OPINION & EDITORIAL
Stop racial profiling
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by Jesse Kiley
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Mayor Sue Bauman recently fell into a bout of prideful chest-thumping as she discussed why the upcoming U.S. Conference of Mayors, to be held in Madison, will be a “showcase” in which “[t]he whole city should feel proud” to demonstrate what makes it “the best place it can be to live, learn, work and play.”
Sounding strangely like Money Magazine and other Madison aficionados, Bauman is riding a wave of blurry-eyed romanticism. Madison may be glazed in the facade of a liberal-university town with a long history of progressive activism, yet it is important to see the reality behind this gilded mirage.
The largest myth to be deflated is what Bauman claims is Madison’s “commitment to improve race relations.” Although Madison hosts a few voluntary community activities focused on race relations, these are no substitutes for actually addressing the institutionalized systems of racism that thrive beneath the veneer of Madison’s liberal mask.
This truth is made most apparent by the studies of UW-Madison sociologist Pam Oliver, whose data suggest that not only does Wisconsin incarcerate African-Americans at a rate higher than any other state but also that Madison is the center of this dark storm of injustice. Although African-Americans constitute only 4% of the population of Dane County, they far outnumber whites in the prison system. Oliver’s data goes as far as to show that African-American males, between the ages of 20-29, are 36 times more likely, and African-American females 42 times, than their white counterparts to be incarcerated.
Oliver writes that “Dane County’s black imprisonment rates are so high relative to whites that the white rates do not even show on the graph.” In a broader state-wide perspective, other people of color are being incarcerated at similarly alarming rates; American-Indians at 6 times and Latinos at 5 times the rates of whites.
To explain away the horrifying rates of incarcerated African-Americans as simply the result of justice is to miss the point entirely. That people of color are more often caught for non-violent crimes does not necessarily imply that they are the only ones participating in these activities. “Much of the racial disparity in arrests,” Oliver writes, “arises from where police concentrate their efforts.” This results in the current ravaging of Madison’s low-income communities of color. Resultant are such programs as Madison’s anti-loitering ordinance, which legitimizes the racial profiling of specific areas and of anyone who fits a set of ethnic stereotypes and expectations.
The rate by which the United States incarcerates African-Americans rivals that of other, brutal, “authoritarian” nations, such as apartheid South Africa. Madison currently sports a rate twice that of the national average. Is this the image of a city truly “committed” to interracial harmony and justice? Perhaps a more accurate picture would be found if we were to investigate the story of Rene Campos, a former UW-Madison Chicano student who was found dead in a Madison jail cell, a t-shirt jammed 6 inches down his throat, his head and skull heavily clubbed and bruised. To this day, the Madison police claim it was a suicide. Is this a police force “committed” to serving the entire Madison community?
Racial profiling has also attacked many other communities across the nation. South-Asian and Middle-Eastern communities have been specifically targeted since the 9-11 tragedy. More than 1,000 Middle-Eastern men and women have “disappeared” after government investigations which targeted them solely on the basis of their nationalities. Their families, friends and lawyers have not been informed of their whereabouts, well-being or even if they have been charged with a crime. These actions have been sanctioned by the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which broadly defines “domestic terrorism” as any act of “political protest.”
Here at the UW-Madison, students attempted to organize in order to inform international students of their own civil rights when confronted by federal agents.
Despite these efforts, the offices of the Dean of Students and International Students Services both declined to inform international students of what is constitutionally theirs. The information was deemed “too political.”
Whether dealing with incarceration rates, police brutality, welfare or immigrants’ civil liberties, racial profiling is an extremely vital issue.
It lies at the heart of how our country continues, decade after decade, to erase the rights of millions of people. Whether we can work to eradicate racial profiling, in all its forms, will determine whether or not we fulfill the notions of liberty and justice that form the foundation of this nation.
I therefore would like to extend a call to welcome all readers to participate in an Anti-Racial Profiling March, happening this Saturday, April 27. The march will begin at 12:30 p.m. at Brittingham park (at the junction of Park St. and West Washington Ave.) and proceed up Park Street, through Library Mall and down to the Capitol. At 2 p.m. there will be various featured speakers and performers, including Robert Miranda of Milwaukee?s Education for the People, various local hip-hop artists, Mr. Parker of Smokin? with Superman, the MEChA Teatro collective and speakers from the Asian Freedom Project.
If you feel at all troubled by the injustices raging around you, I encourage you to march in this rally and ensure that your voice breaks the facade of a city wrapped in its own self-aggrandized delusions.
Jesse Kiley (abuelito9@aol.com) is a senior majoring in African-American Studies and Women Studies. He is the Student of Color Liaison to ASM (information concerning Wisconsin/Madison incarceration rates may be found at Professor Pam Oliver’s link on the UW Sociology website- www.ssc.wis.edu/~oliver)
