Where you live matters, from economic opportunity, to the physical environment, to social connections, and health. In many ways the most important number in your life could be your address. And because so many of our neighborhoods continue to be segregated along racial lines, we can’t ignore the intersection between place and race. Two of the greatest myths in America continue to be the myth of meritocracy and equal opportunity. Rugged individualism can still happen, but more and more people’s life chances are limited by so many other environmental factors. Current research continues to show that America is becoming less and less of a place where you are able to achieve true social and economic mobility in your life. Because race has played such a distinct role in shaping our neighborhoods and region, creating places that offer unequal opportunities to their residents, it should continue to be a central consideration for our community development efforts. If you live in a community with parks and playgrounds, access to healthy food, good transit, clean air, safe streets, solid educational system and access to good jobs, you’re more likely to thrive. And the flipside is also true; residents living in communities marked with the opposite of these conditions have worse life outcomes. Healthy places lead to healthy people; they go hand in hand.

The racially based inequities found in so many of our central city neighborhoods are well documented and did not come into existence by accident. Our country has a history of policies and practices that produced inequitable opportunities and impacts, based on race. Internal and interpersonal racism continue to build up a head of steam embedding themselves in institutions and systems. Examples include school systems that concentrate people of color in the most overcrowded, underfunded schools with the least qualified teachers, or examples of our racial wealth divide with recent studies showing the median wealth of white households was 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households.

In Minneapolis, the disparities across race are stark. You can learn more at the website for “One Minneapolis” a report created by the Minneapolis Foundation.

“Imagine a city where jobs pay a living wage and parents can shape their family’s future; where kids have caring adults outside of their family and feel safe at school and play; and where people enjoy the security of an affordable home. Imagine a place without inequalities. That’s our vision for One Minneapolis. Sadly, today’s reality is a far cry from that vision. The educational achievement gap alone comes with a billion dollar price tag for Minnesota, but while many know about this gap, few know of the other costly disparities that persist in nearly all measures of a decent, healthy and productive life in Minneapolis.” – From the One Minneapolis website

I believe that in order to affect long-term change we need to shift some of the public debate away from personal prejudice and individual beliefs on racism to systemic racism. And to effectively challenge the system of racism, we will have to better understand it.  We cannot simply focus on changing individuals; we must focus on changing systems, institutional practices, policies and outcomes. We must propose equitable solutions and proactive strategies – we cannot just be reactive. We cannot be colorblind in our problem solving but maintain an ongoing racial consciousness through all of our strategic actions.

The dimensions of structural racism are deep. We have a history of structural racism that has created a cumulative impact over decades that has benefited whites more than people of color. We have a culture that normalizes and replicates everyday racism. We have institutions and policies that are interconnected, compounding relationships and rules that reinforce racism. We have racial ideology, popular ideas and myths that perpetuate racial hierarchies. To do a full systems analysis it takes a more rigorous analysis, one that can lead to better outcomes. It is more than diversity training, or mentoring, or cross-cultural dialogues. All of which are needed and beneficial, and often all of this goes together, but these interventions alone won’t get to the systemic change that is often shaping other kinds of racism. We will need to highlight history, root causes, challenge racist myths, ideologies, and institutions.

Along the way we’ll have to ask questions like:

• What are the racial inequities? Who’s hurt and who benefits most?
• What institutions and unfair policies or practices are involved?
  What are the popular ideas, myths or norms that reinforce the problem?
• How do things get this way? What are the cumulative impacts?
• What are the key causes, contributing factors or compounding dynamics?
  What solutions and strategies could eliminate the inequities?

One thing we know is that low-income communities and communities of color are plagued with poor health outcomes. Like I noted earlier, if healthy places and healthy people go together, than unhealthy places and unhealthy people do as well. Low-income communities and communities of color are often disproportionately burdened by harmful environmental factors and a long list of associated health risks. Health, place and race intersect. An effective agenda to improve the health outcomes for low income communities and communities of color must consider both race and place. Where our communities are today, what people struggle with today, is connected to policies, strategies, choices made in the past. Let’s talk about obesity as one example.

Which intervention do you think would be most effective in closing the racial disparities in obesity rates?

1. People of color changing their diets
2. People of color getting more exercise
3. Nutritional school lunches
4. Access to healthy and affordable fresh food
5. More public parks, bike lanes and safe walking routes in communities of color
6. Other

To look at 1 or 2, we focus on the individual which is relevant and necessary. But we also know 3, 4 and 5 are relevant to effectively solving the problem of obesity. But when you look at say 4 and 5, are you led, as I am led, to think why do we have certain communities with such limited access to healthy foods or amenities that promote healthy lifestyles? Why is the physical and economic environment so different in poor communities? And are communities the way they are because of the people who live there or are people the way they are because of the communities they live in? Are we willing to acknowledge that entire parts of our city have been historically disinvested in, sometimes through explicit racial bias, and other times for other reasons?

It’s complicated right? There is no easy answer. There is no easy analysis. The challenge is to be willing to have the conversation in a way that leads to greater understanding and education, and better more equitable solutions and outcomes.

*parts of this post were inspired by listening to a webinar hosted by the Applied Research Center. Visit their website to learn about the great work they are doing. www.arc.org.