Page 2 The Skanner June 7, 2017
Challenging People to Shape
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Opinion
Prohibitions and Bans: Serious, Unintended Consequences
R
apidly shifting U.S. de-
mographics are fuel-
ing the urgency of civil
rights leaders, social
scientists, policy makers, and
public health professionals
to focus their attention on
policies designed to close the
gap in racial and ethnic health
disparities and ensure justice
and equity in communities
of color. In the interest of so-
cial justice, the good intent
of policies developed and en-
dorsed by dedicated public
servants requires, however,
a thorough and thoughtful
consideration of the impact of
unintended consequences of
those policies in communities
of color across the nation.
While many Black Amer-
icans have made significant
advances in professional and
educational
achievement,
heightened political and so-
cial status, far too many are
still burdened with poverty,
few employment and educa-
tional opportunities and poor
health. Compounding this
situation is the tense relation-
ship between police and the
Black community because of
use of excessive force, profil-
ing, over incarceration, and
selective prosecution. It has
also been well documented
that Black people are sicker,
experience bias and discrim-
ination in the healthcare sys-
tem and die sooner than other
groups in American society.
It stands to reason why con-
Benjamin F.
Chavis, Jr.
Rev. Al
Sharpton
NNPA
President
and CEO
National
Action
Network
scientious policymakers and
public health professionals
are zealous in their efforts
to do whatever it takes to im-
prove the safety, quality of life
and health in Black communi-
ties — even if it means making
selected harmful products
unavailable by imposing bans
and prohibitions.
“
drunkenness, the crime and
accidents caused by drunken-
ness and to reduce the death,
illness and disease associat-
ed with the use and abuse of
alcohol.
The national prohibition
of alcohol (1920-1933) was ex-
tremely difficult to enforce.
While the consumption of
Black people are sicker, experi-
ence bias and discrimination in
the healthcare system and die
sooner than other groups
Prohibitions and bans are
official public proclamations
and legislative orders forbid-
ding, limiting, restricting and
making illegal a behavior or
forbidding, limiting, restrict-
ing and making illegal the
use, manufacture or selling of
a product. In 1920, Congress
ratified the 18th Amendment
to the Constitution prohibit-
ing the manufacture, trans-
portation and sale of liquor.
The good intentions of those
who aggressively supported
the prohibition on alcohol
were to reduce access to al-
cohol as a way of reducing
alcohol dropped at the begin-
ning of Prohibition, it subse-
quently increased. Banning
alcohol did not stop its use. Un-
regulated, illegally produced
alcohol was more dangerous
to drink, crime increased and
became “organized,” courts
and prisons were stretched to
the breaking point. When the
production and sale of alco-
hol went underground, black
markets developed controlled
by the Mafia and gangs in
communities. By 1933, public
sentiment had turned against
prohibition and Congress re-
pealed the prohibition by con-
stitutional amendment. The
unintended consequences of
alcohol prohibition were real
and far outweighed the good
intent of the prohibition and
led to the failure of this noble
experiment.
The lessons learned from
the failed policy of alcohol
prohibition are important
for us today when a ban on
menthol cigarettes has been
proposed to reduce smoking
among African Americans.
Since over 80 percent of Af-
rican Americans who choose
to smoke, smoke menthol cig-
arettes, prohibitions, restric-
tions and bans would affect
Black communities more than
other communities in Ameri-
ca.
When police have to spend
time enforcing prohibitions
and bans, they have less time
to focus on solving violent
crime and ensuring public
safety. Tensions between
police and the Black commu-
nity have focused national
attention on the pervasive
inequities in the U.S. criminal
justice system. In 2014, the
National Research Council
issued a comprehensive re-
port on America’s overgrown
criminal justice system. The
rate of imprisonment in the
United States has more than
quadrupled during the last
forty years.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
HBCU Leaders, Advocates Must Engage Dems and Republicans
A
s the president and
CEO of the Thurgood
Marshall College Fund
(TMCF), I’m spending
a good amount of time work-
ing to build strategic, govern-
ment alliances that extend
beyond our traditional Demo-
cratic support. If you’re won-
dering why, all you need to
do is look at a map of where
America’s Historically Black
Colleges and Universities
(HBCUs) are located.
The fact of the matter is that
a majority of TMCF’s 47 mem-
ber-schools are clustered in
southern and midwestern
states completely controlled
by Republicans. By that, I
mean states where the gover-
nor, both U.S. senators, both
chambers of the legislature
and most of the U.S. House
members are Republican.
The next largest group of
our member-schools occu-
pies states that are under at
least a majority of GOP con-
trol. Only a small number of
our member-schools — three
to be exact — are in states and
the District of Columbia that
are completely controlled by
Democrats.
If those statistics don’t jump
out at you, maybe these facts
will. Many of our institu-
tions of higher learning are
in desperate need of not just
operating dollars, but serious
capital infusions to the tune
Johnny C.
Taylor
Pres. & CEO
Thurgood
Marshall
College Fund
of hundreds of millions of
dollars.
Earlier this year, Grambling
State University President
Rick Gallot announced that
his school will need to aban-
“
of their party affiliation.
When the media released
photos of our meeting at the
White House with President
Trump, some derided it as
just a “photo op.” Tell that to
the administrators who were
wondering how they’d fill the
gap in funding should their
already strained budgets face
sudden, drastic cuts.
We’re simply not able to
pick and choose whom we en-
gage with. We saw firsthand a
couple months ago how pos-
The people who currently hold
the purse strings—both nationally
and on a state level—are in most
cases Republicans
don the campus library—an
unprecedented decision for a
university seeking to expand
its national imprint in re-
search and training for its stu-
dents. Gallot’s announcement
came almost exactly one year
after Louisiana’s state audi-
tor reported nearly $111 mil-
lion in deferred maintenance
at another Louisiana public
HBCU campus, Southern Uni-
versity in Baton Rouge.
The people who currently
hold the purse strings—both
nationally and on a state lev-
el—are, in most cases, Repub-
licans. Yet, some will still sug-
gest that we not even talk to
those elected leaders, because
itive strategic engagement
paid off when I worked with
our member-school presi-
dents and chancellors to en-
sure that their federal budget
dollars would not be cut in
President Trump’s first bud-
get proposal.
Working with the White
House, through open com-
munication and lots of effort,
HBCU leaders and I were able
to deliver flat funding for HB-
CUs in the upcoming fiscal
year budget. Flat funding is
a big win, considering Presi-
dent Trump proposed a 13.9
percent funding decrease in
federal education dollars.
But that’s not the end of it.
With so many capital needs,
we must ensure Washington
doesn’t cut the vital capital
financing program that pro-
vides about $20 million a year
to support more than $280
million in capital financing
for our schools.
The need to work across
the aisle extends beyond just
elected officials. In January,
TMCF announced a $25.6
million gift from the Charles
Koch Foundation and Koch
Industries. This generous gift
was a direct result of proac-
tive outreach I initiated with
Mr. Koch, a man often associ-
ated with support of conser-
vative and libertarian caus-
es. What I found by having a
dialogue with him is that we
share a deep concern about
the impact of over-incarcer-
ation and lack of educational
opportunities that dispro-
portionately impact fragile
communities. Together in
January, we launched a new,
HBCU-based research institu-
tion, known as the Center for
Advancing Opportunity, that
is studying barriers to oppor-
tunity in those communities.
In reaching across the aisle,
we should never forsake our
historic alliances. But for the
sake of the young people our
HBCUs seek to educate, we
must also realize the need to
grow new and different alli-
ances.