Systemic racism has plagued this country for centuries. We fought the Civil War over it. And now, with recent events, we are once again forced into a national reckoning because of it. The question: Where do we go from here? How can we resolve this issue? Here are some thoughts.
We must educate our way to enlightenment
By Steve Krause
The question is simple. How do you move forward from the unrest that
followed the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor? What is the next step?
“My answer exists in the question,” said Dr. Patrick A. Tutwiler, superintendent of Lynn Public Schools. “Before you can start addressing that centuries-old issue in this country — and longer elsewhere — you have to acknowledge that there is a problem. That it exists.
“Unfortunately, there are some, or many, who do not,” said Dr. Tutwiler, who is beginning his third year as superintendent. “Some of them are in positions of power or authority.
“The unfortunate and unnecessary deaths of (Floyd) and (Taylor) were wakeup calls. The issue became real to a lot of people, and consciousness was awoken. Now, awareness has been inspired and people are asking questions about why certain things are as they are.”
Dr. Tutwiler identified three questions that have popped up in the wake of the deaths of Floyd and Taylor. They are not three realities that just came into being, but perhaps, he said, they are issues that have come more into focus.
“Why is there such a disproportionate percentage of people of color incarcerated? Why are graduation rates lower? Why is there such a disparity of income?
“It starts with an understanding that there is an issue,” he said. “Then, and only then, can we hope (to move forward).”
He used the issue of white privilege as an example.
“The unfortunate reality is that people often remain in a state of unknowing until such time as the issue hits home in a personal and tangible way,” he said. “Someone might make the statement, ‘white privilege — I don’t know what that means.’ They may not have an understanding until something transports where they observe an occurrence that results in inequity.”
As an educator, Dr. Tutwiler is convinced that the answer to many of these questions “lies somewhere in the scope of education.
“In school, you deepen your understanding of the difference, and gain perspective, by reading books that bring out these experiences and discussing them in class,” he said. “That’s where the real training happens. You find out there are other people in my community whose lives are different, whose challenges are different, because of historical and systemic forces.”
Unfortunately, Dr. Tutwiler said, he’s not sure what can be done in response to adults whose views have hardened over the years.
“I don’t have an elegant solution for adults who are behind K-12 kids, and who are still not seeing the kinds of issues that exist in our country. My responsibility is to ensure that students are grounded in that reality.”
Dr. Tutwiler is often asked to read to schoolchildren, and, “some of the books I read have lessons in them, lessons about the differences among us. They give you awareness that there are people who look different, and speak different languages, and have different realities. Reading deepens that awareness.”
He harkens back to what he calls the “four Cs” of education: “Communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
“Those are the four pillars students need to have,” he said. “If you think about it, communication is an important skill set. It’s not just one group of people, or one language. It’s reaching out to this whole diverse world we live in.
“Collaboration is across the board. It’s learning how to work well with other people who are on different paths.”
So, is there a specific anti-racism curriculum in Lynn Public Schools?
“No,” Dr. Tutwiler said. “There isn’t. But we’re bringing people together. Is what’s happening here perfect? No. But we’re constantly working, adapting and hoping. What we’re doing is designed to address the issues.”
Also, he said, there are clear expectations that speak to student behavior toward one another. And should someone exhibit racist behavior toward another student, that should be addressed.
“I’d say in a case like that, punishment wouldn’t be the enduring redirector of behavior,” he said. “Education would.”
And sometimes, he said, that can be hard.
“Students’ first teachers are their parents,” he said, “or their families. That’s where they learn to socialize and that’s where they’re taught about the world.
“You know, your brain isn’t fully developed until you’re in your 20s,” he said. “I believe that when kids are taught values that don’t mesh with the values of this country, or state, or school district, then there’s a disconnect.
“But there’s also an opportunity for growth. I’m not saying schools are designed to brainwash students against what they’re taught at home. But they are prepared to deal with and understand the world. People who hold values that are deeply racist are going to find themselves less prepared for success.”
(Dr. Patrick A. Tutwiler joined the Lynn Public Schools in July 2015 as Deputy Superintendent, leaving his position as Headmaster of Brighton High School in Boston. Steve Krause is The Item’s writer at-large and can be reached at [email protected]. )
Enough talk. It’s time for action.
By Attorney James J. Carrigan
How often have we heard the words “these things take time”?
What does that mean? Take your time, I don’t mind waiting another 200 years to get the basic respect and dignity that I deserve as a human being.
Then I begin to fantasize, what if we had done this differently?
In my fantasy, I go back in time, it is 1776, and I am asked to contribute to the Declaration of Independence. I agree, and offer one word: People. Instead of men as in “All men are created equal.” I substitute the word “people.”
“All people are created equal.”
Then, when we adopted the Constitution in 1787, we would not have had to concern ourselves with slavery, women’s suffrage or the right to vote, because the principle of all people are created equal would have been established.
But it was fantasy.
The fact is we did have slavery and we had to fight a Civil War to end it. But that war did not end horrifying hardship for African Americans. All of the southern states passed laws that allowed for segregation, that allowed for the phony legal principle “separate but equal.” Do any of us really believe that Black people got the same facilities and fair treatment that white folks got? Of course not. The laws that were adopted during this period were so-called “Jim Crow Laws” and they resulted in the most severe voter suppression imaginable. The southern legislatures enacted laws including literary tests, poll taxes, comprehensive tests, residency and record keeping requirements. All of these tests were administered unfairly to Black men, while grandfather clauses permitted white people to vote. During this same period, beatings and lynchings were routinely administered to African Americans. In this period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lynchings reached a peak in the South Georgia led the nation in the number of lynchings from 1900 to 1931 with 302 incidents.
Flowing from the lessons of slavery, many people felt justified in their harsh treatment toward African Americans, and their portrayal of them as an inferior race.
Growing up in Lynn, I was witness to acts of racism. When I was 12 years old I was about to play sandlot football with about 20 other kids, one of whom was Black. I was cautioned about playing with him, by an adult, because I was told “colored kids carry knives.” What kind of lesson was that for me? Fortunately, I did not fall for it and developed a life-long friendship with this kid. As it turns out he was the most popular kid on the team, a perfect gentleman (unlike some of my other friends and I) and by far the best player on the team. He later went on to set records at West Texas State for yards gained and points scored. We used to go to the store every Monday to get The Item to see what new records he had set. If Lynn were to have a hall of fame for wonderful people, Peter Pedro would rank at the top of the list.
But why was I told “colored kids carry knives”? Because that’s what prejudice is. It is handed down from generation to generation, I believe the use of the n-word makes some people feel superior. But what is it like to be the victim? Imagine what it is like to be the parent of a black child who comes home from school, asking you to explain that word. Think about this— an innocent child is brought to tears and perhaps his parents too, simply because the child is Black.
N-word is just the beginning. The hateful language and actions used by bigots and directed toward Black and other people of color, Irish, Italians, Polish, Chinese, Jews, Muslims, and virtually every race and religion, describes them as lazy, stupid, unclean, dishonest, and a whole host of other disparaging terms. When all that is being said about you, what chance at success do you have at work. At one job I had, I worked with a Black man named Joe. Again, like Peter Pedro, he was the star of the team. One night I came across our co-workers who were laughing and hiding his equipment. When asked why, they said because he was a (N-word). I believe I persuaded them to stop.
To oppose this abhorrent behavior, Lynn and the nation have produced many heroes who have sought solutions based on love and respect.
In Lynn, Virginia Barton served on a wide variety of non-profit boards. She was usually the only Black person on the board, and frequently, until Debbie Smith-Walsh came along, the only woman. Mrs. Barton and I became good friends. We often had lunch together, at first in Lynn restaurants and then at her home with her son, Buzzy (a current Lynn City Councilor at-large), and his sisters.
From one of these lunches came the idea that we needed to recruit more minorities to non-profit boards of directors. We named the organization “The Virginia Barton Board Training and Development Committee.”
Over the years we have had many workshops, and recruited dozens of board members who later became presidents and treasurers of Lynn non-profit organizations.
We were also politically active together. She helped me gain credibility with the Mound Bayou Mississippi NAACP in 1971. We collaborated on a trip to Mississippi to recruit and train political candidates for the new South at the end of the great voter registration drives. Then we did the same thing in 2004, with the Central Florida NAACP.
When she passed away, I was asked to give a eulogy at her funeral. I included the following: “Her smile belied her inner strength. Virginia Barton was a woman with a steel spine. She had the courage of her convictions and she never hesitated to show up, stand up, and speak up on behalf of social justice. The barriers are not always visible, but they are just as strong. Virginia broke those barriers with the power of her will.”
Black and other people of color, and women have had to fight for nearly two more centuries to achieve the rights that were purportedly cited in the Declaration of Independence. During that period, many suffered harm, injustice, humiliation — and the Ku Klux Klan was formed.
In 1871, 163 Black people were murdered in one Florida county, and 300 more in parishes outside of New Orleans.
Bobby Kennedy was the most courageous political leader I ever met. As Attorney General, and as a United States senator, he was unafraid to advocate for the moral high ground.
The night Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, Kennedy was scheduled to speak as a presidential candidate at a rally in an inner city African American community, which had been organized by civil rights leader John Lewis. Some Kennedy campaign people and local leaders urged Kennedy to cancel his speech because maybe there would be violence, and security could not be guaranteed. But Kennedy insisted on speaking. He put aside his prepared speech and spoke from his heart. His main message:
“What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion for one another, a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country — whether they be white or Black.”
Riots broke out in a hundred American cities that night, but not in Indianapolis where Kennedy’s words were well received and inspired others. The day after Dr. King was shot, no one at the University of Virginia Law School said anything at all. Then Elaine Jones heard Bobby Kennedy’s speech and she decided to stay in law school. Ms. Jones was the first Black person to graduate from the University of Virginia Law School.
When days are darkest, the United States has always produced leaders who had the moral fortitude to act based on the courage of their convictions. Rep. Lewis was the quintessential example. At age 23, he was scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Lincoln Memorial. He was taken aside and asked to tone down his speech because it was perceived to be too radical. Imagine. This was a man who subjected himself to brutal beatings on the Selma, Ala., Edmund Pettus Bridge so that others may be allowed to walk freely someday..
Representative Lewis, known as the “conscience of Congress” knew when it was the right time. He said: “You must find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. Use what you have to make our world a better place, where no one will be left out or left behind … It is your time.”
Representative Lewis was a man of action. When he said it was your time, he meant now.
Following his death, 48 United States senators introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
“This act would require that any state with a history of voting discrimination within the past 25 years seek federal approval before making any changes to its voting procedures. And it would mandate that any state, regardless of its history, obtain clearance from the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington, D.C., before making any changes that would tend to burden voters of color, such as strict voter ID laws or closing polling places in areas with large numbers of minority voters,” writes Ari Berman, Senior Reporter, Mother Jones magazine, July 22, 2020.
So is it time for all people of color to achieve their basic human rights and enjoy the full benefits of America that were defined in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution?
Of course it is.
Virginia Barton, Bobby Kennedy, Representative John Lewis, and countless others have fought for these principles since our country was formed. On November 3rd we will have a chance to vote to correct some of these mistakes from our past. Let’s honor our heroes and the people who have sacrificed and suffered over the years by turning out to vote in unprecedented numbers.
(Attorney James J. Carrigan grew up in West Lynn and served briefly in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts State Senate. He practices law with his wife, Attorney Anne Gugino Carrigan, and his daughter, Attorney Lisa Carrigan Bacik, and concentrates his practice in Social Security Disability, Workers’ Compensation, and plaintiff’s accident cases.)
Be ready for the long run
By Anne Marie Tobin
A marathon, not a sprint.
That’s North Shore Community College Interim President Dr. Nate Bryant’s view on what it will take to erase “hundreds of years of hate” suffered by people of color.
“It’s just not realistic to think that it can happen in a couple of years,” said Dr. Bryant. “But what I am seeing now from this Black Lives Matter movement, that I honestly have not seen before, is that there are so many young people who aren’t just coming together to protest. They are educating themselves about the plight of Black people and people of color, (and) what they have gone through for hundreds of years.
“These young people are making sure this isn’t just about public protests, it’s about being informed so they can help others become informed.”
Dr. Bryant said in order for the movement to effectuate substantial change, Black Lives Matter must engage in meaningful discussion with leaders.
“The movement is there, but now there has to be dialogue with leaders and persons in positions of power,” he said. “The message that needs to be sent is these are just the right things to do. To make effective change, your decision-makers need to have a variety of backgrounds to have strength. In hiring, you need to have diversity, not just in terms of race but in other areas. This is critical and it doesn’t happen enough.”
Dr. Bryant said when people who are making the decisions at any level share similar backgrounds, their decisions are based only on what they see and hear and don’t take into account the needs of others who have different backgrounds.
“Decisions need to be made based on diversity and inclusion so that all perspectives are considered when making decisions,” Dr. Bryant said.
He is encouraged by the emergence of chief diversity officers in corporate boardrooms, which Dr. Bryant says began to appear in higher education about 10-15 years ago and now are trending at some major companies.
“Inititally, chief diversity officers were hired to work with Human Resources departments on things like claims of discrimination and issues with those who were under-represented, but they have gone well beyond that and offer diversity that wasn’t there before,” said Dr. Bryant. “They give different perspectives and a seat at the big table where decisions are made.”
Dr. Bryant said for change to occur, people must start listening to “voices that have gone unheard for hundreds of years.”
At the smallest level — the “what can I do” level — Dr. Bryant says it’s a simple matter of “see something, say something.”
“At work or anyplace when you see or hear something that just is not right, you have to call it out. If you don’t, it gets perpetuated. That’s the way you change things,” he said.
Dr. Bryant said an argument can be made this country has seen “more divisiveness over the last couple of years coming out of the White House.”
For people of color, it’s about just being given a chance, according to Dr. Bryant.
“At the end of the day, I am a Black man, I am married to a Black woman, I have two Black adult daughters, and all we want, like everyone else, is the American dream,” he said. “The problem comes when you get shut out because there isn’t a level playing field. This movement at its simplest is asking to be given (that) opportunity.”
When asked if he thought the Black Lives Matter youth movement might lose steam with so many colleges and universities opting for remote learning in the fall, Dr. Bryant acknowledged that while the movement may be missing out on a major opportunity to galvanize young people, face-to-face on college campuses, he is nonetheless optimistic.
“They may not be able to take advantage of that opportunity, but I am optimistic that they will find other ways to continue to make progress.”
(Dr. Nate Bryant is the interim president at North Shore Community College. Previously he served as the Assistant Dean for the Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) at Salem State University. Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].)
Leave stereotypes out of this, please
By Nicole McClain
“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,” said Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.
The systemic racism perpetually experienced by Black Americans has been pushed into the headlines of global media because of the unjust deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
Black Americans have been murdered in the United States of America since its inception. In most cases the murderers are not brought to justice. The people committing these crimes are not labeled as criminals and are able to leave the act of killing another human being behind them as if it never happened.
The accounts are never told in a manner depicting the offender in a negative light. The victim is made the culprit and society accepts this fallacy.
Why is this so?
How can society allow citizens to kill other citizens unchecked and without consequence?
I believe the reason lies in how Black Americans have been stereotyped as less than human by white American forefathers and slaveholders. These negative ideas have been woven into the fabric of American thought and systems.
In my opinion, the media can begin to change the minds of this nation and the world.
A negative narrative about Black Americans has been force-fed to society. The idea that Black people are a stain on society has been accepted, instead of questioned. Labels such as, “lazy” have been placed on a people brought to this country for the sole purpose of free labor. This labor, performed under duress and uncompensated, resulted in the United States of America becoming a wealthy nation.
As a society we must ask ourselves how we have accepted the notion that a people who worked day and night, for years on end, under horrendous conditions could ever be considered lazy.
Black Americans have been viewed as the criminal element of society. This is a group of people who, despite being oppressed in every way imaginable, created numerous inventions, are responsible for significant scientific advances, and positively contributed to a culture that advanced this country to new heights.
Not only have Black Americans advanced this country to new heights, they have also been the catalyst for the advancement of other disenfranchised groups in the United States.
The Civil Rights movement led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, giving Black Americans the basic right to exist in this country. This movement was led by Black Americans. Black people were arrested unlawfully, attacked and ultimately died during the fight for equal rights.
The Civil Rights Act has been used by women, Hispanics, Asians and LGBTQIA groups as a stepping stone in their quest to gain their civil rights.
Every race of people, be it white, Asian, or Latino, has a criminal element. White people steal, kill, rape, deal drugs and commit acts of terror, as do every other race. Yet Black Americans are portrayed as if they have a monopoly on miscreant behavior. Too many Black men and boys have served years in jail and have been murdered for crimes they did not commit because of society’s acceptance of these negative stereotypes.
Black people have fought for this country in every war waged and continue to serve in every branch of the United States Military. Black men and women have and currently represent this country in Olympic events. Black Americans are teachers of this nation’s children. It is of utmost importance that we look at Black Americans as who they are: innovative, creative, intelligent, hardworking, resilient — a people who have survived and continue to navigate systemic oppression.
The media in this country and abroad should take it upon themselves to spread the positive images of Black Americans farther and wider than the images of laziness, drug dealing, and unsavory behavior have been spread. Malcolm X once said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
I believe the negative narrative surrounding Black Americans can be rewritten forever. Correcting this inappropriate and unjust perception starts with the media. The images sent around the world and spread throughout this country consistently depict Black people in a negative light. There needs to be an increased spread of the positive stories of Black America. The truth is Black Americans who succeed are not an anomaly. There are ample numbers of accomplished doctors, scientists, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, dentists, actors, singers, writers, painters, composers, athletes, and politicians of African-American descent. Tell positive Black stories and spread them globally.
I believe change begins with how one is perceived by the world. This is a call of action to global media of all races and nations. Let’s begin today to change the narrative, thereby changing the perception which will change the treatment of Black Americans. I will leave you with a quote from political activist and journalist Marcus Garvey: “Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.”
(Nicole McClain is a resident of Lynn, a mother, wife, librarian, president of the North Shore Juneteenth Association and veteran serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.)
Reparations: Atoning for our ugly past
By Darius Woumn
“Black Lives Matter” … “I Can’t Breathe” … “Say Her Name” … “No Justice, No Peace” … have all been chanted recently at protests across America as a result of the senseless killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Black people are rightfully frustrated that after 400 years, systemic racism continues to tell them they do not matter. Now is the time to converse, listen, and devise a plan to move forward. There is no more time for one step forward, three steps back. America must evolve to move the country forward to improve the lives of Black people.
We as a country are past half-stepping; We do not just need laws. We need to elect people who are going to uphold those laws and protect the rights of Black people.
It’s time for America to atone for the suffering of Black people. No mother should be worried about her child hanging out with friends on a Friday night; no father should fear for his life when he is pulled over by police for his taillight being out; no students should feel like they are being treated unequally in the classroom; no one should be shut out from casting a vote in an election.
How does our country achieve this?
America must pay reparations for the enslavement of Black people. Paying reparations to descendants of enslaved people will be part of the solution to attempt to close the racial wealth gap. In a recent article, Forbes cited the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances that showed in 2016 that Black households’ net worth was, on average, $17,150 while white households’ net worth was, on average, $171,000.
The racial wealth gap shows that white families are making almost 10 times more than Black families. No amount of money will ever equate to all the Black lives lost, but the racial wealth gap shows the biggest problem remains: Systematic racism is rooted in the foundation of America.
America must invest in protecting Black people, their communities, and their rights. Slavery did not just affect the slaves on the plantation. It is still affecting the lives of Black people in America today. It’s time to value Black lives. It’s time to view Black people as human beings. It’s time to atone for America’s ugly past and give Black people proper reparations to make their lives better in America.
No, we are not talking about 40 acres and a mule. We are talking about legislation that addresses the suffering of Black people in America; and actual investment to improve the lives of Black people. Reparations must come in terms of voting rights, health care, the criminal justice system, and education. We must address preserving the civil rights of Black people, because if we do not, racism, discrimination and inequality will reign in America and continue to divide our country.
Voter Suppression
Voting is a basic human right given to all Americans. Can someone tell me why, in 2020, Black people and other minorities are being suppressed at the polls?
Shelby County v. Holder brought attention to voter suppression in 2013 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the coverage formula in Section 4b of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional. That also meant that jurisdictions in Section 5 are unconstitutional due to the old formula.
Based on the Supreme Court’s decision, it would be up to Congress to create a new formula when it deems one necessary. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder decimates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because the law does not protect the jurisdictions that have a discriminatory history in voting rights. This basic right of voting is being suppressed from these minority groups because polling sites are being closed in minority communities, photo identification laws are being enacted, there is faulty voting equipment, and due to long lines as a result of the ruling of Shelby County v. Holder.
In Georgia’s primary election in June, the voters in predominantly Black neighborhoods witnessed long lines due to fewer precincts, voting hours extended due to the long lines, and fewer poll workers with the ability to work the new voting machines. This was not the first time Georgia had these election-day problems as they occurred during the 2018 midterm elections.
Wisconsin enacted a voter identification law in 2015 that led to approximately 300,000 people being deemed ineligible to vote in the 2016 presidential election, according to a CBS News article in 2017. It’s unacceptable for these minority groups to be suppressed at the polls when the problems are fixable. We should follow the late Representative John Lewis’ (D-GA) lead with the Voting Rights Act he presented in Congress to protect these civil rights of all people.
Let’s call on local and state governments to open more polling sites for their constituents, because there should be no hours-long wait to vote. Let’s get rid of photo identification as a requirement to vote or make them free and easily attainable in multiple places, such as city halls, post offices, libraries and other neighborhood sites.
States such as Massachusetts do not require photo identification to vote and it should be universal in America. Protecting Black people and other minority groups’ unrestricted right to vote would be a step toward reparations. Protecting voting rights is only one step though. Black people and other minority groups must get out and vote!
Healthcare
Healthcare in America is not universal, is more expensive than in other developed countries, and leaves millions of Americans uninsured. Many of those left uninsured are Black people.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the failures of our healthcare system. Black people are less likely to have adequate care due to underemployment, leading to disproportionate rates of Black people dying during this pandemic, because they are more likely to have an underlying condition compared to other ethnic groups.
We must do better to protect the health and wellness of our American people. All Americans should have access to healthcare and should be able to visit their doctors routinely.
It’s disappointing that the healthcare system has biases based on race. These biases are apparent for Black women during childbirth. Black women die at a higher rate during or after childbirth due to less attention being paid to them, allowing complications to go unnoticed. The difficulties of childbirth for Black women have been highlighted on the national stage when Beyoncé and Serena Williams discussed their complications after having their children.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are approximately 42.4 deaths per 100,000 live births for Black women. That means Black women are three to four more times likely to die during childbirth than white women. Our healthcare providers need to do a better job because it is unacceptable that Black mothers are dying and not being able to raise their children due to a lack of medical attention.
Now is the time to evaluate and improve our healthcare system, because it is failing too many Americans. Providing healthcare for all American citizens must be a priority by our government.
Criminal justice system
The words “we want the [police officers] arrested for the murder of Breonna Taylor” have been said in the media and posted on all social media platforms. But Breonna Taylor’s killers are known and still walk the streets. Let’s be real. If the killers were Black, there would be a stronger effort to arrest them.
We live in a world where bias exists in our criminal justice system. That does not take away from all the upstanding police officers doing the right thing to protect the American people. However, our criminal justice system has proven that it works against people of color and we need criminal justice reform. In my opinion, our prison system has failed to rehabilitate the convicted.
Our criminal justice system needs an overhaul from policing, to sentencing, to conditions in prisons and services provided. We need to stop looking at people of color as dangerous and threatening in comparison to white people on trial for the same crimes. It is unjustifiable for people of color not to be able to prove their innocence due to a lack of resources to investigate the crime of which they are being accused.
While on trial, many people of color remain in jail because they are unable to pay the cash bond, even though they have not been convicted of a crime. We need to address the problem of sending nonviolent offenders to jail when there are other means of restitution. Nonviolent, low-level offenders made up 25 percent of prisoners, approximately 364,000 people, according to Time magazine in 2016. Rehabilitation centers or probation could better serve these non-violent offenders. Violent offenders must have the opportunity to be rehabilitated, because many of them will re-enter society and we do not want to continue the cycle of exiting the prison system just to re-enter it. The prison system must focus on rehabilitating the convicted because we are doing more harm to people of color by putting them in overcrowded jails for long sentences that are traumatizing and deteriorating for their mental health. Until then, we will fail people of color, especially Black men. People of color will continue to suffer at the hands of mass incarceration when there are other proactive measures for the rehabilitation of the convicted from probation, to rehabilitation facilities, to community centers that will address their specific needs. We must stop using the criminal justice system as a way to profit off the backs of Black people — just like slavery was used — and instesd create a system that rehabilitates the convicted to re-enter society.
Education
The criminal justice and the education systems coincide when it comes to people of color. People of color who do not obtain a high school diploma are more likely to end up behind bars. Nearly three-fourths of imprisoned Black men between the ages of 18 to 25 years old do not have high school diplomas, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
America invests more money into our prison system than it does to our education system. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the state and local spending for public education doubled from $258 to $534 million while total state and local spending for corrections quadrupled from $17 to $71 billion between 1979 and 2013. By not investing more money and resources into our education system, we will fail schools that predominantly serve students of color.
We in America have a huge issue when it comes to inequality in the classroom for the students. It is irresponsible that this inequality still exists 66 years after segregation in schools was deemed unconstitutional in the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. The neighborhood schools that serve students of color lack the necessary materials, services, and resources and those students will most likely not have the same opportunities as white students.
Schools are the places where the opportunities are endless, but America must provide for our youth to capitalize on their potential. Schools need to be a safe place for students to collaborate with different races and ethnicities, to study world cultures, and to be shown new possibilities that some of the students will probably not see in their own homes. This is why representation is important and who the students interact with throughout their school day. Too much of the time, they do not see themselves within the teachers, staff, or the administration. Hiring practices must change so that students can see teachers who have similar stories or backgrounds educating them. It’s key for students of color to see a form of success in front of them daily that looks like them.
Hiring practices must change across all professions. It’s not only about hiring more people of color. It’s about expanding the candidate pool to be more diverse, and hiring the most qualified e one. In a school setting, that could result in one of the students of color becoming a teacher in the future.
Our educational system needs to be revamped to protect all the students and not favor one group. We are trying to end systemic racism and education reform can be one of the foundations in bringing diverse groups together for opportunities that will better our country.
America was not built for slavery but it was built on the backs of slaves. Slavery prevented Black people from acquiring wealth, while at the same time grew the economy in America.
Although generational wealth from Black ancestors was not passed on, we cannot get hung up on demanding money as a reparation when Black people are still not viewed as human beings by all.
People are afraid of the word “reparations” but it comes from the word repair. Reparations are not just given, they need to be earned, and upheld.
There is no more waiting because now is the time to create change. We can’t just show support during this latest movement and not after the protests’ momentum has died, because we will have missed the opportunity.
Americans have been rebellious about fighting for basic human rights since the nation’s inception. Now, we must fight to protect the basic human rights of Black people. Don’t just show support. Get up and act by calling your local, state, and national government to address these issues.
By not holding our elected lawmakers accountable, many Black people in America will continue to suffer in a world that was built on their ancestors’ backs. We do not just need laws but we need to elect people who are going to uphold the laws and protect the rights of Black people. Far too many times in our country, we elected people who we do not hold accountable for protecting basic human rights for all people.
Let’s not wait any longer. It’s time to take action to provide the appropriate reparations that Black people deserve for the suffering at the hands of America. Black people did not create this problem and it should not be left to them to resolve it.
It’s time for America to atone for its ugly past.
(Darius Woumn has been a history teacher for four years at St. Mary’s High School in Lynn. He recently participated in The Voices of St. Mary’s project, a community conversation about racism. It can be viewed at www.stmaryslynn.com/about/the-voices-of-st-marys)