(* A shorter version of this blog post is at rooflines.org)
Are you as deeply disgusted with the course of this presidential
election as I am? I mean, in many ways it’s like looking at a slow moving
multi-car crash, yet YOU JUST CAN’T LOOK AWAY.
I have stuck it out through every debate and every after-debate
“analysis” (and yes, the quotation marks are deliberate…). I drink in a
variety of articles from all quarters (because you know what the people who are
like-minded will say, but what about the folk whose worldviews are completely
opposite yours? We need to know what they think, too…).
In other words, I am a junkie — I admit it!
And I am still an undecided voter.
Now, it’s not that I am looking at Trump (COME ON!! Even NOT KNOWING
me, YOU SHOULD KNOW ME better than that. . .).
It is just that I have questions. . .issues. . .
And it is that Hillary has not yet earned my vote — although she has
taken it for granted; maybe even felt entitled to it (“issue” alert!!).
HOWEVER, in reading the political tea leaves… I mean, the red flags
waving in the political breeze (Hi, Donald!)… I am preparing myself for cast
membership in the upcoming four-year reality show called "Hillary at the
Helm."
In expectation that she might be our next president, I am taking
this opportunity to reach out to Hillary with this letter of things that I
would — if she appointed me (or even if she doesn’t) her "Secretary of
Domestic Repair (for marginalized groups)” — recommend.
Dear Hillary,
While we have not met, I am a person from two groups — the
independent, undecided voter as well as an African Descendant, a voting bloc that provided a major percentage of your votes and will play a significant role in your (potential) ascension into the highest office
in the land.
I wish you the best, Hillary, and hope that in the coming years
any “buyer's remorse” that I may feel if I vote for you will easily fit into a
small clutch as opposed to a wheeled suitcase. To help you with that — to save us both grief and disappointment — let me transparently
share my hopes and recommendations for your time at the helm:
1. DEVELOP, REVIEW, AND EVALUATE POLICY USING A RACIAL EQUITY LENS. Hillary, our country's racialized disproportionalities are long-standing, and broadening. We cling to the concept that universalist policies are created to benefit all, but those policies operate within a country where
institutional and structural racism still exists. Policies such as the G.I. Bill or "The War on Drugs" — otherwise known as “The War
on Black People” — created an industry of private prisons and have “enslaved” more Black people than during the period in which enslavement of Black people was legal (read Michelle Alexander’s excellent book, The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. If you've read it already, please read it again).
2. INVEST IN KNOWING THE NUMBERS. Developing
equity lens policies is one thing; monitoring and keeping track of the
metrics by which to evaluate their implementation is another. We
both know, Hillary, that so many in America do not support policies,
remedies, or even collection of data for populations that remind
them of America’s historical and continuing racializations and inequities.
We know that many in this country have a high tolerance for these types of
inequities when neither they nor those they love are burdened by them. Witness all those who were willing to overlook the Republican presidential nominee’s
comments and actions regarding African Americans, Mexicans, and the disabled, among others, but who were front and center in their objections to his comments and actions regarding white women. It showed, more than anyone affirming equity can say, where those
of us who are not white stand. And when a presidential nominee running on
what looks like an “alt-white” (you know, the new phrase for white
supremacist) platform can garner such national support, it is clear that we need a president who will champion the collection of data on, and implementation of policies and remedies
that counteract, if not eliminate, the institutional and structural race-based
barriers we face. And speaking of:
3. REMEMBER HOW INSTITUTIONAL AND STRUCTURAL RACISM WORKS — AND
WORK AGAINST IT. I am proud of your using those phrases, and
hope you really know what they mean. In uttering them, it appears as if you’ve come a long
way from “super-predator.” However, Hillary, so many in our
communities need to know that your commitment to understanding the realities of being Black and Brown and First Peoples and Asian-American is not situational;
is not calculated; is not transactional. We need to know that you are not
going to dump us once you are at the helm. We need to know that you
will not slowly move right of center when you’ve climbed up our backs to claim
your prize. These terms — "institutional racism" and "structural
racism" — should be the watchwords that guide your administration’s
decisions. Not because people want “free stuff” or “more
stuff” or “different stuff" but because if you believe
in fairness and justice — and have a working sense of history —
you will understand that you will not be able to effectively govern without the
base(s) that got you there. Nor will you be able to say that you have a moral
center or care about the economic health of the country if you are willing
to leave us behind by ignoring the damage that institutional and
structural racism does when embedded in policy decisions.
4. THINK OUTSIDE OF THE SILOS. Policies have to
connect. We must recognize societal interconnections: that we cannot have
housing policy without thinking about housing discrimination without thinking
about affordable housing without thinking about workforce training without
thinking about affordable childcare without thinking about families who
are fatherless because of minor drug offenses without thinking about
over-policing in communities of color without thinking about how white people
use drugs in comparable percentages as Black people without thinking about how
the incarcerated are mostly Black and Brown without thinking about
disinvestment in urban communities without thinking about investments in
downtown communities that surround those urban communities without
thinking about earned sick leave and who gets it and who doesn’t without
thinking about how women make less than men and how Black and Brown women make
less than white women without thinking about how glass ceilings truncate access
and opportunities for our families without thinking about. . .you get my drift,
right, Hillary? Policies must be developed as if there are
interconnections and must be evaluated in terms of how marginalized boats are
lifted. Or not.
5. TRUST THOSE WHO ARE ON THE FRONT LINES. Why, Hillary, do
we overfill policy task forces with those who STUDY the issues as opposed to
those who LIVE and WORK those issues? As long as you are
trail-blazing — you know, first woman president and all — why not
trail-blaze by developing an administration that seeks the counsel of those who
have gained knowledge of issues confronting the country in a way that the elites have not: by "living" those issues or by working with and for those who are. Hillary, I cannot stress the revolutionary impact this could have on policy decisions. This means more than herding in
groups of individuals at strategic moments to comment on policy that has
already been decided; more than cherry-picking people you know will not rock
the policy-boats or ask uncomfortable questions; more than one-off focus-groups
or “summits” or any of the other forms of semi-engagement that allows
policymakers a photo-opportunity or talking point. There is talent out
here, Hillary, talent who may or may not have academic degrees and who may or
may not have a policy focus, but who are experts in the ways that policy
impacts their lives and the lives of their children. Now, I
know you can’t talk to everybody, but your administration can set a tone
that shifts the way America has historically seen marginalized populations (as deficits) to a new way of seeing and engaging them: as the assets they are.
Hillary, so many are giving you their votes on faith and a promise.
. .your promise.
Adding these five steps to your administration playbook won’t
solve everything for everyone.
But it’s a start.
If “men in black” show up at my door after November 8th, I’ll
assume you want to talk more about it. I’d love to — and would bring some of the most dedicated change-agents you’ll ever meet.
If, however, November 9th tells a different story after all the
votes are counted (Hi Donald!!), I’ll assume the “men in black” are at my
door for a different reason. . .
But at that point, we all might have bigger problems.
Moving Forward,
Adar
