This principle describes three dimensions of time to consider in racial justice work: past disadvantage, contemporary participation, and future goals and consequences. This principle is necessary because without considering the past, we will not accurately understand and address the present. Without consideration of the future, our efforts to address the present will too often be misguided.
- Past disadvantage: Work that advances racial justice acknowledges and repairs historic, contextual influences to demonstrate that unjust policies and systemic injustices have shaped current circumstances and harmed communities for generations. Understanding past inequities might focus on the causes and effects of disinvestment in communities of color and generational trauma affecting safety.
- Contemporary participation: Racial justice requires listening to, rebalancing power with, and following the lead of people with life experience of structural racism who are committed to racial justice practice impacted by structural racism in the present. Examining the present might mean understanding the inequitable impacts of policies of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs and creating participatory processes to influence policy decisions related to education, youth development, and workforce development, as well as community-centered approaches to violence prevention.
- Future goals and consequences: Racial justice work centers leadership from communities of color to set goals and anticipate and adjust for the future. This includes examining the potential for unintended consequences of neighborhood reinvestment in communities of color with low average household incomes, such as gentrification, and building protections from displacement.
The East San Jose PEACE Partnership is pursuing affordable housing strategies for people of color returning from incarceration. Housing insecurity and neighborhood housing instability is an underlying contributor to community violence in East San Jose. Cities impose barriers by permitting lawful discrimination against people returning to the neighborhood after incarceration which excludes access to affordable housing. Recognizing the past and present role of the legal system to sustain racial hierarchies by criminalizing Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, PEACE prioritized housing for people returning from incarceration in their community safety plan. Looking to the future, PEACE is also working with the County Housing Office to develop anti-displacement protections (e.g., rent control and eviction protections, for existing residents. Anti-displacement strategies increase residential stability and preserve protective social networks, businesses, and cultural community assets, which promote safety and protect against violence.