Government Responsiveness to Racial Inequity

California’s legacy of white supremacy continues to devastate communities of color. This is primarily reflected in deep-seated, long-standing disparities in life opportunities. Generally, people of color are less likely to have access to socio-economic and political opportunities and, correspondingly, experience less successful outcomes than their white counterparts. For example, as RACE COUNTS shows, people of color are less likely to have access to early childhood education programs, have health insurance, own a home, vote, and feel safe in their neighborhood. Conversely, they are more likely to live below the poverty line, be incarcerated, live in close proximity to environmental hazards, and give birth to children with low birth weights.  

The disadvantages that people of color experience are not coincidences. They result from a long history of governmental and non-governmental policies and practices that were explicitly racist and ethnocentric, such as an 1850 California law that prohibited a “[B]lack or mulatto person, or Indian” from providing testimony in favor of or against a white person in a criminal case. Racially restrictive covenants that prohibited whites from selling certain homes to people of color is another example. However, in our current moment, four largescale structural factors—rather than explicitly racist policies—drive and reinforce the various disadvantages that people of color face: (1) inequitable systems that turn racial biases into disparities, (2) developments in our state’s economy that increasingly marginalize working-class and low-income people, (3) racial disparities in political power, and (4) the adoption of need- and colorblind policies. 

Following George Floyd’s killing in May 2020, Governments across the country acknowledged that they have some role to play in combating the racial disparities that they have had a hand in creating and/or perpetuating. Within the last few years, more than 200 government entities across forty-one states have passed resolutions and ordinances pronouncing racism as a public health crisis and, by and large, going beyond the pronouncement by committing to do something about it. However, the increased acknowledgment of racialized harm perpetrated by our government has been met with a strong backlash from the right, leading to backsliding in public commitments to address structural racism. Political Voice is working alongside community partners to encourage governments within California to build infrastructure that can truly impact the structural factors that drive racial inequity.  

Political Voice is committed to setting up permanent structures that will institutionalize and center racial equity at the state and local levels. You can learn more about our statewide efforts to create a California Racial Equity Commission and our efforts within the City of Los Angeles to create an Office of Racial Equity. Both of these institutions are examples of structures that have the capacity to establish racial equity as a core principle within all aspects of government, including policies, programs, and services. These structures enable communities to share power with government. Ultimately, the goal is to create a culture of racial equity where social justice and community engagement are at the heart of decision-making, leading to lasting systemic change. 

For more information about Government Responsiveness to Racial Inequity, please contact Alejandra Ponce de León at aponcedeleon@catalystcalifornia.org.