Latest news with #racialdisparities
Mail & Guardian
03-06-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
BEE is essential for economic growth
Analyses of racialised disparities in both labour and product markets illustrate the need for strengthened economic redress. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G The debate about racialised socio-economic redress is at the centre of South African public policy debates. It has even permeated trade relations with the United States, which ironically has its own version of economic redress for minority groups in certain states. Yet US President Donald Trump is challenging redress policies in a country that has systemic racialised class and gender socio-economic inequalities. His views are echoed in Professor William Gumede's intervention in this debate. His article, which appeared in the There is general consensus in society that the current black economic empowerment model has largely failed to produce the intended socio-economic outcomes. But this does not mean the constitutional and policy imperatives underpinning redress should be abandoned. Several researched analyses of racialised disparities in both labour and product markets illustrate the need for strengthened economic redress. Gumede's extreme position overlooks this empirical evidence and draws on the following flawed arguments. First, he uses the term 'political capitalists' to describe individuals or enterprises that obtain state contracts or private equity in firms without any knowledge of business operations. These political capitalists are described as inherently parasitic by Gumede and he further suggests that they all have connections to the ANC-led political alliance. This generalisation is problematic because it assumes that only black-owned businesses obtain state contracts and established white corporations do not rely on state procurement. Policy and basic market intelligence reports refute this claim and illustrate how large corporations equally benefit from government contracts. Additionally, the term 'political capitalists' is conceptually and theoretically flawed because it creates a superficial divide between political and economic actors in a society. Political economy studies highlight that business and state relations are inherently connected in economic history. In simple terms: there is no Chinese wall between political and economic developments in a society. The second problem with Gumede's view is that he says BEE is primarily responsible for structural issues such as deindustrialisation, poverty, inequality and unemployment. This proposition is not backed up by evidence and he does not explain how he arrived at this conclusion. Research literature on economic trends challenge Gumede's position. Deindustrialisation in South Africa has been caused by structural changes in the economy, especially since the early 1990s. Trade and financial liberalisation exposed our domestic manufacturers to competition in key sectors such as textiles. In addition, the country's financial sector has prioritised short-term investment returns and implemented investment risk strategies that make it difficult for enterprises interested in long-term economic activity associated with sustaining South Africa's industrial base. Furthermore, there are several studies on the causes of poverty and inequality. This research explores multidimensional causes and does not cite economic redress policy as an impediment for addressing systemic socio-economic exclusion. In other words: there is no factual basis for Gumede's proposition on the causal link between BEE and the economic structural fault lines cited above. Another flaw in Gumede's article is the erroneous and sweeping generalisation about corruption. He attributes corrupt or patronage-based networks in the economy to the creation of BEE. This narrow approach is not based on a holistic understanding of corruption in the economy. The Zondo Commission Report and other authoritative market behaviour investigative accounts elucidate illegal economic activities that go beyond the scope of BEE policy implementation. For example, practices such as price collusion, tax evasion and dividing product markets. Actually, some of the established multinationals that Gumede and others laud were cited as facilitators of corrupt dealings in these reports. Corruption is a significant impediment for inclusive growth in South Africa. But it is incorrect to suggest that it is solely caused by BEE. Economic rents such as incentives, subsidies and preferential procurement policy instruments are used across the world successfully. These measures are not abnormal or inherently corrupt if used for developmental purposes. Dr Khwezi Mabasa is a part-time sociology lecturer at the University of Pretoria and Economic and Social Policy lead at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung South Africa.
CBS News
27-05-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Advocates call for probe into law enforcement's handling of death investigations after review of Maryland autopsies
Advocates are calling for an investigation into how law enforcement handled death investigations after an audit of Maryland's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) found that some police custody deaths were misclassified. Members of Community Actively Seeking Transparency (CAST) and the Anne Arundel County NAACP are asking state leaders to determine if the mishandling of those cases could be considered obstruction of justice. The two groups will hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Review of Maryland medical examiner's office The independent review looked at more than 85 cases that were completed when the office was under the guidance of former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler. In 44 of those cases, the auditors disagreed with the determined manner of death. Reviewers instead found that many of the cases should have been ruled as homicides. The audit found patterns of possible racial disparities, Maryland Attorney General Brown said. According to the review, deaths that involved Black people or individuals who were restrained by police were less likely to be ruled as homicides. The audit also found that some of the case reports did not include full details and failed to document injuries connected to police restraints. Maryland Gov. Moore pushes for further investigation After the audit was released, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore created a task force to improve how police custody deaths are investigated. The Maryland Task Force on In-Custody Restraint-Related Death Investigations includes government officials, forensic experts, law enforcement and legal professionals. The group was asked to recommend oversight processes for future investigations and consider if more audits are needed. The governor's executive order also directs the Department of Health and the Medical Examiner's Office to report on their progress in implementing recommended changes.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How affirmative action failed Black Americans, according to author and WSJ columnist Jason Riley
In 2023, after the Supreme Court said universities could no longer use race when considering potential students, Jason Riley watched with interest as proponents of affirmative action spoke in 'apocalyptic' terms of how this would affect Black Americans. It wasn't a viewpoint he shared. That's because Riley, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, knew the history of Black advancement in the United States — how, for example, the poverty rate among Blacks had fallen in the decades preceding the era of affirmative action policies. At the same time, most Black Americans were enjoying the benefits of what some now call a hallmark of 'white privilege' — a two-parent home. The gap between white and Black earnings was closing as affirmative action policies began to take hold across the U.S., along with other social programs that were expected to help lift Black families economically. But instead, they wound up harming the people they were supposed to help, Riley argues in his new book 'The Affirmative Action Myth.' 'The point here is not to in any way downplay or romanticize the country's awful history of slavery and racial segregation, or to imply that racism is over and done with. Racism still exists, and I don't expect to live to see the day when it doesn't,' Riley writes in the book. But, he said, 'the relevant question is to what extent does past or current racism, in whatever form it takes, explain ongoing racial disparities, and to what extent are racial differences in outcomes being driven primarily by other factors that don't get nearly the amount of attention that racial-bias explanations have received,' Riley writes. One of those oft-overlooked factors, Riley said in a conversation with Deseret, is the decline of the two-parent family, which he said has become unfashionable to address in some political circles. Meanwhile, another form of affirmative action — diversity, equity and inclusion programs — proliferated across the U.S. after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Such programs have pushed aside the concepts of color-blindness and equality to the detriment of Black Americans, Riley writes in the book. Moreover, 'affirmative action has been given undue credit for the Black upward mobility that has occurred.' Riley, who is married to Deseret contributor Naomi Schaefer Riley, and whose previous books include 'Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell' and 'Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed,' spoke with the Deseret News about the trajectory of the Black middle class in America, the costs of racial preference programs and how both Black and white elites helped promote affirmative action despite these policies' unpopularity among ordinary Americans. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length. DN: It's been a little more than 10 years since your book 'Please Stop Helping Us' was published. What has changed for Black Americans since that book was published? JR: I did cover some of this material in 'Please Stop Helping Us,' but that was also about other issues — minimum wage laws and school choice and all kinds of different policy efforts to help the Black underclass. This is a deeper dive into racial preferences. The impetus was the Supreme Court decision in 2023, striking down racial preferences in college admissions. The decision was not particularly surprising, but there was all kind of apocalyptic talk about how the end of racial preferences would impact Blacks. People were saying this will be the end of the Black middle class, that racial preferences had created the Black middle class and that college campuses will be whitewashed, Blacks won't be able to get ahead in this country. And I said, wait a minute, there was a significant Black middle class long before affirmative action policies became commonplace, and it was growing at a much faster rate than it was growing during the first few decades of affirmative action. So the idea that the Black middle class existence is based on the existence of racial preferences and affirmative action was just not something that comported with the track record, with history. DN: Since it's just been two years, it's too early to tell if any of those apocalyptic predictions will come true. At what point can we be sure that there was no harm from the ruling? JR: It's just been two years since the Supreme Court decision, but keep in mind that 9 or 10 states had already banned racial preferences in higher education, going back decades — California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Michigan — so we have some idea of what higher education will look like without racial preferences in college admissions. We don't have to guess what will happen. California, way back in the 1990s, passed a ballot initiative that ended racial preferences in college admissions. Initially, Black enrollment at the most selective colleges in the system — Berkeley and UCLA — dropped. But throughout the University of California system, Black enrollment and Hispanic enrollment increased. Not only did enrollment increase, but so did Black graduation rates and grade point averages, by a lot in both cases. So more kids were going to UC-Santa Cruz, UC-Riverside, UC-Santa Barbara and so forth, where they were better matched with the other students, and were apparently thriving. They were also graduating from the more difficult disciplines at higher rates — science, engineering, math. 'Affirmative action is sold in the name of helping the Black poor, but in practice, it has helped Blacks who were already well off become even better well off.' Jason Riley What this shows me is that a policy that had been put in place to increase the ranks of the Black middle class had in practice been producing fewer Black lawyers and doctors and physicists and engineers than we would have had in the absence of the policy. I'm not at all concerned about what will happen if Yale and Georgetown and Duke can no longer admit Black students with SAT scores 300 points below those the average student at the school just because they want more Black faces on campus. I think we have plenty of evidence of what will transpire when those policies go away. DN: Can you talk about the proliferation of DEI initiatives across the country? Were they a kind of a replacement for affirmative action? JR: DEI is affirmative action in a different guise, lowering standards, a focus on outcomes rather than opportunity; DEI shares the same goals, and methods frankly, as affirmative action. The biggest reason they took off might be the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis, which gave DEI a lot of legs, not only on campus but in the corporate world and in the nonprofit sector. Let me add, I don't think the folks pushing DEI or racial preferences are going to give up, just because of this ruling. I liken it to what took place after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling on school desegregation. It's not as if the southern segregationists threw up their hands and said, 'Oh well, I guess we're going to have to desegregate, the Supreme Court has spoken.' We had decades of further segregation and judicial rulings and lawsuits and so forth in an attempt to enforce Brown vs. Board of Education. Similarly today, you have a progressive left that is adamantly opposed to color-blind policies. Color-blind has become a dirty word on the political left today, so I don't expect them to give up. You're going to see them trying to find end-runs around race, perhaps using class as a proxy for race, and you'll see a continuation at the K-12 level, trying to get rid of test schools, high schools that use entrance exams, getting rid of gifted and talented programs … anything that results in any kind of racial disparity, anything that emphasizes objective standards, meritocracy, will be under attack, and I think they will continue to fight this, and those of us who oppose these policies cannot let our guard down going forward. DN: Another policy that keeps coming back is reparations, which are in the news again, even as DEI policies are being rolled back under the Trump administration. JR: The reparations folks are really asking a bit too much of the American public in the year 2025. Most white Americans today trace their ancestry to people who came here after the Civil War, so the reparations folks are really asking white Americans who aren't even descendants of slaveholders to pay reparations to Black people who were never slaves. And I don't think this argument is going to get very far. The other problem I have with the reparationists is that, to me, the policy amounts to yet another huge wealth redistribution scheme. And we've had that in this country, time and again. That's what the Great Society programs were all about in the 1960s and early 1970s. If we could address social inequality with government checks in the mail, we would have solved poverty a long time ago. And I am not at all convinced that one more huge wealth redistribution scheme will get the job done. There does seem to be an appetite for it on the progressive left; you still see popular writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi and Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of 'The 1619 Project,' pushing for it — in fact, 'The 1619 Project' is now part of the K-12 curriculum in thousands of school districts all over the country. So I think the issue will, for no other reason than that, continue to germinate. I just don't see it going anywhere. I think it's a political loser for Democrats, but right now, progressives still seem to be firmly in control of the Democratic Party, so you're going to see issues like reparations continue to percolate. DN: Can you talk a little bit about the role the media plays in perpetuating — in your language — the 'myth of affirmative action'? JR: The doomsday chatter around the Supreme Court decision in 2023, a lot of that was coming out of the elite Black left — Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, cable news personalities, Black politicians, Black academics. The reason is because they have been the ones who benefited from the policies, to the extent that these policies have done any good. Affirmative action is sold in the name of helping the Black poor, but in practice, it has helped Blacks who were already well off become even better well off. If you look at income data from the late 1960s through the first 25 years or so of affirmative action, you'll see that the highest earning Blacks, the top 20%, saw their share of income grow throughout the '70s, '80s and early '90s — about the same rate as top-earning whites. Among the bottom share of Blacks, their income fell in that same period at more than double the rate of the lowest earning whites in this country. So affirmative action, to the extent that it benefited anyone, benefited Black people who were already better off, and those are the ones who defend these policies. The media has played a role in this because it has often turned to Black elites to serve as spokesmen for all Blacks — in many areas, not just affirmative action. It's clear that the opinions of Black elites are not the opinions of rank-and-file Blacks, and oftentimes, Black elites want to go in a completely different direction … For example, while the elites were denouncing the Supreme Court decision and continuing to express support for racial preferences, polls showed that most Blacks were opposed to affirmative action and agreed with the Supreme Court decision. ... Look at an issue like voter ID laws in this country — Democrats love to rail against voter ID laws, but a majority of Black people support voter ID laws. Look at charter schools, tax credits, again, opposed by Black elites, supported overwhelmingly by Black people. So the media has continued to turn to these Black spokesmen to speak on behalf of Blacks and given the general public the impression that the average Black person shares the agenda of the NAACP or Al Sharpton or Black Lives Matter, when in fact, that oftentimes is simply not the case. So I do blame my own profession for keeping these folks on speed-dial when they're not representative of most Black people. DN: In the Daily Wire film 'Am I Racist?' Matt Walsh talked to ordinary people who found the (racial justice) concepts he was presenting to them ridiculous … The film 'American Fiction' also made fun of elite attitudes about race. How much can movies like this, and Hollywood in general, make a difference in the national discourse about race? JR: I've seen both of those films, and they're not just highlighting the disconnect between Black elites and Black rank-and-file, but also the disconnect between white elites and white rank-and-file. The 'Am I Racist?' film, I think does a very good job of that, talking to everyday people who are clearly not on the same page as your average liberal professor at Columbia or Yale. When I describe how out-of-touch Black elites are, I really am describing how out-of-touch intellectual elites of any race are, compared to everyday folks in this country. There's a long history of intellectuals as a class being generally far to the left of everyday voters and that continues to be the case in America today. My general thinking is, and others have said this, that Hollywood is sort of downstream from culture; it's not driving it, it's reflecting it. If you go back, there are some films that have made a huge splash – Al Gore's environmental film, for example — and Hollywood is a medium that the left likes to use to try and advance its agenda. But it's hit or miss how much Hollywood drives the discussion, as opposed to reflecting the discussion that's already taking place. DN: You talk in the book about what has been called the 'privilege' of growing up with two parents. What can we do to reclaim that privilege for children of all races? JR: One thing we can do is start talking about how important it is, and I'm not being snarky here. This is a conversation people don't want to have on the political left. Melissa Kearney published a book, 'The Two-Parent Privilege,' and she says in the book, that when she was doing research, her academic colleagues discouraged her from writing about this … (saying) you don't discuss family formation when you discuss what's driving income inequality in this country. That is absolutely insane. We know all of the negative outcomes associated with absent fathers in the home, not only in the household income being lower, but also bad outcomes for children: more teen pregnancy, higher high school dropout rates, involvement with the criminal justice system, and on and on. And yet we're not supposed to talk about fathers not being involved with their children? One thing we can do is to start discussing these things more openly and honestly than we have been. Just to illustrate how important it is, one of the things that was happening in the late '60s, is that you had a convergence of Black and white incomes that was occurring; the white-Black gap in income was narrowing. But right around the late 1960s, this trend starts to slow, and one of the reasons it slows is because around this time, you begin to see a proliferation of Black single-parent homes. In the first two-thirds of the 20th century, there were far more Black two-parent homes; Black marriage rates exceeded white marriage rates. Single-parent homes can't compete economically with two-parent homes. You can see how family breakdown has led to all kinds of bad economic outcomes. Affirmative action was not going to be able to make up for that.
New York Times
18-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Maryland Governor Vetoes Reparations Bill
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland has vetoed legislation that sought to make recommendations on how to remedy the harms caused by slavery and racial discrimination, a notable setback in the movement for reparations delivered by the nation's only sitting Black governor. The move on Friday sets Mr. Moore apart from other Democratic governors who have approved similar measures in recent years and comes as the party grapples with the role that identity politics played in its widespread electoral losses last year. The bill would have created a commission to research how many Maryland residents have ancestors who were enslaved in the state and recommend reparations that could have included formal apologies, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, college tuition waivers or assistance buying a home, among other possibilities. Calling it a 'difficult decision,' Mr. Moore said he vetoed the bill because the state had sufficiently studied the legacy of slavery. 'The scholarship on this topic is both vast in scope and robust in scale,' he wrote in a veto message. 'While I appreciate the work that went into this legislation, I strongly believe now is not the time for another study. Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve.' Mr. Moore said he wanted to work toward eliminating racial disparities in areas such as wealth, homeownership, education and food security, and would introduce legislation next year to address 'barriers that have walled off Black families in Maryland.' In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Moore also said he was prioritizing legislation to help the state adjust to federal funding cuts by the Trump administration. The bill was a priority for the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, which issued a scathing statement after the veto noting that their statehouse is 'less than a mile from the Annapolis City Dock — one of the nation's earliest and most high-traffic ports of enslavement.' 'At a time when the White House and Congress are actively targeting Black communities, dismantling diversity initiatives and using harmful coded language, Governor Moore had a chance to show the country and the world that here in Maryland we boldly and courageously recognize our painful history and the urgent need to address it,' the statement said. 'Instead, the state's first Black governor chose to block this historic legislation that would have moved the state toward directly repairing the harm of enslavement.' The bill had been passed by an overwhelming majority, and the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland hinted that it might override Mr. Moore's veto, saying that 'the legislature will have the final say.' The legislation was modeled after similar measures in California and Illinois, which were signed into law amid the wave of racial justice activism that swept the nation after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in 2020. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in 2023 that made New York the third state to study reparations. Like Mr. Moore, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois are also considered potential presidential candidates in 2028, which could make their support for reparations measures a point of debate in the potential field of Democratic contenders. Polling shows that Americans generally oppose the idea of reparations, though views diverge among racial groups. In a Pew Research Center survey in 2021, 68 percent of Americans said that the descendants of people enslaved in the United States should not be repaid in some way, a feeling overwhelmingly held by those who were white, Asian or Hispanic. Among Black Americans, though, 77 percent said they supported reparations. In California, 59 percent of voters opposed cash reparations in a 2023 poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. California's reparations effort has rolled out gradually and been rocked by numerous internal conflicts among Democrats. A commission created by the 2020 law produced a study that calculated reparations for health disparities, housing discrimination, mass incarceration and other damaging impacts that flowed from slavery. It deemed that an older Black Californian would be eligible for $1.2 million in reparations — a figure that applied statewide would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the state's entire budget. The California Legislature has never taken up a bill to consider cash reparations, instead embracing other recommendations that cost far less. Last year, it passed a bill issuing a formal apology for the state's complicit role in slavery and other policies to improve nutrition and career training.
CBS News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Former Maryland medical examiner misclassified police in-custody deaths that were homicides, audit finds
An independent review has uncovered widespread misclassifications of deaths involving people in police custody in Maryland, with racial implications. The 70-page audit of Maryland's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), announced Thursday by Attorney General Anthony Brown and Gov. Wes Moore, reviewed 87 cases. Outside reviewers disagreed with the then-Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler's original determination of the manner of death in more than half of those cases. The review found that dozens of cases involving in-custody police deaths should have been ruled homicides. "The findings of this audit are deeply concerning," Moore said. Audit reveals inconsistencies, racial disparities The report flagged serious inconsistencies in how deaths were categorized. Reviewers found that 36 cases initially labeled as undetermined, accidental, or natural should have been classified as homicides. The audit also pointed to patterns that suggest racial disparities, according to Brown. Deaths involving Black individuals or those involving police restraint were significantly less likely to be classified as homicides. Out of 87 cases reviewed, independent experts disagreed with the original conclusions in 44, Brown said. "These findings highlight the need for real reform," Attorney General Brown said. "Marylanders deserve a system rooted in fairness, transparency, and accountability." In addition, the audit revealed that reports on many cases lacked full incident details, such as missing body cam footage or photographs. It also showed inconsistencies in documenting injuries linked to police restraints. Baltimore man who died in police custody named in audit Tyrone West died while in the custody of Baltimore police in 2013. For years, his sister Tawanda Jones has proclaimed her brother did not die of natural causes, as initially reported. West's death was mentioned in the audit. "I still have never changed the truth," Jones said. "Always said my brother was brutally murdered." For 12 years, Jones has spoken publicly about her brother's death. At 44 years old, he was arrested in Northwest Baltimore after fleeing a traffic stop, and he died while in police custody. "It's always been, when are they going to know it, when are they going to expose it?" Jones said. West's cause of death was listed as natural causes, but his sister argued it was homicide. "The coverup was far worse than my brother's execution, and my brother's execution was horrible, being pepper-sprayed, tased, kicked, stomped, tortured, and you want to come back and say he died of a bad heart," Jones said. Jones says she's not going to rest until there's accountability. "I've been standing 10 toes down on truth, but I'm not going to be completely happy until we get a thorough investigation into my brother's murder," Jones said. Moore supports further investigations In response to the audit, Gov. Moore signed an executive order creating the Maryland Task Force on In-Custody Restraint-Related Death Investigations. The group includes government officials, forensic experts, legal professionals, law enforcement, and community advocates. The task force is responsible for improving how these deaths are investigated, recommending oversight processes for future cases, and suggesting changes to training and collaboration with mental health and substance use professionals. The task force will also consider whether further audits are needed. "This executive order takes us one step closer to a more just and transparent system and was crafted with the same values that have guided our approach to public safety since Day One - true partnership with both law enforcement and the communities they protect; a close, objective examination of the facts; and an abiding commitment to making Maryland safer and uplifting the brave public servants who keep us safe," said Gov. Moore. The executive order also requires the Department of Health and the OCME to share a report on their progress in implementing recommended changes. Autopsy concerns raised in 2022 In 2022, WJZ reported that 100 death investigations involving physical restraint were recommended for review after an audit of the state medical examiner's office. The audit was carried out by a team that was tasked with reviewing former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler's cases after he testified that Minnesota Police Officer Derek Chauvin did not kill George Floyd. The case gained national attention in 2020 and sparked protests across the world, some of which turned violent. Fowler was Maryland's chief medical examiner between 2002 and 2019. The audit analyzed whether Fowler's cases were adequately investigated, if best practices were used, and if reviewers agreed with the manner of death that was determined. "It appears OCME undercounted restraint-related homicides during the audit's time frame," Dr. Jeff Kukucka, who managed the audit. "We also found that they undercounted homicides even more in cases where the decedent was black or was restrained by police." Attorney General Brown said these findings speak to systemic issues across our justice system. "We recognize both the gravity of these findings for affected families and communities, and the importance of surrounding law enforcement or supporting law enforcement officers who navigate difficult situations," Brown said.
