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Status of Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS)
Submitted to the United Nation’s Working Group of Experts
on Status of People of African Descent
December 16, 2015
Submitted By
Racial Justice Now![1]
Vernellia R. Randall[2]
Professor Emerita of Law
Principal Author
On behalf of:
22 Community Organizations[3]
70 Community Activists[4]
COVER EMAIL TO WORKING GROUP
RacialJusticeNow in conjunction with 22 organizations and 70 individuals submit a Report on the Status of Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States. We submit this report in preparation for the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent's visit to the United States in January 2016. We are concern that notwithstanding the Working Group's mandate there has not been a clear reference to the unique circumstances of the Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS). Neither the report from the Working group's initial visit to the US or the report from the Working Group's annual conference earlier this year addresses the issues of DAEUS.
Not addressing DAEUS is a significant oversight that must be addressed in this upcoming visit. To effectively address the issues confronting blacks in the United States, it is essential that Working Group recognizes that the situation of DAEUS is different from other minorities including immigrant blacks.
We hope that our report help lays the foundation for that recognition, and we are prepared to provide support and testimony. To that end, we would appreciate the opportunity to talk with the Working Group during your visit and would be happy to meet you at one of your planned stops.
KEY POINTS
1. In three phases of American history, the law has been used to oppress people of African descent: the invention of racial slavery, the re-creation of slave-like conditions through legal Apartheid (also known as Jim Crow) and the re-creation of Jim Crow through the new American Apartheid. All of those phases have had a profound impact on people of African descent, but the actual nature of the effect is unknown because the United States fails to collect data on Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS).2. Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS) origins are only here in the United States and cannot be compared to African immigrants any other racial or ethnic group. In fact, many members of every ethnic group, (e.g. Irish, Chinese, Italians, Jews, Native Americans, Mexicans, Afro-Caribbeans, and immigrant Black Americans) has attempted to negotiate America's racial hierarchy. Their particular aim has been to distance themselves from the bottom (DAEUS) and assimilate into the melting pot of America. Many individuals from these groups implicitly accepted and perpetuated racial hierarchy, shoring up rather than dismantling white supremacy and racism.[5]
3. The United States through its system of laws and enforcement of law permits and authorizes racial discrimination in every area of American life. The American Economic and political system based on anti-black racism has a disparate impact on all Blacks, and the impact on DAEUS specifically is unknown. Consequently, the United States violates article 2, 3, and 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
4. Widespread anti-black racism and the development of a new structure of systemic and institutional oppression causes the current (2015) economic, social and political well-being of DAEUS to approximate the system of legal apartheid in the United States from 1870 to 1964.
QUESTIONS FOR THE UNITED STATES
5. Does the United States recognize that the situation of Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States is different from other racial minorities including immigrant blacks? Why? Why not?
6. Why doesn’t the United States authorize legal actions for reckless racial discrimination and negligent racial discrimination?
7. What studies have the United States done on the status of Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States? When was the last one done? What recommendations came out of the study? What was the result of the recommendations? When is the next study?
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES
8. Amend census and data collection category to have more ethnic categories for Blacks including a category for DAEUS (Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States).
9. Conduct racial impact study on all policies and laws with particular attention to the impact on DAEUS.
10. Require any federal, state, county and city that receives any federal funding to collect data on the impact of programs using federal funds on DAEUS and publish that data electronically for the public.
11. Train government agencies and federal contractors on anti-black racism, systemic racism analysis, and ICERD obligations.
12. Revise anti-discrimination law to include all forms of racial discrimination including reckless racial discrimination and negligent racial discrimination.
WHO ARE DAEUS AND WHY FOCUS ON DAEUS? [6]
13. Black Americans are Americans of black African descendant, including African Americans and immigrants from Africa, South America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. [7]
14. African Americans are black Americans who are descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States. Unfortunately, in popular culture, African American is often used to describe any American, who is of Black African descent, including recent immigrants. For example, President Obama is described and self-identifies as African American even though his ancestors were not enslaved in the United States.
15. To understand the effects of systemic white supremacy and anti-black racism in the US, we need to understand the historical circumstances that make DAEUS an especially vulnerable group. Many groups address intersectionality the compounding effect of being for example, gay, fe male, , Latino. Few address the impact of being descendants of enslaved Africans and legal apartheid.
16. TThe existence of DAEUS in the United States resulted from a unique confluence of historical events that brought Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans together, creating the so-called “New World” of the Americas based on Atlantic worlds of economic, cultural, and political connections. The racial and ethnic uniqueness of DAEUS from the “discovery” and colonization of this “New World” and by subsequent events that culminated in the creation of the United States. The United States established a distinctive legal framework that espoused freedom and democracy while brutally suppressing people of African descent regarding them as nothing but property and chattel. Over 544 years, in three phases of American history, the law has been used to oppress people of African descent: the invention of racial slavery, the re-creation of slave-like condition through legal Apartheid (also known as Jim Crow) and the re-creation of Jim Crow through the new American Apartheid.
17. Understanding this historical trajectory is essential to understanding the situation of DAEUS. The cultural and social dynamics that followed each phase of these historical periods targeted DAEUS. DAEUS fought, struggled, and died to hold the nation founded on the principles of freedom and democracy to these philosophical ideals. From 1492 through the Modern Civil Rights Movement to today in the new American Apartheid, a system of white supremacy based on anti-black racism has been allowed to continue. Thus, the Descendants of Enslaved Africans have been vulnerable throughout this history.
18. The situation of DAEUS is a result of racial slavery. Without the mass transfer of people from the African continent to the Americas, the invention of the white race, the construction of racial slavery under British colonial rule, and the consequent racial mixing with people of European and Native American descent, the racial category of DAEUS would not exist. Because of the brutality of American slavery, most DAEUS cannot trace their family histories beyond their sale to a slaveholder.[8] DAEUS, who can trace their ancestors to the period of slavery, usually cannot identify the trail into any specific country or tribe in African. They have no knowledge of their African ancestry, only that their forebears arrived in the "New World" as property. This is not only tragic, but it uniquely defines native-born DAEUS as a special group in world history – we are a product of the creation of this “New World” and deserve special recognition as a people.
19. The horror of this Middle Passage was the start of the DAEUS identity. The survivors of the Middle Passage came to comprise a generalized African culture through this shared experience of brutal suppression and exploitation.
20. In the “New World,” enslaved Africans, burdened with the responsibility of trying to understand themselves and form a new identity as their captors tried to strip them of their psychological and cultural individuality, identity, and dignity. In the British North Americas, the Africans were sent into regionally distinct colonies, each having established legal perpetual and hereditary slavery based on race. In each of these 13 colonies, people of African descent were held as property, and free blacks were less than and separate from whites under the law. Whether enslaved African or free, to be black meant enslavement or in a state close to slavery. For example, within the first century of Virginia’s establishment (the flagship colony of the British), laws defining hereditary enslavement were based on the woman’s enslavement status. This enabled holders of enslaved Africans to prosper from black women’s reproductive abilities through rape and forced breeding of enslaved women to natural increase their property ownership and the profit of the slaveholder. There were miscegenation laws, where free blacks and free whites could not legally marry. The children of such unions were deemed “bastards” and were bound out by the courts. Slave-owners frequently separated enslaved children from their parents. Slaveowners socialized enslaved African children as subjected people, as servants. The model of enslavement and the institution of racial slavery based on black subjugation in this first British colony in the New World set up the legal and economic model of slavery in Britain's other colonies.
21. There have been many deep and profound questions about how black slavery and white freedom could and would co-exist in a nation that was founded not only religious freedom but also upon the principles of economic and political freedom and opportunity. Holders of Enslaved Africans wrote the founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. This allowed for an acceptance of the coexistence of slavery and freedom in the American mind, and the centrality of racial slavery and black subjugation in the nation’s legal and racial consciousness. Americans have therefore inherited an acceptance of legal racial disparities. Even the U.S. Constitution did not have any explicit references to slavery or enslavement; it was left up to federal and state lawmakers to decide whether or not a state would be slave owning. This conflict of state laws led to the American Civil War.
22. Even though the Civil War was fought to eliminate slavery and Constitutional amendments secured citizenship rights for DAEUS, the 13th amendment specifically permits slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. Thus, a protracted system of black codes established legal apartheid at the federal and state levels. This legal apartheid, commonly known as Jim Crow, resulted in separate and unequal educational facilities and opportunities, substandard housing, limited access to quality health care, and limited economic and political opportunities. Also, lynchings and murders of DAEUS men and women went unprosecuted and created a climate of terror under which DAEUS had no legal recourse.
23. Since 1980, a new system of legal apartheid has been constructed. Like the old system, there continues to be slavery a large portion of the Black population based on incarceration. There continues to be legally authorize racial
24. This history, of American racial slavery and legal apartheid, survives in the nation’s racial and legal consciousness and perpetuates racial disparities in the United States. However, many DAEUS without doing their own family’s research, only know these broad strokes (if that) in their individual identity as a people or in their understanding of self. It is a rich history, but one that is unveiled only through study and self-education. What makes DAEUS unique is that they were placed into their condition by force. Their segregation and subjugation as a result of their historical, political, and cultural, exploitation benefitted the United States. The enslavement of African thus gave other oppressed groups a legal, cultural, economic, and political advantage when they voluntarily migrated to the United States.
ANTI-BLACK RACISM AND ITS IMPACT
25. "There is no hierarchy of oppressions where race is concerned, but anti-black racism is the fulcrum of white supremacy." Scott Nakagawa[9]
26. A fulcrum is "the spot about which a lever turns" or "one that supplies capability for action." Enslaved Africans and their descendants laid the economic foundation for American prosperity. At the same time, DAEUS became the common enemy to unite "white -skinned" people. Fear and loathing are the driving force of modern-day racial politics. Anti-black biases are so widespread that 75% of whites and 42% of blacks reportedly have a pro-white, anti-black bias.[10]
27. Anti-black racism is killing the descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. By looking at the health of DAEUS, one can get a full understanding of the impact of systemic racism.
28. In the United States, an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 excess black deaths occur each year. "Excess deaths" are those that would not happen if black Americans had the same death rate as white Americans.[11] These figures are the equivalent of one jumbo jet of African-American passengers and crew crashing and killing everyone each day.
29. The figure on life expectancy can also show the impact of systemic racism on Black Americans. According to the World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency, life expectancy at birth is a measure of the quality of life in a country.[12]
30. Based on international comparisons of life expectancy, the quality of life for black American males and females is worse than males and females in several so-called developing countries, including Chile, Barbados, Cuba and Jamaica. That is if black American men’s life expectancy were ranked as a country at 69 years old, black males ranked 75th behind Jamaica; black women ranked 55th behind Bosnia and similar to Jamaica. [13] This ranking is 45 points lower than white males and 20 points lower than white females. The burden that is being carried by Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS) is unknown because the United States does not collect data specific to our status.
31. For DAEUS, this difference in health is a result of institutional and systemic racism and the impact of slavery, legal apartheid, and the new American apartheid.
32. Distinguishing racism from classism is critical to understanding the state of DAEUS. According to one study, race and class are independent factors. Low-income whites live three years longer than low-income blacks, and middle-income whites lived ten years longer than middle-income blacks. In another study, black women with a college education had more low birth weight babies than white women with less than a high school education. This means that while middle-income blacks are doing better than low-income blacks, institutional and systemic racism prevents middle-income and poor blacks from doing as well as middle-income and poor whites.
33. This is because the United States has a system of oppression that is every bit as onerous as legal apartheid. Racially neutral laws and policies form the basis of the new American apartheid. However, these laws and practices are implemented in a way that has an unintended discriminatory effect. US anti-discrimination law addresses only intentional racism. Congressional Republicans and Democrats have both refused to allow DAEUS and other’s access to the courts for implicit and institutional discrimination.
36. The old system of racism on which much of American law is based requires an explicit belief in white superiority, active promotion of segregation, a belief in a biological-based intellectual inferiority, blatant discrimination and the promotion of terror through lynching and violence. This sort of discrimination is perpetrated by individuals and institutions. In the new American apartheid, the racial discourse and practices that have a discriminatory impact are increasingly covert based on implicit biases. The new American apartheid avoids racial terminology, claims that whites are also victims of discrimination, avoids direct racial references in politics, and has rendered the mechanisms of racial inequality invisible. The new American apartheid has reestablished many of the elements of legal apartheid. Among those elements are stated-sanctioned violence, residential and educational segregation, a system of economics that depends on keeping blacks from fully participating in the system, and restrictions on their political and civil rights.
37. Both liberals and conservatives promote this new American apartheid. Conservative defenders of the new American apartheid believe that the racial hierarchy is legally irrelevant to the constitutional principle of legal protection unless it is state-sponsored, conscious discrimination and unless that behavior is the proximate cause. The conservative response to racial inequality is to do nothing. Moreover, conservatives are convinced that racial re-marginalized groups should merely choose the proper cultural values so that they can take advantage of the new race-blind landscape.
38. Liberal supporters of the new American apartheid think that race does matter but not much. They are sometimes capable of being race-sensitive, but rarely. They view frontal attacks on racial conditions as divisive and prefer not to take direct action against racial inequality. They, like conservatives supporters of the new American apartheid, are convinced that racially marginalized groups should just change their cultural values.
39. What both liberal and conservative supporters of the new American apartheid ignore is that systemic and cultural racism is having a devastating impact on the descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States.
40. The entire history of enslaved Africans and their descendants has been one of deprivation and oppression. DAEUS ancestors were stolen from the continent of Africa and dragged to the Americas. Slavery in the United States denied enslaved African and their descendants any legal status and severed their connections to their traditional culture, language, religion and history. DAEUS origins are only here in the United States and cannot be compared to African immigrants any other racial or ethnic group.
41. Oppression based on socioeconomic class, gender, religion and sexual identity complicate the situation of some DAEUS.17
42. DAEUS suffer harm passed down from generations of and a current system of embedded social and racial inequalities that deprive them of opportunities and undermine the welfare of each member of the community regardless of his or her socioeconomic class.
43. Supporters of the new American apartheid fail to recognize that the choices that DAEUS make are based on the choices that are available to them. In the sea of racial oppression and deprivation, DAEUS do not have the same choices or receive the same treatment of that similarly situated whites do.[14]
44. In relationship to DAEUS, the United States has violated Articles 2, 3 and 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.[15]
45. The United States has failed to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. The Supreme Court of the United States interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964[16] is that it forbids intentional discrimination. The law permits all other forms of discrimination including negligent discrimination. There is nothing on in the constitution that explicit limits discrimination law to intentional. Since most discrimination is based non-intentional conduct, the law permits most discrimination.
46. Furthermore, United States has blocked direct access to the court for disparate impact discrimination. In 2001, in Alexander v. Sandoval[17], the Supreme Court held that individuals could not sue for disparate impact discrimination because it was a right of action created by regulation. The Court held that the only recourse was to file a complaint with the appropriate government agency. Given the political nature of agency, this effectively limits access to a remedy. This could have been remedied by the passage of a law granting direct access to the courts. However, in the 14 years since that decision, there has been no attempt to solve this problem by any president or Congress. This is devastating since most discrimination is disparate impact or negligent discrimination based on implicit bias rather than intent. Thus, the United States has allowed a law to stand that perpetuates racial discrimination rather than eliminate it.
47. The United States has established and maintained a system of racial segregation and legal apartheid.[18]
48. Since slavery, the United States has supported segregation in housing and education. Despite the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka[19] and Civil Rights Act of 1964[20], the segregation and isolation of black children has increased. In fact, “40 percent students attend schools that are more than 90 percent minority, up from 34 percent 20 years ago. Then, black students typically attended schools where 40 percent were low-income; it is now 60 percent.”25
49. Furthermore, through mass incarceration, United States have de facto re-established slavery. The prison system has become a financial center fueled by black bodies. “Between 1990 and 2009, the inmate population of private prisons grew by 1,664%. Today approximately 130,000 people are incarcerated by for-profit companies. In 2010, annual revenues for two largest companies — Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group — were near $3 billion.”[21]
50. The school-to-prison pipeline is out of school suspensions and expulsions that lead to school dropout and prison. The out-of-school suspensions start early. While black children represent only 18% of preschool enrollment, they represent 42% of the preschool children suspended once, and 48% of the preschool children suspended more than once.[22]
51. DAEUS communities are immersed in a sea of systemic and cultural racism that limits the individual and community choices and opportunities.[23]
52. Systemic and cultural anti-black racism are evident in black-white disparities in every major area of American life.[24] For instance:
The total 2015 Equality Index of Black America was 72.2%, meaning that black Americans enjoy less than 75% of the benefits and privileges of white Americans.[35]
53. The situation has gotten worse since 2006, with the equality index dropping by two points. The most disturbing drop is in “Social Justice."43 In eight years, Blacks have lost almost 20 points in “Social Justice," meaning that
Blacks have only slightly more than 50% of the rights and opportunities that whites do when it comes to “equality before the law” and “victimization and mental anguish." 44 This is due to rampant racial profiling and "Stand your Ground" laws that permit killings based on fear and suspicion. Furthermore, given the anti-black bias, these laws are not enforced equitably.
54. Even more disturbing is the widespread lynching of Black Americans. Between 1882 and 1968, there was 3446 known lynching. That is, on average 40 per year.[36] In 2012, there were 136 extrajudicial killings or lynching of unarmed black men by police, security guards and vigilantes. Thus, in 2012, one black person was killed in an extrajudicial shooting every 28 hours.[37]
55. Another area of racial oppression is mass incarceration. 1 in every 15 Black men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men.[38] Black women are three times more likely than white women to be incarcerated.48
56. This is especially disturbing as the for-profit prison system takes over responsibility for incarceration. Given the profit and economics in prisoners, it returns black bodies to the state of slavery and legal apartheid. The federal government has done little to stop this type of racial discrimination.
57. Systemic and cultural racism has an impact on all people of color: Asian, Native American and Hispanic. Because of Anti-black racism, however, Blacks suffer disproportionately. The burden that is being carried by descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS) is unknown because the United States does not collect data specific to our status.
APPENDIX A: BLACK FARMERS: IT'S STILL ABOUT THE LAND![39]
58. Black farmers in the United States continue to suffer from unlawful racial discrimination and persecution. Despite anti-discrimination laws, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible. Discrimination in the USDA farm loan and benefits programs has been well documented. This discrimination includes denial of production loans, other financial assistance available to white farmers, and program benefits. Black farmers continue to experience hostility, bias, and outright discrimination especially at the county-level offices of USDA. In the 1980s, the USDA gutted its civil rights enforcement program and USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack, appointed by President Obama, has failed to fire a single employee for discrimination that he maintains “happened twenty years ago.”[40]
59. In 1932, when the USDA was founded, Blacks owned approximately sixteen million acres; today, that has dwindled to approximately three million, and Black farmers are struggling to hold on to that land for themselves and their children. Half of those three million acres are at risk of foreclosure. As Black farmers have been denied access to loans for chemicals and irrigation systems, they possess today the most virgin U.S. farmland available for organic, biodynamic farming.
60. When Black farmers filed a class-action lawsuit against the USDA in Pigford v.Glickman, the Clinton Administration negotiated a settlement in 1999. There has been absolutely no progress since then. The problem has been allowed to fester, and USDA has regressed on the issue of civil rights. Black farmers claim that they are being persecuted for bringing these issues to light and live in fear that USDA will take their farms. They contend that the USDA promised debt relief, but never delivered it. The United States government offsets any payment received by the Black farmers for discrimination by reducing the amounts of their pension, Social Security income, or other federal government payments. Further, because of these deliberate actions on the part of the United States government, Black farmers have poor credit histories that render them no choice but to pay as much as 49% interest when borrowing money to carry out their farming activity.
61. The United States government does not hesitate to spend trillions of dollars on war. It is a shame when the US declares war on a segment of its population.
Appendix B Organizations Endorsing this Report
Africa and Diaspora Development Linkages, Columbus, Ohio
AFROAMERICAS (NGO), Washington, DC
Allen Hydro Energy Corporation (AHEC),Reynoldsburg, Ohio
Anti-Racism Media and Black Talk Radio Network, Asheville, NC
Antiracists Alliance, New York, New York
Dinosaurs In Action, New York, New York
Family Solutions Inc., Fairfield, California
Fight Racism Now (FRN), London, England
FunDayInfrared N Radiant Heat System, Dayton, Ohio
Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, Greenville, South Carolina
Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland
National Congress of Black American Indians, Washington DC
Parents for Social Justice, Louisville, KY
Racial Justice NOW!, Dayton, Ohio
Radix Consulting Group, Portland, Oregon
Same Gender Loving Movement Inc., Brooklyn, New York
SharedSpace Lucy Depp Park, Powell, Ohio
Southern University Law Center, Hammond, Louisiana
The Praxis Project, Washington, DC
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, N Dartmouth, MA
University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN
WESPAC Foundation, White Plains, New York
Appendix C: Individuals Endorsing this Report
*For Idenification Purposes Only
Albert Persaud , Co-Founder/Director, The Centre for Applied Research and Evaluation: International Foundation* London, England
Angela Allen-Bell, Associate Professor of Legal Writing & Analysis, Southern University Law Center*, Hammond, Louisiana
Annie Simpson, Physician/Professor of Medicine and Ethics, University of New Mexico Health Sciences School of Medicine*, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Bernard Stevens, Case Worker/ Case Manager, Same Gender Loving Movement Inc.*, Brooklyn, New York
Brenda Randall, Community Activist, Sterling, AK
Byron E. Price, Ph.D Visiting Professor, Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair of Social Justice, Baruch College*, New York, NY
Byron Ward, Chairperson, Community Advocacy Coalition*, Oxnard, CA
Carolyn Perkins, Advisor, Dayton NAACP YOUTH COUNCIL*, Dayton, Ohio
Cat Goughnour, Equity Consultant, Radix Consulting Group*, Portland, Oregon
Charles Campbell, Founder & CEO, Allen Hydro Energy Corporation (AHEC)*, Reynoldsburg, Ohio
Corey Bush, Community Activist, Berea, Kentucky
Cynthia McKinney, PhD, Community Activist, Atlanta, Georgia
Darron Smith, Professor, University of Tennessee*, Memphis, TN
David Greer, Chairperson, Northwest Priority Board*, Dayton, Ohio
Dawan Shockley, Community Activist, Dallas, Texas
Deborah Drinkard, Disabled, Citizen of the USA*, Belle Glade, FL
Deborah Jones-Brown, Web Designer, Dinosaurs In Action*, New York, New York
Dekia Gaither, Community Activist, Richmond, Kentucky
Don Johnson, Community Activist, Critz, VA
Doris Fields, PhD, Adjunct Faculty, University of New Mexico*, Placitas, New Mexico
E. Gwyn Stetler, PhD , Candidate - Graduation 2016 Community Servant Leader, Community Chaplain, Interfaith , Spiritual, Director, Collaborative Business Owner, Transformative Educator SharedSpace Lucy Depp Park*, Powell, Ohio
Efia Nwangaza, Founder/Executive Director, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination*, Greenville, South Carolina
Elizabeth Webster, Doctoral Candidate, Walden University*, Atlanta, GA
Gloria Dell Allen, Retired Educator, Dayton, OH
Isaiah Imani, organizer, Fathers & Sons United*, Brooklyn, NY
Jacquelyn N'Jai, Educator, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
James Holloway, Retired salesperson, Cincinnati, Ohio
Jasmine Lynch, Teacher, Houston, TX
Jeffrey J Moore, CoFounder CEO., FunDayInfrared N Radiant Heat System*, Dayton, Ohio
Jordan Taylor, Community Activist, Poughkeepsie, NY
Julialynne Walker, Community Activist, Africa, and Diaspora Development Linkages*, Columbus, Ohio
Kathy Hessler, Clinical Law Professor, Lewis & Clark Law School*, Portland, Oregon
Kathy White, Community Activist, Uniondale, Long Island NY
Kimberly Oleary, Professor of law, Wmu Cooley Law School*, Lansing, MI
Kristopher Smoot, Community Activist, East Lansing, Michigan
Laura Greenfield, Student, Lexington, KY
Lindsay Ainsworth, Community Activist, Dayton, Ohio
Logan Smith, Community Activist, Berea, Kentucky
Loretta Ross, Associate, FCWSRC*, Atlanta, Ga
Lubirda Newman, J.D. , Community Activist, Springfield, OR
Makani Themba, Executive Director, The Praxis Project*, Washington, DC
Marian Douglas-Ungaro, Writer and International Consultant in human rights, AFROAMERICAS (NGO)*, Washington, DC
Mary Sue Gmeiner, Community Activist, Dayton, Ohio
Melissa Frampton, Certified Chess Coach, Parents for Social Justice*, Louisville, Ky
Michael Barnes, Community Activist, Chicago, IL
Michael McEachrane, Visiting assistant professor in postcolonial studies at the University, of Bremen in Germany Fight Racism Now (FRN)*, London, England
Mikhail Tutson, Community Activist, McKinney, Texas
Mohamed Hussein, Community Activist, Dayton, Ohio
Myrtie Howard, Retired, Dallas, Texas
Nada Khader, Executive Director, WESPAC Foundation*, White Plains, New York
Niinana Kweku (Rev. Dr.), Doctor of Psychology, Family Solutions INC*, Fairfield, California
Nozipo Glenn, Therapist (retired), Dayton Mental Health Center*, Dayton, Ohio
Nse Ufot, Community Activist, Atlanta, Georgia
Patricia Reid, Assistant Professor, University of Dayton*, Dayton, OH
Paula R Rhodes, Associate Professor, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law*, Denver, CO
Raymond Winbush, Director, Institute for Urban Research, Morgan State University*, Baltimore, Maryland
Robin Benton, Administrator, Anti-Racism Media, Black Talk Radio Network*, Asheville, NC
Rodney Solomon, Jr., Community Activist, Brooklyn, NY
Rose Brewer, Professor, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sandra Bernabei, LCSW, AntiRacist Alliance*, New York, New York
Sharnell Salah-Aldin , Health Unit Coordinator Lexington, Kentucky
Sharon Smith, Multicultural Educator, Asheville, North Carolina
Sono Arima, Artist, Newark, New Jersey
Staci Rucker, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Associate Professor of, Academic Success University of Dayton School of Law*, Dayton, Ohio
Stanley Eichenauer, Retired Social Worker/CEO, Eastway Corporation/USDHHS SAMHSA*, Dayton, Ohio
Talina Hutton, Teacher, Sacramento, CA
Vernellia Randall, Professor Emerita, University of Dayton School of Law*, Dayton, Ohio
Warren Jordon, IT Repair Agent, Geek Squad*, Fort Worth, Tx
Zakiya Sankara-Jabar,Director, Racial Justice NOW!*, Dayton, Ohio
[1]Racial Justice NOW (herein, RJN) is a community based organization made up of educators, parents, clergy, and grassroots activists. “Racial Justice Now (RJN) is a community activist organization dedicated to fighting institutional and systemic racism. By focusing on human rights, RJN seeks to empower other grassroots activists to challenge systemic racism by organizing and holding people in power accountable.” For More information: Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, http://racialjusticenow.org/ (Last Visited: December 14, 2015); RJN!Ohio, http://www.rjnohio.org/ (Last Visited: December 14, 2015).
[2] Professor Vernellia Randall, The University of Dayton, School of Law, Dayton, OH USA,
[3] See, Appendix B: Organizations endorsing this report.
[4] See, Appendix C: Individuals endorsing this report.
[5]Vilna Bashi Treitler, The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction Into Ethnic Factions (2013).
[6]Thanks to Dr. Patricia Reid, Professor of History, University of Dayton for drafting this section.
[7]There is disagreement on the definition of the terms, but that disagreement does not distract from the issue presented by the report - that DAEUS are not adequately acknowledge or protected by the United States Government from anti-black racism.
[8]Not all of the slaveholder were in the south. The North just outlawed enslavement sooner.
[9] Scott Nakagawa, Blackness is the Fulcrum,
http://www.racefiles.com/2012/05/04/blackness-is-the-fulcrum/ (Last Visited: December 14, 2015).
[10]Project Implicit Bias, https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/background/faqs.html#faq19 (Last Visited: December 14, 2015).
[11]Vernellia Randall, Dying While Black (2006).
[12]Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html (Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[13]Randall, Dying While Black, supra note 8.
[14]For example, African American Rastafarian experience significant discrimination in the South Carolina corrections system.
[15]Article 1(1): “In this Convention, the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.” Article 2-1(a) Each State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to ensure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation. Article 2-1(b) Each State Party undertakes not to sponsor, defend or support racial discrimination by any persons or organizations. Article 2-1(d) Each State Party shall prohibit and bring to an end, by all appropriate means, including legislation as required by circumstances, racial discrimination by any persons, group or organization.
[16]Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964.
[17]532 US 275 (2001).
[18]Article 3: States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.
[19]347 U.S. 483 (1954)
[20]Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964
[21]Lisa Wade, Race, rehabilitation and Private Prison, (Jan. 25, 2013)
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/01/25/race-rehabilitation-and-the-private-prison-industry/ (Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[22]U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Civil Rights Data Collection: Data Snapshot (School Discipline) March 21, 2014
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf (Last Visited: December 14, 2015)
[23]Article 5(a): The right to equal treatment before the tribunals and all other organs administering justice; Article 5(b): The right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution; Article 5(e) Economic, social and cultural rights, in particular: (i) The rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to just and favourable remuneration; (ii) The right to form and join trade unions; (iii) The right to housing; (iv) The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services; (v) The right to education and training; (vi) The right to equal participation in cultural activities
[24]National Urban League, One Nation, Underemployed: Jobs, rebuild America, 2014 State of Black America, http://iamempowered.com/sites/all/themes/newiae/SOBA/SOBA2014_HTML5/SOBA2014-SinglePgs/index.html (Last Visited: December 14, 2015)
[25]Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe, Eugene Steuerle, and Sisi Zhang, Less Than Equal Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation, http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412802-Less-Than-Equal-Racial-Disparities-in-Wealth-Accu mulation.pdf (Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[26]Drew Desilver, 5 Facts about Economic Inequality, Pew Research Center, (January 7, 2014); http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/07/5-facts-about-economic-inequality/ (Last Visited: July December 15, 2015).
[27] U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Expansive Survey of America's Public Schools Reveals Troubling Racial Disparities (March 12, 2014) http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/expansive-survey-americas-public-schools-reveals-troubling-racial-disparities, (Last visited: December 15, 2015); National Education Policy Center, Seeing Past the “Colorblind” Myth of Education Policy: Why Policymakers Should Address Racial/Ethnic Inequality and Support Culturally Diverse Schools,
[28]Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2012); Bruce Drake, Incarceration gap widens between whites and blacks, Pew esearch Center (Sept. 6, 2013) http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/06/incarceration-gap-between-whites-and-blac ks-widens/ (Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[29] Randall, Dying While Black, supra. 10.
[30]National Association of Real Estate Broker, The State of Housing in Black America (2013), http://www.nareb.com/shiba-report/ (Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[31]Christian E. Weller and Jaryn Fields, The Black and White Labor Gap in America: Why African Americans Struggle to Find Jobs and Remain Employed Compared to Whites, Center for American Progress (July 25, 2011) ,http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2011/07/pdf/black_unemployment.pdf
(Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[32]Sarah Treuhaft and Allison Karpyn, The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters, PolicyLink (2013) http://thefoodtrust.org/uploads/media_items/grocerygap.original.pdf (Last Visited: December 15, 2015)
[33]Appendix A: Black Farmers: It's Still About the land!, infra; USDA Extension Service at University of Arkansas
[34]Randall, Dying While Black, supra 10.
[35]National Urban League, State of Black America: Save Our Cities (2015) http://soba.iamempowered.com/graphicscharts/2015-graphicscharts(Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[36]Walter Thomas Howard, Lynchings: Extralegal Violence in Florida During the 1930s, p. 18 (2005).
[37]Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual report on the
Extrajudicial Killings of 33 Black People by Police, Secuirty Guards and Vigilantes (April 2013), http://mxgm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Operation-Ghetto-Storm.pdf (last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[38]Sophia Kerby, The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States A Look at the Racial Disparities Inherent in Our Nation’s Criminal-Justice System, (March 13, 2012) http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/ (Last Visited: December 15, 2015).
[39]49Written by Cynthia McKinney, Former United States Representative.
[40]50 See for example, Decline of Black Farming in America, United States Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C., February 1982 and The Minority Farmer: A Disappearing American Resource. Has the Farmers Home Administration Been the Primary Catalyst? H.R. Res. No. 101-984 (1990).
