Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2016)
Page 6 July 27, 2016 O PINION Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Second-Class Citizenship Continues Has anything changed? e bony S laughter -J ohnSon When I heard about the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Phi- lando Castile, I thought back to another name etched into American history: Dred Scott. In 1857, the Supreme Court was tasked with deciding whether Scott, an African Ameri- can man born into slavery, should be granted his freedom. The justices not only denied Scott’s request, but also took the opportunity to send a chilling message to all African Americans, free and enslaved, that reverber- ates to this day. The court held that as mem- bers of an inferior race, African Americans were not citizens at all — and, as such, did not even have legal standing to sue. African Americans, as Chief Justice Roger Taney so decisively determined, had “no rights which the white man was bound to re- spect.” The next century was charac- by terized by an ongoing struggle to prove Taney wrong. African American heroism during the Civil War era hastened the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, which ended slavery and (theoretically) reversed race-based restrictions on citizenship. Yet these gains were negated almost as quick- ly as they were realized, This sacrifice of the black body, along with sustained lobbying, ul- timately led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet even today, second-class citizenship continues. It shows up in generational poverty, a dispa- rate education system, mass incar- ceration, and violence at the hands of police. In fact, African Americans are three times as likely as whites to of their constitutional right to life by self-deputized racists who pro- claimed themselves judge, juror, and executioner and gunned them down. That same year, Rekia Boyd was murdered under a hail of bullets by an off-duty police of- ficer who reproached Boyd and her friends for talking too loudly, depriving her of her right to free speech, freedom of assembly, and life. It shows up in generational poverty, a disparate education system, mass incarceration, and violence at the hands of police. as the strong grip of Jim Crow choked communities throughout the South. Over the violent decades that followed, African Americans en- dured church bombings, harass- ment, and police beatings and animal attacks, like the brutali- ties inflicted on those marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. be killed by police, even though they’re twice as likely to be un- armed. That’s produced a slew of names that, like Dred Scott’s, may loom over our history for cen- turies because of the rights they were denied. In 2012, Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, both of whom had committed no crimes or infrac- tions of any sort, were deprived In August 2014, Michael Brown’s right to a fair and public trial was violated by the police of- ficer who shot him and callously left his lifeless body to bleed out in the street. Walter Scott’s life and right to due process were taken in April 2015 at the hands of a law en- forcement officer, who then had the audacity to plant his weapon next to Scott’s motionless body on the ground — all over a mere traf- fic violation. On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a father of five who was selling CDs to provide for his children, was murdered by law enforcement officers who violated his Fourth Amendment right to prevent un- warranted search and seizure sim- ply because he fit a certain profile. Less than 48 hours later, Phi- lando Castile was pulled over for a broken tail light. Castile’s non-threatening disclosure that he was legally carrying a concealed weapon prompted a police officer to murder him in front of his part- ner and her four-year-old daugh- ter, violating his Second Amend- ment right to bear arms. In 2016, one would hope that the “inalienable rights” of all Americans are respected. Yet Taney’s words that African Amer- icans “have no rights which the white man was bound to respect” still ring loud and clear. The fight for full African Amer- ican citizenship continues. Ebony Slaughter-Johnson is a Next Leader at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org. Acknowledging the Deep Racial Wealth Gap A party platform that finally targets the barriers by J oSh h oxie Party platforms are dense and often morosely boring documents filled with wonkish poli- cy proposals and partisan jeers at the other side. At over 40 pages, this year’s Democratic Party platform lives up to its predecessors in length The Law Offices of Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com and ennui. However, it also in- cludes a section not yet seen in platforms from either side: an acknowledgement of the racial wealth gap. Wealth has been unfairly dis- tributed since our nation’s found- ing, and that unfairness has al- ways had a racial bent. It goes something like this: White fami- lies have more; black and Latino families have less. (Asian and Arab Americans have more com- plex economic histories.) The gap is far larger than you might expect. A 2014 study from Pew Re- search revealed that median white families have 13 times more wealth than median black fami- lies, and 10 times more than me- dian Latino families. That gap has remained relatively consistent for decades. The Democratic platform ac- knowledges that this gap “has been created by historical and con- temporary policies and practices that discriminate against people of color” and have “constrained their ability to earn income and build assets to the same extent as other Americans.” In other words, the racial wealth gap is no accident, and it’s not caused by some deficiency in people of color. It’s caused by a legacy of bad public policies that extend to this day. The platform commits to eliminating those sys- temic barriers, but what exactly are they — and how do we fix them? One way to get at this is to con- sider who benefits from existing wealth-building policies. Consider that in recent de- cades, wealth has concentrated at the tippy top of the economic pyr- amid. The 400 wealthiest Ameri- cans combined own $2.34 tril- lion. That’s more than the GDP of India, a country of over a billion people. In that group of 400, just seven are black or Latino. Those at the top have been able to reach record levels of wealth through policies that prioritize wealth concentration by those who already have wealth. This is in stark contrast to focusing on those who have no wealth and helping them build a nest egg. Take for instance the loop- holes in the tax code that en- able some of the highest earning households to pay just 17 percent of their income in taxes. That’s less than half the top nominal rate. At the same time, we’re told we can’t afford to expand programs with a proven track re- cord of improving prospects for people who start with less, like the early childhood education program Head Start. This tradeoff — wasting pre- cious public resources on tax breaks for the rich while leaving those at the bottom to fend for themselves — plays out in count- less different ways in public poli- cies large and small. Reversing this dynamic will have a significant impact on the racial wealth gap, but first we have to acknowledge it. Including the racial wealth gap in the Dem- ocratic Party platform is a strong first step — one the Republicans should follow. Now, let’s fix it. Josh Hoxie directs the Project on Opportunity and Taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
