end poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty,” people often ask us what they can do to get involved – so we compiled this Undoing Racism Brochure (PDF) to provide some resources and suggestions.
We hope it helps raise awareness about how racism impacts POC on the national and local levels – including right here in our Solid Ground community – and offers some starting points to help people get involved in undoing racism. Feel free to share widely!
Sources for data & resources in this brochure:
- All Home: Count Us In 2017 – Seattle/King County Point-in-Time Count of Persons Experiencing Homelessness
- Implicit Bias Assessments: Project Implicit assessment tools to gauge your implicit biases regarding social attitudes (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation), mental health and transgender issues.
- King County Office of Performance Strategy & Budget/U.S. Census: Percentage of population below the poverty level
- The Nation Daily: The Average Black Family Would Need 228 Years to Build the Wealth of a White Family Today by Joshua Holland, August 8, 2016
- Pew Research Center: On Views of Race and Inequality, Blacks and Whites Are Worlds Apart, June 27, 2016
- Real Change: The Gnawing Hunger of Race by Jeanny Rhee, July 8, 2015
- Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project: A multi-media website that brings the vital history of Seattle’s civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies
- Western States Center: A History: The Construction of Race & Racism
Questions? Visit our Race & Social Justice webpage, or contact antiracism@solid-ground.org.
Wrenda B. Gallien, M.D. says
This is a great article that is very telling with regard to racial inequality. The problem is most Americans White and Black have no idea what the state of affairs are in “these United States,” that we live in. So many people blindly operate in their daily lives. If you are blind you cannot see or know how to make a change. This is the way to make a change….knowledge. The great thing is eventually Diversity will overcome Adversity. Melanin is strong enough to repopulate “these United States.” One day there will be no distinction. It will take time and the finances may lag, but one day…..Victory.