The skanner., June 08, 2011, Page 5, Image 5

opinion
Your Take: Cuts in Public Sector Threaten Blacks
R
adical conservative politi-
cians want to slash city,
county and state jobs —
and undercut the economic securi-
ty of African-American families,
says this union official.
When I was growing up in
Cleveland, some of the most
respected people in my neighbor-
hood were the folks who worked
for the city, county or state. My
father was a city bus driver who
took great pride in getting people
safely to and from their jobs every
day. My mother was a community
college teacher who loved prepar-
ing her students for success.
It turns out that my family was
far from unique: Twenty-one per-
cent of all Black workers are pub-
lic employees, making the public
sector the largest employer of
Black workers, according to a
recent University of California,
Berkeley study. The wages that
African Americans earn in the
public sector are higher than those
we earn in other industries.
Furthermore, there is less wage
inequality between African-
American workers and nonBlack
workers in the public sector than
in other industries.
The author of the study, Steven
Pitts of Berkeley’s Center for
E MPloyEES f EDEratIoN
Lee Saunders
Labor Research and Education,
emphasizes that his analysis is
based on the national workforce.
In cities where African Americans
are a larger proportion of the pop-
ulation, “the importance of the
public sector to Black employ-
ment prospects” is even greater.
Another recent finding makes
Pitts’ conclusions even more sig-
nificant. According to the
Economic Policy Institute in
Washington, D.C., although the
economy is showing some signs of
recovery, African Americans in
2010 had unemployment rates of
at least 15 percent in severely
depressed states — levels not seen
since the Great Depression.
These revelations mean that the
plans by radical governors to rob
public employees of their rights,
shrink pay and benefits, and cut
jobs will have a disproportionate
impact on Black families and
communities. In other words,
white America’s bad cold has
turned into pneumonia for Black
America — and it will get worse if
ultraconservative politicians crip-
ple public-sector unions, making
them incapable of protecting their
members.
Both of my parents were active
union members because they
knew that the labor-rights and
civil rights movements were the
way for African Americans to
achieve upward mobility and
equality. In fact, labor unions and
civil rights organizations have
worked hand in hand in just about
every fight for equality and eco-
nomic justice that our nation has
known.
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
was assassinated, he was in
Memphis, Tenn., on behalf of
1,300 sanitation workers, mem-
bers of AFSCME Local 1733.
They were on strike for more than
a bigger paycheck; as their “I am a
man” signs made clear, they want-
ed respect for the work they did.
King stood with them because he
recognized that freedom requires
that workers have a voice, the abil-
ity to provide for their families
and the power to shape their des-
tinies.
Not only do public-sector jobs
mean economic security for Black
families; they are also jobs that are
vitally important to communities
across this nation. Whether they
are teachers, bus drivers, sanita-
tion workers, snowplow operators,
emergency medical technicians,
nurses or librarians, public
employees perform jobs that
towns and cities of every size and
description depend on. Their work
strengthens neighborhoods and
supports basic American values
like looking out for one another,
preparing our children for the
future and ensuring that there is a
safety net for the most vulnerable
members of our country.
But if you believe the radical
governors and legislators in
Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and
other states, many of these jobs are
unnecessary, and the workers who
provide them are “coddled”
because they have the right to a
voice on the job. Since January
2009, state and local governments
have laid off 429,000 workers,
having already had dire effects on
families across the country.
And yet instead of joining with
us to find solutions and protect the
rights of workers, these governors
are inflicting more pain. Their
only interest is in attacking our
jobs, crippling our unions and dis-
mantling public services. At a time
when we should be pulling togeth-
er, their tactics and rhetoric are
ripping us apart.
Because so many Black families
have built careers in state and
local government, what these cor-
porate-backed politicians are also
doing is undercutting the econom-
ic security of Black families. Ask
if this is their intention, and of
course they will deny that it is. But
even the best of intentions (and
their intentions are far from the
“best”) can have unintended con-
sequences. And there is no deny-
ing that the path they’ve chosen
will have dire consequences for
many Black families.
That’s one of the many reasons
African Americans, whether pub-
lic employees or not, whether
union members or not, are stand-
ing with the workers who are
fighting back. If 21 percent of
Black workers are public-sector
employees, that means that one
out of every five Black workers is
employed by a state or local gov-
ernment. Our financial well-being
and the economic security of the
neighborhoods we live in are at
stake. It is up to all of us to fight
for our future.
lee Saunders is secretary-treas-
urer of the american Federation
of State, County and Municipal
employees.
Saying Good-bye to Music, Political Legend Gil Scott-Heron
W
hen I received word of
the passing of noted poet
and singer Gil Scott-
Heron, I felt as if I had just heard
about the death of a college friend
whom I had not seen in many
years. Perhaps it was because I
actually got to know the work of
Gil Scott-Heron while I was in
college in the early 1970s. His
albums became part of my life and
his songs and messages were part
of the support system on which I
and many other Black radicals
came to depend.
There are tremendous ironies
connected with the life and work
of GSH. If you listen to one of his
most famous pieces, The Bottle,
and another, Angel Dust, you can-
not but shake your head in know-
ing that the brother struggled for
years with his own substance
abuse. The contradiction is star-
tling in its drama. Here was some-
one who went out of his way to
warn us all of the dangers of sub-
stance abuse, yet he fell prey to it
himself. I hope that a future biog-
rapher of GSH will explore the
demons that haunted him and had
him live such a contradiction.
Yet, we must recognize and
honor the many contributions of
GSH. He and the Last Poets (actu-
ally there were two groups that
both called themselves The Last
Poets) are seen as the parents of
Hip Hop, but that does not provide
enough context. GSH arose at a
critical moment in the Black
Freedom Movement and the New
Left. As Manning Marable notes
in his biography of Malcolm
X, Malcolm X:
A life of
Reinvention, Malcolm spoke with
the sound of contemporary jazz.
GSH took the rhetoric and analy-
sis of the radical wing of the Black
Freedom Movement and the New
Left, and both poetized and jazz-
isized it. Whether through his
famous The Revolution will not be
t raNS a frICa
Here was someone who went out of
his way to warn us all of the dangers
of substance abuse, yet he fell prey to
it himself
Scholar with the institute for
Policy Studies, the immediate past
president of transafrica Forum,
and the co-author ofSolidarity
Divided. he can be reached
at papaq54@hotmail.com.
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
televised or later work like We
beg your pardon America, GSH
grabbed hold of challenges of the
moment and created a popular
analysis that hit all of the right
notes.
GSH was, in my opinion, at his
best both when he was working
with Brian Jackson, but also when
his voice and sound were integral-
ly part of a militant social justice
movement.
When
he
sang Johannesburg, his words
became the anthem of the anti-
apartheid movement in the USA.
It was a song that came out at just
the right moment, inspiring us all
with its fierceness and spirit of
resistance. You could not listen to
that song without feeling defiance
in your soul and without being
prepared to march. In fact, the
last time that I actually saw GSH
in the flesh he was performing
just that song in August 1983 at
the 20th anniversary of the
famous March on Washington.
GSH never lost his relevance. I
am
always
haunted
by
his
Message
to
the
Messengers, which is a tremen-
dous illustration of reaching
across the generational divide to
both mentor as well as partner
with younger generations, offer-
ing them lessons from the move-
ment that shaped us.
I appreciate all that he did and
all that he offered. Thank you,
brother Gil.
Week on the Web
Culture Critic Kam
Williams reviews the
latest X-Men movie,
First Class … in “Movie
Reviews”
Michael Jackson’s
iconic red and black
jacket from the
“Thriller” video is up
for sale. If you’ve got
about $400,000 to
throw away, you too could bid on this
item at Beverly Hills’ Julien’s Auctions
... in “Music Reviews”
A fire raging in Arizona is now larger
than the entire metro
area of Phoenix … in
“National News”
A showdown is brew-
ing in Washington
about rules that would
cap fees on debit cards
that merchants have
to pay … in “Breaking
News”
Watch the video of a bounce castle
being thrown around in the wind.
You thought they were harmless,
inflatable fun … THINK AGAIN!!! … in
“Breaking News”
www.
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Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior
June 8, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 5