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O c to b e r 23. 2013
Page 13
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The Emergence of a New Jim Crow System
Blocking health
care coverage
for millions of
Americans
several states then showed their
disrespect for the eternal power
of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I
Have a Dream” speech by pass­
ing new laws making it harder
for black Americans to vote.
New York C ity’s voters are
honoring the g reat m a rc h ’s
legacy in a much more appro­
priate way: They’re rejecting
the Big Apple’s “stop-and-frisk”
racial p ro filin g that M ayor
Michael Bloomberg cherishes.
W hile W all S tre e t’s casino
economy has priced countless
poor out of that town, stop-
and-frisk has sent legions of
black New Yorkers to jail.
Bill de Blasio, the Democratic
hopeful to fill B loom berg’s
wingtips, is the father of a teen
son named Dante with a monu­
mental afro. Bringing his fa­
therly fears that Dante would be
unfairly targeted by the over­
reach of stop-and-frisk helped
de Blasio clinch the highly com­
petitive nomination.
A poll released less than four
E mily S chwartz
and W illiam A. C ollins
by
Remember that inspiring 50th
birthday party for the March on
Washington at the end of the
summer?
Unfortunately, those moving
speeches didn’t slow the em er­
gence of a new Jim Crow sys­
tem.
The Supreme Court kicked
off its celebration of the occa­
sion a month early by gutting
the Voting Rights Act. Then,
weeks before the election makes
the Dem ocrat’s lead appear un­
beatable: 67 percent of likely
voters prefer him and just 23
percent intend to cast their bal­
lots for Republican nominee Joe
Lhota.
De Blasio’s lead is staggering
among black New Yorkers. An
overwhelming 89 percent sup­
port him and only 4 percent pre­
fer Lhota, who has pledged that
he would fight in court to pre­
serve the parts of the stop-and-
frisk program that a federal judge
rejected in a mid-August ruling.
Racial economic disparity is
probably going to be harder to
vanquish than racist policing.
White families typically bring
home twice as much income as
African-American and Latino
families earned, according to the
Urban Institute. And the racial
wealth gap is much bigger. On
average, white families have more
than $600,000 in wealth, about
six times as much as their black
and Latino counterparts.
M eanw hile, 13 percent of costs accompanied troubling re­
whites live in poverty according ports about software shortcom ­
to the Kaiser Family Foundation, ings.
compared with 35 percent of black
W ouldn’t it be nice to know
Americans and 33 percent of why conservative Republicans,
Latinos.
especially those in southern
The killer, literally, in this plot states, oppose helping millions
line is health insurance, another of Americans get health care
Kaiser study found. There’s a big coverage?
disparity between which com­
Well, one reason is racism.
munities have coverage and which
Yes, millions of the poor un­
don’t. Before the Affordable Care insured are white. But since a
Act’s key provisions began to roll smaller percentage of whites
out, only 13 percent of whites too lack coverage, com pared to
young for Medicare lacked cov­ people of color, it’s hard not to
erage, compared with 21 percent see the racism behind the non­
of blacks and 32 percent of sensical objection to improving
Latinos.
the quality of life by making
Three and a half years ago, health care coverage more uni­
the Affordable Care Act became versal.
the law of the land. It has with­
Emily Schwartz Greco is the
stood Supreme Court scrutiny managing editor o f OtherWords,
and misleading propaganda that a non-profit national editorial
tried to make the 2012 elections service run by the Institute fo r
a referendum on health care Policy Studies. OtherWords col­
reform. When the health insur­ umnist William A. Collins is a
ance exchanges began to oper­ form er state representative and
ate a few weeks back, unex­ a fo rm er m ayor o f Norwalk,
pectedly high demand and low Conn.
Washington
Time to drop
the racial slur
by
tions and political leaders from
both the left and right who cor­
rectly point out that the term
“Redskins” is a racial slur.
Suzan Shown Harjo, a
Native American woman
who lives in Washington,
D.C., and directs the Morn­
ing Star Institute, has been
leading this fight and others
like it since the 1960s.
President O bam a recently
weighed in, saying, “If I were
the owner of the team and I
knew that there was a name of
my team - even if it had a
storied history - that was of­
fen d in g a sizab le group o f
people, I’d think about chang­
ing it.” He added that he did not
believe “attachment to a par­
ticular name should override the
real, legitimate concerns that
M arc H. M orial
Last week, as Dallas
and Washington re vived
their annual NFL foot­
ball rivalry, they also
found themselves in the
middle of an escalating
fight over the name of the Wash­
ington football team.
In fact, as part of its “Change
the Mascot” campaign; the Oneida
Indian Nation is running radio ads
in Dallas and the other cities where
the Washington football team is
playing this year calling for DC’s
team to drop the “R” word from
its name.
This is all part of a larger move­
ment among civil rights organiza­
ÿkirtlanô (Observer Established 1970
P u b l is h e r :
E d it o r :
Mark Washington
M ich a el L eighton
E xecutive D irector :
Rakeem Washington
C reative D irector :
P aul N e u feld t
O ffice M anager /C lassifieds :
A dvertising M anager :
people have.”
Team owner, Dan Snyder dis­
agrees. He has vowed to never
change the name and in a recent
letter to season ticket holders
he called the team name, “a
badge of honor.”
O b v io u sly not e v e ry o n e
agrees. The controversy has
now gotten the attention of top
NFL officials. NFL Commis­
sioner Roger Goodell recently
said, “If we are offending one
person, we need to be listening
and making sure that we’re do­
ing the right things to try to
address that.”
And officials of the Oneida
Indian Nation and the NFL are
scheduled to meet next month
to discuss the issue. Consistent
with our commitment to equal­
ity and the dignity of every hu­
USPS 959-680
R eporter /P hotographer Donovan M. Smith
-----------------
The Dallas vs. Washington
football game this year was
played on the eve of Columbus
Day, another reminder of the
legacy of discrimination and op­
pression inflicted on Native
Am ericans. D em anding the
Washington football team re­
move the “R” word from its
name is a simple request for
respect.
As the Oneida Indian Nation
radio ad states, “This country
may be politically divided...but
we should all be able to agree that
racial slurs are unacceptable and
they shouldn’t be used to market
this country’s capital city. We
deserve to be treated simply as
what we are: Americans.”
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer o f the
National Urban League.
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211
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Lucinda Baldwin
Leonard Latin
man being, the National Urban
League stands with all those
demanding the Washington foot­
ball team stop using the R word.
Ray Halbritter, leader of the
Oneida Indian Nation, recently
stated his opposition this way:
“Let’s be clear, the R word is
defined in the dictionary as an
offensive term. It was the name
that was used against our people
when we were forced off our
lands at gunpoint. So it is has a
sordid history and it’s time for
a change.”
He added, “History is littered
with people who have vowed
never to change something -
slavery, immigration, women’s
rights - so we think one thing
that’s really great about this
country is when many people
speak out, change can happen.”
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