Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Race

Civil Liberties:

Civil Liberties:

• are limitations on government power designed to protect citizens’ fundamental freedoms – they are mainly rooted in the Bill of Rights (freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion…)

• The Bill of Rights constitutes the first 10 amendments to the constitution, ratified in 1791

• Civil Liberties = Freedom

Civil rights:

• are guarantees by the government that it will treat people equally , particularly people belonging to groups that have historically been denied the same rights and opportunities as others.

• Civil rights are rooted in the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment from 1868

“No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

• Civil Rights = Equality for all communities: Women, Black, Native, Arab and Muslim, LGBT…

• Race and civil rights have been the defining issue of American politics since 1787

Examples for Civil Rights Application - Slavery:

• During colonial times, slavery was prevalent also in Northern states

• At the time of drafting the constitution, Northern states were in the process of abolishing slavery

• The Southern states depended on slave labor to maintain their agricultural industry, so they advocated to keep slavery for financial gain

• As a way of compromise, and in order to get the support of the Southern states for ratifying the constitution, the delegates decided to:

• Keep the slave trafficking legal for 20 more years

• Consider each slave a 3/5 of an individual in terms of population, to keep their representative power

• Require the return of escaped slaves to their owners in the south, even if they were captured in northern states where slavery had been abolished

Examples for Civil Rights Application – Reconstruction to Jim Crow:

• Slavery was finally abolished after the Civil War with the passing of the 13th amendment in 1865

• However, former southern confederates immediately began to violently repress freed slaves

• At that time, the army of the Republic (the North) began to occupy the South

• The Reconstruction period (1865-1877) briefly allowed Black civil rights to flourish, especially since the Southern states were being reintegrated into the union

• After 1876, the North agrees to withdraw from the South and grant them more autonomy.

The South quickly establishes Jim Crow restrictions on civil rights segregation and discrimination against Black people in all walks of life

Examples for Civil Rights Application – Mid 20th century:

• Brown v. Board of Education:

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were inherently unequal and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

The authorities in Little Rock, Arkansas, refused to implement the ruling.

So, president Eisenhower had to send in the national guard

• The Democratic Party started absorbing the Black communities into its coalition ; the party’s working-class coalition fit better with the community than the Republican Party’s upper-class coalition

The problem was that the Democratic coalition also included Southern Whites

• In 1960, John F. Kennedy ran his campaign for president on the issue of civil rights. He nominated the Southern Lyndon Johnson as his running mate to balance the ticket This was the result of the election ->

• In 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. Johnson became president, and pledged to continue his legacy

• Civil Rights Act: In 1964, President Johnson signed the bill into law. It prohibits discrimination based on: race, color, religion, sex, and national origin

• Pressure to pass the law came especially from Dr. Martin Luther King and his allies in the Civil Rights Movement – a long and difficult campaign

Race in America 2020:

• We get updated data about demographics and race every 10 years from the U.S. census

• The U.S. population is diverse – it is a country of immigrants starting first with the White settlers in America

• Immigration then continued from many different places around the world

• As the U.S. became more diverse, the size of the White population decreased

• White communities still form the majority in the general population (~60%) and in the majority of states

• The U.S. has gone through waves of broad support for immigration, followed by backlash

• The countries and regions where people immigrated from also changed with time

• Between the 19th century and the mid-20th century, immigrants mainly came from Europe and Russia

• Since the mid-20th century, immigrants started to come more from Central and South America, and Asia

Immigration Debate:

• For (mostly) the first time in history, the U.S. political parties are divided on the issue of immigration

Democratic Party: Very supportive

Republican Party: Very opposed

• The debate also started becoming over the issue of unauthorized immigration – mostly people who stayed in the U.S.

• In the past, Republicans were willing to reach agreements with Democrats and pass immigration reform

• Since 2016, Trump has changed the position of the Party: Instead of reaching a political compromise on how to deal with the issue, the Trump administration unilaterally started a deportation campaign for immigrants with support from the rest of the Republican Party

Today, 91% of Republicans see illegal immigration as a “very serious problem”, compared to 41% of Democrats

Elite cues, and race play a part in this

Types of Racism:

Contemporary civil rights issues are mainly based on the 3 type of racism:

Old Fashioned racism:

• conscious beliefs about racial differences that motivate actions Research showed that after Obama became president, this type of racism soared

Unconscious racism:

• unconscious beliefs about racial differences that motivate actions

Example: Black men are more likely to be stopped and searched by police

Structural/systemic racism:

• institutions or systems that disproportionately disadvantage certain groups of people over another

Types of Racism in Public Policy:

The types of racism translate into policy:

De Jure Discrimination:

• Explicit discrimination codified into law. But it mostly ended after the 1960s with the passing of the Civil Rights Act

De Facto Discrimination:

• Has the effect of discrimination but not explicit

Policy Drift:

• When a policy is passed for an intended purpose, but the effect of the policy changes over time and causes discrimination unless the policy is updated/changed

Examples: (1) Public school funding that is partly based on local property taxes, (2) Minimum wage

Critical Race Theory:

• Research and understanding about the connection between racism and policy is brought to us by Critical Race Theory (CRT)

Critical Race Theory:

• is a relatively new body of scholarship that conceptualizes racism as a social construct reinforced by social institutions

Key contributions of CRT:

• Structural Racism Intersectionality Unconscious racism Critique of neoliberal era of race policy

• As a result of possible change in perspective, many Republican-dominated states have passed anti-CRT measures (banning or limiting CRT teaching in schools and colleges)

Systemic Racism:

Structural/systemic racism:

• institutions or systems that disproportionately disadvantage certain groups of people over another

• Since U.S. independence, the system of laws and institutions have favored White people in America

• Even with the elimination of many discriminatory policies, not all policies were removed

• This still explains the disparity in rights and wealth between the White population and the other populations in the country Civil and economic rights issues are inherited

Examples of Contemporary Issues:

• Violent legislative, administrative, and literal attacks against protesters for Palestinian freedom and US complicity in genocide By police, college administrations, and formal legislation

• Illegal deportations of immigrants with no due process

• Law enforcement’s recent murders of Black individuals – a form of unconscious racism

• Voter suppression – states passing laws to make it harder on certain communities to vote (fewer voting locations as an example…)

• NSA surveillance of citizens – violation of the right to privacy • FBI surveillance of Muslim citizens – home visits, and sending informants

• Convict-leasing: the 13th amendment did not end all types of slavery

Systemic discrimination against communities entrenched policies, practices, or cultural norms within institutions or systems that result in unequal outcomes or treatment of certain groups, often based on race, gender, economic status, or other characteristics

Examples: (1) racial disparities in sentencing (2) stop and frisk policies (3) unequal provision of state benefits and services including budgeting (4) segregation through zoning (5) hiring discrimination and the elimination of DEI (6) pay gap (7) family separation policies at the border…

• The number of people affected is enormous as non-White populations grow

• Systemic racism can be fixed with a change in public policy to ensure equality between all communities