Why Grassroots Action Is the Most Likely Path to Systemic Change (nonprofitquarterly.org)

Author: To read Andre M. Perry's article, please click here.

This article is the first article of Community Strategies for Systemic Change, a series that is being co-produced by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation(LISC) and NPQ. In the series, urban and rural grassroots leaders from across the United States share how their communities are developing and implementing strategies—grounded in local places, cultures, and histories—to shift power and achieve systemic change.

When it comes to addressing structural racism, the failure of national politics in the United States is plain to see. The Black-white wealth gap remains unchanged after half a century. The Black homeownership rate is about the same as it was when the National Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. At 42 percent, it is about 30 percentage points lower than that of whites. Many of the practices used to segregate communities, like single family zoning and the price comparison approach for home appraisals, are still in place.

Some Principles Behind How to Achieve Systemic Change

So, what is the connection between community action and systemic change? This question may not have a definitive answer, but some themes are apparent. Here are a few:

1. Durable policy results from empowered civic action. If structural inequality and racial gaps could be eliminated with the stroke of a pen, this would have occurred already. People in power ostensibly don’t have the will, capacity, or wherewithal to make the kinds of radical shifts needed to remove the biases their predecessors created. Elite decisionmakers need ideas and pressure from external sources. We should assume that actions made by those at the top very often are simply a response to the shift in power created by organizing from below.

2. Research that is grounded in lived experiences can drive structural change. Research can be esoteric. Too often, scholars respond to elite policymakers who don’t experience the issues faced by their constituencies. Policy research that seeks structural change must center everyday people or it will likely reinforce the status quo.