Center for

Social Inclusion

Annual Report
 1 Mission Statement
2 Letter from Maya Wiley
4 Communications:
a. Diversity Advancement Project
b. Stop Dog Whistle Racism
6 Leadership: The Alston Bannerman Leadership Initiative
7 Ideas: New York
8 Feature: CSI in the South
a. CSI Welcomes Cassandra Welchlin
b. Promoting Sustainable Growth in Columbia, SC
c. Helping Black Families Keep Their Land
d. Gulf Coast Leaders Form Regional Alliance
e. Supporting Education Reform in Mississippi

12 CSI Advisory Board

12 CSI Staff
13 CSI Donors
About the Center for Social Inclusion

The Center for Social Inclusion works with communities of color and
other allies to develop ideas, tools and strategies for dismantling
structural racism and increasing well-being for all. Structural racism is
the accumulation of practices and policies that collectively deny people
of color adequate resources and equal opportunities to thrive. It hits
communities of color first and hardest, but ultimately, it harms everyone,
by undermining the social infrastructure that we all rely on.

Addressing structural racism requires careful analysis of multiple

policies, institutions, and the interactions between them. It also requires
an understanding of how structural racism harms us all, and a strong
multi-racial movement advocating for new policy directions that create
equity and opportunity. CSI’s work with local and national allies builds
all three, on a foundation of strategic and overlapping pillars of work:

Ideas – through applied research and community consultation, we

develop policy proposals that translate strategic ideas into concrete
plans for structural transformation with equity.

Leadership – we support the ability of community leaders to impact

policy debates that affect their communities and perpetuate structural
racism.

Communications – we develop tools and strategies for productive

public conversations about race.

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 A Message from Maya Wiley

In the hard times, will there also be singing?

Yes, there will be singing
About the hard times – Bertolt Brecht

A friend of mine, Akwasi Aidoo, founder and Executive Director of

Trust Africa, sent me this quote from Brecht. It was, he said, some
solace. We are in hard times and we are in transformative times. It is
an understatement to say that 2008 has been an historic year. And
we at CSI, like others, have been trying to sing about the possibility
of transformation in these times that muzzle us with uncertainty.

It seems fitting, in this year in which this nation elected its first
African American president, in which civic engagement reached
new heights and in which our financial, environmental and social
challenges are almost unprecedented, that CSI presents our first
annual report. It comes at the end of our sixth year of existence and
at a time of extraordinary growth for the organization. When I started
CSI, I had one grant from the Open Society Institute, and no office or
staff. Today, our budget has surpassed $1 million, and we are a staff
of nine working not only nationally, but also with a regional presence
in the South.

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 This historic year of hard times and
transformational hope brought new
opportunities that have us redefining CSI’s
strategies. From mapping opportunity
and race in the greater New York City
metropolitan area to expanding programs
and presence in the South, with the hiring of a Director of Southern
Programs based in Jackson, MS, our geographic work is strategically
focused. In a year in which our national dialogue on race was more
active and, at times, more destructive, we expanded our work
around talking effectively about race with Stop Dog Whistle Racism,
an online project to monitor and publicize the ways that appeals to
racial hostility undermine honest political debates. And we began to
lay the groundwork for big new projects that will build the capacity
of communities of color to thrive in a changing environment and
economy and to strengthen the nation as a whole (more on that next
year!).

It is hard to overstate the possibilities and challenges that 2009 brings.

If we work together collectively and strategically to understand the
role that race plays in our structural arrangements and to build a
broad, multi-racial progressive movement that truly understands our
connectedness across race, gender, sexuality and class, we will have a
chorus singing different parts, but in harmony. We will write together a
new song we can all sing. We look forward to singing with old partners
and new in the coming year to make transformation a reality.

Maya Wiley
Executive Director

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 The Diversity Advancement Project tests strategies
for challenging ‘colorblind’ race frames.

Communications: TALKING ABOUT RACE

The political right has a strategy. Quietly, without direct reference to

race in America, it works to undermine policies that advance racial
justice, even when they benefit us all across races. Progressives have
been stymied by this attack. We have at times allowed the right to
define policies of racial justice as “preferential” or “unfair.” We have not
had a strategic response to attacks on universal policies like welfare
that use race to divide us and undermine support for the social safety
net. Today more than ever, we struggle against the notion that ours is
a ”colorblind” society, when in fact people of color are much more likely
to live in poverty, to be exposed to environmental hazards, to bear the
brunt of everything from global warming to the subprime-fueled financial
meltdown.

In short, we cannot make lasting advances towards justice if we do not

find more effective ways to talk about race. CSI’s Diversity Advancement
Project (DAP), a project in partnership with the Kirwan Institute for the
Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University, tests strategies
for breaking the frames used by the right and building new ways to
advocate for racial justice.

Last year, DAP released results from field tests that use “frame-breaking”
strategies to confront the four prevalent cognitive frames that undermine
support for race-conscious policies:

• There are no racial disparities anymore

• Racial disparities are caused by individual/community failings

• It is inevitable that some people will be at the bottom of the pecking order

• Though disparities exist, it is unfair to provide assistance on the basis of race.

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“In test results released in the past year,” according to CSI Advocacy
Coordinator Lynne Wolf, “we’ve found that you have to cover all bases:
when you give people information challenging some but not all of the
frames, support for policies to address racial inequality actually declines.
But challenging all four frames increases support by 20%.”

CSI Launches Election Monitoring Project

It has been 20 years since the “Willie Horton” political advertisement

attacking Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis as soft
on crime launched the first President Bush into the White House. Much
has changed since then, but the tactic epitomized by that ad – symbolic
appeals to racial fears – remains potent.

Social scientists call it “symbolic racism” – subtle exploitation of

unconscious racial biases to win political campaigns and policy debates.
They have shown that these tacit appeals work when they manipulate
the unconscious fears of viewers, but only so long as the message is not
explicit. This year, given the historic nature of the Presidential campaign
and its impact on the debate about race in America, CSI launched a project
to monitor and publicize symbolic racism, and more broadly to capture all
the ways that race is used as a weapon in political and policy debates.

“Real social justice, ultimately, requires that we talk about race well in
public conversations, not avoid it,” says CSI Director Maya Wiley. “The
manipulation of subconscious stereotypes is a major obstacle to our ability
as a nation to find solutions to our most pressing problems. We must
understand how symbolic racism works, and how we can most effectively
confront it.”

CSI will release a report on its findings in 2009; in the meantime,

the data that we gathered during the electoral season is available at
StopDogWhistleRacism.com

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 This fellowship will support creative
thinking to generate transformational ideas
for the field and for the nation.

Leadership: supporting community

organizers of color
Who was it that said: “like community organizing, but with actual
responsibilities?” Someone who doesn’t understand the impact of
community organizers and the role they play in helping others find their own
leadership abilities. Someone who fails to grasp that community organizing
is critical to a truly democratic society.

We understand. In January 2008, CSI incorporated the Alston Bannerman

Program, which supports organizers of color working in their communities.
Alston Bannerman was formed by the New World Foundation in recognition
of the critical, under-appreciated role that organizers play, day after day, from
crisis to crisis, in communities hard hit by structural racism, globalization,
and systematic neglect.

Madeleine Adamson has coordinated the program since its inception. She
says: “These leaders are truly national heroes, making great sacrifices to
improve the lives of their neighbors and to fulfill the promise of democracy.”

For 20 years, Alston Bannerman has offered sabbaticals for study, travel,
reflection and rest to support the retention of leaders in the field. CSI is
continuing this important program and building much more. In 2009, CSI
is launching a structured research initiative to allow veteran organizers to
reflect on critical problems facing communities of color. Too often, critical
thinkers are not given the resources they need to move from reactive to
proactive strategy mode. This fellowship will support creative thinking to
generate transformational ideas for the field and for the nation. To the same
end, we will also work to develop a multi-racial activist network, with Alston
Bannerman alumni at the core, to collaborate nationally on strategies for
promoting equality and opportunity.

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“Alston Bannerman changes CSI in very exciting ways,” says Director
Maya Wiley. “Building the advocacy capacity of community groups is
essential to real social change. Through this Initiative, we can create
a network for generating and disseminating the ideas for policy reform
that are key to a truly just and fair society.”

Ideas: Understanding the policy

geography of New York City
Metropolitan regions are central economic and social units, but most
are deeply fragmented politically. The New York City metropolitan
region is no different. Made up of thirty counties in three states, it is
diverse and segregated. It is dynamic and stagnating. It is in constant
demographic flux, driven by immigration, economic opportunity and
pressures, and by zoning, fiscal and other policy decisions at the city
and state levels.

How do these dynamics impact different communities? In 2008, a

CSI study found a systematically inequitable distribution of resources
across New York City and the region as a whole.

The study used a technique called “opportunity mapping” to match

data on the racial demographics of the region with data on where vital
resources are located. It allowed us to show that people of color are
more likely to be isolated from medical facilities, jobs, good schools,
banks and other necessary services.

“The findings are stark,” says CSI Researcher Jacob Faber, who
performed the mapping analysis. “As New York has become more
prosperous for some, people of color have been increasingly pushed to
the side, unable to afford neighborhoods that offer all the things that a
community needs to thrive.”

As communities of color increasingly make up the majority of

residents, this should send up a red flag to policy makers. CSI will work
with allies to disseminate our findings and develop policy prescriptions
in the coming year.

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 What we have in mind is nothing less than a
new, progressive Southern Strategy, one that
will build a broad movement for real social
justice with racial equity.

CSI in the South

The South is changing. More than half of the nation’s African Americans
now live in the South, and immigrant populations are growing
exponentially in some parts of the region. These demographic changes,
increasingly, mean new political possibilities in the region and beyond.

CSI has always been committed to work in the South, and over the past
year we have significantly deepened our engagement there. Accordingly,
this annual report highlights the work that embodies our ambitious
commitment to build the capacity of communities of color in the region.

“The South is key to the success or failure of the broad progressive

agenda,” says Maya Wiley. “We have several projects in the region, but
ultimately, they are parts of one whole. What we have in mind is nothing
less than a new, progressive Southern Strategy, one that will build a broad
movement for real social justice with racial equity.”

CSI Welcomes Cassandra Welchlin

Last summer, CSI hired Cassandra Welchlin as Director of Southern

Programs. A long-time community activist born and raised in Jackson, MS,
Cassandra will oversee and develop CSI’s work in the region.

“I am thrilled that Cassandra is joining us,” says Maya Wiley. “She brings
deep relationships with leaders in Mississippi and the region, and as
a former consultant for CSI, she has a been an important resource for
our work. It is a very big expansion of our capacity and our impact in
the South.”

Cassandra has worked with many prominent organizations in the region,

including Southern Echo, the MS Youth Justice Project of the Southern
Poverty Law Center, the Mississippi NAACP, the Southern Rural Black
Women’s Initiative, and Oxfam America. She has a background in social
work and a Master’s Degree in Sustainable International Development
from Brandeis University.
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Promoting Sustainable Growth in Columbia, SC

The Columbia, SC metropolitan region is marked by stark contrasts: the

open land of undeveloped rural areas is sometimes just across the city
line from dense urban neighborhoods. Extremes of poverty and affluence
also divide the region. In many ways, zoning and growth are at the heart
of these disparities.

In 2004, CSI began working with rural communities in the region

to ensure that growth in Columbia does not leave them behind. We
examined a plan for regional development and concluded that the plan
would entrench poverty in rural communities. Since then, we have
worked with community leaders to develop equitable and sustainable
alternatives to guide regional growth.

In January 2008, we released Growing Together: Thriving People

for a Thriving Columbia, a report showing how investment in rural
parts of the metropolitan region could benefit all residents. The report
highlights shocking disparities between wealthy suburbs and poor rural
communities that lack basic services like water and sewer lines. While
pointing out that these disparities fall largely along racial lines, it also
emphasizes the environmental and economic threat they pose to the
region as a whole.

“The exciting thing about the report is that it offers solutions that would
create not only a more equitable region, but one at the cutting edge of
ecologically sustainable growth,” says Advocacy Coordinator Lynne Wolf, a
primary author of the report. “The farmlands in Columbia are a tremendous
resource that could benefit the entire region through organic farming,
biofuel production and through the land’s potential for geothermal energy.”

The farmlands in Columbia are a tremendous

resource that could benefit the entire region through
organic farming, biofuel production and through the
land’s potential for geothermal energy. 9
 The fact that many African American families in
the South can no longer maintain farmland that
has typically been in the family for generations
represents a drastic loss of economic opportunity.

Helping Black Families Keep Their Land

An issue at the heart of our work in South Carolina and the region as a
whole is black land loss. The fact that many African American families in
the South can no longer maintain farmland that has typically been in the
family for generations represents a drastic loss of economic opportunity.
In 2008, CSI launched a broad effort to support projects that help Black
landowners in the South stay on their land.

The project, supported by the Ford Foundation, will work with a host of
organizations that address Black land loss to develop an understanding
of the most effective means to preserve land-ownership, and it will bring
organizations together to collaborate and share ideas and strategies across
the region. The project will conclude in late 2010.

Says Cassandra Welchlin: “For most people across history, land has been
the primary resource. As it becomes more and more difficult to maintain a
family farm in the U.S., African Americans across the South are losing their
land in increasing numbers, land that in many cases has been in the family
since Reconstruction. Unchecked, this trend will obliterate a way of life and
will have unimaginable consequences for communities of color.”

Gulf Coast Leaders Form Regional Alliance

Over the past year, CSI has worked with advocates in Louisiana, Mississippi
and Alabama to form an effective regional platform to demand equitable
rebuilding in Gulf Coast states.

The initiative, the Gulf Coast Leaders Network, was launched in mid-2007
and includes leaders from a range of issue-based organizations in various
geographic areas of the states. Network members have been meeting
frequently to build connections across the region and develop a shared
analysis and strategy to support national and state-wide policy reforms.

“Working with these amazing leaders gives me a lot of hope,” says Project
Associate Lynda Turet, who has taken primary responsibility for developing
the Network. “Their enthusiasm and strategic thinking is creating a truly
regional and long-term approach to equitable policy for Gulf Coast states.”
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With the Network, CSI is developing a new project, Building Resiliency In
Communities (BRIC), which will advocate for federal disaster preparedness
grants directly to community groups. The organizations would use the funds to
develop plans and resources to ensure that our most vulnerable communities
are able to mobilize, survive and rebuild when the next disaster hits.

Supporting Education Reform in Mississippi

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and it ranks 48th in
educational attainment. But communities across the state are mobilizing, and
have pushed the state legislature to improve funding for public schools in the
state. Ensuring that funding decisions take race into account is essential to
producing fair opportunities and educational improvements that will benefit
the state as a whole.

“Education in Mississippi is a classic example of why race cannot be conflated

with class,” says Maya Wiley. “You can look at education funding from a variety
of perspectives and find no differences across groups – teacher salaries are
comparable in rural and urban areas, for instance. But race tells a different
story: schools that are predominantly Black have less money for salaries and
cannot compete for highly qualified educators.”

CSI is undertaking a capacity scan in the state, Mississippi Leadership

for Education Advocacy Development (MS-LEAD). Looking at the state of
education reform efforts in the state, MS-LEAD will focus on the capacity and
needs of organizations working in this area, on the relationships between
advocates, opinion leaders and elected officials, and on the current political
context and its impact on the prospects for reform.

“MS-LEAD is a really exciting effort to understand the important work being

done in my state and the needs of organizations that are leading the charge
for fairness in education,” says Cassandra Welchlin. “I am hopeful that this
research will help connect advocates to one another and help to develop the
strategic support that they need to succeed.”

Ensuring that funding decisions take race into account is

essential to producing fair opportunities and educational
improvements that will benefit the state as a whole.
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 Board of Advisors Staff

Catherine Albisa Madeleine Adamson

Director Project Coordinator, Alston
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative Bannerman Leadership Initiative

Gayle Perkins Atkins Natalie Almonte

Former Broadcast Journalist Office Manager
Donor/Activist
Ludovic Blain III
Roger Clay Director of Special Projects
President (through 12/08)
Insight Center for Community Economic Development
Yesenia Bran
Colin Greer Administrative Assistant
President
New World Foundation
Jacob Faber
Researcher
Richard Healey
President
Mafruza Khan
Deputy Director
The Grassroots Policy Project
(through 4/08)
Connie Cagampang Heller
Donor/Activist
Devon Kearney
Associate Director
Mahdis Keshavarz
Principal
Lynda Turet
Project Associate
The MaKe Agency

Idelisse Malavé Cassandra Welchlin

Director of Southern Programs
Former Executive Director
The Tides Foundation Maya Wiley
Director
john a. powell
Executive Director Lynne Wolf
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity Advocacy Coordinator
Ohio State University (through 2/09)
Ramon Ramirez
President
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)

Ron Shiffman
Professor
Pratt Institute

layout & design: SGNET Solutions, NYC

Photographs courtesy of Harvey Finkle and

Brett Flashnick

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 CSI Donors
The following foundations and individuals provided support to the Center for
Social Inclusion between November 2007 and October 2008

Swati Agarwal The One World Fund

Akonadi Foundation The Open Society Institute
The Boston Foundation Oxfam America
Francisco Cabanillas Richard L. Pearlstone*
Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan Doug Phelps
Democracy Alliance Member Donors Public Welfare Foundation*
(anonymous, 6) Quixote Foundation
Deborah Drysdale Deborah Sagner
FACT Susan Sandler and Steve Phillips
Brett Flashnick Schooner Foundation
Ford Foundation Schott Foundation
Darrick Hamilton Southern Partners Fund*
Connie and Jonathan Heller The Starry Night Fund
The Hess Family The Surdna Foundation
Daciano Lamparas* Robert Turner and Stephanie Barton*
Greg and Maria Jobin Leeds The Twenty-First Century Foundation
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation Steve Viederman*
J. Livingston Kosberg Phillip and Kate Villers
J. McDonald Williams Fund of the Dallas Robin P. Wolaner
Foundation Sue Oy Wong
Beatriz Maya* Paul Youn
Rob McKay
* Donation to the Alston Bannerman
The New World Foundation* Leadership Initiative

Financials
Revenue
Grants and Contributions $1,503,330.00
Contracts, Fees and Honoraria $153,513.87
Total Revenue $1,656,843.87

Expenses
Personnel $705,413.55
Consultants $51,911.50
Travel/Convenings $97,111.88
Fellowships $51,153.91
Administration $279,316.55
Total expenses $1,184,907.39
The Center for Social Inclusion
65 Broadway, Suite 1800 New York, NY 10006 | 212.248.2785