No Pain, No Change
In spite of our common desire for speedy closure, the Feds took their own sweet time with the county corruption probe, and did so for a couple of reasons: One, every time they stepped to someone and rattled a pair of handcuffs in their face, said individual would begin shaking like a dog passing peach pits and then would rollover on a few (or maybe a bunch) of other people, thus widening the investigation; and two, if closure came too quickly the pain would have been less, but the lesson most likely would have been lost … there would have been little, if any, real desire to change the culture in the county. And make no mistake, a systemic cultural change is what is needed, and, yes, it will be painful.
That’s because changing culture in any society is indeed difficult. Even after the Feds launched their investigation back in 2008, some folks continued to engage in nefarious behavior as if they had a license to break the law. And, amazingly, some greedy folks still are engaging in petty crooked schemes, or taking a full day’s pay for a half-day’s work. They’ve been doing wrong for so long they have a sense of entitlement. They obviously think the new rules don’t apply to them, or, as we say in the ‘hood, “They don’t believe fat meat is greasy.”
New “whistleblower” protections are going to be put in place, but perhaps a strong financial incentive needs to be added to the provision: Anyone accurately reporting real (not imagined) wrongdoing would be compensated handsomely. Anyone who knowingly makes spurious accusations should themselves be charged with a crime.
Certainly this could have the effect of creating a legion of county quislings — people who spend more of their working hours snooping into the work habits of co-workers rather than actually doing any work themselves — but initially, as malodorous as such a program might seem, it may be necessary to bring about a real change in our county culture. As recent events serve to prove, altruism loses out to financial incentive virtually every time.
Corruption in Cuyahoga County didn’t just spring up when Frank Russo first got elected … the soil was already very fertile in northeast Ohio for the type of skullduggery he only took to new heights, and, since we’ll be fishing from the same gene pool when the new people assume office, absent serious and critical self-examination we’ll find ourselves facing another, similar, probe somewhere down the line in the not-too-distant future.
As much as I’d love to write that the general absence of persons of color in the rogues’ gallery lineup of disgraced public officials, county employees and businessmen connotes a higher level of probity among African-Americans hereabouts … that would be disingenuous. Given the chance, blacks would have engaged in as much chicanery as whites … but, as usual, we were not afforded an equal opportunity.
Hey, we black dudes could be just as good at taking bribes, cooking the books and cavorting with hookers as white dudes, if we were just given a fair shot. It’s downright unfair I say … even racist. Obviously equal access rules don’t apply when the public is being bilked, but, look at the bright side — for at least ONCE it was real good to be black in Cuyahoga County.
Which brings the unfairness aspect of “good ‘ol boy” networks into sharp focus. When dirty deals are done they are done with friends, family and close associates … which, of course, excludes outsiders. So legitimate companies and individuals (both black and white) are routinely left out of the process and prosperity. Under Russo’s rigged system, when bids were let the winners were already predetermined, and when jobs were posted, the new employee has already been selected … no matter if they are qualified to do the job or not. It really came down to who you knew … or in some cases who you blew.
Under the new system ethical safeguards will be erected to deter further corruption, but it will be interesting to see how far those safeguards go in terms of assuring not only honesty, but also fairness, inclusion and diversity. In spite of the fact many county offices sorely lack racial diversity little, if anything, has been said about that aspect of the wrongdoing. Is that because no one charged with cleaning up this mess sees racial inequality as a problem?
Will employment, contracting and all other aspects of county government be reflective on the racial demographics of the county, or will concerns regarding parity again be left off the table, as they were when the new charter was initially drawn up? What mechanisms will insure that racial bias doesn’t permeate the new government, and render it similar to the current setup where exclusion by race is an accepted practice?
Along that line, an interesting, newly released study (you can find it on MyPlanetHarmony.com) done by researchers in Italy demonstrates how “racial biases may affect how much empathy one person has for another.” And the ability to empathize is the basis emotion on which fair treatment of others is based.
Italian and African participants in the study all watched short videos of needles pricking both black and white hands. Their muscle response activity (which correlates with the amount of empathy they were experiencing) was measured with sophisticated devices and the results showed that each group was more sympathetic toward their own race than they were towards the other race. In other words, we are hardwired by culture to care more about people whose skin looks like our own than we care about others of different hues.
The researchers stated they felt the outcomes would be similar if the experiment was carried out in America, and there is no reason to doubt their suppositions. However, I seriously doubt if any such study will ever be done in this country since we’re more comfortable holding on to our flawed and false notions than knowing hard truths.
However, discovering such truths would not mean we are bad people, just that we are subjected to the same cultural cues that form the views of virtually all humans. But it would also mean that we have to work harder to overcome those negative biases, traits and tendencies that have been bred into all of us humans.
In the end, it’s easier to change things we understand … if we know where the challenges are … but then we have to possess the will, the courage and the basic decency to confront those challenges. The time is fast coming upon us where we can prove that we are buying into real, systemic, cultural change (which would include fair dealing in matters of race), or that we are content to do business in the same old bad ways. The choice will be ours, but it’s like being a “little bit pregnant” there is no such thing. We’ll embrace total reform … or no reform — it’s not a menu we can pick and choose from as we so desire.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.