Leid Stories - 11/03/14

Ferguson, MO: Racist Public Policy and the ‘Sundown’ Town

Voting: Tantamount to Aiding and Abetting A Criminal Enterprise

The Aug. 8 killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American, by a white local police officer, Darren Wilson, brought Ferguson, Missouri, to national and international attention as yet another example of the woefully lopsided power equation between African Americans and the systems that control them and their communities.

Our guest, Richard Rothstein, a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and senior fellow of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law, explains that Ferguson—and the Fergusons of America—were created and continue to be shaped by racist governmental policies that reflect and reinforce societal attitudes. Ferguson, he says, remains true to the letter and spirit of its origins—as a “sundown” town that required Blacks to disappear from sight at the end of the day.

Elections tomorrow will reshuffle the deck in America’s political house of cards. The Democratic-Republican duopoly, some hopeful contenders on the fringe and media outlets that depend on millions of dollars in political advertising are doing all they can to excite a badly bruised electorate into showing up at the polls.

Leid Stories in a commentary argues that for millions of Americans voting is tantamount to aiding and abetting a criminal enterprise.