WBFO Racial Equity Project
Local organization promotes youth leadership
Twice a month, a group of young black and brown men, all from different parts of Buffalo, come together to learn about themselves and each other.
FEATURED STORIES
WBFO RACIAL EQUITY PROJECT
In recent years, the Buffalo region has had a significant revival, but some question whether all neighborhoods are benefiting.
Buffalo Toronto Public Media is exploring that broad issue through the lens of racial equity. We’re examining the ways discrimination can leave some residents out of the resurgence – in areas such as education, public safety, housing and the economy.
By telling personal stories from across Buffalo, we can spark community discussions and help develop solutions. We’ll also highlight local groups that are working to close these gaps.
So look for our reports on radio broadcasts, Facebook Live events and digital platforms.
WBFO Racial Equity Project
The Racial Equity Project is funded by The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.
WBFO Racial Equity Project
Tough upbringing drives civic educator to activism
31-year old Orlando Dickson, who has come a long way from abject poverty to becoming an activist and working on social justice reform.
WBFO Racial Equity Project
If you can see it, you can be it
The Muhammad School of Music’s continuing mission to provide inner-city youth with an instrumental education has led to generations of Buffalo-bred professionals.
Racial Equity: Race-based policing concerns in Buffalo
Outside a tiny soul food restaurant on Buffalo’s West Side Lou DeJesus, an African American, is describing being stopped by city police. It happened last summer as she was walking
Are we still feeling the effects of slavery?..
African-American high-school and collegiate students in Buffalo’s second annual Black History Month Oratorical competition.
Community Conversations
Young Men of Color | Facebook Live Series| Watch Online
Buffalo Toronto Public Media partnered with Say Yes Buffalo and Breaking Barriers for a series of Facebook Live events recently on the topic of changing the narrative for young men of color. Young men from the Breaking Barriers program lead the Facebook Live discussions, taking the opportunity to exercise their youth voices.
This series is part of WBFO’s Racial Equity project which is funded by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.
Young Men of Color: Changing the Narrative | Watch
Young Men of Color: Changing the Narrative
The first in the series of Facebook Live events asked what it means to be a young man of color in Buffalo. Dwayne Sawyer is 18 years old and working on his GED. He’s a part of Breaking Barriers, a program through Say Yes Buffalo’s Boys and Men of Color Initiative. Dwayne lead the conversation examining the narrative around young men of color in Buffalo and nationwide with Boys and Men of Color Program Manager, Daniel Robertson, and Director, Tommy McClam on September 4, 2019.
Young Men of Color: Art as Inspiration | Watch
Young Men of Color: Art as Inspiration
In the second in a series of Facebook Live conversations examining the narrative for young men of color we heard from Edreys Wajed.
Edreys is an artist and musician who helped paint Buffalo's Freedom Wall Mural. He explored the narrative around young men of color with Daniel Robertson of the Boys and Men of Color Initiative and Dwayne Sawyer, an 18-year-old who is working on his GED on September 11, 2019.
Young Men of Color: The Blackness Project | Watch
Young Men of Color: The Blackness Project
For our third conversation in the series on changing the narrative for young men of color, we spoke with Korey Green, the director of “The Blackness Project,” a film about culture and race from the perspective of African Americans and other minorities. It was inspired by another documentary called “The Whiteness Project” by white Americans in Buffalo on race and culture and the perceived loss of white privilege. Daniel Robertson, program manager for the Boys and Men of Color initiative, hosts the conversation which also includes Malik Patterson, a 20-year old Buffalo State student and member of the Breaking Barriers Youth Leadership Council.
Young Men of Color: Looking Forward | Watch
Young Men of Color: Looking Forward
In the last in our Facebook Live series examining the narrative for young men of color, we turn our attention to the next generation and ask how they will shape the narrative going forward. Joining host Daniel Robertson are Dallas Taylor and Malik Patterson.
THE WORKING POOR | SERIES AND FACEBOOK LIVE EVENT
The working poor struggle to afford the basic necessities of housing and food, and they make up almost a third of the population of Erie County. WBFO recently focused on the working poor in a series of reports and a Facebook Live event.
This series is part of WBFO’s Racial Equity project which is funded by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.
WATCH ONLINE NOW | HOUSING IN BLACK & WHITE | WBFO FACEBOOK LIVE EVENT
"Housing in Black & White," broadcast on Facebook Live, brought together experts to discuss red-lining in Buffalo, affordability and other important issues.
They called for making the city's housing more livable, reforming housing court and addressing the serious health problems that result from lead paint, dust and cockroaches.
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Latest Stories from the WBFO Racial Equity Project
More on Racial Equity from Public Media
The Takeaway
African American Babies are Three Times More Likely to Die
While black babies are two times as more likely than white babies to die before their first birthday, in LA County, the rate is tripled. We've known about this crisis for decades.
The TAkeaway
Public Health Outcomes at the Intersection of Race, Place
According to this year's Key Findings Report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings, race and place are driving factors for health outcomes.
The TAkeaway
Black Lives at the Multiplex
This week's culture roundup looks at "Sorry to Bother You," "Blindspotting," and "BlacKkKlansman," three new films explicitly focused on issues of racism and black life.
Fresh Air
Oakland Gets A Starring Role Films About Race and Inequality
Blindspotting and Sorry to Bother You are two inventive, genre-busting independent features, each one about a young black man on a strange and harrowing quest for survival.
All Things COnsidered
How Video Games Can Help Us Explore Ideas About Race
A gaming conventions targets people of color with a theme of how they can create games that incorporate — and teach others — ideas of politics and race.
NPR
Amid A Hispanic Boom, Conflicting Feelings On Immigration
We went to rural southwestern Virginia, which has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the state. There, we found a community that holds many of the complicated view
Living on EArth
A new book chronicles efforts to desegregate Connecticut's
The US civil rights movement to end racial segregation may have been most intense in the South, but there were also battles in the North, including in affluent beach communities.
Fresh Air
A Look Back On America's History Of Racial Terrorism
As the new Lynching Memorial opens Fresh Air looks back on this dark period in American history.
Reveal Weekly
The red line: Racial disparities in lending
It’s been 10 years since the great housing bust and lending is back. But not everyone is getting loans. Lenders are more likely to deny loans to applicants of color.
All Things Considered
Asian-Americans Facing Staggering Levels Of Income Inequali
Asian-Americans have displaced African-Americans as the most economically divided group in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center. Food pantries are seeing growing needs a
Morning Edition
White People Calling The Police On Black People Is Not New
White people have called the police on African-Americans during everyday activities. We look into the historical reasons authorities are called when white people felt uncomfortabl
PBS NEwshour
These 16 songs broke ground for ‘This is America’
A black man is shot in the head. The refrain: “This is America.” A gospel choir goes silent in a hail of bullets from an even bigger gun. “This is America,” Donald Glover, stage n
NPR
Why Are Cities Still So Segregated? | Let's Talk | NPR
In 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act that made it illegal to discriminate in housing. Gene Demby of NPR’s Code Switch explains why neighborhoods are still so segregated today.
PBS NewsHour
How the home loan process drives gentrification
8:03
Published:
Blacks and Latinos say they have trouble getting home loans in Philadelphia. Here's why.
PBS NewsHour
How disadvantaged neighborhoods amplify racial inequality
7:24
Published:
How disadvantaged neighborhoods amplify racial inequality
PBS NewsHour
Strides made, but black-white equality chasm remains
6:17
Published:
Marc Morial about why “equality index” for blacks stands at just 72% of that of whites.
PBS NewsHour
What we’ve learned about racial inequity in Ferguson
9:27
Published:
What we’ve learned about racial inequity in Ferguson
PBS NewsHour
Thriving, affordable Twin Cities have racial inequality gap
9:02
Published:
Even in the Twin Cities, there’s a sharp racial inequality gap.
PBS NewsHour
Director Ava DuVernay is breaking down walls in Hollywood
Director Ava DuVernay is the first African-American woman to lead a $100 million film production, and is actively working to change the culture of Hollywood.
Marketplace
What the unemployment numbers say about racial
(U.S. Edition) President Trump is slated to give his first State of the Union speech tonight, where he's expected to bring up his goal of revamping the country's infrastructure.
IPBS-RJC
Disparity Among Indiana Counties Impacts Health
Racial disparity plays into health across Indiana.
Code Switch from NPR-
explores overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting.
RESOURCES
Websites
Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable
Breaking Barriers - Boys & Young Men of Color
Race Forward - The Center for Racial Justice Innovation
W.K. Kellogg Foundation - Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT)
Webinars
Intersection of Structural Racism and Structural Violence: Understanding Implications for Structural Change in Cities, Webinar #1
Focus: Structural Racism
Link: https://caseyfamily.adobeconnect.com/p4xakt05fo4/
Intersection of Structural Racism and Structural Violence: Understanding Implications for Structural Change in Cities, Webinar #2
Focus: Structural Violence
Link: https://caseyfamily.adobeconnect.com/p3qr9x9xyz0/
Intersection of Structural Racism and Structural Violence: Understanding Implications for Structural Change in Cities, Webinar #3
Focus: Structural Change
Link: https://caseyfamily.adobeconnect.com/p8bxvncu1og/
Video/Audio
PBS three-part documentary entitled The Power of an Illusion
Link: http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm
Redlining Overview Clip from PBS documentary The Power of an Illusion
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmMs8eQP4T0
PBS documentary about the conversation taking place between parents of color and their children, especially sons, about how to behave if they are ever stopped by the police entitled The Talk- Race In America
Link: https://www.pbs.org/show/talk-race-america/
PBS Digital's The Origin of Everything explores The Origin of Race in the USA
Link: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-origin-of-race-in-the-usa-wbm41s/
Weekly NPR podcast that covers race, ethnicity and culture entitled Code Switch.
Link: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch
Weekly podcast about changing the narrative for boys and young men of color in Buffalo, New York entitled Breaking Barriers.
Link: https://www.breakingbarriersbuffalo.org/podcast
Books
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America
Author: Richard Rothstein
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Author: Michelle Alexander
Between the World and Me
Author: Ta-Nehishi Coates
The Other Wes Moore
Author: Wes Moore
Evicted
Author: Matthew Desmond
Tales of Two Americas
Author: John Freeman
Reports
Profile of the Native American Population in the Four-County Region of Western New York
Author: Terry L. Cross, MSW, PhD
Racial Equity Tools
Racial Equity Impact Analysis Training - Click to learn more
FEATURED VIDEO
Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable
Buffalo's Great Opportunity
The Racial Equity Roundtable includes more than 30 community leaders from public, private, nonprofits, and faith institutions convened to advance racial equity and promote the change required to accelerate a shared regional prosperity.
The WBFO Racial Equity Project focuses on issues of diversity and inclusion. Through radio reports, digital content, Facebook Live events and other community conversations, we aim to explore a variety of issues. We will examine challenges in education, employment, public safety, housing and other arenas that are impacted by racial inequity. The goal: to engage our community, raise awareness and help to guide discussions toward solutions.
The Racial Equity Project is funded by The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.