The number 2,832,824 is not a small number. It’s the number of people in New York State living in poverty as of 2016—14.7 percent of people in our great Empire State living in poverty.
But, let’s be clear, it doesn’t account for all of the people who are still struggling to make it or might be one paycheck away from economic disaster in their lives.
That doesn’t resonate with you? OK. How about this one? When ranking states’ income equality ratio of the top 20 percent to the bottom 20 percent of residents, “Talk Poverty” rated New York as No. 50—last! The state of great opportunity has become the place of great obstacle when it comes to economic advancement. It has become a struggle, a feeling that we try to avoid at all costs. However, so many of us know the sentiment all too well. As The Atlantic conveyed in a recent study, 47 percent of respondents in a national survey could not come up with $400 at a time of emergency. Let that sink in for a moment. So, if your loved one is in need, could you get there to help them? I hope that I could be there for them, especially if they were taking up a cause for all of us—like garbage!
Wait, what? Sanitation? What does that have to do with poverty, self-sufficiency and breaking the economic log jam of life? Well, too often, we try to avoid sanitation. We put it away and hope that the contents are not too distracting. The people of Memphis could not do that in 1968 when a historic strike brought the city to a pause. Especially after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated after speaking about the promised land, the country could no longer ignore poverty, affordability and were compelled to realize the dirty realities through sanitation.
But, the issue of addressing the messy and difficult real conversations of race and equity is still the same now. Whether it’s 1968 and the sanitation workers are on strike or it’s 2018, we are still not focusing on the underlying causes for poverty and economic inequity that people want to avoid. The time to look away from the brutal realities is over. Even though the Memphis Sanitation Strike was 50 years ago, the fight for economic justice continues today.
My daddy cleaned hospital rooms. My mama worked at a manufacturing plant. Both had to deal with garbage, one literal and the other figuratively, to be able to endure to raise their baby boy. It makes me realize that their work was difficult, and I must do more for future generations.
In 1968 they wanted a raise. Yet today the economic equity gap still persists. It took the anger of garbage not being picked up for leaders to pick up their mantle of addressing the problem of poverty.
Fifty years later, it is still present. Don’t forget that they were making between $1.60 and $1.90 per hour. They were not only demanding higher wages but also demanding improved general welfare and housing. What’s the point of having a job if you don’t have quality and affordable livelihood? Sound familiar? Just reflect on the final words of the “Sanitation Workers’ Prayer” recited by the Rev. Malcolm Blackburn:
For ours is justice, jobs and dignity,
Forever and ever. Amen. Freedom!
The cause extends beyond just one issue. Housing inequity prevailed through redlining during those times. Last year, 80 percent of New Yorkers in public housing were struggling to have heat and hot water in public housing at one point or another. A systemic shift must occur. When energy insecurity continues in homes, as Columbia professor and fellow Bronxite Dr. Diana Hernandez brilliantly conveys, and people are enduring cold conditions, struggling with asthma or wondering if the lights will be shut off, an intensified focus on reducing poverty and creating opportunity must occur immediately.
When one out of every three Black men and one out of every six Latino men will be incarcerated at some point in their lives, a radical change must occur. But how is poverty connected to prison? It’s because many people are at Rikers Island who have not been convicted, simply because of being unable to post bail. My justice should not be determined by my bank account. But, how do we break this cycle of perpetual poverty? Skills.
We must better prepare our students for the jobs of today and tomorrow. JPMorgan Chase found that 46 percent of people didn’t have the
necessary post-secondary skills for employment, and 45 percent of new jobs in a five-year span were from health care and technology. We must focus on not just trying to get students to pass tests, but on whether they have the skills and live in an environment where they can succeed. Efforts such as Here to Here, where disconnected youth are being connected to employment opportunities with the goal of at least 10,000 being trained by 2020 by focusing on closing the skills gap, take us from pain to promise. Job opportunities exist, but we are not utilizing educational opportunity centers and other remarkable entities to train people with the necessary skills for vacant jobs while equally realizing that public, private vocational, community and, yes, even some charter schools must all be a part of the mix of shifting the paradigm. No different from education, criminal justice has become too complex and is intertwined with economic hardships.
Poverty presents itself in criminal injustice. Of course we should be investing in teaching students mathematics on Excel spreadsheets instead of sending more people to jail cells. But if someone gets caught up in the system, it is unfairly rigged against them because if they’re poor, they are forced to make unjust choices regularly. Change must happen now. A clear necessary reform is the need for discovery for justice. Removing the discriminatory blindfold law is critical to ensure open discovery so that the defense knows what the prosecution has against them to create true fairness. Without this transparency, people are agreeing to plea bargains for crimes they might not have committed out of fear based on possible and not confirmed evidence.
Despite the fact that a 1964 Supreme Court ruling stated that prosecutors must turn over evidence, we are still stuck in the past in New York. Of course we must have speedy trial and bail reform, including my bill on Charitable Bail Organizations being able to provide up to $10,000 in bail for clients in need. However, let’s focus on the root cause of the sickness, not the symptom. Our leaders in 1968 might have shut down a city for higher wages and economic fairness. But using my hip-hop imagination, they would say we can’t stop, won’t stop, until economic equity is displayed in all aspects, including but not limited to criminal justice.
We are reminded of the reality often. We cannot forget the tragic story of Kalief Browder. A young brother, my constituent, who took his life after mental illness, torture and harassment, and an unjust system tried to get him to plead guilty to stealing a book bag. Maybe if our society focused more on making sure he had books in his book bag than trying to lock him up for allegedly stealing a book bag, he would have graduated from Bronx Community College and still be among us.
As a person of faith, I remind my fellow believers that Jesus was a refugee, a carpenter and a prisoner. He witnessed the need for comprehensive and welcoming immigration reform, the necessity of jobs and skills and the pain of an unjust criminal justice system while witnessing severe poverty among the people with health and life challenges. If a savior struggled from time to time with these dynamics, let us stop being surprised when a brother or sister has a down day trying to make life work. When more attention is spent talking about building racist walls rather than creating jobs by building infrastructure, we are promoting division instead of developing peace and prosperity. When society is focused more on a man taking a knee against police brutality instead of helping millions of people get back on their feet, we are missing the point that Colin Kaepernick is standing up for generations of injustice while still respecting law enforcement and our flag. All of us need to address the deeper issues that exist among us and stop letting a tweet of today or a hose from yesteryear distract us. Just like those historic workers in Memphis, we cannot stop fighting for economic, criminal, educational and quality of life justice, even if the armor bearer has been taken from us. It means we must keep fighting here and now during this critical budget process to break the cycle of poverty, with one area being education.
The lack of sufficient investment in education from the current proposed budget through the cutting of programs such as the Higher Education Opportunity Program, E.O.P. and S.E.E.K. is blatantly wrong and continues the problematic direction of institutionalizing poverty instead of celebrating graduates and wage earners. The insufficient Foundation Aid investment that even the State Board of Regents says is not enough, along with the current proposal of cutting teacher resource centers, is a continued attack against the poor that we need people to march to Albany against and demand action. We reject that our communities of color and low-income communities must be subject to second- and third-class academic and economic status. Equally, the Memphis Sanitation Strike should educate us that the economic challenges of life are clearly against women as well.
When women of color are making 61 cents less than men, it is not just misogynistic and sexist, it continues to destroy the economic foundation in our communities. Yes, the signs in Memphis said “I Am a MAN.” But, allow me to use that journalism degree from Northwestern University to edit the copy. In 2018, I say that I am a man and a feminist who is committed to economic equity among women and men by supporting BRAVA Investments or electing candidates who will focus on addressing economic inequity through Higher Heights and Emerge or finding that millennial leader in the economy through New Leaders Council or promoting civics and economic opportunity to women and girls through Generation Citizen. Breaking this generational cycle will only happen through multiple levels of standing up for people who might not have your name or background, but still need you to fight for them. Justice occurs by realizing that champions such as Jennifer Jones Austin or Tamika Mallory give us a clear focus; that if we are not breaking the pimping of poverty process that many entities have made millions off people of color and women, why are we here in the first place? It’s a difficult conversation to have among ourselves, but not as difficult as for those who are struggling to stay warm.
The inhumane lack of sufficient attention to help poor people have boilers and not just blankets is unconscionable. I find it reprehensible that people are left to live without heat, hot water but have an abundance of mold and lead. In the words of the brilliant John Hope Bryant of Operation HOPE, we must realize that back then was the Civil Rights Movement and we are now in the Silver Rights Movement. The transformation of city, state and federal investment in public housing must be a part of that new Poor Peoples’ Campaign. We must understand and teach our next generation the language of money so they can go from struggling to pay rent to owning the building, as Cedric Bobo and Alex Rodriguez are now showing Bronx youth through “Project Destined.”
I’m giving you this reality check not to depress your spirit, but to awaken us to the urgent moment of our time. People are struggling to make ends meet, but we are not at the end of our journey called hope.
Our sisters and brothers didn’t take a strike just for themselves, but to open the opportunities for generations after them who may never know their names.
We must say clearly that your block won’t block your blessing and your ZIP code won’t deny your destiny. It is why at the 50th anniversary of the Memphis Sanitation Strike, we are launching a new campaign: “From Pain to Promise, From Poverty to Prosperity, From Struggling to Self-Sufficiency.”
The answers to how to address economic equity that communities of color and low-income communities have too often received are garbage. Today and this year, let us clean up the mess of generations upon generations and truly break the cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity across New York State. From the Bronx to Buffalo and back to Brooklyn, from Rochester to Rhinecliff, from Syracuse to Staten Island, let us realize that in 1968, they only wanted a dollar more for their work, but, the resources for education, skills, housing, energy, health and criminal justice reform for far too long have been a dollar short.
Fifty years ago, the strike gained attention by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joining with the movement. It was a part of his last great effort—the Poor People’s Campaign. He lost his life in Memphis, but we must not lose hope that his cause was in vain. Dr. King said, “In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Well beloved, we are silent no more.
Poverty has been a sleeping giant for far too long. Let us end this injustice and show that our New York State budget indeed shows our values. Yes, we can march in the streets, but let us also emerge victorious in the corporate suites. May we arrive at our annual New York Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus this weekend to not just have a good time but to remember that now is the time to create deeper and more strategic alliances that lead to tangible improvements now.
May we find ourselves this April after the New York State budget has been voted upon feeling that like our forefathers felt 50 years ago, that comprehensive economic, social and criminal justice reform has come to the people.
Similar to those historic workers who made a courageous decision on a Sunday and displayed their faith through deeds on a Monday, it’s time for us to get back to work. Let us realize that tomorrow is not guaranteed, but we are committed to turning pain into promise.