Happy Friday. It’s also Veteran’s Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada. Sending gratitude to all service members and their families.
As promised, I caught up yesterday with Jamal R. Watkins, the NAACP’s senior vice president of strategy and advancement, who looked remarkably fresh after a long week of midterm drama. While the “red wave” didn’t happen, the typical flipping of political power away from the party in the executive branch didn't either. It was an affirmation of the times, he said. “I think voters were sick and tired of voter suppression, January 6th [the attack on the U.S. Capitol], and all that." And now, referring to the close races and potential runoff in Georgia, “we have options.”
When I asked how the mapping collaboration with Esri we discussed on Tuesday went, he called it a revolutionary alignment of justice work and technology.
“One of the things that was a focal point for this cycle was leaning in on voter protection and countering misinformation, disinformation, and supporting voters who face barriers in targeted communities,” he said. The opportunities are always many, but this year, were particularly top of mind.
The result was a new voter protection hub that helped them monitor issues in real-time. On the front end is an issue complaint form, a familiar tool used by voter advocates like Election Protection, a nonpartisan coalition of organizations dedicated to voter access and safety. (NAACP is on the steering committee.) “But what is fascinating is that sometimes the technology doesn't match the work—so you have lawyers and hotlines taking phone calls, filling out forms, looking at an Excel spreadsheet, and then trying to solve the problem and track it in that way.”
The hub allowed advocates to create a heat map of verified problems, shrinking the time it took to investigate complaints to a fraction of the spreadsheet method.
“Maybe folks are saying on Twitter or Facebook, ‘I'm seeing people with guns and, you know, weaponry around these drop boxes.’” On one hand, Watkins said, it’s just online chatter. “But when you have 10 to 15 individuals fill out a form and put their name and their contact information and say, 'I have witnessed this,' it's a problem.” At that point, election advocates can contact the correct authorities—perhaps the Department of Justice, the attorney general in the state, or a judge—and give them the evidence necessary to greenlight immediate countermeasures.
It also helped them address issues that prevent people from voting, like when a polling place didn’t open on time in Brooklyn, or a perception issue—like when an outsized presence of uniformed police at Georgia polls made voters concerned that there was a problem at their polling place. Using the reports, they were able to ask late-opening polling places to stay open later—which typically happens in rural, Black, immigrant, or otherwise underserved communities—and ask police departments to switch out officers with plain clothes personnel, which helps quell nervous voters. But the big issue is why they need the map in the first place. “The current [voting] system is inherently suppressive,” he noted. Safe drop boxes, mail-in ballots, and extended and weekend hours are possible. “The data and the infrastructure is there to make voting easy and safe for everyone.”
The work is continuing in many ways.
“We have launched a project with the Brookings Institute called the Black Progress Index,” Watkins said. It starts by mapping life expectancy data and noting how the numbers are changing based on where people live. “Is life expectancy going down? Why? Is there a 'cancer alley' in your state? Is the heat index now so high that it’s taking a toll on the physical body? Are there no grocery stores?” The maps will give advocates the ammunition they need to better fight for policy change. “If you live in a community where life expectancy is low because crime is high, there are no jobs, and the environment is unhealthy, you should be voting on all of the folks that will bring those interventions and policies to life that will flip those conditions.”
Here’s one thing I didn’t know: the NAACP is considered an NGO by the UN. That creates a significant opportunity for the work they’re doing with Esri to scale globally. There’s a team currently at the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, in Egypt—focused on water access and security issues—and this summer, delegations visited Ghana and Israel. “From a place-based perspective, how can the environmental, climate, and justice policies we advocate for here in the U.S. actually have global impact?” And they continue to partner with domestic groups dedicated to progressive ideals and help them better align their work around place-specific strategies. “In 2019, when we first started playing with Esri an elevated way, we actually were giving away free licenses to community groups to see what they could learn about how the communities they are serving.”
Watkins also has a message for the corporate world, which is one part promise and two parts accountability: Map your ESG (environmental, social, and governance) commitments because the NAACP will be.
“The mapping work we're doing is going to help shape what those ESG strategies are,” he said. “We’re really scaling that up because we know our communities are much more focused on how to use the tools and the technology to hold corporations and businesses accountable.”
Wishing you a weekend of place-based possibility.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt
This edition of raceAhead was edited by Ashley Sylla
