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Where Are the Women of Color in Detroit's Recovery?

October 10, 2017, 8:06 AM


Erika Boyd Detroit Vegan Soul (Facebook photo)

Recoveries in major cities like Detroit can be uneven. Women of color are mostly left out of the recovery of Detroit thus far, a new report says

Neal Rubin writes in The Detroit News reports:

A report set for release Tuesday contends that women of color have been ignored in the crafting of Detroit’s recovery — and that progress would be more swift were they included.

"The surprise isn’t that women are doing amazing things and making contributions," said Kimberly Freeman Brown, author of the report from the Institute for Policy Studies of Washington, D.C. What’s noteworthy, she said, is that “they’re absent from much of the narrative about Detroit’s comeback.”

"I Dream Detroit: The Voice and Vision of Women of Color on Detroit’s Future" found that 71 percent of survey respondents in the fall 2016 did not feel included in planning for the city’s future. More jarring on a practical level, only half of the nearly 500 women of color surveyed — 34 percent of whom hold at least one college degree — reported earning a living wage.

Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, "I Dream Detroit" was compiled across 18 months of focus groups, interviews and analysis. The report from the progressive think tank includes a statistical breakout along with personal accounts from 20 of the women it refers to as "solutionaries," a term borrowed from the late human rights activist Grace Lee Boggs.

The 20 include high-profile executives such as QLine vice president Sommer Woods, entrepreneurs on the order of Erika Boyd and Kirsten Ussery-Boyd of Detroit Vegan Soul, and a number of community workers and activists.


Read more:  The Detroit News


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