The Roundtable began its work on structural racism in response to a call from leaders in fields such as community revitalization, social policy, anti-poverty, and philanthropy who were concerned about the racial disparities that they were observing in their work and frustrated by their inability to talk about race and racism, much less get a handle on it. It was commonly acknowledged among these leaders that although their work focused on low-income communities of color, they encountered very little discussion about race or racial issues or their effects on these communities and the children, youth, and families who resided in them. In order to directly address this need, the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change developed The Project on Structural Racism and Community Building.

The Project on Structural Racism and Community Building’s initial purpose was to provide a comprehensive picture and explanation of the nature of race and the causes of racial disparities in the US today, with particular attention to implications for initiatives for children and families in poor communities. Project methodology included extensive literature reviews, convenings of thought leaders, and the commissioning of papers by leading thinkers across social science fields. The Roundtable’s staff and advisors concluded that the nature of racism in the United States could best be described and understood by using the concept of structural racism. The Roundtable then went on to produce two publications that, we have been informed, have been important resources to the field: Structural Racism and Community Building and Structural Racism and Youth Development.

By structural racism we mean the following:

Racism in twenty-first century America is harder to see than its previous incarnations because the most overt and legally sanctioned forms of racial discrimination have been eliminated. Nonetheless, subtler racialized patterns permeate the political, economic, and socio-cultural structures of America in ways that generate differences in well-being between people of color and whites. Structural racism, then, refers to the system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity in every key opportunity area, from health, to education, to employment, to income and wealth.

The Roundtable’s work on dismantling structural racism and promoting racial equity consists of three interrelated components:

• The Racial Equity and Society Seminars, in which we cultivate a highly informed cadre of influential leaders of all races who can identify what keeps structural racism in place, and catalyze and implement the kind of initiatives necessary for dismantling structural racism.
• The Racial Equity and Society Peer Learning Forum, which systematically builds and disseminates knowledge about the most effective strategies for promoting the racial equity agenda.
• Policy Research on Structural Racism in various domains, with a current focus on crime, and punishment as well as youth development.

To further strengthen this work, the Roundtable has undertaken a new effort: Transforming Individuals/Transforming Communities: The Case of the Aspen Institute’s Racial Equity and Society Seminars

The Fetzer Institute and the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change have come together in an effort to develop deeper knowledge about a longstanding dilemma within the community change field: the point of intervention for community change efforts is almost always at the individual or organizational level, yet the desired outcome is at the community level. It is increasingly clear that theories of community change are inadequate because of this gap in knowledge, and therefore community initiatives rarely achieve the scale of success that their initiators envision for them. We believe that a closer examination of this individual-to-community transformation continuum can provide important insights for coming to terms with this pressing dilemma.

Since 2003, almost one hundred leaders in the fields of community building and youth development have participated in the Aspen Roundtable’s training seminars on dismantling structural racism and promoting racial equity. When they return to their home communities and organizations they undertake substantive efforts to promote racial equity and engage others in this endeavor. Because the Racial Equity Seminars have so far proven to be effective levers for change, the Fetzer and Aspen Institutes have come together to convene a cross section of critical thinkers and actors who, along with Racial Equity Seminar alumni, are knowledgeable about individual transformation, community transformation, racial equity, the science of behavioral change, and related issues. The further development of these models can serve to inform the work of social psychologists and others as they work to build knowledge about personal and community transformation. We also believe that such models will be of service to community change agents and other practitioners as they aim to develop leadership and generate action in order to create equitable and compassionate communities.

For more detailed information on the rationale behind the Roundtable's strucural racism work, see Background on the Project on Structural Racism and Community Building.