enforced without regard to race , fortunes might have grown for the smartest , shrewdest or hardest-working . But the tenets of white supremacy were central to the formation of the nation , the U . S . Constitution and westward expansion . From the outset , the rules were not fair .
Nurturing a caste system – where certain groups of people mattered more than others by law – was essential to the stability and growth of the country and formation of white identity . Creating and reinforcing caste allowed the dominant class to traffic in humans for generations . This dominant class benefited not only from the economic benefits of forced labor , but from the political and social stability that came from dividing people by race . Immigrants from Europe , no matter how poor or discriminated against in their first decades in the U . S ., would eventually be able to join a constructed category the country called white , a tangible benefit that placed them forever above people of African heritage .
People who decided to call themselves white , through race-conscious policies of local , state and federal government , locked others out of economic and electoral participation and deliberately invested more resources to ensure their supremacy . 2
Even as formal systems of oppression were eroded ( e . g ., the Reconstruction Amendments , school desegregation , the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ), the beliefs that underpinned their creation and their legacies remain . At many crossroads , we have had the opportunity to choose either rules that advance equity or rules that maintain white dominance at the expense of people of color . Over and over , in lending , immigration , housing or infrastructure investment , we opted for the latter .
If there were doubts about how useful racism continues to be to those who wield power , recent elections have put them to rest . We write this in the midst of a transition of power . The 45th president of the United States ( 2017-2021 ), with the support of his party and at least half of the electorate , came to power , in part , by challenging the citizenship of his African American predecessor , promising a border wall to keep out Mexicans and enacting a “ Muslim ban .” He has complained that we have too many immigrants from “ shithole countries ” in South America and Africa , and not enough from Norway . Despite losing the November 2020 election by more than 7,000,000 votes , he and his supporters claimed victory , if only we did not count votes of cities with significant populations of African Americans ( Atlanta , Milwaukee , Philadelphia and Detroit ).
Deploying racism also has been useful to distract attention from a less-thancompetent federal response to COVID-19 . As of January 2021 , more than 24 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19 , among the highest rate in the world , and more than 400,000 have died , the greatest number of any country . The former president did not offer competent response to this crisis but repeatedly drove racial divisions by calling the virus “ kung flu ” or the “ China virus .” In 2020 , if the continued police killings of Black people 3 and the ensuing protests and vigils didn ’ t bring focus to enduring racist policies , the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on Black , indigenous , people of color has . To be silent in the face of these inequities is to be complicit .
That is the context as we enter 2021 . We , the staff of San Francisco Public Works , are on a mission to increase racial equity in how we work with each other and how we deliver services to the people of San Francisco .
Racial Equity Plan 2021
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