Frank Denton: Focus on education, jobs, criminal justice to overcome structural racism

Times-Union

Frank Denton: Focus on education, jobs, criminal justice to overcome structural racism

http://jacksonville.com/reason/frank-denton/2015-02-13/story/frank-denton-focus-education-jobs-criminal-justice-overcome

By Frank Denton

Consider an idea for reparations for slavery.

Now that I’ve got your attention, let me quickly add that I don’t mean that white people should write checks to black people. None of the former owned slaves, and none of the latter was one.

Yet, as we continue to see vast gaps between the lives, experiences and beliefs of black and white Americans, you’ve got to wonder how and when we’re going to truly overcome the legacy of that awful institution of previous centuries.

Our eternal preoccupation with race bobbled in several crosscurrents last week.

The popular movie “Selma” reminded us of last century’s Civil Rights Movement that led to federal civil and voting rights laws that virtually ended overt segregation and made personal racism socially unacceptable to the vast majority of Americans.

Now we’re learning about structural racism, which the Aspen Institute describes as “subtler racialized patterns in policies and practices (that) permeate the political, economic, and sociocultural structures of America in ways that generate differences in well-being between people of color and whites. These dynamics work to maintain the existing racial hierarchy even as they adapt with the times or accommodate new racial and ethnic groups.”

The concept became clearer to me when, as part of Aspen’s Project Breakthrough, I saw an ABC “Nightline” program about a black female pedestrian killed in a traffic accident in Buffalo. She was crossing a dangerous highway to get from her bus stop to her job in a new suburban shopping mall. The developers had promised prospective tenants that the mall would have upper-class (that is, white) customers, based on its deliberate location away from poor areas and the bus line used by blacks. Thus the victim’s dangerous and ultimately fatal trek to get to work.

No one intended to hurt anyone or even thought of it as discrimination. It was the unforeseen result of an artifact of social and economic patterns derived from ancient and original sin. We often accept structural racism, without thinking about it, as natural, unfortunate, but just reality.

You could see structural racism in the “continuing disparities” in last Sunday’s front-page centerpiece by Nate Monroe and Steve Patterson about “Jacksonville’s wealth divide:” black unemployment 16.4 percent versus 7.5 percent for whites, black household income $31,911 compared to $55,035 for whites, higher poverty and lower education levels in black areas of the city.

A thoughtful reader, Harvey Slentz of Amelia Island, a lawyer and retired Postal Service executive who now teaches business law and ethics at FSCJ, wrote me that measures of well-being like income, health and happiness are driven largely by two categories of factors: “those that we can influence and those we can’t.

“Gender, race and age are, of course, beyond our control. However, education, single parenthood and some other factors are within our control. Much of our discussion in the community centers around race, which is an uncontrollable factor. … Perhaps we do ourselves a disservice by focusing on that, when it may well be the case that the most influential variable is not race, but education or other things that are within our control.

“I wonder how that very excellent story of two Jacksonvilles would have looked if it had not led with graphs that identified disparities by race, but rather by the differences that are made by educational level, or by the effect of single parenthood? Would it lead the community to more actionable discussions about things we can do something about? A graph depicting racial disparity could lead to frustration. A graph depicting educational disparity could lead to action.”

Slentz’s excellent perspective reminded me of Monday night’s OneJax community meeting at UNF on “Changing the Story of Race in Jacksonville.” Small-group conversations among almost 200 people centered on three urban pathologies: housing segregation, education disparities and the impact of our criminal justice system on the black community.

Actually, at my table, I proposed that we have made impressive progress against residential segregation, as a battery of federal housing laws, such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and executive orders have virtually eliminated discriminatory real-estate practices and integrated many, if not most, formerly all-white neighborhoods.

So the real issue there is the money to make the move.

Thus, consider three elements of structural racism dividing our city and preventing racial reconciliation: few and poorly paying jobs, failing or inadequate schools and a criminal justice system that seems to target blacks, especially young men who can never recover.

The OneJax meeting lamented the statistics and the situation for two hours and ended as we almost always do in discussions centered on race: a lot of conversation, a lot of heartfelt concern and compassion, pledges to try to do better.

What if we took a Slentzian perspective on those three issues and — as a caring, compassionate community — took on those pathologies by flipping them into actionable goals for the black community: good jobs, better education and constructive criminal justice?

• Create a focused, meaningful, realistic and funded jobs initiative for Northwest Jacksonville. Actually, there already are plans to prime the pump of neighborhood economic development by helping community-owned businesses fill food, financial and other “deserts” with businesses that are commonplace in other neighborhoods.

            “We have all the elements needed to make urban redevelopment happen,” said Janet Owens, Jacksonville executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. “We just need the concerted political will between the city executive and legislative branches,” which we the people can inspire, in part with our votes next                           month.

          “Of all the ways we can invest in the city,” Ben Warner, president and CEO of JCCI, said, “investing in Northwest Jacksonville would do more for the city than anything else. I really believe that. If we could raise the per capita income in the African-American community up to the median income of the city, it would do more than              anything else to transform the city.”

• Ensure educational success. So many people and organizations in Jacksonville are working on the public schools and, as we have reported, making some good progress.

             The Times-Union is committed to more and bigger journalism on the non-school, family and community issues that undermine student success before they even get to school. As the core of what I have called here our urban pathology, this is the biggest issue affecting the future of Jacksonville.

• Reform the criminal-justice system to emphasize rehabilitation and results, rather than retribution. “This is one of the toughest states to get restoration of rights and a felony record expunged,” Warner said. “If you’re a young man who commits a crime here, you’re likely to be tried as an adult, you’re likely to get a felony record, and if you do, you won’t be able to work the rest of your life.”

There are smart and humane ideas about restorative justice, diversion programs for first offenders, civil citations for lesser crimes and rehabilitation and education in prison. All they require is some leadership. Don’t we want ex-offenders to become contributing citizens?

So there’s a plan for reparations to take us beyond the worst parts of structural racism. The essential ingredients: open-mindedness, faith, optimism and belief in the human spirit.

It so happens that the main points parallel the Times-Union’s journalism priorities. It’s a conservative plan because it removes barriers and allows human nature and goodness, innate self-respect and economic incentives to flow naturally and find their own higher levels.

While the plan will require some public investment, it will pay off in long-term financial payoffs through productivity in employment, economic development and savings in the zooming costs of law enforcement and the bulging prison system.

Not to mention allowing us, finally, to get beyond the legacy of slavery.