Blackwell: United States Must Pursue Equity As People of Color Become the Majority in 2042

By Niraj Chokshi
Achieving the Dream

By 2042, whites will no longer be the majority in the United States, which means Americans have a lot of work to do to maintain a global edge, said Angela Glover Blackwell, Friday’s keynote speaker at the 2009 Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute. 

“We have a future that is going to be dependent on the people who need the most right now,” she said. “Equity is the best growth model for the nation.”

Blackwell’s speech – part call to action and part explication of what is needed to combat social and economic inequity – stressed the important role community colleges must play in that growth.

“You are at the center of every one of these issues,” she told the hundreds of institute audience members gathered in the San Francisco Hilton ballroom.

One significant economic barrier to equity is inadequate infrastructure and access, Blackwell said, adding that community colleges are situated in “the right places” to help the underprivileged overcome such hurdles. And, she added, what the ailing economy needs is precisely what community colleges offer – an educated workforce.

Blackwell is an author, National Public Radio commentator and the founder and president of PolicyLink, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization founded in 1999 to “lift up what works” when it comes to achieving social and economic equity.

Uncovering successful ways to reduce equity is no easy task, though. “Often what you’re going to be lifting up is not going to be your work,” Blackwell said. She told Achieving the Dream participants that they must get comfortable enough to lift up the work of others when someone else has a better idea or when someone else does it better.

Fighting inequity will mean adjusting to new,  once shunned, ideas. For example, she said, the black community has long fought the blind channeling of students into technical colleges, but now those are some of the best jobs available.

“Community colleges are in a wonderful place to be bridges for this conversation,” she said.

Achieving the Dream participants are better prepared than their peers to have such conversations and lead such change, Blackwell said. “You are transforming your institution and your institutions are transforming the world.”

> Click here for her remarks on equity and the role of Achieving the Dream community colleges.

 

Return to Strategy Institute 2009.