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O pinion
Reward, Don’t
V o O R S o ti
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PREMIUM.
Demote Official
Shedding light on
racial profiling
B ruce S. G ordon
The Justice D epartm ent
should support, not demote, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics di­
rector who refused to downplay
data that confirms racial pro­
filing of African American and
Latino drivers.
Attorney General Alberto
Gonzalez should investigate
and intervene in this case. Here
is a public official who at­
tempted to shed light on impor­
tant statistics that support ear­
lier NAACP findings which
show black and Latino drivers
are searched by law enforce­
ment nearly four times as of­
ten as white drivers.
by
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American Dream Turning to Fantasy
mid-income workers put in longer
hours, deal with long commutes or
cut down on basic necessities so
they can afford housing.
A ccording to the C enter for
Econom ic and Policy Research,
even those that live in w hat is
by J udge G reg M athis
A new report by the Center for considered a m oderately priced
Housing Policy finds most Ameri­ com m unity pay a disproportion­
cans don’t make enough money to ate portion o f their incom e for
achieve the American dream of housing, more ’han the recom ­
mended 30-percent.
owning their own home.
In the past 18 months, the me­
dian home price rose 20-percent to
$225,000. However, during that
same period, salaries for some of
our most important professions
stayed the sam e or rose only
slightly, falling short of the $71,000
annual income needed to qualify to
purchase a $225,000 home; this
number is based on a down pay­
ment o f 10 percent.
At an early age, most Americans
are taught that hard work will even­
tually pay off in the form of a secure
One goal of public policy has
career, stable income and an all
around comfortable life style. There long been to increase the national
is a huge gap between this force- rate of homeownership. Any legis­
fed dream and the reality of living in lator worth their salt knows that a
a society that is pricing out many of resident that owns their home has
a vested interest in the community.
its workers.
Affordable housing is key to the As such, policies such as tax-de­
strength of America’s communi­ ductible mortgage interest and the
ties. Where there is none, local creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie
governments fight to manage over­ Mac, organizations that provide
crowding, employers struggle to alternative mortgage options for
have
expanded
recruit and retain personnel, low- to b u y e rs,
High prices put
houses out of
reach for many
ST
homeownership over the last sev­
eral d ecad es. T his grow th in
homeownership has proven ben­
eficial for millions of Americans,
and provides a way to secure qual­
ity housing and a method to accu­
mulate wealth for retirement and
beyond.
A few years ago. President Bush
committed his Administration to
ensuring no American is left out in
the cold when it comes to home
Foundations can play a role by
funding housing developm ents
specifically created for the low- to
moderate-income worker and by
researching the effects these de­
velopments have on the commu­
nity at large. With this data, legis­
lators can identify best practices
and create even more housing op­
tions.
Creativity and a commitment to
the working class are necessary to
Creativity and a commitment to the
working class are necessary to close
* ^ t h e gap between the American dream
the reality of flat-lining salaries
and skyrocketing home prices.
ownership. If he and the presidents
that follow him are serious about
making sure the American dream is
more than just a fantasy special
steps must be taken to slow the
growth of new home prices in low-
and mid-income neighborhoods
across the country.
Additionally, the federal gov­
ernment must work with state and
local governments to create afford­
able, mixed income neighborhoods.
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close the gap between the Ameri­
can dream and the reality of flat­
lining salaries and skyrocketing
home prices. Until home ownership
is a real’possibility for all citizens,
America is offering no more than a
pipe dream.
Judge Greg Mathis is chairman
o f the Rainbow PUSH-Excel Board
and a national board member o f
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.
forcem ent agencies that con­
tinue to use racial profiling
accountable.
This legislation is needed to
stop this insidious practice and
to help begin to restore the
confidence of communities of
color in law enforcement.
The April study by the Jus­
tice Department showed that
white, black and Latino drivers
were stopped at about the same
rate, nearly nine percent. What
happened once they were
stopped was dramatically dif­
ferent depending on race and
ethnicity.
Police searched black driv­
ers or their vehicles 10.2 per­
Here is a public
official who attempted
to shed light on
important statistics that
support earlier NAACP
findings. -B m c e S . Gordon
The Justice D epartm ent
study was ordered by Con­
gress, but its findings were bur­
ied. According to the New
York Tim es, Lawrence A.
Greenfeld, former director of
the Bureau of Justice Statis­
tics, was demoted after he re­
fused to d elete data that
showed racial profiling in traf­
fic stops. The statistics were
from 80,000 interviews con­
ducted in 2002.
The NAACP is calling on
Congress to pass the End Ra­
cial Profiling Act o f 2005 to be
in tro d u ced by R ep. John
C onyers Jr., D -M ich. and
Senators Russell D. Feingold.
D-Wisc.; Arlen Specter, R-
Penn.; Hillary Clinton, D-N. Y.
and Jon Corzine, D-N.J.
The Act would prohibit ra­
cial profiling; provide fund­
ing for the retraining of po­
lice officers and hold law en­
cent of the time; they searched
Latino drivers or their vehicles
11.4 percent of the time com­
pared to 3.5 percent for white
drivers. In addition, drivers of
color were much more likely to
face the threat of force and to
be issued tickets, rather than
simply a warning, the study
found.
The NAACP uncovered evi­
dence of racial profiling during
several studies and public hear­
ings around the country over
the past few years. One study
found that approximately 72
percent of all routine traffic
stops on a Northeast interstate
highway occurred with Afri­
can Am erican drivers even
though they only made up about
17 percent of the driving popu­
lation.
Bruce S. Gordon is the
president and chief execu­
tive officer o f the NAACP.
System Rigged Against Democracy
by
M arc H. M oriai .
Two recent developments on
the impact of incarceration in
America dramatized the steady,
if still far too slow, turning of the
wheel away from this country’s
foolish addiction to prisons.
In Iowa, Gov. Tom Vilsack
issued executive order to re­
store voting rights to all Io-
wans who’ve been convicted
of a felony and have completed
their sentences.
“When y o u ’ve paid your
debt to society, you need to be
re-connected and re-engaged
to society,” the governor said.
Earlier this year, Iowa’s Great
Plains neighbor, Nebraska, re­
pealed its law imposing a lifetime
voting ban on ex-felons, replac­
ing it with a two-year waiting
period after release.
The states’ actions exemplify
the revamping of these laws
throughout the country which,
by depriving ex-felons of their
right to vote after they’ve served
their sentences violates two fun­
damental notions of American
society: the ideas that the right to
vote belongs to all law-abiding
citizens, and that once persons
convicted of crime have served
their sentences, they’ve paid their
debts to society.
Given the hugely dispropor­
tionate number of incarcerated
African- and Latino-Americans,
there is not surprisingly a stun­
ning and worrisome racial ele­
ment to the felony disenfran­
chisement issue.
Nationally, of the 4.7 million
people ineligible to vote because
of felony convictions, 1.4 mil­
lion are black men. In Iowa,
where blacks constitute just two
percent of the total population,
blacks make up 19 percent of
ex-felons denied the right to
vote. Similar disparities can be
found in most states.
The second incarceration-re­
lated development is equally im­
portant. A study of ex-offend-
ers’ job prospects in New York
City found that white men with
prison records got far more job
offers than black men with
prison records-and more even
than black men who’d never
been arrested.
Both New York City’s cor­
rections commissioner and the
chairwoman of its Commission
on Human Rights labeled the
report a call for action and
pledged to explore ways to
eliminate the racial opportunity
gap for ex-offenders.
These two developments un­
derscore the importance of the
National Urban League.’s plan
to launch a national commis­
sion examining the successes
and challenges facing black
boys and men. The five-year
effort, to begin next year, will
recommend solutions to prob­
lems afflicting black males in
numerous fields.
Certainly, a primary area of
concentration will be black
m ales’ negative involvement
with the criminal justice sys­
tem (while not ignoring the fact
that the negative involvement
of women, particularly black
women, has become increas­
ingly serious as well) and the
extraordinary burden that im­
poses on A frican-A m erican
families and communities.
That burden and the growing
movement to reform felony-dis­
enfranchisement laws is dramatic
evidence that if we ignore the
need to equip ex-offenders with
two fundamental rights of a de-
mocracy-the vote and a job- it’s
at their peril and ours.
Marc H. Moriai is president
and chief executive officer of
the National Urban League.