Re:Nader/U.S.Election(Nader on racism)

[Dayne Goodwin <dayneg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[2 items]
1]>Nader 2000  Press Release  September 20, 2000
>
>NADER CALLS FOR THE CLOSING OF RACIAL GAPS IN AMERICA
>
>MILWAUKEE, WI, Sept 20 -- Ralph Nader said today that closing the racial
>gaps that plague America must be given the highest priority in the next
>Administration.
>
>Nader said the legacy of discrimination persists throughout American
>life in access to health care, education, employment, good wages,
>wealth, the criminal justice system and the way races are depicted in
>the media. The disparities clearly demonstrate the need for affirmative
>action, he said.
>
>"After more than 300 years of affirmative action to benefit white males,
>we clearly need affirmative action for people of color and women to
>offset historic wrongs as well as present-day inequalities," Nader said.
>
>Nader, the Green Party candidate for President, also called for a
>"Marshall Plan" approach to revitalizing inner cities, particularly low
>and moderate income and minority neighborhoods, which he said have
>suffered from decades of neglect and discriminatory treatment from
>local, state and federal governments and financial institutions.
>Reallocation of portions of the federal budget, now used for huge
>corporate tax shelters, subsidies, hand-outs and give-aways, and
>wasteful military spending, can be used for this objective.
>
>"Inner city neighborhoods, despite the Community Reinvestment Act, are
>still starved for credit and other services on reasonable terms," Nader
>said. "As a result, citizens and small businesses in many of these
>neighborhoods become victims of predatory lenders, loan sharks,
>check-cashing firms and various landlord abuses."
>
>Nader said both the Democratic and Republican candidates for President
>are playing political games about what they plan to do with the
>yet-to-be realized federal budget "surplus." Any surplus, if it
>materializes, Nader said, should be earmarked for rebuilding
>long-neglected urban neighborhoods, among other human needs.
>
>Nader, a long-time opponent of the discriminatorily applied death
>penalty, also spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling.
>
>"Police are empowered to make arrests when they have probable cause to
>believe that a crime has been committed, but they are not empowered to
>mete out punishment - certainly not physically abusive punishment that
>violates citizens' civil and human rights." Citizen respect for and
>cooperation with the police force is seriously damaged when such police
>anarchy occurs and escapes sanctions.
>
>Nader denounced "racial profiling" which he said is now too-frequent a
>practice across the U. S. with African-American, Latino and other
>drivers stopped simply because of their racial characteristics.  Nader
>called for an immediate end of "pretextual traffic stops" - using minor
>traffic violations, real or alleged - as an excuse to stop a car and
>search passengers.
>
>Nader also was critical of the racial disparity in sentencing,
>particularly among youthful offenders.  Citing data compiled by the
>National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Nader said African-American
>youths with no prior record were six times more likely to be
>incarcerated than white youths with the same record.
>
>Nader called the disparities in sentencing an "intolerable affront to
>the core principles of our justice system."
>       - - - - - - - -
2]
>Statement of Ralph Nader on Race in America
>September 20, 2000 ­ Milwaukee, Wisconsin
>
>America remains burdened by a racial chasm.  The life chances and
>opportunities of people of color in the United States are limited as
>compared to whites.  The legacy of historic discrimination - de jure and
>de facto - continues to weigh on the present; and current day
>discrimination persists throughout American life - in access to
>healthcare, educational services, employment opportunities, wage levels,
>capital, the criminal justice system, and media employment.
>
>There is no more poignant indicator of America's failure to remedy past
>and eliminate present discrimination than the ongoing racial
>differentials in infant and child health.  The neonatal death rate among
>births to black women was 14.5 per thousand in 1995; for births among
>white women, the rate was 6.3.  Babies of black women are two-and-a-half
>times more likely to die in their first year than babies born to white
>women.  Nearly half of all African American and Latino children live in
>families with incomes less than 125 percent of the poverty level; the
>rate for white children is 24 percent.
>
>These statistics - among the most telling of economic indicators, far
>more relevant in revealing the state of the nation's health than the
>latest uptick or downturn in the Dow or Nasdaq, for example - are a
>national scandal.  That they are not regularly reported is a distinct
>national scandal.
>
>Many of the burdens imposed on people of color in the United States are
>those piled on working people, regardless of race.  If the richest
>nation in the history of the world chose, as it could do, to eliminate
>poverty; if we set aside the concerns of insurance companies and
>installed a functioning national healthcare system that assured coverage
>and access to quality care for all; if all employers were required to
>pay a living wage to all of their workers; if all workers, including
>agricultural workers, were guaranteed the right to unionize without
>facing employer threats or coercion; if we required banks to make
>affordable checking accounts and other lifeline financial services
>available to all; if we acted to stop electricity deregulation from
>enabling "electricity redlining," with inferior service delivered to
>lower-income consumers; if the regulatory authorities cracked down on
>consumer fraud that steals billions each year from working people, and
>banned the mortgage scams and legal loan-sharking that are rampant in
>poor communities; if we fostered and supported community development
>credit unions to meet the lending, saving and development needs of
>lower-income neighborhoods and others; if we invested in a mass transit
>system that connected all communites and enabled people to travel
>efficiently without cars; if we ended the failed War on Drugs, began
>treating drug addiction as a health problem rather than a criminal
>problem, and eliminated the extreme mandatory sentences for drug
>possession and minor drug-related crimes; if we installed community
>policing programs around the country; if we guaranteed adequate
>childcare to all; if we expanded Social Security to provide more income
>to the widows and widowers - then we would in the process redress many
>of the racial divides that now plague the nation.
>
>But even with these race-blind policies, we would need to do more, and
>directly address persistent racism in America.  We must also crack down
>on the practice of redlining - racially discriminatory lending practices
>that condemn minority neighborhoods to accelerating decay - and force
>banks and financial institutions to make credit, insurance and other
>financial services available in all communities.  We must support
>affirmative action.  We must adopt a new set of policies to ensure
>respect for Native American rights, interests and sovereignty and to
>return wealth stolen from Native Americans.  We must ensure that
>predominantly minority school districts receive funding equal to white
>districts.  We must expand health services to put an immediate end to
>the race-based discrimination which (as documented by the Department of
>Health and Human Services) consigns people of color to inferior
>diagnoses and treatments for diseases and ailments including pneumonia,
>HIV/AIDS, mini-strokes and heart attacks.  We must end pervasive
>discrimination in the criminal justice system.
>
>Paid for by the Nader 2000 General Committee, Inc
>