Through NLC's work on race relations and racial justice, we have identified a number of key observations that have helped to further our work around these issues.   They include:

City Hall as a Role Model. 
City hall plays an important part in how communities respond to the problem of racism -- from workplace policies and procedures to the nature of staff interactions with local residents. With the status of major employer, community leader, and provider of innumerable services, city governments have the opportunity and responsibility to model the types of behaviors that will help to reduce racism throughout their communities.  Municipals employment practices -- from recruitment and hiring to training and the enforcement of workplace anti-discrimination rules -- can send a strong signal to city employees, local employers, and other about the extent to which the city is truly committed to reducing racism   Similarly, city services can help to create a climate where all residents feel comfortable in their interactions with city hall and where all constituents feel treated equally.  Local officials can acknowledge the problem and engage the community in defining problems and seeking solutions.

A "Civic Capacity" Approach.
Local elected officials need to reach beyond city hall in an effort to use (and if necessary, help build) the civic capacity that is necessary to achieve solutions.  Understanding the leverage and limits of the municipal role is key for local officials seeking to address racism.  City leaders must know who is working on these issues at the grassroots level, invest in the community's problem-solving capacity, and form partnerships with other individuals and organizations. 

Different Officials - Different Cities - Different Solutions. 
Individuals with different expectations and perceptions will -- and must -- approach the challenge of reducing racism in different ways.  A local leader's race or ethnicity, combined with his or her political and life experiences, influence how that person chooses to address the problem of racism at the community level.  Different types of cities have different potential and capacities for addressing racism.  A majority-white city will approach this issue differently than a majority-African- American or majority Hispanic city.  Region, size, history and type of government have an influence.

Addressing Institutional Racism. 
Reducing racism is more than a psychological and educational exercise aimed at encouraging tolerance and understanding.  In order to be successful, anti-racism efforts also must target institutionalized forms of racism.  In NLC's 1999 Futures Report, Undoing Racism; Fairness and Justice in America's Cities and Towns, the NLC Advisory Council highlighted "the underlying systems and policies that keep people of color and white unequal."  There are certain areas of local policy where racism becomes prominent and visible, including policing, zoning and housing.  Municipal government policies and programs can either promote equality, tolerance, and justice, or (consciously or not) promote division and inequality and engender the belief that specific racial and ethnic groups are second-class citizens.

Defining and Measuring Racism. 
Many local officials have a difficult time recognizing that current problems are a result of racism.  In addition, officials are often reluctant to address such a complex issue without a current crisis.  Getting past the denial and formulating the problem is a critical step.  Once city officials recognize the problem, a significant barrier to finding appropriate solutions is a lack of information.  City officials need to know what kind of data collection that they should be doing to establish a benchmark and then how to collect he right kind of date from their efforts in order to measure progress.