Racism, Confirmed
Wrapping up a two-year probe, the Washington State Bar Association has issued an extraordinary 38-page report on racism in a small town, confirming allegations raised in a 2005 Seattle Weekly story and finding that Hoquiam and Grays Harbor County prosecutors failed to do their duties. Undertaking a review of civil rights violations detailed in the story, "Black and White In Grays Harbor County," a bar subcommittee was also critical of other attorneys and the bar association leadership itself for not aggressively addressing intolerance in the state through legal remedies.
In its "white paper," which includes an additional 191 pages of evidence, interview transcripts and police reports, the bar's Olympic Peninsula Racial Discrimination Subcommittee:
Seattle attorney Rob Gaudet, who headed up the study for the bar's Civil Rights Committee, says "If this investigation has taught us anything, it is that the truth may hurt. Racism does exist in our state, and many people are not comfortable looking at it. This is part of the truth that we wish to report."Confirmed allegations made in the Seattle Weekly article that the family of Angela Walker had been subjected to racial discrimination. However, this is the tip of the iceberg. There are systemic problems in (a) the way the school in Hoquiam failed to deal with the issue, (b) the way some police officers blamed the victim and further harassed them; (c) the utter failure of the Hoquiam school officials to cooperate in any way with this investigation, (d) the racial name-calling in the region, including schoolhouses, (e) the lack of substantial interest or activism by lawyers in Grays Harbor County, with one exception [an attorney who helped briefly], to address these issues, and (f) the hostility and non-responsiveness of WSBA leadership to deal with such a pressing issue."
3 comment(s)
Ken says:
Racism: racial practice, racial ideals and institutionalized racial policies goes to the very fiber of this country. It is interwoven in the very words that make up the Constitution; interwoven into the very minds of those who actually wrote the Constitution; passed down through print, media, entertainment, education and religion. Passed down into the very minds of those who write policies and legislation today; who \"educate\", who \"defend\" and \"judge\" at this very hour.
How dare the people of Seattle or any city think they are immune to this mental disease...? How dare you?! You are no different... Wake up and accept reality!
I dare you to prove me wrong. Search the world over, and show me ANYPLACE where the Black is NOT subjugated to White rule. Show me... But you cannot.
Oh! and don\'t point to a Black face and say \"see, there\'s one...\" dig just a little and you\'ll soon find that\'s only a puppet.
Posted On: Sunday, Jul. 15 2007 @ 5:58PM
John says:
Every bad thing that happens to black people is the result of racism.
Posted On: Sunday, Jul. 15 2007 @ 11:44PM
Kiki says:
\"Every bad thing that happens to black people is the result of racism.\" So John, does that mean that every bad thing that happens to black people done by black people is the result of racism? Get OVER it and take responsibility for your and your community\'s actions instead of playing the blame game. It\'s that blame game that breeds present day racism not get rid of it. It\'s tired and over. The black man in this country needs to stand up and take responsibility for his actions 100% without any of this \"It\'s because of so and so. It\'s because of the man. It\'s because nobody will give me ______ because I\'m a black man.......\" Stop being the race baiter and try to help.
Posted On: Tuesday, Jul. 17 2007 @ 11:16AM