Panel Examines Racial Disparities

At a town hall meeting held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College Tuesday afternoon, several congressional members and noted black figures held forth on education, health care and economic disparities in the African-American community.

Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree moderated the panel, sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.

“What you see here today are the people who are the heart and soul of Massachusetts,” Ogletree said to an audience of over 200.

Prominent trial attorney Willie Gary contended that blacks still faced a number of challenges.

“This road to freedom is always under construction, and we have to work on it everyday,” he said.

“Don’t let your head get too big for your hat size,” he said, urging the audience to “go out and make a difference.”

Motivational speaker Dr. Julia Hare, whose dynamic speaking style drew applause and laughter from the audience, advised people to actively seek change.

“If we need to get equality...I think we need to throw out the old agenda and get a new road map,” she said.

“The tragedy does not lie in not achieving your goals,” she said, “The tragedy lies in having no goals to achieve.”

She also chided comedian Bill Cosby’s recent criticism of some members of the black community.

Patricia A. Ford, among the most prominent black women in the labor movement, spoke briefly about health care, saying that education and access to health services were two means of addressing existing disparities.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux, an economist, commentator and author, said that “financial literacy and financial access” would bring the black community closer to economic empowerment.

“How do we have $180 billion for Iraq, but we don’t have enough money for higher education?” she asked. She also noted the economic disparities in income and wealth between blacks and whites.

Student Heru Setepenra Heq-m-Ta, who graduated as valedictorian from Roxbury Community College, stressed the importance of ensuring adequate representation, no matter the outcome of November’s presidential election.

Massachusetts State Representative Gloria Fox charged that not much had changed since the civil rights movement.

“The same racism that we had to deal with way back in the day—in the ’50s and ’60s—we have to deal with today,” she said bluntly.

“This election is one that is going to have a tell-tale sign on all of us,” she said.

Rev. Dr. Marshall E. Hatch, Jr., National Director of Religious Affairs of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, emphasized the importance of keeping focus.

“We need to put our eyes back on the prize,” he said.

Gradations of class within the black community are dangerous divisions, he said, also pointing to still-existing racism as an obstacle.

“The enemies of our struggle are relentless,” he said.

The current scheme, Hatch said, is the disenfranchisement of blacks as a way for some to cement political power.

He also expressed his disapproval of the government’s current “disconnect from churches,” calling for the black community to “reclaim [their] sense of moral authority.”

Dr. Michael E. Dyson, an author and radio commentator for National Public Radio’s Tavis Smiley Show, displayed his skills as an ordained Baptist minister, drawing enthusiastic clapping and hearty laughter following his brief but explosive speech.

Describing the nation as a “pigmentocracy” where the “color of your skin is used as a guide to treat you,” Dyson cited racial profiling as indicative of current race relations.

And like several panelists before him, Dyson derided Cosby’s recent comments that have characterized blacks as uneducated and as unmotivated.

Cosby has a right to say what he likes, Dyson said, but he should know what he’s “talking about before [he opens his] mouth.”

Dyson also urged the audience to go “beyond class warfare.”

“You might be in first class, I might be in coach, but if the plane go down, we go down together,” he said.

Rep. Major Owens of New York focused on the importance of zeroing in on the minute and cautioned against premature celebration.

“Victory is in the details,” he said.

Rep. Albert R. Wynn of Maryland explained that achieving equality was not just “about civil rights but also economic rights” and called for the creation of more jobs for blacks.

Wynn said that business creation required more research dollars going to historically black colleges.

Rep. Donna Christian-Christensen of the Virgin Islands, who is noted for being the first female physician in the U.S. Congress, noted a number of disparities in health care.

“Our communities are bleeding,” she said, pointing to the lower life expectancy of black babies as an example and noting that a recent Congressional health care report downplayed such deficiencies.

A question and answer session followed the panel.

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.