Letter to Nancy Pelosi

Dear Representative Pelosi,

I appreciate that you highlighted in your constituent email of February 19th the creation of the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys (the Commission). This feels like an Obama-era step forward.

However, I hope that this commission will address the systematic challenges that black men and boys face. The role of the prison-industrial complex discussed by documentaries such as the 13th and in Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow cannot be discounted, and neither can police brutality.

I feel like the role of these two outside forces must be addressed before putting the onus on black men and boys to step up, which I feel is implied by the establishment of the Commission. How are little boys supposed to grow up when their relatives are in jail for non-violent charges such as drug possession? How is it fair that Johannes Mehserle only gets 2 years for manslaughter for the murder of Oscar Grant in Oakland, and many other victims of police brutality have never gotten any kind of justice? How many more years are black men serving in our country’s prisons for crimes less than the murder of an innocent young black man?

Discrimination against black men in the job market must be addressed. University of Chicago economists Bertrand and Mullainathan’s study “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal?” is informative here. The Bay Area is home to Silicon Valley, an industry that claims lip service to diversity but in actuality gate-keeps well-paying software engineering and other middle class tech jobs such as tech support. These companies, which are ostensibly American companies, need to provide a second chance to the recently incarcerated and to give back to their communities more while actively recruiting a diverse workforce.

Apple recently started a developer academy in Detroit but that is not enough. There are startups working with the incarcerated but that is not enough. The tech industry needs to be held accountable for their discrimination against black and Latino people. Other industries need to be held accountable for their discrimination against black and Latino people.

Colleges need to be held to account that they cannot ask the question of whether a prospective student has had a misdemeanor or felony charge. I think every topic I have discussed, from criminal justice reform to workplace discrimination to lack of educational opportunity, is a systematic problem created by the mostly white leadership of those institutions.

We do need to address the long injustice that has been afflicted upon black men and boys. I hope we do not blame the victims for the misdeeds and failings of white leadership.