(upbeat music) - Hey y'all, I'm Kiara Butler, and welcome to "Generation Rising," where we discuss hard-hitting topics that our diverse communities face every day.

And today's topic is economic equity and what that really means for our communities.

I'd like to welcome Executive Director at Economic Progress Institute, Weayonnoh Nelson Davies, and Marcela Betancur, Executive Director at Latino Policy Institute.

Welcome, ladies, how are you?

- Good, how are you?

- Thank you.

- How's your morning so far?

- It's good.

- Cold.

(everyone laughing) - Cold, yes, it is cold.

So let's jump right in.

Economic equity, that term is really broad, and so what does that mean to you, in your words or for your work?

- Sure.

Do you wanna say?

- Sure, so first I'll start with our work at the Economic Progress Institute.

Our mission centers around advocating for the economic wellbeing of low and modest income Rhode Islanders.

And in advocating for economic wellbeing or economic opportunity, you have to start with racial and economic equity.

- Yep.

- And for me, that word economic equity is about fairness.

And so in our work, we focus on a fair tax structure, fair distribution of income and wealth, the fair distribution of resources for our communities, from anything from health to education to housing.

And it is really putting that fairness within context of history and what have been done in the past that make our resources and investment now unfair.

So it's really creating economic opportunity, and the goal towards justice that include opportunities for all, regardless of your race, ethnicity, gender, or zip code.

- Yeah, I can agree.

I think thanks to our partnerships with the Economic Progress Institute, we've learned, and as part of our work, that when we talk about economic equity that very much means access to basic needs, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Because when we have access to basic needs, just basic housing, food, childcare, healthcare, we're able to meet not only our own needs, but our community.

And I think at the Latino Policy Institute, while we focus mostly on our Latino community it is also incredibly important, as Weayonnoh mentioned, that we underscore and highlight the struggles of other underserved communities, and how together, as we are working to a more equitable Rhode Island, that means that the most basic things can be met so that we can exceed expectations of the great things we do.

- And so in Rhode Island are we meeting those basic needs now?

Would you say?

- [Weayonnoh] No.

(laughing) - [Kiara] Tell me more.

- Yeah, so at the Economic Progress Institute, since 2004, every other year we put out a report called the Rhode Island Center of Need Report.

And it's about the cost of living for Rhode Islanders and whether Rhode Islanders can meet the basic needs.

Our 2022 report shows that we are not meeting the basic needs, and we're just talking about housing and transportation and childcare and health.

And so we're not meeting the basic needs.

What that have shown is besides most Rhode Islanders not meeting the base, and we're talkin' about 61% of Rhode Islanders not meeting their basic needs.

And in the 2002 report we also broke it down and asked a question about race and ethnicity and whether there were disparities.

And we have found that Black and Latinos Rhode Islanders are disproportionally in the low income bracket, and they're also disproportionately the share of low wage workers within our state.

So just to give you a little idea about what the data actually show, so like I said 61% of Rhode Islanders, single adults, what they're called, people without children, have to make about $34,914 to meet their basic needs.

We have found that 61% of the people in Rhode Island do not.

When you break that down by race, that's 75% Latino single adults who cannot meet that $34,000 threshold, 72% Black Rhode Islanders, compared to 60% Asian and 59% white.

When you go to single parents with two children, that percentage goes up.

So 70% of single parents in Rhode Island with two children cannot meet the basic threshold to provide for their families.

We've also found gender disparities within whether people can meet their basic needs.

So 66% of women, single women without children, compared to 55% of men.

And one example of that disparity is gender disparity across the board, regardless of race.

For Asian women, 80% of single Asian women in the state of Rhode Island cannot meet that $34,914 to earn, compared to about 40% of Asian men.

So we're not meeting it.

And there's huge disparities in the way families are able to survive in Rhode Island.

- Yeah, is there anything you wanna add to that?

- I have nothing else to add.

That was... That's, just that in itself I think shows us, because I think the 61%, I mean, is a shocking number to hear sometimes, maybe for people who are maybe watching and have never seen that before.

- It was shocking.

- The saddest part is that it is something that for decades organizations like ours and others have been advocating for.

And Weayonnoh said this at the release of the 2022 report, this is why we need data.

This is why we need to kinda scream it to everybody.

This is why we need better policy and investments happening because 61% of Rhode Islanders are going through this all over our state.

Not just in the urban core, which is such a big focus for people.

This is happening all over the state.

- [Kiara] All over.

- And if we don't continue to make investments that 61% is going to climb up very, very fast in the next decade.

- So we're supposed to be raising minimum wage over the next four years, right?

Is that gonna close the wealth gap?

How do you all feel about that?

Is that enough?

The numbers?

- I don't think so, but I know we've always lagged behind when it comes to raising the minimum wage in Rhode Island.

And it was a great win to do it.

But personally I also think that it's devastating that it takes several years to get to 15, because 15 was an important number like four years ago.

We have experienced a 10% inflation just in the last 12 months.

And so 10% inflation means that $15 is no longer equitable.

Again, let's go back to the 61%.

Many, and we had mentioned a lot of Black and Latino workers in Rhode Island are these basic jobs that may be earning this minimum wage.

So are we just going to tell them, no worries, in three years you'll be able to afford it.

But in three years that 15 is going to need to be a different number.

- Right.

And right now it's not enough.

Just the data I talked about, the $34,000 a year, which is the basic of meeting your basic needs.

That requires $16.97 cents right now today.

And so in 2023 minimum wage goes up to $13 an hour; 2024, 14; and then 2025, 15.

So we're already behind that $16 that we need today.

So it's not a living wage.

Families cannot survive on the $12 we have and going into the 13th, and they will not be able to survive on the 15, even if it was enacted today.

- And so y'all are givin' a lot of numbers, right?

(panelist laughing) And the budget already is complex within the state.

How are you all working to make the budget more accessible to us, regular old people who don't know math, don't know accounting?

- Yeah, I think, we were talking about this, that the budget itself is a very overwhelming document that comes out in the spring of '23.

And it can be very overwhelming even for advocates who have been doing this for a very long time.

So that's just like a...

But I think the way to make it accessible is that if, as an individual you care about, maybe your passion goes into childcare or healthcare, my best advice would be there are advocacy organizations or coalitions that are probably connected to the issue that you may care about personally or professionally the most.

My best advice is connect with them, because we are more than happy to tell you when we're gonna go to the State House to break down for you what that means.

Because again, I think sadly, our government, especially our State House, sometimes is not an accessible place for individuals who don't do this for a living.

Nevertheless, the work that I think a lot of our advocacy organizations have been doing over the years is to sort of break that down and help individuals understand it a little bit better.

In the last couple of years EPI and LPI and others have been inviting individuals.

When we testify at budget hearings for things that include healthcare or childcare access, it is important for us individuals who have those personal lived experiences are at the table, because Weayonnoh and I can tell you all these numbers and tell you why it matters, but when you, as an individual, who has this lived experience professionally or personally, that matters a lot more than what the two of us will ever have to say.

- Yeah.

And I think another part of that process, because it's complicated, even I only look at it when I need to, to understand certain things, 'cause it is.

And I think it's intended to be complicated.

I think with democracy, when we encourage people to show up to vote, for me, it's the same with the budget process.

The budget affects all of us.

Everything we care about starts in the budget.

That is where our state and federal government tell us what their values and priorities are.

So that knowledge really is our power.

And so I encourage people to join with organization who will spend the time analyzing the budget to understand, tell me what I need to know about the process.

In Rhode Island, for example, our budget process starts in the summer before it is even proposed.

So even for our communities to understand, in the summer agencies are going to the governor and telling them what they need for the agencies to run.

So if you know it started in July and August, and getting together and organizing and say we wanna make sure you have enough proposal around childcare or housing within your budget, that is powerful.

And then there's a process again when these bills are being pulled forward to say, no we don't see this in our budget.

We wanna make sure it's there 'cause we are watchin'.

So sometimes the process itself is overwhelming when you look at it as a whole.

But understanding those little pieces and say I have a power to influence that and I'm gonna make sure our leaders know we're watchin' and I'm gonna make sure our leaders know that we are tellin' them what we want and so we can hold them accountable if they don't respond.

It's good ways of being involved in the process.

- If I can add something quickly- - Sure.

- From what Weayonnoh said.

Just that sparked my mind.

Yes, the state budget is really important, but their municipal budget actually- - Exactly.

- You mentioned it starts in July.

Our municipal budgets, whatever city you're in, your city council or town council has to have meetings about the budget.

Those budget hearings are going to start happening at the beginning of 2023.

Continue to go to them.

And I think sometimes that's a more accessible and less scary place to go to.

Because hopefully when you go to your city or town council, they're welcoming, these are your neighbors, these are humans you live near.

And so I think that that's also a really important thing, because you're right, the budget that we create at the state level, it really tells us how much we value our communities.

So does your city and so does your town.

And so I think that that's a really important place to start as well.

Just to get comfortable.

Again, depending on the city it will tell you how much you're giving to schools, how much you're giving to fixing the streets, how much you're fixing anything.

And so that's a really important thing.

And I think it's a lot easier to understand because the numbers are much smaller.

(laughing) - Yeah, I mean, I'm happy y'all are providing concrete steps that we can take.

We know that that opportunities are provided to people based on their race, their socioeconomic status, their zip code, like you mentioned.

How can our viewers mitigate that opportunity gap?

- The opportunity gap to?

- Based on your race and- - Yeah.

- Yeah.

Like the disparities.

- That's a great question.

- What can we do?

- I think, personally, becoming involved as an advocate or in any way, I think that matters.

I think being a voter is important, but not everybody can vote.

And it doesn't mean that voting is not the only way to do it.

I think being a participant in your school board, in your town council, and at the legislature, becoming involved with advocacy and organizing institutions, I think that's also sometimes really helpful, because it can be it can be exhausting.

It can be very lonely when you are, when you're a person of color or you live in communities like ours who have been divested for decades.

And so it can be exhausting and it can feel lonely, but truth is that you're not right.

There are other people who are doing lots of work and need people like you.

And so that's what I would say.

- For me, I'll use the title of your show, this generation need to rise up.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I think that's how we mitigate it, because we've been told that we are not powerful.

We've been told that we are less and we do not know what's going on.

So I think that's the first thing for us to rise up and say we're gonna get the knowledge we need to be able to hold our leaders accountable to say that we cannot go back and make the mistakes we have made in our history.

For example, if you look at a new deal era in the 1930s, because of racist policies, two, less than 2% of $120 billion that was invested into housing went to, and I quote, non-white families, less than 2%.

And so I think mitigating it is for us to say there are opportunities now.

We have a surplus in the state.

We have a surplus in our cities.

What are we gonna do to make sure we do not see that less than 2% amount ever again?

And so even with just that knowledge and saying we know our history and we believe in our power today and we're gonna show up and we're gonna tell you, no you have to do things right.

When you create policies are we seeing you creating policies that are directly influencing the racial and economic gap?

And if it's not we need to push forward and push them harder.

- Thank you for that.

I just gotta pause 'cause that was a word.

We could just end the show right now, okay?

(panelists laughing) So we know that there are disparities when it comes to access to healthcare, nutritious foods within predominantly Black and other communities, people of color.

And so in thinking about your organizations, how are you all working to address those disparities?

- Yeah, just in 2022, both of our organizations and others, we work together to increase access to healthcare for undocumented Rhode Island children.

Since 2006, children who were undocumented in our state did not have access to basic healthcare.

That means they did not go to a physical, they did not get just the proper care.

And for the last couple of years we worked together with two legislators, Senator Cano and Representative David Morales to pass this legislation.

And with the governor's office, also included in the budget, which is important.

That's why we looked at the budget.

(laughing) - Yes.

- So while the budget can be exhausting, it added this less than a million dollars, that for the next years, through the years to come, will cover undocumented children.

So I think that's an incredible thing for our organizations to be able to do for, help other Rhode Islanders access healthcare.

- And I think for us it's going back to the fairness within policy.

And so a lot of the work we've done working with organizations like the Latino Policy Institute, with Kids Count, and other coalition members, we focus on a few things.

Go back to the budget.

We look at revenue, too.

So some of the work we do is do we have a fair tax structure?

Who's paying what?

And are people paying their fair share because that's important for the investments and the things we care about.

And so we really push... One of our policy priorities is pushin' for fair revenue, tax structure within the state.

Also making sure we have support for working families.

So people still can't afford childcare.

So do we have programs that create subsidies for families to be able to take care of their children?

Our paid leave policy is an issue.

And whether there are workforce development programs that can help us towards the upper mobility that we need to close that wealth gap.

And one thing we're also workin' on this year is an Equity Impact Statement bill.

And what that will mean is that we are requiring legislators to think about the harm that have been enacted prior in our history, and whether the legislations we're putting forward are gonna prevent harm for those communities, for formerly enslaved communities, indigenous communities, other communities of color, and women, and whether we are enacting legislation to address that harm and make sure goin' forward there is true economic prosperities, especially for those forgotten communities.

- And I know we keep throwing this word around, wealth gap.

What if people are in denial about the wealth gap?

Like, I worked hard.

I deserve the money that I get.

The other people that don't have money, they didn't work hard.

Do you think that that's a true statement?

Does a wealth gap really exist?

And why does it exist?

- That's a great question.

(panelists laughing) I would say, because I think that, and again I will speak from my experience and sort of...

I think that it does exist.

And it is very valid when there's individuals in our communities and our families that may say, "Well I worked really hard for everything I have.

"I deserve this.

"Why do I have to pay more taxes-" - Right.

- "For this?

"Other people should work just as hard."

But truth is that even if two people can work just as hard, one of you just may succeed and the other ones might not.

And I think this goes back to some of the information and data that Weayonnoh was mentioning about meeting basic needs.

You're not able to eat, if you're not able to have housing.

So if you and I just grew up pretty similar, but maybe you were able to have housing your entire life, and maybe I didn't.. Maybe I had more gaps in my education.

We went to different school districts.

And so I think that, it is determined how wealthy we're gonna be.

And so it is very unfair to sometimes say, "Well they should just work harder," because they can be working just as hard.

And just continue.... Like, when you're in a hole, it is incredibly hard to just get out sometimes.

And so I think that is, it's a very difficult conversation to have with people.

But it's also... And it's a compassionate conversation that I don't know if everybody is ready to have.

- Right.

And I think for me, I always, 'cause I have lived experience, I have the passion, but what we also have is history and data to tell us why that wealth gap exists.

And so we go back to history, people are now where they are only because of what they did.

We actually had intentional policies that were created to make this wealth gap happen.

And accumulative effect of that continues today.

And so I think sometimes we have to use the data.

'Cause people will tell you, "You don't know what you're talkin' about."

So pull the data that show that 61% of people are still not making enough and go back to history to show that less than the 2% of housing went to non-white families, or the social security that excluded domestic and farm workers have cumulated effects today.

So I think part of the conversation is saying look around you, our communities have been saying this, but we have the numbers.

And our history tell us that this is true.

And if we don't do something about it we're gonna keep havin' the same things happen today.

- Yeah, and there's intentionality there too, right?

- Exactly.

- Like red lining was very intentional.

- Exactly.

- Banks denying loans was very intentional.

So we may not have houses to pass down for generations and generations, so that wealth is not passed on for generations and generations.

I completely agree.

And so is there anything else that I didn't ask you that you would like our viewers to know about you, about your work, about economic equity, any of those things?

- I just wanna echo something that Weayonnoh said, I think something to keep in mind is when your municipal organizations, either your mayor or your city council, and the legislature does their budget, your budget kind of represent your values.

And so I think that's something important to keep in mind.

The fact that for generations we have had divestments in in communities of color, and we continue to see them today, that shows us what kind of value politicians have had in our lives and in our futures.

And so that's why it's important, that even though it's very intimidating, it's important that we are part of it one way or another.

In whatever level that means.

And so that's, I think that's the most important thing.

- Right, thank you.

What about you?

- And I'll say, I think one of the things we have to do, if I think of recommendations to make, is listen to communities who have been impacted and hear what they say their communities need and make sure they're a part of the process to develop these systems that will address the gap.

I'll use, for example, our very own Capital City Providence have a Providence Municipal Reparations Commission, and the word reparations is something people get nervous about.

But how they define reparations is closing the racial wealth equity gap between Providence and their neighbors.

And so even just thinking about is there are policies talking about how do we invest in housing to close that gap?

And so I'm hoping we can have more municipalities and more governments thinking about, whether they're using the word reparation or not, how are we closin' it, and what policies and investment we're using to make sure that gap does get closed.

- Mm-hmm, and so I want our viewers to be able to help you close that gap.

How can we stay in touch?

- Well, you can follow up on social media.

So we're at the Economic Progress Institute on all of our social media's accounts.

You can visit our website at www.economicprogressri.org to learn more about our work.

Read the Rhode Island Center of Need Report so we understand what we need here.

And we are around, too, email me if you want to, and my email address is on our website.

- All right, and for you?

- Yeah, and you can visit us at www.lpirwu.org or in social media, at @LPIRWU.

- Well, thank you- so much, ladies.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Kiara.

- We have run outta time, but you can catch past episodes anytime on watch.ripbs.org, and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.

I would like to thank today's guests, Weayonnoh and Marcela, for their time and incredible work.

(gentle jazzy music)