Lunch time!

Reflections on the Morning #LC25Years

It’s lunch time! As we close out the morning, I wanted to give three of my quick takeaways on the discussions so far:

• This is our moment: Maybe it’s because the first (highly contentious) presidential debate happened last night, but there is definitely a sense that this is an important moment in American history. Even though there is a lot of division and strife happening in this country right now, there’s also a lot of hope. The morning was full of good ideas, promising solutions and opportunities to bridge the racial gaps for all Americans.
• Data is important, but so are stories: We just completed a privilege circle, where participants acknowledged each other’s histories by acknowledging the privilege and disadvantages in their own lives. A big takeaway from this session is that not only do we need data to understand the problems, but we also need to tell the stories of individuals to better understand the day-to-day lives of our fellow Americans.
• These conversations don’t happen enough: Throughout the morning, participants kept reflecting that these kinds of conversations on racial equity and privilege do not happen enough, across the country, but especially in the field of philanthropy. We hope that this is the first of many conversation to come with this group and those of you online.

Stay tuned here, on Twitter and on Facebook for more this afternoon!

As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, Living Cities is hosting a Virtual Event for our broader network to engage in critical conversation around Closing Racial Opportunity Gaps. We encourage you to tune-in, share your thoughts, provide feedback, and partake in conversation with participants.