Just Tellin’ It begins the New Year 2009 with a column that will make some of my readers angry.
This column, written in an African-American newspaper, reflects an African-American viewpoint. A viewpoint that sometimes will be contrary to the views of the white power structure.
I begin the year with this.
Some of the Kernan/Shepard Commission reforms, now endorsed by Governor Mitch Daniels, are flatly harmful to Indiana’s 610,000 African-Americans, especially those Marion County.
Townships have been a part of Indiana since they were carved out of the Northwest Territory before Indiana became a state in 1816. Townships aren’t just geography. They’re a government providing fire protection, small claims courts, poor relief and cemetery maintenance for nearly 200 years.
Thirteen of Indiana’s 1,008 townships have African-American populations exceeding 20 percent. These thirteen townships contain two-thirds of Indiana’s African-American population.
Two townships each are in Allen and Lake County, one each in LaPorte, St. Joseph and Vanderburgh County and six in Marion County. The townships with the highest percentage of Blacks, according to the 2005/07 Census American Community Survey, are Calumet/Lake County (70.5 percent Black); Pike/Marion County (42.7 percent), Center/Marion County (39.9 percent), Ross/Lake County (37.1 percent), Lawrence/Marion County (32.6 percent).
That concentration of the state’s Black population in a handful of townships means that some of the Daniels/Kernan/Shepard reforms will negatively impact African-Americans.
These reforms, while well meaning, will abridge and abrogate voting rights of Black residents of townships in Indiana’s largest counties.
These reforms will drastically reduce the number of Black elected officials in this and several counties.
These reforms will greatly harm the poor, working poor and those suffering from the ravages of the recession.
These reforms will perpetuate the Ballard Administration’s abrogation of affirmative action by expanding the elimination of racial and gender diversity in Marion County fire departments.
Government reorganization, including gutting township government, is a big part of Governor Mitch Daniels’ 2009 agenda. On December 19, the governor’s office was packed with members of the Kernan/Shepard Commission, lobbyists, civic leaders, the heads of the state and local Chambers of Commerce, business leaders, firefighters’ union honchos, PR mavens readying to ram this down Hoosiers’ throats. They and others stood in a jammed phalanx behind the governor.
One problem.
No Black people.
Biggest crowd in the governor’s office in years, at a major event, and not an African-American to be found. Just this columnist and another media pundit of color were present.
When I asked Governor Daniels why no Blacks were there showing their support, he turned “red” and said “Well, Adam Herbert (the former IU President) was on the Commission.”
True. But Herbert’s sunning himself in Florida, not here for the coming debates, leaving proponents with all whites.
White Hoosier voters are spread throughout those 1,008 townships. But with the vast majority of Black Hoosiers residing in a handful of townships, the Daniels/Kernan/Shepard proposals will have a severe negative impact on our African-American community.
The proposals mean:
Black residents of these thirteen townships will have voting rights denied for choosing the government and candidates of their choice.
Opportunities for Blacks to elect candidates from their community will be drastically restricted.
A major Daniels/Kernan/Shepard proposal giving full control of all Marion County fire departments to Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration would have a severe negative impact.
In Pike Township, which has the highest percentage of Black population of any Marion County township, the elected township government utilizes race and gender as a factor in hiring and promoting firefighters.
But under Daniels/Kernan/Shepard, Pike’s fire department would be merged into the Indianapolis Fire Department, which now operates under Mayor Ballard’s policy of not using race and gender as a factor in hiring and promotion.
Under Daniels/Kernan/Shepard, these regressive anti-racial and gender diversity practices would be replicated in the Lawrence and Wayne township departments.
Then there’s the thorny question of Indiana’s peculiar local system of emergency poor relief. In the 1990’s, as African-Americans increasingly moved from Center Township into the city/county’s north, west and east sides, Democrats began to capture control of township government in Marion County. Today, only the three far southside townships are GOP controlled.
In the six Democratic controlled townships, poor relief policies follow those of most Hoosier townships — emergency aid provided by neighborhood folks to those truly in need.
Daniels/Kernan/Shepard now proposes countywide poor relief.
That might work in smaller counties of less than 75,000 population. Maybe even in counties up to 150,000 population.
But in Marion County with nearly 900,000 people, Daniels/Kernan/Shepard would create a new welfare department. Yet the Governor and the powerbrokers pushing this plan are ominously vague about a system that in this recession, more and more Hoosiers depend upon.
The current poor relief system has imperfections. Imperfections exist throughout all levels of government. But poor relief is run by folks elected by the neighborhoods served.
Daniels/Kernan/Shepard would create a county welfare system with all the abuse of Indiana’s welfare system where individuals are mistreated, dehumanized, and treated like inferiors.
That isn’t the neighbor helping neighbor system envisioned under the current poor relief system.
The Daniels/Kernan/Shepard proposals are long on scary, snappy quotes, but silent on specifics. Especially how their proposals will impact minorities in Indiana’s largest and most racially diverse county.
So to the proponents pushing this down our throats; let’s get the debate on. You can start by answering these specific questions:
Using the 2009 Marion County budget as a guide, specifically how much will be saved eliminating the offices and functions of county assessor, treasurer, recorder, surveyor and coroner?
How do you justify your proposal’s effect of having the fire department, serving a minority-majority township like Pike, operate with an anti-diversity policy?
Specifically how would a Marion County-wide poor relief work and be governed? Specifically how will minority voting rights and minority representation from townships be protected and preserved?
With record high unemployment here and statewide; a severe recession, our Black community must be alert and fight the worst effects of Daniels/Kernan/Shepard. The debate and fight begins.
See ‘ya next week!
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
