Race in the Woo: A Community Roundtable

WITH A SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED MINORITY POPULATION, effective minority responsiveness and representation throughout the public sector in medium-sized cities such as Worcester, MA is central to the city’s overall success. Based in part on results of a thirty-question survey purposively distributed to African-American residents of Worcester, the community roundtable provides a forum for area leaders to discuss the significance of the data and to strategize for next steps.

An expert on minority representation in medium-sized cities, Clark professor Ravi K. Perry will discuss how the survey results and related data detail African-American Worcester residents’ opinions on city government efforts to represent their interests, how African-American Worcester residents’ views on city public services and quality of life differ from whites’ views on similar questions in other surveys, and explain why most respondents identified a lack of leadership in the black community and expressed dissatisfaction with a number of political representation issues.

Dr. Perry will be joined by community leaders to discuss the survey results and data on affirmative action and consider ways to organize local efforts to achieve racial justice.

Race in the Woo Poster