A grim assessment of current realities in central cities and some optimism about how things can and ultimately will get better.<\/p>\n
That is what Sheryll Cashin, a professor of law at Georgetown University and Marquette University\u2019s 2016 Ralph Metcalfe Fellow, offered in a talk last Thursday in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall. The session was part of Marquette\u2019s observance of Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing I liked about Dr. King is that he always appealed to our betters angels. I believe there are a lot of better angels out there,\u201d Cashin said in response to a pessimistic question from an audience member.<\/p>\n
\u201cChange is inevitable,\u201d she said. \u201cNothing is permanent.\u201d \u00a0She urged people not to limit their imagination of a better future for the nation and for those whose lives now are shaped by \u201ca nasty othering\u201d at the hands of those with power and wealth.<\/p>\n
Cashin, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, focused on a set of lectures that Dr. King delivered in 1967 on Canadian public radio. She compared what King said then to circumstances now, saying little has improved in central cities, and some things have gotten worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere we are in 2016, still dealing with the legacy of concentrated poverty,\u201d Cashin said. She said the number of neighborhoods with intense poverty (40% of residents or more) is dramatically higher than it was in 1970. \u00a0There are now 4,400 high poverty census tracks in the US, up from 2,500 in 2000, she said. \u00a0And the number of people living in concentrated poverty has doubled since 2000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the American dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also said economic segregation is increasing nationwide, and the most rapid increases have been among African Americans and Latinos, with those with adequate means to move out of central cities relocating to higher-income areas. She said that, in a recent analysis, only 29% of African American children lived in middle class neighborhoods. \u201cThat explains most of the achievement gap between black kids and other kids,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt bears emphasis, it may seem old school, but integration works,\u201c Cashin said.<\/p>\n
She said progress will come only through alliances among people from different \u201ctribes,\u201d as she put it. \u201cCulturally dexterous\u201d people who are not afraid of being themselves or working with others can lead to the creation of better communities. She pointed to West Hartford, Conn., as an example of a place where both through policies and day to day practices a more just community is being created.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to give people a positive vision of where you\u2019re trying to go,\u201d Cashin said. \u201cI urge you all to reclaim the radical Martin Luther King, the one who was planning a poor people\u2019s campaign at the end of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n