Your Issue: What’s the systemic story?

This is a text-only version of this framework.

Explore all of the checkpoints here.

Exploring your issue’s iceberg.

When it comes to the systems that create racial inequity, the public often only sees the tip of the iceberg. The missing context can make it difficult for audiences to connect to bold calls-to-action that build on deeper understanding. We’ve adapted an iceberg model to show one way to dive deeper into race and your issue space.

Iceberg layer 1: News & Media

  • What are the stories told about race within your issue space?
  • Who are the messengers?

Iceberg layer 2: Policy

  • What laws and policies shape your issue space?
  • How do laws in your issue space affect different racial groups?
  • How do the laws in turn impact racial outcomes?

Iceberg layer 3: Institutions

  • What institutions uphold the policies in your issue space?
  • What was the role of race as these institutions were established?
  • What is their role in the storytelling about race and your issue?

Iceberg layer 4: Origins

  • How was race a factor in your issue space’s historical roots?
  • Were harmful ideas or policies about race seeded in your issue space’s origins?

For example: U.S. policing and mass incarceration

Iceberg layer 1: News and Media

What do people see and hear about policing, the incarceration system, and race?

You see stories labeling black and brown people as criminals. Those stories tell you that “bad people do bad things”, and that those bad people keep us from being safe.

But what these stories won’t tell you is the truth about the underlying system that keeps some folks labeled as “bad”, and how it literally colors our ideas about community safety.

Iceberg layer 2: Policy

What are the laws that exist that shape the incarceration system? How have racial factors contributed to these laws? How do the laws impact racial outcomes?

Many see current laws as the product of deep-seated racism and the rush to control and discard people who threaten white supremacy.

Policies that don’t seek to overturn these laws keep this dynamic in place and distract us from demanding what it really takes to build safe, thriving communities.

Iceberg layer 3: Institutions

What institutions uphold the policies in your issue space? What was the role of race as these institutions were established?

The system includes obvious players like police, courts, and prisons.

But lawyers, elected officials, and legislators who upload the law are also faces of power though not necessarily justice, safety, or equity.

Origins

What are the historical roots of the U.S. policing and mass incarceration system? How was race a factor at the origin stage?

The system we know today was once the American slavery system.

It was rooted in exploitative power and racist dehumanization.

We’ve maintained this model as the basis of today’s criminal justice system, even though it has nothing to do with equity, justice, or safety.

Tell systemic stories.

How can this framework help you explore the role of race in your issue space?

Use the Worksheet