Reparations, voting listed in racial-ethnic study request
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, February 26, 2001
LOUISVILLE – With only brief review, the General Assembly Council has voted to receive a report that included creating two task forces to study making reparations to people “who have experienced significantly disparate treatment” and the “disenfranchisement of people of color in the United States’ electoral system.”
The report from the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns goes directly to the upcoming General Assembly and cannot be changed by the council.
While the council did not have the authority to change the report, it was entitled to include a comment along with the report to the General Assembly.
Curtis Jones of Baltimore, chair of the advocacy committee, presented one of its five recommendations before the vote was taken to receive the full report, and expressed surprise that the vote had been taken so quickly.
The recommendations that had not been presented verbally to the council included “forming a task force to study (in consultation with the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns) reparations for African-American, Native American and Alaskan Natives, Asian-Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and others who have experienced significantly disparate treatment and report its findings and recommendations to the 216th General Assembly (2004).”
“While it is not possible to right the wrong, it is possible to deepen the healing,” Jones said.
Disenfranchisement
A second recommendation also included forming a task force, this one to study – again in consultation with the advocacy committee – “the disenfranchisement of people of color in the United States’ electoral system and report its findings and recommendations to the 216th General Assembly.”
The rationale for the recommendation read, “People of color have been disenfranchised through a variety of situations including voting apparatus, voter suppression and other discriminatory practices, including exclusion of previously incarcerated persons who are not felons and those who have completed serving their sentences and probationary periods.”
John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, reminded council members that the recommendations had financial implications, but the vote already had been taken and no motions to reconsider were made.
Racial justice policies
The only recommendation that was presented verbally to the council before the vote was for the advocacy committee to create a task force to examine the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Foundation, the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation’s “current racial justice policies and programs in relation to the racial ethnic members of the Presbyterian Church (USA); and report those findings to the 216th General Assembly.”
The scope of the proposed task force will include, but not be limited to, affirmative action plans, recruitment programs for employees, retention/training programs, recruitment of board members, purchasing and investments, including involvement with Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI).
A vote was taken to place the last two recommendations in the hands of the staff leadership team of the Presbyterian Center. Those recommendations included a request for a report by Research Services, working with the Congregational Enhancement staff, on the status of the implementation of the Racial Ethnic and Immigrant Church Growth Strategy, which “should include a presbytery-by-presbytery analysis.
The other recommendation sent to the staff leadership team was a request to move the advocacy committee from the National Ministries Division to the office of the executive director of the General Assembly Council.