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Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:24 PM
Responses from Nick Spencer and Charles E. Ellison
Rhetoric and Reality
Tyrone Yates’ letter is a conservative response to a deep, fundamental, and longstanding crisis in American social, political, and economic life. Cincinnati needs to understand why it is conservative, because many will not see it that way. The letter is a conservative response to a social condition for the following reasons:
From QCF Magazine archive:
Dear Governor Taft,
As I move throughout Cincinnati, in neighborhoods like Walnut Hills, Over The Rhine, and Avondale, I am sensing a terrible summer situation brewing in the poor and African-American community. Governor Taft, you would see teeming numbers of young men and women congregating on neighborhood street corners. When I interact with these teenagers and young adults, I feel palpable unrest and anger growing about a lack of employment.
It is my opinion, and unfortunate prediction, that Cincinnati will see major disruptions without an infusion of summer employment dollars on the order of four million dollars ($4,000,000). I would like to suggest that state or federal dollars be targeted for Cincinnati immediately split $2 million for summer youth employment and $2 million for adult job training and unemployment.
Any major disruptions in Cincinnati this summer would be a blow to our local and state economic efforts not to mention the social consequences to the fabric of our community. We cannot afford to see Cincinnati endure what we faced in April 2001. |
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· It is addressed to a political leader who has rarely, at best, been aware of and responsive to the needs of the African-American community, a leader who consistently fails to demonstrate moral vision, political courage, or imagination. It in no way fixes blame and it is not inflammatory.
· It defines the social condition as seasonal and localized, in the summer and on street corners in selected neighborhoods.
· It identifies “lack of employment” as a critical problem. Employment is a social activity that integrates and binds us into the social and economic fabric. The cry for work and access to jobs seems radical in a capitalist society, but it also expresses a desire to contribute to society and to provide for oneself and one’s family within the framework of existing economic arrangements.
· It requests a very modest amount of money to address short-term issues of youth unemployment and more long-term job training. No one can reasonably argue that these funds – in one summer or even every summer – can effectively eliminate the problem of African-American unemployment in the city.
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· It identifies the threat as the prospect of “major disruptions,” presumably limited to the summer months and, thus, of short duration. And the threat is that the city’s reputation will suffer nationally, that its economy will be harmed, and that the social fabric or social contract, if you will, will be shredded.
· In sum, it is conservative, because a representative of the people addresses established political leadership and asks for the most modest policy response to avoid a rupture in the social and economic order. The rhetorical goal of the letter is designed to appeal to the only danger a conservative can appreciate – the need to take action in order to maintain social order in the city. Yates’ rhetoric reflects his sense of his audience and its limited moral and political capabilities.
By no means am I being critical of Tyrone Yates. His letter is more likely to be effective than mine. Mine follows:
Dear Governor Taft,
The United States has at its core and its founding, a systemic wound and moral flaw that continues to haunt us and permeate our society from the deepest recesses of our culture. I refer, of course, to “race” and racism.
Nearly forty years ago the Kerner Commission warned that we were moving toward two societies – one black, the other white. While the size of the black middle class has grown considerably, the only public policy since then that meaningfully, though only slightly, addressed this crisis was Bill Clinton’s economic policy. African American unemployment was never lower than during the Clinton presidency.
The evidence that racism is silently built into the very fabric of our society is massive and irrefutable, gathered by the federal government itself and analyzed by numerous social scientists from the finest universities over many decades. Wherever one looks - infant mortality and life expectancy rates, access to health care and equal public education, unemployment and access to work, the prison and criminal justice systems, per capita and household income, and on and on and on – one finds the same structure of racist inequality. One would have to believe in fairies to explain these outcomes, as the consequence of individual will, choices, and moral flaws.
No, this is a matter that is taken for granted, embedded in American culture and public policy, and you, your administration, and your political party faithfully represent and perpetuate this injustice. White political and business leaders who fully and honestly address the problem of racism in Cincinnati and in the United States disappeared with the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
The astonishing thing in all this is that African Americans in Cincinnati almost never engage in socially organized disruption, and certainly not for a prolonged period. For the most part, African Americans respond much like we would, with some combination of hard work, mutual aid, religious community, escape, despair, and participation in the informal economy.
I know better than to appeal to the moral conscience of the white community. So does Tyrone Yates.
But know this: The structure of racist inequality in Cincinnati and the nation and the continued denial of full human and civil rights for African Americans (and others) in the United States impose staggering moral and economic costs on us all. I do not expect that you will see or know them any time soon. You could begin by accompanying – maybe shadowing - Tyrone Yates for a few months until you and those like you can face the realities that you now evade at the cost of your humanity.
Charles E. Ellison
Current Conditions a Recipe for Disaster
State Representative Tyrone Yates set off a political firestorm two weeks ago with his letter to Governor Bob Taft, requesting funds for job training and summer youth jobs in our most distressed neighborhoods. If the request was not met, Yates feared our city might see a repeat of the events of April 2001. Conservatives in the legislature and on talk radio immediately cried foul, calling Yates an “extortionist” and an “inciter.”
As a registered Republican who has worked for several Republican members of the Senate including John McCain, I was dismayed but certainly not surprised by the conservative response to Yates. However, I think it is certainly misguided, and the characterizations of Yates’ letter have been misleading to say the least.
As an Over the Rhine resident, I see hundreds of young men and women standing idle on the street at all hours, with nothing to occupy their time. There are no jobs available in this neighborhood for them, no decent recreation center to go to, and most of them live in low income housing that often has no air conditioning, let alone the cable television or video games that occupy the time of many kids in higher income areas. Also, many of these kids are below the standard employment age of 16, meaning their job opportunities are even more severely limited.
The jobs picture in our state is bleak to begin with. Add in that most of these young people are looking for temporary summer work that doesn’t violate child labor laws, and the opportunity to even find work is severely limited. Most potential employers, like Paramount Kings Island, are so far away it becomes difficult for kids to find reasonable transportation there and back everyday.
The state of job training in our poorer neighborhoods is abysmal. National trends show that entry-level low skill level work is being outsourced to other countries at high rates. Our only chance to rebuild our local economy in neighborhoods like OTR and Avondale is to invest heavily in job training and job access. Doing so will likely take far more than the 4 million that Representative Yates has called for.
With so many young people on the streets, with nothing to do, usually unsupervised while their parents work at least one job, we have a recipe for disaster. More kids will be lured into the lucrative drug trade, and our cycle of violence will continue. Fights will break out, and our Police Officers will once again be asked to assume an unfair burden in keeping the peace where no opportunity for hope exists. If, God forbid, we see an incident along the lines of a Timothy Thomas or Roger Owensby, we would have a powder keg on our hands, just waiting to be set off.
Tyrone Yates, a respected member of our community and an accomplished legislator, has put forward a reasonable request to help stem this tide of violence and unrest. It would not be a handout; young people would be expected to work and study. They would learn responsibility and the virtues of earning a paycheck. They would be instilled with a sense of self worth and self-reliance.
These are things our Republican Party should be working actively to promote, as an end to welfare policies that create dependency and apathy. So why has Mr. Yates’ proposal caused so much consternation?
I have often heard the lament of many of my Republican friends that African American leaders in our community are eager to attack the Police, the Business Community, and City Hall, but loathe attacking the problems within their own community. I find this view to be mistaken and ill informed. Our African American Council members and State Legislators have pushed for new funds to target Black on Black crime. They have worked to bring African American dollars to our city through convention businesses. While I would certainly like to see more initiatives like these, it has been difficult to get these things done because of the reticence of many white elected leaders to commit funds to African American-led proposals.
At a time when crime is soaring in our city, it is irresponsible of our elected leadership to not divert funds from other areas to stemming the violence. Four African American Council Members proposed spending 100k to target crime in African American communities; 5 white Council members voted down the proposal. At the same time, I listen incredulously to talk radio hosts who claim that our Black leaders are doing nothing about the problem. It seems to me the problem lies with white council members who would rather fund jobs for suburban residents (Convergy's), rehab Fountain Square (3CDC), and build chain driven “entertainment districts” (Main Street) than end the crime epidemic in our inner city.
This is not to say that Council or the State Legislature has done nothing about violent crime and unemployment. But a quick walk down my street shows that their efforts have been anything but successful. Mr. Yates proposal would get kids off of the street, and into jobs. In doing so, it makes those kids far less likely to commit crimes. For that, he deserves credit, not scorn.
Nick Spencer, Over the Rhine
“The Letters” feature of “The Podium” is where guest columnists such as local politicos, politicians and writers come to sound off on topics. As apposed to the blog feature or a post board, “The Letters” are edited for length and posted in a column style.
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