When Philly government discrimination is just peachy

I have long been on record as rejecting the idea that America suffers from “systemic racism.”

Do we suffer from some racism? Yes.

But does the system — meaning our laws — support it?

No.

But some governments do practice racism, and they are not always in the South. And the victims aren’t always Black.

Last December, the Boston mayor, an Asian woman, hosted a party for members of the City Council.

Not all of them. White members were excluded. When that became public and some complaints were filed, the state attorney general said it did not violate public accommodation laws because members of the public were not invited. It was an example of tightrope walking.

The AG is Andrea Campbell, she is Black and a former member of the City Council.

Mayor Michelle Wu alibied explained the “no whites” party was a “longstanding” tradition.

Like slavery was a longstanding tradition, Ms Wu? How about the Chinese Exclusion Act, a racist federal ban that went on for a decade?

This Boston flap was fresh in my mind when I learned the Philadelphia City Council was organizing a Reparations Task Force to study the issue of reparations, something I am familiar with, and have written about.

The committee was looking for people with experience in eight fields, including activism, social justice, reparatory justice. 

Oh. No whites need apply.

Of course they didn’t actually come out and say it that way. Instead, they said the Task Force “shall comprise 10 members from the descendant group who reside in the City of Philadelphia, and have done so for at least a decade.”

There is no payment for work done for the task force.

Elsewhere it said — and this is important — “Philadelphians who are the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States, the descendants of Black, Negro, or Colored Americans since 1865, and/or the descendants of Freedmen emancipayed from slavery are invited to apply for eight open positions…”

In other words, whites need not apply. If you were white, your qualification were erased by your skin color. This is racism. The committee is apartheid.

Unlike Boston, this was soliciting members of the public. Just excluding white ones. 

I decided to test it.

I filed a discrimination complaint with the City Commission on Human Relations, and this is where the story gets sticky.

I was told I would hear back in about 6 weeks. I waited, and when I didn’t hear from it, I showed up at its Washington Square office in person to get a report.

The report I got was this: Since the Commission works very closely with Philadelphia City Council, it felt it should recuse itself.

Hmmm. That gives City Council a carte blanche to be as discriminatory as it likes.

There was one other avenue open to me — the state human relations commission.

I submitted my complaint, supported by evidence, meaning the published invitation for nonwhites only. You saw the text above: “Philadelphians who are the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States, the descendants of Black, Negro, or Colored Americans since 1865, and/or the descendants of Freedmen emancipated from slavery are invited to apply for eight open positions…”

It is in black and white. To me, it was a smoking gun.

To the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, I had no case, and its reasoning was laughable.

Intake investigator Inna Zudilina said the commission rejected my complaint because I had not filed for the position, and had not been rejected.

In a telephone conversation, she asked me why I had not applied for the position.

I replied something to the effect that I am not an idiot who believes in wasting his time. The language from the committee was absolutely clear that no white person would be considered. I had about the same chance of becoming a forward in the Women’s National Basketball Assn. 

In a letter, Zudilina wrote, “You did not submit a formal application to or contact the City of Philadelphia to inquire about or express an interest in the position.”

And because I did not submit an application for a job City Council said was closed to me, I did not get a rejection which would have been “essential.”

Zudilina and I danced for a few minutes on the phone, with my position being it was pointless to apply for a job closed to me, and hers being, I should have, that the plain discriminatory language was not enough. There had to be an action. 

It all brought me back to a hearing I covered in 2008, when the city commission hauled Joey Vento into a hearing based on (the falsehood that) his Geno’s steak shop did not serve customers who could not speak English. His business displayed a sign that read, “This is America: When Ordering, Please speak English.”

For the record, the Philadelphia Inquirer often neglected the word “please” in its reports.

The city commission had a problem: No one had complained about being denied service, so the commission brought the case itself and itself could not produce anyone who was denied service. Not even a member of its hapless staff.

That’s because no one ever was denied service.

Owner Vento was not an idiot. He would not turn away business. Counter workers were told if a customer couldn’t articulate an order, they’d be served a standard cheesesteak.

Now, the city and state commissions are not the same.

I just note, for the record, the city commission was able to launch a days-long hearing based on no complaints, (the case was dismissed) while the state was perfectly content to go blind when confronting blatantly racist language that once might have said “Blacks need not apply.”

I’ll survive. But I decided not to allow this reverse discrimination to pass without comment.