By Jean Lachowicz
“Sometimes structures get in the way of social justice, and sometimes structures get in the way of what should be a celebration of diversity in our society,” said Raymond Crossman, president of the Adler School of Professional Psychology, as he opened the Adler Institute on Social Exclusion’s conference Disrupting the Status Quo: Exposing Bias, Building Community on April 11 at the Gleacher Center of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Adler,
located in the Loop, is the oldest school of professional psychology in
North America. Its strategic vision stresses social justice, and the
institute’s mission includes directing attention to and addressing the
structural origins of social disadvantage.
During the conference, Lynn Todman, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion, explained how the status quo places many groups at a disadvantage and offered examples by citing arrest and incarceration rates; education issues; the feminization of poverty; negative treatment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community; and access challenges for the mentally and physically impaired.
Despite decades of discussion and programs, “the staying power of these issues is enough to call into question the whole idea of personal responsibility,” said Todman. “How can people be forever held personally responsible for circumstances when their problems are frequently caused by structural issues? Problems with structural origins require structural reforms.”
The morning keynote speaker further explored disparities among racial groups with statistics on poverty levels, educational outcomes, health, investment rates, and house ownership. Karen Fulbright-Anderson of the Aspen Institute said, “Scientists working on the Human Genome Project have found that there is no scientific basis for race. There is more difference between the DNA of one white person and another white person than there is between blacks as a group and whites as a group.
“We need to develop a new framework for understanding the subtleties of structural racism and why there are advantages to being white and disadvantages to being a person of color,” Fulbright-Anderson went on. “Historically accumulated white privilege creates and sustains a legacy of advantage in the acquisition of wealth, power, and other dimensions of well-being.
“An example of the way in which historical privilege has a legacy that carries through to today can be found in average levels of wealth accumulation between groups. Blacks and whites who earn the same salaries today have significantly different wealth levels (savings, investments, capital assets, and so on). What explains the difference? Significant numbers in the current generation of white adult Americans, along with their parents, grandparents, and other forebears, benefited from access to good educational institutions, had access to decent jobs and fair wages, accumulated retirement benefits through union membership and Social Security, and benefited from homeownership policies and programs that allowed them to buy property in rising neighborhoods.
“By contrast,
significant numbers in the current generation of adults of color, along
with their parents, grandparents, and other forebears, came from a
background of slavery or labor exploitation, were limited by overt or
subtle segregation, were generally confined to low-paying jobs in areas
such as agricultural or domestic labor, and were discriminated against
by lending institutions as individuals and as residents of neighborhoods
of color by way of redlining and other policies,” she said.
“Wealth is most likely to build upon itself, and poverty is most likely to undermine those in its grip. These patterns have deep historical roots in the United States, a fact that is often forgotten in the blur of trying to sort out racial disparities and contradictions. The American mindset is deeply invested with strong beliefs about opportunity, and as a result we tend to overlook the built-in advantages that whites have in most competitive areas.”
Constitutional scholar Francisco Valdez from the University of Miami School of Law, the afternoon keynote speaker, presented his thoughts on reclaiming social justice through law. He said, “Our laws and policies have become deranged. The theft of the presidency eight years ago culminated a larger effort to roll back the New Deal and Civil Rights Act.
“All of it has been done in the name of liberty, freedom, and democracy. This is cultural warfare, not business as usual. Going back to the Southern Strategy that was in the forefront of the 1968 elections, we are seeing a specific phenomenon with specific agendas to create structural barriers to inclusion.
“Liberty and equality, working in tandem and intention, will produce over time a fair and just society. But when constitutional freedom is used and abused, it leads to unequal liberty and unequal justice. The checks and balances were designed to create justice and equality,” said Valdes.
“People often say that the perversions today are the original intent of the framers, which is not true. The historical record shows that the text and architecture of the Constitution and original amendments are intentionally anti-monarchy. The Constitution is designed to protect against the larger and stronger groups subjugating the others.
“Originalism is a tactical and structural bludgeon to crack down on liberty and U.S. values in the name of the Constitution,” said Valdes. “Help restore the rule of law in this country. Restore the inclusion and anti-discrimination that are undeniably present in our battered Constitution. Stand up to the people who bandy about those words of the framers of the Constitution.”
Valdes works to undo the marginalization of sexual minorities, people of color, women, and others through scholarly and academic efforts.
Future Institute on Social Exclusion events are: Is There a Right to Healthcare? on Thursday, May 8, featuring Quentin Young and Richard A. Epstein; Food Deserts: The Impact on Community Health, Wednesday, May 21, with Dinah Ramirez; and Social Justice in Urban Regeneration Processes: From Rhetoric to Reality, Saturday, June 7, featuring John McCarthy and Douglas Gills. For information go to www.adler.edu or call (312) 201-5900.
