The Orange County Board of Commissioners recently unanimously approved an update to the initial One Orange Countywide Racial Equity Plan. Developed in October 2020, the framework aims to become a living document to uncover and address implicit biases in institutions and ensure race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes in the community.
A central point of the One Orange plan is training and organizational capacity. This would include racial equity training for elected officials, community and business partners and even the general public.
The last time the Orange County Board of Commissioners saw the One Orange Racial Equity Plan was in June before the task-force shifted to community engagement. The One Orange team plans to present its updated draft framework to the towns of Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro beginning next week.
Erica Bryant is a director for Child Support Services in Orange County and a member of the task force leading the One Orange Racial Equity Framework. She said in Orange County, Black and Brown people face the most inequities.
“Data here in Orange County shows that income disparities, homeownership rates and education achievement gaps continue to persist,” Bryant said. “This is not just Orange County, this is across the state and across the nation.”
Bryant said as stated in the plan’s name, the county’s focus is not on equality but equity.
“Equity is about fairness and equality is about sameness,” Bryant said. “Racial equity is specifically about making sure our policies and practices no longer cause harm to Black and Brown communities.”
Bryant said the framework should be seen as a working document which will change with time. She also said part of the framework is to acknowledge how government policies and practices have historically contributed to racial disparities in the community.
“Community engagement is vital for centering and advancing racial equity in the community,” Bryant said. “It requires the expertise of people with lived experiences. To effectively remove race as a predictor of success, residents and employees of color should be engaged as subject matter experts.”
Part of the more than 600 responses of community feedback said the hopes were for unity, peace and people being treated fairly. Some other goals the community wanted to see were improved education outcomes for children of color, increased affordable housing options, increased employment opportunities for people of color and improved health outcomes for people of color.
Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Renee Price echoed Bryant’s comments saying the process of reckoning with the past is ongoing.
“The United States was founded really on racism,” Price said. “We’re bringing in hundreds of years of policies and laws and thinking and sentiments that have been ingrained into America and a lot of the things that we do. It’s going to take a long time.”
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