Attendees discussed an eleven-point plan to ‘dismantle structural racism.’
The New York State Bar Association last week held a “Symposium on Racism, Wealth Equity, and the Law,” in which participants earned continuing education credits for attending lectures on creating “equity” in the housing, health and education sectors.
The symposium, which was put on in partnership with Albany Law School Government Law Center, included a panel on “Racism, Wealth Equity and Housing,” in which panelists explored “the legal dimensions of structural racism and wealth inequality within the housing sector” and analyzed “the legal issues surrounding home mortgage lending, appraisal processes, data collection practices, and other issues affecting and affordable housing including zoning and landlord tenant laws.”
And in a panel on “Racism, Wealth Equity, and Health,” attendees were invited to “explore the legal landscape of health equity in New York State with a focus on addressing structural racism and wealth disparities.”
Finally, the last panel of the day centered on “the presence and impacts of structural racism and wealth inequity in education, particularly K-12 schools.”
During the education-focused panel, participants discussed the recommendations issued by the NYSBA Task Force on Racism, Social Equity, and the Law in a 2023 report.
The report lays out eleven recommendations to “dismantle structural racism,” including guidance that would “reduce or eliminate the racial disproportionality in school discipline that contributes to disparities in educational outcomes.”
The task force said the NYS Board of Regents and NYS Education Department should develop guidance, policies and curricula “that will not only support but also encourage the adoption of a healing centered/trauma sensitive approach by any school or school district.”
It also recommends that the state legislature pass the Solutions Not Suspensions Bill, which would amend education law to require school codes of conduct to include restorative approaches to discipline and limit the use of suspensions for students in kindergarten through third grade to “only the most serious behavior,” to shorten the maximum length of suspension from 180 to 20 schools days (except when required by federal law).
Panelists who participated in Wednesday’s session on education discussed the need for discipline reform in schools.
“Punishment being used as a deterrent has never worked,” said Jamaica Miles, the co-founder and executive director of All of Us Community Action Group. “Not in any aspect of this society. Not inside our schools, not inside our communities.”
Nelson Mar, senior staff attorney at legal services of New York City, said a major reason for the “disproportionality in suspension rates” is a lack of implicit bias training for educators: “So for students who are being disciplined for the exact same conduct. Students who are black will get longer suspensions and will definitely get suspended, whereas students who are white will either get a shorter suspension or not get suspended at all.”
Miles said the United States has deep-seated beliefs that are the result of “indoctrination and assimilation and whitewashing of our own history.”
“And so individuals are capable of treating children fairly. They just don’t do it for every child, right?” Miles said. “Because there’s a longstanding message that if Jennifer and Hakeem are both doing the same thing, Jennifer — you’re imagining what Jennifer looks like — oh, she might just be having a bad day, or she looks tired, but when Hakeem does it, he’s being disrespectful and rude and nasty, and how dare he stand up to me like that, even though the same behavior is seen.”
When educators can unlearn their implicit bias and individuals are “able to be their full selves and be supported and then give back the skills and knowledge that they have” then education will change the cycle of poverty and end violence, Miles said, adding, “Because each of those children could have already cured cancer if they weren’t suspended, right?”
Hasna Muhammad, a “visual artist, writer and educator at Birthmark Media,” meanwhile, spoke about the importance of sufficiently valuing teachers, pointing to the value the U.S. places on military service-members and the benefits, including housing, that the country provides them. “Can you imagine if we did something similar for teachers?” she said.
Miles, in discussing efforts to show teacher appreciation, claimed the country’s issues with funding education lie in misplaced prioritization, not a lack of resources.
“It is very clear that the priority is control, violence, and militarism. It’s why punishment has been used inside our schools for so long. Control, violence, and militarism,” she said.
Racism, she said, “is the blueprint of all forms of oppression and exploitation.”
“We have whole days where teachers get to have back rubs and spas,” Miles said. “It’s not enough, it’s not. But it does show a commitment to the environment of the institution that requires money in the richest country in the world, one of the richest states in the nation.”
“It exists. But if we don’t do what is right by funding it, then we are intentionally saying we are okay with the racist policies, practices, and budgeting decisions that have happened since the beginning of this country,” she added.
Meanwhile, in its report, the task force advocated for changes across several other sectors, including reform to the jury selection process to alter policies that “permit implicit or explicit bias to disqualify people of color as potential jurors and otherwise limit the number of people of color in the jury pool.”
The group suggests the state should allow individuals who have been convicted of a felony and who have completed their sentence should be allowed to serve in the jury pool. Additionally, the task force recommends that jury pools in city and other lower courts be drawn from jurors residing in the geographic area covered by the court, rather than a county-wide jury pool, and that the state increase the daily rate of pay for all juror service from $40 to $120.
The report also calls for implicit bias training for New York State’s professionals, including in the fields of medicine, education and law. The task force goes so far as to encourage DEI learning be included as part of professional licensing and crediting requirements.
“New York State’s professionals need training on structural racism, bias, and equity, so that they are prepared to be responsive to cultural differences in order to eliminate barriers to equitable services for all,” the report says.
Others include increased access to “quality childcare” and access to capital for minority-owned businesses, and changes to property appraisal processes to “promote equity.”
The committee goes on to share a number of additional recommendations that it did not have time to flesh out, but suggests future task forces look into, such as looking into “broad and significant changes that must be made to New York’s sentencing structure aimed at lowering the amount of time people spend incarcerated,” including the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences, the ability to review sentences at the trial level, and several ideas to reform parole.
“For those not bearing the brunt of these social inequity, they cannot acknowledge what they do not see,” the report concludes. “This report is the light to see these inequities. And now that these inequities are exposed, this report provides recommendations to undo them. We urge the Association to light the way for New York to own up to and use the law to dismantle these structural inequities. “
The bar association’s self-stated mission is to “shape the development of law, educate and inform the public, and respond to the demands of our diverse and ever changing legal profession.” NYSBA “advocates for state and federal legislation and works tirelessly to promote equal access to justice for all,” according to its website.
The state bar association’s previous recommendations on “racial equity” have proven influential; in February the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates voted to adopt a NYSBA report on how colleges, law firms and other business can maintain diversity efforts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling effectively striking down the use of affirmative action in the country’s colleges and universities.
The report recommends considering a student’s socioeconomic status in admissions decisions and “factoring in the more difficult path to academic achievement a first-generation college applicant had to take.” It also suggests increasing the availability of financial aid, providing diverse mentors, and targeting scholarships for low-income students could help increase diversity.