Featuring Rachel Arfa—Commissioner of the Chicago Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD)—and Candace Moore—Chief Equity Officer for the City of Chicago—the third session in our Disability Justice in the Fight for Racial Equity forum illuminates the ways in which a local government should connect disability and race in its policymaking.
Conversation Highlights
Change Against The Machine
Our conversation begins with an introduction by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who appointed both Candace and Rachel in their roles, both of which have historical and institutional significance.
As Chicago’s first-ever Chief Equity Officer, Candace describes her role as being the personal coach for the city. “The reason why I use that analogy is because my job is to help us grow, help us to get stronger, help us to build this muscle for equity. Because I don’t believe equity is just a destination, I believe it’s also a process.”
Though Rachel is the fourth commissioner in MOPD’s history, and though all previous commissioners had disabilities, her appointment has momentous significance. “I am the first deaf commissioner, which makes me the first deaf person to step into some of these leadership spaces — spaces with other leaders. And I am the highest-ranking deaf person in city government, nationwide.”
At the end of her introduction, Mayor Lightfoot speaks on behalf of her team. “We will not stop working until our city is one that is truly a place of opportunity, accessibility, and inclusion for every resident.”
Leading with Identity
Rachel identifies as a Jewish woman who’s deaf, as well as an attorney and advocate, and she brings all of these identities to her work. “I’ve come to realize how my previous experiences, my leadership experiences, my life experience as a person with a disability, my exposure to many people, and hearing other people’s stories have really informed the way that I make decisions. Who you are at the core absolutely matters in how you lead this world.”
She also identifies as an Disability Lead Member. “I’m very honored to be a Member and I’ve been fortunate to nominate many of our applicants in the past who are now Fellows [in the Institute].” To the people with disabilities who might question their leadership qualities, Rachel emphasizes: “I want to say that you’re here in the right place — I see you — and [the Institute] is the place that can help grow disability leadership.”
Candace identifies as a Black woman, a sister, a friend, an advocate. “I think all of those things kind of boil up into what I think about as my essential why. Why am I in this seat, why am I doing this work? And it’s because as a person who has experienced a life when you look on the outside and you look at the demographics, you could predict […] outcomes for my life. And yet they don’t match up with my experience.” She wants more people to break through preconceived notions about what is possible. “I tap into what I believe are my strengths, the strengths of connecting people, a strength of believing that people have the capacity to get this work, to grow in this work, and to contribute to building a future and to building a world that reflects their values.”
Lifting the Voices of Impacted Communities
“We created [the Racial Equity Rapid Response team] to really address some of the disproportionate impacts that we were seeing coming out of COVID, and really zone in on communities that were most impacted,” Candace says. “We brought together community leaders, government, healthcare providers, to the table to solve a problem. […] We needed to have people who were closest to the work, closest to the institutions, to come together and work through and try to understand and push out solutions. […] This produced not only great interventions and strategies, but this actually produced a transformative kind of relationship between government and community.”
Rachel agrees that a diverse approach is best for the city. “I’m looking at the communities and task forces that we have to make sure we have disability representation, but that we also have racial representation, too. […] Disability does not only impact white people, it also impacts people who are Black and Brown. We need different, other identities to make sure that those perspectives are represented, and that intersectionality does matter. The way that a white person with a disability may interact is going to be different than a Black person with a disability […] and we need to bring that perspective into how we decide and approach things here in the city.”
But That’s Not All!
These two leaders had plenty to say about their work as leaders in Chicago—like the question of whether civil rights is an outdated concept (answer: no), how COVID has challenged outreach, how to balance community needs with the budget deficit—and more! Watch the video for the full experience.
More Disability Justice and Racial Equity Forum Recaps:
- Session 1 — From Access to Liberation
- Session 2 — Building Intersectional Movements
- Session 4—Mapping Our Paths Towards Liberation