As I have done before, I want
to take you back to something fundamental that informs our present situation as
much as it spoke to past circumstances.
I believe that the President may have had this particular Commission in
mind when he spoke of the difference he expects to make with his approach as
opposed to what happened in the past.
Over 47 years ago, on July
28, 1967, a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was established by
President Lyndon Johnson to look into the underlying causes and grievances that
precipitated riots plaguing many of the large cities of this country each
summer since 1964. In the summer of 1967, the worst riots occurred in Newark
and in Detroit. Each set off a chain
reaction in surrounding communities. The
National Advisory Commission, informally known as the Kerner Commission “released
their report on February 29, 1968 after seven months of investigation. The
report became an instant best-seller, and over two million Americans bought
copies of the 426-page document. Its finding was that the riots resulted from
black frustration at lack of economic opportunity. Martin Luther King Jr.
pronounced the report a "physician's warning of approaching death, with a
prescription for life." It could
almost have been written in the present circumstances (except that the words ‘Negro’
and ‘ghetto’ would be replaced by ‘Black,’ ‘African-American’ and ‘inner-city.’). (The summary portions of the Kerner Commission
Report for this Blog are taken from a piece found on historymatters.com)
In general, the Commission
found:
1)
The civil
disorders of 1967 involved Blacks acting against local symbols of white
American society, authority and property in Black neighborhoods – rather than
against white persons.
2)
With few
exceptions, violence subsided during the day and flared rapidly again at
night. The final incident before the
outbreak of disorder generally took place in the evening.3) Disorder generally began with rock and bottle throwing and window breaking. Once store windows were broken, looting usually followed.
4) Disorder did not erupt as a result of a single “triggering” incident. Instead it was generated out of an increasingly disturbed social atmosphere, in which typically a series of tension-heightening incidents over a period of weeks or months became linked in the minds of many in the Afro-American community with a reservoir of underlying grievances. At some point in the mounting tension, a further incident – in itself often routine or trivial – became the breaking point and the tension spilled over into violence.
5) In almost half the cases, police actions were the ‘final’ incidents before the outbreak of violence. No particular control tactic was successful in every situation. The varied effectiveness of control techniques emphasizes the need for advance training, planning, adequate intelligence systems, and knowledge of the minority community.
6) The typical rioter was a teenager or young adult, a lifelong resident of the city in which he rioted, a high school dropout and was usually unemployed or employed in a menial job. He was proud of his race, extremely hostile to both whites and middle-class Blacks, and, although informed about politics, highly distrustful of the political system. Most rioters were young Black males and nearly 53% of arrestees were between 15 and 24 years old.
7) What the rioters appeared to be seeking was fuller participation in the social order and the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens. Rather than rejecting the system, they were anxious to obtain a place in it for themselves. Counter rioters (generally better educated and with higher income) tried to get rioters to “cool it.”
8) The number of Blacks represented in local government was substantially smaller than the Afro-American proportion of the population. Only three of the 20 cities had more than one Black legislator; none had a Black Mayor or City Manager. Although almost all cities had some sort of formal grievance mechanism for handling citizen complaints, this was typically regarded by Blacks as ineffective and generally ignored.
At least 12 deeply held
grievances were identified and ranked into three levels of relative intensity,
said the Commission.
First Level of Intensity:
- Police practices
- Unemployment and underemployment
- Inadequate housing
Second Level of Intensity:
- Inadequate education
- Poor recreation facilities and programs
- Ineffectiveness of the political structure and grievance mechanisms
Third Level of Intensity:
- Disrespectful white attitudes
- Discriminatory administration of justice
- Inadequacy of federal programs – the result of a three-city survey
indicated that despite substantial expenditures, the number of persons
assisted constituted only a fraction of those in need
- Inadequacy of municipal services
- Discriminatory consumer and credit practices
- Inadequate welfare programs
In Chapter 4 of its Report on
“Why It Happened,” the Commission turned more to the national scene and to
those factors within the society at large that created the mood for violence
among many urban Blacks. Despite factors
varying significantly from city to city, certain fundamentals became quite
clear:
- The most fundamental is the racial attitude and behavior of most
White Americans toward African-Americans. Racial prejudice has shaped our
history decisively and threatens our future. Racism is essentially
responsible for the explosive mixture that has been accumulating in our
cities since the end of WWII. Some
ingredients include:
- pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education
and housing resulting in the exclusion of great numbers of Blacks from
the benefits of economic progress
- Black in-migration and White exodus producing a massive and
growing concentration of impoverished Blacks in our major cities and a
growing crisis of deteriorating facilities and services and unmet human
needs
- Black “ghettos” is where segregation and poverty converge on the
young to destroy opportunity and enforce (and re-enforce) failure. Crime, drug addiction, dependency on
welfare, bitterness and resentment against society in general and white society
in particular are the result
- At the same time, most whites and some Blacks outside the “ghettos” have prospered and through our ever-present media, this affluence has been flaunted before the eyes of the poor and jobless inner city residents
- Social and economic conditions in the riot cities constituted a clear pattern of severe disadvantage for Blacks compared with Whites, whether the Blacks lived in the area where riots took place or outside it. Blacks had completed fewer years of education and fewer had attended high school. Blacks were twice as likely to be unemployed and three times as likely to be in unskilled and service jobs, and were more than twice as likely to be living in poverty. Although housing cost Blacks relatively more, they had worse housing – three times as likely to be overcrowded and substandard. When compared to white suburbs, the disadvantage is even more pronounced.
It is, perhaps, the next
listing of more recent catalysts that had begun affecting the situation in
1967-68 that drives home the parallels with present day protests and riots, and
the realities of our current situation.
- Frustrated hopes are the residue of unfulfilled expectations that
were aroused by great legislative and judicial victories of the Civil
Rights Movement, and other struggles for Rights that have characterized
those times right up to the present.
Whites often point to the “strides that have been made” in race
relations. The reality is that the
small “strides” are offset by the enormous disadvantages and built-in
prejudices that Whites do not experience in their daily lives. The unfulfilled expectations for Blacks
are very real to them, and generally hidden or ignored or unknown to
Whites.
- There is a climate that tends toward approval and encouragement of violence as a legitimate form of protest created by white militarism and terrorism directed against nonviolent protests. My Comment: Violence is a tricky matter. The violence we see occur out of non-violent protests is usually the only violence considered as such, and is the most condemned. What is ignored by the White community in general is the accumulation of violence created by white-imposed systemic systems and techniques of control and discrimination in the form of harassment of young Black men and others by the police (“stop & frisk” for no reason other than racial profiling); a lack of, or insufficient protection and aid from authorities when they are called to assist in the “Black community; the excessive incarceration of people of color; exclusion from white power bases like unions or business guilds and organizations, and local legislative bodies; exclusion from suburban housing; from good schools, from holding municipal or state office whether elected or appointed; the lack of adequate transportation, health care, adequate and nutritious foods – the list goes on and on. This pervasive form of white power structure violence goes on every day, all day in most of the Black sections of our cities and towns. Instead of addressing the causes of such violence, whites see a boiling pan of water and put a lid over it to hide it, wondering why the lid explodes when the boiling water has reached a certain point.
- The frustration of
powerlessness leads some in the Black communities to a strong
conviction that there is no way to move the white power “system” except
through violent protest. The
inability to find an effective means by which to voice grievances and
basic needs is often reflected in an alienation from and hostility toward
institutions of law and government.
In contrast, when whites have a grievance or problem, they expect
to be heard and that the underlying problem will be acted upon and
resolved satisfactorily by our governing representatives and officials.
- To some Blacks, the police and justice systems have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. When Blacks are treated unfairly and unjustly – remember actions speak louder than words – by the police and the justice system, it serves only to reinforce the widespread belief amongst the Black community that there is a double standard of justice and protection – one for Blacks and another for Whites. The grand jury decisions not to indict in Ferguson and Staten Island are visible symbols of that double standard to the Black community.
There will be those who say
that we have come a long way since 1967-68 in race relations, and that
comparing the starkness of the conclusions of the Kerner Commission to
present-day is not a reasonable comparison – almost like comparing apples to
oranges. They will say that many more
African-Americans hold public office.
They will remind us that young people of today are apt to be less tolerant
of racial prejudice and less bound or influenced by the prejudices of the
past. They are apt to point to the
mixture of people in the protests as signs of greater integration and support
for a culture of tolerance and fairness.
They might point to the increase of graduations of Blacks from high
schools and colleges as signs of change and progress in race relations. All of these protestations and claims have some
factual truth within them, but they are still inadequate indicators of fundamental
change in our institutions and our systems of administering equal justice. Ferguson, Staten Island and Cleveland are
living symbols of the fact that we have not moved much beyond the realities of
1967-68. Actions to eliminate racism and bigotry have been sporadic and limited,
although individuals may have progressed in their attitudes, they are still
supporters and users of systems that discriminate and repress a segment of our
society, and they are still ignoring the consequences for people of color.
It is interesting to note, as
does the piece on which my writing is based, that in 1998, 30 years after the
issuance of the Kerner Report, former Senator and Commission member, Fred R.
Harris co-authored a study that found that the racial divide had grown in
ensuing years with inner-city unemployment at crisis levels. Harris reported, “Today, thirty years after
the Kerner Report, there is more poverty in America, it is deeper, blacker and
browner than before, and it is more concentrated in the cities, which have
become America’s poorhouses.” Opposing
voices to this idea cited a marked increase in the number of African Americans
now living in suburbs! However, in those
urban areas where the vast majority of Blacks are living, increasing
polarization is evident with a continuing breakdown of inter-racial
communications evident. However, in our
own recent past, we are seeing a burgeoning growth of white segregationist
militias and groups. But those extremes
are not the norm, any more than the norm is blacks moving to the suburbs.
The norm is that we have not,
as a nation, made great strides in overcoming our racial inequities, because those
inequities are perpetuated by forces we have not recognized as being part of
the causes of racial divisiveness in this country.
Certain corporations
perpetuate racism – not only because of their hiring practices, but because
they tend to locate far enough from inner cities to be immune to the problems
of unemployment and lack of access and difficulty using transportation.
And what about those small
businesses that keep getting looted and burned by rioters – are they part of
the problem? Ever heard of
monopolies? What do monopolies tend to
do but raise prices, carry only the products from which they realize large
profit margins, and charge more for them than is reasonable; plus, they carry
inferior or lesser brands because who cares if they don’t last
The flight of big chain
stores and large food chains discriminates against those who live far from such
resources. Try buying your food supplies
and other sundries from Nice ‘N Easy or other such stores. Know what?
Your food budget is going to be higher.
Absentee landlords – charging
higher rents but letting properties deteriorate so renters end up paying more
for less and getting all those little ‘extras’ as well – bugs, termites, mice
and rats. What a bargain!
How about the fact that a
homeowner can’t afford maintenance because contractors from outside the area
charge more to come in to their house? Or how about the fact that a homeowner can’t
get anyone to come over to fix the problem, whatever it is? Try to find a minority contractor within the
area – there are none? Wonder how that
happened…
Got to go to the bank to take
care of some extra charge? You get there
and the bank associate says sorry we have to put a lien on your paycheck
because you also owe this or that, or because they don’t have assurance that
you can pay your loan or mortgage...
Before you can leave that bank, you have to overspend your paycheck(s)
and then can’t even buy the food you need for your children.
“The sentence for a minority
person is longer than a sentence for a white person going to prison. Minorities
are more likely to get the death sentence than white. The sentences for crack
cocaine, used disproportionately by minorities, are longer than the sentences
for powdered cocaine, used disproportionately by whites. And so, there is still
this endemic, institutional racism in America that people forget about (Alan
Curtis in an interview with Bill Moyers).
These are just some of the ways
that institutional racism, ignored and perpetuated by the white power structure,
continues to harass and repress the aspirations and the normal life everyone,
regardless of race, tries to live. The
problem with racial prejudice and racism is not just that individual whites are
practicing it. The basic problem is that racism is being carried out by
institutions and structures and systems that whites don’t protest because they
get along most of the time real well with those same institutions. But when Whites sense they are being taken
advantage of by such entities, they will protest and even sue to bring those
entities to a reasonable settlement.
That’s the thing about racism – if you don’t experience it, you think it
isn’t there. It’s there.
The Kerner Commission Report
reminds us that it is there and is not going away without concerted action. Ferguson and Staten Island remind us it is
there and it’s not going away. In fact,
with the attack of the Congressional Republican right wing against welfare, the
working poor and the continuation of the war on drugs (the war on drugs equals
minority incarceration), affirmative action, and the outright display of
contempt and hatred for our first Black President, we are reminded almost daily
that the will to change and reform our institutional, entrenched racism and repression
is not going to be addressed in any positive way. And, by the way, what was the number one
response of some cities to the protests of 1967 and to those of late—to increase
militarization, aggressive actions and control techniques in preparation for
future protests. That is the #1 reason
why we haven’t made progress against poverty or racism – we keep choosing the
wrong solutions, the wrong techniques, the wrong targets. Progress toward peace and good will is not
made by turning up the heat under an already boiling and roiling pan of water.
The Kerner report probably had it about
right: their basic conclusion was that
“Our nation is moving toward two different societies: one white, one black –
separate and unequal.” But that report
also suggested some solutions, or at least steps toward solutions. They echo down the years to the present
day. Most have not been instituted,
practiced or even recognized. You be the
judge as to their viability.
·
creating two
million jobs, in both the public and private sector;
·
fully subsidizing on-the-job training for the
chronically unemployed; · providing federal assistance to all schools that worked to end de facto segregation;
· offering federal funding for year-round compensatory education programs serving disadvantaged children;
· developing a uniform national welfare standard to bring everyone's income up to the poverty line; and
· building six million new and renovated units of housing for low and moderate income families.
What happened? First, because of the expense of the Viet Nam
War, President Johnson rejected their recommendations. Second, "Congress passed anti-riot
legislation rather than the kinds of social programs advocated in the Kerner
Report." (Blackagendareport.com)
Congress is still rejecting
the recommendations and going a step further by attempting to eliminate and de-fund
most governmental attempts at economic or social welfare programs aimed at
alleviating the root causes of poverty and the lack of opportunities for minority
communities. The question remains: will
President Obama’s strong support be enough to bring about the changes and
reforms now being called for in many cities in this country, or will a
Right-wing Congress act to preserve those powerful forces that are keeping Blacks
contained in segregated areas, walled off from good-paying jobs, a first class
education, and having a voice in the larger community. In 1968 there was at least an understanding
that ending the black/white race divide was an important challenge to the
nation as a whole and that it would require massive federal investment. Today
that very premise is rejected in the Halls of Congress and in many of the state
legislatures. If the President is to
accomplish anything toward equal justice, voting rights, equality of
opportunity, alleviating joblessness, and improving education for inner city
schools, he is going to need the backing and support of more than the protestors
in the streets. We all must “get
on-board” this particular train.
