Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Friday, September 18, 2009 - Index

Friday, September 18, 2009 Page 3-A
Altering behavior,
not changing any
beliefs in Tenn.
Racist e-mail prompts diversity
class for legislature’s staffers
Lucas L. Johnson II
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A
Memphis Democrat who is providing
diversity training for
Tennessee legislative staffers
says he’s not trying to change
beliefs but educate them about
inappropriate behavior on the
job.
Rep. John Deberry on
Tuesday held the first of two
diversity training sessions this
month. The sessions follow the
revelation in June that a
Tennessee legislative staffer sent
a racist e-mail about President
Barack Obama from her state
computer.
The incident drew national
attention and many wanted the
woman fired. But legislative
leaders agreed with Deberry’s
proposal for mandatory diversity
training for all state legislative
staffers as a deterrent to such
actions.
“I think both speakers felt it
was important for employees to
realize there are diverse backgrounds
here ... and people who
have different sensitivities,” said
Matt King, chief of staff for
Republican Senate Speaker Ron
Ramsey of Blountville. “I think
this is going to be helpful for
everyone.”
House Democratic Caucus
spokesman Addison Pate said
the sessions foster an opportunity
for dialogue.
“The leadership of the
Democratic House sees this as
an excellent opportunity to get
the staffers talking and working
together in an appropriate fashion,”
he said.
Deberry said he doesn’t expect
everyone to agree and “have a
group hug” after the sessions,
but he does hope to “most certainly
alter some of their behavior.”
“You may not always be able to
change what folks believe internally,
we all have ... our idiosyncrasies,”
said Deberry, who is
providing the training pro bono.
“But the main thing is that people
know certain things are just
not acceptable behavior.”
Titled “Historical Keepsake
Photo,” the e-mail forwarded by
the Tennessee staffer displayed
an official portrait of every president
except Obama, who was
shown as a caricature with wide
eyes on a field of black.
Sherri Goforth, a legislative
aide for Senate Republican
Caucus Chairwoman Diane
Black, said she got the e-mail
from an acquaintance with no
political ties and should have
deleted it instead of forwarding it
to other Republican legislative
staffers.
Goforth, who is white, apologized
and received a letter of reprimand.
Critics said the punishment
wasn’t strong enough, but
Deberry, who is also chairman of
the Tennessee Black Caucus,
said at the time, “We need to take
a look at why this happened.”
Tennessee, like many states,
has for years provided workshops
about sexual harassment
but none on cultural and racial
sensitivity.
California is believed to be the
only other state that mandates
diversity training for legislative
staffers and lawmakers, according
to the National Conference of
State Legislatures.
Tennessee’s diversity training
isn’t mandatory for state lawmakers,
but Deberry has said
they’re welcome to attend.
On Tuesday, about 150
Tennessee legislative staffers
spent at least five hours being
coached to avoid discriminatory
behavior unacceptable in the
workplace. Nearly 100 staffers
have signed up for the second
session later this month. It’s the
same training Deberry’s marketing
firm gave to some clients
before he became a legislator.
Deberry said he and legislative
officials are creating a discrimination
policy staffers will be
expected to follow after training
is complete. — (AP)
Top student offices elude
minorities at U. of Alabama
Some see change
at the historically
white university
Amanda Thomas
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As they have for
more than three decades, students arrived at
the University of Alabama for a new school
year with a white president of the Student
Government Association — and a sense
among some that change may finally be at
hand.
Other historically white Southern universities
— among them Auburn, Tennessee,
Florida, Florida State, South Carolina,
Mississippi and Mississippi State — have
had minority student presidents in the last
decade, according to the American Student
Government Association.
At ‘Bama, however, where George Wallace
made his “stand in the schoolhouse door” for
racial segregation in 1963, no Black has won
the presidency since Cleophus Thomas Jr. in
1976.
Kendra Key, a Black candidate who narrowly
lost the SGA presidency this year,
7,323 votes to 7,062, said a record 53 percent
turnout in the spring election signals
that the next wave of SGA officers may be
more diverse.
“Those who aspire to hold executive office
on campus should see this as a ray of hope
and an example of the possible,” she said.
Key, like others on campus, said the difficulties
of minority candidates stem not from
racism but from tradition: a fraternity culture
that whites dominate and a secretive
and influential group called “the Machine.”
“Our university is deeply rooted in tradition,
and traditionally, the vast majority of
the student population has not seen the
importance of voting and the role that the
SGA plays or can play in their collegiate
careers,” Key said.
She said her staff worked hard to make
sure the campaign was not based on race
and hopes that will be reflected in the campaign’s
legacy.
The Machine, a coalition of all-white Greek
organizations that has largely controlled
campus politics for a century, in recent
decades has focused on developing university
political leaders from fraternity and sorority
pledges and then turning out the vote.
Nearly a century ago, in 1914, a student
named Lister Hill turned the Machine into a
statewide political force of national
Democratic Party loyalists opposing more
conservative candidates. Hill, who later
became a U.S. senator, won the SGA presidency
and spawned a succession of progressive
Alabama politicians who got their start
as campus leaders, including U.S. Sen. John
Sparkman and, later, U.S. District Judge
Robert Vance and Gov. Don Siegelman.
In establishing a network that would hang
together and have political impact after leaving
college, “It was almost like he consciously
created something comparable to Skull
and Bones at Yale,” said Redding Pitt, an
SGA leader at Alabama in the 1960s and
later state Democratic Party chairman.
In the late 1960s, he said, the campus got
more conservative and the Machine “had no
political mission beyond campus politics.”
In this Sept. 2 photo, University of Alabama senior Kendra Key is pictured on the campus
of the university in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Key, a Black candidate who narrowly lost the
SGA presidency this year, 7,323 votes to 7,062, said a record 53 percent turnout in the
spring election signals that the next wave of SGA officers may be more diverse.
— AP PHOTO/DAVE MARTIN
John Merrill, who in 1986 became the last
independent to buck the Machine and win
the SGA presidency, said it is unique in the
region.
“There is no institution in the South where
(an organization like) the Machine is as
strong as it is on the campus of UA,” he said.
“Creating a significant bloc vote is something
that is difficult to overcome if you’re not wellorganized.”
SGA president Steven Oliver, who defeated
Key, agreed with her view that the election
wasn’t about race. He said voting was based
on the qualifications of each candidate.
“It isn’t based on the color of their skin,”
Oliver said. “The SGA is here for all students
and we embrace diversity on campus.”
The SGA’s executive branch is made up of
seven elected offices, including president.
Lorraine Erhunmwunsee, a Black student,
was elected executive secretary in an unopposed
election in 2001, and there have been
several appointed minorities since 1996,
when elections were resumed after a threeyear
hiatus. But no minority running against
a white candidate has won.
The student paper, The Crimson White,
has reported that at least 17 minority students
have run for various executive SGA
offices, some multiple times, during the last
14 elections. Every one of them lost.
Thomas, the lone black who was elected
president in 1976, later served on the university’s
board of trustees. But no other Blacks,
and few non-Machine candidates, have won
since.
An attack on an independent candidate for
president — no one was ever charged —
prompted the school to suspend SGA elections
in 1993 for three years.
Gentry McCreary, director of Greek affairs,
declined comment on the Machine’s role on
campus.
Jimmy Williams, associate dean for multicultural
affairs in the College of Arts and
Sciences, said he does not believe the university
is more racially divided than other
Southern campuses and notes that the SGA
collaborates with many student organizations,
including the Black Student Union
and NAACP.
“UA is one of the top five public flagship
universities in the nation in the enrollment of
African-American students, with African-
Americans representing 11.3 percent of the
student body,” Williams said.
UA student Alan Blinder, who wrote a column
in The Birmingham News last March
about the Machine’s role in perpetuating
white domination of student government,
said he feels “a number of students are naive
and fail to do their homework on SGA candidates.
A lot seem to vote for whomever they
are told to vote for.” — (AP)
Associated Press writer Kendal Weaver in
Montgomery contributed to this report.
Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson greets the
Rev. Willie T. Barrow as Jackson kicks off her campaign for
President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat, Wednesday, in
Chicago. Jackson is the only Black Democrat so far seeking the
seat that has been held by three of the nation’s four Black senators
in modern history. — AP PHOTO/M. SPENCER GREEN
Chicago Urban
League head seeks
Obama’s old seat
CHICAGO — Chicago Urban
League president Cheryle
Jackson says she’s running for
President Barack Obama’s old
Senate seat because she’s the
kind of problem-solver Illinois
needs.
The former aide to ousted
Gov. Rod Blagojevich formally
announced Wednesday at an
event on Chicago’s South Side.
Jackson said working as a
problem-solver is what she does
at the civil rights organization
she leads, pointing to efforts to
help small businesses weather
the financial meltdown.
Jackson wants the seat now
held by incumbent Sen. Roland
Burris, who isn’t seeking a full
term after having been appointed
by Blagojevich.
Jackson will be part of a
February Democratic primary
that includes first-term Illinois
Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias,
former Chicago Inspector
General David Hoffman and
Chicago attorney Jacob Meister.
— (AP)
Ethics panel defers
investigation of
Jesse Jackson Jr.
WASHINGTON — The House
ethics committee said
Wednesday it will put off for
now an expanded investigation
into whether Rep. Jesse
Jackson Jr. or his representatives
tried to buy President
Barack Obama’s former Senate
seat.
The committee revealed that
the deferred investigation now
includes allegations that
Jackson, a Democrat, improperly
used his staff in
Washington and Chicago to
mount a public campaign to
secure the Senate seat.
The committee acted at the
behest of federal prosecutors
who already are investigating
former Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich. The panel normally
defers investigations when
requested by law enforcement,
to avoid interference with prosecutors.
The committee is looking into
Jackson’s interactions with
Blagojevich, who has been
indicted on corruption charges
including alleged attempts to
sell the seat now held by
Democratic Sen. Roland Burris.
According to a criminal complaint,
Jackson was one of several
candidates to whom
Blagojevich tried to shop the
seat. Jackson’s supporters were
willing to raise $1.5 million for
Blagojevich if he picked the
congressman, according to the
criminal complaint. — (AP)
8 HBCUs join in
initiative to boost
female biz careers
ATLANTA — Spelman College
and Clark Atlanta University
are among eight historically
Black colleges that will participate
in an initiative aimed at
training female students for
careers in business and as
entrepreneurs.
The United Negro College
Fund announced the partnership
with Goldman Sachs. The
10,000 Women Business
Leadership Award Program will
help four UNCF institutions —
Spelman, Clark Atlanta,
Bennett College and Dillard
University — as well as Xavier
University, Hampton University,
Howard University and North
Carolina A&T University, also
historically Black schools.
The students will receive
scholarships for the junior and
senior years and a Goldman
Sachs mentor. The program will
award 31 scholarships over a
two-year period. — (AP)
Spike Lee tells
youth to follow
their passion
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —
Filmmaker Spike Lee says students
should follow their passion
in choosing a career. Lee
spoke Monday night at the
University of Tennessee’s
Knoxville campus, saying he
had a C grade index at
Morehouse College until he
began shooting film around
New York during a summer
break in 1977.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
reported Lee spoke to a capacity
crowd as part of the “Legend
Lecture Series” put on by the
Black Cultural Programming
Committee. He urged students
to work hard, focus on school,
follow their hearts, fight external
and internal racism and
help each other. — (AP)
NNPA, in boycott,
pulls its winter
conference in S.C.
LOS ANGELES — The
National Newspaper Publishers
Association, the Black Press of
America, has announced that it
will not hold its mid-winter conference
in South Carolina
scheduled for January 2010.
The organization of more
than 200 Black-owned newspapers
is joining the NAACP economic
boycott of the state that
has been in effect since July
1999 when the South Carolina
NAACP called for it as a protest
of the Confederate flag — a
symbol of racial hatred — atop
the State House and inside the
House and Senate chambers.
The boycott, still in effect,
calls on groups and individuals
to avoid traveling to the state
for business or pleasure and
discourages residents from visiting
South Carolina beaches or
patronizing restaurants and
motels.
This announcement comes
on the heels of South Carolina
Republican Rep. Joe Wilson’s
outburst of “You lie!” that broke
decorum during President
Barack Obama’s address to the
Joint Houses of Congress on
health-care reform on Sept. 9.
— (NNPA)
— Compiled by Jordan Ingram
ARTISTS
COMPETE
In this photo taken on Sept. 11,
Derrick Hollowell goes through
his work and other artists at his
studio, The ‘L’ Loft/Gallery in
Grand Rapids, Mich. Thousands
of artists are exhibiting work in
Grand Rapids to participate in
the first annual ArtPrize art competition,
the winning work
receiving $250,000.
— AP PHOTO/ADAM BIRD