Black lives matter – Jamaica Observer

Black lives matter

THE fact that such an assertion has to be made in 2014 is deflating. It is more so for those of us who recognise that racism is insidious and systemic. Not enough effort is channelled at this level; many people only engage when an issue becomes a cause célèbre. Change, however, requires “mental emancipation” and consistently challenging and defeating anti-black discrimination.

The fight for black lives and dignity is being played out in Kingston as it is in the United States. I wonder how many of us, on May 23, 2010, thought the residents of Tivoli were human trash who got exactly what they deserved? On what principles would we stand now as we embrace the dialogue on poverty and injustices, and as we denounce the United States grand jury decisions in Michael Brown’s case in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Eric Gardner’s case in Staten Island, New York?

I made one crucial call to Jamaica, May 24, 2010, and what I learned then is the reason I cannot watch the inquiry now. It has the same numbing effect as the sight of Officer Daniel Pantaleo shoving Eric Gardner’s head into the sidewalk. In the face of that psychic wound, I give my respect to those who have always stood in defence of our most vulnerable, and I am heartened by what seems like awakening consciousness among others.

In the same vein, it is important to acknowledge that in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of Caribbean people reside, most of us enjoy the benefits of a progressive society as well as harmonious relationships with people of different races and ethnicities. Moreover, the police is more often professional than it is not, and the first responders are the best in the world. This is why it is critical to fix the system where it is broken, so that good people are not tarnished by the actions of a few.

As it is in Jamaica, there are ugly and persistent disparities in the experiences of the haves and have nots. There is a strong class element, but classism follows a race/colour line, often making it impossible to separate the two. Conditions for many blacks amount to what I call the Life Gap — a marginality of existence marked by low levels of education; high rates of incarceration; premature death from violence or chronic diseases; and an inability to self-actualise, compared to white Americans.

Franklin Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae, in 2002, estimated that lost opportunities, as a result of slavery, cost African-Americans two million more high school degrees, two million more college degrees, nearly two million more professional and managerial jobs, $200 billion more in income, $760 billion more in home equity value, $200 billion more in the stock market, $120 billion more in their retirement funds, $80 billion more in the bank-an overall one trillion dollars more in wealth. While Reconstruction made more opportunities available, it took the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v Board of Education, and the force of the civil rights movements of the 1960s, to get America truly started on the road to dismantling institutionalised racism. That was 60 years ago, insufficient time to correct the problems without more deliberate efforts.

A generation behind

The achievement gap, a statistically significant difference in the academic performance between blacks and Latinos, and white students, is a feature of the education system. Data shows that, on reading tests scored on a scale of zero to 500, the gap between 9-year-old whites and blacks was 24 points in 2012, while the gap between whites and Hispanics was 21 points. It has narrowed since the 1970s when white students outperformed blacks in mathematics and reading by as much as 44 points. Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a non-profit organisation working towards closing the gap, in a Washington Post report last year, noted that: “If we have a crisis in American education, it is this that we aren’t yet moving fast enough to educate the ‘minorities’ who will soon comprise a ‘new majority’ of our children. At best, students of colour are just now performing at the level of white students a generation ago.”

Nationally, only 43 per cent of African-Americans graduate college, compared to 63 per cent of whites and 65 per cent Asian-Americans. Rather than college graduation, black males, especially, are likely to end up jail. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, a black boy born in the United States in 2001 has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime. Nearly 70 per cent of middle-aged black men who never graduated from high school have been imprisoned at least once in their lifetime.

The gaps in education carries over into employment, income, and wealth. In 2013, the jobless rate among blacks was twice as high as whites, at 12.6 per cent and 6.6 percent respectively. The figures have been relatively consistent since 1954, when the white rate stood at five per cent and the black rate at slightly under 10 per cent. The gap in income in 2011 was $27,000 and the net worth of the average black household, $6,314, compared to $110,500 for whites. Experts say this is 40 per cent greater than in 1967, and worse than what existed in South Africa during apartheid.

In health care, Hispanic- and African-American adults make up the highest percentage of individuals without insurance. They are also more susceptible to certain diseases as well as to adverse outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says African-Americans are disproportionately affected by heart disease, strokes, hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and colorectal cancer. Infants of African-American women, in 2008, also had the highest death rate, which was more than twice as much as infants of white women. African-Americans, overall, trailed white Americans in life expectancy by more than three years in 2011 — 75.3 years, compared with 78.8 years.

Without deliberate actions, present and future generations of poor people who are also disproportionately black, in Jamaica and the United States, will remain trapped in poverty with all its corresponding ills.

Grace Virtue, PhD, is a social justice advocate.

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