New Guidance Released on Centering Racial and Gender Justice in Guaranteed Income
December 9, 2021 – Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and Insight Center for Community Economic Development today released a new paper, Why All Guaranteed Income is Narrative Work: Best Practices for Centering Dignity, Race, and Gender in Cash-Based Programs, to help guide the growing number of guaranteed income pilots in the United States.
The paper combines Insight Center’s long history of examining how gendered and racist narratives shape public policy with MGI’s expertise overseeing dozens of mayor-led guaranteed income projects. Among the topics covered are how the “bootstraps” myth, gender, race, generation and family structure contribute to deeply-held beliefs around social programs.
“Pilots are intended to lead to a federal level guaranteed income policy, and it will be near impossible to get there without a concerted, intentional effort to change the way we view financial insecurity,” said MGI Founder and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, a co-author of the paper. “While pilots may differ in geography and structure, we should all be invested in the work of dismantling the idea that poverty is a moral failing rather than a systemic one.”
The paper offers a guide and set of best practices to pilot leaders and city officials in response to growing calls in the guaranteed income movement to help ensure new and existing projects are taking a thoughtful approach to narrative change and storytelling.
“You cannot work on a topic as mired in harmful narratives as the social safety net without inherently contributing to public perception around who we see as worthy of investment, and who we do not,” said report co-author and Insight Center President Anne Price. “This guide is intended to help pilot staff navigate this tricky territory and center in their work the advancement of racial, gender and economic justice.”
Along with the release of the paper, MGI has limited press availability to speak with recipients of several recently-launched pilots around the country including Newark, NJ; Richmond, VA and St. Paul, MN. Contact saadia@mayorsforagi.org to request a recipient interview.
