Community Voices Reflect on the 2022 Civil Rights Agenda: The Intersectionality of Civil Rights and Democracy
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Bishop Eugene Johnson, Madison Pentecostal Assembly
Assault on Democracy Reflects America's History
If public support for civil rights continue to shift (and erode) in American democracy and, if the political pendulum continues its rapid swing to the far right, the concept of “intersectionality and Democracy” will be confronted by more dramatic and challenging realities…especially for people of color. My great concern is that the tragic days of my own, i.e., Blacks in America, history could be repeated, or even impact wider sections of the socio-political body.
In America’s system of democracy, the democratic institutions and structures failed me horribly. They hung me vigilante style and got off scot-free under the aegis of the nation’s badly flawed [in]justice system. They denied me my human rights. They segregated me into separate and unequal schools, denied me equal and fair housing opportunities, equal access to health care, employment, public accommodations, fair lending practices, fair coverage by their news media, and equal protection by law enforcement. They denied me my civil rights. They erected unfair barriers to commercially trade with me. They denied me my silver rights. They crafted and passed laws to openly steal my ability to participate in free and fair elections. The denied me my constitutional rights.
This is the legacy of democracy for Blacks in America. Its bloody stain has tainted the American culture for centuries. Many people of all hues decry it and are committed to correct it. Regrettably, too many forces in the body politic are conjuring up schemes to revive it and spread it to the point where the broader society could become violently engulfed by it, the high ideals of democracy as we know it replaced by a form of something more repugnant.
Civil rights is a cornerstone of democracy. Every structure, institution, and system of democracy should individually and collectively embrace and promote the tenets of civil rights as a core value. Since American democracy provides the framework for the nation to morph into a “more perfect union,” then the concept of intersectionality should be considered to help us get there. Under this concept, democratic institutions must intentionally
coalesce to promote the democratic principles of EQUAL “liberty and justice for all.” The public and private must intersect to promote equity for every person relative to their mission. They must seek to know when their business interests converge with other organizations for the good of the broader public. Consider the externalities (unintended negative consequences experienced by others) their organization’s policies, programs, projects, processes and products cause to all communities, especially and including disadvantaged communities of color.
If they default into a position of benign neglect, then the instrumentalities of evil and malevolence will re-emerge and countermand the cumulative progress that civil rights practitioners have made so far in American democracy.
I suggest democratic institutions devise and implement for themselves a balance score card that puts the principles and tenets of civil rights on par with their other organizational values in their production of goods and provision of services.
How Far Have We Really Come?
According to an article written by the US Department of Labor (2021), in June 1963, President John Kennedy asked Congress for a comprehensive civil rights bill, induced by massive resistance to desegregation and the murder of Medgar Evers. After Kennedy's assassination in November, President Lyndon Johnson pressed hard, with the support of Roy Wilkins and Clarence Mitchell, to secure the bill's passage the following year. In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. The Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and federally funded programs. It also strengthened the enforcement of voting rights and the desegregation of schools.
Many believed at that time that the passage of this comprehensive set of laws would allow for a pathway to freedom and equality for those who had been systematically oppressed and disenfranchised by a society that saw them often times less than human. The Civil Rights Law of 1964 was aimed to finally ensure that discrimination would be against the law as well as ensuring punishment for those violating these laws. If we truly assess where we are now in 2022 in regards to progress, society must admit that discrimination continues to be blatant, systematic, overt, and covert as well as often being the norm in several aspects of our society.
If we examine just one aspect of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 one being that of voting rights, it can be noted that discrimination and attempts to discriminate continue to be prevalent. Many individuals primarily Black and Brown people continue to be disenfranchised in an oppressive system. Research according to The Ballard Brief (2021) demonstrates that Black voters are most likely to face suppression and disenfranchisement in Republican-controlled states, which most often includes southern states. Several factors contribute to this fact. First, Republican voters and lawmakers tend to be more concerned about the possibility of instances of voter fraud, leading them to be more likely to enforce restrictive voter laws that end up disproportionately affecting Black and other minority voters.
Rev. Karla Renee Garcia,Pastor, S.S. Morris AME Community Church
In addition, in an article written by the University of Michigan (2021), incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people have been targets of voter disenfranchisement. Most states disallow voting for felons actively incarcerated. But more than 30 states extend that disenfranchisement well beyond time served. Some 20 million Americans have felony convictions. Far more Black and Brown Americans than white ones are convicted of felonies. This form of disenfranchisement secures meaningful advantages for the dominant political body (white, affluent, patriarchal).
Alfonso Zepeda-Capistran, Co-Founder of LUChA and an Education Consultant
Latino Education: The Fierce Urgency of Now
Achievement and opportunity gaps are issues common to both the Black and Latino communities. This piece centers on U.S. Hispanic population demographics, school enrollment, and school performance. In a future editorial, I will provide recommendations of effective school practices that could help address the educational disparities facing both Black and Latino communities.
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Much has been made of the rapid growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the past few years. According to the US Census Bureau, from 2010 to 2020, the Hispanic population grew by nearly 25 percent, to 62.1 million, more than triple the nation’s growth rate of seven percent for the same period.
The increase in population enhances the probability of more Hispanics entering the educational system, experiencing college, and consequently improving their chances of professional and economic growth, as well as eventually occupying spaces in the higher spheres of influence and, consequently, broadening the existing pool of role models to help create paths for younger generations.
However, mere population growth and higher representation in previously out-of-reach spaces does not mean the community has reached its full potential. Far from it. We must ensure that future generations of Hispanics are well prepared to take on the leadership roles that will be demanded of them. Hispanics face numerous challenges, especially in the educational arena.
Of all racial/ethnic groups represented within public schools, Latino student enrollment has experienced the most growth. From 2009 to 2018, per the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Hispanic enrollment demographics increased from 22 to 27 percent nationwide. In comparison, white and Black student numbers decreased from 57 to 47 and from 17 to 15 percent, respectively.
Of the 50.7 million students enrolled in public schools in 2018, 13.8 million were Hispanic. According to the U.S. Census Bureau population projection, Hispanic enrollment growth is expected to continue, with the school-age population increasing to 28 million by 2050, or 166 percent from 2006-2050, while the non-Hispanic school-age population is expected to grow by just 4 percent, from 43 million to 45 million, over the same period.
Despite the many positives that can come from the increase in Latino demographics, Latino student underperformance in school worries researchers, and should worry our educational institutions and policy makers. According to some studies relevant to the education of Latinos, the call to action is urgent. Leading Latino education scholars Patricia Gándara and Frances Contreras stated that “[t]oday the most urgent challenge for the American educational system has a Latino face.” Hispanics are and will continue to be the largest minority in the country, but academically they are still lagging dangerously behind their non-Hispanic white peers and other ethnic groups.
It is not uncommon to see headlines addressing these gaps. A 2016 U.S. News and World Report feature titled “Gains in Reading for Hispanic Students Overshadowed by Achievement Gap” stated that “Latino students have made impressive academic gains over the past decade, but almost a quarter are still not proficient in reading — and in some states, they're more than three grades behind their peers.” In 2015, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported 26 percent of Latino students were proficient in fourth-grade mathematics, compared to 51 white students. In eighth-grade, Latino proficiency was 19 percent, while their white peers were 43 percent proficient.
A quick look at Wisconsin’s student performance data reveals similar gaps. Though test participation rates were lower because of COVID, Wisconsin’s Forward Exam 2020-21 data shows Black and Hispanic students alarmingly underperforming. In English Language Arts (ELA) all-grades statewide, 17.4 percent of Hispanic students were proficient, down from 25 percent in 2018-19. In comparison, 7.2 percent of Black students were proficient, down from 12.8 in 2018-19. White students were 41.3 percent proficient, a decrease of five points from 2018-19. The trends are similar in other subjects where Hispanic students scored at 14.8, 21.7, and 23.8 percent proficient in mathematics, social studies, and science, respectively.
Scholars like Gándara and Contreras, Guadalupe San Miguel, and Rubén Donato, in their review of Latino education, have pointed out that student ethnicity, unfortunately, impacts education. San Miguel and Donato argue that “education, in all of its forms, served to reproduce a highly stratified society aimed at ensuring political and cultural hegemony of the dominant Anglo group in the society and the socioeconomic subordination of Latinos.” These scholars recognize the improvement of Hispanic social, economic, and political status over the years, but conclude that Latinos continue to be a “marginalized population” and are “treated as such by mainstream institutions, including public schools.” Per Gándara and Contreras, this “Latino education crisis” is the “consequence of failed social policies.”
In this context, the following excerpt from Martin L. King cannot be more fitting: “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
If issues concerning the education of Latino and Black children are not addressed, the results could be socially and economically catastrophic. Education is a civil right and having such achievement gaps is a threat to our democracy and overall societal well-being.