The candidates were emailed the questions a week in advance. A second email was sent to provide more context for the question. The context is available at the bottom of this page. 

1.      POLICY CHANGE

In past forums, candidates have cited implicit bias training as a way to reduce systemic racism in city institutions. While training is valuable for addressing interpersonal racism, it does little to address institutional racism—racism that arises from formal and informal policies, procedures, and practices.

• Please name two specific policies, procedures, or practices that you would champion to address institutional racism.

• Given the documented history of plans that fail to translate into action, please outline the accountability framework that would support your two policies.

CONTEXT

• For background on the question of policy change, members of FBLN have spent the past two years analyzing racial harms in Melrose across many areas, such as education, policing and home ownership. Here is the flyer we distributed at the Anti-Racism Groups of Melrose table at the Victorian Fair. In education, Melrose has one of the highest rates of racial disparity in school discipline compared with 12 neighboring communities. In policing, The percentage of individuals arrested in Melrose who are Black (10%) is well above the percentage of Black residents in the Melrose population (3%). In housing, Black homebuyers in Melrose were 134% more likely to be denied a mortgage loan than white applicants and Black homeowners were 148% more likely to be denied a home improvement loan than white homeowners. If you want to read the full reports, they are on this website.

• Your answers do not have to address these areas, but this is why the question is directed at institutional racism. These are systemic and persistent disparities.