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Building a dialogue around race to change political institutions
the city of Seattle starts the Race and Social Justice Initiative
In 2002 Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle, Washington, announced the creation of the Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI). Mayor Nickels had a simple goal: he wanted to try to end all forms of racism in the workforce and the city. This kind of initiative was also unheard of--government policies had historically perpetrated or responded to racial inequities but never tried to undo policies before they were enacted. Being able to work proactively on this front required discussing race, white privilege and institutional racism; some employees were ready but many were not. RSJI's manager, Mickey Fearn, and the director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), Germaine Covington, worked together to operationalize RSJI's mission (to undo institutional racism) and its implementation, and to generate buy-in from departments and City employees. Years later, RSJI is entering the great recession and conducting budget cuts when the Central Budget Office proposes that an RSJI question be made part of the City's formal Budget Issue Paper (BIP) process. Through their interactions with the Central Budget Office, the RSJI strategic team seizes the opportunity and expands the BIP template questions into a racial equity toolkit for program or policy analysis.
Originally Published InLatham, K., & Page, S. (2015). Building a dialogue around race to change political institutions, the city of Seattle starts the race and social justice initiative. Seattle, WA: Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington.