The Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 26, 2019: ‘You Can’t Lift People Up by Putting Them Down’: How to Talk About Tough Issues of Race, Poverty, and More
The “at-risk, low-income, minorities in high-crime, high-poverty, disadvantaged communities whom we seek to empower and transform” have far more going on in their lives than our denigrating short-hand acknowledges.
In fact, cognitive science and longitudinal studies strongly suggest that consistently defining people in denigrating terms is one way that racist narratives become institutionalized and part of the culture. Old-school philanthropy, social-justice, and social-innovation organizations that are wed to that old way do more harm than they realize.
While they are right to point out injustices, disparities, and needs, they are dead wrong to do it by deeply associating all these problems with the people who experience them. This unintentionally but categorically lets systemic instigators off the hook.
