academics, not athletics. This proposal is as likely to be implement as ice cubes are likely to survive 10 seconds in hell. Yet college leaders must grapple with the many ways that sports dollars and energy distort the educational experience. There are stadiums full of fans clapping for the last 3-pointer, or the winning touchdown, but little applause for the Phi Beta Kappa graduate, or the best poet on campus. These are societal values that have, unfortunately, penetrated the ivory tower. My interest in this issue is the fact that many of the athletes are African Americans who often come from low- and moderate-income families. Many are student athletes who combine their athletic prowess with academic ability. Too many others have been recruited for their athletic prowess, notwithstanding athletic ability. Classes that do require little – not even attendance — do not advance the long-term interests of students. When student-athletes get hurt, what happens to them?
Some colleges will continue their scholarships, others will not. Further, the likelihood of moving from the college basketball court or gridiron to a professional one is something like 1 percent. Those who aren’t drafted and don’t make it to an athletic career often languish without even basic skills to market. If I had my way, I’d ask that every college spend more on physical fitness than on student athletics. If I had my way, fitness would be as required a course as literature or history. Truly, if I had my way I would consider putting exploitive college athletics on the back burner. I’m not going to have my way. On too many of our nation’s college campuses the sports mission has overshadowed the education mission. Kudos President Beverly Tatum for choosing the road less travelled.wi Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.
to compare this in any way to Watergate. I do not think this is Watergate by any stretch…but I have to tell you that is exactly the approach that the Nixon administration took. They said, ‘These are all second-rate things, we don’t have time for this, we have to devote our time to the people’s business.’ You’re taking exactly the same line that they did.” Schieffer, who covered Watergate for CBS, should know better. And so should Peggy Noonan, a former White House speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. On NBC’s Meet The Press, Peggy Noonan defended her May 17 Wall Street Journal column in which she claimed that we “are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate.” When host David Gregory pressed her, Noonan said, “This IRS thing is something I’ve never seen in my lifetime.” But the Boston Globe noted last Friday, “As startling as the reports have been in recent days – from the IRS targeting of conservative groups to the Justice Department seizing phone records of the Associated Press – one Nixonian
element so far is missing: There has been no evidence that Obama himself ordered or knew about the actions.” John Dean, White House counsel during the Nixon administration, told the newspaper, “I find the comparison – that whoever is making the analysis is challenged in their understanding of history.” He said, “There are no comparisons. They’re not comparable with any of the burgeoning scandals.” The Globe observed, “And Dean is in a position to know. Nearly 41 years ago, Dean was with Nixon in the Oval Office on a Friday afternoon when the president wondered aloud about utilizing the powers of the IRS to target his political opponents.” Carl Bernstein, one of the Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story, told Politico: “In the Nixon White House, we heard the president of the United States on tape saying ‘Use the IRS to get back on our enemies.’ We know a lot about President Obama, and I think the idea that he would want the IRS used for retribution – we have no evidence of any such thing.” wi
“real American.” It says Tea Party organizations have given platforms to anti-Semites, racists and bigots and “hardcore white nationalists have been attracted” to Tea Party protests. The link between the Tea Party and the Taliban was made by
a prominent Republican office holder. In 2008, the Washington Post reported that former chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee and present day Congressman Pete Sessions likened the GOP House minority to the
MALVEAUX continued from Page 24 academic sanctions against the university. Basketball and football at top athletic universities (as distinguished from top academic universities) generate millions of dollars for their institutions. Athletes may be rewarded with scholarships, but with full time academic and training schedules, have to hustle for money to buy a phone, travel home, and pay for other incidentals. If a generous alumnus chooses to subsidize a student for these expenses, both the student and the school will be sanctioned. Why not pay these athletes at least some of the money they are generating for their colleges? Or why not take college athletics down a notch, putting the millions of dollars of advertising money aside in favor of the purpose of college – education. This would probably shatter a student-pimping industry. It would also remind students that their tenure in college is about
curry continued from Page 24 ald R. Ford, pardoned Nixon, the only U.S. president to resign from office. Unlike Nixon, President Obama said – and there’s been no evidence presented to contradict him – that he didn’t know about the IRS impropriety until after it had been disclosed in a report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general. Obama said, “I have now had the opportunity to review the Treasury Department watchdog’s report on its investigation of IRS personnel who improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. And the report’s findings are intolerable and inexcusable. The federal government must conduct itself in a way that’s worthy of the public’s trust, and that’s especially true for the IRS.” Instead of noting the distinction between Nixon’s role in Watergate and Obama’s non-role in the latest scandals, CBS’ Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer told Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffe on Sunday, “You know, I don’t want
bond continued from Page 24 In these ranks, an abiding obsession with Barack Obama’s birth certificate is often a stand-in for the belief that the first black president of the United States is not a www.washingtoninformer.com
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Taliban, saying, “Insurgency, we understand perhaps a bit more because of the Taliban.” Just as my arguments failed to convince my correspondents, so apparently does the actual evidence. Not the ugly racist signs and placards displayed at Tea Party rallies, not the shouts of the “n” word aimed at members of the Congressional Black Caucus, not the spittle hurled at civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis, not the racists expelled from the Tea Party for their venom, not the association of many members with the Council of Conservative Citizens, a lineal descendant of the White Citizen Council, not the anti-gay slurs aimed at former Congressman Barney Frank (d-Mass.), not the members whose racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia should be an embarrassment – not all or any of this could get them to acknowledge the label “racist.”
The Washington Informer
My Black correspondents even claimed that their race prohibited them from being racists, as if skin color was a proscription against ignorance. And many of my presumably non-Black correspondents accused me of being a racist, so my race apparently offered me no protection from this evil. What is the lesson here? That the label “racist” has become so toxic almost everyone rejects it? That the toxicity makes the label unacceptable but its actual practice is still tolerable for many? Or that it is a defense against itself? As the relative-I-try-notto-claim wrote, “I don’t know any white people who hate blacks like you advocate blacks should hate whites.” Or only that while the United States has made much progress in race relations, we still have a long, long way to go? wi Julian Bond is Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP and a Professor at American University in Washington.
May 23, 2013 - May 29, 2013
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