Eva Paterson’s BBC Radio Interview on Racism and Obama
BBC Radio’s Mark Forrest talks with EJS President Eva Paterson following reports this week that a staffer for a Republican state Senator in Tennessee sent an email with an image showing portraits of our presidents, except President Obama is depicted only with two eyeballs on a solid black background.
As reported by numerous outlets, including HuffPo, Newscoma and Nashville is Taking, Sherri Goforth, an executive assistant for Tennessee State Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin), sent this picture out to other legislative staffers:
Eva talks about the role of unconscious bias in how racism is manifested today and also about her movie, Presidential Race, which examines how far we have come in the forty-six years since Martin Luther King electrified the country with his “I Have A Dream” speech.
Listen to the interview here (go to the 3:11:48 mark):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00l59b4/Up_All_Night_18_06_2009
EJS’s profound interest in the science of unconscious bias is a key component of our long-range initiative to dismantle the Intent Doctrine. In 1976, just a few years after Justice William Rehnquist joined the bench, Washington v. Davis was decided, placing a nearly insurmountable hurdle in the way of plaintiffs seeking redress for discrimination.
This decision placed a prohibitive burden on victims of discrimination and limited the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by restricting its remedial reach to cases in which the plaintiff could prove a decision-maker’s specific “intent” to discriminate.
Racial justice is impossible to achieve when the law fails to reflect the actual experiences of communities who have seen and felt discrimination. Social psychologists, critical sociologists and other social scientists have developed empirical and theoretical research showing that the Intent Doctrine fails to reflect how a large part of discrimination actually occurs.
According to these studies, all of us have unconscious biases that influence how we perceive and make decisions about other people. Individual and institutional discrimination, often guided by these cognitive biases and stereotypes, can occur even in the absence of blatant prejudice. Many of these powerful theories and studies, however, are not being fully utilized on the front lines of political debate or courtrooms by legal advocates.
In order to provide lawyers with the necessary tools to challenge the faulty assumptions of the Intent Doctrine, the Equal Justice Society brings together social scientists, lawyers, pollsters, legal academics and students to develop long-term strategies for introducing a more accurate understanding of discrimination into the law. Most Americans do not want to be racist and do not think they act in racially biased ways.
Not only does our promoting of the unconscious bias framework support our work to dismantle Intent, but it also allows for a more engaging approach to address racism - i.e., promoting unconscious bias takes a “building awareness” rather than a “blaming” approach.
By upholding Prop 8, the Court has diminished its legacy as a champion of equality
The California Supreme Court today in a 6-1 vote upheld Prop. 8, the ballot measure discriminating against marriage by same-sex couples.
We are relieved the Court protected couples who married before November 5. The presence of thousands of married same-sex couples across California will show those who don’t yet know us that marriage strengthens families and communities and threatens no one.
But by upholding Prop 8, the Court has diminished its legacy as a champion of equality. No minority group should have to defend its right to equality at the ballot. The Court’s decision jeopardizes every minority group in California.
“As a racial justice organization, the Equal Justice Society opposes Prop. 8 – not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because EJS strongly believes in working with others to ensure that the rights of all are expanded, rather than diminished, in our society,” said EJS President Eva Paterson in a previous statement on the issue. Eva participated this morning in a press conference in opposition to Prop. 8.
“We cannot just pigeonhole Prop. 8 as a ‘gay’ issue. By rolling back the fundamental rights of one group, Prop. 8 casts a threat that now looms over the civil rights of all.”
Because the Court upheld Prop 8, it is now crystal clear that we must go back to the ballot, and we are going to win.
Since the vote on Prop 8, there has been a tidal wave of momentum in favor of full equality. Five states now embrace marriage equality for same-sex couples, and several more are on the brink. We believe that California voters will reverse this injustice at the ballot. California has been a leader in standing up for equality, and it will be again.
Banning same-sex couples from marriage is unfair. Same-sex couples have the same hopes, dreams and concerns for their families as everyone else. They should be allowed the dignity, recognition, and responsibility that come with marriage, just like everyone else.
Ideas Matter: The Case for Regulation
In addition to our deep commitment to racial justice, we at the Equal Justice Society are committed to the realization of a broad progressive vision that goes beyond race.
Inspired by Dr. King’s strategist, Bayard Rustin, and his dream of the Grand Coalition, EJS is pursuing the creation of a Grand Alliance filled with individuals and groups who are moving beyond issue area silos.
One of the aspects of the Grand Alliance is the notion that “Ideas Matter.” Forward progress is made when transformative ideas are translated into reality. One of these ideas is that regulation of business by government can be a good thing. We feel that the current economic crisis is, in part, the result of the failure of regulation.
On Wednesday night, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured the fabulous Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School. She gives an incredibly cogent and historically based analysis of the choice we as a nation are facing in the next six months about whether or not business should be regulated.
You may have heard Terry Gross interview Professor Warren on Fresh Air on abuses of credit card companies and on the lack of transparency vis a vis the bailout. This interview is amazing. It even made Jon Stewart feel better about the current state of affairs. Enjoy.
Eva Paterson, Other Leaders Join Lawyers for Press Conference on Prop 8 Legal Challenge
EJS President Eva Paterson will participate in a press conference with other leaders and attorneys to be held immediately prior to Thursday’s California Supreme Court oral arguments in the Prop 8 legal challenge. Attorneys will argue that by taking away a right only from one group, Proposition 8 violates the most basic principle of our government: that all people are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
Kate Kendell, Eva Paterson: ‘Standing Together and Continuing the Conversation’
Next Thursday, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments in our legal challenge to Proposition 8. As we seek to overturn Prop 8, we have the broadest array of support ever seen on an LGBT issue before any California Court. This support speaks directly to the relationships and coalition work that many in the LGBT, religious, business, and civil rights communities have been doing for years. However, there is another truth motivating the breadth of voices calling on the court to invalidate Prop 8. Prop 8 is an assault on the California Constitution and the most fundamental principal of any functioning democracy: all people will be treated equally under the law.
NY Post Editorial Cartoon: Simian Stereotypes and Cartoonist Excuses
If nothing else, the now-infamous New York Post cartoon by Sean Delonas published Wednesday showing a chimp shot to death by police officers should be a clear answer to the question of whether we’re in a “post-racial” America.
As EJS President Eva Paterson and others have argued, the answer to that question is a resounding “no.”
In a piece published Wednesday, Cal psychology professor Phillip Atiba Goff states that persistent simian stereotypes tagged to blacks are not mere small and unimportant post-racial leftovers of the “bad old days,” but significant psychological mechanisms of discrimination.
“It is tempting to … downplay the significance of ‘isolated events’ of bigotry and ‘armless words or pictures.’ But precisely because the dream of post-raciality is seductive for so many, it is all the more important that we not forget that cartoons like the one in today’s New York Post are never isolated-and consequently, never harmless,” he writes.
Video of Mike Lux Talk in San Francisco
UPDATE FEB. 18: The video is being revised so the embedded player doesn’t work right now. I’ll post the new one when it’s done.
Almost 75 folks braved the weather on Feb. 15 to meet Mike Lux, author of “The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came To Be,” at San Francisco’s new political hotspot, Mercury Lounge. The video above was taken by Dave Johnson (thanks for putting that together, Dave!). A post of the evening is also on the Commonweal Institute’s site.
I joined EJS President Eva Paterson in co-hosting this event with Commonweal Institute, Ellee Koss, Netroots Nation, Rebecca Prozan, Matt Haney and Dexter Ligot-Gordon.
A very special thanks to Mercury Lounge for their incredible support, including hosting our event on a night that they’re usually closed, and to Commonweal Institute for underwriting this event.
Mike also appeared at Monday’s Drinking Liberally and today at a lunchtime event at Manika Jewelry co-hosted by Vida Benavides, Monica Walsh, Laura Efurd, Maria Echeveste,Yoko Nakagawa, Keith Kamisugi, Gene Benavides, Bouapha Toommally, Trina Villanueva, Hector Preciado, Emi Gusukuma, Tessie Guillermo and Daphne Kwok.
Visit http://theprogressiverevolution.com to learn more about the book and buy it online.
