Highbrow Magazine - missouri https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/missouri en A Glimpse Inside the Desolate Streets of Ferguson, Mo. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4579-glimpse-inside-desolate-streets-ferguson-mo <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/19/2015 - 10:54</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1fergusonstreet.jpg?itok=2T-VNEe4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1fergusonstreet.jpg?itok=2T-VNEe4" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/01/the-desolate-streets-of-ferguson.php">New America Media</a> </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>FERGUSON, Mo. – The protesting crowds have thinned. The 24-7 news army has packed up its equipment and moved on to the next hot spot. But Ferguson is still simmering.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s breathtaking enough walking through the business district along Florissant Ave. to see one storefront after another still boarded up either because of broken glass or as a prevention against vandalism or looting. But that scene does not ready my companion and me for the devastation a few streets over on West Florissant Ave., the epicenter of the worst violence in the wake of the non-indictment of police officer Darren Wilson for the deadly shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The destruction stretches for nearly a mile on both sides of the wide avenue. I see for the first time the extent of the spillover rage that the TV cameras somehow did not fully capture. There’s the Walgreens, the McDonald’s, the Little Caesars, the Phillips 66, the Toys R Us, the local beauty salon, the local auto shop, the local diners -- all torched, with smashed windows and dumpsters in the parking lots used to throw away the burnt, wet, broken debris of those chaotic nights in August and then again in November.</p> <p> </p> <p>A National Guard armored vehicle rumbles down the avenue. Another is parked near an underpass. Police cars are tucked in business driveways throughout. A large lit-up construction sign declares that a key intersection in the area will be closed after 5 pm that day. It’s the intersection where protestors gather nightly.</p> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, the citizens of Ferguson try to go about their daily lives. They walk the streets to the boarded up grocery store for the day’s ingredients or to the deli for the day’s coffee. An artist advertises his upcoming CD release party.</p> <p> </p> <p>Flashbacks to my growing up in a military dictatorship in Lima, Peru pop up for me. This is what a State of Emergency looked liked. The surreality of the mundane of day-to-day life against a backdrop of militarization, physical destruction, deep distrust, and a feeling that further conflagrations lie just below the surface.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2fergusonstreet.jpg" style="height:349px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>At the same time, just as Mother Nature revels in the green shoots that suddenly emerge here and there in a vast expanse of forest decimated by a massive wildfire, there are signs of resilient hope surrounding the armored vehicles, cop cars, and burnt-out and boarded-up stores.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nearly every single plank of protective plywood nailed to storefront windows were tagged by peaceful protestors with messages of affirmation. Ferguson Strong. Keep Calm and Pray On. Peace in Ferguson. Natalie’s Cakes and More [Is] Open. Love More. Love is Blk + Wht.</p> <p> </p> <p>Hundreds of ribbons with more messages of hope and affirmation are tied to wrought iron fences along the avenue. They flutter in front of desolate burnt-out buildings, as well as a neighborhood school where the students are back at their desks.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’m in town to meet the Chief Diversity Officer for a national corporation with headquarters on the edge of Ferguson. She tells me about various inclusive events her organization is proud of having conducted inside corporate walls. But just down the street, the still-shuttered restaurants, shops, and bars speak to a tense reality facing the citizens of metropolitan St. Louis who walk through her company’s doors every day. She sees an opportunity for healing dialogue that she has been testing in one-on-one conversations, though she has yet to figure out the best way to go about it organizationally.</p> <p> </p> <p>She understands the fragility of it all, but also the need to keep pressing on in bringing a torn community together. The task feels enormous since it’s not just about Ferguson but about the still unfinished work of racial reconciliation and inclusion in America.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>But as the positive graffiti and ribbons testify, it can also be brought down to a simple message: “Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin.”</p> <p> </p> <p>And these require a people and a nation who care. Do we and can we?</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3ferguson_1.jpg" style="height:346px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Andrés Tapia is Senior Partner at Korn Ferry, a global leadership and talent consultancy. He is the author of "The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity."</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/01/the-desolate-streets-of-ferguson.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/darren-wilson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">darren wilson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-community" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american community</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andres Tapia</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 19 Jan 2015 15:54:06 +0000 tara 5631 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4579-glimpse-inside-desolate-streets-ferguson-mo#comments Attorney Gen. Holder’s Compelling Case in the Brown Killing https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4241-attorney-gen-holder-s-compelling-case-brown-killing <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 08/22/2014 - 10:47</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ericholder%20%28Roger%20Barone%20Talk%20Radio%20News%29_0.jpg?itok=WNzktZ-_"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ericholder%20%28Roger%20Barone%20Talk%20Radio%20News%29_0.jpg?itok=WNzktZ-_" width="480" height="291" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/holder-has-a-compelling-case-in-the-brown-killing.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>Attorney General Eric Holder has a compelling federal case in the Michael Brown killing if he decides to bring civil rights charges against Ferguson, Missouri cop Darren Wilson.</p> <p> </p> <p>He's certainly taken almost unprecedented lightning fast first steps in that direction. He's got a phalanx of FBI agents assigned to the case. He's authorized an autopsy by a crack medical examiner from the military. He personally traveled to the city to review procedures with civil rights division attorneys and investigators. None of this would have been done without the personal approval of President Obama, who already has made more statements on the Ferguson furor and the Brown killing than he has on any other racially charged flashpoint issue during his White House tenure.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are several factors within federal law that Holder has to look at to make the final decision whether to go forward with a prosecution. There has to be a "compelling interest" that the defendant's conduct could constitute a federal offense and that there is sufficient evidence against the defendant that the government can obtain a conviction.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are clear elements of each of these hard federal prosecution requirements in the Brown killing.</p> <p> </p> <p>The compelling interest is probably the easiest of the requisites to satisfy. Wilson did not charge Brown with a crime; the 18-year-old was stopped by all accounts for jaywalking. The allegations that Brown was a suspect in a convenience store heist, and that he smoked marijuana, and even that he may have actually had some physical altercation with Warren came way after the fact. Multiple eyewitnesses have been absolutely clear on this crucial point. He was shot on the ground with his hands up. An independent autopsy has confirmed that Brown could not have been shot during a scuffle as Wilson, police, and an anonymous eyewitness claim.</p> <p> </p> <p>The key point is that he was on a public thoroughfare when he was killed. The right to freedom of movement without the danger of undue harm is a fundamental right that's enshrined in constitutional law and public policy. It's inviolate. The courts have repeatedly upheld a citizen's right to freedom of access and movement in public places.</p> <p> </p> <p>Though there was no apparent racial motive in Wilson confronting Brown, his action clearly violated Brown's right to exercise his freedom of movement. This directly impacts on an individual's right to life and liberty. This civil right was violated the moment Wilson presumed that a young black man walking in a public thoroughfare had committed a crime. The safeguard of that right must be a fundamental concern of federal prosecutors.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1ferguson.jpg" style="height:397px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The Brown case also strongly points to systemic issues of excessive force by police. The obvious excessive force that was used was the slaying of Brown. This strikes to the heart of another basic right of citizens, namely the right to life and liberty, and again the freedom from undue harm. His killing once more raised deeply troubling questions about the power of the law to protect citizens from their unimpeded right to life and safety. Federal prosecutors play a major role in insuring that where there's the suspicion that an individual's rights might have been violated solely because of their race and gender that the power of federal law is brought to bear to insure that right is protected.</p> <p> </p> <p>Wilson was a police officer and the charge that he abused his power in killing Brown under the color of law is the linchpin of federal prosecutions of local police officers. This was the rationale that federal prosecutors used in the Rodney King beating case to bring civil rights charges against the four LAPD officers who beat King. The crucial legal point was that they acted in an official capacity when they violated King's rights.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Justice Department scrupulously goes to great lengths to shield itself from the charge that it's bowing to media or public pressure to prosecute. This is why the percentage of civil rights prosecutions it authorizes is infinitesimally low, especially against police officers. Yet in the Brown slaying there are crucial federal interests in insuring the rights of individuals to be free from undue harm because of their color, age, and being in a public area merely because someone perceives they shouldn't be in and then acts on that perception with no cause other than that belief or perception.</p> <p> </p> <p>Holder will give serious consideration to the civil rights violations in the Brown killing. This alone sends the strong signal that civil rights violations will always be subject to full and public scrutiny by federal prosecutors. This is exactly why he has a more than compelling reason to not only consider a Warren civil rights prosecution, but has a compelling case for prosecution.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network. </em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/holder-has-a-compelling-case-in-the-brown-killing.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eric-holder" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eric holder</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/attorney-general-holder" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">attorney general holder</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/darren-wilson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">darren wilson</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Roger Barone -- Talk Radio News (Fickr); Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 22 Aug 2014 14:47:44 +0000 tara 5106 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4241-attorney-gen-holder-s-compelling-case-brown-killing#comments The Second Slaying of Michael Brown https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4232-second-slaying-michael-brown <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 08/20/2014 - 11:10</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1michaelbrown.jpg?itok=7-utdQeQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1michaelbrown.jpg?itok=7-utdQeQ" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/the-second-slaying-of-michael-brown.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>The instant the news broke that 18-year old Michael Brown was slain by a Ferguson, Missouri cop the inevitable happened. Police officials dusted off a well-worn cover themselves template. They would either hold a press conference, publicly release, or leak documents that depicted Brown as having gang ties, smoked dope, dealt dope, had an arrest record, was a school trouble maker, or engaged in some kind of deviant behavior. With Brown, they added to their cover themselves template by waving pictures to the national press that purported to show Brown robbing a convenience store moments before he was gunned down.</p> <p> </p> <p>The crude and clumsy message was that Brown was a bad guy. Though they didn’t dare say it openly, the even more unstated but lethal message was that there was a legitimate cause, if not outright justification, for the deadly train of events that occurred. The aim of the savage assault on Brown's character was to deconstruct him as an innocent victim. If enough dirt could be tossed at Brown to cast doubt and suspicion about his character and motives, then maybe there was probable cause to kill.</p> <p> </p> <p>Brown’s parents swiftly and correctly denounced this brazen and clumsy effort to bestow absolution on the cop that killed him as character assassination of the vilest order. Police produced not a shred of hard evidence at the moment they pointed the criminal blame finger at him to nail him as the culprit. But even if he was a legitimate suspect in the theft, he was not stopped, confronted and shot because of that. He was stopped for allegedly jay walking. There was no other offense at that moment than that. A suspected robbery hours before can’t absolve or cancel out the hard fact that Brown was unarmed, and as stated by multiple eyewitnesses was compliant with the officer. The only reason the officer was not arrested and charged with murder is precisely because he is an officer.</p> <p> </p> <p>The problem though with the silliness of this juvenile attempt by police officials to cover themselves is that they hold most of the cards in these cases. They know that merely dropping a tell-tell litany of veiled and not so veiled hints, innuendoes, digs, and crass, snide, accusing comments, remarks, slander and outright lies about men like Brown is more than enough to divert, distract, and pollute the air surrounding the killing. The image mugging often works because it rests firmly on the ancient, shop worn, but serviceable litany of stereotypes and negative typecasting of young black males. It’s the shortest of short steps to think that if Brown can be depicted as a caricature of the terrifying image that much of the public still harbors about young black males, then that image seems real, even more terrifying, and the consequences are just as deadly.</p> <p> </p> <p>The hope was that President Obama’s election buried once and for all negative racial typecasting and the perennial threat racial stereotypes posed to the safety and well-being of black males. It did no such thing. Immediately after Obama’s election teams of researchers from several major universities found that many of the old stereotypes about poverty and crime and blacks remained just as frozen in time. The study found that much of the public still perceived those most likely to commit crimes are poor, jobless and black. The study did more than affirm that race and poverty and crime were firmly rammed together in the public mind. It also showed that once the stereotype is planted, it’s virtually impossible to root out. That’s hardly new either.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2michaelbrown.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In 2003 and 2008 Penn State University researchers found that many whites are likely to associate pictures of blacks with violent crime. This was no surprise given the relentless media depictions of young blacks as dysfunctional, dope peddling, gang bangers and drive-by shooters. The Penn State study found that even when blacks didn’t commit a specific crime, whites still misidentified the perpetrator as an African-American. Immediately after the election of Obama, the researchers still found public attitudes on crime and race unchanged. The majority of whites still overwhelmingly fingered blacks as the most likely to commit crimes, even when they didn’t commit them.</p> <p> </p> <p>The gunning down of unarmed young blacks is not the only lethal consequence of this warped public perception of black males. A Stanford study released days before Brown's killing found that a significant number of whites and non-whites were even more willing to cheer tough sentencing, three strikes laws, and draconian drug busts, when they perceive that the majority of those busted and imprisoned are black. Though no study has yet been done on it, it wouldn’t surprise, in the backdrop of the disturbances in Ferguson following Brown’s slaying that a significant number of Americans would applaud the use of the massive war zone weaponry and tactics against American citizens that was used in Ferguson, as long as those citizens were perceived as young blacks.</p> <p> </p> <p>The image mugging of Brown doesn’t change the official record. He was killed not because he was a suspected robber, but a suspected jaywalker. To suggest anything else is nothing more than a second slaying of Brown.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/the-second-slaying-of-michael-brown.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-riots" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial riots</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race relations</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police violence</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/murder" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">murder</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri-governor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri governor</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 20 Aug 2014 15:10:04 +0000 tara 5094 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4232-second-slaying-michael-brown#comments Behind the Unrest in Ferguson, Mo. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4225-behind-unrest-ferguson-mo <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 08/18/2014 - 11:14</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ferguson.jpg?itok=PiC55Po4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ferguson.jpg?itok=PiC55Po4" width="480" height="305" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/behind-fergusons-unrest-failed-federal-policy-and-the-black-white-housing-gap.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>On the surface, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., was about local police using deadly force on an unarmed young man. But on a deeper level, it reflected the increasing poverty and economic decline that affects ethnic communities all over America.</p> <p> </p> <p>Despite rosy reports in the media about the end of the national foreclosure crisis and the recession that followed, all is not well in our inner cities and suburbs with largely minority populations, like Ferguson.</p> <p> </p> <p>The foreclosure crisis was hard on many Americans, but it was a disaster for communities of color, including the citizens of Ferguson.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Half of Ferguson Homes Underwater</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In the zip code that encompasses Ferguson, half (49 percent) of homes were underwater in 2013, meaning the home’s market value was below the mortgage’s outstanding balance. This condition (also called “negative equity”) is often a first step toward loan default or foreclosure, according to the recent report, "Underwater America," from the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mortgage lenders targeted predominantly black and Hispanic areas for the highest-risk, highest-cost types of mortgage loans, such as adjustable-rate mortgages and loans with high prepayment penalties. This led to higher-than-average default rates, according to the Housing Commission established by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many of the families that were sold risky mortgages had good credit, decent incomes and everything else necessary to qualify for traditional long-term, fixed-rate loans. Yet, they were not offered those kinds of loans, but instead “steered into exotic and costly mortgages they did not fully understand and could not afford,” the commission said.</p> <p> </p> <p>This “deliberate targeting of minority areas for the sale of risky and expensive loans,” as the commission described it, wreaked havoc on the financial wellbeing of affected families and undermined the stability of entire neighborhoods.</p> <p> </p> <p>African-American and Latino borrowers were almost twice as likely to have lost their homes to foreclosure as non-Hispanic whites, according to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).</p> <p> </p> <p>“Communities of color got the worst of everything. They were given the highest-risk, most expensive mortgages, they received the worst servicing from their mortgage lenders, and they have suffered the most damage from the nation’s long economic slump,” said Liz Ryan Murray, policy director for National People’s Action, a Chicago-based group that has been fighting against discriminatory home lending practices since the 1970s.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Black-White Housing Divide “Historic”</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The homeownership rate for African-American households peaked at 49 percent in 2004, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies report, “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2013.” The rate of black home ownership--with all the potential for upward mobility it offers--fell to 43.9 percent in 2012. The homeownership rate among white households declined during that time, too, but remained at 73.5 percent.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The black-white gap [in homeownership rates] has reached historic proportions,” Harvard’s report said.</p> <p> </p> <p>There has also been a powerfully negative ripple effect on other property owners who never had a problem making their mortgage payments but owned property near people who did. The losses in household wealth that resulted from foreclosures and abandonment of nearby properties have disproportionately hurt communities of color, according to many sources that have studied the issue.</p> <p> </p> <p>In ethnic neighborhoods, the average decline in home prices from 2006 to 2013 was 26 percent, according to Harvard's 2014 report. That's roughly three times the decline experienced in white areas.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nationwide, about 27 percent of homeowners in minority areas had negative equity compared to about 15 percent of owners in white areas.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Little Prospect for Recovery</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Lower-income areas have little prospect for home prices to recover soon, or for businesses or banks to start reinvesting in hard-hit neighborhoods.</p> <p> </p> <p>“In some communities with many foreclosed properties, the crisis threatens to doom the entire neighborhood to a cycle of disinvestment and decay,” according to Chicago's Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.</p> <p> </p> <p>Their report goes on, “A cluster of vacant properties can destabilize a block. A cluster of troubled blocks can destabilize a neighborhood. The costs are substantial.”</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2ferguson.jpg" style="height:417px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Cities affected the most by foreclosures can’t afford to do very much to stimulate new investment or buy and fix abandoned properties. In many cases, they can't even afford to board up abandoned properties or clean up trash left by vagrants and vandals.</p> <p> </p> <p>Adding to the impact of foreclosures is the ongoing economic slump and the high rate of black unemployment. As a consequence, poverty and the despair and anger that go with it, are increasing in suburbs like Ferguson.</p> <p> </p> <p>Between 2000 and 2011, the impoverished population in suburbs grew by two-thirds—more than twice the rate of growth in cities, according to Confronting Suburban Poverty in America, a 2013 book from the Brookings Institution Press.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>50 Years Since Watts</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The year 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of an explosive series of urban events in American history. An August 1965 traffic arrest in South Central Los Angeles lit the fuse on one of the most devastating civil upheavals in American history.</p> <p> </p> <p>African-American residents of the Watts section of Los Angeles rebelled against a mayor and a police force many considered to be racist. The fires and the violence raged for six days, resulting in 34 deaths and the destruction, damage or looting of 1,000 buildings.</p> <p> </p> <p>After more rioting in 1966 and 1967, a presidential commission on urban problems was convened and Congress enacted programs to provide affordable housing and revitalize cities. In 1968, equal access to housing regardless of race became the law of the land.</p> <p> </p> <p>To a very large extent, most of those programs worked as intended, improving conditions for millions of Americans, many of them ethnic families.</p> <p> </p> <p>Unfortunately, the United States government's commitment to housing and cities has waned in recent years. The decline in funding and elimination of certain key programs could not have come at a worse time. Meanwhile, there has been a powerful backlash among mostly white communities against federal legal initiatives to enforce the fair housing and fair lending laws.</p> <p> </p> <p>The U.S. Congress has been fixated on budget cuts, and with a contentious election coming up, much of the progress made since the 1960s is in jeopardy. President Barack Obama's 2015 proposed housing budget would restore some of the cuts in funding for housing programs made in recent years. However, even if Congress accepted his plan, it would not restore all the cuts or provide resources sufficient to address the nation’s housing and urban problems.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>'Arrested Progress' Against Poverty</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>After the riots in 1965, 1966 and 1967, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (known as the Kerner Commission) issued a report saying, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Today, ethnic communities are suffering setbacks again. Even as our population is becoming more diverse, our communities are becoming more segregated and income inequality is increasing.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Arrested progress in the fight against poverty and residential segregation has helped concentrate many African Americans in some of the least desirable housing in some of the lowest-resourced communities in America,” according to a 2013 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition to much higher poverty rates, African Americans suffer much more from the concentration of poverty. Nearly half (45 percent) of poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, but only one in eight low-income white children live in similar neighborhoods, EPI said.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the recent trends continue, the unrest in Missouri may not be an isolated reaction to a tragic shooting, but a harbinger of things to come.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Andre Shashaty is president of the nonprofit Partnership for Sustainable Communities and author of the forthcoming book, Rebuilding a Dream: America’s New Urban Crisis, the Housing Cost Explosion, and How We Can Reinvent the American Dream for All."</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/behind-fergusons-unrest-failed-federal-policy-and-the-black-white-housing-gap.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/unrest-ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">unrest in ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-community" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american community</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poor-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the poor</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ethnic-communities" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ethnic communities</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/economy-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the economy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-divide" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial divide</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andre F. Shashaty</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:14:22 +0000 tara 5086 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4225-behind-unrest-ferguson-mo#comments