Starting in June 2020, the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts hosted a series of community conversations on racism and reforms. The series was co-sponsored by the Arlington Human Rights Commission. On July 7, 2020, the town hosted this conversation on the intersection of race and housing and how government policies have created inequities. Residents were encouraged to watch a short film from Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. The session was moderated by Emmy award winning journalist Crystal Haynes, and featured Dr. Katherine Levine Einstein, author of Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis, Leon T. Andrews, Jr., the Director for Race, Equity, and Leadership at the National League of Cities, and me (Manisha Bewtra). The panel was held over Zoom and featured presentations from each of the three panelists, as well as Q&A at the end.
My slides are also included here. If you’d like me to do a similar presentation in your community, please email me!