Black History Month and the New Jim Crow
Normally at the outset of Black History Month I run a piece that I modify a bit each year, last year's entry was "African American History Month and Urban Planning."
The January piece in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times, by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, made me realize that instead I should be reading her book as a way to acknowledge and celebrate African American History Month.
-- "The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an ‘Aberration’: From mass incarceration to mass deportation, our nation remains in deep denial" is adapted from the book
Although the hard truths of the US as the ultimate "carceral state" are not easy to digest.
-- "Booked: The Origins of the Carceral State," Dissent Magazine
-- "The Third Reconstruction and the Carceral State," The Atlantic
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Past blog entries:
-- "Racism in the United States is not an artifact of history, but remains deeply embedded within society," 2015
-- "Police killings, demonstrations and emergency management," 2014
Labels: civil rights, criminal justice system, equity planning, policing, political institutions, protest and advocacy, provision of public services, racism and racial issues, segregation
posted by Richard Layman @ 5:27 AM&Permanent Link
19 Comments:
Stuntz, 2011: The Collapse of American Criminal Justice.
the usa is the most primitive and regressive of all W.E.I.R.D. cultures...the situation is hopeless. the quality of life is bound to continue to decline. we're now at 50 percent of americans have ZERO net worth, or worse...
More to read. Thank you for the cite.
Yes, I have a bee in my bonnet today.
Black dysfunction sells. When looking at African Americans the story is different than looking at say Mexican Americans and urban issues, and for both those groups the lower classes are representing the whole ethnic group and middle and upper class members are ignored. But the middle and upper classes make almost no room for whites to insert themselves into to their private lives. The power dynamic doesn't allow for it when the parties are relatively equal. But the poor can be experimented on and subject to various programs and plans.
In the old post of yours you reference there is a link to "The dangerous myth of the ‘missing black father’". This upsells the racism narrative and downplays the importance of a 2 parent household. My grandfather had one child out of wedlock and then 5 kids with his wife, my grandmother. Those 5 kids, despite growing up as Black sharecroppers, fared better than the kid who did not have granddad in her life. I grew up in a working class segregated black neighborhood in the South, and it was obvious having a father in the home (or at least 2 adults super invested in the kid(s)) mattered. Now as a parent, I know the importance of having another adult in the home (not across town or a next door neighbor) who is willing to sacrifice money and sanity for a human who will never ever appreciate what we're doing for him. I could not do this mom thing without my husband's income to cover daycare and other expenses, his time to cover for me when I just can't, his second opinion, his free babysitting when I want to go out and do something, and a whole host of things relating to having another adult equally invested in the tiny crazy man in our house. The tiny man who wakes up at 5AM, every stinking morning.
As a member of the Black middle class there is no program or plan for people like me. Fine. But what I find offensive, is there are no plans or efforts with the goal to expand the Black middle class. The goal seems to be to make Black poverty and dysfunction tolerable.
Yup, there is a bee in my bonnet today.
The stinger is deserved. Agreed about two parents. And frankly even more adults. E.g., the way we were in the lives of the girls next door. (Sadly we made up some for how the father kind of leaves stuff up to the mother, and doesn't do a lot of stuff with them.)
I think you're right that there is an attempt to normalize dysfunction.
A book I've always liked but is considered conservative is _The Future Once Happened Here_. It came out in the late 1990s and was about urban dysfunction and the enablement of dysfunction.
One of the other books I have checked out to read (I better get on it), is the book by Klinenberg on social infrastructure.
One of the problems about policy for "expanding the Black middle class" probably is that it is a program that has been shaped by neoliberalism in that it isn't so much about rising up across the community, but focused on individuals.
e.g., minority contract set asides. I don't have a problem with it (although it's personally cost me jobs) but it's more about individuals benefiting rather than building the business ecosystem in ways that aren't permanently dependent.
what are your ideas about how to address the question?
with your point about the little man and 5am, I used to say about Marina next door was that she really was in charge of the household, because everything they did had to put her needs first. That didn't really change with the addition of Gabriela (although Marina hated no longer being the only child).
Before I gave up on the audiobook for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man there was a section of the book where a white philanthropist is driven by the narrator (student at a fictional HBCU) to the house of a sharecropper who impregnated (raped) his teenage daughter. The white man listens to the story of sharecropper and his lame ass excuses of why he abused his daughter. He seems more interested in this black family dysfunction than the achievements of the Black college he is there to support. Black dysfunction is a more interesting story, a more exciting story, than stable families, mediocre everyday careers, and community bonds that are more than mere lip service.
It sells.
I listened (I'm mainly an audiobook person) to the New Jim Crow book. I didn't care for it. I was expecting something else from the author.
May I suggest wandering over the Carter G. Woodson historic site on the 1500 block of 9th St NW in Shaw. Dr. Woodson is the "Father of Black History." They are open Thursday to Saturday 9-5.
Yes, the United States has way too many people in prison and under parole. I blame the War on Drugs and the militarization of police forces across America. It isn't just a black thing, but it does impact African Americans at higher rates. But that is focusing on the dysfunctional part of the community.
Unfortunately, growing the Black middle class has to be at individual level. It has to be strategic, at best programs could be aimed at particular groups, like AA teens who have a certain GPA, or scholarships, or internships aimed at POC. However, already middle class POCs take advantage of those programs already.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/story/2020-05-29/californa-county-jails-releasing-inmates-mass-incarceration-closing-prisons
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4247829?seq=1
Black streetcar boycotts in the South 1904-1907
Piece by Kareem Adul-Jabbar about Central Avenue as the center of the Black community in Los Angeles.
"City within the city."
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-18/central-avenue-los-angeles-jazz
"Racism and the Black Housing Crisis"
https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2020-07-19/amid-coronavirus-pandemic-black-housing-crisis-gets-worse
Mentions Richard Rothstein’s “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.”
African American preservation
https://www.curbed.com/2020/7/24/21335934/hood-century-jerald-cooper-midcentury-modern-architecture
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/03/the-fight-to-preserve-african-american-history
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/fifth-ward-houston-investor-gentrification-homes-15442499.php
This from an elist:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/housing-is-shamefully-segregated-who-segregated-it
“Rothstein argues that this state of affairs didn’t just violate the Fair Housing Act, which came relatively late in 1968, but the Constitution itself. If the shape and depth of American segregation is the responsibility of the federal government—in violation the Fifth, 13th, and 14th amendments to the Constitution—then a remedy is required.
“That isn’t the way most policymakers or judges currently see it. Rothstein repeatedly quotes a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2007, which states that segregation as it exists today “is a product not of state action but of private choices, it does not have constitutional implications.” Rothstein’s entire book can be read as a carefully reasoned and researched rebuttal to that sentence, which is the accepted narrative of many of both liberal and conservative persuasions. (Rothstein notes that liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, in his 2007 dissenting opinion, agreed with Roberts’ framing.) But little can be done if these truths go unacknowledged by everyone from the justices on the Supreme Court to high-schoolers in American history class. Without an understanding of the sheer scale of the federal government’s role, housing segregation and the myriad ills it spawns will never be adequately addressed. That’s what Rothstein hopes his book will begin to correct.”
This from CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/01/us/white-liberals-hypocrisy-race-blake/index.html
Two articles about displacement, gentrification:
Austin, TX:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/fostering-development-without-displacement/2020/07/29/773bef2a-484a-11ea-8124-0ca81effcdfb_story.html
https://www.austintexas.gov/page/anti-displacement-task-force
Gentrification in LA:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/31/ethnic-enclaves-gentrification-coronavirus
Richard, you seem to be populating this old post with comments as of late. I will apologize for not keeping up with your current work, as were in the middle of moving and working with no childcare.
This comment is just addressing the 4:10 PM comment. I have The Color of Law in my wishlist, but the way things are going I'm not going to get to it until 2022 or we get a nanny.
But I did read the 2017 Slate article. Once again, I will have to lean on my earlier statements in this thread about Black dysfunction selling, and those free from white interference in their lives have no place or function in proposed policies and plans. There are also some other problems. Rothstein likes the voucher program but for one, they are no good to lower-mid and mid-middle class Black families that do not qualify. AND secondly, like many govt welfare programs there are hoops, limitations, and a mess of crap one has to go through to get the voucher in the first place. Lastly, despite laws saying landlords cannot discriminate, they do not have to participate. Unlike a regular rental, vouchers rentals require an annual inspection, which a previously passing unit could fail. A landlord could also advertise a rent beyond the limits of how much the voucher would pay or have legal requirements that would exclude many voucher holders.
Once again, the existence of a Black middle class plays absolutely no role in Rothstein's vision of desegregating housing. Maybe because some members of the Black middle class (BMC) have already desegregated some white neighborhoods and apartment buildings, but really there aren't enough of us (BMC) to make it seem like we make much of a difference. So we're ignored.
The federal government did play a role in segregation, but I am afraid it seems that the role is getting overstated.
There's a book I've been trying to finish for the past 6 years, "Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America" getting into the nitty gritty of buying real estate and the change of a Chicago neighborhood from Jewish to African American. The red lining or opened faced racial covenants for newer communities (suburbs, planned communities, etc) encouraged by the Federal government played a part, but it was the locals who ran with it. Local banks, local financing, local government played more of a role, the Feds just gave cover.
Yes, I do populate past entries with new references and such as I come across them. I try to keep the stuff "in one place" for the next time I might write on the topic.
Anyway, where are you moving?
WRT your not keeping up, it's my loss more than yours. But I always appreciate your comments and perspective. Still no apologies are necessary as life takes a lot more energy than pontificating...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWmkuH1k7uA
2. WRT your general point about the BMC being discounted, it's not unlike "defund the police."
What we need is more protection from crime and more investments in public safety that don't involve the police and more investments in neighborhoods. In short, it's equally facile.
Anyway, I have to admit that I haven't fully thought through African-American capital formation and family wealth building through the lens of segregation either de facto or de jure.
It's incredibly significant, obviously.
I thank you for the cite _Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America_. I will have to try to track it down.
(Once I get my Utah drivers license, I'll be able to check books out of the U of Utah library...)
When ever the contractors get into our house and we sell, we hope to move to the College Park, MD area. We've lived there before and it is closer to my husband's work. We're going for more yard space.
The closure and limitations of parks and public places due to covid made living in the city harder. We can deal with the small space if there are other spaces to go to, but when those spaces go away for whatever reason, we need create our own.
The other kid-centric factor is that we need to to curate our son's environment. I want him to be a member of the BMC or upper class if he can manage, and even in our gentrified neighborhood, as a male of color, there are too many opportunities to wander on to the path of destruction.
Suburban friends of where we're looking are singing a parental siren song. And I so want to have my burden eased.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bruce-boynton-dead/2020/11/26/749e7cae-2ebf-11eb-860d-f7999599cbc2_story.html
https://savingplaces.org/stories/9-historic-black-neighborhoods-that-celebrate-black-excellence#.YAnBV2llA0E
NTHP post.
2. Really disturbing article.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/for-black-homeowners-a-common-conundrum-with-appraisals/2021/01/20/80fbfb50-543c-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html
I don't doubt the #2 article, but as someone who has sold their home, is looking at buying another home (and being very picky), and who has had a couple of refinancing appraisals for renovation work, there is a lot of room for price variation.
Staging does a world of wonders in making a house look more worthy. I am amazed that people will leave their crap and their dogs/pets in the photos and expect that they should get as much as the house down the street that cleaned up, removed all the owner's personality and put everything in the best light. Our house could have sold for $720K if another bid hadn't come in, set off a bidding war and got us $760K. A house down the block sold for $850K. The quality of the interior was better, but they didn't have a basement, as we did, but they had more yard. There was no way in hell we were going to get anything near $800K.
Of course a high appraisal works against you when the tax man comes around. I do not think I can sell my rental in Baltimore for the amount the city says it is worth. And they tax based on land and exterior square footage. It was taxed around the same amount when it was a shell under construction as it is a livable rental with a new roof.
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