Framing is a tool long used by advertisers and political consultants to persuade those who would listen and achieve outcomes for their constituents. We, as legal services advocates, should use those same framing techniques, consciously and strategically, to achieve outcomes for our clients. How, you ask?

Today, The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights, in partnership with New York Lawyers in the Public Interest, sponsored a discussion on the shifting public debate on the role of race in American society and politics. Guest speakers, Eva Paterson (blog), President of the Equal Justice Society (EJS), and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of The Opportunity Agenda, took up the question of how best do we, as racial justice advocates, keep the dialogue on racial justice alive in the new national political discourse following Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American President of the United States of America?

[For a discussion and samples of the various ways in which race was framed in the 2008 Presidential campaign, see the UCLA Critical Race Studies Program's presentation of "Identity Politics and Political Identities: Race to the White House 2008", especially the section on media materials.]

Keith Kamisugi, EJS’s Director of Communications, provides detailed notes and reviews the take-away lessons from today’s discussion on framing race in his excellent blog entry, titled, “Talking About Race In The Obama Era.”

Alan Jenkin’s lessons for effective framing on race issues are:

1. Lead with shared values instead of dry facts, policies, and rhetoric.
2. Frame issues thematically rather than episodically, showing the systemic barriers to opportunity rather than just the impact to individuals.
3. Present solutions early on.
4. Over-document the negative impact of bias and the benefits of equal opportunity.
5. Appeal to subconscious attitudes about race.
6. Combine participatory and disciplined messaging.
7. Acknowledge our progress and connect history of discrimination to the future.
8. Media matters: use new channels of communication.
9. Connect racial justice messages and solutions to a broader agenda (“break out of your silo”).
10. Repeat, repeat, repeat your message over and over and over again.

Legal Services of Northern California has used these framing techniques in the context of its race-based advocacy through the Race Equity Project. At the NLADA’s recent Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., LSNC Staff Attorneys, Emily Fisher and Colin Bailey, presented lessons learned from the field and current examples of framing in race-based legal advocacy. Take a look at the Power Point slides from Emily and Colin’s presentation “Framing in Race-Based Advocacy.”

If you have comments, suggestions for improvement, or would like to share your use of framing in your work, please use the comment function below. We’re always looking for ways to learn from each other and share the best of what legal services advocacy has to offer.