When Affirmative Action Was WhiteWhen Affirmative Action Was White by Ira Katznelson (Please turn to page 2) Hurricane Katrina’s violent winds and waters tore away the shrouds that

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March/April 2006 Volume 15: Number 2

CONTENTS:Affirmative Actionfor Whites .................. 1

Katrina and PoliticalRepresentation .......... 3

Race, Poverty &Pesticides .................. 5

PRRAC Update ............ 7Apologies/Reparations ............. 11

Resources.................. 12

When Affirmative Action Was Whiteby Ira Katznelson

(Please turn to page 2)

Hurricane Katrina’s violent windsand waters tore away the shrouds thatordinarily mask the country’s racialpattern of poverty and neglect. Under-standably, most commentators focusedon the woeful federal response. Oth-ers, taking a longer view, yearned fora burst of activism patterned on theNew Deal. But that nostalgia requiresa heavy dose of historical amnesia. Italso misses the chance to come to termswith how the federal government inthe 1930s and 1940s contributed to thepersistence of two Americas.

In “To Fulfull These Rights,” aJune 1965 graduation address atHoward University, President LyndonJohnson asked why the black popula-tion of the United States had falleneven further behind the country’s whitemajority during the two decades sincethe end of the Second World War,despite the era’s sustained nationalprosperity. Conceding that “we arenot completely sure why this is,” hestressed the need to adopt bold newpolicies of affirmative action to rem-edy the disabilities following from twocenturies of oppression.

Johnson missed the chance to assayhow the major policies of the New Dealand Fair Deal of the 1930s and 1940s,inflected by the preferences of theSouthern wing of the DemocraticParty, had massively advantagedAmerican whites while often exclud-ing African Americans, especially themajority who still lived in the 17 states

that mandated de jure racial segrega-tion. Southern members of Congressused occupational exclusions and tookadvantage of American federalism toinsure that their region’s racial orderwould not be disturbed by nationalpolicies. Farmworkers and maids, thejobs held by most Southern blacks,were denied Social Security pensionsand access to labor unions. Benefitsfor veterans were administered locally.The famous GI Bill adapted to “theSouthern way of life” by accommo-dating to segregation in higher educa-tion, to the job ceilings local officialsimposed on returning black soldierswho came home from a segregatedArmy, and to an unwillingness to of-fer loans to blacks even when they wereinsured by the federal government. Ofthe 3,229 GI Bill-guaranteed home,business and farm loans made in 1947in Mississippi, for example, only 2went to black veterans.

Together, these policies transferredmore than $100 billion to create amodern middle class during the firstdecade after the Second World War, asum more than six times the amountspent on Marshall Plan aid in war-tornEurope. Without attention to this his-tory, the ambition to create affirma-tive action for the black poor and thedispossessed was made difficult.Without attention to this history today,it is hard to know how to proceed.

Affirmative action, as it came to op-erate, focused mainly on opportuni-

ties for middle-class blacks seekingaccess to higher education and top-tierjobs. This affirmative action hasworked to great effect, creating a moreracially-just and diverse society thanotherwise would have been the case.But the black affirmative action pro-grams instituted since 1965 in factwere paltry in their scope and scalecompared to the massive governmen-tal transfers that disproportionatelyaided whites in the previous three de-cades, 1935-65.

QuestioningAffirmative Action

Presently, many US politicians andmuch of the wider public are question-ing the effectiveness of any kind of

Poverty and Race (ISSN 1075-3591)is published six times a year by thePoverty & Race Research Action Coun-cil, 1015 15th Street NW, Suite 400,Washington, DC 20005, 202/906-8023, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail:[email protected]. Chester Hartman,Editor. Subscriptions are $25/year,$45/two years. Foreign postage extra.Articles, article suggestions, letters andgeneral comments are welcome, as arenotices of publications, conferences,job openings, etc. for our ResourcesSection. Articles generally may be re-printed, providing PRRAC gives ad-vance permission.

© Copyright 2006 by the Poverty& Race Research Action Council. Allrights reserved.

2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 15, No. 2 • March/April 2006

(AFFIRMATIVE: Continued from page 1)

Nostalgia for the NewDeal requires a heavydose of historicalamnesia.


affirmative action in the face of con-tinuing black disadvantage and thewider impact of globalization on thepopulation as a whole. Many view af-firmative action as an expensive ex-ercise that violates principles of meritand equal opportunity and that, in anyevent, has not achieved its originalgoals as enunciated by PresidentJohnson in 1965. Further, there is noagreement or clarity about what, ifanything, should be put in its place.

Current policy possibilities becomeclearer when we take into account notjust the affirmative action policies thathave been called by that name, but thefull range of affirmative action—in-cluding affirmative action for whites—that marked much of American socialpolicy in the key formative period thatpreceded the civil rights revolution.

The almost exclusively white-tar-geted nature of this extensive federallegislation has largely been ignored bypolicy analysts, just as it was byLyndon Johnson.

Thus, often without realizing it, theUnited States has practiced what, ineffect, was white affirmative action ona highly generous and widespread ba-sis, followed by a much more modestprogram of black affirmative action.By understanding this history, we cancome to terms with the widening gapbetween blacks and whites noted by

Lyndon Johnson and with the incapac-ity of many blacks to be able to makegood this gap in the following fourdecades.

The policy implications of a full ap-preciation of these features of modernUS history, in short, are the oppositeof currently popular views. Properlydesigned and funded, affirmative ac-tion policies can work very effec-tively, but the ingrained bias in a whitedirection has to be acknowledged andtranscended. If American politiciansand public opinion are serious aboutracial equality, this history indicatesthe need to implement an affirmativeaction program as ambitious as thatdelivered to whites during the threedecades before President Johnson

spoke out in 1965. It is important toconsider both the principles that couldanimate such an effort and to imaginethe form it might take.

The Roosevelt andTruman Administrations

Although no single period can ac-count for why race and class continueto be so closely entwined today, sucha critical moment lies just behind us,during the Administrations of FranklinRoosevelt and Harry Truman, whensuch great progressive national poli-cies as Social Security, protective la-bor laws and the GI Bill generated whatI have called “affirmative action forwhites.” As a historian, I have triedto set this record straight. As a politi-cal scientist, I have sought to under-stand the mechanisms that made thishistory possible. As a citizen, I havesought to comprehend the implicationsof these past policies for possibilitiestoday.

During Jim Crow’s last hurrah inthe 1930s and 1940s, when Southernmembers of Congress controlled the

gateways to legislation, policy deci-sions dealing with welfare, work andwar excluded or differentially treatedthe vast majority of African Ameri-cans. Between 1945 and 1955, the fed-eral government transferred unprec-edented sums to support retirement andfashion opportunities for job skills,education, homeownership and smallbusiness formation. Together, thesedomestic programs dramatically re-shaped the country’s social structureby creating a modern, well-schooled,home-owning middle class. At no othertime in American history had so muchmoney and so many resources beentargeted at the generation completingeducation, entering the workforce andforming families.

Imagine two countries, one therichest in the world, the other amongits most destitute. Then suppose a glo-bal program of foreign aid transferredwell over $100 billion, but to the richnation, not the poor. This is exactlywhat happened as a result of the cu-mulative impact of the most impor-tant domestic policies of the 1930s and1940s. Social Security began to payold age pensions in 1939. By the endof the 1940s, its original provisionshad been impressively improved. TheGI Bill was the largest targeted fullynational program of support in Ameri-can history. The country passed newlabor laws that promoted unions andprotected people as they worked. TheArmy was a great engine of skill train-ing and mobility during the SecondWorld War. None of these was a mar-ginal or secondary program. To thecontrary, individually and collectivelythey organized a revolution in the roleof government that remade thecountry’s social structure in dramatic,positive ways.

But most blacks were left out. Thedamage to racial equity caused by eachprogram was immense. Taken to-gether, the effects of these public lawswere devastating. Social Security,from which the majority of blacks wereexcluded until well into the 1950s,quickly became the country’s mostimportant social legislation. The laborlaws of the New Deal and Fair Deal

March/April 2006 • Poverty & Race • Vol.15, No. 2 • 3

Never in the nation’shistory has there beenan election in which solarge a portion of theelectorate must vote byabsentee ballot.


Coretta Scott KingWe join the world in mourning thedeath of Coretta Scott King, whoso capably carried on (and in manyrespects expanded) the humanrights work of her husband afterhis 1968 assassination. She wouldhave appreciated the fact that thosewho spoke at her funeral, in thepresence of President Bush andmany other power-holders, pulledno punches, criticizing ourcountry’s many anti-human rightspolicies.

The Political Repercussionsof Hurricane Katrina

by Chester HartmanAs of this writing (mid-February),

the postponed New Orleans electionsare scheduled for April 22, with a May20 run-off if needed—set by Gov.Kathleen Blanco under pressure froma federal judge. The mayor’s office,the entire seven-member city council,and the sheriff and tax assessor’s of-fices, as well as some possible impor-tant voter propositions, all are on theballot. It will be a very closely watchedelection, not only for what its resultssay and portend for the city’s future,but also because of the likely unprec-edented (at least for American elec-tions) details of voting procedures,given the vast geographic dispersionof the electorate.

While the population flow back intothe city is slow and somewhat unpre-dictable, in very rough terms onlysome 200,000 of the 500,000 pre-Katrina New Orleanians will be in thecity on April 22. The big questionsare who those voters are and how,where and whether they will vote.

Vanilla City?

The first question can be reliablyanswered, at least in general terms:The city’s white population—aboutone-third of pre-hurricane New Or-leans—suffered far less damage and dis-placement, and those who had to leavewere in a better position to returnquickly. Conversely, the two-thirds ofthe city that was African-Americanevacuated in far higher proportions andis far less able to return. These peopleare now scattered in large numbers insuch cities as Houston, Jackson andAtlanta, but are all over the map, fromRhode Island to Alaska. To the extentthat place affects ability and willing-ness to vote, the cards are already wellstacked. If one adds to those new re-alities the consistent data that votingrates are higher for whites and for

those with higher socioeconomic sta-tus, the racial disparity is magnified.

Prior to the hurricanes, New Or-leans was one of the most solid cen-ters of black political power in thecountry. Of the state’s seven Congres-sional districts, only New Orleans hasan African-American majority. Fourof the nine African Americans in theState Senate are from New Orleans,as are one-third of the of the StateHouse representatives, and five of the

city’s seven city councilors are Afri-can-American. If some of the projec-tions/plans for a city with radicallychanged demographics are realized,the city will have far less representa-tion and power in Baton Rouge, andmight even wind up with a populationtoo small to constitute a Congressionaldistrict (which in turn could lead tocreation of a new majority African-American district elsewhere in thestate). Beyond the state, still to besolidified relocation patterns could af-fect Houston, Atlanta, Jackson andother locales where ex-New Orleaniansdecide to stay in large numbers.

The Diaspora

The other big question is how, andwhether, the far-flung dispersed popu-lation—as well as those who will be inNew Orleans on Election Day—willvote.

First, consider those who stayed orwill have returned to the city. Some300 of the city’s 442 parish electoral

precincts suffered storm damaged. Ex-tensive consolidation into a far fewernumber of polling places is mandated.This raises problems of crowding, linesand adequate staffing; people whoselives are still disrupted and full ofhassles are not likely to stand around,possibly for hours, waiting to cast theirvote. Beyond that is the transportationissue: Consolidation of voting placesmeans longer trips for most voters—trips made very difficult by the city’sstill broken public transit system.

In terms of the larger population ofdisplaced people, big questions existabout how and whether they will vote.Never in the nation’s history has therebeen an election in which so large aportion of the electorate must vote, ifthey vote at all, by absentee ballot—asystem that tests both the will and ca-pacity of the voting mechanism as wellas the voter.

One option for those going back andforth to their former homes, but notfinally returning to the city, is to voteearly in person (assuming the citymakes provision for this); a 2005 statelaw change gives voters that right.Another potentially important optionis the fax machine. Louisiana law re-


quires that absentee ballots be receivedby mail at least four days before thepolls close, but it allows ballots to befaxed. Knowledge of this should bewidely disseminated, along with prac-tical access to fax machines and, if needbe, transmission cost coverage or re-imbursement. At the other end, allRegistrar office must be equipped withfax receipt capability—funds for whichcould be made available via the HelpLouisiana Vote Fund.

The threshold issue is notificationand communication: how to reachthese people, how to get them ballots,and how to facilitate their actual vot-ing. FEMA’s proven incompetenceincludes its inability to assemble a re-liable list of evacuees and their mail-ing addresses, added to which is theirrefusal to provide the list to candi-dates. In any case, traditional cam-paigning is made virtually impossiblegiven the dispersed population, whichwill certainly reduce turnout. A spe-cial state legislature session that justended created 10 satellite voting cen-ters more accessible to (at least thenearby) displaced New Orleanians,and likely (clarification expected)eliminated a law barring first-timevoters from voting by absentee ballot;newly registered voters, however, maynot be allowed to vote by absenteeballot or at the satellite voting centers.An additional complication is that, formany evacuees, their residential loca-tion is transient, especially those forcedto leave hotel rooms previously paidfor by FEMA. Where will they go?Will they let FEMA or election offi-cials know their new address? The USmail system is still far from reliable.Aggressive efforts by the media,FEMA, community organizing groupssuch as the Association of CommunityOrganizations for Reform Now(ACORN), PICO, the Industrial Ar-eas Foundation and others can andshould play a key role. As the Presi-dent of the League of Women Votersof New Orleans put it in a Nov. 22,2005 letter in the New York Times: “Ifthey can have elections in Afghanistanand Iraq, we can have them too.”

An unanswerable question is the ex-tent to which there will be voter apa-thy among those no longer in NewOrleans. For some, absence may onlyincrease their fervent desire to returnand their understanding of the politi-cal importance of the vote in order toachieve that goal. For others, thelonger they stay away, the more theymay turn cynical and less oriented totheir former city and neighborhood.Voter turnout among absentees will bethe key determinant of the electionoutcome, as well as an important sig-nal of future population trends.

Of course, the problem could be

ameliorated by universal voter regis-tration, overseen at the national level,as exists in nearly every modern de-mocracy—as suggested by Rob Richieand Ryan O’Donnell of the Center forVoting and Democracy in their Dec.22, 2005 Washington Post op-ed,“Louisiana’s Electoral Disaster.” Thatwould enable citizens to be registeredto vote, no matter where they lived,in an automatic process administeredby nonpartisan, independent officials.Even more “radical” would be creationof a Constitutional right to vote, asproposed by American Univ. Law Pro-fessor Jamin Raskin and others.

Other ways to facilitate absentee vot-ing include the adaptation of provisionsalready in place to allow voting bymilitary personnel and overseas citi-zens—under the federal Uniformedand Overseas Citizens Absentee Vot-ing Act; extension of the voting pe-riod; and making absentee ballotsavailable online and at public locationssuch as DMV sites, libraries and postoffices. Highly exaggerated concernsabout fraud are adequately addressedvia certification and perjury penaltynotices.

Like many other problems thatKatrina brought out into the open soforcefully, reforms that are needed to

address these issues provide a modelfor much wider application.

The Big Race

The mayoral race is at the center ofattention. Mayor Ray Nagin hasn’tdone himself any favors with his“chocolate city” remark or with hisreference to the deity. He hasn’t comeeven close to achieving a RudyGiuliani-type response to the disaster,which evoked near-universal admira-tion for the Big Apple’s mayor. Lt.Gov. Mitch Landrieu announced hiscandidacy just as this issue was goingto press. And while handicapping elec-tions is never a sure thing, the smartmoney says that, for the first time since1978, New Orleans may very wellhave a white mayor. When Landrieu’sfamily name and connections—son ofthe city’s last white mayor, brother ofthe state’s senior US Senator—areadded to the new racial makeup of thelikely electorate, a white mayor is byfar the most likely scenario. This pre-diction is supported by the popularityof former Mayor Moon Landrieu, aswell as Sen. Landrieu and Lt. Gov.Landrieu himself, among black vot-ers. The ex-mayor openly opposedracist David Duke in his election bid;Senator Landrieu co-sponsored therecent Senate apology for not havingpassed federal anti-lynching legislation(see the September/October Poverty &Race). On top of all of this is the un-happiness expressed by black NewOrleanians about the recommendationsof Mayor Nagin’s Bring Back NewOrleans Commission. Probably theonly question is whether Landrieu willwin by a majority on April 22 in or-der to avoid a run-off. (Why anyonewould want the job is beyond the scopeof this article.)

Run-off elections have their owndownsides: Turnout usually falls off,especially among poor and minorityvoters; the second-round election coststhe city a lot of money; and the pro-cess of sending out and returning ab-sentee ballots creates additional diffi-culties. Louisiana law already provides

(KATRINA: Continued from page 3)

Traditional campaigningis virtually impossiblegiven the dispersedpopulation.



Race, Poverty and Pesticidesby Jay Feldman

The US government’s policies andpractices in regulating toxic pesticides,whether by neglect or design, are in-herently racist. This manifests itselfdaily in the disproportionate health andenvironmental hazards in people ofcolor communities. The effects of pes-ticides on human health and the envi-ronment are well documented in sci-entific and policy journals, while thedisproportionate risk to people of colorcommunities is not fully discussed asthe national disgrace that it is. Pesti-cides are linked to a range of effects,including cancer, birth defects, repro-ductive effects, respiratory illness (in-cluding asthma and reactive airwaydisease), neurological disorders (in-cluding Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’sdisease), learning disabilities and en-docrine system disruption. The rangeof effects and their impact on daily lifeis staggering and unacceptable giventhe availability of safe alternatives thatdo not poison people or contaminatetheir communities.

Injustice in RiskAssessment

Risk assessments that calculate “ac-ceptable” risks across populationgroups do not disclose the dispropor-tionate effect that pesticide use has onpeople of color communities. Publicpolicies emanating from so-called “sci-ence-based” decisions are actuallyhighly politicized risk managementdecisions based on fraudulent assump-tions about exposure. Take the FoodQuality Protection Act (FQPA), whichhas been touted by many as a “health-based” standard for regulating pesti-cides (said to be far superior to the“risk-benefit” standard of the FederalInsecticide Fungicide and RodenticideAct, FIFRA), which allows escalatingand uncapped hazards based on a sub-jective judgment of benefits to thechemical user and society. The “bet-ter” health-based standard still drivesthe use of unnecessary toxic pesticide

products that meet the standard—eventhough that standard allows some rateof harm based on uncertain knowledgeabout chemical interactions, and de-spite the availability of safer non-toxicpractices and products.

There is an inherent assumption thatif a pesticide meets a highly question-able “acceptable” risk threshold, it hasvalue or benefit. This calculation ig-nores the disproportionate risk, forexample, to African-American inner-city children whose asthmatic condi-

tions are caused or triggered by thevery pesticide products that meet thehealth-based standard. The dispropor-tionate impact of this and other publichealth and environmental policies, con-tributing to disproportionately highmorbidity and mortality due to asthma,is borne out by the statistics on asthma:12.5% of children nationwide, 17%of children in New York City and 30%of children in Harlem, New YorkCity. According to the National Insti-tutes of Health’s National Institute ofAllergy and Infectious Disease, Afri-can Americans are 4 to 6 times morelikely than whites to die from asthma.Therefore, any time our policies al-low regulators to permit uses of pesti-cides with known asthma effects,which is done daily, a disproportion-ate impact is felt in the African-Ameri-can community. Among other policies,this toxics policy contributes to a cycleof poverty, as asthma is the leadingcause of school absenteeism due tochronic illness.

The lesson of Hurricane Katrina canbe applied to environmental policy.The disproportionate health risk thatAfrican Americans suffer has been ex-posed more clearly with the continu-

ing news about the Katrina disastersince last August. Few argue with thecriticism that the evacuation in advanceof Katrina and the response in its wakeignored the necessary special attentionto low-income people who requiredassistance getting out of New Orleansand other areas in the Gulf Coast re-gion. Even more troubling than theinadequate response was the premedi-tated decision to allow the risk of adisaster that would disproportionatelyimpact the lives of low- and moder-ate-income African Americans. TheArmy Corps of Engineers, accordingto interviews and reports, knew thatits levees could not withstand a fast-moving Category 3 hurricane. And so,decision-makers made the determina-tion to write off sectors of the city,such as the 9th Ward, inhabited byAfrican Americans.

Katrina also illustrates the failureto measure accurately worst-case sce-narios resulting in contamination andpoisoning, and to calculate clean-upcosts that are far more costly than pre-vention-oriented approaches. Theflooded land, parks, houses, schools,hospitals and other buildings left be-hind after Katrina are now contami-nated with mixtures of toxic chemi-cals that will have untold effects farinto the future. This is compoundedby a government relaxation of envi-ronmental laws, such as a waiver foroil refineries to emit more pollutants,including benzene, into the air, con-tributing to further increases in resi-dents’ toxic body burden.

Unfortunately, policy decisionsleading up to the Katrina disaster arenot unique, but part of a pattern ofinstitutional racism that is also perva-sive in our nation’s pesticide policy.

CompromisingFarmworker Health

We cannot leave the discussion ofinstitutional racism in our federal pes-

The US government’spolicies and practicesregulating toxicpesticides are inherentlyracist.


African-American inner-city children’s asthmaticconditions are caused ortriggered by pesticidesthat meet the govern-ment’s standards.


(PESTICIDES: Continued from page 5)

ticide law without highlighting the pro-vision in FQPA that disallows consid-eration of occupational pesticide ex-posure when calculating “aggregate ex-posure levels” of toxic pesticides thathave a common mechanism of toxic-ity. The law embraces the importanceof calculating aggregate risk to a point,by taking into account “aggregate ex-posure levels of consumers (and sub-groups) to the pesticide residue and toother related substances, dietary andnondietary exposure from nonoccupa-tional sources,” thus specifically leav-ing out the overall risk to farm-workers, who typically are people ofcolor. The important advances associ-ated with a mandate to evaluate andregulate aggregate risk leaves out thoseat highest risk, those who handle pes-ticides in the fields as pesticide appli-cators and harvesters.

This policy, a point of contentionfor many organizations, was not loston farmworker advocates when it wasadopted in 1996. In the 1960s, CesarChavez brought to light the seriousimpact of pesticides on farmworkersand the deplorable and inhumaneworking conditions that included pes-ticide poisoning, and a lack of sanita-tion facilities, clean drinking water,health benefits and livable wages.Since that time, although there havebeen advances for many farmworkerswith union contracts and the emergenceof new leaders, such as BaldemarVelazquez of the Farm Labor Orga-nizing Committee and others, the daily

toxic assault on farmworkers contin-ues. Despite a federal farmworker pro-tection standard, its implementation isundermined by a lack of pesticide in-cident reporting, poor enforcement ofexisting regulations and grower non-compliance.

Children atHighest Risk

Overall, pesticides present thegreatest threat to children and othersensitive population groups. Thirteenmillion children live in poverty in theUS, a highly disproportionate numberof whom are African-American andLatino. This is significant, since chil-dren are especially vulnerable to toxicexposure because their organ systemsare developing and they take in moretoxic chemical relative to body weightthan do adults. Hardest hit from pesti-

cide exposure are those children liv-ing in poverty with poor nutrition andweakened respiratory and immune sys-tems, inadequate health care, lack ofinformation on pesticide hazards andnon-toxic alternatives to pesticides,and contaminated air and water fromchemical manufacturing plants andwaste sites located in their communi-ties.

The 48 pesticides that are com-monly used by schools across theUnited States are linked to cancer,birth defects, nervous system damageand other effects. In a June 1999 ar-ticle in a peer-reviewed journal, “Pes-ticides and Inner-City Children: Ex-posures, Risks, and Prevention,” Dr.Philip Landrigan and his colleaguesconcluded: “Developmental toxicityis the major threat posed by the expo-sure of fetuses, infants, and childrenin the inner city to heavy levels of pes-

ticides. The concordance of youngchildren’s disproportionately heavyexposure to pesticides, coupled withtheir developmental vulnerabilities,places them at seriously increased riskfor neurologic, endocrine, and otherdevelopmental disabilities.”

According to a 2002 report by NewYork State Attorney General EliotSpitzer, “Pest Control in Public Hous-ing, Schools and Parks: Urban Chil-dren At Risk”: “Our findings are acause for concern. Housing authori-ties, school and park administrators,and the children’s parents frequentlyuse toxic pesticides in areas where chil-dren may be exposed. These pesticidesinclude some that may cause cancer,interfere with the normal developmentof a child’s nervous system, increasethe incidence of asthmatic attacks, orirritate the skin, eyes, respiratory sys-tem and digestive system.”

EnvironmentalJustice Dismantled

The pesticide problems inflicted onpeople of color is made worse by theBush Administration’s disregard for a1994 Executive Order and a nationalcommitment to address the issue ofdisproportionate risk. In March 2004,the Environmental Protection Agencywas told by its Inspector General’s (IG)office that the Agency had failed toprovide adequate protection for mi-norities and low-income families who,it said, are disproportionately affectedby pollution. The report (“EvaluationReport: EPA Needs to ConsistentlyImplement the Intent of the ExecutiveOrder on Environmental Justice”) con-cludes that Executive Order 12898 onEnvironmental Justice (“Federal Ac-tion to Address Environmental Justicein Minority Populations and Low-in-come Populations”), signed by Presi-dent Clinton in 1994, has not beenfully implemented, nor has EPA “con-sistently integrated environmental jus-tice into its day-to-day operations.” Itfurther states: “EPA has not identifiedminority and low-income, nor identi-fied populations addressed in the Ex-ecutive Order, and has neither defined

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Communities are takingpesticides out of theirschools, libraries, parksand public buildings.

nor developed criteria for determin-ing disproportionately impacted.”“Disproportionately impacted” is de-fined by the IG as a generic term usedby EPA, regions and stakeholders toidentify the adverse effects of environ-mental actions that burden minorityand/or low-income populations at ahigher rate than the general popula-tions.

Moreover, the report discloses thatthe Bush Administration has previouslyreinterpreted the order—without au-thority to do so—to shift emphasisaway from the very populations theorder was written to protect. The re-port states: “We believe the Agency isbound by the requirement of Execu-tive Order 12898 and does not havethe authority to reinterpret the order.The Acting Deputy Administratorneeds to reaffirm the Executive Order12898 applies specifically to minorityand low-income populations that aredisproportionately impacted.” TheAdministration then defended its ac-tion by stating that it would provideenvironmental justice to “everyone.”The EPA response states: “TheAgency does not accept the InspectorGeneral’s central and baseline assump-tion that environmental justice onlyapplies to minority and/or low-incomeindividuals. The EPA firmly believesthat environmental justice belongs toall people. . .” Then in August 2005,the Bush Administration released itsdraft Environmental Justice StrategicPlan that defines environmental jus-tice as “the fair treatment and mean-ingful involvement of all people re-gardless of race, color, national ori-gin, or income [emphasis added], withrespect to development, implementa-tion, and enforcement of environmen-tal laws, regulations, and policies”—thus ignoring or undermining the criti-cal emphasis on disproportionate im-pact.

Responding to theLack of Response

It is critical that the national con-versation growing out of Katrina con-tinue and broaden. At the same time,it is essential that attention turn to com-munity-based action for change across

the country, given an unresponsiveCongress and executive branch. Com-munities have the authority and in-creasingly recognize the need to takeaction in the face of federal govern-ment inaction and blatant disregard forimpacts of inadequately regulated poi-sons on children. For example, com-munities like Washington, DC, withits exploding childhood asthma rate,have opted out of the Centers for Dis-ease Control-supported West Nile vi-rus pesticide spray program, insteadadopting public education and mos-quito source reduction campaigns thathave been proven more effective thanthe toxic sprays. Communities such as

Chicago, Seattle, New York,Cuyahoga County (Ohio), San Fran-cisco and Los Angeles are taking pes-ticides out of their schools, libraries,parks or public buildings. People areincreasingly managing their homes andurban landscapes without toxic chemi-cals. The availability of organic foodis growing exponentially—a direct re-sponse to concerns about pesticide-in-tensive agricultural practices, result-ing food residues, environmental con-tamination and worker hazards. Localcampaigns must ensure that those whosuffer disproportionate health and en-vironmental risks because of ournation’s pesticide policies are not leftout of the changes taking place in com-munities across the country.

Jay Feldman([email protected]) is a founder and Ex-ecutive Director of Beyond Pesticides,which was established in 1981 as theNational Coalition Against the Mis-use of Pesticides to educate on toxichazards of pesticides and advocate forchanges in policies and practices thatare protective of health and the envi-ronment. Beyond Pesticides publishesnumerous newsletters, including thequarterly Pesticides and You ($25/year), and operates the websitewww.beyond pesticides.org. ❏

PRRAC Update• PRRAC Board Member CamilleHolmes has moved from the Cen-ter for Law & Social Policy to theNational Legal Aid & Defender As-sociation, where she is Director ofTraining and Community Educa-tion.

• We thank the following readersfor their recent contributions toPRRAC: ACLU of Ohio, MijhaButcher, Elliott Currie, AlanMallach, Alexander Polikoff,

Remember to sendus items for our

Resourcessection.

Emmett Schaefer, CliffordSchrupp/Fair Housing Center ofMetropolitan Detroit.

• PRRAC co-hosted a very well-attended Feb. 15 book party at TheUrban Institute for Alex Polikoffand his just-released Waiting forGautreaux: A Story of Segregation,Housing, and the Black Ghetto(Northwestern Univ. Press - 422pp., 800/621-2736).


(AFFIRMATIVE:: Continued from page 2)

Farmworkers and maidswere denied SocialSecurity and access tolabor unions.

created a framework of protection fortens of millions of workers who se-cured minimum wages, maximumhours and the right to join industrialas well as craft unions. AfricanAmericans who worked on the land oras domestics—the great majority—lacked these protections. When unionsmade inroads in the South, where mostblacks lived, moreover, Congresschanged the rules of the game to makeorganizing much more difficult. Per-haps most surprising and most impor-tant, the treatment of veterans after thewar, despite the universal eligibilityfor the benefits offered by the GI Bill,perpetuated the blatant racism that hadmarked the affairs of a still-segregatedmilitary during the war itself. Com-paratively little of this largesse wasavailable to black veterans. With thesepolicies, the Gordian Knot binding raceto class tightened.

This is an unsettling history, espe-cially for those of us who keenly ad-mire the New Deal and Fair Deal. Atthe very moment a wide array of pub-lic policies were providing most whiteAmericans with valuable tools to in-sure their old age, get good jobs, ac-quire economic security, build assetsand gain middle-class status, blackAmericans were mainly left to fend ontheir own. Ever since, American so-ciety has been confronted with the re-sults of this twisted and unstated formof affirmative action.

Despite the prosperity of post-warcapitalism’s golden age, an alreadyimmense gap between white and blackAmericans widened. Even today, af-ter the great achievements of civilrights and affirmative action, wealthfor the typical white family, mainlyin homeownership, is ten times the av-erage net worth for blacks, and a ma-jority of African-American children in

our cities subsist below the federal pov-erty line.

Retrieving LBJ’sAmbitious Project

By contrast, Lyndon Johnson de-picted policies for racial equity thatwould target “the poor, the unem-ployed, the uprooted, and the dispos-sessed.” He famously noted that “free-dom is not enough,” because “you donot take a person who, for years, hasbeen hobbled by chains and liberatehim, bring him to the starting line ofa race and then say, ‘you are free tocompete with all the others,’ and stilljustly believe you have been completelyfair.” The past four decades have notbeen kind to this vision. It is impor-

tant now, in the early 21st century, toretrieve Johnson’s ambitious project byconnecting the goals and precepts heenunciated to the history of racial biasthat was deeply embedded in Ameri-can social policy.

Johnson had in mind the kind ofcomprehensive effort the GI Bill hadprovided to most returning soldiers butwithout its exclusionary pattern ofimplementation. But that form of as-sertive, mass-oriented affirmative ac-tion never happened. By sustaining andadvancing a growing African-Ameri-can middle class, the affirmative ac-tion we did get has done more to ad-vance fair treatment across racial linesthan any other recent public policy,and thus demands our respect and sup-port. But as the scenes from New Or-leans vividly displayed, so many whowere left out before have been left outyet again.

Rather than yearn for New Dealpolicies that were tainted by racism,we would do better in present circum-stances to return to the ambitious plansPresident Johnson announced but

never realized in order to close mas-sive gaps between blacks and whites,and between more and less prosperousblacks.

The Bakke/JusticePowell Standards

In the 1978 Supreme Court case,Regents of the University of Califor-nia v. Bakke, Justice Lewis Powell, aquite conservative Republican, offeredclear and strict standards for racial rec-tification. These guidelines can helpguide such a program. Powell arguedthat modifications to color-blind poli-cies could be undertaken to remedyrace-based disadvantages when twoconditions are met. There must be aclear and tight link connecting affir-mative action’s remedies to specifichistorical harms based on race. Thistie between past action and presentpolicy has to be strong and precise.More general claims about racism inthe country’s past are not enough.Neither can the goal to be pursued byaffirmative action be vague or only ofmoderate importance. It must be suf-ficiently valuable as a social good tojustify suspending rules that ordinarilymust be blind to race. Further, if thereis a non-racial way to pursue a givengoal, that course should always be pre-ferred. Powell insisted on these twoprinciples—that racial injuries be spe-cific and clear; and that a compellingpublic purpose must be identified whenracial remedies are applied—becausea color-blind society is desirable andcolor-coding is inherently susceptibleto misuse.

Building on these principles has sig-nificant advantages. First, Powell’sdemand for strict scrutiny appropri-ately sets the bar high, but not beyondreach. It balances a widely shared de-sire to make color-neutrality the domi-nant norm with the cheerless recogni-tion that this goal cannot be achievedif the role race has played in Ameri-can life is downplayed or, worse, ig-nored. As settled law, Powell’s deeplyhistorical approach has been appliedto the type of affirmative action de-veloped during the Johnson and Nixon

Be sure to visitPRRAC’s website at:

www.prrac.org



Administrations, but it also can shapeand motivate a considerably broadereffort that might target affirmativeaction at those who are less well-off.

Powell’s distinctions placed theonus of proof on the character of thehistorical evidence that is deployed tojustify rectification. A focus on thepolicies about welfare and work, aswell as war and post-war, which theSouthern wing of the Democratic Partysuccessfully imposed during the NewDeal and Fair Deal, is consistent withthis requirement. They provide thecontent Powell requires to justify actsof official rectification.

Retrospectively, we can also seehow Johnson’s 1965 speech anticipatedPowell’s standards. The President’sanalysis of how the racial gap had wid-ened, though deficient, sought toclarify the facts regarding the presentstatus of blacks in American society.He provided a model of justificationfor affirmative action by summariz-ing the racial gap, arguing about causesand spelling out why the divide dis-tinguishing racial groups constitutes amajor public concern. By taking thesesteps, he fulfilled Justice Powell’s sec-ond stipulation. He also sought to con-nect his remedies to the causes he hadidentified. In this approach, he fol-lowed Justice Powell’s first require-ment.

Combining Powell’s principles andJohnson’s ambitions can push us for-ward to a framework for public poli-cies that can respond to the injuriesinflicted by officially sanctioned rac-ism. Though motivated by a desire toprotect Jim Crow, many of the meth-ods and instruments those programsused were adopted on a non-racial ba-sis. A renewed and extended programof affirmative action could offer a re-ciprocal possibility. Responding tonon-racial racism, affirmative actioncould be established in ways that at leastpartially transcend race, even whileprimarily rectifying racial injustice.

Beneficiaries must be targeted withclarity and care. The color-blind cri-tique argues that race, as a group cat-egory, is morally unacceptable evenwhen it is used to counter discrimina-tion. But there is an important dis-

tinction this view misses. African-American individuals have been dis-criminated against because they wereblack, and for no other reason. Obvi-ously, this violates basic norms of fair-ness. But under affirmative action,they are compensated not for beingblack, but only because they were sub-ject to unfair treatment at an earliermoment because they were black. If,for others, the policies also were un-just, they, too, must be included inthe remedies. When national policykept out farmworkers and maids, theinjury was not limited to AfricanAmericans. Nor should the remedy.

On this understanding, it is impor-tant to identify the recipients of affir-mative compensation who have a di-rect relationship to the harm beingremedied. This does not mean that they

necessarily had to experience a spe-cific act of discrimination directly. Toqualify, however, it needs to be shownhow discriminatory institutions, deci-sions, actions and practices have nega-tively affected their circumstances.This approach does not limit remediesto individuals who have faced injus-tice directly, one at a time; neither doesit justify remedies for African Ameri-cans as a unitary or exclusive groupthat has shared in a history of racismexcept when the harm, as in militarysegregation, was created with unam-biguously racist categories.

Needed:Corrective Justice

Popular and political support forcorrective justice, in short, as well asjudicial legitimacy, will depend on theclarity and persuasiveness of the asso-ciation between harms and remedies.

One of two approaches is possible. Aclosely-targeted program of rectifica-tion would search for identifiable in-dividuals who have been harmed, evenat the distance of one or two genera-tions, by the pattern of exclusions andlocal administration documented in mybook (see below). This policy couldyield both tangible and symbolic com-pensation. As examples:• For the lag in entering the Social

Security system, the excluded couldbe identified and they, or theirheirs, could be offered one-timegrants that would have to be paidinto designated retirement funds.

• For the absence of access to theminimum wage, tax credits equiva-lent to the average loss could be ten-dered.

• For the lack of access to key pro-grams under the GI Bill, programsof subsidized mortgages, small busi-ness loans and educational grantscould now be put in place.

These measures could be targetedto those who stand in a direct line tothose who were harmed, but both tokeep their costs in check and targetspending on those most in need, theywould also be available only up to aparticular level before being taxedback.

Alternatively, a less administra-tively burdensome but still exactingapproach could be crafted. With thisdesign, the broad target group for as-sertive federal policies would be poorAmericans who face conditions pro-duced by the constellation of the pat-terns of eligibility and administrationthe South placed inside the most im-portant New Deal and Fair Deal pro-grams. Although less exact at the in-dividual and family level, this ap-proach would authorize a major assaulton inequality and poverty that wouldbe justified by these historical patternsand remedied by policy interventionsoffering boosts into middle-class sta-tus. The major instruments would bethe same as those the federal govern-ment utilized in the GI Bill: subsidizedmortgages, generous grants for edu-cation and training, small business

At the very momentpublic policies werehelping whiteAmericans, blackAmericans were mainlyleft to fend on theirown.

(AFFIRMATIVE: Continued from page 9)


For the first time since1978, New Orleans mayvery well have a whitemayor.

(although only for military and over-sees voters) a ranked-choice ballot,whereby if the voter’s top choice iseliminated and does not advance to therun-off, his/her vote goes to the high-est-ranked candidate who is in the run-off. (The system, called Instant Run-off Voting, or IRV, already is used inSan Francisco, CA, Burlington, VT,and other places.)

As of this writing, it appears thatthere also could be several propositionson the ballot concerning shifting land-use and financial accountability au-thority from the city council to bodiesappointed by the mayor. Given theracial implications of the likely elec-tion results—a city council with an Af-rican-American majority and a whitemayor—control over these vital ele-ments may become racially coded aswell

Longer-Term Effects onPolitical Representation

The potential longer-term effects ofKatrina on political representation inNew Orleans and the State of Louisi-ana extend beyond the April/May pe-riod. The city’s eight-term Congress-man, William J. Jefferson, is impli-cated in bribery charges that, combinedwith what appears to be significant ero-sion of his electoral base, could wellunseat him in the November generalelections.

As a senior member of the

Ways & Means Committee, Congress-man Jefferson wields considerablepower, and replacing him wouldweaken the city’s clout in Washing-ton.

Congressman Jefferson is not theonly politician who has cause to worryabout the longer-term impacts. BothGovernor Blanco (in 2003) and Sena-tor Landrieu (in 2002) won by rela-tively small margins—margins thatwere largely, if not totally, due to theAfrican-American vote. A reducedblack electorate in the state could sig-nificantly endanger their reelection.

An additional, more worrisomelonger-term impact is redistricting

loans, and active job-searching andplacement. This line of attack on thelegacies of exclusion also could deployan expanded Earned Income TaxCredit, assure generous child care andguarantee basic health insurance.

Either way, it is not only the per-sons, or group of people, who have tobe identified, but the specific quali-ties of racial discrimination. There issomething of a hierarchy. Individualprivate acts of prejudice and discrimi-nation count for less than more perva-sive institutional ones. Injuries dealtby government count for more thanprivate patterns of institutional racism.When government is directly involved,claims for systemic compensation tomatch systemic harm become mostcompelling. Public policies, after all,have been the most decisive instru-ments dividing Americans into differ-ent racial groups with vastly differentlife circumstances and possibilities.

Speaking from the French Quarterin New Orleans last September, Presi-dent George W. Bush recognized thatHurricane Katrina has revealed “deep,persistent poverty” with “roots in a his-tory of racial discrimination.” Anyserious search for what he called “boldpolicies” might begin by taking boththe history of affirmative action forwhites and Lyndon Johnson’s urgencyand prescriptions to heart. For with-out an unsentimental historical under-standing of the policy roots of blackisolation and dispossession, the re-sponse to the disaster in the Gulf stateswill remain no more than a gesture.

Ira Katznelson ([email protected]) is a professor of political scienceand history at Columbia University. Heis the author of When Affirmative Ac-tion Was White: An Untold Historyof Racial Inequality in America (W.W.Norton, 2005), whose chapters –“Welfare in Black and White,” “Rulesfor Work,” White Veterans Only,” etc.— provide detailed data supporting hisargument. ❏

caused by Katrina-related populationshifts. Rebuilding/repopulation willundoubtedly be a protracted process,extending beyond November 2006.Existing Congressional districts (espe-cially New Orleans, but perhaps oth-ers in the state, as well as in Alabamaand Mississippi) may wind up under-populated, especially if absentee vot-ing procedures are inadequate. Will the“Texas Model” come into play, witha redrawing of Congressional districtsin between decennial censuses? Onepossibility, suggested by civil rightsattorney Kristin Clarke-Avery and herlate colleague Tulane law professor M.David Gelfand, is postponement offederal elections, possibly throughout

the Southeast. While a federal statutestates that a uniform date is to be setthroughout the country for biennialHouse elections, a 1982 Federal Dis-trict Court case (Busbee v. Smith) heldthat under certain circumstances—forinstance, in the case of a “natural di-saster”—they can be held at othertimes. Given the Justice Department’srole in approving voting proceduresunder Section 5 of the 1965 VotingRights Act, that may be an avenue toexplore.

Katrina, Rita and Wilma had anenormous impact in many areas, notthe least of which is on the politicalfront.

Chester Hartman ([email protected]) is PRRAC’s Director of Re-search. He is a member of the Long-Range Planning Task Force of Gover-nor Blanco’s Louisiana Recovery Au-thority and co-editor (with GregSquires) of Routledge’s forthcomingvolume of essays, There’s No SuchThing As a Natural Disaster: Race,Class & Katrina. A variation of thisarticle is appearing in Focus, themagazine of the Joint Center for Po-litical and Economic Studies. ❏

(KATRINA: Continued from page 4)

Apologies/Reparations

We periodically offer a compendium of recent reports dealing with apologies and reparations around the world — forwhatever lessons and models they might provide here at home. The most recent appeared in our January/February 2005issue, and one of the chapters in our new “best of P&R” book — Poverty & Race in America: The Emerging Agendas(Lexington Books, 2006) — contains the “best” of prior examples. We’ll be happy to send you a compendium of all 9earlier such reports; just send us a SASE (63˘ postage). • The Church of England, two centuries after profitingfrom the venture, has apologized to the descendants of itsvictims for its role in the global slave trade, which in-volved running a Caribbean island (Barbados) sugar plan-tation and branding the blacks who worked on it. A fur-ther instance cited in the apology was a $23,000 paymentmade to the Bishop of Exeter in compensation for the lossof 665 slaves after Barbados emancipated them in 1833.(Wash. Post, 2/11/06) • South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford signed a bill toadd the name of former Senator Strom Thurmond’s bira-cial daughter — Essie Mae Washington-Williams — to thelist of his children engraved on his monument. (NY Times,6/29/04) • The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, a RomanCatholic religious order in Ireland, apologized uncondi-tionally for the “physical and emotional trauma” its nunsinflicted on children raised in its orphanages and schools.A 1966 television documentary that exposed the extent ofabuse at one of the Dublin orphanages in the 1950s and1960s prompted an earlier public apology, but the mostrecent statement went further, noting that abuse survivorshad dismissed the earlier apology as conditional and in-complete. (NY Times, 5/6/04) • Norway will compensate the country’s 8,000-12,000“war children” — born to Norwegian women and Germansoldiers during the World War II German occupation —for the systematic harassment and bullying they were sub-jected to after the war. Each will receive $3,000-$30,000;but the amounts fall short of claims of up to $72,000 soughtby the Association of War Children. (NY Times, 7/3/04) • Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn and a represen-tative of the Illinois State Legislature came to Salt LakeCity to present to Utah Governor Olene Walker and lead-ers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acopy of Illinois’ House Resolution 793, expressing “offi-cial regret” for the violence and state-sanctioned condem-nation that caused the Mormons to leave the state in 1846on the trek that led them to Utah. (NY Times, 4/8/04) • Under a bill approved by the state’s Senate, stretches ofMississippi highways in three counties are being renamedfor James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael

Schwerner, the three civil rights workers murdered by Klanmembers in Philadelphia, MS in 1964. The bill also willrename a portion of another highway the Emmett Till Me-morial Highway. (Wash. Post, 2/11/05) • The Dutch national railway company apologized for itsrole in deporting thousands of Jews to Nazi concentrationcamps in Germany and Poland during World War II. Thecompany collaborated with Nazi occupiers in transporting107,000 Jews, 70% of the country’s Jewish community.(NY Times, 9/30/05) • Great Britain will seek ways to compensate African coun-tries for the thousands of medical professionals who leavethe continent to work in the British health service. Thecompensation will take the form of in-country training,provision of medicines to help with tackling infrastructureproblems — albeit no financial compensation. About 70,000qualified Africans leave their home countries every year towork abroad, in the UK, other parts of Europe, and theUS, leaving the world’s poorest nations battling epidemicsof AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis without sufficient quali-fied medical personnel. (NY Times, 8/20/05) • Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has pardoned awoman arrested in 1963 while trying to integrate a publicswimming pool. (NY Times, 1/17/05) • Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi observed the 60thanniversary of the Japan’s defeat in World War II by apolo-gizing for the country’s past militarism in Asia and pledg-ing to uphold its postwar pacifism. However, China, Ko-rea and other Asian nations feel this is inadequate, point-ing to Japan’s adoption of textbooks that whitewash itswartime past, as well as the Prime Minister’s visit to theYasukuni Shrine, the Shinto memorial where Class A warcriminals are enshrined along with the war dead. (NY Times,4/23/05, 8/16/05) • Can’t win ‘em all: A federal judge in Chicago, for thesecond time, dismissed a suit by slave descendants for repa-rations from corporations that benefited from slavery, hold-ing that it was a political issue for the legislative or execu-tive branch to deal with, and that since slavery was abol-ished a century and a half ago, the statute of limitationsrules out damages. (Wash. Post & NY Times, 7/7/05)


Race/Racism• “Young Men ofColor in the Media:Images and Impacts,” byRobert M. Entman (40pp., 2006), is available(no price listed) from TheDellums Commission, c/oThe Joint Center forPolitical and EconomicStudies’ Health PolicyInstitute, 1090 VermontAve. NW, #1100, Wash.,DC 20005, http://www.jointcenter.org/[9697]

• “Update” is the 20-page, Fall 2005/Winter2006 report from theKirwan Institute for theStudy of Race andEthnicity (headed byPRRAC Board memberjohn powell). Articles ontheir Katrina MappingProject, structural racism,“Understanding Whites’Racial Policy Options,”and more. Available

(possibly free) from theInstitute, Ohio St. Univ.,423 Mendenhall Lab, 125So. Oval Mall, Columbus,OH 43210, 614/292-2634, [email protected][9712]

• The Wellspring is thenewsletter of the WilliamWinter Institute for RacialReconciliation at theUniv. of Mississippi,named for the formergovernor and member ofPresident Clinton’s RaceInitiative Advisory Board.Available (likely free)from the Institute, PO Box1848, University, MS38677-1848, 661/915-6734, [email protected][9714]

• Freedom Riders:1961 and the Struggle forRacial Justice, byRaymond Arsenault (690pp., 2006), has beenpublished by OxfordUniv. Press. The author,John Hope FranklinProfessor of SouthernHistory at the Univ. ofSouth Florida, devoted10 years to this remark-able treatment, whichincludes a 54-pageAppendix, a Roster ofFreedom Riders, provid-ing, for each Ride, thenames/demographics foreach Rider, geography oforigin, occupation orstatus, and, whereveravailable, follow-updetails of the person’spost-Ride life, http://www.oup.com/ [9716]

• “The Impact ofKatrina: Race and Classin Storm-DamagedNeighborhoods,” by JohnR. Logan (16 pp., 2006?),is available (likely free)from Prof. Logan, Dept.Sociology, Brown Univ.,Providence, RI 02912,410/863-2267 [9719]

• Hurricane Katrina:Response and Responsi-bilities, ed. John BrownChilds (182 pp., 2006,$10 — all proceeds toPeople’s Hurricane ReliefFund), has been pub-lished by New PacificPress (204 Locust St.,Santa Cruz, CA 95060). Itconsists of 31 short essaysby a diverse group ofcontributors, amongthem: Bettina Aptheker,Grace Lee Boggs, JeremyBrecher, David Cohen,Arnoldo Garcia, MichaelLerner and WyntonMarsalis, www.literaryguillotine.com/npp/npphome.html [9721]

• Come Hell or HighWater: Hurricane Katrinaand the Color of Disas-ter, by Michael EricDyson (258 pp., 2006,$23), has been publishedby Basic Civitas Books,http://www.basiccivitasbooks.com/[9722]

• Free At Last? BlackAmerica in the 21stCentury, eds. Juan Battle,Michael Bennett &Anthony Lemelle (287pp., 2006), is availablefrom Transaction Publish-ers. [9665]

• “Response to Lega-cies of CommunityRacial Violence in theSouth” is the subject of a3-day conference at the

Univ. of Mississippi, co-sponsored by TheWilliam Winter Institute,The Birmingham Pledge,& Southern Truth andReconciliation, March17-19, 2006. Inf. fromThe Winter Inst., 662/915-6734, [email protected] [9715]

• “Rethinking theDiscourse on Race: ASymposium on How theLack of Racial Diversityin the Media AffectsJustice & Policy,”sponsored by the RonaldH. Brown Ctr. for CivilRights & Econ. Dev. ofthe St. Johns Univ.School of Law, will beheld April 28-29, 2006 inNYC. Inf. from Prof.Leonard Baynes,[email protected] submission wasJan. 15 (but doesn’t harmto try): www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/prospective/RonBrown/racemedia/fo: [9672]

Poverty/Welfare

• The Cost of BeingPoor: Poverty, LeadPoisoning, and PolicyImplementation, byJeanita W. Richardson(222 pp., 2005, $119.95),has been published byGreenwood Press, 800/225-5800, http://

Resources

Most Resources areavailable directly from theissuing organization,either on their website (ifgiven) or via othercontact information listed.Materials published byPRRAC are availablethrough our website:www.prrac.org. Pricesinclude the shipping/handling (s/h) chargewhen this information isprovided to PRRAC. “Noprice listed” items oftenare free.

When ordering items fromPRRAC: SASE = self-addressed stampedenvelope (39˘ unlessotherwise indicated).Orders may not be placedby telephone or fax.Please indicate fromwhich issue of P&R youare ordering.

Please drop us a line letting us know how usefulour Resources Section is to you, as both a listerand requester of items. We hear good things, butonly sporadically. Having a more complete senseof the effectiveness of this networking function willhelp us greatly in foundation fundraising work(and is awfully good for our morale). Drop us ashort note, letting us know if it has been/is useful toyou (how many requests you get when you list anitem, how many items you send away for, etc.)Thank you.


www.greenwood.com/[9703]

• “Income of U.S.Workforce Projected toDecline If EducationDoesn’t Improve” is an8-page, Nov. 2005 reportavailable (possibly free)from the National Centerfor Public Policy andHigher Education, 152 N.Third St., #705, San Jose,CA 95112, 408/271-1699, http://www.highereducation.org/[9710]

• “The New Safety Net:How the Tax CodeHelped Low-IncomeWorking FamiliesDuring the Early 2000s,”by Alan Berube, focusingon the Earned IncomeTax Credit, is available atwww.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/eitc/20060209_newsafety.htm[9725]

• “Impact of ProposedMinimum-Wage Increaseon Low-Income Fami-lies,” by Heather Boushey& John Schmitt (12 pp.,Dec. 2005), is available(likely free) from theCenter for Economic andPolicy Research, 1611Connecticut Ave. NW,#400, Wash., DC 20009,202/293-5380, http://www.cepr.org/ [9733]

CommunityOrganizing

• The National Schoolfor Strategic Organizing,run by the Labor/Community Strategy Ctr.in Los Angeles, isrecruiting applicants forits new class (July 3-Dec.19, 2006). Applicationsdue by April 1; seriousfinancial assistanceavailable. Inf. fromTammy Bang Luu at theCtr., 3780 WilshireBlvd., #1200, LA, CA90010, 213/387-2800,

[email protected], http://www.thestrategycenter.org/[9675]

CriminalJustice

• “The War onMarijuana: The Trans-formation of the War onDrugs in the 1990s,” byRyan S. King & MarcMauer, appeared in HarmReduction Journal(2006?), available atwww.harmreductionjournal.com/content/pdf1477-7517-3-6.pdf [9694]

• “Sentencing withDiscretion: CrackCocaine Sentencing AfterBooker” is a Jan. 2006report from The Sentenc-ing Project, on the resultsof the Supreme Court’s2005 decision strikingdown mandatory applica-tion of federal sentencingguidelines as unconstitu-tional (but keeping themintact by requiring thatthey be consulted in anadvisory capacity).Available from theProject, 514 10th St. NW,#1000, Wash., DC20004, 202/628-0871;downloadable atwww.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/crackcocaine-afterbooker.pdf [9678]

Economic/CommunityDevelopment

• “America’s FirstSuburbs” is a 2006Brookings Institutionreport on the nation’solder, inner-ring suburbs,available at www.brookings.edu/metro/metro.htm [9724]

Education• “Students on theMove,” by (PRRACDirector of Research)Chester Hartman, ap-peared in the February2006 issue of EducationalLeadership, the monthlymagazine of the Associa-tion for Supervision andCurriculum Development.Copies of the 5-pagearticle are available fromthe author at [email protected], http://www.ascd.org/ [9699]

• “Spreading Freedomand Saving Money: TheFiscal Impact of the D.C.Voucher Program,” bySusan L. Aud & LeonMichos (16 pp., 2006), isavailable (possibly free)from The Cato Institute,1000 Massachusetts Ave.NW, Wash., DC 20001,http://www.cato.org/[9698]

• “Adding the CriticalVoice: A Dialogue WithPracticing Teachers onTeacher Recruitment andRetention in Hard-to-Staff Schools” (61 pp.,Sept. 2005) is available(no price listed) fromLearning Point Associ-ates, 1120 E. Diehl Rd.,#200, Naperville, IL60563-1486, 800/356-2735, wwwlearningpt.org[9700]

• Teaching for Changehas available its 34-pageSpring/Summer 2006Catalogue of Resources(Pre-K through College)on Equity and SocialJustice. Available fromthem at PO Box 73038,Wash., DC 20056-3038,800/763-9131, http://www.teachingforchange.org/ [9713]

• “A Tale of TwoSchools” (Sept. 2005) is aseries of 12 district-specific reports, accompa-nied by a new web-basedtool (hiddengap.org)

“that provides hiddenteacher-spending gapinformation for everyschool in California.”Available (no price listed)from Education Trust-West, 155 Grand Ave.,#1025, Oakland, CA94612, 510/465-6444,[email protected],http://www.edtrustwest.org/ [9718]

• “Residential Educa-tion: Policy and Prac-tice” is the annual conf.of the Coalition forResidential Education,March 26-28, 2006 inDC. Inf. from the Coali-tion, 888 16th St. NW,#300, Wash., DC 20009,202/496-9189,[email protected],http://www.residential.org[9707]

Employment/Jobs Policy

• “An Introduction toUnemployment andUnemployment Insur-ance,” by WayneVroman, is a 7-page, Oct.2005 report, available(possibly free) from TheUrban Institute, 2100 MSt. NW, Wash., DC20037, 202/261-5687,http://www.urban.org/[9704]

Environment• “Thirsty for Justice:A People’s Blueprint forCalifornia Water” (132pp., June 2005) isavailable (no price listed)from EnvironmentalJustice Coalition forWater, 654 13th St.,Preservation Park,Oakland, CA 94610, 510/286-8400. A 20-pagecompanion piece, Commu-nity Perspectives, contain-ing case studies andcommunity water de-mands, is available aswell — in Spanish and


English, www.ejcw.org/blueprint.html [9709]

• “Four EconomicIssues That Environmen-talists Should WorryAbout,” by MarkWeisbrot (6 pp., Sept.2005), is available (likelyfree) from the Center forEconomic and PolicyResearch, 1611 Connecti-cut Ave. NW, #400,Wash., DC 20009, 202/293-5380, http://www.cepr.net/ [9731]

Food/Nutrition/Hunger

• “Hunger in America2006: A Report onEmergency Food Distri-bution in the UnitedStates in 2005” (20 pp.)is available (ExecutiveSummary) from America’sSecond Harvest, 35 E.Wacker Dr., #2000,Chicago, IL 60601, 312/263-2303, http://www.secondharvest.org/[9730]

Health

• “Housing is theFoundation of HIVPrevention and Treat-ment,” a 16-page, 2005paper from the TheNational AIDS HousingCoalition, is available(possibly free) fromNancy Bernstine at theCoalition, 1518 K St.NW, Wash., DC 20005,202/347-0333, [email protected],http://www.nationalaidshousing.org/[9728]

• Journal of HealthCare for the Poor &Underserved is a quar-terly peer-reviewedjournal from MeharryMedical College. Subs.are $25 students, $62

indivs., $295 insts. fromJohns Hopkins Univ.Press, PO Box 19966,Baltimore, MD 21211-0966, 800/548-1784,www.press.jhu/journals[9676]

Housing

• “2005 State ofMetropolitan [Louisville]Housing Report” (22 pp.)is available (possibly free)from the MetropolitanHousing Coalition, POBox 4533, Louisville, KY40204, 502/584-6858,http://www.metropolitanhousing.org/[9701]

• “Life Together: HowHousing Laws DefineAmerican Families,” byFrank S. Alexander, a 20-page, Feb. 2005 pam-phlet, is available (likelyfree) from Prof.Alexander, EmoryUniversity School ofLaw, 1301 Clifton Rd.,Atlanta, GA 30322-2770,404/712-8815,[email protected] [9702]

• “Literature Review:Impact of AffordableHousing on Individualsand Families” is avail-able from the Low IncomeInvestment Fund,www.liifund,org/assets/documents/section_press/Housing_Report_pfd.pdf[9705]

• “Affordable HousingTrust Funds” a (2005?)Fannie Mae FoundationIssue Brief, is available atwww.knowledgeplex.org/kp/new_content/policy_brief/relfiles/ahtf_brief.pdf [9711]

• “Rural Housing GoesGreen” is the theme ofthe Fall 2005 issue ofRural Voices, the quar-terly magazine of TheHousing AssistanceCouncil. The 33-page

issue has 8 articles on thesubject. Copies available(possibly free) from HAC,1025 Vermont Ave. NW,#606, Wash., DC 20005,202/842-8600,[email protected],http://www.ruralhome.org/ [9717]

• “Easing the Transi-tion: Housing Assistance& TANF Recipients” is aNov. 2005 report fromthe Housing AssistanceCouncil, 1025 VermontAve. NW, #606, Wash.,DC 20005, 202/842-8600. $5, free on theirwebsite, http://www.ruralhome.org/ [9667]

• “Section 8Homeownership: AGuide for Rural HousingPractitioners” (Dec.2005) is available ($4)from the Housing Assis-tance Council, 1025Vermont Ave. NW, #606,Wash., DC 20005, 202/842-8600; downloadableat http://www.ruralhome.org/ [9669]

Rural

• The New RuralPoverty, by Phil Martin,Michael Fix & J. EdwardTaylor (121 pp., 2006,$26.50), has beenpublished by The UrbanInstitute Press, 877/847-7377, http://www.uipress.org/ [9729]

Miscellaneous• “The State ofOpportunity in America”- Executive Summary (32pp., n.d. [2006]) isavailable (likely free)from The OpportunityAgenda, 568 Broadway,#302, NYC, NY 10012,212/334-5977, http://www.opportunityagenda.org/ [9708]

• “New Orleans afterthe Storm: Lessons fromthe Past, a Plan for theFuture” is a 44-page,Oct. 2005 report fromThe BrookingsInstitution’s MetropolitanPolicy Program. Avail-able from them (possiblyfree): 1775 MassachusettsAve. NW, Wash., DC20036-2188, 202/797-6139, www.brookings.edu/metro [9723]

• “Federal Aid to theStates for Fiscal Year2004,” a Census Bureaureport, is available atwww.census.gov/prod/www/abs/fas.html [9726]

• “Missing Inaction:Evidence ofUndercounting of Non-Workers in the CurrentPopulation Survey,” byJohn Schmitt & DeanBaker (29 pp., Jan. 2006),is available (likely free)from the Center forEconomic and PolicyResearch, 1611 Connecti-cut Ave. NW, #400,Wash., DC 20009, 202/293-5380, http://www.cepr.org/ [9732]

• “The 9/11 Project: Acollaborative project torepresent families ofvictims of the WorldTrade Ctr. attacks onSept. 11, 2001” (2005) isavailable (likely free)from the coordinatingorg., NY Lawyers for thePublic Interest, 151 W.30 St., NYC, NY 10001,http://www.nylpi.org/[9688]

JobOpportunities/Fellowships/Grants

• Child Trends isseeing a new President/CEO. It’s a DC-based“independent, nonparti-


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san research org. with anexclusive focus onchildren & the improve-ment of their well-being.”Staff of 50, $6.5 mil.annual budget. Ltr./resume (right away) [email protected][9695]

• Sargent Shriver Natl.Ctr. on Poverty Law isseeking a half-time StaffAtty./Legal Editor forClearinghouse Review:Journal of Poverty Lawand Policy. Org. is inChicago, but telecommuterelationship acceptable.

PRRAC'S SOCIAL SCIENCEADVISORY BOARD

Frank BonillaCUNY Department of Sociology

Xavier de Souza BriggsMIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning

Camille Zubrinsky CharlesDepartment of Sociology, Univ. of Pennsylvania

John GoeringBaruch College, City Univ. of New York

Heidi HartmannInst. for Women’s Policy Research (Wash., DC)

William KornblumCUNY Center for Social Research

Harriette McAdooMichigan State School of Human Ecology

Fernando MendozaDepartment of Pediatrics, Stanford Univ.

Paul OngUCLA School of Public Policy

& Social Research

Gary OrfieldHarvard Univ. Grad. School of Education

Gary SandefurUniv. Wisconsin Inst. for Poverty Research

Gregory D. SquiresDepartment of Sociology, George Washington Univ.

Margery Austin TurnerThe Urban Institute

Margaret WeirDepartment of Political Science,

Univ. of California, Berkeley

Ltr./resume/short writingsample to Ilze Hirsh atthe Ctr., 50 E. Washing-ton St., #500, Chicago,IL 60602, [email protected] [9696]

• The Labor Commu-nity Strategy Center isseeking an OfficeManager. Ltr./resume/names&phone# of 3 profl.refs. to Geoff Ray at theCenter, 3780 WilshireBlvd., #1200, LA, CA90010, fax: 213/387-2800, [email protected][9727]

POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCILBoard of Directors

CHAIRJohn Charles BogerUniversity of North CarolinaSchool of LawChapel Hill, NC

VICE-CHAIRJosé PadillaCalifornia Rural Legal AssistanceSan Francisco, CA

SECRETARYjohn powellKirwan Institute for the Studyof Race & EthnicityOhio State University

Columbus,OH

TREASURERSheila CrowleyNational Low IncomeHousing Coalition

Washington, DC

Darrell ArmstrongShiloh Baptist ChurchTrenton, NJ

Maria BlancoLawyers’ Committee forCivil RightsSan Francisco, CA

Craig FlournoySouthern MethodistUniversity

Dallas, TXThomas Henderson

Sprenger & LangWashington, DC

Camille HolmesNational Legal Aid &Defender Assn.

Washington, DCOlati Johnson

Columbia UniversityLaw School

New York, NY

Don NakanishiUniversity of CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA

Florence WagmanRoisman

Indiana UniversitySchool of Law

Indianapolis, INAnthony Sarmiento

Senior Service AmericaSilver Spring, MD

Catherine Tactaquin National Network for

Immigrant & RefugeeRights

Oakland, CA

[Organizations listed foridentification purposes only]

Philip D. TegelerPresident/Executive Director

Chester Hartman Director of Research

Christine Kim Law Student Intern

Danielle Wilson Law Student Intern

Poverty & Race Research Action Council1015 15th Street NW • Suite 400

Washington, DC 20005202/906-8023 FAX: 202/842-2885

E-mail: [email protected]: www.prrac.org

Address Service Requested3-4/06

NonprofitU.S. Postage

PAIDJefferson City, MO

Permit No. 210

Elizabeth JulianInclusive CommunitiesProject

Dallas, TXS.M. Miller

The CommonwealthInstitute

Cambridge, MA

William L. TaylorCitizens’ Commissionon Civil Rights

Washington, DC

Documents

When Affirmative Action Was WhiteWhen Affirmative Action Was White by Ira Katznelson (Please turn to page 2) Hurricane Katrina’s violent winds and waters tore away the shrouds that