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Monkkonen on Reversing the Legacy of Segregation

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Paavo Monkkonen spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the persistence of racial segregation in Los Angeles and other major U.S. cities. New research has found that many regions of the U.S. were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990. Reversing the legacy of segregation is a slow process, said Monkkonen, director of the Latin American Cities Initiative at UCLA Luskin. “It’s a self-perpetuating process, where people are relegated to less attractive parts of the city, and then they’re associated with those parts of the city,” he said. There are also stark disparities in income, home values and life expectancy between residents in segregated communities and those in more integrated areas. Monkkonen said that, while some communities are working to develop proactive policies around fair housing and development, many researchers aren’t convinced that 2020’s reckoning with race will significantly move the needle when it comes to segregation.

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Miyashita Ochoa on Outdated Blood Ban for Gay Men

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Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Ayako Miyashita Ochoa spoke to North Carolina Health News about policies that continue to bar some gay men from donating blood. Miyashita Ochoa explained that at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, there was no test for HIV or AIDS, and scientists weren’t sure how it was transmitted. “The policy itself was a reflection of that,” she said. “It also obviously targeted specifically the populations that were hardest hit by HIV and AIDS.” Over time, the policies endured despite advances in science. Miyashita Ochoa pointed out that a lot has changed since the 1980s, including what we know about HIV transmission and the efficacy of prevention measures. To combat a shortage in the blood supply caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA relaxed restrictions in 2020 to include men who have not had sex with men for three months. Advocates, however, argue for an end to all bans of gay and bisexual men.

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Torres-Gil on Reconstructing the Social Safety Net

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Professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy Fernando Torres-Gil was featured in a Next Avenue article about COVID-19 and the future of aging. Torres-Gil spoke at the Milken Institute 2021 Future of Health Summit, which focused on ageism, technology, the impact of COVID-19 on older adults, and solving social issues with an intergenerational approach. “I’d like to think that the pandemic is pushing us, forcing us to reframe, redefine and reconfigure what kind of society we want,” Torres-Gil said. “One of the great silver linings is that we began to realize that everyone matters and we need and want to reconstruct both the social safety net and its social contract.” After observing ableism and ageism during the pandemic, Torres-Gil said that one of the great challenges for society will be informing and educating young people to stop seeing elderly and disabled people as expendable and realize that they, too, will grow old someday.

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Weisburst on Racial Disparities in Policing

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Research by Assistant Professor of Public Policy Emily Weisburst was cited in a Star Tribune opinion piece about racial disparities associated with police presence and crime. Weisburst co-authored a paper that looked at changes in police force size, crime and arrests in 242 large American cities over nearly 40 years in order to draw conclusions about the impact of police presence on different populations. They found that “investments in law enforcement save Black lives … but at the cost of more low-level ‘quality of life’ arrests and all the insults and injuries of intensive policing.” The authors calculated that, on average, one homicide is prevented per year for every 10 to 17 additional police officers employed, but the number of street arrests for low-level offenses, especially for Black civilians, also increases with greater police presence. The paper concludes that “Black communities are simultaneously over- and under-policed.”

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Trust Is Easily Shattered, Leap Says

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Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Jorja Leap appeared on a Fox11 News panel discussion about the growing fight for social justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and other Black victims of police brutality. Watching the cell phone video of Floyd’s final moments was like “watching a home movie that I was sorry to see,” Leap said. “Why are we watching this again and again?” Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd’s murder, but the fight against systemic racism continues. “What was so upsetting about recent events and what happened in Minneapolis that had affected people here is that trust is so easily shattered,” Leap said. “We need real change … so that people can feel safe.” The panel discussion took place after an episode of the documentary series “Rising Up” that focused on parallels between the Floyd case and the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police.

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Ong’s Research on the Asian American Experience Highlighted

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Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Director Paul Ong was featured in an Equitable Growth article about the economic experiences of Asian Americans. As a part of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, the article highlighted scholars doing economic research on AANHPI populations and their experiences in the United States. Ong’s research focuses on people of color and immigrants in the the U.S. labor market, sustainability and equity, the racial wealth gap, and the role of urban structures in the reproduction of inequality. More recently, he has focused on the disproportionate economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian Americans, as well as the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. “The virus’s Asian origin may affect Asian Americans to a greater degree as racial and xenophobic tensions mount,” he explained. “The increase in discrimination against Asian Americans has manifested financially and commercially as customers, employers and co-workers base their economic behavior on discrimination.”

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Weisburst on Impact of Police in Schools

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Assistant Professor of Public Policy Emily Weisburst was mentioned in an Axios article about the presence of police officers on school campuses. Some school districts are considering replacing campus police officers with improved mental health services after studies have shown that Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately affected by disciplinary action in schools, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. Weisburst’s research also found that disabled students are disproportionately affected negatively when police or school resource officers rather than teachers and administrators maintain discipline. In her 2019 paper “Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long-Term Education Outcomes,” Weisburst found that school police presence was associated with a decrease in both high school graduation rates and college enrollment rates. Her analysis also confirmed that Black students experience the largest increases in discipline when police are on campus. Weisburst and others recommend increasing funding and quality of mental health services for students.

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Lens on How to Strengthen Fair Housing Policies

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Michael Lens was featured in a Washington Monthly article about the complexities and limitations of the Fair Housing Act. The Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which sought to promote residential desegregation, was repealed during the Trump administration. The rule went further than the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which outlawed racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing but did not take any affirmative steps to dismantle segregation. Now, President Joe Biden has announced his plans to revive the AFFH rule, prompting discussion about how to make it more effective and equitable. According to Lens, “a new AFFH rule should go further and include measures of access to safe neighborhoods.” He pointed to extensive data suggesting that access to low-crime neighborhoods is a primary motivator for low-income families who move and that escaping high-crime neighborhoods increases educational outcomes for students.

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Blood Donation Ban Fueled by Fear, Not Science, Miyashita Ochoa Says

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Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Ayako Miyashita Ochoa was featured in a Men’s Health article discussing the impact of the longstanding ban on blood donations from gay men. The country’s blood supply is running dangerously low, partly due to the cancellation of many blood drives during the pandemic. Gay and bisexual men, often referred to as men who have sex with men (MSM), are not allowed to give blood if they have had sex with another man in the past three months. A 2014 report by the Williams Institute at UCLA found that allowing MSM equal access to donating blood could increase the total annual blood supply by 2% to 4%, which would help save the lives of more than a million people. Miyashita Ochoa expressed frustration that the ban still has not been lifted. “It is my opinion that we continue to have a real problem with laws and regulations based on fear rather than science,” she said.

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Asian American Businesses Hit Disproportionately Hard, Ong Finds

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A report co-authored by Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, was featured in a CNN article about combating anti-Asian hate and racism. Asian Americans have been the victims of verbal, physical and economic attacks across the country. One study found that anti-Asian hate crimes have more than doubled during the pandemic. Ong’s report, a collaboration between the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, summarized the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian Americans. The report explained that Asian American businesses felt the economic impact of the pandemic earlier and more deeply than others because of xenophobia and racialized blaming. “Unemployment severely impacted the more disadvantaged Asian Americans,” Ong wrote. While many businesses have struggled during the pandemic, discrimination has exacerbated the impact on Asian American businesses.

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