Executive Summary : Where Do We Go From Here ?
Dr . Jason E . Shelton
Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for African American Studies , University of Texas at Arlington
This report represents eight months of hard work and dedication by a committed group of residents from the great city of Arlington , Texas . As members of the Unity Council , we were charged by Mayor Williams and City Council to examine different aspects of racial and ethnic disparities , as well as “ study equity strategies that the City of Arlington could implement to promote and encourage greater equality , to gather community input on the need to use equitable measures to build greater equality , and to report findings and recommendations to the City Council .” i Every page of this document reflects the goodwill , best efforts , and honest dialogue of a racially and ethnically diverse task force comprised of 28 people with their own personal values , opinions , and experiences .
Our project was difficult , in part because 2020 will be remembered as a very difficult year in American history . Everyday people with different backgrounds and viewpoints shared one thing in common : they felt like our nation was reaching a breaking point . Black or White , rich or poor , gay or straight , liberal or conservative : many of us spent many days and nights wondering about what was happening to our country , questioning if things would return to “ normal ,” and longing for stability , peace of mind , and hope for the future .
None of that seemed possible due to a perfect storm of tragedies : hundreds of thousands of Americans died from an unexpected virus , our economy tanked and people lost their livelihoods , and longstanding tensions between African Americans and law enforcement became front-page news ( once again ). This time , millions of people watched a 46-year-old man named George Floyd die after being slowly suffocated by a police officer . Everyday people found it hard to understand why the officer refused to move his knee from George Floyd ’ s neck even after he called out for his mother .
Unity Council Report
It didn ’ t take long for us , as a nation , to realize that a consistent theme tied together much of the turbulence and commotion happening in our country : racial and ethnic disparities . By mid-summer , it had become widely known that Blacks , Latinx , and Native Americans were far more likely to test
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