Policy and System Change
Overview
Policy, as used here, refers to the laws and regulations that govern major systems, including health, education, criminal justice, education and so on. Individuals are deeply and directly affected by policies and systems, including the laws and regulations themselves. They are also deeply and directly affected by unequal application by race/ethnicity of common policies and laws, and by unequal consequences by race/ethnicity when they are applied. This spiral of difference – in application, enforcement and consequences – is one way of understanding structural racism and internalized advantage and disadvantage within a general system of inequity.
This spiral affects outcomes on almost every issue individuals, groups, communities and nations care about. For example, differences in the wealth among racial/ethnic groups today are built in large part on policies of the 1940's and 1950's that determined which racial or ethnic groups could get low-cost mortgages, and where they could buy houses. The strongest predictor, in a statistical sense, of differences in educational achievement among racial/ethnic groups today is still the economic status and education level of one's parents. Policies of the 1940's and 1950's that allowed most whites but few people of color who served in World War II to go to college at little or no cost still influence those differences. In some cases, the policies were explicitly created with the intent to discriminate by race (for example, red-lining, a well-known example. In other cases, and continuing today even though negative race specific policies are largely illegal, some policies have that impact, even if that is not the intent. This section provides content about strategies aimed at changing policies and systems, including litigation.
Key sites
Tools
- Assessing Public Policy Issues and Political Candidates
- The Policy Framework for Substantive Equality
- A Handbook of Data Collection Tools: Companion to a " Guide for Measuring Advocacy and Policy"
- Making A Difference: An Advocacy Training For Community Change
- Racial Impact Statements: Changing Policies to Address Disparities
- Racial Equity Tool: Policy Review Worksheet
- 2 of 5: BY THE NUMBERS using disaggregated data to inform policies, practices and decision-making
- Using Racial Equity Impact Assessments for Effective Policymaking
- Changing the Lights
Resources
- Leading At The Intersections: An Introduction To The Intersectional Approach Model For Policy & Social Change
- Race, Power and Policy: Dismantling Structural Racism
- Louder than Words: Lawyers, Communities and the Struggle for Justice
- Maine Racial Justice Policy Guide
- Toolkit on State Anti-Racial Profiling Legislation: Proactive Team Guide
- Racial Equity Toolkit: Implementing Greenlining's Racial Equity Framework
- Race and Economic Jeopardy For All: A Framing Paper for Defeating Dog Whistle Politics
- Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda
- Expanding Sanctuary: What Makes a City a Sanctuary Now?
- A Little Thought Exercise about the Right Wing and the Political Culture of our Times
- Finding Leverage over the Social Determinants of Health: Insights from a Study of 33 Health Conversion Foundations
- Racial Justice Online Action Center
- Connecting the Dots: Border Militarism, US Domestic and Foreign Policy, and the Myriad Connections of Racial Capitalism Webinars
