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Civil Rights Journal - Winter 2002

The protection of civil liberties is a necessary prerequisite to the protection of civil rights: without the freedom to dissent, the possibility of redress rests on the magnanimity of the government rather than on the authority of the governed. Civil liberties provide the space in which and through which civil rights can be defended, the most important of which is the freedom to discuss and to dissent. The articles and reviews in this issue of the Civil Rights Journal attempt to further the discussion on a number of topics central to today’s policy debates.

 

Residential Segregation

According to measurements defined by Massey & Denton, the US Census reports residential segregation at the MSA level.

Eugenics and Social Control

Segregation in Cities - May 2001

The latest census numbers show that the nation is becoming more diverse, but cities remain racially segregated. Whites are more likely to live among whites, blacks are more likely to live among blacks ... and on it goes for other ethnic groups. Fair housing advocates say this is proof that racial discrimination laws need to be enforced, while others say people simply want to live among others of similar culture and outlook. Juan Williams and guests examine why U.S. cities are so segregated on a special broadcast from the Newseum in Arlington, Virginia.

 

Nader on Discrimination in Lending

FOR MANY YEARS explicit discrimination in mortgage lending was part of a broader pattern of racial discrimination and segregation in residential housing markets. For example, until 1950 the Code of Ethics for Realtors prohibited real estate agents from being "instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood ... members of any race, nationality, or any individual whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood." As recently as 1970, Prentice-Hall published a textbook for real estate appraisers which declared that "the mixing of residents with diverse historical backgrounds within a neighborhood has immediate and depressing influence on value."

 

Fair Lending's Alert Archive

The Fair Lending Guide Page provides information on The Fair Lending Guide, a book that contains a comprehensive coverage of the rapidly evolving area of
fair lending. This publication focuses on prohibited discrimination by lenders under the Fair Housing Act ("FHA") and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ("ECOA"), as well as on the distribution of depository institution services under the Community Reinvestment Act ("CRA"). The Fair Lending Guide is co-authored by Thomas P. Vartanian, Robert H. Ledig and Alisa Babitz of the Washington, D.C. office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, and William L. Browning and James G. Pitzer of the Los Angeles office of Arthur Andersen, LLP. The Fair Lending Guide is published by Glasser LegalWorks.

 

Rutgers Law on Reverse Discrimination

Affirmative action has caused very few claims of reverse discrimination by white people, says a Labor Department draft report. The author says his findings poke holes in the theory that it unfairly boosts minorities at the expense of white workers.

 

CNN on Police & Race

This fourth installment in CNN's five-part look at police examines an enemy behind the lines: racism among officers.

 

The Mississippi Sovereignity Commission

MISSION: The Legislature created the commission to "protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi and her sister states" from federal government interference. In practice, it worked to preserve a segregated society and to oppose school integration. In secret, the commission harassed and spied on activists, branding many of them racial agitators and communist infiltrators.

 

Troy Duster on Myths of Multiculturalism at Berkeley

Berkeley's students are grappling with one of the most difficult situations in the world: ethnic and racial turf. They are doing this, however modestly, over relatively safe issues such as what kind of music gets played or who sits where in the lunchroom. Perhaps they will learn how to handle conflict, how to divvy up scarce resources, how to adjust, fight, retreat, compromise, and ultimately get along in a future that will no longer be dominated by a single group spouting its own values as the ideal homogenized reality for everyone else. If our students learn even a small bit of this, they will be far better prepared than students tucked safely away in anachronistic single-culture enclaves. And what they learn may make a difference not just for their personal futures, but for a world struggling with issues of nationalism, race, and ethnicity.

The Persistence of White Privilege and Institutional Racism in US Policy - March 2001

This is a shadow report filed to provide additional information and analysis to supple-ment the US Government’s Initial Report of the United States of America to the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Although it documents several areas of non-compliance and makes recommendations for improvement, it is not intend-ed to be exhaustive. Our focus is on the persistence of white privilege, a system that accrues to whites (or European Americans) greater wealth, resources, more access and higher quality access to justice, services, capital—virtually every form of benefits to be reaped from US society— than other racial groups. Conversely, white privilege has resulted in impoverishment and injustice for the vast majority of those belonging to racial minorities. White privilege is more than a set of attitudes or individual opinions. It is an overarching, com-prehensive framework of policies, practices, institutions and cultural norms that under-gird every aspect of US society. Too often, discussion of racial discrimination focuses solely on the effects on those who are oppressed as if there are no oppressors or benefici-aries. In this analysis, racial minorities are cast as “problems to be solved” instead of vic-tims of an unjust system. Yet, as 19th century African American freedom fighter Frederick Douglass put it nearly a century ago, “ There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution...” The US will come into compliance with CERD provisions—and other human rights conventions—only when it dismantles white privilege and makes the promise of “equality and justice for all” the letter and effect of the law.

 

An ACLU History of Racial Justice in America

American society is burdened with a legacy of monumental racial injustice that began with the largescale destruction of North America's indigenous
peoples, and includes the subjection of an estimated total of ten million African people to the ravages of the slave trade and slavery. Since slavery was
only yesterday, on the historical clock, it is no wonder that our nation has experienced wrenching turmoil from the end of the Civil War up to the
present. More difficulties lie ahead, and many problems remain to be resolved. But we can take great pride in the fact that we have made enormous
progress, in a relatively short time, towards ensuring that all Americans enjoy -- equally -- the promise and protections of the United States Constitution
and its Bill of Rights.

 

B. Watts on Lynching

The basic lynchable offense was not any particular act but rather any mood or inclination among blacks deemed by whites to be anything less than the complete subservience demanded by the "master" race. Lynchings of Blacks in the south before Emancipation were rare, because the slavery system was sufficient to maintain the unquestioned ascendancy of the whites.

 

Constitution Making in South Africa

Earlier this year, at the University of Michigan Law School, a group of politicians and legal scholars from South Africa, the United States, and Canada gathered to consider the latest step in South Africa's transformation from pariah state to progressive exemplar: the adoption and implementation of a new permanent constitution. The group included the African National Congress's Belelani Ngcuka, chair of the Constitutional Implementation Committee; Roelf Meyer, the National Party's chief constitutional negotiator; and Leon Wessels, deputy chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly. The conference provided an opportunity for a mid-journey moment of self-reflection for the founders of South Africa's new legal system as well as an assessment of the constitution's international significance. Margaret Burnham participated in the conference; the article that follows is based on her presentation there.