Proposed Racial Equality Act Misleading

Guy P. Djoken

 

 

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007, Frederick County Commissioner the Honorable John (Lennie) Thompson sent me the email bellow.

Guy Djoken
President, Frederick Chapter NAACP
 
RE: Profiling
 
Dear President Djoken:
 
     The Monday, October 22, 2007 issue of The Frederick-News Post features a story entitled "Local NAACP fear profiling if law enforcement partners with ICE". The story begins on page A-1, col. 3. The story includes the following passage attributed to you: "We are afraid if (the deputies are granted the authority), they might wind up stopping people based on how they look." p. A-9, col. 5.
 
     Unfortunately, several county agencies characterize and classify individuals "based on how they look" ( i.e. "profiling").
 
     My proposed Racial Equality Act is on the web at:

http://www.co.frederick.md.us/Documentview.asp?DID=4581 

and at:

http://www.co.frederick.md.us/documents/Board%20of%20County%20Commissioners/Commissioner%20John%20L%20Thompson/Racial%20Equality%20Act%20-%20October%209%202007%20Version.pdf

     I would appreciate any comments the Frederick Chapter of the NAACP would like to make about my proposed Racial Equality Act.
                  
          Thanks,
 
          Lennie

 

 

After consulting with NAACP members and friends, I came out with the following response. Several people contributed in responses by providing ideas among which Carol Antoniewicz, David Rocah, James Upchurch.

 

The Honorable Commissioner John Thompson,

 

I have read your proposal over and over again, in hopes of trying to grasp your purpose. It is unclear what you are hoping to accomplish. I consulted with NAACP members and friends to find a rationale behind such a proposal at a time when it is becoming more and more obvious that there are "Two Systems of Justice" currently operating in many part of the country.

 

The recent hearing of the Judiciary Committee on the "Jena 6 and the Role of Federal Intervention in Hate Crimes and Race-Related Violence in Public Schools" clearly illustrates my assertions. http://www.talkleft.com/transcripts/jenasixhearing.pdf

Witnesses included Donald Washington, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana; Lisa Krigsten, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General; Richard Cohen, President and Chief Executive Officer Southern Poverty Law Center; Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School; Reverend Brian Moran, Pastor of the Jena Antioch Baptist Church and President of the NAACP, Jena Chapter; Reverend Alfred C. Sharpton, President of the National Action Network.

 

It appears that you are proposing that Frederick County solve the issues of Racial Inequality by no longer keeping score.  We cannot see how solving a problem like traffic enforcement using profiling would be solved by this bill.  Minority persons could still be stopped more often than persons who did not "look" like a minority person.  The difference would be that your bill would not require a record. This might give carte blanche to the small but resolute number of officers who do not abide by the rule to administer justice equitably since there would no longer be any record of accountability.

 

We have grave concerns that this proposal, contrary to its title, will have the effect of perpetuating inequality by preventing government agencies, Civil Rights organizations, health related institutions and other interested entities from collecting the data necessary to ascertain whether different groups are being treated differently.  

To call it a Racial Equality Act is misleading in the extreme.  It seems to be designed precisely to ensure that equal treatment does not occur. Achieving equality does not mean ignoring the reality of race and ethnicity in a society with a strong history of white privilege. It would be nice if we lived in a color blind society where harms and benefits are distributed equally across all racial or ethnic groups.  But that is not the case.  Pretending it is the case, and denying government and citizens the tools to identify when it is and is not the case, will not make it so, it will only make it less likely that we do anything effective about it.  

 

A few additional points:

·         Race is a social, not a biological, construct. The video-series "Race – the Power of an Illusion" ( www.newsreel.org ) is very useful in reviewing the history of racial categories in the U.S. It shows how two people from different racial groups may actually be more genetically similar than two people who appear to be from the same racial group.

·         Racial identity should not be dictated by someone; we each get to self-identify.  Many folks are now claiming a complex ancestry that defies racial categories.

·         Hispanic is not a racial category. Persons of Hispanic heritage can claim African or Caribbean heritage or identify as white.

A good resource for anyone interested in work against racism is the National Coalition Building Institute www.ncbi.org

 

I will end by inviting you to take a moment of your precious time to go over this document http://www.unescocenterforpeace.net/downloads/Race_Matters-Casey_Foundation2006.pdf prepared by the Casey Foundation. It clearly shows when and how race matters.

 

 We hope you may be willing to engage in some discussion of your thoughts and our reflections.  The interaction of conversation may be a more useful way of coming to a better understanding of one another on such an important issue.

 

Sincerely,

Guy