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They offered an abundance of statistics, facts, theories, anecdotes and raw feelings. But in the end, the experts who took a close look at race relations in America seemed to agree on a simple solution: Start addressing inequality right at home.
For 90 minutes last week at Boston College Law School, a panel of educators and community leaders laid bare the cultural, socioeconomic and political factors they believe conspire to place African-, Hispanic- and Asian-Americans rungs below white Americans in educational and economic opportunities. They acknowledged that halting racial inequality will require the dedication and perseverance that fueled successful civil rights movements of the past, but also suggested that progress can start in small ways — even with a gesture as small as talking openly with someone who doesn’t fully recognize discrimination.
“It’s possible to live in this country and be white and never understand anything about the black experience,” said BC Law Professor Catharine Wells, who served as one of four panelists at the March 18 event, “Civic Engagement in an Equality Recession.”
The discussion tackled inequality head-on in the wake of the fatal shooting of a black man by a white Ferguson, Mo., police officer; the release of a videotape showing University of Oklahoma fraternity members singing a racist song; and other incendiary incidents that have prompted many to again review race relations in the US.
Panelists also recognized recent anniversaries of landmark events: 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education, the US Supreme Court case that prohibited segregation in public schools, and 50 years since the federal Voting Rights Act law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting practices. But they agreed that court rulings, laws and individual actions in years since have lessened the potency of those achievements.
For example, “it’s no coincidence” that southern US states, where the vast majority of African-Americans live, continue to dilute the black vote by enacting legislation such as voter ID laws, said Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts President Darnell Williams, who focused on voting disenfranchisement in his panel talk.
Williams personalized the struggle for equality by recounting how he recently sat down in a Baltimore restaurant, only to have the server ignore him long enough that he finally walked out. He believes he was a victim of discrimination and said such incidents prompt the same kind of hurt African-Americans feel when their vote is diminished by gerrymandering, systematic voter roll purges and ID laws.
Wells offered a detailed review of the cultural biases of standardized tests, including the LSAT, an integral component of the law school admission process. If equality is to be achieved, she said, then it’s necessary to examine whether the LSAT fairly represents academic merit.
In the current system, law schools aim to accept students with high LSAT scores while also trying to attract worthy African-American students, she said – but the imbalance of the test actually works as a gatehouse that keeps out the very students law schools seek.
Tom Shapiro, a Brandeis University law professor and director of the school’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy, focused on economic disparities between white and African-Americans. While solving equal opportunity problems matters greatly, Shapiro said, the US also needs to look closely at the financial structures — including how a white family has $111,000 in assets on average, compared to $7,000 for an African-American family — that compensate African-Americans less than whites despite them accomplishing the same academic and professional achievements.
Northeastern University Professor of Law Susan Maze-Rothstein served as moderator for the panel discussion, which was sponsored by the Law School along with the Black Law Students Association and the Jesuit Institute, and was part of an ongoing series of campus events examining race-related issues in the US.
“This conversation was a mere springboard,” said Alvin Reynolds, who along with fellow BC Law student Taisha Sturdivant organized the event. “Many members of the Boston College community, including Taisha and myself, intend to effect positive change as we progress along our respective paths. Robust and informative discussions such as [this one] are essential to those efforts.”