Bridging Communities for Racial Equity and a Beloved Community – DRAFT
The Bridging Communities initiative promotes breakthroughs for racial equity by fostering social empathy
and collaborative action across race and income divides. The broader aspiration is to cultivate a beloved
community, where care and connections across divides increase flows of human, social, and financial
resources for collective wellbeing. Components include participatory workshops; project teams working at
community and system levels; and an inclusive action-learning network. The initiative scales by involving
peer communities and institutional partners throughout the metro region.
Racial inequity is a foundational civic challenge
Boston is the most economically inequitable large city in the country, and one of the most segregated.
A sample of the city’s socio-economic outcomes reflects its severe racial disparities:
 Health: Rates of infant mortality, diabetes, and hypertension are twice as high for blacks as for whites.
 Housing: Over 50% of Boston residents are rent-burdened, particularly blacks and Hispanics.
 Education: The percentage of whites in the labor force with bachelor’s degrees is about 75%, versus
9% for blacks and 6% for Hispanics.
 Employment: In some predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods, the unemployment rate is
3 times higher than the city average.
 Wealth: The median of net assets for black families is 8 dollars, while for whites it is over $250,000.
 Safety: The rate of non-fatal gunshot and stabbing victims is 8 times higher for blacks than for whites.
As in most cities, these disparities are concentrated in neighborhoods that are mainly black and Hispanic,
and where poverty rates have been over 20% since the 1970’s. Institutionally driven inequities in these
communities are often reinforced by “neighborhood effects,” including socio-behavioral norms, built
environments, and local organizations. Resident leadership is crucial for addressing these influences, but
community initiatives in isolation rarely succeed. Breakthroughs require “bridging” alliances with wellresourced communities and partner institutions to increase flows of human, social, and financial capital.
In fact, building bridges across cultural divides promotes transformative gains that benefit all parties. (In
The Miner’s Canary, Lani Guinier argues that racial inequity is a signal of “social deficiencies in the larger
community,” and she calls for meaningful action that is “led by people of color but joined by others.”)
Social empathy bridges cultural divides
Ultimately, the roots of racial inequities lie in deficient social empathy, defined as “the ability to
understand people by perceiving or experiencing their life situations, and as a result gain insight into
structural inequalities and disparities.”1 Social empathy expands on interpersonal empathy by
appreciating the effects of social, political, and economic conditions that influence diverse others’ life
opportunities. This empathic capacity differs across individuals, and it can be developed intentionally
through structured activities and personal experience. Social empathy is undermined in highly segregated
cities such as Boston, which lack sustained interactions between residents of low-income, urban
communities of color and those who live in well-resourced, predominantly white suburbs (many with
top-ranked schools, privileged social networks, and median household assets over one-million dollars).
Research shows that without sufficient social empathy, we are less likely to understand, care about, and
effectively address socio-economic inequities. As Michelle Alexander (in The New Jim Crow) has written, “it
is the failure to care, really care, across racial divides that has created the racial caste system in all its forms.”
Theologian Albert Raboteau explains that Martin Luther King Jr.’s ability to evoke “empathetic understanding”
was crucial to his influence: “It makes people aware (‘I never knew it was that bad’), troubles or shames their
consciences with the dissonance between principle and practice (‘How can this happen in the United States?’),
and ideally leads them to some level of action (‘What can I do about this?’).”2
1
Elizabeth Segal, “Social Empathy: A Model Built on Empathy, Contextual Understanding, and Social Responsibility
That Promotes Social Justice,” Journal of Social Service Research, 2011: 266-267. Segal’s concept of social empathy
includes cognitive as well as affective elements, which both guide and motivate effective action for social justice. In
The Empathic Civilization, J. Rifkin argues that global empathic capacity is essential for addressing climate change.
2
A.J. Raboteau, American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and Their Struggle for Social and Political Justice,
Princeton University Press, 2016: xiii-xiv.
Bridging Communities Initiative – Draft Design
Bridging Communities’ aspiration is to promote racial equity towards what Martin Luther King Jr.
called the “beloved community,” where empathic care among diverse members is an explicit and widely
practiced cultural norm. We are now organizing participatory workshops with diverse participants who
differ in race and income; neighborhoods (urban and suburban); and disciplines (activists, researchers,
designers, investors, organization partners, civic media specialists, and others). Our intention is to
generate an array of strategies and actions that can achieve breakthrough results in communities
metro-wide. These may include: public workshops for learning and engaging; project teams for
improving neighborhood outcomes and influencing systems; and an inclusive stewardship community
to support and scale the work. Here are preliminary outlines of potential initiatives:
 Workshops build awareness and motivate action. They engage diverse participants with a range of
identities and life experiences, including those from wealthy, predominantly white suburbs as well
as residents of under-resourced communities of color. Workshops are opportunities for
participatory learning about racial inequity and social empathy; and they introduce participants
to opportunities for action at neighborhood and system levels. The workshops are designed as
prototypes of empathic learning communities. They foster mutual understanding, emotional
engagement, and caring, “bridging” relationships. Workshops may be offered as public events, or
in partnerships with schools, faith communities, service agencies, businesses, and civic groups.
 Project initiatives address specific challenges—related to employment, health, housing, education,
safety, built environment, and others—at both neighborhood and citywide levels. Project teams
learn about issues, connect with organization partners, and apply “stewardship capabilities”
(leadership, measures, etc.) to achieve tangible results. Projects may be anchored in neighborhoods
to improve local outcomes; or designed as metro-wide initiatives to address institutional programs
and policies. In both cases, linkages across levels are crucial.
o Neighborhood “action teams” with members from both under-resourced and wealthy
neighborhoods can solve specific problems for breakthrough results. For example, a team
working on increased access to quality daycare may survey parents; scan available programs;
engage providers, experts, and policy makers; and work with residents to design and test
solutions. (Team innovations can improve results in suburban as well as urban communities.)
o Citywide, project teams in multiple communities can join forces to share experiences, ideas,
and resources; and they can work collaboratively with organizations to develop programs and
enhance policies. In the case of daycare, for example, a citywide team may identify robust,
scalable solutions; engage multiple community and institutional partners to expand
applications; and organize campaigns with suburban as well as city residents to raise public
awareness, shape policies, and provide sufficient, sustained funding.
 A metro-wide action-learning network provides a forum for all participants to build relationships;
share experiences and ideas; develop innovative solutions; and raise public awareness. They
include residents, organization partners, researchers, consultants, technologists, activists, media
reporters, architects, artists, investors, and policy-makers. The Bridging Communities network
draws on members’ skills and experience to build a public platform of stewardship capabilities,
which supports workshop participants and project teams. As the network grows, participants scale
the initiative in Boston and beyond.
Next steps: We are now engaging diverse players in a series of participatory design workshops to frame
the initiative, jointly imagine strategies and actions, and chart a way forward.
* * *
In sum, Bridging Communities fosters social empathy across racial divides to promote an equitable,
beloved community in the Boston area. It works at both neighborhood and system levels; and it activates
transformative growth among participants as it advances civic wellbeing. Finally, the initiative is designed
to evolve as an inclusive action-learning community that sustains and scales metro-wide and beyond.
William M. Snyder / CivicStewardship.com / concept sketch / 02-09-2017