How to close racial gaps in access to employment, housing, and K-12 education
by Doug Mann
Minneapolis Issues Forum, 30 September 2013
Click link below:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls/messages/topic/24bWBo2VFn2TOFDpaQF4Od
Doug Mann's opening statement at the June 6 mayoral candidates forum, sponsored by One Minneapolis, with a focus on closing racial gaps in access to education, employment, and housing, stating the nature of the problem, with solutions in brackets [ ]:
"Racial Segregation and inequality persist because of systemic racial discrimination driven by laws and public policy. 3 examples:
1. The so-called war on drugs serves to criminalize, disenfranchise, and marginalize people of color due to unequal enforcement of drug laws.
[It is time to end the war on drugs. This should be on the City's legislative agenda. And to the extent possible, we should use alternatives to criminal prosecution and incarceration]
2. There is widespread, covert, illegal discrimination in the housing and job markets, but no government agencies are empowered to detect and prosecute the discriminators.
[The Minneapolis Civil Rights Department should be empowered to detect covert, illegal discrimination in employment and housing, and prosecute discriminators. The Civil Rights Department should begin to accept complaints not only from those who have reason to believe that they are harmed by illegal discrimination and have evidence to back it up: Anyone in a position to know of unlawful discrimination should be encouraged to file a complaint. Equal Opportunity Employers who hire only just enough members of protected classes should be subject to greater scrutiny. We should employ new methods of gathering evidence of unlawful discrimination, such as the recruitment of teams of black and white job applicants to determine if there is racial bias in favor of whites over blacks for higher paying jobs, especially when the Black applicants are often passed over in favor of less qualified Whites. If properly targeted, and adequately funded, a more pro-active approach to enforcement of fair employment and housing laws could do a lot to close racial gaps in access to employment and housing, resulting in a less segregated, less unequal society]
3. K-12 students of color are more heavily exposed than whites to inexperienced teachers and watered-down curriculum. Corporate-style reforms and charter-ization are the means to reinvent a separate and unequal school system, not a means to make a quality education available to all on an equal basis.
[The Minneapolis School District should retain rather than arbitrarily fire and replace a majority of teachers during their 3 year, post-hire, probationary period. That would quickly reduce the exposure of students of color to inexperienced and less qualified teachers and reduce teacher turnover rates in schools and classrooms where students of color are heavily concentrated. Watered-down curriculum tracks can be more easily and successfully eliminated with stable and more experienced teams of teachers. Let's take effective steps to make a quality, public education available to all on an equal basis.]
by Doug Mann
Minneapolis Issues Forum, 30 September 2013
Click link below:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls/messages/topic/24bWBo2VFn2TOFDpaQF4Od
Doug Mann's opening statement at the June 6 mayoral candidates forum, sponsored by One Minneapolis, with a focus on closing racial gaps in access to education, employment, and housing, stating the nature of the problem, with solutions in brackets [ ]:
"Racial Segregation and inequality persist because of systemic racial discrimination driven by laws and public policy. 3 examples:
1. The so-called war on drugs serves to criminalize, disenfranchise, and marginalize people of color due to unequal enforcement of drug laws.
[It is time to end the war on drugs. This should be on the City's legislative agenda. And to the extent possible, we should use alternatives to criminal prosecution and incarceration]
2. There is widespread, covert, illegal discrimination in the housing and job markets, but no government agencies are empowered to detect and prosecute the discriminators.
[The Minneapolis Civil Rights Department should be empowered to detect covert, illegal discrimination in employment and housing, and prosecute discriminators. The Civil Rights Department should begin to accept complaints not only from those who have reason to believe that they are harmed by illegal discrimination and have evidence to back it up: Anyone in a position to know of unlawful discrimination should be encouraged to file a complaint. Equal Opportunity Employers who hire only just enough members of protected classes should be subject to greater scrutiny. We should employ new methods of gathering evidence of unlawful discrimination, such as the recruitment of teams of black and white job applicants to determine if there is racial bias in favor of whites over blacks for higher paying jobs, especially when the Black applicants are often passed over in favor of less qualified Whites. If properly targeted, and adequately funded, a more pro-active approach to enforcement of fair employment and housing laws could do a lot to close racial gaps in access to employment and housing, resulting in a less segregated, less unequal society]
3. K-12 students of color are more heavily exposed than whites to inexperienced teachers and watered-down curriculum. Corporate-style reforms and charter-ization are the means to reinvent a separate and unequal school system, not a means to make a quality education available to all on an equal basis.
[The Minneapolis School District should retain rather than arbitrarily fire and replace a majority of teachers during their 3 year, post-hire, probationary period. That would quickly reduce the exposure of students of color to inexperienced and less qualified teachers and reduce teacher turnover rates in schools and classrooms where students of color are heavily concentrated. Watered-down curriculum tracks can be more easily and successfully eliminated with stable and more experienced teams of teachers. Let's take effective steps to make a quality, public education available to all on an equal basis.]
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