Arkansas Reporter
THE
IN S IDE R
Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas personally delivered word to the Occupy Little Rock encampment at 4th and Ferry Streets Monday evening that a city permit for the occupation, previously openended, would not be extended past May 16. The news came as something of a surprise to Occupy Little Rock, which has been meeting in recent days with Mayor Mark Stodola, City Manager Bruce Moore and City Attorney Tom Carpenter about moves to other sites or other ways to potentially end the demonstration, now more than six months old. Greg Deckelman, who talks to media on behalf of Occupy Little Rock, said the chief delivered the notice about 6 p.m. and said “he hated to be the bearer of bad tidings.” He delivered no other message, Deckelman said. Occupy LR has no idea if this signals an end to further negotiations. “We’re hopeful they’ll continue to negotiate,” Deckelman said. He wasn’t ready to say what the group would do if that’s not the case. “It would be decided at that point through consensus of the general assembly.” He said there was plenty of time to negotiate a different place for the group to camp, though visibility remains a prime aim of the group. The group has been talking to the city about the possibility of both public and private spots to relocate to. Deckelman said city officials had said they might be willing to ask the City Board to consider the group’s call for a non-binding city resolution opposition to the Citizens United ruling on “corporate personhood,” but not a guarantee of passage of such a resolution. City Manager Bruce Moore said the city needed the parking lot to accommodate buses during “tourist season.”
Food fight At least two restaurant owners downtown are ticked off at the Downtown Little Rock Partnership for its sponsorship of Food Truck Fridays, which they say will hurt their business on what are normally their busiest days. Eric Tinner, who owns Sufficient Grounds locations along Capitol Avenue and The Sports Page on Louisiana, and Matt Lile, owner of Lulav, are blaming the partnership for a recent big dip in business on the first two Food Truck Fridays at Capitol and Main. Lile said his business was down the first week 31 percent 12
APRIL 25, 2012
ARKANSAS TIMES
BRIAN CHILSON
Occupy losing permit
HILL: Boosters have too much say in selection of coaches.
Black coach bias in college football A new book from Fitz Hill makes the case. BY EVIN DEMIREL
O
f the dozen years Fitz Hill spent with the Razorback football staff, 1993 to 1997 were most grueling for him because Danny Ford was head coach. In these years, which former assistant coach Hill describes as a “living hell,” Ford regularly referred to black men as “boys” and didn’t understand why they would be offended, said Hill. The racially insensitive comments didn’t end there. Once, during discussion of a school health care plan, Hill told the staff he had three dependents: himself, his wife and a daughter. “Yeah, he’s like all the black guys,” Ford chimed in. “He’s got babies all over the place.” Although disturbed, Hill chuckled. “That’s what you do when you’re scared to speak up. I wanted to keep my job. I knew I was expendable.” “I truly believe in his mind, he didn’t mean any harm,” Hill wrote in an e-mail. “But unfortunately at that time, he didn’t know any better.” Hill later told Ford the comments hurt. Ford apologized, and stopped saying such things. Hill forgave, and moved on, eventually landing in his current job as president of Little Rock’s
Arkansas Baptist College. But the experience further strengthened his resolve to study the dynamics between minority coaches and college football. While serving as head coach at San Jose State from 2001 to 2004, he interviewed hundreds of black and white coaches around the nation to complete a doctorate dissertation on the scarcity of legitimate head coaching opportunities for minor-
ities. The culmination of his research is “Crackback! How College Football Blindsides the Hopes of Black Coaches,” a new book Hill co-authored with San Jose Mercury News sports columnist Mark Purdy, which Tate Publishing will distribute nationally on April 24. When the 2012 season begins, 15 of 120 major college programs (Football Bowl Subdivision) will employ black head coaches, according to Hill. That’s two fewer than last year. Whatever progress has been made along these lines in the last couple decades hasn’t been enough, Hill and Purdy contend. There are a number of reasons for the enduring disparity between the number of black coaches and black players, who constitute roughly half of Division I. At the heart of the issue is severe disagreement between races regarding whether minorities are treated fairly in the coaching ranks or not, Hill discovered in the course of polling more than 500 white and black college football coaches who worked from 1988 to 2001, and after speaking with many other coaches at CONTINUED ON PAGE 41