T H U R S D A Y MARCH 17, 2005
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 35 POST- INSIDE
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Former Black Panther decries ‘New Age Racism’
Inaugural BUCC meeting to set new group’s agenda
BY KIM STICKELS STAFF WRITER
First discussion to focus on ‘campus climate and tolerance for open debate’
American blacks have embraced, adopted and accepted “new age racism” — the popular view of blacks as inherently criminal and responsible for their oppressed status — thereby absolving “the system” of primary responsibility for failing blacks, according to author Elaine Brown, who spoke Wednesday night in MacMillan Hall. A founder and former leader of the Black Panther Party and the author of “The Condemnation of Little B” and “A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story,” Brown is a prominent political and social activist for the poor and the black community. Brown used the tale of “Little B,” Michael Lewis, a 13-year-old boy from Atlanta who was charged with murder in 1997 and tried as an adult, to illustrate the concept of “new age racism.” Lewis’ mother, a prostitute and crack addict, was declared unfit to raise him when he was 11 years old. He was put into a group home but then ran away and dropped out of school to work for a drug dealer. He was sentenced to life in prison at 14. Lewis was called a “thug” and “superpredator” and associated with a growing movement to identify the “black criminal” as the scapegoat for problems with black America today, Brown said. “The notion of the black criminal is part of the racist view we have begun to embrace and accept,” said Brown. “Children should not be tried as adults, and the United States is the only country which does this.” She contrasted Lewis’ case with that of Kip Kinkel, a 17-year-old Oregon student who killed both of his parents and three classmates in 1998. Instead of typifying young white adolescents as “thugs” and “criminals,” community members tried to
BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET METRO EDITOR
gerous mix of building materials, the inability to suppress early stages of the fire and the inadequacy of exits. Sprinklers, which were not required in 2003, were not installed at The Station. “We obviously know that sprinklers work. The question was how fast fires grow to outrun sprinklers,” Grosshandler said. Armando Dias, general manager of Viva/Paragon, a popular spot for Brown students, said the report’s recommendations were reasonable. “Who wants their building to go up in smoke?” Dias said. “A lot of things in the report — basic things like fire extinguishers, sprinklers — often end up on
While the newly selected members of the Brown University Community Council are looking forward to this afternoon’s inaugural meeting, several members say critical aspects of the council’s operations — including everything from procedural details to jurisdictional boundaries — have yet to be determined. “The committee will have a clearer idea (regarding the specifics of the council) after the first few meetings,” said Robin McGill GS, a BUCC member and president of the Graduate Student Council. Kate Brandt ’07, a UCS class representative who is beginning a one-year term on the council, said she agrees that initial meetings will provide the opportunity to develop a more concrete vision and agenda. “It’s exciting to be one of the first student representatives on this committee because I think it gives all of us the opportunity to really define” the council’s role in relation to the larger Brown community, she said. The BUCC, chaired by President Ruth Simmons, is comprised of faculty, staff, administrative, alumni, undergraduate and graduate student representatives. According to its Web site, the council will meet almost monthly during the academic year to serve as “a university-wide representative forum for discussion, debate, and advisory recommendations on a wide spectrum of issues and concerns.” In addition, the council may opt to forward recommendations “to the appropriate decision-making bodies” concerning “the overall welfare of the University.” All members interviewed by The Herald praised the BUCC’s unique position among University organizations as a forum that represents a vast array of constituencies. Brandt said this degree of representation may reduce the barriers to implementing policy reform by cutting down time devoted to “running around and scheduling meetings” among students, administrators and faculty. While all interviewed members expressed enthusiasm for the BUCC’s general mission, several also indicated a desire to use their positions to address issues more directly pertinent to their own roles at Brown. McGill said she hopes to use her BUCC position to advance concerns particular to the graduate student population. “My interest is presenting my organization and (its) interests,” she said. These include promoting several measures intended to make life “sustainable” for graduate students, such as implementing and improving health care benefits. “We’re going to be here for five, six or even seven years,” McGill said. “This is our job. We want to be treated like most adults
see FIRE, page 4
see BUCC, page 4
Juliana Wu / Herald
Author Elaine Brown spoke to a large audience of students and faculty Wednesday night about New Age Racism.
Student documentary examines issue of same-sex marriage BY STEPHANIE CLARK FOCUS E DITOR
When Noah Pohl ’07 was approached by his brother Matthew, a senior at Tufts University, in May 2004 about making a documentary about samesex marriage, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. The movie, “Mission to Matrimony,” will be screened tonight at 7:30 in List Art 120. The film evolved from Matthew Pohl’s desire to document
see BROWN, page 8
Massachusetts’ legalization of gay marriage on May 17, 2004, into an examination of the larger issue of gay marriage and the stories of two samesex couples raising children. The brothers, neither of whom had any experience in documentary filmmaking, were unsure how to realize their vision. “We really had no idea what we were doing at first,” Noah see FILM, page 7
Providence clubs consider federal fire safety recommendations BY STEPHEN NARAIN S TAFF WRITER
A federal draft report released this month encouraged Providence nightclubs to take a closer look at their compliance with fire safety regulations and consider making recomMETRO mended — but often expensive — improvements. The report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology is the result of a two-year investigation into The Station nightclub fire of 2003 that claimed 100 lives in West Warwick and sparked a nationwide debate over fire safety in public spaces. The 12 recommendations include mandatory installation of sprinklers in all nightclubs and restrictions on the
use of flammables and pyrotechnics. The report calls for continued research into the human response to emergencies. In the $500,000 study of The Station fire, a team of fire safety experts collected data from the nightclub’s site, interviewed local authorities and used computer models to simulate the fire, according to William Grosshandler, chief of the Fire Research Division at NIST. “We found that (The Station’s) scenario was unique. There was a complicated field system where the fire quickly ignited foam in the building, and quickly moved to (the building’s) plywood,” Grosshandler said. The NIST probe found that the main contributors to the disaster were a dan-
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