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Black and Hispanic people are more likely to be denied mortgage loans in Boston

By Zeninjor Enwemeka, Adrian Ma, and Saurabh Datar

Professionalism as a Racial Construct

Leah Goodridge
This Essay examines professionalism as a tool to subjugate people of color in the legal field.  Professionalism is a standard with a set of beliefs about how one should operate in the workplace.  While professionalism seemingly applies to everyone, it is used to widely police and regulate…

Gambling with Homes, or Investing in Communities

LISC, UNHP & New School University
LISC’s research report offers rigorous evidence that large landlords have reaped the greatest profits in communities of color, and that this speculation drives evictions and poor housing maintenance quality. But there’s good news too: affordable housing investments create…

How to Make Your Organization’s Language More Inclusive

Harvard Business Review: Odessa S. Hamilton, Lindsay Kohler, Elle Bradley Cox, and Grace Lordan
Using exclusionary language isn’t just about offending others; research has made its harmful effects clear. To create a truly inclusive culture, it’s critical that you take a hard look at how people in all areas of your company are using language. The authors present four ways you as…

6 Rules for Ethical, Trauma-Informed Advocacy

Christopher M. Anderson, The Good Men Project
Christopher M. Anderson says a full understanding of trauma must inform advocacy efforts for abuse survivors.

The Racial Health and Wealth Gap Impact of Medical Debt on Black Families

Berneta L. Haynes, National Consumer Law Center
A new report from the National Consumer Law Center that examines the intersection between the racial health gap and the racial wealth gap and the harms of aggressive medical debt collection. The report comes on the heels of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) report finding an estimated…

We Need to Retire the Term “Microaggressions”

Ruchika Tulshyan
  The term “microaggressions” was coined in the 1970s by Harvard University professor Chester Pierce to describe the subtle, everyday ways that Black people experienced discrimination from their white counterparts. Use of the term has since become more widespread. It’s powerful to have a…

March and Nov 2022 Upper Income Limits in MassHealth and Health Connector

MLRI
MassHealth updates its income standards with the current year's poverty level on March 1. Attached are tables from MLRI showing the upper income levels for MassHealth and Health Connector programs, updated to show the cost of living adjustments for 2022 that took effect in MassHealth…

Immigration Consequences of Massachusetts Criminal Convictions

Committee for Public Counsel Services Immigration Impact Unit
The discussion and appendices are designed to assist criminal defense attorneys in analyzing the potential immigration consequences of criminal conduct. They are a starting point and should not be used in place of individual research. Moreover, because these documents are meant for criminal…

The Evolution Of Whiteness In The United States

Janice Gassam Asare, Forbes
Our understanding of race and racism is constantly changing. A myriad of events in the last few years, including the election of former President Donald Trump and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, have catalyzed more conversations about race. There has been a…

Considerations for Ensuring Data Aggregation Is as Inclusive as Possible

Jonathan Schwabish & Alice Feng, Urban Institute
Data analysts sometimes lump together populations with small sample sizes—often racial and ethnic groups—out of convenience. But doing so can have harmful effects on those communities. Combining groups with different experiences can obscure specific communities’…

Considerations for Ensuring Data Aggregation Is as Inclusive as Possible

Jonathan Schwabish and Alice Feng, Urban Institute
Considerations for researchers and data analysts to ensure they approach their work through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A one-size-fits-all method for data aggregation doesn’t exist, so instead of prescribing specific recommendations, we highlight key considerations for how to…

'Hispanic'? 'Latino'? Here’s where the terms come from

Erin Blakemore
How communities and governments describe people from the Spanish and Latin American diasporas has a convoluted history.

Disparities in Debt: Why Debt Is a Driver in the Racial Wealth Gap

Tashfia Hasan, Katherine Lucas McKay, and Joanna Smith-Ramani, Aspen Institute
From the introduction to the brief: This brief explores the links between racial disparities in debt and those in wealth. It is informed by Aspen FSP’s years of engagement with consumers and families about their financial challenges. It reflects findings from a literature review, interviews…

Structural Racism In Historical And Modern US Health Care Policy

Ruqaiijah Yearby, Brietta Clark, and José F. Figuero
The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated and amplified the harsh reality of health inequities experienced by racial and ethnic  minority groups in the United States. Members of these groups have disproportionately been infected and died from COVID-19, yet they still lack equitable access to…

Governor's FY 2023 Budget Proposal: MLRI's Preliminary Analysis of Selected Issues

MLRI
On January 26, 2022, Governor Baker released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2023 (FY 23), which is referred to as House 2. MLRI offers this preliminary analysis of selected budget topics impacting low-income residents of the Commonwealth. Download MLRI's preliminary…

Benefits Included in MassHealth by Coverage Type 2022

MLRI
Attached is a Table prepared by MLRI of the different kinds of services and service providers that are available under the various MassHealth coverage types described in MassHealth eligibility regulations & cross referencing to MassHealth fee for service regulations. It's been updated…

The Eviction Process: A Training for Massachusetts Attorneys and Advocates

MLRI

Boston’s Racial Equity History Project

Northeastern University
Interactive map showing the spread of racially restrictive deeds across of Hennepin County.

Improving Data on Race and Ethnicity: A Roadmap to Measure and Advance Health Equity

Grantmakers In Health (GIH) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
This Roadmap builds on an earlier report, Federal Action Is Needed to Improve Race and Ethnicity Data in Health Programs, in three critical respects. First, it expands on that report’s summary of the current state of race and ethnicity data in health care programs, offering more detail…

Millions more Americans now have the right to vote in non-English languages

Gabe Osterhout and Lantz McGinnis-Brown
Access to voting materials in a citizen’s native language helps boost involvement and voter turnout.

Racial Residential Segregation in Greater Boston

Harvard Chan-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health
Environmental racism is a term coined by activists in the environmental justice movement. The term describes how policies and practices surrounding environmental hazards disproportionately burden Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities while privileging White and wealthier…

Identifying and Addressing Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture

Frankie Quasarano, University of Michigan
A resource guide highlights characteristics of white supremacy culture, as outlined by Dr. Tema Okun, that can be pervasive in organizations and institutions. White supremacy is made manifest in many ways, some being more covert than others. The characteristics identified in this resource guide can…

Getting the Word Out:Outreach and Community Education for Legal Aid and Information Providers

Various
This December 15, 2021 presentation offers legal aid and other legal help and legal information providers ideas they can use to connect with vulnerable people in need of civil legal help in Massachusetts. Recording of the Presentation: View the presentation at this link. The presentation…

Race & Inequality in America

Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Jointly sponsored by CSREA and the Office of the Provost, the “Race & in America” series gathers Brown scholars to discuss how anti-Black racism remains an enduring and foundational feature of American society from a range of fields and scholarly perspectives. Speakers include:…

We're Reporting Census Data All Wrong

Luc Schuster, Boston Indicators
Census data on race and ethnicity are invaluable for understanding who we are as a region and how we’re changing over time. Invaluable, yes. But also imperfect. Headlines during the census count last year focused on challenges facing Census Bureau workers during a pandemic and on the Trump…

How Should Companies Fight Bias?

Clara Ferreira Marques
A Q&A with author Jessica Nordell on tackling sexism and stereotyping in the workplace and the need for better data on whether corporate diversity training actually works.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Inclusive Language in Writing

American Psychological Association
These inclusive language guidelines are written for those working to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion in the spaces that they learn, teach, work, or conduct research. This includes, but is not limited to, APA staff, volunteer leaders, members, students, affiliated organizations, and EDI…

Why addressing racism against Black women in health care is key to ending the US HIV epidemic

Nabila El-Bassel, Columbia University
Black American women have disproportionate HIV infection rates – in part because of systemic and structural racism in the health care system.  In late 2020, the American Medical Association declared structural racism a public health threat and emphasized the urgent need to…

Diversity helps nonprofits accomplish more when staff from different backgrounds can connect

Brad R. Fulton, Indiana University
When staff members learn how to acknowledge and talk about their social differences, nonprofits can get better at developing strategies, forming alliances and mobilizing people, a recent study found.

Latinos in Massachusetts

The Gastón Institute
2021 Latinos in Massachusetts series of reports focuses on the cities in the state with large Latino populations and that were most affected by Covid-19 cases.  This release includes the cities: Chelsea, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford Springfield…

Building AAPI Power: A Profile of AAPI Communities in Greater Boston

Boston Indicators
Many Americans are finally waking up to the long history, impact and disgraceful persistence of racial injustice in America. Many others, of course, experienced these injustices firsthand and needed no awakening. But the elevation of racial justice to the top of the mainstream civic agenda provides…

Examples of Completed Race Equity Tool

City of Seattle Government
Website that includes links to completed racial equity analysis for a variety of projects.

Centering Race and Structural Racism in Immigration Policy Research

Hamutal Bernstein, Sara McTarnaghan, and Ayesha Islam, Urban Institute
The Urban Institute convened leading voices in policy research and advocacy for a discussion on centering race and structural racism in immigration policy research, with the goal of articulating gaps to support change in the field.  This brief draws from this conversation to identify key…

Landlords Are Less Likely to Reply to Applicants with Black and Latino Names

Kelsey Butler
In the largest study of its kind to date, researchers created fictitious renters with names more often associated with White, African American or Hispanic identities. They then tracked more than 25,000 interactions between those people and 8,476 property managers in 50 of the largest U.S.…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Catchy Slogans and Buzzwords with Little Proof That They Matter to the Legal Profession in Massachusetts!

Sheriece M. Perry, Office of Court Management, Massachusetts Trial Court
Boston College Law Review.   Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants dedicated his life and much of his work on the bench of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to racial equity and justice. Sheriece Perry credits the late Chief Justice with his support of the Supreme Judicial Court’s…

Contact with Child Protective Services is pervasive but unequally distributed by race and ethnicity in large US counties (Brief Report)

Edwards, Wakefield, Healey and Wildeman
From the introduction to the article: This article provides county-level estimates of the cumulative prevalence of four levels of Child Protective Services (CPS) contact using administrative data from the 20 most populous counties in the United States. Rates of CPS investigation are extremely…

Implicit Bias Test

Harvard University
In the book Blindspot, the authors reveal hidden biases based on their experience with the Implicit Association Test. Project Implicit is graciously hosting electronic versions of Blindspot’s IATs. These should work properly on any desktop computer and on several touch-screen devices…

Spatial Equity Data Tool

Urban Institute
Tool to allow anyone to upload data to quickly assess spatial and demographic disparities.  The tool can help identify whether services tied to a physical location, such as parks, Wi-Fi hotspots, or food distribution sites, equitably reach intended populations and…

Black Families Matter: How the U.S. Family Regulation System Punishes Poor People of Color

Dorothy E. Roberts
One hour lecturer.  This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, the groundbreaking study of family regulation by acclaimed scholar of race, gender, and the law, Professor Dorothy E. Roberts. Drawing on her forthcoming…

OP ED-- Let's end criminal record penalty--and save money too

David Siegal, Robert Cordy, Crispin Birnbaum, Pauline Quirion
  This is an op ed in favor of automatic criminal and juvenile record sealing and other improvements that can be made by pending legislation.  Contact Pauline at GBLS for more information at  pquirion@gbls.org

Black WWII veterans would get G.I. benefits under Seth Moulton bill

Amy Sokolow, Boston Herald
The benefits of the G.I. Bill, often thought of as the path to the middle class for millions of WWII veterans, were largely denied to Black veterans. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, hopes to change that with a new bill. “Many Black veterans were … denied benefits, denied homes,…

March & Nov 2021 Update of FPL Tables in MassHealth & Health Connector

MassHealth & MLRI
Attached are updated Tables from MassHealth and MLRI showing the upper income levels for MassHealth and Health Connector programs. It is updated to show the cost of living adjustments for 2021 that take effect in MassHealth programs on March 1, 2021. The Health Connector uses the 2020 federal…

What ‘Structural Racism’ Really Means

Jamelle Bouie
Opinion piece, New York Times.

Black Lives Matter, Pandemic Inequalities Drive Use of Racial Impact Statements in State Policy

Elaine S. Povich, USA Today
From the article: More states are trying to assess the racial impact of new laws, as the consciousness of many legislators has been raised by the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on minorities. In many states, lawmakers…

Land acknowledgments meant to honor Indigenous people too often do the opposite – erasing American Indians and sanitizing history instead

Elisa J. Sobo, Michael Lambert, and Valerie Lambert
Land acknowledgments state that activities are taking place on land previously owned by Indigenous peoples. They’re popular – but they may harm more than they heal, say three anthropologists.

Zoning and Equity (Webinar)

A Rappaport Center for Law & Public Policy
Co-Sponsors: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies; BC Black Law Students Association (BLSA) Sara Bronin, Professor of Planning and Law at Cornell University Amy Dain, Consultant, Amy Dain Research; Participatory Moderator Lydia Edwards, Boston City Councilor, District One Harley Etienne,…

Why Your Chief Executive Officer Should Also Be Your Chief Diversity Officer

Rania Robinson, AdWeek
Rania Robinson advocates for inclusivity to be driven by the topmost leader, and the role of the CEO in maintaining accountability before others become burdened 

Working with clients experiencing Traumatic Brain Injury

Liz Valentin, Suffolk University Law School
While legal aid attorneys have come a long way in embracing trauma-informed advocacy, we still have much to learn about the physical and mental health of our clients. Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) can produce cognitive and psychological impairments, and not just for professional football players.…

Understanding the Rights of and Unique Challenges Faced by Indigenous Migrants

Immigrant Legal Resource Center
During the webinar, community leaders shared their experiences and perspectives as Indigenous people on Indigenous rights, sovereignty, migration, and ways to better serve Indigenous migrant clients.