A No-Win Proposition for Minorities
August 19, 2003
BY JESSE JACKSON
On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his historic oration from the steps of Lincoln's Memorial before 250,000 people assembled for the March on Washington. His stirring summation made this famous as the ''I Have a Dream'' speech.
But the speech was not about dreams; it was about harsh reality and broken promises. One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, King noted, African Americans live ''on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.'' In this great country, the promises made to African Americans had been broken, he said, the promissory note had come back, rejected, marked ''insufficient funds.''
King marched on Washington to reclaim those promises so that one day his dream could become reality.
Now, 40 years later, much has been done. But King's mission remains unfulfilled, the promise not redeemed, the check uncashed.
With the economy in recession, unemployment is up. But African Americans and Latinos are the last hired and first fired, and unemployment in those communities is more than twice as high as it is among whites.
Racial profiling, discriminatory sentencing and prosecutorial discretion still mar our criminal justice system. There are more African-American men in jail than in college.
''We will never be satisfied,'' King said 40 years ago, ''as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.''
And now we face new efforts to roll back the progress that has been made. In California, the effort to recall the governor has gained national attention with its bizarre lineup of some 150 contenders. But on that same ballot is a poisonous initiative--Proposition 54--that seeks to outlaw collecting data on race altogether. King's dream should be real, it suggests, so let's blind ourselves from probing whether it is or not.
In fact, racial disparities and inequalities exist in every facet of our society. How can we fight HIV/AIDS without information? How can we fight cancer without information? How can we achieve educational equity without information? How can we fight hate crimes without information? How do we fight high infant mortality rates without information?
California businessman Ward Connerly's Proposition 54 is bad medicine for the people of California. It would place a ''gag order'' on the collection of data and information needed to analyze social problems, design public policy and identify positive solutions. Proposition 54 argues not for privacy, but for ignorance. It is nothing less than a recall of the historic commitment to civil rights, equal access and equal protection under the law. And Connerly has already threatened to put it on the ballot in states across the country.
Connerly's dream world mocks King's dream. King was a man with a dream, but he was not a dreamer. We live in the real world. We come from many places, many races, religions and cultures. We are not, and should not be, blind to these realities. That is why a broad coalition of medical professionals, educators, business leaders, law enforcement officers, public health experts and civil rights activists have joined together to oppose Proposition 54.
We seek another direction. Start with information. The collection of data, research and information is vital to social development. Facts are critical to informed action. We will not allow Proposition 54 to deprive us of the tools to achieve King's dream of equal access and equal protection under the law.
But information is not enough. We must have the will to act. Across the country, schools open this fall in the face of harsh budget cuts. Classes are more crowded. Vital repairs are postponed. Skilled teachers are leaving the profession. And the cuts are deeper and more harmful in the schools that can afford them the least.
So when you hear King's famous words this week, don't start with the dream at the end. Start with the reality that begins the speech and the commitment to action--to the ''fierce urgency of now''--that was the essence of King's message to us all.