Letter: Human Rights Commission in AP
Rev Gil Caldwell: A rising economic tide for blacks would lift the boats of white persons and their economic struggles as well
Some thoughts about why Asbury Park needs a Human Rights Commission…
Santayana reminds us: “They who do not remember their history are bound to repeat it.” [Paraphrase] “Remembering” the negatives, as well as the positives, is essential to authentic inclusivity: racial segregation of blacks in neighborhoods, schools, jobs, businesses, beaches, etc; all have created a legacy that still hovers over us. A Human Rights Commission exists to remind the city of its past in order to shape a better present and future. The hurts that caused the rebellion of 1970 is still with us, expressed in ways I wish Asbury Park would dare to understand. The USA is better because of the Civil Rights Movement, but not yet at its best. Let some dramatic, daring and democratic Human Rights achievements be “Born in Asbury Park.”
Immigration history, past and present, would help to resolve today’s tensions. Honesty about the plight of Immigrants of color should be acknowledged in Asbury Park.
Remembering the struggles of women, past and present, shapes the celebrations for the present gains, knowing that more must be done.
Same-gender loving persons [homosexuality] in Asbury Park was not always as it is now. A Human Rights Commission can sponsor the discussions needed to teach and reach those who have not yet affirmed the successes of Asbury Park re same-gender, loving persons.
Statistics, Statistics, Statistics! Persons can dispute visuals, but numbers don’t lie. Numbers-racial re: jobs, businesses, homeownership, police, arrests, occupants in new housing, school board, council, schools, lifeguards, boardwalk businesses, etc. AP could attract favorable national attention if it did its own racial census.
I deliberately begin with race, because it continues to be “America’s Original Sin.” No matter how many Oprahs and Obamas the USA has, the continuing struggles of blacks continue. We are seduced by the presence of black persons in athletics, music, theater, and Hollywood, but they do not close the gaps between the heirs of those Black slaves who arrived 400 years ago and today’s white America.
A Human Rights Commission could help Asbury Park understand that the economic inequities imposed on blacks are inequities others experience. “A rising economic tide for blacks would lift the boats of white persons and their economic struggles as well.” Economic segregation directed at blacks harms white Asbury Park. Until black Americans experience “correctives” of all kinds, Asbury Park and the United States of America will not be the best it could be. People whose slave labor built the USA deserve more than pride in “Successful Blacks.”
Rev. Gil Caldwell, United Methodist Church, Civil Rights leader; cosigned in solidarity by Marie Basselini; Kerry Margaret Butch; Rev. Allyson Estes; Joyce Grant, Citizens for Oceanfront Preservation; Kay Harris; Derek Minno Bloom; Pamela Lamberton; Jennifer Lewinski, Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project and Black Lives Matter; Linda Phillips; Jessie M Ricks; Tracy Rogers; Felicia Simmons; Paula Schildge, The Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition; Bill Stevens; and Lorraine Stone.
[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor via news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]
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