Colin Bailey

Younger attorney from Northern California Legal Services. NCLS has incorporated race based advocacy in their entire service delivery. Here is the outline of his talk. I thought it was interesting. I am not sure how well it would translate in Nebraska, where most of our clients are white. I like their focus on getting out into the community. He says, "Don't let your front door determine your client base." Lots of good stuff on GIS and environmental justice.
----

Social cognition and race-based advocacy (RBA) in legal services.

“The Race Equity Project” (REP)

-Education and Support Materials
-Be explicit about race-analysis
-Share and Disseminate
-Race-conscious lens
-RBA tools
-Client empowerment
-Change in the law

Background of REP - 2003
-Prop. 54 – Ward Connerly
-Brown v. Board – 50th anniversary
-Clearinghouse Review – race issues
-All staff retreat
-Colorblindness & Personal Responsibility – staff’s own complicitness
-Social Cognition (SoCog)

Tools:
Social Cognition
Social Frames/Models (white triangle example)
Implicit Association/Unconscious Bias
Fallacy of Content Neutrality
Undisputed science; meaning
Breaks “Blame Frame”
Combat with Consciousness
Implementing SoCog
i. Race-Conscious Case Selection/Intake
ii. Implicit Association Test (IAT)
iii. Cultural Competence/Consciousness
iv. Be explicit about race
1. Clients
2. Decision-makers
Ratify or Remedy Racial Impact
Long process, but it has to start sometime and somewhere--Might as well be now and here
Structural Racialization
Diagnostic tool
Reframing tool
Breaks “Blame frame” – there’s a broken structure that needs to be fixed to get equal opportunity
GIS mapping
GIS
Diagnostic tool
i. Mapping client population
Reframing/advocacy tool
i. Shows race graphically
Led to community lawyering
“Can I present my case graphically?”
Can use maps to even explain the issue to the client. The client often buys into color-blindness and personal responsibility
Community lawyering
Cultivate client advocacy skills
Client-centered, directed advocacy
Get out of the office
Community outreach
i. Dialogue on race
ii. Spend 10% of time out of office at community things.- how to manage??
Litigation
SoCog & Structural Racialization in the Courts
Part of multi-forum advocacy
Cases:
1. Mental Health Payments – public payments for mental health FOIA request – whites received 2X plus mental health services – asked the race question.
2. Annexation & Municipal Services Denied – Rural African American community been seeking annexation which would have led to increased municipal services. Municipality changed the rules for annexation mid-stream – used mapping
3. Inclusionary zoning outreach – Pacific islanders, etc.
4. Natural Gas Storage Facility – env. Justice – proposal to pump into a geological formation potentially hazardous stuff right by a low-income community of color. Used maps to demonstrate
5. Hmong mediation project – recent immigration population – high degree of isolation. Leaders felt frustrated by relations with court system especially in family court. Leaders formed a corporation with legal aid help – the corporation would then train judges in cultural competency.

Lessons learned
Don’t create an elite group – teach tools to all advocates and follow them
Get out of the office – 10% community time – can’t define client population as those that come through your doors
Take the journey with your clients
train periodically and by example
implement change in way that works for you

www.lsnc.net/equity - REP website
Look at Clearinghouse Review article.