ISSUE #13 / SPRING 2021 DESIGNS FOR A NEW CALIFORNIA A PUBLICATION OF THE AFTER THE DELUGE UCLA LUSKIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS WHAT NOW? EDITOR’S SPECIAL REPORT – OTE INSIDE INFOGRAPHIC A CLOSER LOOK 10 THE SCOURGE 28 RETHINKING THE CLASSROOM BLUEPRINT The far-reaching damage of COVID-19 COVID-19 forced remote education. It has ISSUE #13 / SPRING 2021 not been all bad BLUEPRINT FEATURED RESEARCH A magazine of research, policy, Los Angeles and California 12 THE MYTH OF WHITENESS How supremacy infects and distorts 16 TRAGIC AND UNEQUAL THIS PAST YEAR HAS FELT LIKE A DELUGE — an overwhelming rush of and those without have carried graver implications during this past year. They COVID-19 hurt everyone, but some more events that left many Americans gasping for air — in hospitals, in astonishment have meant, all too often, the difference between survival and death. than others at the malevolence of leaders, under the knee of a police officer. Since March Last November was a pivotal moment. A solid majority of Americans of 2020, it has been difficult, in fact and metaphor, to breathe. rejected Donald Trump and replaced him with Joe Biden. January was another With some relief finally at hand, it’s tempting to forget all this and hope turning point. Trump’s increasingly shrill attempts to hold onto office disin- for life to return to what it was. But despite the desire to get back to “normal” tegrated into a violent storming of the U.S. Capitol. A third historic juncture once the threat of COVID-19 has passed, or at least subsided, it is important came this March, when Democrats, now in control of the Congress, passed LANDSCAPE to remember that there were plenty of problems with “normal” before the a recovery package championed by Biden that accelerated vaccine distribu- world had ever heard of the novel coronavirus. The American economy was tion and provided economic relief for millions of American families. 02 LIVING WITH COVID uneven: President Trump’s tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy That’s a lot of history in six months, and none of this guarantees that a A year of trial and disappointment exponentially deepened the national debt without delivering much to those new wind is blowing in Washington. Politics can be responsive, but it also can TABLE TALK at the bottom. California was struggling to provide housing to the poor and be notably stubborn — witness the utter lack of bipartisanship in the final 03 LIVING WITH COVID middle class. Politics was besieged by big money and determined efforts to tallies on the recovery package. A year without basketball 32 GOVERNOR MIKE DUKAKIS discourage certain voters from casting ballots. The earth was warming, with But there are signs of hope, too. The pandemic appears to be subsiding, 04 RESEARCH AND POLICY Dukakis talks with veteran journalist devastating effects from California to Texas and beyond. Mass shootings and $1.9 trillion is making its way into the hands of Americans. Businesses, Public support for war Bill Boyarsky were alarmingly commonplace. moribund for more than a year, are stirring to life. 04 “LIGHTER LOOK” So now, as the seasons of COVID-19 shift again, this time to hope and the The nation has endured a great flood. It has inundated the land but now Rick Meyer on our Irish president possibility of recovery, the conversation moves not so much to picking up its waters are receding. What’s left is a mess — the mud-covered rubble of where we left off as to where we go from here. That opens myriad ideas to a troubled country. consider. This issue of Blueprint addresses a few: Housing, the economy, There’s a chance to breathe again. Now it’s time to clean up. politics, race. Each is a concern where American values and experiences were being tested even before COVID-19 began its work. The underlying question is: How do we move forward from our crisis? To take just one issue, the economy is battered, both in California and nationally, but it hardly seems adequate to wish for the weakened, unequal state of affairs that predated the pandemic. COVID-19 did not create national division, but JIM NEWTON the virus made stark its consequences. Distinctions between those of means Editor-in-chief, Blueprint CLOSING NOTE EDGAR CHAPARRO/UNSPLASH, DAVID BUTOW, DAVID SPRAGUE DAVID BUTOW, DAVID CHAPARRO/UNSPLASH, EDGAR 36 BUILDING ANEW PHOTOS BY TO READ PAST ISSUES OR SUBSCRIBE TO PROFILE 20 DIVISION POLITICS BLUEPRINT GO TO NOMA BAR, EDMON DE HARO A history of division and a drive to make BLUEPRINT.UCLA.EDU 06 BARBARA LEE it worse 24 A PLACE TO SLEEP Oakland Congresswoman on history, race ILLUSTRATIONS BY and progress Job loss and housing 2 LANDSCAPE BLUEPRINT / SPRING 21 BLUEPRINT / SPRING 21 LANDSCAPE 3 FIRST PERSON: ridden down Wilshire with both hands in the air. This is the year I learned about and began actively participating in mutual aid. A year where I became LIVING WITH more engaged in issues I care about, by doing things like pledging to read more and joining a COVID-19 book subscription service through Haymarket Two writers look back at a year of troubles Books. This year I started to both understand and imagine how different the world could be. I feel lucky to have found so much joy and growth when it so often feels like the world adults to ride, the joy of putting kids on their first bikes. around me is crumbling. I’m also aware of how LIFTOFF There’s hope and frustration and happiness and longing lonely, sad and exhausted I feel sometimes, and INTERRUPTED — all of which seem to capture life in general. yet I know that I do not experience those feelings Searching for meaning — and a job — in the year of Some of that has crept into politics, too. Living in the alone. People find ways to connect with each the virus United States during this pandemic has exacerbated my other even when circumstances make it seem anger and frustration with leadership. The way the crisis impossible. If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s WHEN THE FIRST SHUTDOWN was put into place last was handled, especially in its early stages, set us up for that we are resilient to a fault and will always find year, and the uncertainty and confusion that came with a year of unimaginable loss. Over the past year, we’ve a way to keep going. The vaccine is rolling out and it set in, I found myself wondering when things would be experienced the consequences of government at its someday soon we’ll be able to do normal things “back to normal.” But as the months went by, it became worst: the politicization of safety precautions and the again, but I think this year will color the years to clear that there is no return to normal, and that our pressure to open the economy, at the expense of public come. I hope we continue to learn. normal is due for a change. health; the failure to reckon with white supremacy and — Audrey Prescott COVID-19 struck the United States as I was nearing the way our institutions perpetuate it; the disdain for the the end of my college education, interrupting what plans working class exhibited by members of Congress who are I had for life after UCLA — not that those plans were ever worth millions debating and “means testing” how much fully formed. In all the hypotheticals I had run through, relief the people whose taxes pay their salaries deserve. any semblance of normal youthful socialization also miss the moments before and after games, I could not have imagined the meltdown of the national When the results of the runoff election in Georgia A YEAR because of the onset of distance learning. and the times when I take a breather and chat economy at the moment I prepared to enter into it. My came in, I was hopeful. But it’s been months, and the WITHOUT A GAME The basketball that I no longer play is nothing with guys who started as opponents and slowly summer of online job searching yielded about as much “day one” promises of $2,000 checks, closing of mi- The pandemic took away my favorite form of in the grand scheme of all who have suffered. But became friends. After enough time the conver- as an unanswered email. grant detention camps and a $15 minimum wage aren’t exercise — but also something more important it’s from 9-11 a.m. every Sunday that I most pine for sation extends beyond, “You see Kawhi drop 30 I happened upon my job shortly after moving to a anywhere in sight. It feels like a slap to all the orga- the way things were. You can video-chat a book last night?” We’ll talk ball, but bang under the new neighborhood, nizers in Georgia and I REMEMBER THE MOMENT when I realized that club or a cocktail with a friend. You can’t Zoom boards with a sweaty 200-pounder enough times when I walked into all over the country the coronavirus was going to unsettle our lives playing basketball. and you lay the groundwork to discuss kids’ a bike shop with a who fought against in unexpected ways. On the evening of Saturday, The Sunday game has been part of my life birthdays, work troubles, personal challenges hiring sign. With voter suppression, March 14, I texted my friend Nate to ask if he would for more than a decade, as well as the anchor and, well, life.