Racial Capitalism

OBI Fellowship: “Race & Housing”

Nicole Montojo, EJ Toppin,

Evan Bissell

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Aliza, Asra, Erica, Shannon

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Summer 2021

AUTHORIAL SUPPORT

PRESENTER

DATE

Racial Capitalism Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Lesson 1 - Introduction to racial capitalism
3. Lesson 2 - Laws & policies that promote racial capitalism
4. Lesson 3 - How are social systems impacted by racial capitalism?
5. Lesson 4 - Visioning/re-imagining and action planning
6. Assessment

Enduring Understandings

From the work of E.J.Toppin, OBI

• “Race serves as a tool for naturalizing the inequalities of capitalism”
• “Racial Capitalism is the process by which the key dynamics of capitalism (accumulation/dispossession, credit/debit, production/surplus, capitalist/worker, developed/underdeveloped, etc.) become articulated through race”

We can’t make change alone; we must reimage a collective future

Understanding Racial Capitalism

Guiding Questions

Essential Question

How does racial capitalism impact us, our community, and power structures at large?

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Central Inquiry Questions

How does racial capitalism contribute to housing inequity in the Bay Area?

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What would it mean to make it right?

Common Core ELA Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7

Integrate, synthesize and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.9

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

Lesson 1:

Introduction to racial capitalism

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SWBAT understand content-specific vocabulary with concept maps that activate their prior knowledge and lived experiences.

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SWBAT be able to understand and connect the role of race and capitalism in society by examining a historical case study.

Agenda:

1. Warm Up
2. Essential Questions
3. Concept Maps
4. Teach-In
5. Exit Ticket

Although it is a complicated historical issue, racism in the Western world stems primarily from two related historical processes: taking land from and destroying indigenous people and enslaving Africans to work that land.

— James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me

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Warm Up: Respond to this quote

What does this quote make you notice, think, or wonder?

Guiding Questions for Lesson 1:

• What is racial capitalism? What are its characteristics?
• How has racial capitalism historically impacted the Bay Area?

Note to Teachers: Surfacing Prior Knowledge

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Students have extensive prior knowledge about these key concepts. These activities allow students to surface their prior knowledge from lived experiences and co-construct meaning.

Objective: SWBAT understand content-specific vocabulary through concept maps that activate their prior knowledge and lived experiences.

Time: 20 minutes

In small groups, students will map prior knowledge about concepts

• Key Terms: Capitalism, Race, Power
• Each group is assigned an anchor chart with post-its or a slide on jamboard, which contains one key concept with its respective guiding questions (on the next slide)
• The groups follow the process on the following slides

What do you already know about these key concepts?

Race

What is race? What is racism? Do we notice racism in our communities?

Capitalism

What is capitalism? How do money and wealth relate to power?

Power

What is power? Who holds power in our communities?

Image source

With your group, create a word web for one of these words:

Work together to build understanding using concept maps

Generate-Sort-Connect

1. Generate a list of ideas that come to mind when you think about this concept.
2. Sort your ideas according to how central they are.
3. Place central ideas near the center and less related ideas toward the outside.
4. Connect your ideas by drawing connecting lines between ideas.
5. Explain and write in a short sentence how the ideas are connected.

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Work together to build understanding using concept maps

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Gallery Walk!

Note to Teachers: Teach In

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Students should be following the teach-in with their double entry journals. First, this teach-in will provide definitions of the terms that students explored in the first section. Then, it will talk about the history of indigenous dispossession in the West Coast as a way of introducing students to the mechanisms of racial capitalism. This lesson assumes that students have somewhat explored the concepts of race/racism before in a classroom setting. If you are interested in constructing an entire lesson on race and racism, then the following resources are excellent:

• Video: Race the Power of an Illusion (3 parts; 2nd and 3rd parts very valuable; create a free account on Facing History and Ourselves to access it)
• Website: PBS Race the Power of an Illusion exploration (connected to videos; more interviews and lesson plans; lots of materials for teachers)

Objective: SWBAT be able to understand and connect the role of race and capitalism in society by examining a historical case study.

Time: 20 minutes

Independently, students will react to the material in the teach-in with their double entry journals. They will pause with their original small groups from the generate-sort-connect activity to talk about what they are learning at times. This is where the teacher can check for understanding.

Teach-In: Racial Capitalism in the Native American Community

Directions: Have your “double entry journal” in front of you. While listening to this new information, FILL IN THE BLANKS on the left hand side. Write down any REACTIONS or CONNECTIONS on the right hand side. We will pause a few times so that you can chat with your small group from before.

Teach-In: Definitions

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Begin by adding some definitions to your journals. Fill in the blanks on the left side.

• Race: a word created by humans which has evolved over time; how people assign meaning to how you look
• Racism: a practice that became popular in 18th century America, which treated groups of people differently and unequally based on race and skin color
• Capitalism: an economic and political system controlled by individual people and companies to make profits rather than the government
• Power: the ability to have a lot of control and influence over other people or organizations

Check for Understanding

Pause: Think about the definitions you just wrote down. Write down your reaction or connections to these words on the RIGHT side of your journal.

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Share: Talk to your group for 1-2 minutes about your reactions or connections.

• Are these definitions similar to what you thought before?
• Are they different? How?

Teach-In: Case Study of Native Americans

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Continue your notes by filling in the blanks on the left side.

• Today we are going to try and understand how “racism” and “capitalism” are connected through a case study.
• We are going to examine the history of the indigenous communities in the United States from the 1700s to 1800s. We will think about how racism and capitalism impacted this community.
• Difficult and important history
• State violence and dispossession occurred
• Extrajudicial and militia violence occurred

Teach-In: Case Study of Native Americans

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The Indigenous Bay Area, 1769. Map taken from Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas by Rebecca Solnit. Cartography: Ben Pease.

Ohlone Land Acknowledgement

Linked Here

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San Francisco and Daly City are both on Ramaytush/Yelamu Ohlone land.

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Richmond and Berkeley are both on Chochenyo/Huichin Ohlone land.

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Pittsburgh is on land of the Ompin tribe of the Bay Miwok.

State Violence and Dispossession

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• State violence is when a country uses its military to commit violence and terror against civilians when there is no war occurring
• Dispossession means removing people from their land and home in order to take that land
• The first example of this in the West Coast was when the Spanish established the mission system from San Diego to San Francisco in the 1700s

Continue your notes by filling in the blanks on the left side.

The Mission System

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• These missions were places that took land using violence, forced Native Americans to convert to Catholicism, and forced them to work for the Spanish in the missions
• Many Native Americans were removed from their homelands to foreign lands in order to work in the missions
• There were MANY attempts to resist the Spanish
• BUT spread of diseases from the Spanish (and other European explorers) is what made the Native American resistance weaker
• It is said at least 60% (6 out of 10) of the Native American population died in North and South America due to disease

Continue your notes by filling in the blanks on the left side.

Check for Understanding

Pause: Think about the history you just wrote down. Write down your reaction or connections to these words on the RIGHT side of your journal.

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Share: Talk to your group for 1-2 minutes about your reactions or connections.

• How did the Spanish mission system practice state violence?
• How did the Spanish mission system practice dispossession?

The Mexican Government

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• State violence and dispossession continued when the Spanish territories changed into the independent country of Mexico in the 1820s
• The Mexican government gave out land grants in what is now California to its citizens (mostly Spanish descended people), but very few went to Native Americans
• These land grants were used to raise domesticated animals in ranches for profit
• Native Americans often retaliated by conducting raids to take animals and sell them to other Europeans

Continue your notes by filling in the blanks on the left side.

The Gold Rush

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• Extrajudicial and militia violence means acts of terror carried out by people outside of the government
• When people swarmed northern California in 1848-1849 for the Gold Rush, there was a lot of chaos
• Murders, abuse, and violence against Native Americans who resisted land theft occurred by many incoming gold-seekers and unofficial military forces that formed

Continue your notes by filling in the blanks on the left side.

Check for Understanding

Pause: Think about the history you just wrote down. Write down your reaction or connections to these words on the RIGHT side of your journal.

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Share: Talk to your group for 1-2 minutes about your reactions or connections.

• Why did Mexican citizens, mostly European descended, want indigenous land? What tactics did they use to get it?
• Why did immigrant gold miners want indigenous land? What tactics did they use?

The American Government

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• The most intense dispossession occurred when the United States admitted California as a state after 1850 and recognized NO indigenous land rights
• Laws in the U.S. and California blocked Native American citizenship, voting rights, legal rights, and legalized slavery
• Many Native children were kidnapped violently to become slaves
• Reservations were created, but most were unhelpful and poor quality
• Most Native tribes were unrecognized and could not receive assistance from the U.S. government (like the Ohlone today)

Continue your notes by filling in the blanks on the left side.

Connect: How do racism and capitalism overlap?

RACISM

CAPITALISM

Page 3

Synthesize: What is racial capitalism?

RACIAL CAPITALISM

• Racial capitalism explains that capitalism requires subjugation of others to work
• Most of the people who are subjugated, either by providing labor or being dispossessed of land, will be determined by race
• People created ranked racial categories to justify getting more capital - often times violently
• Capital could be land, natural resources, factories, etc.
• Therefore, capitalism depends on inequality to function

Exit Ticket:

• What is racial capitalism? What are its characteristics?
• How has racial capitalism historically impacted the Bay Area? (Refer to notes about indigenous experiences.)

Page 3

Lesson 2:

Laws and policies in place that present racial capitalism & inequitable outcomes

SWBAT understand how capitalism historically facilitated and required racial inequity.

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SWBAT examine and cite sources in order to synthesize the role that government plays in racial inequity.

Agenda:

• Warm Up
• Essential Questions
• Teach-In
• Source Examination
• Connect-Extend-Challenge

Lesson 2: Guiding Questions

1. What are the effects of racial capitalism in our communities?
2. What do you think housing justice means?

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Warm Up: See, Think, Wonder

https://belonging.berkeley.edu/b4b/curriculum

(Belonging Workshop)

Part 2: Class Discussion

1. Students will share out ideas
2. Different examples from previous lesson
3. How might capitalism influence these categories to be different?

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Part 1: Independently

1. What do you notice about this model?
2. Do you see similarities in the visuals?
3. What are the differences in these models?

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What principles are our country built on?

• Whip Around: answering the question above.
• Assuming students are mentioning (freedom, liberty, justice, rights, opportunity etc.)

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From what you think and heard, do the principles of our country lean towards: exclusion, segregation, integration or belonging?

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Historically Thinking about Belonging in the U.S.

Partner Work: for 3-5 minutes, work with your partner to determine if the examples below should be categorized as exclusion, segregation, integration or belonging. Please explain your answer.

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Historically Thinking About Belonging

• Who/What gets to determine OR what happens when someone’s opportunities conflict with the rights/freedoms conflicts of others?

https://belonging.berkeley.edu/b4b/curriculum

(Belonging Workshop)

Capitalism is a tactic of racial exclusion & segregation

Note to Teachers: Teach-In

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Students should be following the teach-in with their double entry journals. First, this teach-in will review what racial capitalism is and its connection to the government. Then, it will explore how and why our government excludes. This lesson assumes that students have somewhat defined racial capitalism before in a classroom setting.

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Objective: SWBAT understand how capitalism historically facilitated and required racial inequity.

Time: 20 minutes

Teach-In: Capitalism and Racial Inequality

Directions: Have your “double entry journal” in front of you. While listening to this new information, FILL IN THE BLANKS on the left hand side. Write down any REACTIONS or CONNECTIONS on the right hand side. We will pause a few times so that you can chat with your small group from before.

Review

• Capitalism: an economic and political system controlled by individual people and companies to make profits rather than the government

Racial Capitalism is Capitalism

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• Racial capitalism explains that capitalism requires subjugation of others to work
• One person who owns the capital and pays the other for labor. Capital is how to accumulate as much as possible. This would lead to us someone being exploited.

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• People created ranked racial categories to justify getting more capital, oftentimes violently

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• Most of the people who are subjugated, either by providing labor or being dispossessed of land, will be determined by race

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Capitalism and the U.S. Government

Capitalism has never existed without the state (the government)

• Capitalism was a result of feudalism (ownership of land) from Britain

The construction of the U.S. came on the economic basis of dispossession and enslavement

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Most leaders who created the Constitution wanted a protection on slavery, as it was a captial of labor and wealth.

• Embedded articles and sections to continue

Capitalism and the U.S. government became a tactic of racial exclusion & segregation

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Why does our government exclude?

Laws uphold hierarchical systems based on:

1) Capital gains

• Allows White people to remain in a position of superiority through profit from exploitation

2) Racial discrimination

• “The most potent weapon used against demands for black equality has been capitalism.” – Mehrsa Baradaran

3) Race makes markets

• Free market ideology
• “If you buy that story, then you can erase the racial construction of the housing market.” – David Freund

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How do they exclude while “upholding” the principles of our country?

• Free Market Ideology
• “If you buy that story, then you can erase the racial construction of the housing market.” – David Freund

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• The Power in Policy Making and Voting
• Racially Coded Laws: meant to exclude groups as a way to give advantage to others
• Controlling who gets to create policies and who gets to vote determines power to inflict (in)equality
• Example: 3/5ths compromise

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Racialized Policies on a local, state, and federal level creates long-term effects on wealth, civil rights, and housing.

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For example, based on our previous learning

• Dispossession of native land to create the U.S.
• Policies that have determined rights, status, and ownership
• Enslavement of Africans in the Americas

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• Bridge to historical sourcing activity: acknowledge that the exclusion of the Native American and Black communities became an intro to the construction of the U.S., Racial Capitalism also intentionally targeted other BIPOC communities through policy which ultimately created a catalyst of inequality and housing issues

from “Roots, Race, & Place: A History of Racially Exclusionary Housing Policy in the Bay Area,” 2019.

belonging.berkeley.edu/rootsraceplace

“Tactics” of Racialized Housing

1. State violence and dispossession
2. Extrajudicial and militia violence
3. Exclusionary Zoning (redlining)
4. Racialized policies
5. Urban renewal

Exclusionary Zoning

• Zoning delineates what land uses are legal and where these limits apply.
• Formally, zoning is justified by public health rationales, but in intention and effect it has often perpetuated racial exclusion.
• “As zoning practices spread through the 1920s, emphasis on the enhancement of property values became the dominant argument.” Then “almost universally, it was believed that the wrong sorts of people residing, or even working, in an area could negatively impact property values.” (Trounstine)

Racialized Public Housing Policies

• Wartime public housing in the Bay Area was officially segregated (except for Marin City).
• The construction white and Black public housing was not equal - inland white public housing built with more permanent materials.
• Location siting was also racialized: Many were built on landfill sites near railroads and industrial facilities along the waterfront, exposing residents to environmental and safety hazards.
• Due to “racial rationing” policies, fewer public housing units were available to Black families
• Opposition to public and affordable housing later justified through “color-blind” appeals

Source Examination Activity

Objective #2: SWBAT examine and cite sources in order to synthesize the role that government plays in racial inequity.

Directions

Students will be working with their thought partners or group to examine case studies of historically racialized policies and the role of the government. Students will also explore the social, economic, and/or political impacts that came out of these policies

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Answer the questions based on your group’s assigned source.

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Be ready to share back with your group and record your group members’ answers.

Page 7

As early as 1855, Chinese migrants were living in the section of San Francisco that became known as Chinatown, formed as a relatively safe enclave from racially motivated violence. Located below Nob Hill, next to the Financial District and just north of the Central Business District, the community sat between the commercial and residential neighborhoods of the city. In this city-within-a-city, people from a wide spectrum of economic classes were squeezed into tiny apartments without indoor plumbing or adequate ventilation. In 1870, the Cubic-Air Ordinance was selectively enforced in Chinatown, imposing fines and jail terms against Chinese lodging house owners for not providing adequate air space per lodger. (Prohibited rental of rooms with less than 500 cubic feet of air per person.)

Additional official ordinances unfairly imposed on Chinese-owned businesses left them with limited economic opportunities and Chinatown became a ghetto of ten square blocks. To compound the challenges, a two-day riot waged against Chinese immigrants in July 1877 resulted in four deaths and the destruction of more than $100,000 worth of property belonging to the city's Chinese immigrant population.

Society of Architectural Historians

The March 2, 1878 cover of The San Francisco Illustrated Wasp depicts the jailing of Chinese lodging house residents following the adoption of the Cubic Air Ordinance.

Source 1: Cubic-Air Ordinance

An excerpt from the Realtor Code of Ethics adopted by the National Association of Real Estate Boards in 1924 and revised in 1928

In 1962 a Berkeley teacher, Miss Frances Fletcher, presents statistics gathered by the National Real Estate Research Corporation on racial discrimination in San Francisco's rental housing market, which show that two-thirds of landlords refused to rent to African American tenants.

“Get Back Your Rights,” Committee for Home Protection flyer in favor of Proposition 14, 1964.

Source 2: Prop 14

The Price List for the Berkeley Park subdivision in Kensington includes a restriction against “Asiatics or Africans.” George Friend Company, ca. 1914

A Laymance Real Estate Company newspaper advertisement for Rock Ridge Park in Oakland advertises that “no negroes, no Chinese, no Japanese” can build or lease in Rock Ridge Park.

Source 3: Advertisements

Source: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=11/37.81/-122.37&city=oakland-ca

Of the San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay that are currently experiencing gentrification, the vast majority ― over 80 percent ― were rated as “hazardous” or “definitely declining” in HOLC (Home Owners’ Loan Corporation) redlining maps in the 1930s.

Source 4: Redlining

Traces of the Past Today

Racial and spatial dimensions of:

• Concentrated wealth and poverty
• Contemporary expressions of racial exclusion
• Gentrification and displacement

Race + Housing Glossary

Concentrated Wealth & Poverty

• Segregation

The separation of groups of people from each other in various domains of life, with the purpose of controlling access to, or the distribution of, opportunities and communal resources, both public and private.�

• Opportunity

The full set of pathways available to a person, by which they can access resources and develop their capabilities. However, these sets of pathways are not always readily accessible or attainable due to the different types of social, cultural, and economic barriers in our society.

Turn & Talk: Where do you see segregation in our society?

Concentrated Wealth & Poverty: Segregation

�https://belonging.berkeley.edu/roots-structural-racism��

The difference between highest and lowest life expectancy for Bay Area ZIP Codes is over 13 years.

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Life expectancy is more than five years greater in highly segregated white neighborhoods (84 years) than highly segregated Black/Latinx neighborhoods (79 years).

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Source: MTC Vital Signs https://www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/life-expectancy

Racial & Spatial Disparities

Source: MTC Vital Signs http://www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/housing-permits#chart-2

In 2017, fewer than one in five housing units in the Bay Area for which permits were issued could be classified as affordable housing – that is, housing affordable to very low- and low-income households.

Contemporary Expressions of Racial Exclusion

Exit Ticket

Page 10

Lesson 3:

How are social systems impacted by racial capitalism?

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SWBAT explain the outcomes of racial capitalism that are visible in their communities.

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SWBAT examine models of resistance to racial capitalism in the Bay Area.

Agenda:

• Warm Up
• Guiding Questions
• Flip the Script Activity (Part 1)
• Teach-In
• Flip the Script activity (Part 2)

Warm Up

Think-Pair-Share

Turn to your partner and discuss your answers. Be prepared to share out.

Lesson 3: Guiding Questions

1. What do you think housing justice means?
2. What are ways that communities have fought against these effects?

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COMMUNITY VIOLENCE

Part 1:

In groups, answer the following questions based on your knowledge of housing in the Bay Area.

injustice

to

action

moving from

Community Circle:

Why should we fight back?

What could housing justice look like?

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

• rent stabilization / rent control & rent caps
• just cause for eviction
• fair housing & anti-discrimination laws
• Covid-19 eviction moratoria

PROTECTION means ensuring renters can remain in their homes, don’t experience the health impacts of housing instability or displacement, and can continue to fully participate in their community

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

Organizations: Causa Justa : Just Cause, Tenants Together, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Safe Return Project, National Housing Law Project

https://homesguarantee.com/tenants-bill-of-rights/

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

PRESERVATION of existing housing at all affordability levels - a commitment to maintaining affordable units despite changing economic conditions, and replacing units at the same affordability levels for the same residents when preserving units is impossible.

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• acquisition & rehabilitation of older affordable homes (e.g. by land trusts or nonprofit developers), taking them off the speculative market so they remain permanently affordable
• tenant opportunity to purchase (TOPA) / community opportunity to purchase (COPA) policies
• replacement requirements for redeveloped or demolished buildings (e.g for SROs)

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

Organizations: Oakland Community Land Trust, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, Richmond LAND, Chinatown CDC

https://moms4housing.org/

https://oakclt.org/portfolio-items/moms-house/

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

Organizations: East Bay Housing Organizations, Council of Community Housing Organizations (SF), Destination HOME (San Jose), National Low Income Housing Coalition

• removing exclusionary & restrictive land use barriers,
• inclusionary housing policies (requiring affordable housing as a % of new construction)
• public funding for affordable housing (e.g.bond measures)
• utilizing vacant public land for new affordable housing

PRODUCTION of new housing units at needed affordability levels, and prioritizing balanced housing production through regulations and incentives for developers as well as through a commitment to using public resources for affordable housing.

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• EBHO (east bay); CCHO (sf)
• Urban Habitat (public land)
• Destination HOME �(San Jose)
• National Low Income Housing Coalition

Santa Clara County Measure A ($950 million Affordable Housing Bond)

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

Organizations: Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, CA Environmental Justice Alliance, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern CA

• EBHO (east bay); CCHO (sf)
• Urban Habitat (public land)
• Destination HOME �(San Jose)
• National Low Income Housing Coalition

PLACEMENT of housing near resources & opportunities. Housing in the Bay Area should support residents’ health in a comprehensive, holistic way. This means locating homes by transit and healthy food sources and away from sources of pollution, and ensuring ensuring equitable access to affordable housing in these places.

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• Building affordable housing in high-resource neighborhoods
• Neighborhood & community development w/o displacement
• Equitable geographic distribution of public resources
• Intersection with Environmental Justice movements

Richmond Our Power Coalition

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

Organizations: Housing & Dignity Project, Richmond LAND, PICO California, South of Market Community Action Center, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment

Strengthening the POWER of residents to ensure responsive and equitable housing decisions. Meaningful participation of residents and community leaders in planning & policymaking processes that impact their housing stability.

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• Reimagined public participation processes
• Community control of land: land trusts, co-ops & collective ownership models
• Organizing & education (on housing & beyond), �know your rights trainings
• Shifting economic control to communities, democratic access to shared resources

“Richmond LAND creates pathways for residents to shape real estate, land use and development in the West Contra Costa area. We do this through increasing the collective knowledge, accessible resources, and capacity for resident decision-making and leadership. We work with local, regional and national coalitions to build our collective strength.”

https://www.richmondland.org/vision

CFU

Answer the questions above on page 14.

Lesson 4:

Visioning/re-imagining and action planning

SWBAT co-create and present resolutions that re-imagine local housing policy and resists racial capitalism.

Agenda:

• Warm Up
• Essential Questions
• Models of Housing Justice
• Discussion
• Assessment

What does housing justice mean to you?

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We cannot move forward without confronting the past.

�What would it mean to �make it right?

Lesson 4: Guiding Questions

1. What would it mean to make it right? How can we reimagine and transform our laws, institutions, markets, systems of property rights, connection to land, and relationships to our neighbors in order to fully realize racial equity?
2. How would these solutions resist racial capitalism?
1. What systems must be dismantled, changed, or newly established? What power needs to shift?
2. What would solutions to housing injustice look like in your community?

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https://belonging.berkeley.edu/b4b/curriculum

(Belonging Workshop)

Capitalism is a tactic of racial exclusion & segregation

How can we move from exclusion → belonging?

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https://movementgeneration.org/

Design by Micah Bazant

https://homesforall.org/�https://righttothecity.org/

Models of Housing Justice in the Bay Area

East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EBPREC)

Building co-ownership models of housing, for and by BIPOC

• Down payment assistance to low/middle income families buy 1st home
• Home ownership helps families accumulate wealth and be more secure financially and socially
• Community buying program: transform abandoned lots into new homes into affordable housing;
• Partnership between Hello Housing, City of Oakland & Alameda County
• So far: 24 new single-family homes & 2 properties slated for apartment buildings

Building Housing Justice in the Bay

• Rent Control Campaigns
• These fight against a law called the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that allows landlords to set whatever rent they want when a new tenant moves in
• Creating laws that say landlords need a just cause for eviction
• Causa Justa : Just Cause
• Creating laws against discrimination and for fair tenant screening policy
• Organizing & Education: Know your rights trainings (Centro Legal de la Raza)
• Community control of land: land trusts, co-ops, collective ownership models (EBPREC; Moms 4 Housing; Sogorea Te Land Trust)

Summative Assessment (Link)

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Re-imagine Racial Capitalism and Housing Policy in the Bay Area

Page 17

Summative Assessment (Link)

1. Make sure to address the following concepts using the guiding questions below:
2. Include historical context and analysis of racial capitalism. [Lesson 1]
1. What is racial capitalism? What are its characteristics?
2. How is racial capitalism related to power?
3. How has racial capitalism historically impacted housing in the Bay Area?
3. Describe forms of resistance to racial capitalism. [Lessons 2 and 3]
• What are the effects of racial capitalism in our communities today?
• What do you think housing justice means?
• What are ways that communities have fought against these effects?
4. Reimagine and propose solutions to housing injustice. [Lesson 4]
• What would it mean to make it right?
• How would your solutions resist racial capitalism?
1. What systems must be dismantled, changed, or newly established?
2. What power needs to shift?
3. What would solutions to housing injustice look like in your community?

Discuss: Include historical context and analysis of racial capitalism

First, let’s reflect on the materials from Lesson 1 where we developed concept maps. Discuss each set of questions with your group for 2 min. Select one person to be the speaker for your group to get ready for the whole group share out.

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• What is racial capitalism and what are its characteristics?
• Notes from whole group share out:
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• How is racial capitalism related to power?
• Notes from whole group share out:

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Discuss: Describe forms of resistance to racial capitalism.

Second, let’s reflect on the materials from Lessons 2 and 3, especially the teach-ins and your double entry notes. Discuss each set of questions with your group for 2 min. Select one person to be the speaker for your group to get ready for the whole group share out.

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• What are the effects of racial capitalism in our communities?
• Notes from whole group share out:

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• What do you think “housing justice” means and how have people fought against the effects of racial capitalism?
• Notes from whole group share out:

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Summative Assessment

Together,

we will reimagine and propose solutions to housing injustice

Brainstorm: Reimagine and propose solutions to housing injustice.

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Before we attempt to co-create resolutions, let’s brainstorm what changing housing injustice even means. Take your graphic organizer titled “BLANK” and fill in the boxes with prior knowledge from this class PLUS your own lived experiences from the Bay Area.

Here is our central question from the graphic organizer:

• How can we reimagine and transform our laws, institutions, markets, systems of property rights, connection to land, and relationships to our neighbors in order to fully realize racial equity?

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Co-create: Reimagine and propose solutions to housing injustice.

Now, we are going to end this unit by co-creating resolutions. Basically, you and your small group will re-imagine and come up with solutions to the problems of housing that you notice in the Bay Area.

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Here are some guiding questions to use while brainstorming solutions:

• How would your solutions resist racial capitalism?
• What systems must be dismantled, changed, or newly established?
• What power needs to shift?
• What would solutions to housing injustice look like in your community?

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You have 3 options to present your visions:

• Write a resolution (written)
• Design a poster or brochure (visual)
• Create a video (audio and visual)

Additional Materials

the five “Ps”

of housing

policy

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Adapted from BARHII, barhii.org

Hello Housing: Non-Profit Organization Making Home Ownership more accessible to all

What they do:

• Provide down payment assistance to low & middle income families to buy 1st home
• Home ownership helps families accumulate wealth and be more secure financially and socially
• Community buying program: transform abandoned lots into new homes into affordable housing; partnership between nonprofit (Hello Housing), City of Oakland & Alameda County Tax Collector.
• So far: 24 new single-family homes & 2 properties slated for apartment buildings

East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EBPREC): Building co-ownership models of housing, for and by BIPOC

What they do:

• Take land and housing off the regular market to create permanently affordable, community controlled land and housing.
• Use a co-op model
• That means the residents collectively own and control the developments in which they live, and they share the profits and the benefits
• It means land without landlords, redistributing resources, re-imagining collective power

Other Ways People are fighting for housing justice

• Rent Control Campaigns!
• These fight against a law called the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that allows landlords to set whatever rent they want when a new tenant moves in
• Creating laws that say landlords need a just cause for eviction: that they can't just evict people willy-nilly (Causa Justa : Just Cause)
• Community control of land: land trusts, co-ops, collective ownership models (EBPREC; Moms 4 Housing; Sogorea Te Land Trust)
• Creating laws against discrimination and for fair tenant screening policy
• Organizing & Education: Know your rights trainings (Centro Legal de la Raza)

source: anti-eviction mapping project

Active Rent Control Campaigns Led by Tenant Unions Across the Bay

Organizations Working for Housing Justice

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Bay Area

• ACCE
• Causa Justa : Just Cause�
• East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EBPREC)
• Oakland CLT
• East Bay Housing Organization (EBHO)
• Urban Habitat

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California + National

• Tenants Together�
• Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)�
• National Housing Law Project�
• National Low Income Housing Coalition