Affirmative Action On the Ballot In Michigan

Blogger Chetly Zarko wrote to me earlier this week to point out the so-called “Michigan Civil Rights Initiative,” which would ban affirmative action in Michigan, will appear on the ballot in November in that state.

Another friend reminded me of this story which the Detroit Metrotimes printed in January, but I forgot to post here, where I’m quoted talking about BAM-N.

See all my BAM-N posts

I Want a Library

I just uploaded a set of photos of my neighborhood branch of the D.C. Public Library. The library has been closed since 2004 and no plan exists for its re-construction. It was closed with two other neighborhood plans and slated for demolition and re-construction, but the D.C. Board of Public Library Trustees canceled the construction contract last fall, deciding the plans did not fit with the overall vision for the library system a task force had outlined. At a meeting last November officials told neighborhood residents the branch might not open until 2008. Temporary storefront locations to serve the three neighborhoods now without branches have also not opened, despite assurances in October the library was moving quickly to scout out locations.

YP4 Virtual Town Hall Tomorrow

This call I’m helping organize for YP4 will be really interesting, one of our fellows is a published author.

We are excited to celebrate Black History Month with a special Town Hall Meeting conference call:

Strides for Social Justice:
The Struggle for Educational Equality

A discussion about past struggles for educational equality
and the lessons we can apply to our campaigns for social change today,
led by Young People For Senior Fellow and Author Paul Kendrick

Tuesday Afternoon
5 PM EST

Paul Kendrick is a Presidential Administrative Fellow and graduate student at The George Washington University. While an undergraduate, Paul served as presdient of the campus NAACP chapter. Paul is the co-author of Sarah’s Long Walk: How the Free Blacks of Boston and Their Struggle for Equality Changed America. Read a review of Paul’s book here.

E-mail sthomas at pfaw.org to register now. It’s not too late!

ACLU Sues the NSA Over Domestic Spying Program

The headline says it all. And guess who seems to be behind the effort? None other than my friends at the ACLU of Michigan, where I interned in 2002. A number of journalists and organizations, ranging from Christopher Hitchens to Greenpeace, have joined the lawsuit.

Wow

The headlines tell it all on this one.

• Detroit News: “U-M Suspends Coke Contract“
• Ann Arbor News: “U-M puts contract with Coke on ice“
• University Record: “U-M suspends purchase of Coca-Cola products“
• Michigan Daily: “‘U’ to suspend Coke contracts in milestone decision“

Michigamua Scrutinized at Michigan

Although in general the memory of the 2000 Michigamua Tower Occupation is fading at Michigan, I have been encouraged by a new crop of activists who have sought to bring attention to the organization. Jamie Shenk is one of those students. The president of M-agination films, a unit of the University Activity Center, he became interested in Michigamua and has been working on an objective documentary about the organization and the 2000 protest. I have provided him with what informational materials I have and consented to be interviewed later this month for the film. The film will premiere at the Michigan Theater in April 2006. I just discovered this link to a preview of the film he has released:

> Fight Like Hell Trailer (3.5 mb)

Another group of students engaging in public debate about the organization is Sara Burke, Trent Busakowski, Margaret Czerwiensk, Clara Hardie and Ashwini Hardikar. The group put together an exhibit in the Michigan League Underground about the organization. They have posted a number of photos (including the one to the left) on the web. Check them out here. In an email to friends, Clara explains the show:

This art show was an attempt to counter the hostile environment Michigamua’s existence has created at U of M. We wanted to show solidarity with those directly effected by the Michigamua’s racism, to make it visible that outrage continues. Pieces in the show that profiled current Gamua members are attempts to raise questions and break down the power of the affiliated student leaders in order to deconstruct the foundation of racism and elitism that Michigamua stands on. …

Ill be making a radio segment on Michigamua for the indy media Black Box Radio show in Ann Arbor next semester. Check out past segments and shows.

Checking Out The Failures of Integration

I just finished Sheryll Cashin’s book The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream. Although I won’t attempt a proper book review I will offer a few thoughts. A longtime resident of Washington, D.C. (Cashin clerked for U.S. Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, served in the Clinton White House, and now works as a law professor at Georgetown University) she makes extensive use of the Washington, D.C. area for examples as she makes her argument about patterns of economic and racial segregation in housing and public schools. A reluctant intergrationist, Cashin argues after taking a hard look at census data she has concluded that not only is the country’s neighborhoods and schools quickly becoming re-segregated, the new separatist order only serves the interests of few.

Evaluating black suburbanization she argues that black suburbanites cannot make the same assumptions as their white counterparts about the neighborhoods they move to. Evaluating the experience based on five assumptions that whites expect and generally receive, ranging from an assumption they can escape poverty to the availability of good public schools, low crime, reasonable property taxes, good government services, and convenient options for shopping and dining out. Assessing well known black suburbs including Washington, D.C.’s Prince George’s County, she concludes that although majority-minority suburbs can provide a physiological salve in a world where blacks may face hostile work environments, ultimately the choice comes with heavy costs and cannot measure up to white, middle class suburbs.

She also describes white families’ scramble to buy their way into the privileged communities arguing whites must pay upwards of $300,000 above market prices to find housing in desirable communities. She also repeats arguments made elsewhere by the polarizing impact of residential segregation on political debate, and how the isolation of both communities feeds distrust and public policy choices based on racialized stereotypes. She ultimately concludes “everyone’s quality of life is degraded by separatism. Worse, through separation and segregation we are institutionalizing and perpetuating inequality, to our national detriment,” (p. 298) arguing “The idea that society would be ordered so as to benefit the lucky few rather than the diverse masses, and the missed opportunity of a rich mixing of people from various cultures and classes, could seem just as backward to future generations as slavery does to us today.” (p. 304)

In the course of her argument she pays close attention to the handful of communities which have bucked the national trend of increasing residential segregation observing the communities that have been most successful are either vibrant commercial districts (Such as some parts of Portland, Oregon or Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C.) or instead communities where residents deliberately sought to bridge divides and preserve a racial mix.

Interestingly, Cashin identifies one census tract from Washington’s 2000 census “that came close to bring a true melding of the races.” The tract, number 50, includes the “rapidly gentrifying Logan Circle neighborhood” was 26 percent white, 36 percent black, and 29.5 percent Latino. It turns out my house where I rent now is located in Census tract 49.01, is about 12% white, 78% black, and 5% Hispanic.

By comparison, when I lived in the Glover Park neighborhood I lived in Tract 3 was 89% white, 3% black, and 7% Asian. Cashin herself has chosen to live in Shepherd Park, a middle class majority-black neighborhood in Northwest she was “surprised” to discover was 72 percent black and 21 percent white (she had thought it was closer to 60-40).

She also profiles extensively people who she calls “accidental” or “ardent” integrationists who either intentionally or unintentionally find themselves straddling social divides but decide to make the best of it, going against the grain of American society. After describing in sweeping terms the collective costs of separatism, what is her proscription for change? What visionary ideas are contained in her penultimate chapter, titled simply “What to Do About It” Community coalitions.

Say what?

Yes, she calls for grassroots coalition building “based on actual self-interest is the only possible path to a truly inclusive society” to build a constituency for “revolutionary” change in our laws and society. As someone who walks a fine line between pessimism and optimism I found her prescription a bit hard to swallow, however found I warmed up to the argument when I was again reminded of the limited successes of metropolitan regions who have begun to address problems of housing, education, and quality of life from a metropolitan perspective. Her thinking here is influenced by Myron Orfield whose innovative scholarship has focused on how aging, inner-ring suburbs can create political majorities if they align themselves with the city instead of the urban fringes.

Revealing herself to be not too far removed from the eminently inspirational yet pragmatic Bill Clinton (for whom she reserves plenty or criticism elsewhere in the book) her analysis contains elements of two strands of thinking I have seen elsewhere and find useful. The first is a decidedly geographic orientation to analyzing society. Such an orientation can quickly dissolve the mythology of meritocracy. How can we believe if hard data shows most jobs are way out in the lilly-white suburbs like Fairfax where poor blacks are concentrated in ghetto conditions? This precise fact is why I think many ideologically adrift modern-day liberals find themselves drawn to metropolitan thinking and the discipline of urban planning, and why citizen organizations (precisely of the type she calls for) have sprung up across the country advocating for “smart growth,” inclusionary zoning, better public transit, and other policies which would address geographic logic which fails to serve the needs of both the working class and also the affluent, who find their aggressive pursuit of suburban purity has priced out many of the people they depend on to teach their kids, pump their gas, and work in the stores they like to visit.

Second, Cashin discusses potential solutions from the perspective of increased choices for all people. Although she is a good deal more pragmatic in her analysis of school vouchers (they really aren’t sound public policy if they provide opportunity for a few at the expense of all) she does embrace the broader ideology of school choice, so long as it provides opportunity for all. This type of thinking can be extremely useful when paired against an analysis that says the current approach provides little opportunities for the majority of people except the most wealthy.

Will Cashin’s book spark the sort of sea change in our society she so strongly desires, or contain any revolutionary public policy proscriptions? Probably not. However, I think the book plays a key role in the evolving public debate about how metropolitan regions should approach persistent inequality and segregation. I also strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region from the perspective of someone who isn’t afraid to ask hard questions and delve deep into the logic of the area’s white and black residents.

> Listen to an NPR story about Cashin’s book
> Read Sheryll Cashin’s Op-Ed “A Tale of Two Schools” on AlterNet
> Amazon.com: The Failures Of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream