A Message from Cynthia McKinney
A Discussion of Race Worth Having
March 18, 2008
Much has been made around the edges of this campaign about the issue of race. Sadly, nothing has been made of the public policy exigencies that arise because of the urgent racial disparities that continue to exist in our country. Just last week, the United Nations criticized the United States, again, for its failure to address the issues arising from the rights, particularly the right of return, of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors. Author Bill Quigley writes in "The Cleansing of New Orleans," that half of the working poor, elderly, and disabled of New Orleans have not been able to return. Two weeks ago, United Nations experts on housing and minority rights called for an immediate end of public housing demolitions in New Orleans. Now, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ratified by the U.S. in 1994, further observes that the U.S. must do more to protect and support the African American community. In 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Commission "noted its concern that while African Americans constitute just 12% of the population, they represent 50% of homeless people, and the government is required to take 'adequate and adequately implemented' measures to remedy this human rights violation." In short, the United Nations has issued reports squarely calling for the United States to do more to eliminate racial discrimination and this discrimination is a human rights violation.

From what I've read, the major reason anyone isn't returning to New Orleans is lack of living quarters. Those that owned homes have to repair them first. As I understand it (and I am open to correction) the paperwork process for aid for repairs is mired in red tape on both the local level and the federal level. Those who rented quarters are faced with the problem of landlords unable or unwilling to repair their properties. Reasons therefore range from financial inability to desiring to sell out to (1) anyone with money or, (2) a developer.

I am deeply offended that in the middle of a Presidential campaign, remarks--be they from a pastor or a communications mogul, or a former Vice Presidential nominee--are the cause of a focus on race, and not the deep racial disparities that communities are forced to endure on a daily basis in this country.

Myriad reports and studies that have been done all come up with the same basic conclusion: in order to resolve deep and persisting racial disparities in this country, a public policy initiative is urgently needed. A real discussion of race, in the context of a Presidential election, ought to include a discussion of the various public policy initiatives offered by the various candidates to eliminate all forms and vestiges of racial discrimination, including the racial disparities that cloud the hopes, dreams, and futures of millions of Americans.

On this, I agree with Ms. McKinney. Remarks as to a candidate's race are un-called for. That said, I'm astounded that Mr. Obama did as well as he did in the Southern states. It's a mark of how far we've come that Mr. Obama did so. As to a public policy initiative, I disagree. We have far too much public policy initiatives now, they only seem to drain the Treasury of dollars paid to bureaucrats. Rigourous enforcement of existing law is what we need, not more study groups.

For example, every year on the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. United for a Fair Economy publishes a study of the true state of people of color in America called the "State of the Dream Report." And it was their 2004 report that noted that without public policy intervention, it would take 1,664 years to close the racial gap in home ownership in this country. And that on some indices, for example, infant mortality, the racial disparities were worse at the time of the report than at the time of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One wonders why a four-year old report is cited. As to infant mortality, at present far more very young and obstetrically old women are having children. This leads to a rise in infant mortality. In 1968, when Dr. King was murdered, a 25-week gestational age infant was given appropriate Last Rites and usually buried. Few survived, those that did were regarded as a miracle. The technology to keep a 25-week neonate alive did not exist. Now, a 25-week neonate is considered fairly viable, if we can keep it going long enough for its' lungs to finish development, barring other problems, which, frankly, are usually present. I write this as a medical professional who has been intimately involved in the care of these infants.

In their 2005 report, entitled, "Disowned," United for a Fair Economy explored the disparate impact of Bush's "Ownership Society" economic program that saw Black and Latino lives shattered as unemployment, income, home ownership, business ownership, and stock ownership plummeted even in the face of Administration economists trumpeting the phenomenal "growth" of the U.S. economy as a result of their policies.

Unemployment is, nationwide, at an all-time low. Lack of education is one of the major stumbling blocks to a quality job. This can be placed squarely on the doorstep of the American educators' professional associations who have insisted on social promotion and disavowed rote learning. Most cashiers today cannot make change. This is basic arithmetic, not advanced mathematics. Most children and many adults cannot write with a legible hand. Many high school graduates cannot read on a fifth-grade level, which is to say they cannot comprehend what is written in most newspapers. We have a nation of fat children because we have junk food in schools and physical education is no longer a daily class in most of these schools.

Home ownership is "plummeting" because banks and mortgage companies are now insisting on loaning their investors' money to qualified applicants. Stock ownership is not plummeting, for every sale there is a buy. The distribution of stocks is shifting more and more to institutions because inflation has hit the small investor. Businesses are failing because of mass chains such as WalMart who drive small businesses out. How many people buy at the local hardware store, pay a bit more for it, and support the local economy? I do, because I can walk into Northwest Hardware and special order anything they can get. Try that at Lowes, Home Depot, or any large chain.

Yes, the current Administration is blowing it's own horn. Yes, their figures aren't telling the entire truth. Yes, this happened under Democratic Administrations also. And yes, our government is not supporting industry. Jobs are going overseas at record rates. Henry County and Pittsylvania County in Virginia have seen furniture and textile jobs  disappear virtually overnight. Those two particular counties are an economic wasteland. Why? Well, in part because of greed. It's cheaper to build a new plant in Sri Lanka and hire labour for 20 percent of what it would cost in Henry or Pittsylvania. And the other part is the Marshall Plan et sequelae. We have subsidised our own competitors whilst American corporations used equipment of WW2 vintage, reluctant to upgrade because of (1) drop in profits, upsetting stockholders and (2) drop in employment [more efficient, fewer workers] upsetting unions and social workers. The UAW is just now beginning to understand what they have wrought in the name of their members. Americans do not do long term planning well. We are paying the price of that now.

In 2006, United for a Fair Economy focused on the devastating and embarrassing effect of government inaction before, during, and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They focused on something as simple as car ownership and the relationship between vehicle ownership and race. In the case of New Orleans, car ownership literally meant the difference between losing or saving one's life.

A year or two before Katrina hit New Orleans, I saw it's august Mayor on television, proclaiming that the hurricane that had veered eastward to hammer Florida "could have been the one that sank us."  Mr. Nagin failed. He failed to have an adequate plan for hurricanes, he failed to implement the one New Orleans DID HAVE AT THE TIME KATRINA STRUCK. The rest of the Gulf Coast is going about it's business, re-building, making do with what they have. New Orleans is wallowing in self-pity and proclaiming it's helplessness. And the gits re-elected Mr. Nagin. One school bus survived the debacle, because a teenage kid took it, picked up as many folks as he could and high-tailed it out of town. He was castigated for taking the bus by authorities. He deserves a fucking medal. He showed more sense than all of the damned authorities in local government in New Orleans.

The Administration has been keel-hauled by the media for failing to be in New Orleans when Katrina struck. National Guard units (from as far away as Indiana) were chided by the press for taking 72 hours to arrive. Well, it takes TIME to pull troops and supplies together from across a state to send to another state It's not as if the Indiana Guard keeps a plan to relieve New Orleans on permanent stand-by status. Why the hell should they?  And yes, the Louisiana Guard was off in the sandbox. Some of them. Where the hell were the rest of them? Whatinell was Louisiana's Governor thinking? Was she, in fact, thinking? Katrina didn't develop overnight. It was well off the coast for a week. The time to evacuate New Orleans wasn't when Katrina came ashore, it was a week before that, if not at least several days. FEMA  has been  keel-hauled for not being an omnipotent all-fixing agency. It's an agency who's mission is to co-ordinate relief efforts. Not to prevent disasters, implement disaster plans that should have been implemented on a local level by local people who, presumably, are familiar with local conditions. We put a gator freighter (LHD-7, the USS Iwo Jima) into New Orleans as rapidly as it could be done. That's a ship that is the size of an aircraft carrier and has over 2,500 sailors, Marines and officers aboard. And the Iwo Jima did an outstanding job. Well-done, ladies and gentlemen.

In 2007, United for a Fair Economy explored the Black voters' attachment to the Democratic Party, and in a piece entitled, "Voting Blue, but Staying in the Red," they explored goals that the Democratic Party should have put at the top of its agenda for its first 100 hours in the majority. While noting that the Democrats didn't even mention Katrina in their agenda, United for a Fair Economy concluded that Blacks and Latinos voted in the November 2006 elections in the blue, but due to a failure of public policy that pays attention to their needs, they continue to live in the red.

Which goes to show that politicians, regardless of party affiliation, are by-and-large more interested in lining their pockets than serving their constituents. The fact that they are returned to office says something about their constituents that is not flattering.

In their 2008 report, United for a Fair Economy explores the sub-prime mortgage crisis and note that the largest loss of wealth in U.S. history is being experienced by the Black and Latino communities with an estimated $92 billion being lost by Blacks and an estimated $98 billion being lost by Latinos. And while families are losing their life savings and the only major investment that they own, policy makers are asking them to tighten their belts. But the predator banks' CEOs are walking away with record remuneration. And our policy makers are notable for their inaction: first on the predatory lending that disproportionately affects Blacks and Latinos, and then on offering relief so that homeowners remain homeowners, including in the midst of this crisis.

Again, poor lending policies on the parts of banks and mortgage companies are where the blame lies. Executive remuneration is a problem for stockholders, who should be furious with their directors and officers. The government has no business in setting salaries in private firms. Nor has the government any business in bailing out private firms who have sustained losses due to stockholder/director/officer greed. John Doe's bakery makes bad decisions, John Doe goes out of business. Government doens't bail him out. Nor should they (and us, the taxpayers) pay to bail out huge investment firms. Let them take their lumps in both the marketplace and at the hands of irate stockholders.

Sadly, United for a Fair Economy isn't the only research organization to find glaring and intolerable disparities in our society by race and no appropriate public policies enacted to address them. Hull House did a study that found that it would take 200 years to close the gap in the quality of life experienced by black Chicagoans and white Chicagoans. There has been no public policy initiative taken up by the mayor or the governor of Illinois to begin closing that gap.

Several years ago, the New York Times published a finding that nearly half the men between the ages of 16 and 64 in New York City were unemployed. There was no initiative by the mayor or the governor of New York to begin addressing such pain.

Chicago and New York have a problem faced by many localities. Attracting firms to the area begins with a base of employable people, which begins with a well-educated public. Education is a local problem and must be solved on a local level. Constitutionally, the Tenth Amendment prohibits the federal government's involvement in it. Sadly, this is honoured in the breach. States themselves have become one of the largest snouts in the public trough.

Every year, the National Urban League publishes a study, "The State of Black America," in which the ills and disparities that persist in this country are catalogued. Every year, the story is basically the same. The United States has a way to go that only public policy can address. However, when Harvard University/The Kaiser Family Foundation did a study on White attitudes about race several years ago, it found that Whites have little appreciation for the reality of Black life in America, from police harassment and intimidation, to imprisonment, to family income, unemployment, housing, and health care. But without an appreciation of the reality faced by many of our fellow Americans, the necessary public policy initiatives to change those realities will find difficulty gaining acceptance in the public discourse.

Additionally, compounding the problem, there is little public discourse because the corporate press refuse to cover the deep implications of the results of all these studies. I am convinced that if the American people knew the truth of the conditions, change would surely follow. I believe that to be the case because of the impact of the images of "Bloody Sunday" on the passage of the Voting Rights Act. I believe that to be the case because of the impact of the images of the Vietnam War on the turn of the tide of public opinion against that War.

This moment sheds light on a much-needed discussion: on race and the legacies of race and slavery and the continuing problems associated with our failure to treat racism as a curable American disease.

I am glad that candidate Obama mentioned the existing racial disparities in education, income, wealth, jobs, government services, imprisonment, and opportunity. Now it is time to address the public policies necessary to resolve these disparities. Now it is time to have the discussion on how we are going to come together and put policies in effect that will provide real hope and real opportunity to all in this country.

To narrow the gap between the ideals of our founding fathers and the realities faced by too many in our country today: That must be the role of public policy at this critical moment in our country today.

I welcome a real discussion of race in this country and a resolve to end the long-standing disparities that continue to spoil the greatness of our country. I welcome a real discussion of all the issues that face our country today and the real public policy options that exist to resolve them. That must be the measure of this campaign season. For many voters, this important discussion has been too vague or completely non-existent. Now is the time to talk about the concrete measures that will move our country forward: on race, war, climate change, the economy, health care, and education. Our votes and our political engagement must be about ensuring that fairness truly for all is embodied in "liberty and justice
for all."

There's not much for me to comment on here. The press will ignore anything that doesn't fit "If it bleeds it leads" criteria. It doesn't sell papers or attract viewers.

Racism didn't end with the end of slavery, IMO it deepened in some areas. It's eventually going to fade away for the most part, but it will never die. It's been around as long as people have been different colours.