Beyond Lip Service

This book underscores the importance of moving beyond lip service or hollow platitudes to mobilize and expand the capacity of social justice movements to foster policy change and incubate new programs at the local, state, and federal levels. In the wake of global protests spurred by acts of police brutality in the United States, present-day problematic policing and racial injustice in Black and Brown communities surged to the forefront of political discourse in recent years. Institutionalized backlash politics, which emerged during the post-Civil Rights era, perpetuated and further exacerbated generations-long racial disparities and stymied systemic change. This edited volume describes pilot programs and community-based initiatives that show promise as tools for equity and racial justice in Black and Brown communities. This book will be of great value to scholars and academics interested in racism, justice, community development and social work. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Community Practice.

Anna Maria Santiago is Professor in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University, USA. Her research focuses on community development, the geography of opportunity, financial capability and asset building, and neighborhood effects on child health and well-being in Latinx, African American and immigrant communities. Kelly Patterson is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo, USA. Her research focuses on subsidized housing, racial segregation, fair housing advocacy, social policy, and social service access/delivery. Robert Mark Silverman is Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo, USA. His research focuses on community development, community-based organizations, education reform, and inequality in inner-city housing markets.

1. The enduring backlash against racial justice in the United States: mobilizing strategies for institutional change 2. Removing the knees from their necks: mobilizing community practice and social action for racial justice 3. From the archives: the Los Angeles riot study 4. Beyond community policing: centering community development in efforts to improve safety in Latinx immigrant communities 5. Bursting bubbles: outcomes of an intergroup contact intervention within the context of a community based violence intervention program 6. Can preference policies advance racial justice? 7. Minority Political Leadership Institute: a model for developing racial equity leadership 8. Toward authentic university-community engagement