The Unseen Effect of Structural and Institutional Racism

The Unseen Effect of Structural and Institutional Racism on the African American Community

GITHMI RABEL

“Black News” is the first essay in the California Chapter of Eula Biss’s collection of essays, Notes from No Man’s Land. The essay is based on her time in San Diego, where she worked as a part-time reporter and photographer for the San Diego Voice and Viewpoint, a newspaper that focuses on a specific perspective that is generally left out in mainstream media - the African American perspective. Her work allowed her to explore a side of San Diego that, as she puts it, never makes it to the travel brochures. I believe that while Biss’s detailed focus on the inherent institutional racism present in Child Protective Services proves how disproportionately African American families are affected, that focus doesn’t allow her to explore how punitive legal systems discriminate against African Americans, which I believe is important since many African Americans are entrapped, both within the child welfare system and the criminal justice system. In this paper, I will be examining the shared racial biases that exist in both systems and why this shared nature is important in better understanding the disproportionate representation of African Americans in these systems, and the consequences of such a bias.

As stated before, in “Black News” Biss focuses specifically on the actions of Child Protective Services and how black families face the threat of separation more frequently than families of any other colour. She claims that “race is the most consistent factor contributing to the decision to remove children and place them in foster care” and we see this claim play out in real life through Ms. Johnson’s story (Biss, 95). Ms. Eve Johnson is an African American woman who is attempting to gain custody of her grandchildren from the foster system. She has done all that was required of her – she has been “to court hearings, met with social workers, completed the tasks outlined by CPS in the Family Unity Meeting agreement” and much more (Biss, 96). Yet she still does not

have custody of her grandchildren. She was told that the reason for this is her felony conviction from eleven and a half years ago but Biss makes it clear that this conviction is used only to justify the racist prejudices and assumptions CPS is operating with. In contrast to this, Biss shares with us a personal story of how her mother came to care for her (Biss) stepsister’s child after the stepsister was deemed to be unfit as a parent. Biss doesn’t explicitly tell us that her mother didn’t have to prove herself to be qualified to be a caretaker as Ms. Johnson did. But maybe that is the point. Both society and state grant Biss’s mother possession of certain characteristics — such as the ability to be a responsible caregiver — and stemming from those characteristics, certain rights that Ms. Johnson must prove, though legally there should be no difference in the treatment of their situations. Biss’s structural choice to narrate the introduction and resolution of her stepsister’s child’s situation during Ms. Johnson’s ongoing struggle only emphasizes how the state, influenced by racial stereotypes, has the power and authority to hold its members to different standards. While Biss does devote a significant portion of her essay to Ms. Johnson’s specific struggles, we are constantly reminded that Ms. Johnson’s story is one of many. According to Biss, “African American parents are much more likely to be investigated for abuse and neglect” though no statistics exist to prove this (Biss, 94). Thus, it is clear that Biss not only shows us how violent and terrifying CPS can be to an African American family through Ms. Johnson’s struggle, but she also examines the greater effects of CPS on the African American community.

While Biss clearly and convincingly shows us that the decisions made by CPS regarding black families are based on racist preconceptions, I believe that she missed out on noting that the discrimination present in the child welfare system is part of the discrimination present in most branches of American government. I do understand that she explores the different forms of discrimination faced by African Americans in her other essays. However, I still believe that the strong intersection present between CPS and the criminal justice system should have been explored in this essay for the following reason.

The discrimination, prejudices and assumptions that exist within CPS don’t exist in isolation. Rather, they carry over into almost every state institution

and influence how state officials carry out their duties. Specifically, in the case of CPS and the criminal justice system we see that each contributes to the disproportionate number of African Americans present in the other. An article named “Black Families Matter: How the Child Welfare System Punishes Poor Families of Color,” which appeared in The Appeal, claims that “in 2000, Black children represented 36 percent of children in foster care, despite accounting for only 15 percent of the child population” (Roberts and Sagoi). These children then turn into crossover youth – adolescents who leave the child welfare system only to become entrapped in the criminal justice system as juvenile delinquents. As researchers Lawrence M. Berger et al note in their article, “Families at the Intersection of the Criminal Justice and Child Protective Services Systems,” this “likely occurs because youth involved in the child welfare system have often experienced neglect and physical abuse, both of which increase the possibility of a youth becoming involved in the juvenile justice system” (Berger). Thus, it is clear that the disproportionate number of African Americans present in CPS has an impact on the disproportionate number of African Americans in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, they claim that “maternal incarceration may be directly associated with an increased probability of CPS involvement for children” (Berger). According to the Criminal Justice Fact Sheet by the NAACP, the imprisonment rate for African American women is twice that of white women (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”). Accordingly, it can be concluded that even more African American children will end up in the foster care system as a result of their parents being incarcerated. This clearly shows that CPS and the criminal justice system interact and influence each other.

I believe that it is important to highlight that the racism present in CPS is only an extension of the racism present in all social systems, for in general punitive legal systems target African Americans. It is important to recognize and understand the racial biases these systems share, because by understanding that the racial disparities present in each system don’t exist in isolation, we reach the conclusion that it is impossible to cure racism in one system alone. For example, even if CPS magically stops operating under racial misconceptions, that might not lead to tangible results such as a decrease in the number of African Americans in the child welfare system. This is

because unless the racial discrimination present in the criminal justice system disappears, a disproportionate number of African Americans will continue to be incarcerated which will lead to increased CPS involvement in black families. This creates a vicious cycle where African Americans become entrapped within these social and legal systems which severely restrict their ability to escape. Thus, it could be said that biased state intervention only perpetuates the socioeconomic conditions that require intervention in the first place. Biss next analyses the purpose of these social and legal systems, which is to protect members of society. Yet, in the reality Biss has introduced to us, who is being protected? Is it the children who disappear into the foster care system and later cross over to the criminal justice system? Is it the families who are torn apart, who are always at risk of separation simply because of their skin colour? Or is it white privilege and power? An article by the Economy Policy Institute claims that “race allowed for society to avoid the trade-off between societies ‘demand’ to get tough on crime and its ‘demand’ to retain civil liberties, through unequal enforcement of the law” (Cox). Essentially, the white majority retains its power and status by oppressing the black minority with laws that will never affect them (the majority) and one race prospers at the expense of another. I believe this article is making an astute point and the truth of it can be seen when examining the consequences Biss claims such discriminatory state policing can have on a community.

Biss does not mince her words as she draws a dark comparison between separating black families to the sterilization of black women and ethnic cleansing. At first glance, this seems to be far-fetched. Yes, African Americans are targets of discrimination but it seems impossible to reconcile the fact that the ‘law’ is being used to promote acts as horrific as ethnic cleansing, and specifically that it is happening under the sanction of a branch of government whose very title includes the word ‘protection.’ This is another problem I believe Biss is addressing in her text – the assumption people have that the existence of the law and intervention of the state is enough to prevent massive human rights violations. However, as Biss shows us through Ms. Johnson’s story, the law can be manipulated and twisted to enact subtle discrimination and this is just as deadly, if not more so, than outright discrimination. When

injustice occurs on a large scale, the social psyche stops terming it as injustice and instead refers to it as status quo. Once we realise this, her conclusion makes sense — the African American community and culture is being slowly eroded. True, the number of physical bodies belonging to the African American population might not be disappearing but if their ability to live as a family, as a community, to share and celebrate their culture is compromised, isn’t it a form of disappearance? She terms it “cultural genocide” in her essay “Relations” and I believe this is an apt description. For example, Biss claims that “a tradition of caring for children within kinship networks…is an integral part of African American culture” (Biss, “Relations” 95). Yet Ms. Johnson is prevented from doing so. The fact that Biss learns this from a foster-care manual while the foster care system itself is preventing Ms. Johnson from raising her grandchildren so that (as Ms. Johnson and Biss believe) they might be placed into a white family is not only ironic but also shows how the state knowingly intervenes and facilitates the erasure of African American culture. However, once again it must be noted that CPS is not the sole entity responsible for disproportionately separating black families. The criminal justice system does its fair share by punitively targeting blacks “whether it is Black immigrants for deportation, Black children for suspension in school, or Black adults and youth for arrest and incarceration” (Roberts and Sagoi).

In conclusion, I believe Biss is correct in her identification of the structural racism present in CPS and the urgency with which she describes its consequences on the African American community. The African American family does face the threat of separation and, consequently, the African American community does face the threat of ‘cultural genocide,’ but we must understand that the reason for this isn’t the discrimination present in one state institution only. Rather, it is the overarching and insidious mentality that justifies the state’s discriminatory policing of African Americans which has seeped into almost every legal and social system. The intensity of pain and fear the African American community feels, the true horror of their precarious and overlooked situation, can only be realized once we understand how these different branches of government impact each other through the African American family.

WORKS CITED

Berger, Lawrence M. et al. “Families at the Intersection of the Criminal Justice and Child Protective Services Systems.” The Annals of the American

Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 665, no. 1, 2016, pp. 171-194.

Biss, Eula. “Black News.” Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays, Saint

Paul, Graywolf Press, 2018, pp. 87-98.

Biss, Eula. “Relations.” Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays, Saint Paul,

Graywolf Press, 2018, pp. 29-48.

Cox, Robynn J.A. Where Do We Go from Here? Mass Incarceration and the Struggle for Civil Rights. Economic Policy Institute. www.epi.org/ publication/where-do-we-go-from-here-mass-incarceration-and-thestruggle-for-civil-rights/.

Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. NAACP, www.naacp.org/resources/criminaljustice-fact-sheet.

Roberts, Dorothy and Sagoi, Lisa. “Black Families Matter: How the Child

Welfare System Punishes Poor Families of Color.” The Appeal, 26 Mar. 2018 www.theappeal.org/black-families-matter-how-the-child-welfare-systempunishes-poor-families-of-color-33ad20e2882e/.