Advancement Project

October 1, 2009

Needed: A New Civil Rights Movement

We need a new civil rights movement. I’m sure some are inclined to ask why I’d say that. We ended legal segregation in the 1960s. We have a Black president. People are far more accepting now of racial difference than they once were. We’ve ended the rigid racial categorizations that refused to see beyond Black and White. Everyone from Tiger Woods to Mariah Carey to CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien, now wear their multiracial heritage proudly and many have welcomed these newly accepted definitions of race.

We are not in a post-racial America nor the America of my grandfather’s young adulthood when he could work in hotel kitchens in Virginia Beach but couldn’t swim in Whites-only beaches–unless it was at night. It is not my uncle’s era either who had to go upstairs in the movie theater–while based at Norfolk naval base in 1959–to sit in the black section while his very light-skinned wife who was assumed to be White would be sent downstairs. Thankfully, that era, along with the one where 14-year-old Emmitt Till was killed for supposedly whistling at a White woman–and Black folks were scared into silence–and an all-White jury let the killers go–is over too.

But that progress, poses problems and challenges as well. Often, we are so invested in the progress narrative—that things ain’t what they used to be—that we become blind to the incredible lack of progress we have made in ending racial discrimination. Perhaps, if we focused on the alarming problems, the crises in Black and Brown America, the employment crisis, the incarceration crisis, the education crisis, the breakdown of families and the racial disparities that accompany those crises—we’d find better way to address the problems we face.

The change that the Civil Rights Movement brought happened because people all over America, fought, died and went to jail. It took millions to stand up, take risks and expose the injustice meted out to African Americans, in a dubious democracy, before things began to change. The victories of the Civil Rights Movement didn’t happen because the beneficiaries of segregation (i.e. White America) decided they were tired of it. The changes happened because enough of the people who suffered the most pain stood up and when the extent of racial oppression was exposed and the nation’s image was tarnished, our lawmakers at the highest levels of government made significant changes.

Today, similar energy and drive is needed to take up the unfinished business that fell short of real racial equality. For if the victims of racial oppression, both the legacy of problems and more recent ones, don’t address them on a massive scale, will they ever go away?

Admittedly, coming up with successful strategies to expose the problems, galvanize millions, and devise solutions, is a herculean task–harder than when the inequality was more overt, visible and blatant. And also People of Color have moved into the middle class in significant numbers and are very visible in mainstream America in ways that weren’t conceivable decades ago. That privilege has put many out of touch with the struggle of poor and working-class Black families in ways that didn’t happen when all Black people regardless of class tended to live in the same segregated neighborhoods.

It is more comfortable for many of us who are comfortable to focus on the progress narrative, and, from there, buy into the American Dream narrative, that everyone can achieve success in this country if they work and struggle hard enough. The problem with that narrative it’s mythical for many. The American Dream is far more accessible to those who are already privileged and have good schools, safe neighborhoods and decent jobs than those who don’t. For many, who live in poor neighborhoods in very difficult circumstances, the American Dream is only a dream with little meaning.

Let’s consider some of the massive racial inequality that is in many ways widening and eroding the quality of life for so many of color. The Sentencing Project, which advocates for reform of the criminal justice system, documented numerous inequalities in its 2008 report Reducing Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. The report showed that 38 percent of prison and jail inmates are African American while only 13 percent of Americans are Black. Although Latinos are 15 percent of the population, 19 percent of prison and jail inmates are Latino.

A black male born in 2001 has a 32 percent chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life, according to the Sentencing Project, while a Latino male has a 17 percent chance of going to jail or prison. A White male, on the other hand, has a 6 percent chance of doing the same, the report notes.

Racial disparities have been a problem for generations. But African-Americans are far more likely to end up in jail or prison than they were 30 years ago. The nation’s sentencing laws and the focus on incarceration for even nonviolent crimes has caused the prison and jail population to quintuple from about 460,000 to 2.3 million. Incarcerating so many has destroyed families and frayed social networks.

Some inequalities are getting worse. Although median income for both Black and White men who are in their 30s declined for both groups between 1974 and 2004, according to a Brookings Institution report, income levels dropped faster for Black men.

However, African-Americans born to middle-income parents are far more likely to have less income than their parents. Most children of White middle-class families earn more. Only 31 percent of black children born to parents in the middle of the income distribution have family income greater than their parents, compared to 68 percent of White children from the same income bracket.

These inequalities persist in part because racial discrimination persists. A few years back, a well-known study showed that those with resumes bearing Black-sounding names were 50 percent less likely to be contacted for interviews that those with mainstream White American names—even when the information on those resumes was the same. Furthermore, medical studies have shown that Black people are far less likely to receive high-quality medical care, like referrals to specialists and additional tests, than Whites, irrespective of their socioeconomic status. This racism is structural and persists in part because it is not overt. Unlike the pre-civil-rights era when many African-Americans could not go to a White doctor or medical facility, in today’s America you can go, you’re just more likely to receive inferior care.

The disparities go on and on. We must find a way to do far more than we’re doing. If we don’t, generations not yet born will face racial disparities throughout their lives as well.

Keith Rushing, is the writer-editor for Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization that advocates for racial justice.