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The Murder of Equity & Justice |
Current rating: 0 |
by Carol Ammons
Email: lifestratinst19 (nospam) sbcglobal.net (unverified!)
Phone: 217-344-1811
Address: 1108 N. Busey Av |
22 Apr 2005
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This article is an Open letter of the Citizens of Champaign County & The Champaign County Board |
Open Letter to the Citizens of Champaign County
& The Champaign County Board
The Murder of Equity & Justice
Well as they say in baseball, “root, root for the Home Team, if they don’t win it’s a shame. So it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out…” Once again the old ball team wins. The April 21, 2005, county board meeting re-affirms the inherent racism that it claims to want to remedy by “lynching” the possible racial disparity study that could have set the county on the right track. After much political ping-pong, and fake gestures of being fiscally responsible by not allocating the needed money to conduct the study, the supporters of the status quo, were successful in keeping things as is. Double talk such as, “I support a disparity study and I agree that the county has not done adequate business with citizens of color and females, however, I don’t like the process in which it was presented to this board.” County board members who have no answer for why there aren’t more citizens of color and female contractors. Some members say; why should we worry so much about this issue since those particular people aren’t beating the door down for proper representation? Others who have not dealt honestly with there own ignorance which manifests in the form of racism say, we already know we have a horrible history of doing business with these two segments of our citizenry, but let’s not deal truthfully with the reason why that is so. Let’s just GIVE “them” a waiver from being bonded, as long as they agree to do contracts that don’t exceed twenty thousand dollars, even though, we do business to the tune of sixty million dollars per year!!
The “inherent racism” that is inescapable in America plays out when issues such as this arise. The county has no problem voting to approve “fiscally responsible” purchases of 120,000.00 dollar vehicles or a million dollars worth of software, but a racial disparity study that we all agree we need to have done (just not for 50,000 dollars) we deem fiscally irresponsible, even though it was already approved and the funds have already been allocated in the budget. What is the real reason why this study was lynched? Who is really behind the efforts to keep the truth from being plainly revealed? These are the questions that continue to go unanswered when Democracy is thwarted for personal privileges and connections to big business. Those same members who spent an hour correcting the language in the contract because they didn’t like some of the legal implications then turned right around and voted against the study! One would be lead to believe that if a person was truly in support of such a study, then after the issues of legal implications were resolved, those individuals would then support the entire study, but that was not the case.
This sounds to those of us who experience racism and sexism on a daily basis, that we are still dealing with the ideology, “can the niggers and women ride up front with us important white men and get real access to the sixty million we relegate and share or, should we give them some crumbs from our table so they will go away?” Painful as it may be, it is indeed true.
Is there any relationship between the lack of economic inclusion and crime in the African-American community? The resolution adopted by the county board, reinforces that lack of opportunity for independent businesses in our community to employ other members of the community and to offer remedies to unemployment.
So, where are the seekers of justice? Exactly what is a liberal? At this moment of disappointment and feeling of defeat, let me share a few additional concepts. As the county board has manifested a faltering and fluctuating interest in civil rights (expressed through phone contract scam) and economic rights (expressed through the killing of the racial disparity study) during the past year, a flood of words rather than just deeds has inundated the dry desert of expectations. The earnest request for justice seekers went interestingly un-answered; therefore, the banner of justice and equity was not raised. For hundreds of years African-Americans have had to fight to stay alive by developing endurance to hardship and heartbreak. Yet, until this very moment, have I truly come to realize how deep the rivers of injustice flow. So, who’s to blame? Is it the “when convenient” so-called liberals? Or perhaps, the apathetic spectators in the Black community who refuse to address their concerns? Or, maybe it’s the old powerful alliances between big business, unions, or labor contractors with county officials? At this point, every serious, justice seeking citizen in Champaign County should be thoroughly outraged at the reincarnation of such spirits as King Leopold or Willie Lynch, who sought to deny humanity equity and justice. After all, they understood that the worst thing an oppressive regime could do is to allow it’s “slaves” to experience true freedom, which is, full participation in power. Well, since I’ve shared, I realize that the fight is far from over, because it is neither won, as some may assert, nor lost, as the calamity of this declaration may suggest. It will simply change forms. The destruction of white supremacy must continue. |
This work is in the public domain |
