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August 5, 2004

Jackson irks mayor with Hub race critique

Yawu Miller

A comment on the lack of racial parity in Boston would normally raise few eyebrows. But when it’s Jesse Jackson speaking to reporters during the middle of the Democratic National Convention, eyebrows and tempers flare.

That was underscored the next day by a five-column headline in last Wednesday’s Boston Herald “Hub leaders rip Jesse,” and the full-length article underneath in which local luminaries Rev. Eugene Rivers and state Rep. Marie St. Fleur took pot shots at Jackson.

By Thursday, as the mercury crept up, tensions simmered while Jackson toured economic development projects in Roxbury with Mayor Thomas Menino and an entourage of black city officials.

At least that was the the picture that emerged when Jackson and Menino turned up for a press availability at the Grove Hall Mecca Mall. Black city officials and friends of the Menino administration stood before a battery of cameras and tape recorders as the national newsmedia listened to Jackson’s impressions of the new Boston.

Refusing to apologize for his remarks, Jackson instead underscored what he said were glaring disparities in American society and railed against the Republican Congress and the Bush administration for cutting the very programs Boston has used to redevelop its most depressed areas — and defended his comments.

“I did not rip Boston,” Jackson said. “I said there are gaps. There are income gaps, gaps in access to capital. We need to bridge those gaps.”

Jackson’s words, as quoted in the Herald, were not substantially different from those of vice presidential candidate John Edwards, whose talk of “two Americas” has injected a measure of class analysis into the political discourse.

“There is such a class gap between the haves and the have-nots,” Jackson said in his Tuesday remarks. “If you look at inner city Boston and the suburbs, it’s like there is a doughnut and then there’s the doughnut hole.”

Jackson then reportedly urged the city to work toward parity.

“Boston must work even more diligently at being the academic center it is, at being the shining light on the hill,” the Herald quoted.

During his Thursday tour with Jackson, Menino apparently underscored the lack of federal resources, pointing out that the redevelopment of the Orchard Gardens housing development was paid for with Federal HUD HOPE VI funds that are no longer available.

Budget cutting has also dried up the Empowerment Zone funding that financed the development of the Grove Hall Mecca Mall, Jackson noted during his press conference. Calling for an urban agenda in Washington, Jackson said cuts to federal funding are endangering the safety and security of cities across the nation.

“They’ve cut funding for police, port security,” Jackson said. “They’ve cut two million kids’ after school programs.”

Most activists in attendance at the press conference told the Banner they disagreed with Jackson’s criticism of Boston.

“The city has made progress in areas of banking, education and health care,” said Nation of Islam Minister Don Muhammad, who opened the press conference. “We are a long way from when Gov. Shirley was in office and made slavery legal.”

Muhammad, however, acknowledged that the city has a long way to go in achieving parity between the races.

“We’re on third base,” he said. “But you don’t score until you get a home run.”

Jackson and Menino answered questions from the press, before embarking on a short tour of the mall. Jackson greeted Bostonians, including May Louie, his former executive assistant and chairwoman of the Boston Rainbow Coalition.

While Jackson’s Grove Hall appearance may have shed light on racial progress in Boston, not everyone left the event satisfied.

Among the throng of spectators, Jason Bonner pushed his way to Jackson. The unemployed ironworker complained to the reverend that he and other black workers have been frozen out of jobs by white workers who come from as far away as New Hampshire.

Jackson passed Bonner on to Menino, who palmed the worker off on Derrick Smalls, an associate director in the mayor’s Office of Community Services. Smalls gave Bonner his card.

“I’m struggling to pay my union dues,” Bonner said. “I’m about to lose my lights and my gas. I’m at my wit’s end.”

 

 

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