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Friday, February 27, 1998……………. Volume 1 Issue No. 7

Affirmative Action: Interest on Debt

by Dot

In "Favor Equal Opportunity Over Equal Outcomes" (Atlanta-Journal Constitution Viewpoints, Monday 02/23/98), Art Italo replicates the fallacious arguments of most affirmative action opponents. Generally, rather than addressing affirmative action, its opponents advance arguments against quotas and preferences, the affirmative action buzz words heard in mainstream media sound bites. Like all opponents of this legal and social mechanism, Italo begins by graciously conceding the obvious. "There is no question that in the history of this nation, there has been oppression and inequality of opportunity." As though this significant factor plays no role today, Italo overstates the progress made in the second half of the most enlightened century of Western civilization, "...We put legal and social mechanisms in place to assure that opportunity is open to all. That having been accomplished, it is time we reward merit and achievement and stop bestowing compensatory awards based on social category."

Several specific erroneous assumptions cloud Italo's argument. Noteworthy among these is that legal and social mechanisms alone assure opportunity is open to all. This misconception is easily dispelled with a succinct historical review not vetted for political correctness. A classic exception is the 1857 Dred Scott case. In its decision, the Supreme Court upheld slavery, validating the most heinous and inhumane socioeconomic and political systems ever devised by "honorable men." This landmark decision reaffirmed America's commitment to slavery. An institution woven in the social fabric by the Three-fifths or Great Compromise (1787), the Court's majority opinion codified second class citizenship. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, in drafting the opinion, wrote, "Negroes" (are) "beings of an inferior order with no rights which any white man was bound to respect." Sadly, remnants of this sentiment still permeate American intercourse. It resonates in everything impacting race relations from debates on affirmative action and welfare reform to criminal justice and statistical sampling for the 2000 Census. Neither the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, nor ratification of the Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments could forestall the legal and social mechanisms of Jim Crow-ism, a legal and social mechanism. This legal and social mechanism guaranteed continued black socioeconomic oppression. America has a prolific history of social mechanisms that did more to restrict than open up opportunity for all.

American progress on race relations, so celebrated today, came at a very dear price. Social unrest preceded every legal and social mechanism instituted to protect the human and civil rights of black Americans. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ushered in this new era of American conscience and enlightenment. Though this Supreme Court decision finally de-codified the legal underpinnings of slavery and second class citizenship, it failed to provide reparations to compensate those harmed. Brown paved the way for the current wave of legal and social mechanisms, namely desegregation and affirmative action. These efforts to right the wrongs of institutionalized racism have resulted in a modern more segregated and unequal society. Such well- documented inequities characterize America's separate societies that one wonders on what planet Italo resides. Only a resident alien or good old boy practicing denial could fail to recognize that unequal access to opportunity is firmly entrenched in American society. The black American basic civic and human rights are marginally protected through the lax enforcement of Civil Rights legislation (1964-65). These sterling examples of current legal and social mechanisms hardly justify exuberant confidence in their ability to guarantee equal access to opportunity.

Most grievous among Italo's fallacies is the asinine assumption made by the conservative right and other Americans practicing denial-- that is--ex-slaves and their descendants have been fully compensated. Not only is this erroneous, it insults slave descendants. No reparations accompanied the overt end of slavery. Yet, today's call for an end to affirmative action implies no societal constraints exist to impede blacks from effectively competing in America's complex economic arena. Since no reparations have been paid, one is forced to surmise blacks roared back from the legal and social mechanism of Jim Crow restrictions and institutionalized slavery. Furthermore, one must leap to the conclusion that black American progress in the last half-century has been so significant that over four (4) hundred years of constraints on their socioeconomic and political development can be ignored in discussing issues, such as affirmative action and the black human condition. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, without a revolution, like America's overthrow of Great Britain, there exists no historical precedent to justify assuming an oppressed people ever gained equal opportunity, let alone hoped to level the economic playing field without reparations. Since, no people ever overcame the economic devastation of slavery and systemic racism without the preconditions of reparations and/or revolution, it is asinine to presume black Americans accomplished this feat in less than half a century. In reality, the original wealth created by slavery continues influencing and controlling access to opportunities with economic outcomes; this perpetuation, in effect, make American black equal opportunity an oxymoron.

America's income distribution is a direct outgrowth of slavery. Its disparate nature affords the wealthy greater access to opportunity. The current political campaign-financing morass shows the crucial role wealth plays in securing access to opportunities. Close examination of who enjoy unfettered access today reveals the descendants of those who benefited most from slavery and Jim Crow-ism. They continue enjoying the tainted fruits of their parents' original sin and immoral economic gain. Likewise, slave descendants continue to suffer under today's neo-bondage of minimum wage and economic oppression. Black Americans are still victimized by the status quo's outright prejudice and/or refusal to honor the edict of Brown v. Board of Education. While struggling with modern racism, black Americans must overcome the devastating affects of bondage without hope of appropriate reparations. An enlightened society would not place such an onus on the shoulders of those it marginalized. To the contrary, America would follow the example it set in the case of Germany's Jews and American Japanese jailed during WWII. Like these victims, black Americans should be compensated for the socioeconomic and political injustices they suffer. Oddly the mainstream discourse on affirmative action is void of discussion on the important role reparations play in making a people whole following a holocaust of such epic proportions. Certainly, no one can dispute that slavery and Jim Crow-ism, South Africa-like apartheid, fall into this category. Yet, there is no enlightened clamor and outcry for black reparations. Why? Simple really: The beneficiaries of America's holocaust won't allow it.

Because those who benefited from slavery control American mainstream media, they are inundated with opinions drenched in denial. The conspicuous absence of a call for black reparations to atone for centuries of institutionalized racism and human bondage speaks to how far America must go to become a truly enlightened society. However, those dedicated to the dubious practice of courting denial, be advised, as the poems from Disgruntled below attest, black folks will get over slavery when they receive reparations for all the free and cheap labor provided in generating the wealth of American society. Enlightened black folks want the forty acres and the mule promised and not delivered. Until consideration of reparations takes center stage in a new wave of legal and social mechanisms, we can not honestly discuss a workable framework for the administration of affirmative action. At this juncture in the age of enlightenment and reconciliation, it's counterproductive to haggle over the nominal interest, represented by affirmative action, when the original debt from slavery and Jim Crow has not been honored.

Can I be Free?

By Disgruntled

How can I be free?

I work on your job for damn near no fee.

How dare you say I'm free!

I can't take a social drink with thee

For fear of J.P.'s fiery fate

A real cut direct

Some of that same old brutality!

How can I be free?

I have received nothing promised me

By your so call democracy!

How dare you say I'm free!

I can't walk down my street,

Eating my candy bar in safety

When you can gun me down

Over what you think!

How can I be free?

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

War comes riding like the four horsemen.

Its approach is swift, restless, anxious

to consume this nation.

The same grim tales repeated on the evening news.

The Blues are the only Fruits our seeds reap, while we watch uncles

Tom and Sam crumble.

Under this overwhelming stress, politicians are emanating the festering stench of rotting flesh.

Throughout time, this end has been prophesied, and now it is here.

Listen..listen...listen carefully to what is said.

Hear the anger and confusion in our voices.

See the sadness and oppression in faces, first seen as a race.

Feel the pain that reigns from the slums to sugarhill.

All searching for the same thing--- a better way to exit.

Then become aware of the wretched lies this country willfully rests upon.

This foundation of inadequacy and male insecurity steadily dissipates under the pressure of commonsense.

Replacing mass ignorance,

Intelligence soon to reveal its deadly weapon, drafting the constitution of revolution in red ink. (Reprint from THINC, 1997)

KUDOS!!!!!!

Kudos to Atlanta City Council President Robb Pitts for doing more in one month to protect the public's interest than previous council presidents. Kudos-Kudos to Pitts for holding Campbell's feet to the fire on privatization. Atlanta will pay more either way we go, so Pitts we are counting on you to see Atlanta gets the best deal!

A double dose of KUDOS to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for employing diplomacy to bring the world from the brink of armed conflict. Thanks for setting a precedent for resolving international global disputes.

ICIM Consumer Fraud Alert Boycotted Places & Things: Texas Governor George Bush and proponents of capital punishment, TAP, Carey Paul Ford, General Motors, Denny's, Winn-Dixie, Rich's, Eddie Bauer, Texaco, Nike, Wachovia, IRS, AVIS Rent-a-car, Wal-Mart, Pharmaceutical companies, White Psychologists, Psychiatrists and other legal drug pushers like the Defense Department, ARC, Atlanta City Government, the Georgia State Flag, New York City, Wannabees and Jigaboos, hair salons, fast food restaurants, Santa Claus, Meat like Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas hams and hot dogs, fake Christmas trees, Contract with America, privatization, Fast-track, NAFTA, neo-slave masters like Norrell Temporary Services and other such agencies, insurance companies, unscrupulous mechanics, Precision Tune, churches with fences, big business government subsidies, Greenspan's addresses on how well the economy is going when African Americans are being discriminated out of the economic equation, paid Newties, the Speaker of the House, Mississippi Lotts, Hilfiger designer clothing, all weapons of mass destruction.

(Note: If you have something to add to this list, please feel free to contact DISH. The DISH is designed to provide a non-profit community services information network. The editorial opinions expressed are not necessarily those published in the mainstream media. DISH provides a much-needed service in bringing you "unbossed and unbought news and information you can use." The above article is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution ISBN 0966011090 $16.99 Intuit Publishing, 1997. For your copy of this insightful look at American race relations, contact ICIM, Inc. at 404-241-5942 or online at icim@bellsouth.net).

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