Michigan Civil Rights Department: Concept Of Race Means White ‘Dominance Over non-White People’

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights has embraced and advocates a policy resource guide that highlights a Chicago Public Schools racial equity plan that states that American social institutions, including K-12 schools and universities, view Blacks as “inhuman," "disposable" and "inherently problematic."

The Chicago school district’s equity plan also defines race as a “political construction created to concentrate power with White people and legitimize dominance over non-White people.”

The document has been posted by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights on its website. Its title is “Resource Guide To Developing A School Equity Plan: A Template to Operationalize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion In Michigan’s K-12 Education System.”

The title in the section of the Michigan guide that refers to Chicago is “Vision and Mission in Action: Chicago Public Schools.” The Michigan guide states, “The CPS Equity Framework (Chicago Public Schools) provides a framework for developing an equity plan and can help schools as they begin to create a vision and mission statement.”

The Chicago equity plan was updated in 2020. It states that institutional racism is embedded “across all institutions.”

It then defines institutional racism as being “expressed in the practice of developing organizational programs, policies, or procedures that work to the benefit of White people and to the detriment of people of color, usually unintentionally or inadvertently.”

The Chicago guide also includes definitions for “Anti-blackness” and race.

“Anti-blackness: Anti-blackness, or the socially constructed rendering of black bodies as inhuman, disposable, and inherently problematic, endures in the organizational arrangement and cultural ethos of American social institutions, including her K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. The origins of anti-blackness are rooted in plantation and chattel slavery, and its logics endure to the present day (cited in Chezare A. Warren & Justin A. Coles (2020) Trading Spaces: Antiblackness and Reflections on Black Education Futures, Equity & Excellence in Education.)”

“Race: A powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Race is not biological, but it is real. A political construction created to concentrate power with White people and legitimize dominance over non-White people.”