A cursory glance at the Northwest and Northern Rockies might beg the question: Why invest in racial justice here? Unlike the Midwest and East Coast, the Social Justice Fund’s five-state region is not known for having large cities with substantial people of color populations. Washington, the most diverse of our five states, is 81 percent white. Idaho and Wyoming are both over 92 percent white.
Yet dig a bit deeper and the racial disparities in education, employment, health, and civic participation here become apparent — just like everywhere else in the United States. The difference is that in the Northwest, there are fewer resources and institutions to support communities of color than there are in other, most racially diverse parts of the nation. In addition, states in our region have been national testing grounds for rightwing experiments in race policy, often through ballot initiatives, likely because of our demographics: communities of color here are smaller, more isolated, and more vulnerable to scapegoating and repression.
The dismantling of affirmative action in Washington State provided a harsh lesson in this reality. In 1998, Washington voters approved Initiative 200 by a 60-40 margin, banning affirmative action in higher education, public contracting and hiring. Remarkably, during that same election, Washington voters backed Initiative 688, raising the state minimum wage in two steps to $6.50 and then indexing it to the rate of inflation. I-688 passed with a 66 percent majority, and was widely credited for turning out progressive voters that year.
A report by the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) stated that I-688 “created a high ground for progressive candidates who were running for office and put opponents on the defensive and at odds with their own constituencies.” The report went on to cite a Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial, which speculated, “[US Senator Patty] Murray’s better-than-expected showing may have been boosted by the presence on the ballot of Initiative 688… [which] doubtless produced an extra measure of voters who line up in Murray’s camp.” According to the BISC report, post-election polling showed that I-688 might have increased voter turnout by as much as four percentage points. Indeed, that year, Democrats picked up eight seats in the state Legislature, securing a majority in the Senate.
So what happened to affirmative action? With such a strong progressive voter turnout, why did we lose on a fundamental civil rights issue? Surely there are many reasons. But one thing is certain: from immigration to affirmative action, the right has effectively used race to exploit legitimate working-class discontent. In this political climate, racial-justice advocates cannot take class-conscious white voters for granted (as examples in California and elsewhere have shown, they cannot always rely on voters of color, either). This is a particular challenge for the Northwest, where the demographics make it impossible for people of color to win on racial justice issues without white allies, and where resources and infrastructure for racial justice work are sorely lacking.
The Social Justice Fund prioritizes racial justice work in our grantmaking. In 2005, the majority of our grant dollars went to support racial justice organizations that are building a strong grassroots base — to command influence at the ballot box, in the halls of power, and in the streets. This month's Justice Journal features examples of people of color-led organizations that we funded last year. For more on white ally organizations, please see our 2005 Annual Report.