President of Urban League Calls for Review of Inequity
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Hugh B. Price, president of the Urban League, said at the group's annual
conference, ''Tonight, I say to President Bush what I once said to President
Clinton: race relations won't improve in America until racism in the criminal
justice system subsides.'' Mr. Price praised Mr. Bush and Attorney General John
Ashcroft for expressing concern about the issue but asserted, ''It's time they
move beyond empathy to aggressive corrective action.''
They could begin, he said, by creating a panel of criminal justice experts to
''scrutinize every facet of the federal, state and local criminal justice
system'' for the influence of race.
He also called on the administration to participate in the United Nations
conference on racism in South Africa. Administration officials had indicated
that they would not send representatives if organizers focused on reparations
for slavery or equating Zionism with racism. ''America must not be missing in
action at the World Conference come September,'' Mr. Price said.
The Urban League, a 91-year-old civil rights group with chapters in more than
100 cities, opened a four-day session here that will feature appearances by
President Bush and several top administration officials. Mr. Price said he
welcomed Mr. Bush's participation and was ''deeply honored by it.'' But he also
issued a scathing review of the policies produced by Washington in recent months
and years.
''I say it's cruel for Washington to end welfare as we knew it, tell poor
people they must work, then argue bitterly year after year about raising the
minimum wage and extending the earned income tax credit for the working poor,''
Mr. Price said to applause. ''It's heartless to enact a tax cut that sends $600
rebates to millionaires, yet gives nary a dime to low-wage workers who earn too
little to pay federal income taxes, but pay plenty of other taxes.''
Such policies only underscore the need for ''a development revolution'' among
black Americans, ''to eradicate the economic gaps that separate far too many
African-Americans from the American mainstream,'' Mr. Price said.
''Develop we must because with its shifting ideologies and agendas,
government cannot and should not be counted on to do it for us,'' he said,
adding, ''We must show America that we have so much value to contribute,
educationally, economically and politically, that it's foolhardy to ignore us.'' This new revolution should include greater political pressure for ''a livable
wage'' for the working poor; greater responsibility among rap musicians and
entrepreneurs to ''help illuminate the way out'' rather than ''dragging
impressionable young audiences down into depression and despair''; and a new
focus on education.
Part of the answer is more parental involvement at home and higher
expectations of the schools, he argued, saying, ''we must have zero tolerance
for failing schools.''
Earlier in the day, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's
delegate to the House, called for a new focus on African-American boys and men.
She also said: ''Our issues and our people must never depend on who is president
of the United States or who controls the Congress of the United States. We must
continue to move forward regardless of who's in charge.''
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