Waiting for Wakanda: Activists challenge Black exclusion from the construction industry

ABSTRACT

The national economic position of Black Americans has for decades included unemployment rates that are double those of Whites and a racial wealth gap of 13 to 1. Barriers to employment in the construction industry are among the many contributing factors. In 2010, I participated in the creation of an alliance to challenge the exclusion of African American organizations from discussions on the Oakland Army Base redevelopment project. This paper introduces the broad range of urban activist scholarship and then describes this particular activist campaign and its success in raising the percentage of hours worked by African Americans in construction jobs on this project. It uses a critical race theory framework to explore the necessity of a race-conscious approach to campaigns on such issues as local hire. It also describes the methodology of a long-term resident participating in the daily life of a city as a scholar-activist analyzing the urban issues that emerge. The paper concludes with recommendations to activists, policymakers, and scholars.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Kitty Kelly Epstein

Kitty Kelly Epstein earned her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned the Outstanding Dissertation Award. She has written four books and participated in the preparation of hundreds of urban teachers and dozens of doctoral students. At the same time, she has been involved in successful struggles to diversify the teaching force, elect a progressive mayor, change public policy on such issues as land use and local hire, involve the community in participatory action, and sustain a small public high school, which was an outgrowth of the civil rights movement. Epstein hosts a radio program on education on the Pacifica Network and has won several awards for her scholar activism and teaching. She received the scholar activist award from the Urban Affairs Association in 2013 and she was named an Outstanding Teacher by the Marcus Foster Foundation. She has spoken in South Africa, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, China, Norway, Jordan, and the Czech Republic in support of education policies and practices which are humanistic, anti-racist, engaging, and egalitarian.