Guest Columnist Jamala Rogers
I keep hearing from Mayor Slay that St. Louis is not a dangerous place to live. I also keep hearing him say that St. Louis is better now under his leadership than it was before. I think there’s a relationship between the two statements.
St. Louis has become a dangerous place for poor and black people and it has been under the Slay regime. Most of the quality of life indicators for these groups have suffered since 2001 when Slay was elected mayor for the entire city. Black citizens don’t intend to stay on the outside looking in.
Some political observers say that Slay’s political career is over but that since he’s done such a good job for the corporate honchos, they will take good care of him when life in Room 200 finally comes to an end. He has served up plenty of land and tax abatements to developers.
Divisions abound. In the police department, white officers issue a vote of no confidence for Police Chief Joe Mokwa. The black police officers’ group continues to issue edicts of racism in the department.
Meanwhile, safety and security in black neighborhoods have been compromised by the wink and nod to rogue policing because the mayor vetoed the civilian oversight bill passed by the Board of Alderpeople. Our communities have become the battlefields for violence by police and criminals. Racial profiling of innocent residents abounds.
Slay has stoked the flames within the fire department with attentiveness to the concerns of predominantly white Local 73 and his total disrespect for black firefighters represented by FIRE. The mayor threw a grenade in the department when he demoted the City’s first African-American fire chief, forcing Chief Sherman George to retire, and named his white replacement.
Black City employees work in fear while white employees remain confident about their job security. A few of them felt brazen enough to hang a noose in a City building. Have you heard the mayor condemn this heinous act of terrorism?
The school system is in shambles, and Slay has left a trail of broken promises to parents regarding the academic certainty of charter schools and reimbursement for city students trying to enter county schools.
There has been no plan for minimizing poverty and joblessness has become entrenched, as confirmed by a St. Louis Health Department assessment report. It then becomes no surprise who makes up the unemployed and under-employed ranks. Blacks are about 2-1/2 times more likely to be poor and unemployed than their white counterparts. Add racial isolation to the equation and you have straight up, 21st Century segregation.
There are about 4-5 ZIP codes that face tough barriers, where a focused plan could have an impact, just like the development plan that focuses on Downtown.
Living under racism is very stressful. I’m sure rates of high blood pressure and heart disease have gone up among African Americans in this city in the last seven years. There should be a warning sign at you enter the city limits: St. Louis is hazardous to black folks. Then, there’d be no illusion about what to expect – a constant struggle to assert your citizenship rights against a mayor whose policy is to deny, deny, deny. The message is that black life is worthless and will be made to be as difficult as possible.
White St. Louisans, and any other residents who think they are benefiting from the mayor’s racist and classist plan, should take a step back and look at the big picture. Ignoring more than half of any thing whole is not a smart idea whether it is a building, a budget or a group of citizens.
Until then, St. Louis is a dangerous place for black folks.