Wed, 30 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordTesting
and charters – that's all President Obama's team has to offer, says the
head of the American Federation of Teachers. Both are, essentially,
part of the corporate strategy to privatize public schools from within,
and to make teachers the villain in the education debate.
On Education, Obama's First Term Is Bush's Third
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“The Administration is wielding a $4 billion fund like a whip.”
The
nation’s teachers seem to be awakening to the fact that they are in a
holding pen, awaiting execution as a social force in the United States.
The executioner isn’t wearing a hood, but a world-famous smile.
President Obama’s education scheme, cleverly titled “Race to the Top,”
is a continuation of a 30-year effort to reshape public education in
the corporate image – that is, to run schools like a business, in the
service of business. And we all know that business would rather not
have to deal with unions.
Teachers
unions are finally coming to grips with the fact that Obama and his
union-buster education secretary, Arne Duncan, are busy putting targets
on teachers’ backs – much like the Republicans but without the
name-calling. American Federation of Teachers president Randi
Wiengarten called Obama’s reworked version of No Child Left Behind
“Bush III,” after the president that imposed it seven years ago. “It
looks like the only strategies they have” for improving public
education “are charter schools and measurement,” said Wiengarten,
referring to the regimen of high stakes testing that now defines
American public schools.
Secretary
Duncan, who fired entire school staffs when he ran the Chicago system,
terminating Black teachers disproportionately, is no more nor less
imaginative than any other corporate executive intent on squeezing the
last drop of labor from every employee – and then blaming the workers
and their union when corporate goals are not met. This is a fundamental
and well-understood conflict in the private sector – and a relationship
between labor and management that corporate forces are attempting to
impose on public education. What we are witnessing is the privatization
of public education from within, through the imposition of corporate
management methods and measurements. This corporatizing process has
been both obscured and facilitated by decades of unrelenting propaganda
that posits teachers as the main obstacle to educational improvement.
“Obama's 'Race to the Top' is a continuation of a 30-year effort to reshape public education in the corporate image.”
Corporate
managers attempt to treat educational failings as “productivity”
problems, wherein the schools are not getting enough bang for the buck
from either teachers or students.
Unremitting testing is the corporate management attempt to measure and
reward productivity in the educational workplace. Since the testing
regime is essentially a management technique, testing inevitably
becomes the overarching focus of school leadership, and a whip in the
hand of the bosses. Bosses do not easily give up their whips, which is
why they cling so tightly to the high stakes testing regime.
The
Obama Administration is wielding a more than $4 billion fund like a
whip to coerce school systems into firing teachers based on test
scores, and to force expansion of charter schools. The aim is to break
the unions, pure and simple. It is a logical progression of George
Bush’s corporate-inspired policies, which is why the teachers union
president calls it “Bush III.”
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
|
Wed, 30 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordIf
all the talk of economic “recovery” sound insane to the growing ranks
of the unemployed and dispossessed, they're right. “The great
investment banks are through, dead and gone, no longer willing or able
to gather trillions in capital for any enterprise vaguely resembling
national economic development.” All that's left is The Casino.
The Great Black Hole of Casino Capitalism
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“It now sucks all remaining and potential national wealth into its infinite darkness.”
Ruling
circles in the United States have decreed that the Great Recession is
over. These are the same circles that waited through half of 2008 to
announce that the nation had been in recession since December of 2007.
They now declare the worst is behind us even as unemployment climbs,
smaller banks go under and a new wage of foreclosures looms. But there
is not time in a 4-minute commentary to quibble about technical
definitions of recession. In the larger scheme of things, such
conversations are diversions that obscure what actually happened to the
capitalist system over the past year. It has been broken beyond repair.
There
is nothing left of finance capitalism but The Casino, which is only
kept whirring along through the fiscal resources of The State. When the
ruling circles, which of course includes the finance capital-infested
Obama administration, announce that the economy is on the “road to
recovery,” they are speaking of The Casino – Greater Wall Street and
its speculations. But the once-dynamic heart of Wall Street, the great
investment banks, are through, dead and gone, no longer willing or able
to gather trillions in capital for any enterprise vaguely resembling
national economic development. That stage of capitalism definitively
ended in the Great Crash of last year. With the final collapse –
decades in the making and historically inevitable – finance capital
became irrevocably dependent on The State's capacity to subsidize its
activities. It could not save itself, much less contribute to national
economic reconstruction.
“With the final collapse, finance capital became irrevocably dependent on The State's capacity to subsidize its activities.”
Instead,
The State – meaning, the people of the United States – have so far gone
into hock for $23.7 trillion to bail out finance capital, 1.7 times the
U.S. gross domestic product for 2008. The relationship between finance
capital and U.S. society has devolved to pure parasitism. Such is the
nature of post-2008 capitalism in America.
Greater
Wall Street has become a Black Hole of its own creation. It now sucks
all remaining and potential national wealth into its infinite darkness.
Medicare and Social Security and every seizable public asset are pulled
ever closer to its event horizon, to be lost in the Black Hole: The
Casino. Meanwhile, the ever-expanding military acts as its own Black
Hole, in order to safeguard the imperial domain on behalf of The Casino.
Strange
phenomenon occur in the presence of economic Black Holes. Unemployment
in Detroit nears 30 percent, while Wall Street experiences 12-month
highs. State and local governments disintegrate, safety nets unravel,
as the rich clink champagne glasses in celebration of their
mega-trillion salvation, financed through the full faith and credit of
the people. Like Atlantic City, New Jersey, all is despair and
devastation – except on the boardwalk at The Casino.
Post-2008
America has a Black Hole in its soul. The political project could not
be clearer: We've got to shut down The Casino, before it sucks up
everything of value around us.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com. |
Wed, 30 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordHyatt
Hotels pounced on their Boston housekeepers like a great predator,
firing the staff without notice and attempting to replace them at half
the wages. A governor and a union stepped up in solidarity with the
workers, who had been subjected to cruel, but not unusual, treatment in
this late stage of capitalism.
Gov. Deval Patrick Joins Condemnation of Hyatt Firings
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Nearly one hundred people and their families were abused and traumatized by a huge corporation.”
Massachusetts
Gov. Deval Patrick deserves a salute for his solidarity with Hyatt
Hotel workers who were cruelly disrespected and fired last week.
Ninety-eight non-union housekeeping workers were summarily dismissed
from three Boston-area Hyatt hotels, replaced by contract employees
earning half their salaries. Hyatt outsourced their $14 to $16 an hour
jobs to a Georgia company that pays only $8. Governor Patrick appealed
directly to Hyatt's CEO for the workers' reinstatement and, when that
failed, urged state employees to boycott the hotel chain, based in that
wannabe Olympic city, Chicago. Massachusetts Gov. Patrick was right
when he said the firings were “the worst nightmare of every worker in
today's weak economy.”
There
is a logic to the way that corporate behavior toward employees becomes
more inhumane at precisely the same rate that the job market
deteriorates. To put it simply, corporations are as cruel as they think
they can get away with.When
there are six unemployed persons for every job opening, the employer,
like a king, feels empowered to behave like the worst kind of tyrant.
The
Hyatt firings were doubly cruel in their execution. The workers, some
of whom had been on the job for over 20 years, were ordered to train
the new, outsourced employees, supposedly so they could fill in during
vacations or when regular employees got sick. The housekeepers were not
informed they were really training their replacements. Several days
before the ax fell, the workers say management told them to empty their
lockers so they could be cleaned. Actual notice of termination didn't
come until the last day of work.
“Corporations are as cruel as they think they can get away with.”
Although
the Hyatt's Boston hotel employees are not unionized, some asked the
hotel workers' union Unite Here for help. The union staged a
demonstration at which 150 people were arrested, and sent one of the
fired workers to Chicago to meet with Penny Pritzger, an heiress to the
hotel-owning family who was also national finance chairman for the
Obama presidential campaign. Hyatt's response to the employees' and
Gov. Patrick's appeals was to offer the workers a brief extension of
their current salaries and health benefits, and temporary jobs with
another outsourcing agency that Hyatt contracts with in Chicago. The
offer was rejected. Said one of the workers: “We will not accept temp
positions that are designed to put others out of work.”
Hyatt's
shameful, devious and heartless treatment of its Boston hotel
housekeepers also illustrates the deceptive nature of unemployment
statistics. The employees that Hyatt was forcing into unemployment were
to be replaced by previously unemployed workers at half the pay. A
company payroll was, presumably, cut in half, but no jobs were created
or destroyed and the overall employment numbers remained unchanged. But
nearly one hundred people and their families were abused and
traumatized by a huge corporation, and most will not likely recover in
this economy. And their replacements will clean up behind other people
at poverty wages with no job security whatsoever. That is par for the
course, in late-stage capitalist America.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com. |
Tue, 22 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordBeing
a superpower means having the ability to arbitrarily prolong the misery
of weaker countries. Such seems to be the U.S. mission in Somalia,
where the puppet regime would fall in hours if the Americans and their
Ugandan mercenaries withdrew. “The Somali president’s dwindling
soldiers only remain because they are getting paid – by the Americans.”
U.S is Puppet-Master in Somalia
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“A president that cannot trust his own soldiers to protect his life, is no president at all.”
If
ever there was a government that deserved to be called a “puppet,” it
is the regime that claims to speak for Somalia. Sheik Sharif Sheik
Ahmed’s ridiculous rump of a regime is wholly dependent on foreigners:
the 5,000 mostly Ugandan troops that nominally work for the African
Union but actually act as mercenaries for the Americans, and the CIA
and U.S. special operations forces that roam the country, killing at
will. According to a recent New York Times report,
it is the Ugandans, not Somali soldiers, that guard President Ahmed
around the clock, camping directly outside his doorway and driving him
to the airport, which is also defended by Ugandans. A president that
cannot trust his own soldiers to protect his life, is no president at
all.
Sheik
Ahmed rules over close to nothing, just a few patches of the capital
city, Mogadishu. The Somali Shabaab resistance is positioned only
blocks from the president’s residence, from which he rarely ventures.
If the foreigners left, Sheik Ahmed would have to make a mad dash to
the airport to leave with them.
Over
the summer, the Americans sent in 40 tons of weapons, much of which
immediately wound up in the hands of the opposition. Whole units of the
president’s armed forces have gone over to the opposition – that is to
say, they have sided with their fellow Somalis and against the
foreigners and their puppet president. Press reports of the close
interaction between opposition fighters and those troops still
nominally loyal to the regime lead one to conclude that the Somali
president’s dwindling soldiers only remain because they are getting
paid – by the Americans.
“President Obama will have earned himself a third war in the Third World.”
Sheik
Ahmed has called for virtually all of his U.S.-back neighbors –
Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen – to come prop up his puny regime,
which would, of course, require even more massive U.S. involvement and
perpetual foreign occupation of Somalia. And that is a formula for
perpetual war that would swallow up all of the Horn of Africa.
President Obama will have earned himself a third war in the Third
World, at a time when the American people have already tired of the
other two, in Iran and Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Even
the Americans roaming around Mogadishu admit that, at most, a few
hundred foreign jihadists are fighting Sheik Ahmed's puppet regime. The
rest of the opposition is Somali. However, Washington is determined to
portray the Shabaab as a “new Taliban” that must be crushed for reasons
of U.S. national security.
There
is really no rational choice for Washington but to withdraw and allow
the Somalis to make their own peace, of whatever political complexion.
But imperialists cannot envision a world in which they are not in
charge – even if that world encompasses only a few city blocks in
Mogadishu. Therefore, we can shortly expect a new offensive by the U.S.
and other foreigners in Somalia. Perpetual war is the only game they
know how to play.
|
Tue, 22 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordThe
“period of passivity in Black politics” that accompanied the ascent of
Barack Obama, is about to end. The Black is Back Coalition seeks to
reignite a Black-led movement for social justice, peace and reparations
– which will in turn energize progressive politics in general. See you
in DC on November 7.
“Black is Back” on Nov. 7: D.C. Rally and March on White House
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“We will confront the forces of war, of neo-colonialism, of the rule of bankers and the crime of mass Black incarceration.”
The
time has come to bring independent Black politics back to the forefront
– to reignite and refocus the debate over the burning issues of the
day. Nine months of the Obama presidency has taught us that a Black
presence in the White House does not necessarily give voice to critical
issues facing African Americans. Instead, Black concerns have been
shunted to the side, treated as distractions, derided or ignored, by
this president, even as the Black condition in the U.S. and the world
steadily deteriorates.
When
militant, politically conscious Black people fail to Speak Truth to
Power, Power feels comfortable in pretending that somebody else's
version of the truth is more compelling. When Black people make no
demands, but instead defer to a Black president, then that same
president will inevitably respond to other people's demands.
That's
why a coalition of Black organizations and individuals is determined
that the period of silence and deference and damn-near invisibility for
Black people is over. Black is Back, and Truth will be spoken on
November 7th at a rally in Washington, DC's Malcolm X Park, followed by a march down 16th Street to the White House, where Power resides.
“African
Americans have invested more energy in circling the wagons around one
man, than in defending the interests of Black people and humanity
at-large.”
The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations was formed on September 12th
by activists from a wide range of organizations who believe that a
Black-led movement is absolutely necessary to halt the destruction
wrought by the predatory rich, the incorrigibly racist, and a
world-threatening military. The Black is Back Coalition understands
where the vital center of gravity for progressive politics in the
United States is located: among African Americans, who have always
stood for social and economic justice, and against U.S. military
adventures abroad. That Black voice is coming back, beginning on
November 7th in Washington, DC, when we will confront the
forces of war, of neo-colonialism, of the rule of bankers and the crime
of mass Black incarceration.
When
Black is Back, all of progressive politics is energized, educated and
strengthened for the common struggle to save humanity. Since the ascent
of Barack Obama, African Americans have invested more energy in
circling the wagons around one man, than in defending the interests of
Black people and humanity at-large. This period of passivity in Black
politics ends on November 7
in Washington, DC.
Write to me for more information on the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. I'll put you in touch with spokespersons Chioma Oruh, Rosa Clemente, and Jared Ball. When Black is Back, the movement gets rollin'.
|
Tue, 22 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordIsrael
reacted with typical feigned outrage at the United Nations report on
war crimes and human rights violations committed by its forces in Gaza,
last winter. The Jewish state's serial violations of international law
are rooted in the barbarism of its governing principle, apartheid,
which leads Israel to place itself “above the accepted norms of
civilized behavior.”
Apartheid is the Root of Israel’s Aggressions
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Underlying Israeli lawlessness is the concept of a settler state constructed for the benefit of one ethnic group.”
The
State of Israel, by far the world champion violator of international
law as interpreted by the United Nations, is once again raining vitriol
and insult on the world body that gave it birth 61 years ago. Since
almost the day that the U.N. recognized the Jewish state in 1948,
Israel has placed itself above the accepted norms of civilized
behavior. In its six decades of existence, Israel has violated
virtually every United Nations declaration and flaunted countless
tenets of international legality, most often with the diplomatic,
economic and military protection of the United States. Israel’s
arrogant disregard for the world body reached new heights with the
release of a U.N. report urging Israel to conduct an “independent”
investigation into “war crimes” and “serious violations” of human
rights during its brutal attack on Gaza, last winter.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed his government’s own
investigation, which absolved Israel of crimes in the killing of 1,400
Palestinian men, women and children, was “a thousand times more
serious” than that conducted by the U.N. Shimon Peres, Israel’s
president, charged the U.N. with legitimizing “terrorist activity” and
making “a mockery of history” by failing to recognize Israel’s right to
“self-defense.” Other Israelis complained that the U.N. was making a
case for “moral equivalency” between Israel and the Palestinian
resistance.
 “How can one make peace with a state that claims the right to adjust its borders according to its own whims?”
On
that count, in a fiendishly perverse sense, Israel is right: there is
no moral equivalency between the Palestinian resistance and Israeli
occupation and aggression. Palestinians have every legal and moral
right to resist being occupied on the West Bank and caged and
quarantined in the world’s biggest jail in Gaza. Israel has no moral or
legal ground to stand on – which is why it chooses to dismiss and
vilify every organ of international legality centered on the United
Nations. Israel is not even a recognizable state, having no borders
that Israel itself recognizes.
The
Israeli state behaves as if its borders are anywhere it may sometime in
the future declare them to be. This borderless state constitutes a
grave threat to every one of its immediate neighbors, and an insult to
hundreds of years of evolving international law. How can one make peace
with a state that claims the right to adjust its borders according to
its own whims? This is an affront to humanity, yet it is the essence of
Israeli foreign and domestic policy.
Underlying
this essential Israeli lawlessness is the concept of a settler state
constructed for the benefit of one ethnic group on land seized from
other peoples. That is the definition of apartheid, and the root of all
of Israel’s constant assaults on international law. It is a barbarism
that must be rejected, boycotted and isolated – not just to relieve the
suffering of Palestinians, but for the sake of human civilization.
|
Wed, 16 September 2009
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Like
all things consciously Black in the age of “race neutrality,” Black
Studies has been targeted for the irrelevancy file. “The truth is,
Black Studies has always been in conflict with the powers-that-be, on
campus and in the wider world.” Born of activism 40 years ago, Black
Studies “leads to greater and more effective activism” - which makes
the discipline dangerous to power and privilege.
Black Studies: Still Indispensable After 40 Years
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Those
who have achieved power and inherited privilege through systemic racial
oppression are the last ones to want to fund a discipline that examines
past and present oppression.”
In
1968, the Black Student Union at San Francisco State University, in
conjunction with other activists and faculty, demanded the
establishment of a Black Studies Program. The next year, the Black
Studies Program became a department. Forty years later, as many as 350
colleges and universities offer majors, minors and degrees in Black,
African American, Africana and related studies, according to Dr. James
Turner, of Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center.
Just
like the movement and politics that it sprang from, Black Studies is
under assault, as irrelevant in today’s times. The truth is, Black
Studies has always been in conflict with the powers-that-be, on campus
and in the wider world. It was born that way, out of a movement and a
people that were trying to find a way out of their own oppression and
the ills afflicting humanity at-large. Only fools and the enemy can
claim that this mission has been accomplished, and that Black voices
should stand down, in academia or anywhere else.
Black
Studies grew out of Black activism, and when the discipline is done
well, it leads to greater and more effective activism, while deepening
our understanding of the global society. This is, by definition,
dangerous to those who profit from the status quo and the lies that
prop up privilege. Those who have achieved power and inherited
privilege through systemic racial oppression are the last ones to want
to fund a discipline that examines past and present oppression.
“Hostile forces proclaim Black Studies to be an obstacle on the road to 'race neutrality.'”
Naturally,
opponents of Black Studies have always tried to marginalize it as a
kind of special dispensation unworthy of accreditation and resources.
In the Age of Obama, hostile forces proclaim Black Studies to be an
obstacle on the road to “race neutrality” – another way of saying that
those who illuminate and struggle against a problem, are themselves the
source of the problem.
In
a society that is truly committed to social justice, Black Studies
would be viewed in much the same way as the study of medicine, whose
ultimate purpose is to promote the health of human beings and to combat
the diseases that plague us. Medicine ameliorates human misery, and
seeks ways to make possible the maximum fulfillment of life for the
greatest number of people. So does the struggle for social justice and
its academic arm, Black Studies.
Black
Studies provides a unique prism through which to identify that which
ails us in the United States, and beyond. When Black Studies is
devalued, Black people are devalued and all of humanity is diminished.
Those who think we are already liberated and can now dispense with Black Studies, are the ones most in need of an education.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com. |
Wed, 16 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordNightriding
white terrorists are not confined to the South. They also roam the
streets of New York City, in search of Black victims. The election of
2008 was especially rough for Up South white supremacists. Barack
Obama's victory provoked four young New Yorkers to go on a
Black-bashing spree that last week earned them serious prison time.
“Coon Huntin’” in New York City
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“They piled into a car on a mission to show African Americans that whites were still boss in that part of the world.”
White
folks used to call it “coon hunting” – terrorism as community sport.
I’ve witnessed it myself: caravans of cars filled with white men in
varying stages of drunkenness cruising country highways or the fringes
of Black neighborhoods, in search of victims. In the Deep South, such
“coon hunting” parties were not necessarily hitched to any special
occasion or specific racial incident; any excuse would do to
demonstrate that Blacks’ very existence in a White Man’s Country was a
privilege that could be arbitrarily and violently revoked at any time.
“Coon
hunting” and related white racist rituals were never confined to below
the Mason-Dixon Line. New York City contains enclaves of entrenched
bigotry as concentrated and vicious as anyplace in Dixie. Last
November, on learning that Barack Obama had won the presidential
election, four young white men in Staten Island – the whitest of New
York City’s boroughs – piled into a car on a mission to show African
Americans that whites were still boss in that part of the world. They
drove to a Black neighborhood, found a teenager walking by himself, and
beat him with a metal pipe and a police baton. Not satisfied, they
assaulted a Black man in another minority neighborhood, and drove off
in search of a third victim. This time, they slammed their car into a
man they thought was African American, but who turned out not to be.
The victim’s head smashed the car’s windshield, and he stayed in a coma
for weeks.
“The four young white men admitted they set out to punish people they assumed had voted for Barack Obama.”
The four whites were last week sentencedto
from four and one/half to seven years in federal prison. Loretta King,
of the U.S. Justice Department, said the Civil Rights Division “will
remain vigilant in our efforts to combat hate crimes.” Republicans in
Congress continue to quibble about what constitutes a “hate crime,” who
specifically should be protected from such crimes, and the
circumstances in which the federal government can intervene. But the
case from Staten Island, New York, certainly fits anyone’s definition
of a hate crime that threatened federally protected rights. But it also
says a lot more. The four young white men admitted they set out to
punish people they assumed had voted for Barack Obama. But of course,
they didn’t ask their victims who they voted for, or if they had voted
at all, and one of them wasn’t even an African American. What these
night-riders resented was the very presence of non-whites in Staten
Island, or New York City, or in positions of prominence anywhere in the
United States. They are terrorists whose hatred of Black people is
general and uncomplicated – and renders them unfit to circulate freely
in society.
It
is also interesting to note that these modern, New York City, “Up
South” terrorist nightriders’ surnames are Nicoletti, Garaventa,
Contreras, and Carranza. They’re not the good ol' boys of your grandparents’ experience. But they’re just as dangerous.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
|
Wed, 16 September 2009
 A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordSmall
white towns are not typically welcoming to the prospect of large
numbers of Black residents – unless they are locked up in cages. The
town folks will fight tooth and nail for the privilege of hosting
job-creating prisons, and to exercise the inmate's voting rights, as
well. “Prison towns and prison-dependent counties are no more eager to
relinquish their claim to be 'home' to their incarcerated residents
than the slave master was to part with his human property.”
The Stolen Count: Prison Inmates and the Census
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“The Census problem with prison inmates, is where to assign their official residency.”
People
of West Indian descent are being urged to check their ethnicity as
“other” on the U.S. Census form, presumably so they’ll be counted
separately from the African American community. The Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights urges great care be taken to get an accurate
count in the Gulf States, where
population movements have still not settled, four years after Katrina.
And every ten years there is controversy on how to best avoid
undercounting Blacks, Latinos and undocumented aliens. There is one
group, however, that is easy to find and enumerate, since they line up
for the count at least once every day: the 1.3 million inmates of state
and federal prisons. (At any given time, another million people are in
local jails, but that’s another matter.)
The
problem with state and federal prison inmates isn’t about getting the
numbers right, but where to assign their residency. And although the
question of who gets to count an inmate as a resident may not mean much
to the incarcerated individual, it is a matter of great importance to
his home community, possibly hundreds of miles away.
“Denizens of small 'prison towns get to vote on the inmates’ behalf.”
The
40-year national policy of mass Black incarceration has robbed urban
communities, not just of men and women, but of federal and state monies
that are distributed based on population. When a young man from, say,
the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn gets sent upstate to Attica
prison, his share of Bed-Stuy’s funding for schools and other public
services goes upstate with him, to benefit the town where the prison
guards live. Those denizens of small “prison towns” also get to vote on
the inmates’ behalf. As an article in the publication “Progressive
States” explains, these mostly white, small town people whose
livelihoods are dependent on a steady flow of prisoners doing as much
time as possible, are not likely to vote in the interests of the
inmates or their families in the inner cities. The closest analogy
would be to the days when Blacks could not vote in most of the South,
but were counted for purposes of allocating seats in state legislatures
and the Congress. White folks were allowed to vote, both on their own
behalf and, in effect, to cast Black people’s ballots, too. Put another
way, simply by showing up on the U.S. Census in a southern state, Black
people were forced to vote against themselves and for the white
politicians that oppressed them. Prison inmates face much the same
situation.
New
York City residents, for example, make up 66 percent of state prison
inmates, but 94 percent of them are incarcerated upstate in
overwhelmingly white counties. This caged population has so skewed the
allocation of state senate seats, if the inmates were not counted
Republican strength in the legislature would be significantly weakened.
In eight upstate New York counties, more than half the “official” Black
population actually lives in prison.
Prison
towns and prison-dependent counties are no more eager to relinquish
their claim to be “home” to their incarcerated residents than the slave
master was to part with his human property. But states can begin
listing prisoners by their addresses before incarceration, or at least
exclude inmates for purposes of drawing up legislative districts. That
won’t bring any inmate freedom, but it will help the folks back home.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
|
Wed, 9 September 2009
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford On
health care, Barack Obama "has become a heavy burden for even the Black
Caucus to bear, as he searches constantly for allies on the Right." As
Obama threatens to jettison the issue of racial disparities from his
"reform" proposals, Black lawmakers must reassess their loyalties. The Black Caucus and Obama: One-Way Loyalty A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford "Obama has left the Black Caucus with little ground to stand on as they try to prop up his presidency." Nobody
wants President Obama to succeed more than the 42-member Congressional
Black Caucus. History, itself, made it inevitable that masses of
African Americans would feel a profoundly vested interest in the
fortunes of any Black person that made it into the Oval Office,
especially one who garnered about 19 of every 20 Black votes. Back in
October of last year, it was Barack Obama's lobbying of individual
Black members of Congress that caused the Caucus to shift from 21 to 18
opposed to the first bank bailout, to 31 to 8 in favor - and Obama
hadn't even been elected yet. Despite Obama's dismissal of progressives
on issues of peace and social justice - issues still dear to a core of
Caucus members - Black lawmakers still feel that history demands their
allegiance to this president. Obama,
however, takes such loyalties for granted, and has left the Black
Caucus with little ground to stand on as they try to prop up his
presidency. On health care, he has become a heavy burden for even the
Black Caucus to bear, as he searches constantly for allies on the
Right. Among the 64 progressives that
vowed in August to vote against any health care bill that does not
include a strong public option, 25 are Black. Under the leadership of
California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the Black Caucus issued a letter
last week expressing "deep concern" that "a robust public option and
myriad health disparity elimination provisions...may be stricken" in
order to cut the cost of the legislation. Lee emerged from a conference call
with the White House still insisting on a public option and emphasizing
the need for measures to eliminate disparities in health care, through
better data collection, greater diversity in the health care workforce,
and more community health care workers. Yet the White House seems
prepared to jettison health equity, to appease the Right. If that
happens, the Congressional Black Caucus will utterly lose face. "The Caucus has dedicated resources and prestige to documenting the huge racial disparities in health outcomes." The
Black Caucus has made the health equity issue its own. In recent years
the Caucus has dedicated resources and prestige to documenting the huge
racial disparities in health outcomes, and exploring ways to confront
the problem. This April, the Caucus held a health equity forum, at
which Georgia Congressman John Lewis spoke of the need to launch a
"health equity movement" to ensure that the issue is "an integral
component of health care reform." But the Caucus will be in no position
to lead a "health equity movement" or anything else if it allows Obama
to discard the equity issue without a fight. As
an institution, the Congressional Black Caucus has no choice but to
resist the first Black president, or submit to voluntary irrelevance on
an issue they have told their own constituents is vital to the
community. In
their letter to the president, the Black lawmakers assured him they are
"committed allies and partners in the fight to reform America's broken
health care system." It is Obama's commitment that is so very much in
question. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
|
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