The Community Reparations Commission will meet Monday, July 15th, from 6 to 8 pm, at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center Banquet Hall at 87 Haywood Street in Asheville. The public is welcome to attend. Meeting materials will be available here. This meeting will be recorded and streamed at the City’s YouTube page.
There are no meetings of either the Asheville City Council or the Buncombe County Commission this week.
1 YELLOW:
Things of concern, more information needed
Buncombe County still hasn’t shared a plan for tracking racial data
Latest Update 7/11/24: We are now targeting the July 20th Leading with Race Summit as an appropriate setting for an official statement by Buncombe County on racial data collection. Check out our Report Back for the latest developments.
Update 7/8/24: We haven’t yet received a response from Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder, so we’re raising this issue for a fourth consecutive week. If you’re not familiar with what’s been going on, please review our GAP reports on 6/17/24, 6/24/24, and 7/1/24 and our Report Back on this issue. If you are up-to-speed on this issue, then read on below.
We are asking advocates for racial equity to join us in asking: Is Buncombe County committed to a comprehensive strategy to shift its culture and practices in the direction of being data informed, with an important emphasis on gathering racial demographic data for all of their programs? And if they are, when and how will that strategy be implemented?
We believe that the County needs to make an across-the-board adjustment, which can only happen if it is a County-wide priority that is overseen, organized, and led by the County Commissioners and the County Manager. It’s most likely that such a plan would emerge from the County Manager’s office, so we’re suggesting that folks reach out to her directly for answers.
Things to do
If you have previously sent a message to the County Commission about this issue, thank you; we invite you to join us in bringing this question directly to the County Manager.
If you haven’t already, you can email the Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder and urge her to inform us and the whole community if the County plans to make a clear public commitment to prioritize the consistent tracking and disclosure of racial data on all County programs, and when we can expect details on how (and when) that will be achieved.
We have prepared an email template below that addresses this issue.
COUNTY MANAGER EMAIL TEMPLATE
You can send an email to the Buncombe County Manager by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to the recipient, and enable us to track how many emails were sent overall in the campaign. If you prefer to write your own email, you can copy and paste (and adapt) our template text – we ask that you send us a copy (cc: or bcc:, your choice) at info@gapavl.org so we can better track how many emails were sent.
To: avril.pinder@buncombecounty.org
CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org
Subject: Is Buncombe County committed to consistent racial data collection?
Dear County Manager Pinder,
As you know, the Cease The Harm Audit described the County’s failure to consistently track racial data as a “key harm.” Do you plan to address this problem, and begin routinely tracking racial identity data about the beneficiaries of the many programs the County oversees or funds? If not, how will you be able to track progress (or lack thereof) in racial equity across County programs? And if so, when will you publicly share your plan for implementing these new practices?
The upcoming Leading With Race Summit on July 20th seems an ideal opportunity for an announcement of the County’s position on consistent racial demographic tracking. Do you (or your staff) plan to address this issue at the event?
Thanks for your leadership,