Adjusting Your Vision: State Adoption of a Racial Impact Note Act

The American Sustainable Business Network’s Race & Equity Working Group presents ‘Adjusting Your Vision: State Adoption of a Racial Impact Note Act.’

How you stand on a political issue may well depend on your frame of reference. If that frame of reference fails to account for race and ethnicity, then you may be frequently taking the wrong stance. That is why it is important state legislatures have at their disposal, and utilize, the mechanism to request a Racial Impact Note.

Such a note or statement asks if pending legislation will eliminate existing racial and inequities or make the situation worse. It is a means of putting questions of structural racism and inequities on the table for examination. Such a mechanism exists in the state of Illinois where Dr. Tasha Green Cruzat of Children’s Advocates for Change led the advocacy efforts to enact a Racial Impact Note Act.

In this webinar, Dr. Green Cruzat, and State Representative Camille Lilly, who sponsored and fought for the legislation, describe the multi-year journey to passage of the Act, resistance encountered, and the implications of its enactment.