Street roots., January 19, 2018, Page 8, Image 8

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Street Roots • Jan. 19-25, 2018
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Street Roots • Jan. 19-25, 2018
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Cory Booker: Justice ‘should be equal for everybody’
The progressive U S. senator talks with a street paper vendor about housing, the environment and employment fo r all
BY AIDA PEERY
AND JAMES MARSHALL
understand that Flint, Mich., is not an
very good friend, named Natasha Laurel who
anomaly. There are over 3,000 jurisdictions
works at an IHOP. She works a full-time job
C O N T R IB U T IN G W RITER S
that have blood-lead levels twice that of
and catches extra shifts when she can, but
levels found in Flint. This kind of
she still has to rely on food stamps and
ince arriving in Washington, D.C. in
environmental poisoning is going on all over
public housing. So really, that corporation is
2013, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has
our country, from the water to the air to the
outsourcing the cost of their labor on the
found common ground with some of
rest of us, because it’s the public that has to
his most conservative colleagues, including soil. I saw it when I was mayor of Newark:
from the Superfund site in our community
now pick up the minimum needs of that
Jeff Sessions and Lindsey Graham.
all the way to when I did urban farming. We
family. Well, that’s not fair. That corporation
Despite his reputation as a bipartisan
turned a city block into a farm for the
should be paying the full cost of their labor.
champion, though, Booker’s recent
community, and the state environmental
If we can get to a system like that, I think
proposals are distinctly progressive. In
agency wouldn’t let us plant in the soil
we’d find a lot more justice.
October, he introduced legislation that
because they said, “Your soil
addresses environmental injustice such as
A.P.: What about prices?
is toxic,” so we had to use
lead poisoning in low-income communities,
Can’t prices stop rising for a
planter
boxes.
which he characterizes as “environmental
certain amount of years so
To me, this bill is really
racism.” With its lack of Republican support,
when the people do get $15,
important
to
give
however, the bill is not anticipated to reach
"We
make
very
they will be able to catch up?
communities the power to
the Senate floor.
bad economic
C.B.: Prescription drugs,
fight back. Unfortunately,
More recently, Booker has become the
cost of education, child
the communities where you
focus of a viral video showing him dressing
decisions in this care, re n t All these things
see environmental poisoning
down Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen
country. We feel are going up, but people’s
are often vulnerable
Nielsen. Nielsen was testifying before the
wages are not. We should
communities, in
Senate Judiciary Committee, and Booker
so much more
be taking on the issue of
communities of color. It’s a
erupted after Nielsen appeared cavalier
comfortable to high-cost pharmaceuticals.
level of environmental
about alleged racist comments from the
joined with a lot of
injustice and environmental
president during a meeting about
pay much more I’ve
other Democratic senators
racism that we should not
immigration.
on the back end on a number of pieces of
accept in the United States
There have been murmurs pf a 2020
legislation that could help
of America. That’s why I
presidential campaign swirling around
of a problem
us drive down the cost of
introduced
this
piece
of
Booker. While he dodges the question here,
as opposed to
pharmaceuticals. We also
legislation.
his ambition is evident. The senator did
need to drive down the cost
stints at Stanford, Oxford and Yale
investing in
A.P.: I ’m looking for work,
of child care. We should, as
universities before being elected to the
and I ’ve tried very hard to get
people
on
the
a government, understand
Newark City Council in New Jersey, and he
a good job in my
eventually served two terms as that city’s
front end, when that investments in child
neighborhood. How do we get
care and early childhood
mayor.
employers to pay everyone
the costs are so education aren’t giveaways.
Aida Peery interviewed Booker for Street
what they’re worth and hire
They’re actually
Sense, Street Roots’ sister paper in
much lower."
from their local community?
investments in the future of
Washington, D.C. Peery is a Street Sense
this country.
Booker: The reality is
vendor.
simple.
We
need
to.be
a
I have a book club and we
The theme of empowering low-income
nation that pays living wages
just read “Evicted,” which is
communities of color arose in the issues
for a hard day’s work. In the 1960s, the
this incredible book about Milwaukee that
Booker spoke most passionately about. He
minimum wage was set at a level where
talks about the eviction problem. Ultimately,
called the criminal justice system “broken,”
someone could raise a family and meet their
to society, a little bit of money to stabilize a
and its reform is what informs much of his
minimum basic needs of housing and health
family actually returns so much more in
legislative agenda, including a push to
insurance. The American bargain worked.
terms of the potential cost for when that
legalize marijuana.
Right now in America, we haven’t seen the
family does get evicted, especially what it
minimum wage keep up with inflation. Jobs,
means to children.
Aida Peery: Zzzsf month you introduced
unfortunately,
don’t
pay
what
I
consider
a
We make very bad economic decisions in
the Environmental Justice Act of 2017 to
living wage, which includes sick leave,
this country. We feel so much more
protect minority communities from
savings for retirement and ultimately a
comfortable to pay much more on the back
environmental injustice. When my daughter
salary where you can afford housing. I’d like
end of a problerii as opposed to investing in
was going to Bernard Elementary School here
to
raise
it
to
$15
an
hour
and
peg
it
to
people
on the front end, when the costs are
in Washington, D.C., in the 2000s, I explained
inflation so that we don’t have to continue to so much lower. We see this in medical costs
to her that she couldn’t drink out of the water
have this fight every few years to raise the
as opposed to investing in preventive care,
fountains at school because we thought there
minimum wage.
investing in dealing with people who have
might be lead in the old pipes. How does the
This
is
about
getting
back
not
to
chronic illnesses, managing their illnesses.
bill address issues like these facing working-
handouts, but to saying that if you’re willing
We’d rather pay much more when the
class communities? .
to work in America, you should be able to
problems become far more acute.
Cory Booker: Most people don’t
meet your minimum basic needs. I have a
S
A.P.: What are you and your colleagues
going to do about homelessness and building
up more housing for all?
C.B.: The housing crisis hasn’t recovered
since the Great Recession. When I was
mayor of Newark, one of the biggest
challenges was getting the resources to
create and build more affordable housing.
It’s something that our country hasn’t had a
commitment to, and we’re doing it at our
own detriment.
One of my favorite housing organizations
is called Plymouth Housing Group, in
Seattle. They did a study where they looked
at 23 homeless people. They found out that
despite how expensive supportive housing
was, by putting the 23 people in supportive
housing, they were saving taxpayers about
$1 million. Often when you’re on the streets,
things happen: You end up in emergency
rooms, which is really expensive, or you
have run-ins with police and might end up in /
a jail, which is awful for both the person
,
that’s in jail and the cost of that is
egregious, when the money could be better
invested in empowering people.
I saw this in Newark when we started
targeting housing for specified populations, „
whether it was women who were coming out
of domestic violence situations, veterans or ;
families who were struggling with HIV/
AIDS. By raising philanthropic dollars to
help homeless folks in our community, we
were actually getting a win-win. A win for the
homeless person that’s in housing and a win;
for society as a whole by creating a more
just, sm arter society that was investing in
people on the front end, as opposed to
problems on the back end, which often costs'
hiore.
As a senator for the past four years, who j
knows how hard it is, I’ve been fighting to
support programs like tax credits that
incentivize the building of affordable housing^
and Section 8 dollars, which are really
critical for public housing in urban
communities.
A.P.: What is the government going to do
about the parole system? For instance, I ’ve
known a lot o f black men who have come out of
prison but still are on lifetime parole even
when they ’re doing well. Why would someone
have to come out of prison and be on parole for,
life?
has been severely impacted by a broken,
cancerous criminal justice system.
Remember, there’s no difference between
blacks and whites for drug use or even drug
selling, but African Americans are about four
times more likely to be arrested and ground
into this system.
You’re right. You (might get) a lifetime
sentence, and when you get out of prison,
and you’re on probation or parole, 20 or 30
years from now you can’t get a Pell Grant,
you can’t get public housing, you can’t g e t...
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A.P.: You can’t get anything!
C.B.: You’re right. And so literally, for the
rest of the person’s life, you strip away
much of their ability to compete
economically in an already tough economic /
system that already works against you if
you’re poor in America.
We all swear an oath to this Ideal of
liberty and justice for all. But. you and I live
in a community Where we see .clearly tjhat
the justice system for people who are poor,
often minority, is very different than the
justice system for people of privilege. My
friend and hero Brian Stevenson (a lawyer
and social-justice advocate in Alabama) says
that we have a justice system that treats you
better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re
poor and innocent.
Communities of color are bearing the
brunt of arrests for things that two of our
last three presidents admitted to doing.
Presidents Bush and Obama didn’t just do a
little marijuana; they did serious, felony drug
use. We’ve got to make sure this system
works for everybody and doesn’t do more
harm than it does good.
I believe in this ideal of restorative
justice, that our justice system should hold
people accountable. It should be equal for
everybody. Ultimately we do'our society a /
disadvantage when we’re not using those •
times of incarceration to empower
somebody to be better than they were. We »•-
do something like stripping away educational
opportunities from people in prison, which
is a horrendous, self-inflicted wound,
because we know that every, dollar we spend
on helping people get their education while
in prison then gets returned to us by their
success when they get out.
A.P.: Back in the ’70s we used to have the
whole health care package: eye, dental, health.
C.B.: I’m the only United States senator
Over the years, it’s gotten broken up into many
who lives in an African-American community packages. Now it’s the deductibles and
in the inner city. In fact, the median income . copayments. How would you reform
in my census tract in my neighborhood is
about $14,000. So I live in a community that
See BOOKER, page 12
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REUTERS/ REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR