Applying Our Research 

The Research Department is excited to enter the New Year with the opportunity to make at least two new staff hires, one of which could be a senior researcher based in the Southern United States. After joining the ARC family almost four years ago, Senior Research Associate Yvonne Liu decided recently to accept a position at the non-profit organization WhyHunger in order to deepen her involvement in the food justice movement -- a topic which she cultivated wonderfully well while on staff at ARC.

From day one, Yvonne worked tirelessly to both expand and improve our research offerings -- whether it be by crunching much of the data for our 2009 Race and Recession Report, to collaborating with members of our Network Department on our 2009-10 Green Equity Toolkit and cohort, to connecting passionately with some of the greatest innovators in our nation on our 2012 Good Food and Good Jobs Report -- and we are so grateful to have had her onboard. Though she'll remain an active part of ARC's impressive extended family, we will miss her smile, laugh, and infectious energy in our Oakland, CA and New York, NY offices.

Going forward into 2013, the Research Department expects to expand its work in the South, and would particularly welcome applications for the just posted Senior Research Associate position from individuals with professional histories and relationships in that critically important region of the country. That includes highly qualified researchers who currently reside in the Southern United States, who may be interested in working remotely, rather than in one of our main ARC offices.

The Research Department also has a Research Associate position available in Oakland, CA. Instructions for both vacancies can be found here on ARC’s website (e-mail applications only, please no mail or phone inquiries). The review process for rolling applications will not begin until Monday December 17th, with interviews likely to commence in early January. Please spread the word to prospective racial justice researchers, wherever they may be!

Network News

Racial equity requires leadership. And leadership requires clarity and connections, vision and values, and skills and strategies. ARC’s racial justice trainings are designed to provide innovative and practical tools that equip all kinds of people to be equity leaders.

Just last week, a faith-based leader who participated in one of our day-long Racial Justice Leadership Institutes said, “This was the most comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to understanding and planning for change to effect racial justice.”

During the last few months, our team has worked with a variety of organizations, such as:

• Embrey Family Foundation
• Lambent Foundation
• NARAL Pro-Choice America
• National Legal Aid and Defenders Association
• National Council of Churches, Racial Justice Working Group
• Schott Foundation for Public Education
• Welcoming America
• YWCA Madison, Wisconsin

The more than fifty workshops and panels at the 2012 Facing Race conference also provided ample opportunities for 1,400 activists to take away new skills, connections and strategies to further advance racial justice.

In addition to in-person trainings, our popular racial justice webinar series can be accessed online, with recordings available for purchase. For more information on ARC’s training and consulting, visit our website or contact Terry Keleher at [email protected].

Colorlines.com Spotlight

The election's over, voters of color have convinced the political class that we're not going away, and conversations about how to leverage that power toward real change are already buzzing. But when it comes to real live policy fights, what's old is new again. As Brentin Mock and Aura Bogado have reported, the fight over voting rights continues to rage in states around the country and is on its way to the Supreme Court next spring. Immigration reform is back on the table, but as Seth Freed Wessler reports, both political parties seem invested in picking up in the bad spot where they left off. And in the meantime, Washington is once again locked into a fight over the damage done by the Bush tax cuts.

Colorlines.com is covering the debate over the so-called fiscal cliff closely. We know economic policy can be both complicated and, well, boring. So Imara Jones and Hatty Lee have boiled this whole matter down to one simple infographic. Check it out and share it widely!

If you want to dig deeper, read Imara's ongoing analysis of the real crisis: Tax policy over the past three decades has privileged wealth over work, and in so doing has helped exacerbate a massive racial wealth gap and has made upward mobility all the more difficult. Imara also argues there are solutions, and Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed one of them. We'll keep you updated on the debate as it unfolds.