Address disparities before issues arise

Cedar Rapids faces a well-documented crisis of racial disparity. Like other sectors of society, our criminal justice system is proven to be disproportionately harsh toward African Americans.

This prompts me to ask: How do we keep ourselves from becoming the next Ferguson? How do we right our ship before disaster strikes?

The Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission's 2014 State of Equity report provides helpful - some might say startling - data about just how tough African-Americans have it in Cedar Rapids compared to white residents. As to disparity in our criminal justice system, the report states, 'In 2007, a study by the Washington D.C. based Sentencing Project ranked Iowa ‘worst in the nation' in the ratio of African Americans to Whites in prison. ... Iowa incarcerates African-Americans at a rate of 13.6 times that of Whites - more than double the national average.”

The Cedar Rapids Community School District is under federal investigation for its discipline practices, and such pressure has helped the district to begin implementing changes. For example, the district has signed on as an official partner to the newly created Center for Equity, with a commitment to hire and retain more non-white teachers.

Is there a similar effort underway to hire and retain non-white officers? According to police department statistics, the Cedar Rapids Police Department employs four African-American, two Asian and three Hispanic officers - a total of 4.5 percent of the department's roughly 200 officers.

The department has tried various ways to recruit more non-white officers, but with little success so far. Perhaps a Center for Equity could be as helpful to regional police departments as it hopes to be for our school districts.

This year, Cedar Rapids was named an All-America City, partly due to our history of tackling tough problems like the 2008 flood with forward-thinking creativity, hard work, and a determination to succeed.

It's time for us to do the same with the crisis of racial disparity. Instead of denying we have a problem until tragedy strikes and the national spotlight turns ugly, let's do our part now to make the city great for all its residents.

' Courtney T. Ball is a Cedar Rapids-based writer, former United Methodist pastor, and co-founder of the local non-profit, Matthew 25. Comments: writercball@gmail.com