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May 18. 2011
Fortiani» (Obstruer
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Americans have a Hard Time Talking about Race
Disparities grow
as issues ignored
J udge G reg M athis
Americans have a hard
time talking about race. So,
instead o f dealing with an
issue that continues to have
a lingering impact, we ig­
nore it. We sweep it under
the rug, along with our ability to
deal with a social and political
system that creates racial dis­
parities on a variety of levels.
While our heads tire buried in
the sand, disparities in opportu­
nity continue to grow, with Afri­
can Americans, more than any
by
other ethnic group, lacking ac­
cess to decent schools, afford­
able housing, jobs that pay a
liv a b le w age and q u a lity
healthcare.
I t’s tim e
fo r
America to get real:
race does matter.
Talking about this
m akes some o f us
uncomfortable. Too
bad.
A fric an A m eric an s have
been uncom fortable for hun­
dreds o f years, battling sla­
very, A m erican apartheid and
social and political systems built
on racist foundations. And
though w e’ve overcom e much.
w e’ve still got a lot o f ground
to cover.
The median income for black
households still lags behind that
of whites. And though more of
our people are finishing high
school, less than 20 percent of us
finish college while 30 percent
of whites receive their college
degree.
Owning your own home is
critical to building personal
wealth. But the benefits go be­
yond the financial. Yet, African
Americans own homes at a rate
much lower than whites; While
other ethnic groups are able to
build their own wealth while si­
multaneously strengthening their
communities, African Am eri­
cans seem stuck in a holding
pattern.
For every step America makes
toward racial harmony, we seem
to take one step backward. If
you don’t believe me, take a look
around.
O ur lingering race issue can
be seen in the cries for ‘proof’
that the President was, in fact,
an A m erican citizen, an eli­
gible to serve in the nation’s
office.
We can see it in the outrage
that many conservatives seemed
to have over having a socially
conscious hip-hop artist perform
at the White House. And it’s
clearly visible in the anti-immi­
gration reform debates being held
around the country, in venues
large and small.
To be clear, this is not about
blame. Personal responsibility is
critical to individual success. But
there is no denying that institu­
tional racism and discrimination
can derail even the most am bi­
tious of us.
If America refuses to address
its ongoing race issue, then it
cannot address the systems that
perpetuate injustice.
Judge Greg Mathis is a re­
tired Michigan District Court
judge and current syndicated
television show judge.
was»
Immoral, Illegal, counterproductive and Un-American
If laws on torture
are ignored,
terrorists win
P eter W eiss
Osama bin Laden's death
has laid to rest the mystery
o f his w hereabouts. His
body lies under the ocean. But now his
death raises another increasingly popu­
lar question. Was he tracked down thanks
to tips elicited through the torture of
captured al-Qaeda operatives?
The answer should be clear: no, tor­
ture doesn't "work." The damage done
by systematically resorting to torture far
outweighs the benefits obtained from the
very rare instances where reliable infor­
mation is obtained from torture.
Defenders of the Bush-Cheney poli­
cies that gave us rampant human rights
a b u ses at the A bu G h ra ib and
Guantanamo prisons claim, on flimsy
evidence, that waterboarding and other
forms of torture produced information
that eventually led the Navy SEALs to
bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan.
D efenders of O bam a's policy of end­
ing to rtu re, such as W hite H ouse
c o u n te r te r r o r is m
a d v is o r Jo h n
by
Jiortlani» (Observer
Brennan, tell us that the trail to bin
L aden's com pound w as assem bled
over a decade, from a m ultitude o f bits
and pieces o f intelligence. As New
York Times reporters Scott Shane
and Charlie Savage explained, "harsh
techniques played a small role at
most" in leading the Navy SEALs to
O sam a Bin Laden.
Professional interrogators, like
Air Force M ajor M atthew A lexander,
insist that torture is the wrong way to
go because it tends to produce unreli­
able or deliberately deceptive infor­
mation. In addition, torture creates
more terrorists than it unmasks.
It's also unnecessary, as I learned
first-hand many years ago. I did part
of my army service in W orld W ar II at
an interrogation center for high-level
G erm an POW s. We got a lot of valu­
able intelligence w ithout ever laying a
hand on them.
But it's not necessary to deny that
torture ever works in order to com e to
the conclusion that it should never be
used. People who believe in m orality
— and not everyone does — will op­
pose torture because they consider it
deeply immoral. People who believe in
the rule of law will refuse to em ploy it
because it is illegal. And people who
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are proud to be A m ericans should
reject it because it is profoundly un-
A m erican. The U.S. C onstitution for­
bids cruel and unusual punishm ent.
In 1863, in the m iddle of the Civil
W ar, a Germ an im m igrant law profes­
sor at C olum bia U niversity, Francis
Lieber, drafted "Instructions for the
G overnm ent o f Arm ies o f the United
States in the Field," which President
Abraham Lincoln subsequently pro­
m ulgated. The Lieber Code, as it came
to be known, is the fountainhead of all
subsequent docum ents dealing with
what is prohibited in w arfare, both in
this country and throughout the world.
At its Core is this sentence: "The law
of war does not only disclaim all cruelty
and bad faith...offenses to the contrary
shall be severely punished, and espe­
cially so if committed by officers." The
United States is a party to the Geneva
Conventions of 1949, which spell out the
law of war in detail, and, as of 1994, to
the Convention against Torture.
In 1980, in a case brought by the
C enter for C onstitutional Rights, the
Federal Court of A ppeals for the Sec­
ond Circuit said, "The torturer has
becom e like the pirate and slave trader
before him hostis hum ani generis, an
enemy of all m ankind."
A nother reason to obey the injunc­
tion against torture, one that m ilitary
officers frequently cite, is the blowback
effect. If the U. S. tortures foreign
detainees as a m atter o f policy, as it
did during G eorge W. Bush's adm inis­
tration, what is to prevent other coun­
tries from using torture on Am erican
detainees, as the North Koreans did
during the Korean W ar?
Finally, there's som ething about a
slippery slope. If the law can be bro­
ken because doing so "works," where
will that stop? How about convicting
G uantanam o detainees on secret ev i­
dence? O r locking up "really bad
people" — that's what Dick Cheney
called the ones in G itm o — for life
w ithout trying them at all, as the gov­
ernm ent is getting ready to do? Or
doing away with the presum ption of
innocence, as President Barack Obama
did the other day when he declared
that Private Bradley M anning "broke
the law," despite the fact that the
alleged W ikiL eaker hasn't even been
tried yet?
If the law is discarded in the fight
against terror, terrorists can rack up a
win.
Peter Weiss is a vice president o f
the Center fo r Constitutional Rights
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