Richmond Free Press
Hibiscus on North Side
Editorial Page
A6
July 9-11, 2015
A just outcome Here’s good news: A big hotel in Charlotte, N.C., that ripped off people attending the 2015 CIAA basketball tournament in the spring is being forced to return its ill-gotten gains. In other words, the Ritz-Carlton is going to pay for imposing a “black tax.” According to news reports, the Ritz-Carlton has agreed to make restitution in a settlement with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the nation’s oldest African-American athletic conference. As you may recall, the problem cropped up during the big sports tournament in Charlotte in late February. African-American patrons who enjoyed food and drink in the hotel’s lobby lounge during the tournament found themselves hit with an extra 15 percent service charge. The hotel even put “CIAA service charge” on the bill. It was shameful and infuriating. The CIAA tournament attracts tens of thousands of fans and alumni of the mostly historically black member colleges. The multiday tournament ranks among Charlotte’s largest events. Other cities would love to host it. But this hotel saw the event as a way to exploit African-Americans. Apparently, it never has added a similar service fee to fans attending ACC basketball tournaments or NASCAR races. In the wake of complaints and public exposure, the embarrassed hotel officials initially tried to get away with just words. A few days after the tournament, the hotel offered a public apology “to any guests we may have offended by the addition of a service charge we implemented at a recent event in our lobby lounge.” The settlement goes beyond words. First, the hotel has agreed to donate $75,000 to the CIAA Scholarship Fund. In addition, the hotel has agreed to refund surcharges imposed on any customers who bought meals or had drinks in the hotel’s lounge during the tournament. According to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, people seeking a refund can apply within 90 days by letter or online with the North Carolina Consumer Protection Division at ncdoj.gov. Requests for refunds need to be accompanied by a copy of the bill or a credit card or bank statement. We applaud the consumers who raised a stink, bringing this to the attention of authorities. It’s a lesson that speaking up against unjust practices is the right way to go. We also applaud North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper for taking action to hold this outlaw hotel accountable. As part of the settlement, the Ritz-Carlton must pay an additional $5,000 to the North Carolina Department of Justice for consumer protection efforts. In announcing the settlement, Mr. Cooper said the real problem was the hotel’s failure to publicly post a notice and have servers explain the surcharge to guests. “Being upfront with consumers about fees is always the best way to do business. The principle of fairness is important; what happened is bad business.” To that, we say amen.
Real innovation? Last week, we published articles about two promising programs involving Richmond Public Schools. First, Mayor Dwight C. Jones shone a spotlight on the “Future Centers” that are to be opened at three of Richmond’s high schools. Their purpose: To help students better connect with college and career opportunities. As proposed, these centers are to help students better plan for life after high school. Among other things, the centers are to aid students in seeking scholarships to pay for college or assist them in seeking employment. Second, Richmond is teaming up with nine other school districts, including Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties, to create a regional high school to train students in computer programming and open the door for careers in computer science. According to the plan, this school represents thinking outside the box. Instead of a traditional brick-and-mortar building and courses driven by state Standards of Learning tests, students would take courses online and be assessed for mastery and competence. They also would race through high school in two years and spend the final two years gaining experience by working on computer programming projects for a private company that would pay them. And once done, according to the proposal, students could graduate with both a high school degree and an associate degree from a community college and have a guarantee of employment if they do not want to go on to college. If this program works, then similar programs could be tried in other career areas, such as health care and finance. Organizers hope to open the school by September 2016. On paper, both programs sound like winners that could have a real impact on the lives of our children. But as the old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding.” Too many times we have been told that one new program or another will usher in a big change. Alas, the results too often have been less than advertised. At this point, we can only hope these new programs live up to their billing.
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Free Press exposé propelled fight against racist flag
It was mid-summer 1992. A black airman with the Virginia Air National Guard walked into the Richmond Free Press newsroom and asked to see a reporter. After he placed a stack of photos on my desk, asked for anonymity and detailed his complaint, I literally ran up the stairs to the office of Raymond H. Boone, the founder and now late editor of the Richmond Free Press. I showed Mr. Boone what the airman had revealed. In the next edition of the Free Press, July 23-25, 1992, the banner headline was clear: “Confederate flags on state planes.” Debates now raging over the removal of Confederate flags by retailers and from public properties in South Carolina and other states call to mind this specific moment in black press history. The lead paragraph told the story: “The Confederate flag — the symbol of slavery and banner of hate groups in America — is emblazoned on 149th Fighter Squadron planes of the Virginia Air National Guard, based at Richmond International Airport.” The article contained a photograph as proof. The article further stated that the “emblem was adopted by the unit when it was first formed in 1947,” that some airmen had worn it on their uniforms
and that there were “imminent plans to put the hate symbol on all of the new planes of this squadron, as well as on the squadron’s Air National Guard uniforms.”
Hazel Trice Edney With only six African-Americans among the squadron’s 50 members, there was little empathy for the offended black airmen — even when they complained and took action by refusing to serve people wearing the emblem in the cafeteria. The emblems had in fact been approved for use on the military planes and uniforms by the U. S. Department of Defense. They had also been copyrighted. Maj. Stewart MacInnis, a white public affairs officer, defiantly said in a Free Press interview for the story, “Anybody who’s offended by it, I’m surprised that they’d even join the unit … Nobody’s forced to join.” On the other hand, the African-Americans in the unit feared for their jobs if they consistently complained. But help was on the way. Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, America’s first-elected black governor, had read the story and a scathing editorial written by Mr. Boone. The very next Free Press edition, July 30-Aug. 1, 1992, published an epic headline: “Governor wipes out rebel flag/Free Press story gets quick results.” Under the headline was a photo of Gov. Wilder, commander-in-chief of the Virginia
Air National Guard, sitting behind his desk with a clinched fist, as well as a photo of the Executive Order he signed. It stated: “I hereby direct you to take all measures necessary to replace the flag being employed in the emblem of the 149th Fighter Squadron, 192nd Fighter Group, Virginia Air National Guard, with the flag of the United States of America. This replacement shall be carried out on all equipment and uniforms of this unit, effective immediately.” The order was met with compliance. Maj. Gen. John G. Castles ordered the removals, stating, “I answer to the governor. I am a soldier.” The Confederate flag emblem was removed, but not the racism for which it stood. In the weeks following, Staff Sgt. Leon Brooks, a black airman who had spoken openly against the flag, was fired by the Virginia Air National Guard “not for cause,” according to the termination letter. Although Sgt. Brooks was not the airman who initially had come to the Free Press about the unit’s Confederate emblem, he became the unit’s scapegoat. Again, Gov. Wilder flexed his gubernatorial powers as Air Guard commander-in-chief. He reinstated Sgt. Brooks, who later retired and eventually became president of the King William County Branch NAACP in Virginia. In the wake of the horrific actions by domestic terrorist and white supremacist Dylann Roof, who confessed to killing
Mobility in more ways than one If you had to guess the single strongest factor in determining who escapes poverty, what do you think it would be? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is transportation. We m a y not think about it every day, but access to buses, trains and metros is a crucial link to opportunity and economic mobility. In fact, a recent Harvard University study found the single strongest factor in determining economic mobility was commuting time. A lack of transportation options can keep a struggling community treading water. It is bad enough when a neighborhood lacks access to fresh produce; it is even worse when the closest grocery store is only accessible by a bus that only shows up occasionally or not at all. If there is a personal equiva-
lent to this public policy problem, it would have to be the struggle of catching a cab as a person of color, especially as a black man. Nearly every person of color I know has a first- or
Ben Jealous second-hand story about a time when a taxi refused to pick him or her up or even drive to their neighborhood. Even President Obama has recalled experiencing discrimination when he was a young man. The vexing experience of trying to hail a taxi is a powerful incentive for many people of color to seek alternative methods of transportation. The most exciting alternative is ridesharing. Ridesharing companies, such as Uber and Lyft, manage to be more efficient than traditional taxi services and also more colorblind. When a driver selects a customer for pickup, he or she is completely blind to what that customer looks like or
where that customer is going. Using an app, anyone can get a reliable ride, whenever and wherever they are. The added bonus of ridesharing services is that they serve as a form of economic empowerment. As these services ramp up across the country, they are providing tens of thousands of flexible and easily accessible jobs. When these drivers come from the communities they serve, it essentially creates a new market for transportation services. Everybody wins, from the passengers to the drivers to the local economy. We often think about how technology and smartphones make our lives more convenient and easier. It’s important to remember that technology has the power to protect our dignity and make our society fairer as well. Ben Jealous is former president and CEO of the NAACP and a partner at Kapor Capital, an early investor in Uber.
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nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, all eyes remain on South Carolina. This week, the state continued to fly a Confederate flag on its State Capitol grounds despite a vote Tuesday by the state Senate to remove the flag. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for the flag’s removal, but she does not have the same authority in this situation as Gov. Wilder did in Virginia 23 years ago. Nevertheless, perhaps America can learn from an eloquent media statement made by Rep. Mia McLeod as she pressed for the South Carolina House to follow the Senate’s vote for the Confederate flag’s removal. She said her greatest hope is for the flag’s removal to come, not begrudgingly, but by honest change in “attitudes, hearts and minds.”
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