The Glance of the Other
The Glance of the Other
What we learned – and didn ’ t learn – from public engagement on issues of race
Matt Leighninger
Vice President for Public Engagement Director , Yankelovich Center for Public Judgment Public Agenda United States
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n the last two years , incidents in the United States and other parts of the world have reminded us that issues of race and difference are critical to how we educate children , ensure public safety , and achieve democratic governance . In an era of # BlackLivesMatter and # AllLivesMatter , the need for public dialogue on race has emerged once again as an obvious public priority . To better understand this challenge and opportunity , we should look back at previous attempts at public engagement on race , to identify what we learned , what we achieved , and what we were unable to achieve . In the United States , race has played a key role in the development of public engagement practices , not just on issues of difference but in engagement on education , policing , immigration , health , budgeting , and many other public priorities . Race was arguably the most common focus of public participation in the 1990s , and those processes had impacts on hiring practices , economic development decisions , and school redistricting plans . But while those efforts to engage citizens on questions of race , had many worthwhile outcomes , and helped write the playbook of effective participation practices , they did not produce structural changes in how public institutions function . In other words , while they seem to have affected the decisions made by public officials , school superintendents , and police chiefs , and strengthened relationships between citizens and their public servants , they don ’ t seem to have had lasting effects on the ways that local governments , school systems , and police departments make decisions or interact with the public . How we learned to talk about race in the 1990s In tracing the evolution of public engagement , one important turning point was the series of race-related civil disturbances that exploded in major American cities in the mid-1990s . The turmoil surrounding Rodney King , and
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