The U.S.A. is not ‘the shining city on the hill’

MONTREAL—In the moments following the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd in a Minnesota courtroom, a Montreal radio host put up a note on Facebook: “Guilty on all counts. Did you cry?” My knee-jerk reaction was to respond: “Get a grip. This took place in a foreign country with serious problems.” It was a rough comment, and I quickly edited it. I, too had watched Judge Peter Cahill read the jury’s decision live on television, but I shed no tears of joy. In the aftermath, it seemed many Americans saw this decision as an affirmation their justice system worked. Canadians wanted to believe it too. Within hours of the judgment, cold reality hit home with the deaths of two Black Americans at the hands of police: a 13-year-old boy in Chicago and a young woman with a knife in Columbus. Those sad events reminded me of satirist Tom Lehrer’s 1962 song about National Brotherhood Week. He pointed out, “On the first day of the week Malcolm X was killed, which gives you an idea of how effective the whole thing is.” From a seat in the front row, I have watched the tragedy of Black America evolve all my life. The civil rights marches in the 1960s and the fight for desegregation were inspiring. Then the riots which expressed the collective anguish of the killings of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and many others devastated Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and Baltimore. In 1968, CBS broadcast a devastating history of Black Americans, called Of Black America. There have been court judgments like the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education, which ended segregated schools. And the 1965 Civil Rights Bill was seen as the end of Jim Crow laws. But outright discrimination, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and police brutality to Black people continued. It was thirty years ago that Rodney King was beaten senseless by police who were acquitted, and in the midst of riots in Los Angeles, asked “Can’t we just get along?” The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was supposed to be a landmark moment. But rather than embracing a Black man in the White House, white America was quick to question his birthright and undermine his achievements. The man leading the racist charge, Donald Trump, was then elected president. The United States was described by Ronald Reagan as the “shining city on the hill” that all the world would aspire to live in. The evidence today of “American exceptionalism” is not good; the median Black family income is $41,000 a year, equal to an individual white man. The number of elected Black officials in the U.S. does not equal their population, 44 million. There are three Black Senators, 55 members of Congress, and no Black governors. The rise in private schools and the lack of funding for public schools have undermined opportunities for Black Americans to be upwardly mobile. Of the 20-million students in upper primary and high schools, six-million—90 per cent of whom are white—attend private schools. The United States stands 27th in the 2020 World Economic Forum social mobility index, between Lithuania and Spain. Canada is 14th. Those disparities have grown in the last forty years, mainly because of the reduction in marginal tax rates. Without taxes, schools aren’t built and incomes aren't redistributed. In 1977, taxes on the wealthy were in the 70 per cent range. In 2017, they were 39 per cent. Salaries of U.S. CEOs today are 1,300 times more than the lowest workers in their companies. There are progressive American thinkers who believe these disparities can be changed. Policy proposals include a reparations payment to Black people for the years their ancestors were enslaved; a National Commission on race and racism; an increase in scholarships for minorities; better funding for public education; and a fairer election system. Finally, improved training for American police, whose preparation for the job is reported to be among the worst in the world. These are things Americans themselves will have to do. We in Canada have work to do as well with our own problems of systemic racism, policing, and social mobility. While many Canadians admire the achievements of our American cousins, we should never want to emulate their dysfunctional society. Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times