The rule of law. It’s both sword and shield for Americans, especially African-Americans who would otherwise stand naked before powerful but malevolent forces out to do us harm.
Then again, it also helps to have some change in your pocket. For example:
Alpha Phi Alpha, the first Black fraternity, was founded on December 4, 1906. In recent weeks Congressman Danny Davis and I raised funds for the Georgia U.S. Senate race of Alpha brother Raphael Warnock. We requested and received donations in denominations of 1906. In poured donations of $1,906, $190.6 and $19.06. It is a delight to be a part of the victory of the first Black senator from a deep red southern state. No praise is sufficient for the outsized role that Stacey Abrams played in getting out the vote. Her genius and commitment are unbelievable.
Where was the rule of law, though, the next day? Where was security when a rabid mob of white thugs took over our nation’s Capitol? Might there have been collusion between rioters and those in charge of protecting our most hallowed halls? How would the police have acted if protesters were Black.? And what was Devious Don’s role in inciting this insurrection? Would not a real president stop promoting falsehoods and deal instead with the deadly global epidemic that has killed more than 19,000 folks right here in Illinois?
Amid this cacophony, however, are two important issues we can’t afford to ignore, both involving law and money.
Intent on Harm
Following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the state of Oregon designated $62 million of its $1.4 billion Federal COVID-19 relief money to provide grants to Black residents, business owners, and community organizations. As reported by John Eligon of the New York Times, one Mexican-American and two white business owners are suing the state arguing that this set-aside for Black residents discriminated against them. After some $50 million worth of grants were awarded a court has frozen $8.8 million pending the court outcome.
The $62 million, mind you, is just 4.5% of the state total. But national affirmative action foe Edward Blum is underwriting one of the two lawsuits, claiming it’s all about preventing racial exclusion. This is the same Blum who underwrote a group of Asian students in their suit against Harvard’s admission program. Walter Lega, a plaintiff in one of the Oregon suits, is a white electrical firm owner. He’s claiming a special fund for Blacks is not warranted and he’s joined by the white owner of a logging company. The other suit involves a Mexican-American owner of a coffee house.
In 2019 Black Oregonians received just four of the 984 loans that the Small Business Administration issued statewide according to the Portland Business Journal. Oregon has other programs to assist other minority groups, including a $10 million fund aimed at undocumented Latino immigrants and one created by Portland officials to aid a district of largely Asian-owned businesses, reports Eligon.
I’m no lawyer, but the case against Black grants seems spurious at best. These are COVID-19 related funds and Blacks are disproportionately victims of the disease, with infection rates eclipsing those of Latinos, Asians, and whites. Black-owned businesses have shut down at a rate of 41% compared to 31%for Latino-owned, 26% Asian and 17% white, according to a Stanford University study. Blacks have a disproportionate share of the virus and a sound argument can be made that we’re entitled to proportionate relief.
“The idea that in this case – a lumber company could use the 14th amendment as a weapon to prevent the descendants of slaves from receiving an economic benefit in a time of disaster – is utterly inconsistent, “observed Clark D. Cunningham, a professor of law at Georgia State University.”
Don’s Parting Shot…
There is another legal assault against Black people that has received little notice amid the recent cacophony … yet has the potential to do long-lasting injury. No surprise here. Like a thief in the night, the Trump Administration has sought repeatedly to steal away advances made by Black people over the past 50 years. In this case, his Justice Department has submitted for White House approval, a change in how it enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race, color, or national origin.
The change covers housing programs, employers, schools, hospitals, and other organizations and programs, according to reporters Katie Benner and Erica Green of the NYTimes. The Justice Department would continue to monitor intentional discrimination but would no longer consider “disparate impact” on minority or other groups. Disparate impact takes into account patterns of behavior, policy, and action and that results in damage to Black people even though it is not done intentionally.
The proposed changes affect loans, grants, contracts, educational institutions, mortgages, real estate development, and other activities receiving federal funds. Entire business plans would be upended. The incoming Biden Administration could not immediately reverse the move, but a new attorney General could put its implementation on hold.
The Bigger Picture
So, where are we? The wider context of race in America is a good vantage point. Juliet Hooker, in her contribution to the anthology “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” writes that “The other feature of the (often unconscious) conflation between whiteness and the political rule is the complex distortion of historical narratives about white supremacy. On the one hand, there is a reflexive desire to relegate racism to the distant past in order to deny white subordination in the present, combined on the other hand with a simultaneous nostalgia for unchallenged eras of white dominance.”
“The public remembrance and reverence for symbols in the U.S. South,” she continues, “in the name of supposedly non-racist appeals to ‘tradition’ illustrate this dynamic as does the slogan ‘Make America Great Again.’ … When white vulnerability (real or perceived) is politicized, it results in moments of profoundly dangerous consequences.”
Juliet Hooker nails it! The white mob riot at the Capitol was, indeed, a dangerous consequence. Our mission now is to ensure any follow-on insurrections do not succeed, be they in the streets or in America’s courtrooms.
Action Items…
The incoming Biden team at the Justice Department led by Chicago area native Attorney General Merrick Garland is a good start. So is Associate Atty. General Vanita Gupta and Asst. Atty General for Civil Rights Kristin Clarke. A native Chicagoan and dynamic friend and advocate, Minyon Moore, is on the Biden transition team and Advisory Board. Moore worked wonders in the Clinton Administration, orchestrating the “mend it, don’t end it” strategy to save affirmative action from legal challenges.
We must monitor their efforts and contact them when needed. Our Congressional representative’s offices – esp. Sen. Dick Durbin and Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis — should pass along the key appointees’ office and email addresses. Take it from someone who has worked these corners in the past, newly appointed officials are rarely omniscient and welcome information on issues that affect Black people.
The following organizations should be contacted to obtain the status of the lawsuits and regulatory threats mentioned above … and to determine how these advocates can be supported:
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (www.lawyerscommittee.org); NAACP Legal Defense Fund (www.naacpldf.org); National Center for Youth Law (http://ylc.org); and National Women’s Law Center (http://NWLC.org). Their contact information can be found online. Their offices have a file of cases that can be of use to our local organizations.
My favorite young Black thinker and writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates, sums it for me. “The first white president in American history is also the most dangerous still, by the fact that those charged with analyzing him cannot name his essential nature because they too are implicated in it.” Coates goes on: “One must be able to name the bad bargain that whiteness strikes with its disciples- and still be able to say that it is this bargain, not a mass hypnosis, that has held through boom and bust.”
I ask Roxanne Gay, an NYTimes op-ed contributor, to close us out: “This is America. This has always been America. If this were not for America, these (riots) would not have happened. It’s time we face this ugly truth, let it sink into the marrow of our bones, let’s move to action. With everything that took place on Wednesday, it was easy to forget that Jon Ossoff and Rafael Warnock won their senate races in Georgia. Their victories were gratifying and cathartic, the result of solid campaigns and the hard work of organizers on the ground. The easy narrative will be that Black women and Black people saved this country and they did. And they should be celebrated. But the more challenging narrative is that we now have to honor our salvation by doing something with it.”
