RSJ ROUNDTABLE

The Race and Social Justice Community Roundtable is a partnership of twenty-five community organizations and public institutions working together to achieve racial equity in Seattle.

Roundtable members are committed to achieving racial equity throughout Seattle via coordinated actions. Members also are working to address institutional racism within their own organizations.

PDF of RSJ Community Roundtable - Summary

Member list: RSJ Community Roundtable

Arab American Community Coalition	Damon Shadid
Center for East African Community Affairs	Habtamu Abdi, Director
Childcare Resources	Deeann Puffert, Director
City of Seattle	Julie Nelson, Seattle Office for Civil Rights Director
El Centro De La Raza	Estela Ortega, Director
Horn of Africa	Tsegaye Gebru, Director
King County	Matias Valenzuela
Minority Executive Directors’ Coalition	Dorry Elias-Garcia, Director
Seattle King County NAACP	James Bible, Director
Nonprofit Assistance Center	Barbara Fane, Director
One America	Rich Stolz, Director
People’s Institute NW	Sarah Freeman
Pride Foundation	Kris Hermanns, Director
Puget Sound Educational Service District	John Welch, Director
Seattle City Council	Bruce Harrell, Councilmember
Seattle Education Association	Jonathan Knapp, President
Seattle Housing Authority	Andrew Lofton, Director
Seattle Indian Health Board	Ralph Forquera, Director
Seattle Public Schools	Jose Banda, Superintendent
Seattle University, Center for the Study of Justice in Society	Pam Taylor, Director
Senior Services	Denise Klein, Director
Social Justice Fund	Zeke Spier, Director
Solid Ground	Gordon McHenry, Director
United Indians of All Tribes	Kelvin Frank, Director
United Way of King County	Sara Levin, Community Services VP
Washington Community Action Network	Will Pittz, Director
YMCA	Robert Gilbertson Jr., Director
Youth Undoing Institutional Racism	Dustin Washington
YWCA	Patricia Hayden, Senior Program Director

Education is primary focus

The Roundtable has made education its primary focus as a step to achieve its overall goal. Graduation rates, rates of discipline, test scores and other measures illustrate a clear racial divide in education.

Typical explanations usually focus on the capacity of individual teachers, students, the curriculum, etc. Yet systemic race-based inequities sort and shape students in ways that are obvious to families of color, but often invisible to white families. Without referencing race, we can “explain” everything that happens in our schools. Yet those explanations fail to account for the undeniable racial fault line that runs through our education system. Unless we begin to address institutional racism, our educational outcomes will remain the same.

Besides focusing on education, the City and other Roundtable members are analyzing the connections between education and criminal justice, economics, environmental justice and health.

Racial Equity in Education

Key RSJI Docs in PDF

• Report: Racial Equity in Seattle 2012-14
• RSJI Accomplishments 2009-2011
• RSJI Summary
• RSJI Goals & Accomplishments
• RSJ Community Roundtable
• Racial Equity Toolkit

Upcoming Events

A workshop on achieving racial equity in school discipline.
Saturday, June 1
9:00 AM -12:00 PM
more

Join Us!

   

RSJI E-news and Archive

Video

RSJI: Working for Racial Equity
in City Government

A video highlighting the work of the Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) featuring the voices of RSJ Community Roundtable members, Mayor Mike McGinn, City employees and RSJI staff on why the work to eliminate racial disparities is critical and how we are working together as government and community to achieve racial equity.

RSJI Information in Translation/English:

Amharic	Cambodian
Chinese	Korean
Oromo	Somali
Spanish	Tagalog
Tigrigna	Vietnamese

Other RSJI Documents

• Mayor's Executive Order 4/23/10: Outreach to Women and Minority Owned Businesses Mayor McGinn issued Executive Order 2010-5 on April 23, 2010 concerning outreach to women and minority businesses. The Order strengthens the City's commitment utilize women and minority owned businesses, and outlines steps for departments to ensure Citywide accountability.
• City Council Resolution Directing Race and Social Justice Work to Continue
• Full text of the Council's Resolution #31164
• Report 2008: Looking Back, Moving Forward [long report]
• 2008 RSJI Overview (executive summary)