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MLK Day workshop focuses on institutionalized racism
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Even though many strides have been made in the last 50 years since racism was often as blatant as it was damaging, such attitudes have maintained a chameleon-like ability to adapt to societal changes and times, a civil-rights attorney contends.
“Jim Crow may have changed his name; he may have changed his face, but he is alive. Those who want Jim Crow rely on fear in desperate times,” said Atty. Walter T. Madison, a Cleveland-based lawyer who is representing the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot to death by police Nov. 22, 2014, near a Cleveland recreation center.
Recently, an Ohio grand jury decided not to indict the two officers in the high-profile shooting.
Madison, a Cardinal Mooney High School graduate, discussed the case in his keynote presentation for Monday’s 33rd annual Community Workshop Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. program at First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, near downtown.
The Martin Luther King Planning Committee of Mahoning County sponsored the three-hour gathering, which examined institutionalized racism and featured a panel discussion and break-out sessions.
Institutionalized racism includes policies and practices in schools, the justice system, real-estate markets and other public arenas that are deliberately or indirectly based on race, and negatively impact minorities, noted Penny Wells, director of the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past program.
Individuals working within those systems may not harbor racist beliefs but are made to follow such practices and customs, Wells said, adding that institutionalized racism often creates a caste system similar to those that resulted from slavery and Jim Crow laws in the South.
Compounding the problem is that race remains a highly difficult topic for many people to discuss, let alone work toward tackling, Madison said.
“Institutionalized racism is probably the most important and known issue no one is willing to talk about in America,” he added. “Race still is uncomfortable to talk about, yet it affects much of what we do.”
Today, black youths are 18 percent more likely to be tried and sentenced as adults than white youths; black students are three times more likely than whites to be expelled from school; and blacks serve an average of 20 percent more time in prison than whites for similar crimes. All represent institutionalized racism, Madison contended.
Also, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of civil-rights groups and housing advocates who had sued Texas officials accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by awarding federal tax credits in a manner that kept low-income housing out of mainly white neighborhoods, he continued.
Institutionalized racism also can be found in the education system – especially when it’s treated as a for-profit business and “education is an afterthought,” the attorney said.
People should focus more on being proactive in fighting these problems as they develop, as opposed to protesting after the damage has been done, Madison told the estimated 100 attendees, adding that many blacks still receive an inadequate education.
Making up the panel were Roy Austin, chief executive officer of Starting Over Again, a prison re-entry program; Jonathan Bentley, director of the Human Relations Commission of Youngstown; Rebecca Banks, a Youngstown State University graduate and co-founder of the Bridges out of Poverty student program at YSU; and Derek Caffe, an entrepreneur and co-owner of Youngstown-based Kingly Hand Wash & Wax.
If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he likely would speak against mass incarceration of blacks, noted Austin, who served time in prison. He also said he witnessed many examples of racism and discrimination while behind bars and tried to start a program to help fellow inmates.
Since his release, though, Austin graduated from YSU last year with a 3.0 grade-point average, he added.
Bentley said that his office plans to implement a small, low-interest loan program within the next few months to help those wanting to start a business. Too often, mainly minorities and women are automatically eliminated from consideration simply because they have a low credit score, for example, even though they also have a solid business plan, a good track record and creative ideas, he noted.
“The biggest way to destroy institutionalized racism is to create a world – envision it and get educated as to how you handle your money and time,” said Caffe, who lives in Atlanta.
It’s imperative that people develop good financial habits, such as saving a portion of their paychecks, and recognize that they can change only themselves, not others, he added.
Banks said that “it hurts my heart” to see unintentional discrimination at YSU, such as situations in which some minority students “feel safe only in certain areas” of the campus.
The break-out sessions looked at criminal-justice and education reforms, as well as entrepreneurship.
One workshop examined bringing police officers and the communities they serve closer together, changing perceptions of black youth as more menacing and likely to engage in criminal behavior and having more diversity reflected on juries.
Another focused on attendance problems in Youngstown schools. Proposed solutions were having YSU students serve as mentors and facilitators for at-risk youngsters, monitoring in-service programs and training for teachers, examining and possibly tweaking current attendance policies and better gauging parents’ awareness of and attitudes toward their children’s attendance.
The third session delved into ways to ensure the proper tools are available for those who wish to build a business.