Shocking Statistics, Continued

My peer Rachel wrote a great post about some of the challenges facing communities of color. She asked me to respond to her post and what follows are some reactions that ran through my head:

I think a good starting point for digesting any 'shocking statistic' is a frank discussion of privilege and its much less popular twin, oppression. I highly recommend this surprisingly shocking 'Checklist' for those who occupy a body sexed as male and raced as white. (If that post looks a little daunting, I'd also recommend this laughably simple analogy involving cute animals).

If, after reading those, you feel a little uncomfortable you should go back and read them again. If, upon second reading, your skin's on fire with shame and you feel as if suffering wouldn't exists without your presence, your on the right track. At least that's how I felt once it clicked. Radical shifts in perception are often the building blocks for radical change. I bring up privilege because it has the tendency to blind us to the suffering of others. And for those who've walked down the crumbling streets of Chicago's West Side or Hartford's North End it's readily apparent that many people are suffering.

For those involved in social justice work these shocking statistics aren't particularly new. African-American communities have been the subject of state sanctioned violence since...well, since the state was created. 400 year legacies of oppression don't just end overnight, and I think it important that those working in social justice gain a full appreciation of just how far we've got to go. This morning I heard Van Jones give an apt description using 'Beer Gate' as an example:

The most powerful man in the world, president of the United States, steps forward and says, "I think the police behaved foolishly." The right wing and the law enforcement establishment brought the wrath of God down on the White House. I was there. And suddenly, he’s forced to do a beer summit, to sit eye to eye with a racist police officer. As a black man, even the most powerful man in the world cannot speak about race. And if he does, he’s then forced to sit humbly across the table from a racist police officer.

The President of the United States of American must lay prostrate at the feet of a policeman who would arrest him for walking on the White House Lawn... So we know things aren't going to go well for poor black and brown babies (and other people for whom this nation is actively targeting). Aside from focusing on the gravity of the struggle, it's important to iterate the basic claim of Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow

I noticed that Rachel failed to mention one of the main tenets of Michelle Alexander's book: The criminal justice system operates as a system of oppression to silence, weaken and terrorize a community fighting for a larger piece of the American Pie. While commentators and critics may pick at statistics, or imagine other 'real' causes of black poverty, I've yet to see a thorough critique which directly confronts her claim. And when we talk about single mothers, they're single because all of the men are locked up...

In North Lawndale - a 99% black neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, 59% of adults have a criminal background and 80% of men have some involvement in the criminal justice system. And as someone who's generally skeptical of men with guns, the armed police presence is shocking. Officer friendly is no-where to be seen...And our clients at the Employment center are almost exclusively ex-cons.

As someone who regularly interacts with the formerly incarcerated I'm shocked by just how banal their offenses are. Drug possession and drug dealing are some of the most common cases our clients have. It's the type of stuff that Princetonian's do regularly in the privacy of mansions.

Perhaps what is most terrifying is the fear of climate that dominates the cityscape. As inter-personal violence spikes in the summer months, Police do little more than raid the houses of the indigent. And while gun violence is real, it largely pales in comparison to the broad injustices carried out by the Chicago Police Department. Chicago, home to John Bruge's 20 year reign of state sanctioned torture in the Black ghetto's of Chicago, has a police force notorious for its abuses ranging from the petty (like ignoring traffic signals and blowing through red lights without sirens of lights) to murderous drunken binges, homicides and even gang-banging.

I think its important to focus on education, providing support to single women, creating reliable affordable housing, repairing infrastructure, increasing access to public transportation and creating living wage jobs. But all of that is for not if The New Jim Crow still stands...