Thursday, March 30, 2023

Dance Worker Digest | March 2023

By Dance/NYC

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Dance Worker Digest
March 2023

This month's topics cover issues of race and racial equity across the federal programs and policies as well as emergency funding for dancers.

President Biden signs Executive Order 13985: Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government

In 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity and support “people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality” through the federal government. The order directed all federal agencies to assess how their policies and programs perpetuate systemic inequality, and develop plans to address these disparities.

This new executive order signed on February 16, Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government strengthens and builds on those directives by calling on federal agencies to take a more proactive role in promoting equity. The Executive Order:

• directs agencies to create annual Equity Action Plans that will assess and include steps to address unintended discriminatory impacts of the agency’s policies, programs and activities;
• requires agencies to improve the quality, frequency and accessibility of their engagement and partnerships with underserved communities,
• promotes equitable data practices and transparency;
• and establishes accountability by creating the White House Steering Committee on Equity to coordinate government efforts and monitor agencies’ activities.

As dance and other cultural workers are also members of historically underserved communities, the order may result in the development of federally backed programming and initiatives targeted towards these communities as well as enhanced accountability for federal agencies including arts and culture agencies to be more accessible and equitable in their policies and procedures.

• Review the full text of the Executive Order
• Review the White House Fact Sheet on the new Executive Order

New Study Examines Racial Inequity in Tax Code

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center’s new report, A New Approach for Estimating the Impact of Tax Policies by Race and Ethnicity, details how the United States’ current tax code can widen existing racial income and wealth inequalities because of long-standing disparities in housing, education, and employment. The study finds that across all income categories, itemized deductions benefit White taxpayers over Black and Hispanic taxpayers.

The report provides a new methodology for estimating the effects of tax policies on different racial and ethnic groups, which can help policymakers develop policies that are more equitable and inclusive. This tool can help dance workers be equipped to assess and support policies that would create more equitable impacts as changes to the tax codes are being proposed—changes that can have effects on dance workers’ incomes and livelihoods.

• Review the full report

Proposals for Updating the Office of Management and Budget’s Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards

On January 27, 2023, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a notice requesting comments on proposals that would update the federal government’s race and ethnicity statistical standards. Public comments are due on April 12, 2023. These standards are important in providing uniformity in maintaining, collecting and reporting data on race and ethnicity across all government agencies. Some of the questions in the proposals, include:

• whether to combine race and ethnicity information into one question,
• adding Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) as a new minimum category,
• what term should be used for people who identify with groups that span national borders,
• changing how Hispanic individuals are able to self identify,
• and how to collect data related to descendants of enslaved peoples originally from Africa.

These proposed updates would be the first since 1997, and recognizes the important demographic shifts in the country in the last 25 years, including increasing racial and ethnic diversity, growing number of people who identify as multi-racial/ethnic, and changing immigration and migration patterns. Changes to the standards can affect how dance and cultural workers are represented in data and how their experiences and contributions are understood. This can impact how funding is determined and allocated at the city, state and federal level, hiring and employment practices, and even how individuals identify and express themselves in their work and society.

• Review full text of proposals and submit a formal comment

Rauschenberg Dancer Emergency Grants

This program by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 to professional dancers in need, who are in dire financial emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. In Cycle 8, funds may be requested for emergency expenses for up to a three-month period between December 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023. You must demonstrate an urgent and critical need for emergency support in your application, and live in the United States, the District of Columbia, a Tribal Nation, or a U.S. Territory. The deadline to apply is April 28, 2023, 5:00 pm ET.