“The More Things Change…:” Civil Rights Health Assessment in a ‘Majority-Minority’ U.S. Community

ABSTRACT

This article, in the form of a case study, describes insight gleaned from a community-based civil rights health assessment project used within a ‘majority–minority’ community (one in which people of color are in the majority). In particular, the article explores the importance of recognizing the civil rights experiences of contemporary citizens as a means to inform policy, procedures, and practice. Using a phenomenology framework and narratives from a public forum and multiple focus group sessions, 2 research questions are explored: (a) What widespread beliefs inform the civil rights discourse of citizens in a community where people of color are in the majority? and (b) What issues are described as most salient in such a community? Five themes are explicated: (a) “equal opportunity doesn't exist”; (b) “discrimination is all around us”; (c) “the deck is stacked against us”; (d) “we have no legal redress when violations occur”; and (e) “when we do complain, nothing is done.” The article includes a discussion of how these thematic findings contributed to changes at the city and state levels; implications for future communication research and practice also are presented.

KEYWORDS:

• civil rights
• people of color
• ‘majority-minority’
• community
• discrimination
• phenomenology

A substantially different version of this article was presented at the 2004 Central States Communication Association Meeting, Cleveland, OH. The findings reported here were part of a larger grant project that received funding from the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and Detroit Entertainment LLC.