Apartheid. USA 1988

July 1, 1987:

Twenty years ago, the Kerner Commission in the aftermath of unprecedented urban rebellion and civil disobedience concluded that America was drifting ‘toward two separate societies, one white, one black, separate and unequal.’ New York largely escaped the black rage that swept through a 100 cities - the inevitable result of the refusal of the powerful to grant justice and equity to the powerless. ‘Instead’, wrote Calvin O Butts, executive minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and C Vernon Mason, black civil rights lawyer, on the Op-Ed page of the Times, ‘we deluded ourselves that race was not a problem in New York, that prosperity offered opportunity to all who were willing to prepare themselves and work hard.’

Both writers link police brutality and injustice against minority groups in New York City to a lack of proper political representation in the City's power structure. ‘While blacks constitute 25 percent of the city's population,’ they write, ‘and Hispanics 19 percent, both groups hold only 14 and 8 percent of the city's Council seats respectively. Asian Americans constitute 4 percent of the city's population and have no seats on the Council or any other elected office in New York. Amore accurate census would document what we already know - that these grossly under-represented groups constitute a new majority that is restless and ready for greater power.’^126.

126. The New York Times, from a report on the Op-Ed page by the Reverend Calvin O Butts and lawyer C Vernon Mason.