opinion
Not much has changed since the Kerner Commission released its report in February 1968. It asserted that the nation was “moving toward two societies, one Black, one white – separate and unequal.” The Kerner Commission officially known as the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson after the 1967 urban riots.
The commission concluded that “bad policing practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high unemployment, voter suppression, and other culturally embedded forms of racial discrimination all converged to propel violent upheaval on the streets of African-American neighborhoods in American cities,”
But President Johnson ignored the conclusions of the commission and did nothing. Notice that some of its findings are still evident today.
The year before, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made reference to the two Americas in his speech at Stanford University. What has changed in 50 years? Not much.
Sen. John Edwards, presidential candidate in 2004, also spoke of the two America as he characterized as the haves and the have-nots. He was not nominated and his speech went unheeded.
Today the protest demonstrations and the looting and other acts of violence cry out at the racism and economic frustration of black people in our two Americas.
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African Americans have the highest poverty rate. About 27.4 percent and 45.8 percent of black children under the age of 6 live in poverty. Before the 1970s economic growth correlated with falling poverty rates, but that changed as economic inequality kicked in and poverty rates increased. Americans are working harder and longer today but becoming poorer. The culture of racism, however, continues to frustrate those who want to move out of poverty.
On top of that, African men are twice as more likely to die from police violence than whites. In fact, dying from police violence is a leading cause of death right behind cancer and heart disease according to a Rutgers University study.
The top fifth of society have been prospering while the rest have been left behind. The separation can be seen in several dimensions such as economic class, family structure, education, lifestyle and geography.
The anger behind the protest is more than about George Floyd’s death. As Yvonne Passmore recently told The Washington Post, “This isn’t about George Floyd. This is about years and years of being as less than people — and not just about by police. It’s everything. We don’t get proper medical. We don’t get proper housing. There’s so much discrimination and it’s not just the justice system. It’s a whole lot of things.”
The accumulated anger has played out in the streets, protests and looting. Many in the black community have felt desperation, trauma and grief which have been accentuated by the pandemic. In spite of the dangers of catching the virus, they believe that the greater risk is the fear they feel at the hands of the police. They cry out for social change.
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As Tanya Falcon said, as reported by The Washington Post, “There comes a time when you need to figure out what more of a risk, so I’m going to put my mask on, I’m going to put my gloves on and I am going to protest.”
Decades of growing income inequality and lack of investment in black communities have created the right conditions for this despair which we now see played out in the streets.
The two Americas metaphor from the 1960s still describes the depth of our problem and it needs to be fixed. It will take a generation to fix it but we need to begin — now.
Perry J. Mitchell is a retired professor of political science living in Ocean View. He was a consultant to the President’s Reorganization Project in the White House in 1978, and worked on the groundwork for establishing the New Department of Education.
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June 06, 2020 at 04:09PM
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