What cities can learn from Seattle’s racial and social justice law

The Seattle skyline with Mt. Rainier in the background. Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images by Serin Houston, Mount Holyoke College and Dan Trudeau, Macalester College The right-wing political campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies taking place in several states across the U.S. has called into question the nation’s commitment to achieving racial equality. In this landscape, Seattle is marking a milestone of sorts – the first anniversary of adopting its Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. This ordinance, signed into law in April 2023, places the Race and Social Justice Initiative under the Seattle Office of Civil Rights and states that all departments in city government are responsible for “implementing change toward ending institutional racism,” which is defined in Seattle as “policies, practices, procedures, and culture of an institution or system that work better for white people and cause harm to people of color, often inadvertently or unintentionally.” This ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color in Seattle. In 2021, for instance, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Prosperity Now, the median household income in Seattle for white people was $96,333. This was as much as 1.5 times higher than...