Columnist Bernie Hayes
Although African Americans have overcome countless barricades, racism and discrimination still exists in our lives today. There were many evils and tribulations that African Americans faced in the pre-civil rights era, some of which still exist in today’s society. We have come a long way but we however live with the hardships that once were the norm in this Land of the Free.
2007 marks the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Scott v. Sandford, better known as the Dred Scott decision. A few days ago a Harvard University symposium commemorated the anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, and at a Washington University conference it was concluded that the trial articulated a doctrine of legally sanctioned inequality, the effects of which were only partially remedied by the 13th and 14th Amendments. Both meetings came 150 years too late for the Scotts and black people.
Although racial strife is nowhere near the levels of the 1960s and 1970s, racial intolerance and racial inequality have not fully ended. Racial discrimination is an ongoing reality in the lives of African Americans.
I do not want to sound like a defeatist or a fatalist because I know that we shall overcome. But I wonder when and how? We are battling many of the very same problems we fought against more than 100 years ago. We are the victims of job discrimination, disproportionate and unfair educational opportunities, inadequate housing, drug infestation and imbalanced treatment from the criminal justice system.
Since Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers with at least 15 employees from discriminating in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, why did a crowd of more than 30 protestors recently gather at the new Pinnacle Casino worksite calling for more minority inclusion on the development? The group threatened a civil disobedience shutdown of the ongoing casino construction project at Laclede’s Landing if more minority workers aren’t hired onto the job.
One might ask why an action like this is necessary in 2007, but you must realize that according to the U.S. Census Bureau American blacks are twice as likely to be in poverty as non-blacks and make nearly $5,000 a year less, on average. It is a matter of fairness and survival.
In the area of education, why was it necessary for the Missouri Board of Education to take control of the St. Louis Public Schools? How can the citizens of a metropolis of predominantly African Americans allow a district to be stripped of its accreditation? Where did we go wrong?
St. Louis is not unique to this experience. Two weeks after rejecting a school closing proposal, the Detroit Public School Board of Education voted last week to close at least 34 buildings and programs. At least nine other buildings and programs would close in the fall 2008. The closings are part of the district’s efforts to eliminate a $118 million budget deficit. A district spokesman says the closings will save the district nearly $20 million a year.
Does this sound familiar?
And steps were recently taken to alleviate de facto segregation in Milwaukee public schools while Chicago needs at least 126 new public school principals by fall and the district has hired a professional headhunter to search for educators from across the nation.
We also understand that capital punishment has always been deeply affected by race. A new documentary from Independent Lens, Race to Execution, offers a compelling and original investigation of America’s death penalty by probing how race discrimination infects our capital punishment system.
According to the 2007 National Urban League Equality Index, although many black men are doing well, glaring gaps continue to exist between black men and their white counterparts. These gaps are caused and aggravated, in large measure, by the underperformance of a disproportionate number of black men in a variety of areas and for a variety of reasons. I think it is because we take one step forward and two steps backwards. What do you think?
I can be reached by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.