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April 7-13, 2010

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Publisher-Emeritus 1909-1989

Page A-6

The uncensored Census

By Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom

What was the Census Bureau thinking when

they allowed the word “Negro” to appear in question No. 9 of the 2010 Census form? It’s apparent that the race relations advocates weren’t talking to the head counters.

I realize it is based on, in part, on how

people responded ten years ago, but in many respects it is a judgment call. Under the best of circumstances it’s difficult to get citizens to fill out any form for the federal government. And to resurrect the word “Negro” for many who al- ready feel disenfranchised (probably not read- ing this article) only complicates matters.

GUEST EDITORIAL

In the 21st century the word Negro is often

viewed as an offensive reference to the major- ity that consider themselves African American or Black. The word has been said to remind individuals of former days of discrimination, segregation, racial inequalities, and derogatory terminology popular in the Jim Crow era.

Even the UNCF and NAACP prefer to stick

to the acronym. In so many settings the multi- cultural heritage and rich tapestry of diversity of this nation is celebrated. Who wants to be reminded, while completing something as im- portant as the census form, of times that en- gender distasteful experiences and heartbreak- ing emotions?

The census dates back to ancient Roman

days when it was used for counting people and assessing their property for purposes of taxa- tion. One of two Roman magistrates was ap- pointed as a censor to take the census and later served as supervisor of public morals – what we now consider censorship.

Today censorship includes the power to

examine movies, television programs, publica- tions and prohibit anything that is obscene, politically incorrect, harmful, sensitive, etc. and suppress or delete information that may be considered objectionable.

We have not deviated significantly from the

originally intended purpose of the census as a nationwide effort that occurs each decade to count all United States citizens in order to adjust key devices such as reapportioning fed- eral funds, and the distribution of congressio- nal seats in the House of Representatives.

However, the Census Bureau did not ad-

equately censor question No. 9 as many find it harmful, insensitive and objectionable.

Kimberlydawn Wisdom

Bureau Labor tistics

In 1995 the of

Sta- for

the Census Bureau found that

when

indi v iduals who identified themsel ves as Black were asked what they preferred – 3.28 per- cent of

the

respondents preferred the word “Negro” and

preferred the word

1.09% “col-

ored.” To be compl e t e l y inclusive, why

not include a designation for those who self- identify as “colored”?

I contend that those who are offended by the

word “Negro” far outnumber those that felt in- cluded using the word “Negro.”

Why offend the majority in an attempt to

include the minority, who answered that they were Black anyway? Why not offer the write-in option for the 55,000 who wrote in “Negro” for the 2000 census to mitigate exclusion?

I shudder to think what could be the con-

sequences if those offended individuals decide to not fill out the questionnaire or answer the question accurately when approached after April 1.

Individuals who choose not to fill out the

census questionnaire will be hurting not only their own community, themselves and the state, but frankly all of us. For those individu- als who are offended, perhaps cross out the word “Negro” before answering question No. 9. Even answering all the other question would be more appropriate than boycotting the whole form.

Censored or not, choosing not to fill out the

census questionnaire, will ultimately lead to a significant loss of needed funds and gross under-representation which all individuals of African decent should find objectionable.

Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom is vice presiden-

tof Community Health, Education and Well- ness at Henry Ford Health System.

Health care: Finally a semblance of justice

By Rev. Al Sharpton

It was the second annual

convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1965. And during this con- ference in Chicago, our great civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., deliv- ered a speech that till this day resonates with those who see disparity in our health care system. It was on March 25 — precisely 44 years ago — that MLK said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman.”

Al Sharpton

To the 220 members of Congress who voted

yes for health care reform, the citizens of the United States at long last say thank you for rep- resenting our desires, thank you for represent- ing our needs, and thank you for representing the will of the people.

For decades, presidents have tried and failed

to push through health care legislation that would begin to rectify the unfair practices of health care providers and the egregious mo- nopoly of the insurance industry.

There were efforts by Harry Truman after

World War II, a push by Lyndon B. Johnson, and who can forget the unyielding work of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1990s. But it wasn’t until Sunday, into the late hours of the night, that the U.S. Congress effectively passed this historic health care legislation.

Following a year of fierce debate and town

hall meetings that ended in shouting matches, the Democrats and President Obama solidified their pledge that change would indeed come to Washington.

No one can deny that the road to health care

reform was embedded with hurdles and diffi- culties beyond comprehension. Nor is anyone avowing that all problems within our health care system will be immediately resolved. But for the first time in our nation’s history, Ameri- can children cannot be denied coverage be- cause they have pre-existing conditions, small businesses will receive a tax credit for provid- ing health care, young adults can stay on their parent’s insurance until the age of 26 and in- surance companies cannot cut someone when he or she gets sick. And by 2014, annual caps will be eliminated, health care exchanges will be available, adults with pre-existing condi-

tions will no longer be discrimi- nated against and much more.

Let us not forget, all progres-

sive legislation — including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — did not grant everything all at once.

Instead, it was amendments

and other additions to the ini- tial law that created the equality we know and enjoy today. This health care reform bill, therefore, is the first step in finally achiev- ing a semblance of justice in an area that has shocked and out- raged everyone concerned with

the betterment of humanity. President Obama clearly outlined his plan

for health care overhaul early on during his campaign for the presidency. And after winning the election, he spent the first year in office not only fighting for this legislation, but also reach- ing across the aisle. Incorporating both Demo- cratic and Republican concepts into this bill, and making changes along the way, the presi- dent allowed an open exchange of ideas that ultimately delayed a vote on health care reform for an entire year. Let’s be blatantly clear about one thing: Republicans influenced many altera- tions to this bill — including the loss of a public option — and yet not a single one of them voted in favor of it this past weekend. As we approach the midterm elections and other battles in key states, let us never ever forget this fact.

Not since the 1960s has such historic leg-

islation passed the Congress and appeared before the president’s desk.

But also not since that era have we witnessed

such open vitriol, bigotry and reprehensible behavior. The idea that members of Congress had racial epithets like the “N word” hurled at them, and others were spat at only proves the fact that we are, unfortunately, a long long way from even being close to a post-racial society. And to those pundits and voices on the right that stoke this sort of behavior, you will only lose in the end. You doubted President Obama and the Democrats — they delivered. You cre- ated hysteria surrounding health care reform all across the country — it passed. And you continue to incite division and racial disparity — and the people will continue voting in the way of progress.

Yes, we can, and yes, we will.

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Jobless Tea Partiers live in fear, denial

By Tonyaa Weathersbee

A recent story in The New York Times veri-

fied much of what I had already suspected about the Tea Party movement. It’s powered by a lot of delusional people with too much hate in their hearts – and too much time on their hands.

How else does one explain Tom Grimes, a

Tea Party activist who lost his job as a finan- cial consultant before Barack Obama was inau- gurated as president, and who called his con- gressman for help in getting government health care, and who lives on Social Security, only to join a movement that wants nothing to do with government?

“If you quit giving people that stuff, they

would figure out how to do it on their own,” Grimes told the Times.

Somebody should have asked him if he plans

to take his own advice – and give up his govern- ment check, as well as his plans to apply for a job with the Census Bureau.

Or how does one explain Diana Reimer, who

is also unemployed, gets Medicare, but became a Tea Party organizer because she liked the fact that they are patriotic? I’m guessing that maybe patriotism — a description that tea par- tiers toss around to delude themselves into believing that their American-ness is more authentic than Obama’s – is all she has left to hold on to.

Yet what’s interesting is that many of the tea

partiers are, indeed, like her and Grimes. Many of them are unemployed. Many of them would starve or be homeless were it not for some gov- ernment benefit. Yet they seem either unable – or unwilling – to acknowledge that. And it’s easy to see why.

Such an acknowledgement would put them

perilously close to being akin to people that many of them have spent much of their lives looking down on. Those would be Black and Latino people — people who, since the days of

President Ronald Reagan, have been broadly stereotyped as “others” looking to mooch off the generosity of industrious, hardworking tax- payers like them.

By clinging to that comforting stereotype,

many working-class Whites who are now join- ing the Tea Party movement held a kind of moral supremacy; they might be one paycheck away from poverty, but dang it, they were still more noble — and better — than the people who had to rely on the dole.

But now, this deep recession has forced

many people like Grimes and Reimer to lash out against the most convenient target: the government. They don’t look at it as a bridge to help them get through the worse of the bad times, but as a force that has reduced them to being like the needy people they’ve spent much of their lives vilifying.

It’s sad because what it shows is how many

White people still continue to work against their best interests for the sake of clinging to some imagined sense of superiority.

What’s also sad is that instead of unem-

ployed Tea Partiers using the time they have on their hands to try to make the government that they already depend on to work more ef- ficiently, they’ve turned themselves into an exploitable class of people. They’ll add to the masses of working-class White people whose insecurities have always been exploited by Re- publicans.

By that, I mean Republicans like Sarah Palin,

who charged $100,000 to deliver a speech at the first Tea Party convention that most of them couldn’t even afford to attend.

Instead of acting on hope, the Tea Partiers

are being guided by denial and fear. They draw their strength by touting their American-ness, and insisting on everyone else’s otherness.

Too bad that, in the end, it won’t lead to a real solution.

Right wing Republicans masquerade as Tea Baggers

By George E. Curry

Despite efforts to depict the

so-called Tea Bag protesters as part of an independent po- litical movement, new polling data reveal that approximately three-quarters of them are Re- publicans or lean toward the GOP.

Those are the findings of a

poll conducted by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

“The Tea Party movement

is mostly made up of people who consider themselves Re- publicans,” Pete A. Brown, as- sistant director of the univer- sity’s Polling Institute, said in a statement.

“They are less educated

but more interested in politics than the average Joe and Jane Six-Pack and are not in a tradi- tional sense swing voters.”

While only 33 percent of

voters have a favorable opin- ion of Sarah Palin, 72 percent of Tea Party members are im- pressed by McCain’s former running mate.

According to the poll, 88

percent of the tea baggers are White.

Because GOP leaders and

Tea Bag protesters are joined at the hip, Republicans can’t credibly distance themselves from what New York Times columnist Frank Rich called a “tsunami of anger” and venom spewed by the right-wingers. It was during a recent tea party- led protest on Capitol Hill that African-American congress- men were called the n-word and one, Emanuel Cleaver II of Kansas City, Mo., was spat on by a protester.

GOP leaders issued per-

functory disclaimers intended to give the impression that they frown on such behavior. However, Republican Nation- al Chairman Michael Steele couldn’t bring himself to call the actions what they were – racist and homophobic.

The Washington Times

quoted Dale Robertson, found- er of teaparty.org, as saying Democrats were “trying to label the Tea Party, but I’ve never seen any racial slurs.”

Evidently, Robertson can’t

George Curry

read his own signs. He was reportedly kicked

out of a tea party event last year when he appeared car- rying a sign that read, “Con- gress = Slaveowner, Taxpayer + Niggar.”

Clearly, he is proficient in

neither reading nor spelling. But characters such as Rob-

ertson have been emboldened by the rhetoric and actions of GOP leaders whether inside or outside of Congress. As pro- testers gathered at the foot of the Capitol, some Republican members of Congress greeted them, holding a “Don’t tread on me” banner. One, Rep. Steve King, simulated slap- ping a photograph of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Inside, when disruptive pro-

testers were ejected from Con- gress by Capitol police, some Republican members of Con- gress applauded the unruly visitors.

As Frank Rich pointed out,

this is about more than health care reform.

“If Obama’s first legislative

priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory,” Rich ex- plained.

“The conjunction of a Black

president and a female speak- er of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Su- preme Court and a powerful

gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play.

When you hear demonstra-

tors chant “Take our country back,” these are the people they want to take the country back from.”

This anger has been stoked

by the usual conservative radio talk show hosts.

According to a recent Harris

poll, most Republicans (67 percent) believe the president is a socialist, wants to take away the right to own guns (61 percent), is a Muslim (57 percent), wants to turn over the sovereignty of the U.S. to a one-world government (51 percent) and has done many things unconstitutional (51 percent).

Even when Obama is doing

what other presidents have done, he gets criticized by Re- publicans.

For example, after Obama

made 15 recess appointments — placing officials in federal positions while the Senate, which normally approves such nominations, was in recess — Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the move would further chill relations between Obama and the GOP.

Neither the senior senator

from South Carolina nor his fellow Republicans acknowl- edge that George W. Bush made the same number of recess appointments at this stage of his presidency. By the time Bush left office, he had made 171 recess appoint- ments, according to the Con- gressional Research Service.

But this isn’t about telling

the truth. It’s about trying to regain political power, even if that means being hypocritical, trading in blatant lies and pre- tending this is a modern-day Tea Party revolt.

George E. Curry is a key-

note speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his website, www.georgecurry.com. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32