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John H. Sengstacke Publisher (1951 - 1997)
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OPINION
Tri-State Defender
June 20 - 26, 2013
• Bernal E. Smith II President / Publisher • Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku Executive Editor
Are African Americans concerned about government spying? The Grio
By David A. Love
The current spying controversy at the National Security Agency has caught many Americans off guard and has conjured up images of Big Brother. The NSA has secretly collected the private phone calls and internet data of its citizens, allowing the federal agency to monitor people who were not suspected of any unlawful activity. Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked information on the secret surveillance programs, is now a fugitive in hiding in Hong Kong. And yet, while civil liberties advocates may find this type of surveillance illegal, an unconstitutional invasion of privacy and even grounds to sue the government, AfricanAmericans may not necessarily react with as much outrage.
Decades under the microscope
It gets complicated. The black community has decades of experience being monitored, so this type of surveillance is nothing new. Given the long history of being spied upon, many blacks already assume they are being monitored by the government. Yet, a new poll from Pew Research Center and the Washington Post suggests that blacks may have forgotten about all those years of surveillance. According to the Pew survey, 56 percent of people believe the NSA tracking of telephone calls is an acceptable way to fight terrorism. That includes 53 percent of whites, 62 percent of blacks and 63 percent of nonwhites in general. Further, 45 percent of Americans believe the government should intrude even further into our internet activity in order to prevent terrorist attacks, while 52 percent disagree. Meanwhile, 55 percent of blacks believe the feds should go the extra mile if such a move would thwart terrorism. And when asked if it is more important for the government to investigate threats if it intrudes on privacy, or not intrude even if it limits the government’s ability to investigate threats, 62 percent voted for investigating threats. While 60 percent of whites and 67 percent of nonwhites approved of investigations, 75 percent of blacks approved. African-Americans are no strangers to surveillance, as their activities were highly regulated through the slave codes, laws which controlled both slaves and free blacks. The slave patrols, consisting of white slaveholding and non-slaveholding men, were designed to prevent slave rebellions. The patrols were ordered to stop the slaves they found on the road, compel the slaves to produce a pass, and have them prove they were not breaking the law. Slave patrols often descended upon areas where slaves congregated, and could enter plantations without a warrant and search slave quarters for weapons, books, runaways or stolen property.
Tuskegee is just the tip of the iceberg
Between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted experiments on 399 black men infected with syphilis in Macon County, Alabama in the infamous Tuskegee experiment. 201 men who had not contracted the disease were used as a control group. The government treated the men as human guinea pigs by studying the effects of the disease yet failing to treat them with penicillin, never telling them they even had the disease, and allowing them to die. A class action suit in 1973 on behalf of the men and their families resulted in a $9 million settlement. Tragic chapters such as Tuskegee have been cited as a reason why
African-Americans distrust the medical establishment and are hesitant to participate in clinical research. One study found that 67 percent of black parents distrusted the medical profession, compared to half of white parents. For years, the federal government monitored black civil rights leaders. As early as 1917, federal agents kept tabs on Marcus Garvey and his speeches, fearing his power of his black nationalist movement. Beginning in 1919, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover became fixated on Garvey, calling him a “notorious negro agitator” and using black informants to monitor the leader and dig up damaging information on him and his Universal Negro Improvement Association, the largest black organization in history. Using the first black FBI agent, Hoover ruined Garvey’s Black Star Line, a shipping line operating throughout the African Diaspora, and ultimately sent Garvey to prison after a politically-motivated prosecution for mail fraud. In later years, Hoover would employ the techniques he used against Garvey to neutralize civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, and groups such as the Black Panther Party. Under his secret COINTELPRO (counterintelligence) program, Hoover monitored and disrupted domestic groups and social movements the FBI claimed were threats to national security. In his directives, Hoover singled out so-called “hate-type organizations” such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality and the Nation of Islam. “Prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement,” Hoover directed his agents. “Malcolm X might have been such a ‘messiah’… Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, and [Nation of Islam leader] Elijah Muhammed [sic] all aspire to this position.” Hoover tracked Dr. King constantly—at times reportedly in compromising situations—and called him the “most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country.”
Memories of MOVE
On May 13, 1985, following a standoff, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a bomb on the house on Osage Avenue occupied by the black “radical” group known as MOVE. Police reportedly fired on MOVE members as they escaped the burning home. Ramona Africa, one of the two survivors of the bombing, claims the bombing was retaliation for a 1978 standoff with police, after which nine MOVE members were arrested and imprisoned for the death of a police officer. According to Temple University journalism professor Linn Washington—then a reporter for the Philadelphia Tribune—police had erected a starvation blockade around the MOVE house in the weeks leading to the standoff, and destroyed the MOVE compound and all evidence with it, only hours after the arrests. The 1985 bombing—which killed 11 people, including 5 children and destroyed an entire neighborhood of 61 row homes in West Philadelphia— marked the first such attack on U.S. citizens by government authorities. The survivors and victims’ families received $5.5 million in compensation from the city of Philadelphia. Finally, African-Americans and Latinos are monitored through stopand-frisk policies that civil rights groups say are unfair and based on race. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed Floyd v. City of New York, a class action lawsuit against the NYPD alleging an unconstitutional practice of racial profiling and stop-and-frisks almost exclusively in communities of color. (Follow David A. Love on Twitter at @davidalove)
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The ‘Colored entrance’ to White-owned businesses NNPA
by Harry C. Alford For the most part, corporate America employees are satisfied with their careers. There is usually a chart to review in terms of responsibility. Is the employee moving up the “ladder” and heading towards more executive responsibility? That is correlated with salary. The greater the responsibility, the greater the pay and the less tolerance for any era or bad judgment. If one reaches as far up the ladder as he or she can, then they will ultimately seek new employment that offers more opportunity or capitulate to the end of their improvement and sit there until retirement. There are many divisions within a major corporation. Engineering, Manufacturing, Logistics, Marketing, Sales, Legal, IT, Human Resources, Procurement, Research/Development, Security and Maintenance are some of the major divisions. Each of these divisions is usually managed by a vice president, director, chairman or president. They report to the President/CEO or Chairman/CEO. Somewhere in this maze of divisions is a particular occupation sometimes known as Manager of Minority Procurement or Diversity Procurement or some other form that reflects on a minority procurement program that the company alleges it has. The person they pick will generally have less than a successful tenure under his/her belt. Their past with the corporation is usually lackluster and their future is considered to be vague or doomed to failure. This is the prototype of who they want to represent them as Black-owned businesses and other minorities seeking to do business are directed to his or her office. It’s the colored entrance while Whiteowned firms head to the procure-
ment division where the real deals are done. The Black rep reminds one of that great novel, “The Spook who sat by the Door” by Sam Greenlee. This individual has little Harry C. power and no Alford respect among members of the corporation. If a crisis arises that involves the corporation’s record on minority business, the company will refer the matter to someone high up in the procurement division. We had an issue with the Chrysler Corporation. They were building a new plant in Kokomo, Ind. The state legislature gave them $8 million in cash to acquire the needed land. They had the nerve to refuse any appointments by Black construction managers. One of our members even had their FEDEX package containing the Statement of Qualifications refused for acceptance. They wouldn’t even accept it. He complained to us and we went to war. After a scathing op-ed in many NNPA newspapers and the threat of defaulting on the $8 million given to the company by the state, they began to panic. Chrysler sent four vice presidents to my office. The minority business guy wasn’t even in the loop. They made peace by awarding the plant to one of our members. One of the vice presidents ran their foundation. As an apologetic gesture, they sent a handsome grant to us. I felt like Rev. Jesse Jackson. A lot of these corporations will demand that you, a Black person, should go through that colored door and never approach the main door. One of our members formed an engineering consulting company made up of two
homegrown Blacks, an African and a Caribbean. The four of them developed a great staff and started winning a lot of contracts at this one particular Fortune 10 corporation. Eventually, members of the corporation suggested that they get certified as a minority business. They said they would rather not as they were winning contracts in a straight up competitive way. Then the corporation demanded it. So they did and by doing so they now had to go through that colored door. Predictably, their business started drying up and within a year they were out of business. There is a big stigma placed on certified minorities within the majority of major corporations. I remember talking with the minority business guy for Enron (before their demise). He broke into tears as he said his career is at a “dead end sitting in this damn office.” He said he was an outcast and when he walks down a hall everyone frowns at him. “If I come up to them to discuss minority firms they say they don’t have time and then I catch all this hell from people like you.” There are a few corporations that are exceptions to the above. They don’t move by one office and one person with little staff. They move by a committee of some of their best “up and coming” executives. Management expertise is applied and sincerity is evident. Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Comcast and Penn Gaming quickly come to my mind as great examples of commitment in diversifying their procurement choices. There are a few others but that’s about it. And, by the way, a corporation having a Black CEO has so far made no difference in the attitude of minority procurement.
(Harry C. Alford is the co-founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce®. Website: www.nationalbcc.org. Email: halford@nationalbcc.org.)
Turning ‘Baby Daddies’ Into Fathers
Richmond Pulse / New America Media
Last week, grateful sons and daughters were hitting retailers around the country in search of that perfect gift for dad – a tie, some socks, a Hallmark card, or maybe just a hug. But for a growing number of youth Father’s Day can be tough, bringing up memories of hard times with dad, or other times when he just wasn’t around at all. The number of children in the U.S. living apart from their fathers has more than doubled over the last 50 years, from 11 percent to 27 percent, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center. While there are certainly a number of reasons for the increase, it is also certain that when the pressures and responsibilities of fatherhood get to be too much, some men simply choose to leave, to dip in and out of their children’s lives like a recurring dream or nightmare. We even have a special name for the guys who skip out on their fatherly duties – sometimes, “father” is just too personal a title. We call them, “baby-daddies.” The term baby-daddy has its roots in Jamaica, and the Oxford-English
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Dictionary defines a baby-daddy as “the father of a woman’s child, who is not her husband or (in most cases) her current or exclusive partner.” Shahad Wright is the director of youth and family programs at the YMCA in South Richmond, California. Together with Leland Johnson (the dean at Making Waves Academy, a Richmond charter school), Wright runs a workshop there called the 24-7 Dad Program, designed to help men stick with fatherhood. The program achieves this by redefining the role of fathers in the modern household; challenging the notion that baby daddies can’t also be fathers. An emphasis is put on not running from their responsibilities to their child, to their child’s mother, and on examining their relationships (or lack thereof) with their own fathers in the process. The fathers he works with, says Wright, want to be active in their kid’s lives in big and positive ways. The program, he adds, gives them the tools to be just that. “You want to make sure that there is a balance (of) not only being a disciplinarian but also being somebody that cares and really gets in5. Complete cessation of all school segregation. 6. Federal intervention to protect civil rights in all instances where civil rights compliance at the state level breaks down
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volved in their educational path, not just be a cheerleader for sports,” explains Wright. Being raised by a single parent, the absence of a father figure is something that Wright knows and cares about deeply. And having a son of his own really drove home for Wright how difficult being a father can be. “It’s like trying to do something you have never seen before, when everyone says it’s suppose to come natural.” One of the most important roles a father can play, says Wright, is that of teacher to their children. And a father can’t do that, he says, without spending time with them. “Don’t miss a moment. No matter what the situation was or is, your children are a reflection of you.” Wright loves to see fathers return to the program with fresh memories of time well spent with their kids. “I look at dads now that went through the program. They have pictures with their kids, going fishing on trips. Those moments when a kids can say, ‘That’s my dad” – those are the moments you don’t want to miss out on.”
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