The Framer's Almanac: Talking About Race and Disparities

Resources

Message Brief:

FrameWorks M essage Brief: Talking About Disparities

Disparities Toolkit:

New Race Reports:

My Race Is My Community: Peer Discourse Sessions On Racial Disparities

The Illogic of Literalness: Narrative Lessons in the Presentation of Race Policies

Every Picture Tells a Story: An Examination of Racialized Visuals and Their Frame Effects

Invisible Structures of Opportunity: How Media Depictions of Race Trivialize Issues of Diversity and Disparity

Dear colleague-
In this issue of the Framer's Almanac, we examine an issue area that FrameWorks has been investigating for many years: how to talk about race and disparities. Four new reports and an online toolkit - Talking About Disparities - provide useful resources for communicators. In addition to these products, we are pleased to announce the addition of new staff and a new fellow.

Four New Reports Reveal How Americans
Think About Race and Disparities

New results from FrameWorks' multi-year project examining how Americans think about race are particularly telling, with findings that show how communicators can best elevate public discourse on racial disparities and racial equity. Building on FrameWorks' previous research on race, these four reports respond directly to very specific questions from policy advocates.

Invisible Structures of Opportunity, a media analysis of race in the news, looks at how the most common media frames about race are likely to impact public thinking. Two additional papers explore the effects of race-based communications - Every Picture Tells a Story tells a cautionary tale about the use of racialized visuals in communications; The Illogic of Literalness gives considerable guidance about how to communicate about racial disparities - and what to avoid. My Race Is My Community examines how race talk plays out in group conversation and demonstrates ways to foster greater public support for policies designed to address systemic racial inequalities.

In this new set of papers, we demonstrate that constructive public discourse can take place when the presentation of race is thoughtfully and carefully choreographed to tell rich thematic stories. These reports also show the impact on public discourse when the elements in race frames are not carefully considered - the public discourse on race remains poor, stagnant, and full of missed opportunities for richer public engagement.

This work was supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Click here to visit the Race Research page on our website.

Talking About Disparities Toolkit

Given these findings, what are the best strategies for talking about disparities?

This important question formed the basis for a recent FrameWorks research inquiry, also funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Specifically, FrameWorks set out to answer three questions:

Does talking explicitly about disparities between groups improve support for policies aimed at reducing racial inequity?
Does talking explicitly about discrimination in both the quality of and access to programs and services improve support for policies aimed at reducing racial inequality?
How does talking explicitly about disparities and discrimination compare, in terms of support for race-oriented policies, to using race-neutral values frames (such as Ingenuity, Interdependence, Opportunity for All)?

Talking About Disparities provides answers to these questions in the form of a compendium toolkit including the research reports that inform it, messaging recommendations, and applied tools for communicators. FrameWorks' experiences in the field of advocacy practice suggest that toolkits like this can provide a communications roadmap for those attempting to garner support for racial-equity policies.

Click here to access this toolkit. As a member of the FrameWorks community, you may log on to the toolkit by using the username/password combination of guest/guest.

New Additions to the FrameWorks Team

FrameWorks continues to strengthen its bench with new scholars and collaborators! We are delighted to announce the following recent additions.

New Staff:

Shawn Maloney is a Senior Researcher with the Institute. As a cultural anthropologist, his work has centered on policy issues related to natural resource management, community health and development, and food production. At FrameWorks, he will focus on "mapping the gap" between public and expert understandings of complex issues. Shawn earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.

Tia Remington-Bell is a Junior Associate with the Institute. She has worked as a field manager, canvassing and organizing a grassroots support movement for non-profit organizations, and as a volunteer in the 2008 presidential campaign. Tia graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in cultural anthropology.

Adam Simon joins the Institute this month as a Senior Researcher. An author of several books and articles on political communications and politics, Adam is currently working on Mass Informed Consent: Upgrading Democracy with Polls and New Media, a book that popularizes polling and public opinion research by introducing social scientific techniques in three empirical studies and relating media to polling results. Adam earned his Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

Rob Shore will join the Institute in April as a Junior Associate specializing in video-based media. A published writer and photographer, Rob spent two years in Mongolia as a Peace Corps volunteer and graduated from Emory University with degrees in film and anthropology.

New Fellow:

Curt McPhail joins the Institute as a Fellow specializing in community engagement. As a program officer for the Mary Black Foundation in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and a former community organizer in many South Carolina communities, Curt brings substantial field experience to his work with the Institute.

To learn more about FrameWorks' staff and fellows, please click here.