CommUNITY 2000: Resources
CommUNITY 2000 has created a virtual library to assist the nation in creating healthy, peaceful communities.
Selected Library Resources
Cause For Concern: Hate Crimes in America
Leadership Conference Education Fund
Cause For Concern: Hate Crimes in America is the first major comprehensive assessment of the hate crime problem in the United States. it discusses what is currently being done on the federal, state and local levels as well as private initiatives to promote respect for diversity and to combat crimes based on bias, and includes ten recommendations for additional action by every sector of society. The report is an effort at public education and advocacy. We believe that hate crimes are a more serious problem that is generally recognized, and require a unified and determined response by government, civic, religious and educational organizations of all kinds and by ordinary citizens.
Talking To Our Children
Leadership Conference Education Fund
In 1995, with funding from Procter & Gamble, the LCEF published a brochure for parents entitled, Talking To Our Children About Racism, Prejudice, And Diversity, to help parents and children talk about diversity, as well as racism and other kinds of bigotry. It offers guidelines for discussing these very difficult issues and includes examples of children's questions and concerns, and, as a starting point, offers suggestions for answering them.
To date more than 40,00 copies of our brochure have been distributed through Childrens Museums, Boys and Girls Clubs, advertisements in USA Today and Readers' Digest etc. The State of Minnesota's Attorney General's office used the brochure to develop a Parent/Child Hate Prevention Project. It has been well received by educators, parents, youth leaders, elected officials, religious and civil rights organizations etc.
1999 Hate Crimes Laws
Anti-Defamation League
Michael Lieberman and David Rosenburg
All Americans have a stake in an effective response to violent bigotry. Hate crimes demand a priority response because of their special emotional and psychological impact on the victim and the victim's community. The damage done by hate crimes cannot be measured solely in terms of physical injury or dollars and cents. Hate crimes may effectively intimidate other members of the victim's community, leaving them feeling isolated, vulnerable and unprotected by the law. By making members of minority communities fearful, angry and suspicious of other groups -- and of the power structure that is supposed to protect them -- these incidents can damage the fabric of our society and fragment communities.
ADL has long been in the forefront of national and state efforts to deter and counteract hate-motivated criminal activity. Hate crime statutes are necessary because the failure to recognize and effectively address this unique type of crime could cause an isolated incident to explode into widespread community tension. In June 1993, the United States Supreme Court upheld a Wisconsin hate crime statute that was based on model legislation originally drafted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 1981.1 1 Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U.S. 476 (1993). The following year, ADL published a detailed report on hate crimes laws, Hate Crimes Laws: A Comprehensive Guide, which functions as a reference on hate crimes legislation nationwide. This update is meant to complement the 1994 report and encompasses changes that have occurred since that time, including the League's recent addition of gender to its model hate crimes legislation, and the passage of additional Federal legislation, as well as a description of a number of Federal training and education initiatives to confront hate violence.
Steps Toward an Inclusive Community
Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies
Maggie Potapchuk
Across America, there are examples of towns and cities that have not only united but also created a movement to stand up against hate--like Billings, Montana; Springfield, Illinois; and Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Clarksburg, West Virginia, provides another unique story with lessons to be learned from its response to the Ku Klux Klan. This is a case study of how Clarksburg, a moderately sized community in West Virginia, responded to a KKK rally by conducting a counter-rally, the "Get Real Rally", which in turn led to the Clarksburg Unity Project. It is an opportunity to share Clarksburg's response to hate in the context of the state's and community's history and the town's current state of race relations. Clarksburg's effort was reinforced recently by the local newspaper's editorial board, which wrote," If we hope to prosper economically, Clarksburg must show the nation that its people are unified and that this is a great place to live because of it."
Though no method or process guarantees that a hate crime will not occur, or even that a hate group will not visit a town, is there a proactive, comprehensive way to create a more inclusive community? How will a community know it is progressing forward? This publication is intended primarily for civic officials and community leaders who seek to build inclusive communities. The latter part of this report includes a tool to help predominately white, moderate-sized towns assess their process of becoming inclusive. The Inclusive Community Assessment Tool is one step in understanding a town's current state of race relations. Through a set of questions, individuals can determine the town's racial climate by generalized descriptions of behaviors and attitudes. The instrument also includes suggestions for next steps based on a community's inclusivity stage.
Ethnic Diversity Grows, Neighborhood Integration Is at a Standstill
Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research
John Logan
During the two decades leading up to the last census in 1990, the American metropolis was being reshaped in several ways. The Hispanic and Asian populations, though relatively small in most parts of the country in 1970, were growing rapidly through immigration. Suburbanization was continuing, and growing shares of the suburban population were African American, Hispanic, and Asian. There had been little change since 1970 in residential segregation of African Americans - in some smaller and newer metropolitan areas, their segregation from whites had declined slightly, but in the larger places where most African Americans lived, segregation remained high and unchanging. Hispanics and Asians were less residentially segregated in most parts of the country. We find that these trends have continued in the last ten years - the picture is more one of persistence of established patterns, even as new groups grow at an extraordinary pace, than one of changing directions. By providing complete data in a readily accessible form, we seek to facilitate analyses of the same information from other perspectives, and to encourage people to think about the experience of their own metropolitan region in the context of the national picture.
Neighborhood integration has remained a goal of public policy and popular opinion because it is seen as proof of the American ideal of equal opportunity. But in fact, the growth of minority populations and the absence of improvement in segregated living patterns has meant that Hispanics and Asians now live in more isolated settings than they did in 1990, with a smaller proportion of white residents in their neighborhoods. This report provides highlights of the evidence that we believe supports this conclusion.
Housing Segregation: Causes, Effects, Possible Cures
Harvard University
Gary Orfield
A third of a century ago Congress declared housing discrimination illegal. Since then the prohibition on racial discrimination has been extended to include a variety of groups, including discrimination against families with children and the handicapped. The white public tends to believe that the problem has been solved, almost nine-tenths believing there is equal opportunity to get housing.
There has never been more than a very small enforcement effort, however, and, as the 2000 data shows, the isolation of minority families has always been high. Though there may be millions of incidents of discrimination each year, there have never been more than a few dozen enforcement cases filed by federal officials, so a very small risk of exposure of discrimination existsl. Even with the additional efforts of private fair housing groups and lawyers for individual plaintiffs, discrimination is still widespread. The Clinton Administration did take some positive steps, including Justice Department tests of the housing market as a means for developing evidence, using cases that were more systemic pattern and practice remedies, working on mortgage discrimination, launching suburban access experiments, and commissioning a national study of housing market practices. These were positive but modest steps, and HUD continued to struggle under the burden of an unmanageable case backlog.
The ultimate weapon in fair housing enforcement is litigation by the Justice Department. The 1998 data show that the Justice Department filed 64 total cases of which 29 dealt with issues of racial and national origin discrimination. This is not the kind of effort needed to resolve out one of the most deeply rooted problems of urban America. Few aspects of urban history are clearer than that governments at all levels fostered residential segregation for generations. Housing segregation was initiated and institutionalized with massive official support. Most minority neighborhoods that were segregated during the period of overt segregationist policies remain segregated today, and that segregation has spread outward from those centers decade after decade. The most recent federal and local studies of the housing market and of lending practices indicates continued and widespread discrimination. Segregated black communities now extend well into sections of some suburban rings. In many housing markets most black families have been segregated for generations. The physical isolation of those in the core of the minority communities, of course, becomes more extreme as the borders of the ghetto expand and middle class black families abandon the core. We are seeing very large segregated Latino barrios emerge in cities that are major migration destinations. The numbers of minority families living in areas segregated by both race and poverty has grown rapidly.
101 Ways You Can Beat Prejudice
Anti-Defamation League
A citizen's action guide to fighting prejudice separated into several categories: home, school, house of worship and community-at-large. The resource guide is designed to give parents, educators, clergy, government officials and other community leaders the necessary tools to ensure that our communities are No Place for Hate. The guide offers creative approaches and ideas on how to create environments where diversity is respected and prejudice and hatred are rejected.
Prejudice is a negative or hostile attitude, opinion or feeling toward a person or group formed without adequate knowledge, thought or reason and based on negative stereotypes. Prejudice is the result of "prejudgment" and often leads to discrimination. No one is born prejudiced! Prejudice is learned and can be unlearned. Prejudices are attitudes rooted in ignorance and a fear of differences. Whether the seeds are planted around the dinner table, on the playing field, by the water cooler or in the boardroom, they can grow out of control. Even worse, when not uprooted, prejudices get passed on from one generation to the next and can fuel discrimination, victimization, bigotry and hate. With awareness, education and action, we can weed them out. Community leaders, students and teachers who participate in the Anti-Defamation League's A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. Institute programs repeatedly ask us for specific ideas on how to encourage others to take up the fight against hate. In response to their requests, we have developed this citizen action guide. In the web pages that follow, you will find a wealth of creative approaches and solutions you can apply to your community. We have also included important factual information to help you distinguish between incidents motivated by hate and hate crimes punishable by law as well as a glossary of terms to establish a common language.
Ten Ways to Fight Hate
Southern Poverty Law Center
Bias is a human condition, and American history is rife with prejudice against groups and individuals because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or other differences. The 20th Century saw major progress in outlawing discrimination, and most Americans today support integrated schools and neighborhoods. But stereotypes and unequal treatment persist, an atmosphere often exploited by hate groups. Spread on the Internet and accessible by personal computers, hate clearly knows no geographic bounds.
The good news is all over the country people are fighting hate. Standing up to hate mongers. Promoting tolerance and inclusion. More often than not, when hate flares up, good erupts, too. This guide sets out 10 principles for fighting hate along with a collection of inspiring stories of people who acted, often alone at first, to push hate out of their communities. Our experience shows that one person, acting from conscience and love, can neutralize bigotry. A group of people can create a moral barrier to hate.
Talk to Me: Americans in Conversation
PBS
A film by Andrea Simon
Talk to me is part of A More Perfect Union, a media education project that looks at what it means to be American today - and how we talk about it. Talk to Me: Americans in Conversation explores what it means to be an American as the 20th Century draws to a close. Taking a freewheeling, creative approach to this multi-faceted topic, the one-hour public television special juxtaposes imagery of American cultural icons with personal reflections about American identity by noted writers, scholars and "everyday folks" from four very different communities around the country.
"Talk to Me is a patchwork quilt, a road movie through American history," says director Andrea Simon. "We started with the idea of American identity as a work-in-progress -- something that's still unfolding, and that each of us contributes to every day. That American story isn"t a drama, with a beginning, middle and end. It's an epic -- many tales told in many voices, with different accents and cadences." For anyone interested in starting a conversation about these issues, or just talking about it informally with your friends, there's a comprehensive resource guide and discussion manual, and a short conversation organizers' guide specifically for use with the film. Talk to Me: Americans in Conversation is part of the National Endowment for the Humanities' National Conversation on American Pluralism and Identity.
Hope VI: Community Building Makes a Difference
US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Representing the most dramatic change in public housing in the last 60 years, the Hope VI program is transforming the Nation's most distressed public housing projects. A report released by HUD, Hope VI: Community Building Makes a Difference, examines the best practices that have emerged from the community-building and supportive services side of Hope VI. The book is filled with many useful--and sometimes sobering--lessons learned, detailed examples, and practical tips on making such programs work.
Hope VI: Community Building Makes a Difference primarily addresses the people side of the program--the supportive services and community--building efforts taking place in cities across the country. The report describes how housing authorities, residents, and community partners are working together to build community and highlights seven Hope VI sites where the community-building approach-fighting poverty by building social and human capital-is succeeding. Profiles of these seven sites incorporate material from onsite interviews with housing authority executives, staff, residents, and community partners. The profiles demonstrate varied and individualized approaches.
Responding to Hate Crimes: A Police Officer's Guide to Investigation and Prevention
The International Association of Chiefs of Police
Hate crimes and hate incidents are major issues for all police because of their unique impact on victims as well as the community. This guidebook will explain the differences between hate crimes and hate incidents and how to respond to both.
Police officers and investigators have important roles to play in responding to hate incidents and crimes. By doing the job efficiently and carefully, police can reinforce the message that hate crimes will be investigated aggressively, thus enhancing the likelihood of a successful prosecution.
The Community Organizing Toolbox: A Funder's Guide to Community Organizing
The Neighborhood Funders Group
Larry Parachini and Sally Covington
The United States enters the 21st century with a level of income inequality and wealth polarization that is now wider than at any time since World War II. Even in today's economy, wages continue to stagnate or erode for those in the bottom half of the nation's income distribution. Close to 43 million Americans are medically uninsured - and poverty remains entrenched - in inner-city and rural communities across the country. Meanwhile, the income and wealth of those at the top have grown exponentially. Such large-scale inequities are mirrored in other dimensions of American life as well, most notably in the realm of political participation and democratic engagement. Study after study has documented that political participation in and beyond the voting booth is skewed by class, with upper-income and more educated citizens participating more frequently and at higher rates than those with fewer financial resources and years of schooling. To paraphrase one observer of the American political landscape, the heavenly choir of American interests continues to sing with an upper-class accent.
Community organizing is one of the few strategies working to build grassroots leadership, community initiative and constituent influence in neighborhoods and communities that are often forgotten or ignored by those in power. The Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) considers Community Organizing an important strategy for change. We encourage grantmakers to learn more about the vital contributions that Community Organizing has made to broader community development and renewal efforts.
A Lesson in American History: The Japanese American Experience
Japanese American Citizen's League
The Japanese American Citizens League, the nation's oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization, was founded in 1929 to address issues of discrimination targeted specifically at persons of Japanese ancestry residing in the United States. In California, where the majority of Japanese Americans resided, there were over one hundred statutes in California that proscribed the limits of rights of anyone of Japanese ancestry. Organizations like the Grange Association and Sons of the Golden West exerted powerful influence on the state legislature and on Congress to limit participation and rights of Japanese Americans, and groups like the Japanese Exclusion League were established with the sole purpose of ridding the state of its Japanese population, even those who were American citizens by birth.
The curriculum guide, A Lesson in American History: The Japanese American Experience, is a comprehensive tool assembled by the JACL to help educators teach about the Internment Camp experience of Japanese Americans during World War II. The contents include material for elementary through high school students and also has a complete listing for other resources.
Community Magazine: A Journal of Community Building for Community Leaders
The United Way
As the work of United Way is evolving, community building is increasingly at the core of what United Way is and does. Community building encompasses the whole enterprise that is United Way. United Way of America (UWA) has expanded its support to local United Ways in two ways: developing national partnerships and grant programs that support United Ways in addressing the most pressing issues in their communities; and providing training, technical assistance, consultation, products, and services to empower United Ways to use the latest community building techniques.
The Journal is a crossroads for sharing ideas, scholarship, practices, and research in the area of community building that will bridge the community building experiences and knowledge of the corporate, academic, government, and United Way spheres of interest and influence.
