Place Is Power: Investing in Communities as a Systemic Leverage Point to Reduce Breast Cancer Disparities by Race

Racial disparities in breast cancer present a vexing and complex challenge for public health. A diverse array of factors contributes to disparities in breast cancer incidence and outcomes, and, thus far, efforts to improve racial equity have yielded mixed results. Systems theory offers a model that is well-suited to addressing complex issues. In particular, the concept of a systemic leverage point offers a clue that may assist researchers, policymakers, and interventionists in formulating innovative and comprehensive approaches to eliminating racial disparities in breast cancer. Naming systemic racism as a fundamental cause of disparities, we use systems theory to identify residential segregation as a key leverage point and a driver of racial inequities across the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health. We call on researchers, policymakers, and interventionists to use a systems-informed, community-based participatory approach, aimed at harnessing the power of place, to engage directly with community stakeholders in coordinating efforts to prevent breast cancer, and work toward eliminating disparities in communities of color.

Men’s Voices: Black and White Aspiring Principals Reflect on Their Preparation to be Racial Equity Leaders

This phenomenological study examined the racial identity development of Black and White men—aspiring school leaders—who had recently completed a principal preparation program as members of a racially diverse cohort of students. The principal preparation program was designed with an unapologetic emphasis on race and addressing issues of racism. The study found that making race and issues of racism a focal point of all curriculum and pedagogy increased participants’ racialized realization and produced Black and White male aspiring principals who felt prepared to lead schools through the lens of racial equity.

Cultivating Powerful Participation: Reflections from a food justice and facilitation learning experience

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened awareness of systemic racism this past year, food systems practitioners are increasingly turning their attention toward the intersections of racial equity and the good food movement. Un­packing the racist history of the food system is a key step in this journey toward food justice, one that must be followed by intentional action bridg­ing diverse perspectives through skilled facilitation. Through a project called Cultivating Powerful Par­ticipation, the University of Minnesota Extension and food justice practitioners across Minnesota are working together to equip leaders with the neces­sary relationships, skills, and tools to cultivate a vision of food justice. In this reflective essay, we draw on our experiences leading this initiative to demonstrate the power and impact of approaching food justice through an action-oriented framework that equips community food justice leaders to become seasoned facilitators. Using themes and evaluation data from our program, we share prom­ising practices and specific facilitation methods that others can adapt to embrace a justice orientation in their work.

Restorative for All? Racial Disproportionality and School Discipline Under Restorative Justice

A growing number of schools are adopting restorative justice (RJ) practices that de–emphasize exclusionary discipline and aim for racial equity. We examine student discipline as RJ programs matured in Meadowview Public Schools from 2008 to 2017. Our difference–in–difference estimates show that students in RJ schools experienced a profound decline in their suspension rates during the first 5 years of implementation. However, the benefits of RJ were not shared by all students, as disciplinary outcomes for Black students were largely unchanged. While the overall effects of RJ in this context are promising, racial disproportionality widened. Our results suggest that the racial equity intentions of RJ may be diluted as schools integrate RJ into their existing practices.

“Why Me?”– Questions of Racial Equity and Institutional Racism in Academia

Beginning with the necessary question “Why me?,” I look at a system which bars BIPOC bodies and theory. In her open letter to the US Black Studies academic community, Sylvia Wynter (1994 ) spoke about the problem of “no human involved” (“NHI”) in the policing and incarceration of Black bodies as being pertinent for how Black studies was positioned institutionally. This same white supremacist governance and surveillance “NHI” exists in universities on both sides of the Atlantic. There is something very wrong with the system of which I am a part that persistently and consistently bars BIPOC bodies and theory and only avails our presence and thought a marginal position on the proviso that the status quo of whiteliness ( Yancy 2008 ) is not disturbed. Nothing really changes in terms of anti-BIPOC racism. Rather, it remains strangely the white supremacist (settler) colonial same within Canadian race-evasive multiculturalism and UK ‘post-race’ racism.