There have been some very interesting comments about racism, and certainly
this week and this day, the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I
have a dream" speech is a good time to thoughtfully pursue these thoughts.
I
draw your attention to four things that might help in one's
deliberations and meditation on racism.
The FIRST is the web log entry
Thursday in Ron Edwards' "Daily Web Log." He opens up in this fashion:
"#113. This is the day, August 28, The 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech.
See my longer paper "The Unfinished Dream" in honor of this day in the
"Occasional Papers" section of this web site.
What is important is not what we do today but what we do tomorrow. What
will you do? I'll keep working on the "solutions" of Chapter 17 of the book
"The Minneapolis Story, Through My
Eyes."
The SECOND thing is his referenced "The Unfinished Dream" at
http://www.theminneapolisstory.com/pages/dream.html. For those who want to
read the "I have a dream" speech, you may do so here:
http://www.theminneapolisstory.com/pages/dream.html#I
The THIRD is for those who think great strides have been made or not made in
dealing with race. Ron agrees with BOTH of you. Great strides
have been made. Ron lists them in his Interludes 5 and 7 ("The Good News on
Race, Parts I and II). Yet we haven't achieved enough yet.
Ron outlines this in his Interludes 2 and 10 (Racism
in Minneapolis I and II). In this way he covers all "six" interpretations
of
the blind men describing the elephant. You can read these Interludes in his
book "The Minneapolis
Story, Through My Eyes," soon to be in your local library.
The FOURTH thing to remember is that it was a Democratic President who
refused to
sign into law King's birthday and it was a Republican President did. And it
was a
democratic governor who raised the conferate flag over the capital of South
Carolina. In other words, neither side is all bad or all good, and that
there is common ground on which we can all find to stand to enable us to
deal better with the issues and policies of race. By the way, Ron has an
interesting comment on the concept "playing the race card" on his web log
this morning, #115.
The FIFTH thing is the evaluation criteria Ron uses taken from DFL founder
Nellie Stone Johnson,
a method o tool that needs to be used by all: "No education, no jobs, no
housing." That pretty much sums
it up. Policies that support these (meaning accountable outcomes) are
preferable to policies that result in negative outcomes in these areas. To
these three, education, jobs, housing, Ron would add a 4th and a 5th:
public safety (Chapter 16 of his book) and the environment (Chapter 8 plus
his bi-weekly columns). This sums up his Chapter 17 in terms of the key
concerns to be measured by budgets and policies: education, jobs, housing,
public safety, environment.
Peter Jessen, Portland
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
Michael Atherton
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 2:38 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Mpls] comment to (no subject)
Jordan Kushner wrote:
> I am quite surprised to reading such narrow intolerance on
> this list. Where is the social need to severely punish people
> with minor traffic offenses? The fact is that anyone who goes
> to court downtown to address several such tickets is usually be
> given the option of doing work instead of paying fines. Perhaps
> the participants in the African American Men's Project
> sponsored events had to do a little less time. So what?!
> What is wrong with making life a little easier for a group that
> is much more harshly targetted by the criminal "justice" system?
> Minnesota and Hennepin County have among the highest racially
> disproporionate rates of African Americas in the system. The
> court system should be doing a lot more to compensate for
> institutional racial bias.
Back when I was a poor starving student who regularly received
traffic citations, I believed that traffic fines should have
been assigned on a sliding scale based on income. I based this
belief on the fact that well-to-do people with Cadillacs and
Mercedes could blow off a $100 fine, but a $100 was equivalent
to a month's rent to me. This program appears to be a sliding fee
scale in a different direction.
> The list seems to be experience the classic white resentment
> for any affirmative attempts to undo racism.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure Mr. Kushner knows the law on
this topic better than I, but the basis for affirmative action
40 years ago was to account for past discrimination. Now the
Supreme Court tells us that we'll need another 25 years, if
not longer, to account for current discrimination. I agreed
40 years ago, but I don't see the same overt racial discrimination
that I did then. What I see is residual cultural inequalities.
I suppose that from his vantage point in Golden Valley that
Mr. Kushner would disagree. :-)
Michael Atherton
Prospect Park
TEMPORARY REMINDER:
1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change
the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
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TEMPORARY REMINDER:
1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject
(Mpls-specific, of course.)
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
