Status: 04/03/2021 8:36 a.m.
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Justice: No less should a new inter-ethnic commission in New York be brought about. It’s about equal opportunities in all areas of life – a long way for a divided city.
From Christiane Meier,
ARD-Studio New York
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“No justice, no peace!” – there is no peace without justice: this cry echoed through the streets of New York for weeks last summer when thousands protested against police violence and racism. To this day he has not fallen silent. Now New York wants to do something about structural racism. Quite official and binding.
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Christiane Meier
ARD capital studio
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A justice commission with twelve members is to work out proposals to make the city constitution fairer and guarantee equal opportunities for all citizens. New York has chosen the reconciliation commissions of South Africa, Argentina and Canada as a model. According to the mandate, it should “use the transformative potential at this historical moment in history”. It is the first commission of its kind in the country.
The gap is great
A look at the numbers shows how necessary this is: New York State has the largest income inequality nationwide, with one percent of the population in New York City earning 44 times as much as the rest.
The proportion of the population of black New Yorkers is reflected in their share of the workforce, they make up around 21 percent. And yet they are represented with only seven to eight percent of the better to high-paying jobs. And when black New Yorkers have jobs in the post office, retail, or other service sector, they often only make half that of their white counterparts.
Hate-motivated crimes against Asian-American Americans increased by around 150 percent over the past year
Christiane Meier, ARD New York, daily news 1.30 p.m., April 3rd, 2021
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However, racism is not only directed against black people: there is also mutual prejudice – and structural discrimination – between Asian Americans and other people of color.
It starts with the children
Even children who are not white are disadvantaged from the start. The numerical check shows that New York’s public schools are predominantly black and Hispanic children. They make up 74.6 percent of the students, less than ten percent are white.
By contrast, 34 percent of white schoolchildren attend schools where at least 50 percent of the students are white. Many of them attend extremely expensive private schools, which black families and Latino families mostly cannot afford.
Protesters look at a burned New York police vehicle with a sign reading “No Justice, no Peace” on it (picture from May 30th, 2020).
Bild: picture alliance/dpa/XinHua
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Reversed conditions in the prisons
Equal opportunities do not exist in the labor market or in education. There is only one area where black New Yorkers come out on top: as prison inmates. Imprisoned by a racist judiciary, pursued by a police whose power on the street knows hardly any limits in everyday life.
But how is it all supposed to get better? The committee members are racking their brains over this. It is chaired by a woman, Jennifer Jones Austin, who actually works with 170 evangelical groups in the fight against poverty. There are welfare organizations, a theologian, a professor of urban development, trade union representatives, an economics professor and a probation officer.
A couple of ideas are already on the table: the distribution of the parks and local public transport according to districts, the jobs in the fire brigade – and generally the entire area of public employers are to be examined.
With “Baby Bonds”, Commissioner Darrick Hamilton wants to ensure equal opportunities from birth: “Without money, everything remains unfair without any chance,” says the professor of urban development at the “New School”.
Thinking about compensation
Also, reparations payments for the consequences of slavery are at least being considered – a long-standing demand of black reformers and civil rights activists. A sustainable police reform and judicial reform are also being considered. New York may even publicly and credibly apologize for the disadvantage of part of its population.
Police violence against minorities has not only been an issue in the US since the death of George Floyd, and certainly not in New York.
Image: REUTERS
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A commission can deal with this for a number of years. It is just strange that it is set up by Mayor Bill de Blasio in the last few months of office. He took his time for eight years and did not fight the conditions in the city.
Now New York wants to move forward again – and not be part of the problem, but part of the solution. Addressing the racism in the mind may prove to be the toughest task.
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