'Framing' in Public Initiatives to Advance Racial Equity

Abstract

The racial reckoning of the last few years prompted several American cities and one state to convene multi-pronged initiatives to advance racial equity. More initiatives seem likely. These initiatives may have special promise at a time of expanded public support for advancing racial equity because they bring together public officials and community representatives, engage the public, convene open meetings, and seek to address the past, advance racial equity for the future, and bring about mutual understanding and respect.
The success of these action-oriented initiatives, often called commissions, depends on public reaction to their work. How a commission characterizes its work for those outside the commission – what we call “framing” -- is therefore critical. Framing for a commission is by no means easy, however. Drawing on illustrations of the emerging framing dilemmas and the framing literature across disciplines, we suggest that commissions focus on framing at the beginning of their work and then revisit the issue periodically throughout the process. Moreover, commissions should proceed tentatively as they frame their work and then jointly assess, reflect, and revise framing with an eye to achieving the highest priority aims. Some commissions have found ways to meet the goals of both supporting and skeptical constituencies by: framing to engage the broadest group possible, relating the framing to core concerns, helping constituencies understand why past, present, and future frames matter, being pragmatic about the breadth of the tasks, thinking about who should convey the framing, finding new words and stories, referencing progress, and educating the public before framing some issues.
Analyzing these initiatives to advance racial equity as more occur and move to conclusion will yield deeper wisdom about framing. In the end, the authors of this piece are optimistic about the likelihood that these initiatives will succeed. The current strong support for making progress on racial equity issues provides a compelling reason for commissions to eliminate framing as a barrier to achieving their potential to assist in advancing equity.