State-Of-Black-Oregon-2015

ESSAY 9HOLISTIC SOLUTIONS FORINCLUSIONjohn a. powellDirector, Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive SocietyProfessor of Law, African American & Ethnic StudiesUniversity of California at BerkeleyBlack Oregonians face challengesthat are both unique and universal.Although Oregon has fewer Blackpeople per capita than other states, it’sthe same nationwide pattern of uneven accessto opportunity.Housing segregation in the ’40s, ’50s and’60s limited Black Oregonians to certainneighborhoods. Gentrification has dispersedBlack communities, but they remain segregatedand isolated from mainstream opportunities.I co-developed an Opportunity Scoring andMapping methodology that tracks geographicareas in terms of education, economicopportunity and quality housing. This mappingshows that Black exclusion from neighborhoodsof high opportunity is greater in Oregon thanthe national average.Is more integration a solution? While integrationmay provide greater access to “high-opportunity”neighborhoods, it renders Black Oregonians moresusceptible to other structural disadvantages,not least of which is reduced electoral strength.So I believe that three principles must inform anysuccessful intervention.First, interventions must take into account theparticular experience, conditions and needs ofBlack Oregonians relative to other populations.Universal approaches that treat all groups thesame will fail to achieve their intended aims.“Targeted universalism” is a policymakingapproach that pursues universal goals—forinstance, a 100 percent graduation rate—and alsorecognizes the need for particular interventionsbased on the specific social and structuralconditions of Black youth to achieve those goals.The second principle is that any successfulintervention must link together individual andcommunity well-being. Affordable housing planswon’t succeed if they don’t connect residentswith job opportunities and educational resources.Similarly, the gentrification that arises from transitand infrastructure development may displacepeople who can’t afford the new housing prices.We need holistic solutions.Third, Black people must be included in thedecision-making process. This can take extraeffort in Oregon, with its lower than nationalrepresentation of Blacks. But we must rememberthat how the decision is made is as important asthe decision itself.74