It is with some great joy that I have heard the news this week of the arbitrator's ruling in favor of Cornell Lewis' reinstatement in his job at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, with full compensation for missed time, full pay and benefits. This is a victory of reasoned justice and common sense.
At this juncture, I pause to take note, with admiration and respect, that it is also a victory of one man's “radical integrity”... his unyielding insistence, in the face of a great deal of pressure and temptation otherwise, on being treated with fairness and respect. The good news for all those who have stood by him throughout this long ordeal is that what he has demanded for himself, is also won for his fellow colleagues and all others who are struggling to be heard.
We can only hope that this will be an opportunity for DCF to take a time out, to re-evaluate their response to some of the criticisms that have been leveled by Cornell Lewis and others, and to try to more fully understand the basis for some of the accusations of unfairness toward employees of color at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, rather than fight to defend themselves reflexively against charges of bias and discrimination they do not seem to understand.
I suspect management at CJTS is mystified by Cornell Lewis' arguments. I can imagine that it is terribly difficult for people who have devoted their careers to the “helping professions” to begin to see their world through his eyes. But his perspective is of importance to their work, and if they would cease defending and begin instead to listen and reflect on some of his challenging statements, positive change might be possible.
I have no doubt that DCF officials are appalled by the accusation that there is in any way an instructive analogy between the way the agency operates towards its employees and the “plantation system” of slavery that is the unavoidable legacy of our nation. I am sure they find this suggestion offensive. It flies in the face of their self perception as people devoted to bettering the lives of the underprivileged and impoverished.
However, it behooves us all to take a hard look at the ways in which insidious institutionalized racism performs the function of reproducing hierachies of power that have plagued our democracy for generations. There is merit in acknowledging that we have more hard work to do before we can truly say that people of color have achieved an equal place at the table and that we have empowered them to become fully independent agents of their our destiny – even in their own communities.
As long as management retains a sense of being a privileged elite, and workers perceive themselves as submissive underlings, we cannot say that we have achieved racial or economic equality. As long as upper level management is disproportionately white, and rank and file employees are people of color, the power disparity within the bureaucracy will create festering wounds amongst even the most talented.
The really hard truth is that well intentioned people in government have unwittingly created a large, profitable industry of the “helping professions” including DCF, with high barriers to entry at the upper levels of management including expensive advanced degrees from elite universities which tend to “self select out” many talented people of color. These jobs pay high salaries to privileged white people, and some people of color who find it possible to work within the present system – to “go along to get along”. For better or worse, Cornell Lewis will never be one of these people.
Finally, and most importantly, I also happen to believe that this week's victory for Cornell Lewis is also a victory for the students at the CJTS. I suspect these young people stand to benefit greatly from his capacity to understand their lives, their struggles and their challenges in a way that other more privileged, educated members of the elite simply could never do. In addition to his professional training and experience, Cornell Lewis has the lived experience which is an essential component of helping young people overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to turning around their lives.
Marcia Morris Activist
New Hampshire
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