The document provides an overview of the role of legal advocates in the 21st century. It discusses how communities and problems faced by clients are increasingly complex and interconnected due to factors like globalization, structural inequality, and spatial and racial segregation. It argues that advocates need to adopt a systems perspective to address the root causes of issues rather than just their symptoms. Examples are provided of systemic approaches including opportunity mapping, legislative advocacy, impact litigation, and addressing the cumulative impacts of policies on marginalized groups. The role of advocates is shifting from individual representation to holistic systemic advocacy that tackles the interactive institutions and structures producing racialized outcomes.

1. The Role of the Legal Services
Advocate in the 21 st Century
john a. powell
Director,
Director Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law
Detroit Legal Aid and Defender Association
January 14, 2009 1

2. The Role of a Lawyer
Advocate on
behalf of the
clients in the
community.
This is dictated
by the
b th needs of
d f
the community.
2

3. But the world is changing . . .
communities are changing
3

4. Detroit is Changing
About one-third of the city lies empty and unused.
4

5. 5

6. What is the Role of Legal Services
in S
Society?
?
What does globalization mean for Legal Services?
6

7. What happen in Detroit can affect
the world . . .
. . . And what happens in the world affects Detroit
7

8. Nothing/No one exists in a vacuum
But we act on the
assumption that
everything can
be separated,
isolated, d
i l t d and
fixed or changed
out of context.
Photo from http://www.experientia.com 8

9. Law is Segmented
9

10. Our Ways of Viewing Problems are
Segmented
Segmented
10

11. We segment race and class
It is easier to call something a class
problem than a race problem.
We still view racism as individual, and
racial di
i l disparities – if not called class
iti t ll d l
disparities – would implicate society as
inherently ( d consciously racist).
i h tl (and i l i t)
11

12. The problems clients face are not
always segmentable
Is this:
• A credit issue?
•Neighborhood disinvestment?
•The result of a subprime l
Th lt f b i loan?
?
•Reverse redlining?
Sometimes “problems” are symptoms of a larger
structure 12

13. Poverty is one part of the problem,
and the part most often highlighted
f
13

14. But . . . Race Matters
• Two thirds of black children born from 1985
through 2000 were raised in neighborhoods with
at least a 20 percent poverty rate, compared
with just 6 percent of white children.
children.
• Half of black children born between 1955 and
1970 in families with incomes of $62,000 or
higher in today's dollars grew up in high-poverty
high-
neighborhoods. But virtually no white middle-
middle-
income children grew up in poor areas.
areas.
Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts Economic Mobility Project 14

15. Opportunity is Racialized
pp y
• In 1960, African-
1960, African-
School
American families in Segregation &
Lower
poverty were 3 8 times
3.8 Educational
Concentrated
Outcomes
more likely to be Poverty
concentrated in high-
high-
poverty neighborhoods
t i hb h d
than poor whites.
Increased
Neighborhood Flight
• In 2000, they were 7.3
2000, t ey e e 3
000,
000 Segregation of Affluent
Families
times more likely.
15

16. Opportunity is
Spatialized
Structural racialization involves
a series of exclusions, often
anchored in (and perpetuating)
spatial segregation.
spatial segregation
Historically marginalized people of
color and the very poor have been
spatially isolated from opportunity
via reservations, Jim Crow,
, ,
Appalachian mountains, ghettos,
barrios, and the culture of
incarceration.
16

17. We are situated in different
environments and contexts
17

18. Th Ch ll
The Challenge
The h ll
Th challenges f faced b D t it are not
d by Detroit t
entirely unique.
– Geography: What Detroit is facing is part of a larger
phenomena impacting the “rust belt” and other
Midwestern states.
Population loss: aging population, “brain drain” of the young and
educated, central city population loss
Economic transition and job loss
Regional f
fragmentation
Tremendous segregation
Sprawl and urban decline
The Core “Rust Belt”
18
18
Region

19. What Causes these
Challenges?
Ch ll ?
Structural Inequality
q y
• Equity Requires looking
at Structures
• Different communities are
situated differently with
regards to institutions
• Institutions mediate
opportunity
• Structural Inequality
– Example: a Bird in a cage.
Examining one wire cannot
explain why a bird cannot
p y
fly. But
fl B t multiple wires,
lti l i
arranged in specific ways,
reinforce each other and
trap the bird. 19

20. Structural Racialization
Context: The Dominant Consensus on Race
White privilege National values Contemporary culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that maintain racial Racialized public policies and
hierarchies institutional practices
Outcomes: Racial Disparities
Racial inequalities in current levels of Capacity f individual and community
C it for i di id l d it
well-being improvement is undermined
Ongoing Racial Inequalities
20
Adapted from the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change. “Structural Racism and Community Building.” June 2004

21. System Interactions
21
21
Source: Barbara Reskin. http://faculty.uwashington.edu/reskin/

22. 22
The Cumulative Impacts of Spatial, Racial
and
Opportunity Segregation
Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities
life-
Impacts on Health
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime; arrest
Transportation limitations and other
inequitable public services
Neighborhood Job segregation
Segregation
Racial stigma, other
psychological impacts
Impacts on community power and
individual assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at: http://faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
22

23. The Importance of Place:
Place:
We ll live in
W all li i opportunity structures called “neighborhoods”
t it t t ll d “neighborhoods”
i hb h d
A Tale of High and Low Opportunity Structures
Low Opportunity High Opportunity
• Less the 25% of students in Detroit
finish high school • The year my step daughter finished
high school, 100% of the students
g ,
graduated and 100% went to
• More the 60% of the men will spend
time in jail
college
• There may soon be no bus service in • Most will not even drive by a jail
some areas
• Free bus service
• It is difficult to attract jobs or private
capital
• Relatively easy to attract capital
• Not safe; very few parks
• Very safe; great parks
• Difficult to get fresh food
23
• Easy to get fresh food

24. What can we do?
When tackling large
societal problems, such
as spatial inequality, Our
traditional strategies
seek to remedy a single
cause of disadvantage,
whereas urban inequality
is fueled by a system of
interactive factors.
24

25. So how can we approach these
structural problems?
?
Is this:
• A credit issue?
•Neighborhood disinvestment?
•The result of a subprime l
Th lt f b i loan?
?
•Reverse redlining?
Let’s look at the structure . . .
25

26. Credit finance underwent a
26
change…
change
Pre Depression:
p
The Two Party Housing Market
Party Party
1 2 Seller
Homebuyer
(and/or)
Lending
Institution The Post Depression FHA Era:
The Three P t Mortgage Market
Th Th Party M t M k t
Party
y Party
y Party
y
1 2 Lending 3 Government
Homebuyer Sponsored
Institution Institution
purchases,
insures or
underwrites
loan
Based on research by Chris Peterson, University of Utah Law School
26

27. …a transformative change
a
The web of actors and
institutions involved in the
sub-prime lending market
Created by Chris
Peterson,
Peterson
University of Utah
Law School
What can we do? How do we look for solutions? 27

28. The Danger of Universalism
Universal programs do not
target marginalized groups
t t i li d
when distributing benefits or
burdens.
These programs are often
racially disparate in effect.
Social Security is a universal
program that distributes
unevenly.
l
28

29. the need for systems thinking
Atomistic
At i ti Systemic
The problem: poisonous tree
The problem: bad apples
29

30. An analysis of any one
area will yield an
incomplete Health
understanding.
Childcare Employment
Housing
We must consider how
We must consider how Effective
Education
Ed ti
institutions interact Participation
Transportation
with one another to
produce racialized
outcomes.
30

31. Systems Thinking
From a systems perspective causation
perspective,
is cumulative and mutual.
– Outcomes are caused by many actors’
and institutions’ actions and inactions
institutions
over time and across domains
– Outcomes are the result of causes that
accumulate over time and across
domains. 31

32. Linked Fates…
Transformative Change
Our fates are linked yet our fates have been
linked,
socially constructed as disconnected
(especially through the categories of class
class,
race, gender, etc.).
– We need socially constructed “bridges” to
transform our society.
t f i t
– Conceive of an individual as connected to—
to—
instead of isolated from—“thy neighbor.”
from— 32

33. Linked Fates…Transformative Change
Tension is dynamic and p
y positive (
(constitutive).
)
The situated nature/essence of the Self (and its
multiplicity):
– Social justice (external)
– Spirituality (internal)
We are the same and different. Because we are
the same, di l
h dialogue i possible. B
is ibl Because we are
different, dialogue is necessary.
33

34. Linked Fates…Transformative Change
“…suffering is a central concern of social justice as well as
one of the foundations animating spirituality…not only i
f th f d ti i ti i it lit t l is
there a relationship between spirituality and social justice
but that this is a recursive relationship that runs in both
directions…The
directions The insubstantial nature of the self cut off from
a more substantial source and its final demise is the heart
of spiritual suffering…[Social/surplus suffering] is the result
of social arrangements and as a result, it can be made
better or worse by these arrangements. Social practices
currently institutionalize power which causes subjugation
and suffering that need not exist. While all of us are
subject to existential suffering, social suffering i visited on
bj t t i t ti l ff i i l ff i is i it d
different people to varying degrees.”
- john a. powell
34

35. Systems Fatigue
35

36. In the past 5 years . . .
The world has turned upside down 36

37. It can be done
37

38. Opportunity Maps
Massachusetts Legal
Services employed the
use of “opportunity
maps” to visualize the
local problems faced
by their li t
b th i clients such as
h
access to jobs,
healthful food
food,
transportation, and
g
good schools.
38

39. Systemic Legal Advocacy
In Seattle, Columbia Legal Services
, g
program dealing with homeless youths has
moved from individual representation to the
more holistic systemic advocacy: legislative
advocacy, litigation, and community
development.
development
See, From
See “From Street Lawering to Systemic Lawyering: Meeting the
Basic Needs of Unaccompanied and Homeless Youth Through
Systemic Legal Advocacy" by Casey Trupin and Richard A. Wayman,
39
first published in Clearinghouse Review, July-August 2005.

40. Systems Advocacy in Action:
Thompson v HUD:
v. HUD:
Proposed remedy
– Baltimore: Lagging in a growth
region (Maryland’s DC Counties
are not keeping pace with th
tk i ith the
rapid job growth in Virginia’s
Counties)
– KI submitted expert reports in
p p
both the liability and the remedy
phases of the litigation, on behalf
of plaintiffs
– Used GIS to analyze current
conditions of segregated public
housing (liability phase) and
frame solutions for
desegregation (remedy phase)
in a regional context
40

41. Sytems Advocacy in Action:
NYTimes Article, January 14th, 2009:
, y
– Justice Dept. Fights Bias in Lending
– WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is
beginning a major campaign against banks and
mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against
minority applicants in lending, opening a new front in
the Ob
th Obama administration’s response t th
d i i t ti ’ to the
foreclosure crisis.
“We are looking at any and every p
g y y practice in
the industry,” Mr. Perez said in a recent
interview.
41

42. Transactional v. Transformative
Change
Change
42

43. How are Impact Projects
Transformative?
f ?
43

44. For more information, please visit us online at
www.kirwaninstitute.org
www kirwaninstitute org
44