[Themaintainers] Community Message and Invitation to Engage: Race and Maintenance

[Jessica Meyerson]

Fellow Maintainers,


Like many of you, we have been watching the events of the past few weeks
with sadness, trepidation, but also hope. We see people suffering right now
because of deep-seated racism that results in inequities and violence; we
also find hope in the incredible protests and movement to build a more just
and equitable society.

Racial inequity is a critical consideration in discussions of maintenance,
maintainers, and infrastructure. We know - and data makes clear - that
Black people in the United States are disproportionately affected both in
terms of being maintainers (people of color hold a larger number of
essential, front-line jobs during the pandemic1
<https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/color-and-gender-covid-19-essential-workers-not-disposable-people>,
2
<https://www.texastribune.org/2020/05/01/texas-coronavirus-frontline-workers/>,
3
<https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kadiagoba/coronavirus-new-york-brooklyn-essential-workers-black-poc>,
4
<https://abcnews.go.com/Business/heroes-hostages-communities-color-bear-burden-essential-work/story?id=70662472>,
5
<https://sff.org/bay-areas-essential-workers-are-disproportionately-people-of-color-women-and-immigrants-new-study-finds/>,
6
<http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/most-bay-area-essential-workers-are-people-of-color-women-immigrants>
and often receive lower compensation for the same hours worked1
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_wage_gap_in_the_United_States>,2
<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2019/08/22/473775/racism-sexism-combine-shortchange-working-black-women/>
,3
<https://www.epi.org/blog/black-white-wage-gaps-are-worse-today-than-in-2000/>
,) and regular maintenance (crumbling infrastructure is most often found in
communities of color1
<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2016/04/25/136361/5-things-to-know-about-communities-of-color-and-environmental-justice/>
,2
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere-infrastructure-american-inequality>
,3
<https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/any-federal-infrastructure-package-should-boost-investment-in-low-income>
,4
<https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/08/28/to-build-safe-streets-we-need-to-address-racism-in-urban-design/>
,).

With members of this community, we earlier articulated our Maintainers
values <http://themaintainers.org/about-us> of Care, Research, and
Capacity. Under Care: “Our community is dedicated to recognizing these
crucial individuals who keep society’s systems running. We seek to identify
and confront the issues that prevent maintainers from flourishing as
individuals, in collectives, and in their varied occupational roles.”

Grounding ourselves in these values, we want to invite a discussion on the
list that will inform our activities moving forward. Some prompts for this
discussion might include:


   -

   What questions should we all be asking and discussing about the
   relationship between race and maintenance?
   -

   Where have you already seen this connection being made (projects,
   community-based work, scholarship)? Examples that we enjoy include books
   such as Venus Green’s Race on the Line
   <https://www.booksandcranniesva.com/book/9780822325734>, Ruha
Benjamin’s Race
   After Technology
   <https://blackpearlbookstore.com/?q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&alt_filter=1>,
   and Meredith Broussard’s Artificial Unintelligence
   <https://www.thedockbookshop.com/book/9780262537018>, to name a few, as
   well as papers at Maintainers conferences--such as Renee Blackburn’s
   paper on busing
   <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56a8e2fca12f446482d67a7a/t/5703d6be356fb0cea95a32db/1459869374305/Maintainers+RMB+2016.pdf>
   and Nancy Anderson’s paper on apartheid
   <http://themaintainers.org/s/MAINTAINING_DESTROYING-APARTHEID-79es.docx>.
   -

   What forms or formats would be helpful for highlighting existing work,
   or encouraging/supporting new work on race and maintenance (e.g.,
   commissioned essays or other creative works, virtual roundtables, financial
   support for ongoing projects)?


Based on our own research, and resulting discussion on the list, we commit
to reparative work, monetarily and otherwise, that explores the
relationship between race and maintenance. As Robin D. G. Kelly and others
teach us, we believe this work should acknowledge both the pain currently
and historically felt as well as “shared knowledge, joy, and humor” (Robin
D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams
<https://www.booksandcranniesva.com/book/9780807009772>).


Thank you all so much.


Yours in Maintenance,

Jessica, Lee, Andy
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