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Addressing Racial, Structural, and Systemic Inequities
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The Challenges of 2020
Local government leaders and their communities have gotten a workout during 2020. For many, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the continued confrontation with racial and social injustice, has forced them to engage in ways they never could have predicted.
Adapting in 2021
In 2021, we will all have to continue to do some internal diagnostics: Where do we continue to be pained? What have we tried that still isn’t working? What relationships remain unformed? How are going to adapt our strategy to address these issues?
Opportunity
Local government has an opportunity to make promoting equity in our communities more than a moment. We can make it the new normal. To do that we will have to enter 2021 with an even stronger commitment to re-evaluating our systems, questioning our processes, and constantly assessing our progress in creating equitable outcomes.
Key Takeaway
Our enemy is fatigue. It is imperative that we deny ourselves the comfort of falling back to business as usual. We know that for many local governments “business as usual” upholds systems that maintain, and in many cases, perpetuate inequity in our communities. Looking ahead, we can’t afford to be too tired to act on eliminating racism, poverty, sexism, homophobia, or any other barrier to equitable opportunity in our community. “Our enemy is fatigue.
It is imperative that we deny ourselves the comfort of falling back to business as usual.”
