With BBDP’s community-developed focus on race and class equity, we welcomed the recent War on Poverty 50th Anniversary and the opening it brings to lift up social class and wealth inequity in relation to the crisis. As we listen to the stories of “then and now” so often class equity issues seems to lie just beneath the surface of people’s stories.
People talk about the class dimensions of the changes in their neighborhoods, changes in public school access and the role and impact of private and charter schools without really mentioning the concept of class that seems almost as taboo as racism in polite Boston company. As with race, as we clarify our personal stories in the context of our histories, we increase our collective ability to see the patterns that hold systemic inequities in place. One of my favorite quotes in doing equity work is from Michael Beckwith “Choice is a function of expanded awareness”. As the parallels between racial and class inequities and between struggles for racial and economic justice get clearer we expand our awareness. But those parallels must become links–or better yet a mobius strip with race on one side and class on the other–in order to really access and make new and better choices.
With new, recommitted and emerging city leadership, most prioritizing race and class equity, democratic access and demanding excellence are hopeful that these issues will be named and engaged in creative new ways. Grounding in history and story is one such way. In the programs below–especially the Tavis Smiley program–the power of story meets history is evoked even as analysis and “data” are analyzed. We look forward to more of this and to bold links of race and class truth that brings real learning and powerful change.
Click logo: Tavis Smiley round table the War on Poverty anniversary
The War on Poverty, 50 Years On
Truth, Learning, and Change 