us: racial profiling

Uncle Tom’s cabin!

Obama’s concerns over racism in US are well researched and well read

It was a debate of yesterday. It is still a debate of today and would remain so, even for tomorrow, cans of beer guzzled down the throat or not! Now, it’s not at all about the “stupid” act of Cambridge police in arresting Professor Henry Gates, but about Obama’s lateral comment (extremely intelligently put, we should say), “...there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.” Many Americans ostensibly were shocked by the statement; but they have very less justification.

For Obama was voted to power backed by his commitment to righting this disparity (We quote from his speech in the Congressional Caucus Democratic debate, “In our criminal justice system, African-Americans... [as compared to whites], for the same crime... are arrested/convicted at very different rates. That is something that we have to talk about.”). America has a long deep-rooted history of discrimination. It is a land where women witnessed discrimination and were not allowed to vote till 1920 (they were allowed only after the passage of the 19th Amendment to the constitution). The struggle of blacks for their rights is no more a jaw-dropping story. Going by Department of Justice data, by the mid of 2008, 4,777 black male inmates per 100,000 black males were held in prisons, compared to 727 white male inmates per 100,000 white males – this despite the fact that blacks make up only 13.4% of the US population.

Blacks experience disproportionate burden of health diseases, injury and death. Researches show that in 2002, HIV deaths amongst blacks were approximately 11 times more amongst whites. National Urban League’s 2006 annual report revealed that out of 580,000 blacks who are serving sentence in prison, a mere 6.89% males had a bachelor’s degree. Nearly 70% blacks in prison never completed their schooling. Likewise, in a 1994 Department of Justice survey of felony, it was found that blacks were in general more likely to receive prison sentences than whites. Between 1995-2000, out of 682 defendants facing death penalty, 48% were blacks, 29% were Hispanics, and 20% were whites. Following this, a study by Wake County found African Americans had bail set 18% higher than whites charged with similar crimes.

Even in terms of earnings, researches show that in 1964, African Americans’ income was 58% of white people’s income. In 1991, African Americans’ income was just 57% of income of whites. And in the US army, as per the recent data, while 62.7% are whites, 20% are blacks. At the commissioned officer level, the ratio is 12.4% blacks vs 73% whites.

The recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 27% of Americans think Professor Gates is more at fault for getting arrested than Sergeant Crowley! If you think that that percentage is fortunate for a change, don’t be hasty in passing the baton of goodness. Wrong judgements and hasty ‘Rodney King’ decisions by police force are not new phenomena. Some cutting cases – Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant, was shot dead in 1999 by police officers who mistook his taking out a wallet for a gun; he was shot 41 times. For a similar reason, Sean Bell was shot to death by NYPD in 2006 – shot 50 times. Omar Edwards, May 2009 – same result! The list is long...

The customary approach of whites on blacks clearly makes the case against James Crowley and in favour of Dr. Louis Henry Gates. President Obama is unquestionably right with his comments against Crowley. They’re damn well timed, and he must be gloating at the amount of media coverage his statements got. It was not always like this.

Take for instance, the 100th anniversary of the NAACP’s founding. In his concluding words, Obama frustratingly comments, “…I’ve noticed that when I talk about personal responsibility in the African American community, that gets highlighted… But then the whole other half of the speech, where I talked about government’s responsibility [towards it] ...that somehow doesn’t make news.” And working towards government’s responsibility is what Obama has done fanatically. While in power in Illinois, he introduced a bill that not only made it compulsory for officers to record the racial background of each person they stopped on the roads, but brilliantly, also forced police to video tape all criminal interrogations (to reduce forced confessions, torture and deaths in police custody).

Everybody in the police department opposed it tooth and nail. The governor came on record to oppose it. Obama faced a scenario of being defeated massively in the 58 seat state assembly. But with conviction, and with the audacity of hope, Obama worked on getting people to his side. When the bill was finally introduced, it was passed 58-0!

We quote from Obama’s iconic Audacity of Hope, from an excerpt where he describes a particular incident sometime after he was trounced badly in the 2000 Congressional elections – “A year and a half later, the scars of that loss sufficiently healed, I had lunch with a media consultant who had been encouraging me for some time to run for statewide office... “You realize, don’t you, that the political dynamics have changed,” he [the media consultant] said as he picked at his salad.

“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing fully well what he meant. We both looked down at the newspaper beside him. There, on the front page, was Osama bin Laden.

“Hell of a thing, isn’t it?” he said, shaking his head. “Really bad luck. You can’t change your name, of course. Voters are suspicious of that kind of thing. Maybe if you were at the start of your career, you know, you could use a nickname or something. But now...” His voice trailed off and he shrugged apologetically before signalling the waiter to bring us the check.

I suspected he was right, and that realization ate away at me...”

Obama always knew that in white America, white Americans will never vote in majority for a black President... On November 4, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama won the US Presidential elections – 95% blacks voted for him; only 43% whites did...