Vanita Gupta: The criminalization of poverty

Vanita Gupta, an Indian/American, heads the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.

VANITA GUPTA, the head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, compared Flint, Michigan to Ferguson, Mo., in a speech she gave Friday (Feb. 19) at a two-day symposium on the criminalization of poverty held at the University of Michigan Law School.

"In communities across America today, from Ferguson, Mo., to Flint, Mich., too many people — especially young people and people of color – live trapped by the weight of poverty and injustice," said Gupta. "They suffer the disparate impact of policies driven by, at best, benign neglect, and at worst, deliberate indifference. And they see how discrimination stacks the deck against them."

Before he left office in 2014, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Gupta, who at the time was deputy legal director for the ACLU, had “spent her entire career working to ensure that our nation lives up to its promise of equal justice for all.” He also praised her ability to work across the aisle.

“We come from a different side of spectrum than ACLU,” says Marc Levin, policy director for the conservative criminal justice reform organization Right on Crime. “But, I’ve found her interested in identifying areas where we can work together.”

The 41-year-old lawyer was born in Philadelphia to Indian/American immigrant parents and later went on to Yale University and New York University's Law School. 

Her most famous case was also one of her first. While working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 2003, Gupta successfully got a judge to overturn the convictions of 38 African Americans from Tulia, Texas after they were wrongfully arrested in a drug sting.

Gupta led the DOJ investigation of the Ferguson police department after a police officer fatally shot the unarmed Michael Brown, and African American teenager. The DOJ file suit on Feb. 10 against the City of Ferguson in order to force the city to institute reform in its policing policies.

The civil-rights lawsuit against Ferguson alleges the city routinely violated residents’ rights and misused law enforcement to generate revenue — a practice the government said was “ongoing and pervasive.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Ferguson’s decision to reject the agreement left the department no choice except to sue.

"As we discuss the inequality that pervades our criminal justice system – a defining civil rights challenge of the 21stcentury – we must also acknowledge the broader inequalities we face in other segments of society," she said at the symposium. 

RELATED: Read Vanita Gupta's complete speech

"Discrimination in so many areas – from the classroom, to the workforce, to the marketplace – perpetuates the inequality we see in our justice system. And for those already living paycheck-to-paycheck, a single incident – whether an arrest by the police or a fine by the court – can set off a downward spiral. It can lead to a cycle of profound problems that ruin lives and tear apart families. Problems like losing your health care, your job, your children or your home."

"Too many people grow up in our country and view justice as the provenance of the wealthy. They hear about the ideal of equal justice, but they find that in reality, it feels distant from the grasp of their community – far off and out of reach.

"Together," she concluded, "we must fulfill the fundamental promise of America – a promise that is written throughout our Constitution and woven into the fabric of our nation – so that we can make equal justice, equal opportunity and fundamental fairness a reality for all."

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For more news about Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Talking about race, part 3: Two Americas

THE GAP between the two different perspectives of America has never been more starkly delineated than in the last few weeks by the recent events in in Ferguson and New York City.

There is the one America we wish we could be and the alternate America where lives the poor, the disenfranchised and the neglected. The believers in the former can't see or hear the latter and the latter find themselves further and further from obtaining the so-called American dream. 

As always, the true America lies somewhere between the two perspectives. 

Ferguson is just the latest chapter in the ongoing story of this country's race relations and is the latest example of the sharp divide between the two camps.

No doubt, the United States has come a lo-o-ong way from the days of slavery, but Ferguson shows that we have a lo-o-ong way to go. The video below shows James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show in 1968 explaining his perspective to those who just don't get racism and how insidious and how deeply ingrained it is in the "perfect" America of our dreams.

It's hard to have an honest and substantive discussion about racism when one party doesn't want to talk about it, see it, reminded about it or even admit that it still exists.

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If Baldwin didn't get his message across, sports icon Muhammad Ali expressed the same message on another interview in 1971 where he shows why he is the greatest.

Yeah, he's got some funny lines there but he made his point. Sometimes, humor can get be more acceptable for people who don't want to listen to the hard truth.

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More recently, just last week, comedian Chris Rock used humor to speak about race and America in an interview in New York Magazine. He may not have the gravitas of Baldwin, but amongst the sarcasm and humor, you can find the truth.

Rock turns the general perspective of (white) America looking at African Americans as if they were outside of our society and puts that white perspective under a microscope to by analyzed, dissected and talked about on the Sunday news shows. Its brilliant how he puts the onus on white people to change.

When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it's all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they're not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before…

So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he's the first black person that is qualified to be president. That's not black progress. That's white progress. There's been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship's improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, "Oh, he stopped punching her in the face." It's not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn't. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let's hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

Nice!

About white people, he said they needed to own up to their role in race relations besides just tsk-tsking about slavery and white privilege:

Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.

About racism, he said:

But the thing is, we treat racism in this country like it’s a style that America went through. Like flared legs and lava lamps. Oh, that crazy thing we did. We were hanging black people. We treat it like a fad instead of a disease that eradicates millions of people. You’ve got to get it at a lab, and study it, and see its origins, and see what it’s immune to and what breaks it down.

Rock is a comedian so people may not take him as seriously as academics, but in his role as Everyman, he's hit a bulls-eye.

The interviews of Baldwin, Ali and Rock are decades apart but as they show: the conversation on race may have started, but has anybody been listening? There's a lot more that needs to be said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was written before Chris Rock's gaff joking about Asians when he hosted the Academy Awards in 2018 amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Needless to say, those racist jokes were one more piece of evidence to show that America still has a lot that needs to be said about race.

Talking about race, Part 1: Ferguson, America is in the Heart

Photo by Anonymous

IN RECENT DAYS, there has been a lot written about how the events in Ferguson impact Asian Americans.

The discussion of race in America has historically been dominated by the black and white dynamics. We all know the reason this is so. However, the emergence of Latinos, Native Americans and Asians have made the conversation more complicated.

While Latinos have centered most of their civil rights efforts around immigration and education, no central issue has galvanized the Asian community into a single cohesive force even though we are subject to the same racial profiling, institutional racism and demeaning stereotypes as African Americans and Latinos.

I don't think we should be talking about Asian, Latino responses to Ferguson as if we are outsiders looking in. Ferguson should be an issue for us -- for all of us -- as Americans. For this, I look back at perhaps the most famous paragraphs from Carlos Bulosan's iconic America is in the Heart:

Fil-Am writer Carlos Bulosan 

"America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling on a tree.

"America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities is closed to him.

"We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrantnt and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate -- We are America."


We are America. Ferguson is an American issue; our issue -- no matter to what ethnic or racial group you belong.

Several commentaries have been written about Ferguson and what it means to Asian Americans. Most widely read is the essay by Jack Linshi of Time Magazine, "Why Ferguson should matter to Asian-Americans."(Most discouraging has been the racist responses to his article.)

Grace Hwang Lynch has an interesting take in her blog. She has more links to other commentaries by Asian Americans so it's not like the Asian American community has been silent on the issue. But shouting from The Edge is often unheard by the white-perspective-dominated mainstream media.

The support for justice in Ferguson is more widely spread among communities of color than mainstream media has thus far reported. Some media outlets, like Faux News, would have its viewers and readers believe that Asian Americans do not support the protestors in Ferguson.

Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, offered his personal thoughts and said it was important to validate people’s anger about the grand jury decision.

“I think it is imperative to validate the frustrations that millions of Americans across the country are experiencing at this moment,” Pan said.  “Sometimes anger is not only justified, it is morally required. I believe that this is one of those times.

“We have an obligation to be angry because the death of Michael Brown and the failure of the grand jury to indict his killer, Darren Wilson, must be understood in the context of racial discrimination and oppression in the United States.”

“We urgently call upon the White House, the Department of Justice and congressional leaders to review and address the ongoing pattern and practice of racial violence and systemic discriminatory treatment by law enforcement of our communities of color,” warned Gregory Cendana, Chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) in a statement. 

In their own statement, Asian Americans Advancing Justice said the death of Michael Brown and other African Americans by police officers, "show us that the racial profiling and violence that African Americans experience run deep and happen because of systemic failures."

We need to remember that the Grand Jury decision to not recommend charges agains Darren Wilson is not the final word. The investigation by the Department of Justice continues to look into Ferguson.

"The reality is that what we see in Ferguson is not restricted to Ferguson." said Attorney General Eric Holder. "There are other communities around this country that have these same issues that have to be dealt with and we at the Justice Department are determined to do all that we can to bridge those divides. 

"We launched in September our Building Communities of Trust initiative to provide training to law enforcement and communities on bias reduction and procedural fairness and we plan to apply evidence-based strategies in the five pilot sites around the country. This is all designed to bridge those divides, bridge those gaps between law enforcement and the communities that they serve. These gaps, these divides exist in other parts of the country beyond Ferguson and our focus will be nationally in its scope to try to deal ultimately with these issues. ... This isn't just about talking. We want to ensure that concrete steps are taken to address these underlying barriers to trust," said Holder.

18 Million Rising - an Asian American progressive website - is urging its readers to join an online petition started by Colorofchange that will be sent to the White House.

The Grand Jury report and recommendation sparked violent protests throughout the country. Yes, it is unfortunate that some of the demonstrators are using the protests to hide their wanton destruction of private and public property. It is also unfortunate that the media chooses to focus on these acts of violence rather than the underlying reasons behind the anger and frustration. 

Pew graphic

There will be differences within the Asian American community and the gamut of opinions on Ferguson is wide.

The rapid rise in Asian immigration has also created a historical gap in the Asian American community. The killing of Vincent Chin, the last event that united the Asian American community, happened in 1982, occurred way before the majority of Asian and Pacific Islanders came to this country. They haven't heard the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the World War II Internment of the Japanese Americans, the Filipino farmworkers' struggle because they've been so immersed with trying to adjust to their new home. They don't identify themselves Asian-American, much less, with other communities of color.

They don't know the history of the civil rights movement nor how Asians, Native Americans, African Americans and Latinos united during the Third World Strike, and they don't know - yet - that we have more in common with each other and the other communities of color than we have with those who would prefer we fight among ourselves.

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Media's double standard flares up when covering violence

MAINSTREAM MEDIA likes to see itself as the Public Watchdog, the Fourth Estate and enjoys "exposing" corruption, malfeasance, government officials, and the like but they most enjoy exposing hypocrisy. But who watches the watchdog?

The choice of words is important. See the difference how how the media handled Ferguson and the violence that broke out during a pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire held last weekend (Oct. 18). The difference is - of course - the protesters in Ferguson were black "thugs." The rioters in Keene were "rowdy" white college students.

Don't think it wasn't noticed. The Twitterverse was ... uh, ... atwitter at the obvious discrepancies in how the two events were reported.

News.Mic collected a lot of the tweets about the Keene pumpkin riot. Most were of the sarcastic variety: 

The above photo looks more than harmless kids just being kids.

The article pointed out the obvious: 

"They deftly point out a sad truth: The media discusses acts of violence and vandalism by primarily white college students in a starkly different manner than black youths." 

"Michael Brown — the unarmed black teenager killed by a police officer in August — was 'no angel.' He was a 'criminal and a thug.' He flashed gang signs. But the white teenagers involved in Saturday's riots? They were just a "rowdy crowd." They were 'unruly.' People simply 'got too drunk.'" 

In Keene there were few arrests. Police referred the kids to their parents. The police - who were mocked on national TV by John Oliver for purchasing an armored vehicle - overreacted. But they did get to use their armored truck and other cool stuff they got from the military. 

The media is not solely to blame. The public itself showed their true colors (pun intended) as described in this article from Salon, which also referred to tweeters.

The problem with the boys-will-be-boys news coverage is the editors, reporters and publishers were blind to their own inherent bias. Some might call that "institutional racism," a buzz word sure to generate a defensive response. What say you, media folks?

The the long term solution is a bit more daunting. It's well known about the diversity problem in our country's newsrooms.  It is more prevalent in the print media since TV is a visual medium, in areas where there is great diversity, it only makes sense to have your anchors and reporters look like the people they are reporting on.

Harried reporters, pressured to produce more and more stories, find it easier and faster to do the majority of their work on the Internet or the phone. Most of the time, their readers  don't know what they look like.

When I worked for the Bob Maynard-owned Oakland Tribune, the news staff was truly integrated, from the copy kids to upper management.  Maynard hired the best reporters and editors, no matter what color. Men and women of color had management positions, their concerns were taken seriously and they reflected the people of Oakland. It was my first experience in mainstream media and for a journalist of color, it was the best and most stimulating working experience I had ever had. Little did I know that the diverse newsroom  was an aberration, not the norm.

For the few years he owned the Trib before his death, Maynard's conviction on hiring the best and brightest demonstrated that the quality of the staff. They were as good as any in the country - eventually resulting in a Pulitzer for their coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Publishers are well aware of the diversity problem and for years have talked a good game about their concern, but any progress towards achieving a more diverse news staff seem to be moving backwards.  Unfortunately, as the country grows more diverse, the newsrooms are cutting their news staff because of the economic woes caused by the growth of the Interenet. And so it goes: the most recently hired - you know the reporters and editors of color - are the first to be fired. So the problem gets even worse. 

As the news coverage of Ferguson and Keene shows, it's one step forward and two steps back. It is disturbing that the editors didn't catch the double standard themselves. Instead, it took tweeters to expose the mainstream media's shortcomings.

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