JALSA in The Boston Globe: “Efforts to address discrimination should not be conflated with discrimination“
Full letter to the editor of The Boston Globe at this link.
Efforts to address discrimination should not be conflated with discrimination
In his Aug. 23 column, Jeff Jacoby leans on the fact that our country was “founded on the principle that all persons are created equal” while ignoring the reality that all have never been treated equally in practice (“Corporate America is on notice: Discriminating by race is illegal,” Opinion). Whether by misunderstanding or on purpose, too many promote a mind-set that efforts to address centuries of discrimination are the so-called real discrimination.
A haunting statistic from a 2015 study by the Boston Federal Reserve Bank found that, in Greater Boston, the median net worth for white households was almost $250,000, but for Black households, the figure was $8. Eight dollars. Nationally, the gap is nearly as stark, according to a 2019 study: $188,200 for white households, $24,100 for Black households.
In Boston, a persistent racial gap in homeownership remains. White residents’ homeownership rate is 44 percent compared with 30 percent for Black residents. Nationally, the gap is even starker: 72.7 percent for white people, 44 percent for Black residents.
This is the outcome of centuries of injustice. Meanwhile, white Americans have been eligible for programs not available to Black Americans, such as Federal Housing Administration insurance that led to redlining or “white only” public housing projects, thus benefiting from racial discrimination in government programs for generations.
Affirmative action is a method of addressing discrimination, not discrimination itself. This calls to mind an oft-used expression among those working to achieve social justice: To the beneficiaries of injustice, efforts toward equality can feel like oppression.
Jordan Berg Powers
Member of the board and the Jews of Color Advisory Committee
Cindy Rowe
President and CEO
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
Boston