This month the NPAC had a very interesting topic. Elliott Bronstein, from the Seattle Office of Civil Rights, explained the city’s Race and Social Justice Initiative. While Seattle is doing pretty well with diversity in city hiring, it has yet to completely root out institutional racism. This is so deeply embedded we can hardly see it as white people, who have traditionally had the power and institutions that worked well for them. Another factor that makes it hard for us to see it is that we see ourselves as a progressive city with good values. Yes, it’s hard to see institutional racism – unless you’re a person of color.
So this initiative, among other things, has developed a racial equity toolkit that all city departments will use during policy making and program development. The toolkit lays out a process for reaching out and listening to communities of color to find out how something would benefit or burden the community, adjust the policy to create greater racial equity or minimize unintended consequences, and once implemented, track the impact over time, and report back to leadership and stakeholders.
I particularly liked this image that explains the difference between equality and equity:
On another note, this week SPD Chief O’Toole instructed the North Precinct to be divided into two precincts. North Precinct covers 40% of Seattle, while the rest of Seattle is served by 4 precincts. While details haven’t been worked out yet, it’s presumed that there will be a North Precinct and a Northwest Precinct. Pinehurst would be in the North Precinct. For now, both will work out of the existing building, and will share some of the teams, such as bike patrol and community police team. It’s not known how this will affect plans for a new precinct building.
Minutes from the meeting are here.
Thanks!