WORK AT WOMEN’S eNEWS
After graduating LSU I began working an amazing internship in NYC with Women’s eNews. This was one of the most enlightening moments in a young female journalists life. These women are completely dedicated to supplying the world with news that is for and by women. I learned more than I could have imagined and had the opportunity to expand my journalistic consciousness one step beyond college.
Thank you to Women’s eNew editor & chief Rita Henley Jensen for the opportunity of a lifetime. Also thank you to Karen Stephens, Corinna Bernard, Sherell Dorsey & Munira Ahmed for making my stay @ WE News so phenomenal!
Check them out: www.womensenews.org
Shirley Q. Liquor Uncorks Backlash V. Blackface
By: Shanelle Matthews
Shirley Q. Liquor is a blackface act that may be the most obvious target for women’s media activists. But many say their aim should go throughout U.S. pop culture and include hip hop and Eddie Murphy’s “Norbit.”
(WOMENSENEWS)–Jasmyne Cannick is doing everything she can to put an end to Shirley Q. Liquor.
For anyone who’s never watched Charles Knipp’s impersonation, Shirley Q. Liquor is an illiterate, welfare-collecting, malt-liquor guzzling mother of 19 who drives a Caddy and attends Mount Holy Olive Second Baptist Zion Church of God in Christ of Resurrected Latter-Days AME CME.
Cannick is outraged that the character has an acceptable place in American comedy.
“Somehow, I find it hard to believe that if the heel was on the other foot and some black comedian was traveling the country selling himself as a piece of poor white trailer park trash in whiteface, that he’d be welcomed with open arms by whites,” said Cannick, a Los Angeles critic who often discusses African American culture on TV.
Rolling Stone reported last year that Knipp is paid between $4,000 and $7,000 per show and earns annual income of between $70,000 to $90,000. His shows are usually sold out in venues across the South and his most widely held appearance is at Southern Decadence, the annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans that attracts a mostly gay crowd.
Knipp, a drag queen comedian from Kentucky with Canadian citizenship, says the character is based on his experiences with and interpretations of black Southern women.
Petitioning for a Ban
In March Cannick and talk radio’s “Bev Smith Show” launched a national campaign to ban Charles Knipp’s act and has so far collected almost a thousand signatures for a petition to ban blackface performances “that mock the plight and lives of African American men and women.”
While Cannick has taken the gay community to task for tolerating and encouraging Knipp’s frequent performances in gay clubs, she has plenty of criticism left for characters developed by black actors and executives.
There’s “Norbit,” the 2007 Hollywood comedy about a morbidly obese, junk-food gorging black woman played by Oscar-nominated actor Eddie Murphy.
“In fact, long before the film was in theaters, the billboards promoting it were enough to make me wanna holla and throw up both my hands,” Cannick said. As for Murphy, Cannick said she “can’t overlook the fact he did it as a black man.”
Rolling Stone and the Philadelphia Inquirer raised objections to “Norbit” for reveling in a degrading stereotype. Nonetheless, the movie grossed more than $88 million, according to E! Online, an entertainment news site.
Tyler Perry, director-producer of “Norbit,” in 2006 also created “Madea’s Family Renuion” about an aggressive, violent, Southern black matriarch who speaks in profound Ebonics. Madea doesn’t know who fathered her daughter due to a night of heavy drinking and unmemorable intimacy. Perry’s smash hit grossed more than $63 million.
A similar role was played by actor Martin Lawrence in the 2000 box office hit “Big Momma’s House,” featuring Hattie Mae Pierce, an overweight Southern grandmother obsessed with food. Despite negative reviews, “Big Momma’s House” grossed more than $100 million.
Moya Bailey, a graduate fellow in women’s studies at Emory University, shares Cannick’s concern about the extent to which much of the negative media about black women is produced by black artists and executives.
“‘Norbit’ is particularly troubling because it portrays black women of size as being undesirable and monstrous,” Bailey said in a recent interview. “The main shift is that now there are more blacks who are creating images which are disturbing to me because we see some of the same images being perpetuated. Just because we have control doesn’t mean that we are getting different things. Things haven’t shifted much since the civil rights movement.”
Bailey wrote about black women and media for the March 2008 “State of Black America” report by the New York-based National Urban League, which this year focuses exclusively on women.
With a foreword by civil rights activist Dorothy I. Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women, the report–in addition to Bailey’s entry on media–includes sections on economics, education, health, social justice and civic engagement.
In her essay “Going in Circles: The Struggle to Diversify Popular Images of Black Women,” Bailey focused on the disparaging depiction of black women in hip hop and how violence against black women is marginalized.
She recalls St. Louis rapper Nelly’s scheduled performance at a charity event at her alma mater, Spelman University, a historically black college in Atlanta.
When Bailey and her organization, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, developed concerns about Nelly’s 2003 song “Tip Drill,” which includes the refrain “I said it must be ya ass cause it ain’t yo face,” they planned to talk to the singer about the lyrics. Instead the rapper pulled out of the event to avoid a confrontation.
Bailey says that while hip hop fixates on black women’s sexuality the actual violence that black women are suffering in the United States goes under-reported.
“Generally I say that black women have the same dominant stereotypes that date back to slavery: hyper-sexual, demanding and overbearing,” Bailey said in an interview. “But at the same time you don’t see images of black women when violence is involved. Violence against black women–it doesn’t garner as much attention,” she said.
Shanelle Matthews has just completed the Women’s eNews internship. She is a recent graduate of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University.
Transgender Relations Runs into Bathroom Politics
By: Shanelle Matthews
A county ordinance in Maryland that protects transgender rights is facing a public referendum challenge in November. One transgender advocate says it looks like a test case for national opposition to the antidiscrimination push.
(WOMENSENEWS)–A new county ordinance in Maryland makes Elizabeth Hampton Brown worry about the opposition to transgender rights that might be lurking on the national level.
“It looks like Montgomery County in particular is a test case for the radical right,” says Brown, director of policies and programs for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in Washington, D.C. “Although this gives opportunity for education it brings people from out of state into a small area to question the will of the people in that area. This will definitely have an impact on gender identity legislation in other states. We are worried that this will be a trend across the country.”
Less than 1 percent of the adult population is transgender, according to the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality, although there are no reliable statistics. Most transgender people face intense discrimination because their outward appearance is not consistent with gender stereotypes.
At least 93 cities and counties have passed laws prohibiting gender identity discrimination, including Phoenix, Atlanta, Louisville, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Dallas and Buffalo, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Montgomery County joined that list in November, when the county council overrode the objections of some of its members and added “gender identity” to the county’s nondiscrimination code, which includes public accommodation, housing and taxi services.
The ordinance spurred an opposition group calling itself Citizens for Responsible Government into action. Members of the group had previously come together to fight local school initiatives to teach certain sexuality issues, such as gender transitions.
In March it spearheaded the gathering of 32,000 signatures–7,000 more than required–and delivered the petitions a week ahead to put a county referendum on the November ballot to overturn the ordinance.
Broader Benefit
Brown says the ordinance benefits more than the transgender community. “People can discriminate against you because you choose not to wear a dress,” she says. “This law benefits both genders in that it helps people who do not fit what they’re supposed to look like.”
Citizens for a Responsible Government, however, says it could encourage pedophiles to enter public restrooms and locker rooms.
“We are concerned for the safety of women and children,” says Michelle Turner, a spokesperson for Citizens for a Responsible Government. “Any man thinking that he has a particularly strong interest in women and children who are not related to him can put on make-up and a dress and wander into the women’s restroom. It’s ridiculous.”
To support her point, Turner tells the story of a handful of women in a Maryland gym locker room who were frightened after being joined by a masculine individual in a blue ruffled skirt and make-up. “They immediately reached for towels and made a vocal complaint to the management who acknowledged they have transgender patrons but didn’t understand why they used the women’s facilities instead of the unisex showers,” she says.
Turner says the ordinance should have stipulated that a person who has become female through surgery may use a women’s bathroom but that individuals whose gender is more ambiguous can use family bathrooms.
“For those who have had reassignment surgery, I don’t expect them to use bathrooms that are not correspondent with their private anatomy,” Turner says. “But family bathrooms have been used by transgender people for years and that’s fine.”
Marked with a sign or a logo of a family grouping, family bathrooms have been introduced to a limited number of public facilities and were spurred in 1990 by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They are often used by people with disabilities, breastfeeding mothers, parents attending children of the opposite sex and transgender people.
As signatures for the ballot initiative were piling up, Montgomery County’s council president, Michael Knapp, accused Citizens for a Responsible Government of spreading misinformation by telling people the ordinance meant they would have to share public bathrooms and showers with transgender people.
Safety and Privacy
But Ruth Jacobs, president of Citizens for a Responsible Government, insists the group is just trying to protect the safety and privacy of women and children.
“They will likely create another law of the same kind if this one is formally rejected,” Jacobs told Women’s eNews.
The ordinance says nothing about the use of public accommodations and does not restrict restaurants or other public venues from segregating those facilities by biological sex.
In a March press release Citizens for a Responsible Government said the lack of specific language about bathroom access meant that conflicts arising over the issue would wind up at the county’s human rights commission, which is authorized to eliminate discrimination, prejudice, intolerance and bigotry in housing, recreation, education, health, employment and public accommodations.
Stephanie Seguin, acting president of the National Organization for Woman in Gainesville, Fla., where a similar ordinance has been passed, calls the bathroom-access concern a smokescreen for a more fundamental opposition to transgender people attaining stronger rights.
“I’ve personally had a fear of going into an empty bathroom,” said Seguin, “but I don’t think there is a big fear of being joined by a male-to-female transgender person.”
Brown says activists against the ordinances are spreading the kind of false information that might increase nationally.
“People are concerned because of a lack of knowledge,” says Brown. “We are here to educate people and with women that is particularly important.”
Tactical Echo
Sandy Oestreich, founder and president of the Florida Equal Rights Alliance, says the argument about bathrooms echoes tactics used against the Equal Rights Amendment decades ago, when opponents said it would lead to unisex bathrooms. The ERA failed to gain enough state ratifications to pass before its 1982 deadline.
“I was there and I was a lot younger,” said Oestreich. “I did a lot of marching. To tell you the truth, all of those things are so trivializing and inflammatory. I think we laughed them off just as we do today.”
Brown says transgender people are making headway. She says that more and more people know someone who has transitioned between genders.
“We are seeing it in the news and pop-culture media. People need more information as transgender people are becoming more and more out and it is our job to give it to them,” she says.
Jennifer Sager, a psychologist in private practice in Gainesville, says bathroom-access fears being expressed by Citizens for a Responsible Government may reflect a genuine misunderstanding of what transgender identity is.
“The transgender population has been using the appropriate bathroom for decades and no one has noticed,” Sager said. “I’ve had male-to-female transgender clients who are pre-opt and pre-hormone who have been asked for tampons.”
When Shanelle Matthews first met Marion Jones it was like encountering a goddess. Today, the sprinter’s downfall feels like a personal loss and the writer is shocked by the severity of the six-month jail sentence for Jones, who is nursing a baby.
(WOMENSENEWS)–I could feel my heart beating in the back of my throat as I wiped my sweaty palms on my black Nike velour sweat suit. My ears rang and my legs trembled while I played hide-and-seek, quickly rushing behind the pillars of the second floor of the women’s shoe department.
Near the stairwell I could see Tim Montgomery approaching and I knew she wouldn’t be far behind him. I told myself, “She’s just another athlete; she’s no different from anybody else.”
Moments later wearing an all-white track suit, there she stood. Five-time Olympic champion Marion Jones was standing 10 feet away from me and I was completely catatonic. My mouth dried up like the Aral Sea and I could barely move.
This was four years ago and I was working at Niketown in Beverly Hills, where many professional athletes frequently shop. I was just out of my freshman year in college.
Why was I so nervous? I had helped many pros before. Why was I feeling so nauseated and anxious now?
My Niketown co-workers looked as if they didn’t recognize me, the always outgoing woman who was sent to talk to the athletes everybody else avoided. Even Detroit Pistons center Rasheed Wallace, notorious for toughness on and off the court, was no sweat for me.
I gathered myself. Taking a deep breath and a big swallow I straightened my clothes and slowly tip-toed away from my protective hiding spot.
“Hey, I’m Marion,” she said.
I threw up.
Bathroom Recovery
Mortified, I ran to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. I just heaved my vending machine lunch of Andy Caps Hot Fries and Peanut M-and-Ms at the feet of one of the most dominant female athletes in the world. I picked my dignity up off the floor and headed back out into a sea of humiliation.
Surprisingly, when she saw me she smiled and said, “Your co-worker told me you’re a supporter, thanks.”
I proceeded to help Jones and her partner pick out baby clothes for their new son. As self-conscious as I was, her calming spirit eased my anxiety and created a permanently fond memory.
Every kid has her hobby and mine was running. When I was 12 my dad thought he was punishing me when I got in trouble by making me run three or more miles on a track near our apartment. When he saw that it was hardly a punishment he encouraged me to pursue track and field, so I did.
In high school in Kentucky I ran sprints–100- and 200-meters–and competed in the long jump. I was one of the fastest young women in the state. In college I competed in the heptathalon, seven events that include the long jump, shot put, javelin, high jump, 200-meter sprint, 100-meter hurdles and the 800-meter run.
She Defied Stereotypes
So I knew the dedication it had taken Jones to reach her level of success. She was the epitome of greatness in the wide world of male-dominated sports. She defied stereotypes, broke records and gave male athletes who thought they reigned supreme a run for their money.
Jones was a motivator for athletes everywhere, including me.
Last October, I watched Jones on TV admitting to using banned substances prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics. As she tried to speak through tears I got that same catatonic feeling as when I first saw her. Then I was paralyzed by admiration. This time I was paralyzed by something like despair.
“I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” Jones pleaded outside the U.S. District Court.
I cried with her. “I forgive you Marion,” I told the TV.
The whole thing left me loaded with mixed emotion. I was angry because in 2003, when Jones denied using banned substances, every track athlete I knew believed her. She’d let us down.
Courts Look Out of Bounds
I also can’t help see what is happening to her and baseball’s Barry Bonds and think that the courts have been playing a game of hide-and-go-get-it with athletics for the last few years: Hide the fact that they know white athletes are using steroids and go get the black ones instead.
Bonds holds the all-time Major League Baseball record for home runs, walks and intentional walks. Other players have been using banned substances for years but somehow it was Bonds–just as he was surpassing the great white athletes–who took the fall and saw his career ruined.
It’s also upsetting to think that Jones’ two children will also serve this punishment as they lose the everyday nurturing contact with their mother at a crucial point in their development.
Average perjury sentences are around 17 months, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. But six months in prison still seems a long time for a woman who served black women as a role model. Given the high rates of incarceration for black mothers and African Americans overall, the last thing we African American women need is more examples of how to put on prison clothes.
It’s sad now to see Jones’ legacy go down the tubes. I was heartbroken when I came across her 2004 book “Life in the Fast Lane” in a 99-cent store.
Jones came forward and humbly admitted her wrongdoing with elegance and dignity. Unfortunately, the presiding judge still found it essential to say he would make an example out of her.
She is certainly an example for me: Strong and graceful even as she prepares to leave her family. I regret that she is guilty of perjury but given what she’s done and all that she’s going through, if she’d take my visit in jail, I’d go. In fact, I would sprint
WORK AT THE DAILY REVEILLE
My tenure at The Daily Reveille was interesting to say the least. I applied for a position as a news writer my junior year at LSU with limited experience of student run newspapers or newspaper at all. It was a disaster. My writing style was unbecoming, I had no sense for news worthy stories and I was all but enthused about deadlines and journalistic integrity. That would all soon change
I moved over to op-ed where I thrived. My writing style, gritty & uncompromising, flourished. I continued writing for the opinion section until my final semester of my senior year when I was fired for attending a protest condemning standardized testing as a requirement for Louisiana students to move to the next grade. I quickly learned you can’t make the news and deliver it.
However, before leaving, I was able to dissect issues on race and gender facing students at one of the southern most, conservative universities in the Bible belt.
Check them Out:
Race Relations are Never Beyond Discussion
It has been suggested that I discuss race relations far too often and that the argument is outdated and tiresome. Evidently some people are overwhelmed with the idea that others are dealing with racial inequalities. The media this semester has helped demonstrate the need for discussion and education about issues of discrimination. For example the offensive statement John Kerry made about the soldiers in Iraq being unintelligent or Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic and sexist comments which also warrant a serious discussion.
This week’s boycott of Reggie’s bar is far past due. Critics are always saying that people need to complain less and be more active, but cynics are already argumentative about this form of activism. I have heard all the arguments on why the indefinite boycott and protest are good and bad ideas. It was mentioned that Reggie’s is a privately owned venue who has the right to refuse service to anyone; while this is a valid statement, I believe that if a club is going to enforce a dress code it should be applicable to everyone making it equally fair. However, I suggest to all people of color and anyone else who has been offended by Reggie’s disgusting acts of racism to take your business elsewhere. It has also been pointed out that we would be giving Reggie’s exactly what they want by asking blacks to boycott. As far as I am concerned this is fine as long as no black dollars are spent there, and to the cynics, you will obviously never be pleased; you say stop whining and get involved, we do this and you don’t like our methods of activism. Get over it. I say boycott Reggie’s and any other establishment that allows the discrimination of one group of peoples over another.
I am excited to report that this semester has been a constructive learning experience for me in several aspects of my student life. I am grateful for the negative, positive and constructive criticism I have received this semester. I have learned a few things from the father and son duo that have made it a weekly task to tell me how bored they are with my content about racial equality. Apparently, according to them I should not discuss the seriousness of oppression and race relations in America and instead just ignore it and it will go away. If I ever want a good laugh I just consider the absurdity of this declaration. It has also been suggested from some of my loyal critics that I “need to grow up,” and that I “have a black chip on my shoulder the size of Jupiter,” and last but not least that “The Daily Reveille is doing itself a serious injustice by keeping me on their staff because I am a waste of valuable space.” Of course all criticism is welcomed and I have song beliefs that it makes me a more analytical writer. We are all entitled to our opinion some of us just get paid to express it.
By Any Means Necessary has been a column consisting mostly of social reform issues such as race relations, white privilege, homophobia, poverty and discrimination. The criticism I have received has been mostly from those who my columns were geared to educate. This either say one of two things: I am an ineffective writer or the idea that people will never change is knocking on truths door. I certainly believe my ability to be a reasoned and rational writer progresses with time and constructive criticism but I also believe that education for people of all ages, ethnicities and genders is an important asset to eliminating tension.
I have been accused of playing the race card to often and not mentioning the issues that the black community brings upon itself. I admit, we romanticize novels littered with sexual activity as opposed to reading about our past that could link us to how to repair our current social situation and prepare the future for our children’s benefit. We spend countless hours socializing rather that setting up study groups to discuss how we can improve the standards of life for blacks on a campus where we are continuously being disrespected. The music we listen to objectifies black women and vilifies black men, but we are not alone in these accusations. We are just singled out.
Inequality happens everywhere. Whether it’s the lack of handicap accessibility on campus or the honor killing of women in Middle Eastern countries, the severity varies but nevertheless it is all unfairness. We must educate one another on the importance of cultural diversification. Happy Holidays.
Our College Athletes Are Modern Day Slaves
Nationalists are suggested to be skeptics, suspicious of assertions that all people can live in the same region and be equal without the fear of one module oppressing the others. One of the chief goals of a nationalist is to attempt to encourage group solidarity and heighten national consciousness. If these assumptions are true of modern day nationalists then I certainly identify as such. Some would like to call nationalists “separatists” or “prejudiced” but that scope is very narrow and misleading.
Historically, there have been two types of social activist in context of race relations, nationalists – Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X and integrationist – Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. Du Bois. The belief structures and methods of these two components are as different as black and white but they share the common goal of social equality.
Many people believe slavery was banned with the emancipation proclamation more than a century ago but, today’s nationalists believe strongly in what we call modern day slavery. Last week a critic of my column wrote me explaining “Slavery is long gone. White people do not want slavery to come back either. Don’t you think it is time for black people to move on from that as well and stop being stuck in the past? Sure, it is a good thing to learn about in history…” The same critic later wrote “It is not a nightmare for you to live in America. Would you rather be running around naked in Africa eating raw meat and braving the heat of the desert, or getting an education at LSU?
I was not shocked by this response; in fact since the beginning of my column I have become quite used to ignorant rants like this but the level of unawareness depresses me. The chains may be gone but slavery is certainly not over. We hear about shackled laborers in Pakistan, cane-cutters in the Dominican Republic, and child “carpet-slaves” in India but like always we focus on other countries to take the attention off of the enslavement happening right here in “the land of the free.”
I could riddle off a number of examples that would make sense to me and others who are socially conscious about the societal issues facing America’s poor, minorities and immigrants but instead I will use an analogy that I think a large percentage of you can relate to, LSU football. I love watching football, but when I came to this university I had never seen such an unhealthy obsession in all my life but that’s another column. My concern now is the revenue LSU brings in annually and the compensation or lack there of, the players are receiving.
Hypothetically, let’s say tickets are being sold for ten dollars each (we all know they’re not but since most of you are hyper-sensitive about football we will cut the athletic department a break). The stadium seats 91,600, at ten dollars a ticket and a full stadium the profit is $916,000 for just one game. This does not include concessions, LSU paraphernalia, and the price some people pay to sit on the fifty yard line. There are roughly one-hundred players every season, each player, at least the ones on scholarship are provided with tuition, housing, books, a meal plan and miscellaneous assistance. The total for instate athletes which constitutes more than half the team comes to about $10,000 a year per athlete. So in one year the athletics department is dishing out about a million dollars in scholarships, what they make in one game on tickets alone, and not even mentioning corporate sponsors.
I will be fair, there are a few things I am leaving out, the fact that LSU football is one of the only programs in the country that gives money back to the school which sometimes endorses other sports, the renovations to Tiger stadium, oh and the million dollars plus annual salary Les Miles receives. It still doesn’t add up. According to USA Today from TV rights to its men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA averages better than half a billion dollars a year in revenue. That does not include payouts from the 28 football bowls, which exceed $184 million.
We have a model for paying players. It’s called professional sports,” NCAA President Myles Brand says. It’s so easy for a man who is making millions of dollars a year to dismiss the work ethic of collegiate athletes. The truth is the percentage of professional athletes that go pro is very low. Instead the majority of these athletes, of all ethnicities and backgrounds, leave the field, court, pool or track with a series of painful and permanent injuries and a long mental and physical recovery period. As far as I am concerned, this is modern day slavery.
Andre Gide, French author and winner of the national Nobel Peace Prize in literature in 1947, said “The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.” I beg to differ. Eradicating modern day slavery and achieving national liberation for the demographics of people seeking it may come off as extreme dislike to others but to me it just seems natural.
Continued: Our College Athletes are Modern Day Slaves
$250,000,000,000 – is the amount of money the U.S. spent on the war in Iraq almost a year ago, it is the amount federal subsidies that have paid for nuclear power costs in the last sixty years, and $250,000,000,000 is also the amount of money the NCAA will make off of college athletes over the next forty years.
Last week my column titled “Our College Athletes are Modern-day Slaves” offended, angered and provoked a lot of readers. First let me apologize to anyone who was offended by my inadvertent, casual analogy to slavery. I assure you, as an African American and a staunch advocate for black social reform under no circumstances was I attempting to trivialize slavery. I believe that my parallel was misinterpreted and misconstrued, however I stand by my beliefs. The term slave has a concrete and unspeakable history, as a history minor and a black I know this all to well but a slave can also be defined as a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person, a definition more applicable to today’s circumstances; especially in college athletics.
According to Time Magazine, Walter Byers executive director of the NCAA from 1952-1987 said “The coaches own the athletes’ feet, the colleges own the athletes’ bodies, and the supervisors retain the large rewards. That reflects a neo-plantation mentality on the campuses that is not appropriate at this time of high dollars.” Universities, coaches, TV stations, major manufacturers of athletic merchandise and other entities that fall under the NCAA are making hundreds of millions of dollars off of the labor of college athletes, the premise that a “free” education should suffice as compensation is outdated and over-argued. In a 1996 interview with Time Magazine, Archie Manning, former Ole Miss and NFL quarter back and father of current Indianapolis Colt quarter back Peyton Manning, said “I would love to see college athletes have a little spending money, I’ve been outside college dressing rooms, and I’m ready to go to dinner with my family, and I see kids going back to the dorm who can’t afford to do anything.”
College athletics are a business, a business that revenues colossal amounts of money on behalf of the physical labor of its employees, the athletes. These athletes are tangible proof how successful the industry of college athletics is, without them it would not exist. Yes, they should be appreciative for the education they are receiving, unlike many college students they will not have a fortune of debt to pay back but contrary to what many critics have suggested their educations is not free. They work tirelessly, memorizing entire playbooks, practicing, attending treatment, mandatory study hall, weights, traveling which causes them to sometimse miss class and on top of all this they are encouraged to still maintain a modest G.P.A. This “free” education is also dependent on whether these athletes are even graduating, if not the argument that they are adequately compensated is null and void.
According to the NCAA only forty-nine percent of LSU athletes are graduating. After a lengthy discussion with Sr. Associate Athletics Director, Verge Ausberry, I was informed that these numbers are not inclusive of those who transfer, enter the draft early or never show up at all. “I am not in favor of athletes being compensated because I think it is a privilege to be an athlete,” Ausberry said. This certainly sheds a more fundamental light on the low graduation rates. Nevertheless, the numbers are still infuriatingly low. I understand and appreciate that there is a premise of self-responsibility, that the desire to graduate and take advantage of the equities the athletic department offers eventually falls on the student-athlete but I would like to offer some thoughts on this foundation.
The idea of scholastic aptitude begins as early as kindergarten. According to the National Center for Education and Statistics a majority of American kids are enrolled in the public school system, and an even larger majority of these kids are from disenfranchised communities. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida recently released a study that showed that 58 percent of division one athletes are black and that the graduation rates are significantly lower among black athletes. In marginalized communities, where poor kids reside, there is little expectation to ever attend a four year institution, let alone graduate from one. So the unrelenting ambition to receive an athletic scholarship is the ultimate goal, the sacrifices to top all sacrifices and compromising everything, by any means necessary. Because I am black and I can closely relate and would like to help others relate, I will use a short history of black athletics to draw a parallel.
In 1910 when heavyweight prize fight Jack Johnson beat the great white hope, Jim Jefferies there was much excitement among blacks in America. It was one of the first times in American history that blacks felt like they could take pride in themselves, although this pride was disputed by many whites with murder and violence the excitement continued. In his book “Forty Million Dollar slaves,” William Rhoden says that ‘African Americans were so disconnected from the American dream that sports often seemed the only venue where the battle for self-respect could be vigorously waged.” Athletes were the markers of progress and evidence of a collective soul Rhoden said. In essences many underprivileged kids become enslaved to sports, this drives them through elementary, middle and high school. I am sure some of you remember the unfair, special treatment athletes received in school, it was very real, and very crippling to their academic aptitude. Taking advantage of facilities like the Cox Center is impossible for the academically crippled.
Admittedly, some athletes have a raw passion for the sport. In August of 2006, Reggie Bush told Peter Briscoe of CBS Sports, “I feel like it’s God’s plan for me to play football and make a difference in people’s lives.” The allegations that Bush accepted gifts, money and other benefits worth more than $100,000 from two marketing agents during his career at Southern California, true or not could have possibly been avoided if he were receiving some sort of compensation for the millions of dollars he was making for the University. According to NCAA.org the NCAA offers the Special Assistance Fund, established in 1991 to help student-athletes in financial need to cover basic or emergency expenses. It can be used for clothing or travel home (a maximum of $500 an athlete year) or “other essential expenses,” including academic supplies, medical and dental costs not covered by insurance and family emergencies. This is hardly enough and can scarcely be considered compensation.
According to NCAA News only 1.3 percent of men’s basketball, 1.0 percent of women’s basketball and 2.0 percent of football players will move from college to professional sports. If the graduation rates continue to be as low as they are what will happen to the remaining athletes? I am not arguing that cash-in-hand is the answer. I suggest mutual funds, graduate assistance or funds to start a business. I also suggest a more stringent academic regiment for incoming freshman athletes. Whatever the method, college athletes deserve a cut of this billion dollar industry that they are making possible.
Don Imus & Other Shock Jocks
CBS and MSNBC deserve a standing ovation for taking a financial hit to preserve the dignity of women and blacks everywhere. The media outlets finally fired Don Imus and cancelled his syndicated morning show after his disgusting and irresponsible comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Imus, who called the players “nappy headed-hos,” apologized in a very belligerent and nonchalant way appearing to not be genuinely sorry but instead attempting to preserve his long running career. He even went as far as to remind America that he has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in charity as if his philanthropy dismisses his prejudice. This situation is not unique and is certainly nothing new. Talk radio has a nasty history of offensive comments to all demographics of people with little or no repercussions. It’s no surprise Imus felt so comfortable expressing his chauvinism so openly, he has been allowed to do it with no censorship for nearly thirty-five years.
Talk radio’s lack of censorship heeds warning to the changing moral views of Americans. Have we become used to this kind of distasteful commentary and if so will it get worse? Imus’s crack at the Rutgers ladies sparked controversy across America not only among black women but among men and people of all ethnic backgrounds. There is a thin line between being risky and offensive and talk radio show hosts have almost been able to say anything without accountability and that makes for a very scary future for aspiring journalist.
America’s perspective on what is funny has evolved into a repugnant stretch of offensive interpretation by comedians, talk show hosts, rappers and the writers of sitcoms like The Sopranos and Family Guy. We have been subjected to so much politically incorrect garbage that it has become the norm in American pop culture. When and if these people are asked to take responsibility for their prejudice, America is pacified with a simple “I did a bad thing” as Imus minimally put it.
Producers, directors and executives make bad business decisions based on ratings and revenue, not on morality. The double standard plaguing Imus’s bigotry and the sexism represented in mainstream rap music is beyond inappropriate. I am a long standing opponent of violent, chauvinistic music but America doesn’t seem to protest the use of this as resiliently as they do news commentary. Some argue because the revenue of racist and sexist rap music goes to white execs, it’s not as widely objected. I disagree without hesitation and believe the hip hop industry, white and black, should be held equally accountable.
When asked about his perspective on the Imus comment, rapper snoop dogg responded with”(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about hos that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing s**t, that’s trying to get a n**ga for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain’t no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthaf**kas say we are in the same league as him. Kick him off the air forever.” This ignorance and second-hand rationalization is why hip hop has maintained a pass to continue on their sexist tirades.
I think it is safe to say that most of these offensive comments are in the interest of making money at the expense of others exploitation. On one of his shows Imus called CNN correspondent Howard Kurtz a “boner-nosed, beanie wearing Jew.” America is fascinated with the audacity of people like Anne Coulter, Bill O’Reilly and Don Imus. Imus’s show brought in 15 million dollars for CBS and I applaud the company for taking a financial hit and doing what was justly responsible. Although we may often forget, the media has a responsibility to the public. Talk show hosts and opinion columnist are not exceptions.
Retention Rates for Underrepresented Minority Faculty Warrant Inspection.
Idealism suggests that college is a fundamentally subjective interlude full of cliché’s that shape the mind and classify the thoughts. Ultimately it is meant to construct a stability to arrange the randomness that we are subjected to. But in reality college is busy work. It is a limbo which in its earliest days was created because a high school diploma became too easy for the masses to obtain. In their usual element, elitists became infuriated that the oppressed, whoever they were at the time, could also read, write and do arithmetic so they raised the bar higher in hopes of maintaining exclusivity. Have they succeeded? According to some studies, yes.
According to an analysis from the Campus Diversity Initiative titled The Revolving Door for Underrepresented Minority Faculty in Higher Education, there has been very little change in the proportion of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty on college campuses. In this case URM denotes American Indian or Alaskan Native, African American, Asian and Latino(a).
In October of 2003 the plans for the flagship agenda, a seven year design to bring LSU to a new level of excellence were finalized. Among other stipulations the agenda included a proposal to increase diversity and inclusiveness of LSU, with increased emphasis on recruiting and retaining minority and women students and faculty, providing a workplace free of intolerance or discrimination. Four years later there has been very little progression in this area, in fact unofficially we seem to be moving backwards.
“The flagship agenda on diversity? If this means recruiting and retaining African American athletes to play ball then I would give it an A. If this means recruiting and retaining African American professors then I would give it an F,” said African American History professor Leonard Moore.
The study which used data from twenty-seven colleges and universities exclaims that despite relative success in hiring URM faculty turnover was a critical factor contributing to a lack of substantial advancement. Essentially underrepresented minority faculties are hired but once in the system often do not feel comfortable enough to stay.
“Many departments on campus are hostile to the presence of black professors and black courses,” said Moore. “Luckily, I joined a department that was open to courses like: The Civil Rights Movement, Black Nationalism in America, History of Hip-Hop, and African Americans in Louisiana. But some of my black colleagues on campus are encountering hostility from their department whenever they design a course with African people as the focus.”
Last year Andy Benoit, director of recruiting services said “The Office of Recruiting Services is making a conscious effort to expand minority recruitment by working with the Office of Multicultural Affairs.”
Although recruitment is important it is senseless if retention is unattainable. The growing enrollment rate of students gives universities an opportunity to consciously hire more qualified URM faculty that will eventually receive tenure. In 2005 the actual numbers of URM faculty were disheartening. There were only 6 American Indian or Alaskan Native, 23 Latino (a) and 59 African American out of a possible 1,552.
“We realize that we must do our part to recruit and retain the best quality faculty in general and minority faculty in particular. We are certainly sorry to see quality faculty leave LSU when that decision is made. However, there are measures in place to assist with issues of retention,” said Katrice Albert, Vice Provost for Equity, Diversity and Campus Outreach.
“There is certainly a segment of academics and intellectuals that question the value of certain disciplines like various Ethnic Studies programs, Women and Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Social Justice Pedagogy, etc.” Albert said. “My hope is that leading scholars in these disciplines and hungry undergraduate and graduate students continue to fight for the respect these disciplines deserve.”
Because of these low numbers URM faculty are often bombarded with an overwhelming workload.
“Minority faculty is brought in and is burdened down with heavy class loads, committee work, and is intellectually isolated and their work is not supported for whatever reason,” said Troy Allen, Arts and Sciences professor.
Comparatively the university may make certain attempts at retention and fail only because they cannot financially compete.
“While it may look like the university has not retained its minority faculty, they may have really tried to keep them but were unable to compete on the market,” said Allen.
Campus Diversity Initiatives suggest that a rich dialogue needs to be sparked about the slow movement toward diversifying faculty nationally and prompt institutions to consider the numerous factors within their control that can successfully raise URM faculty recruitment and retention.
“This is an important problem–but the problem of retention of faculty at public universities is not limited to minority professors. The best way to keep professors at an institution is to provide working conditions that are conducive to good teaching and research,” said Dr. Adelaide Russo, professor of French studies.
University Faculty, staff and students look to the flagship agenda to help LSU maintain a healthy and diverse community. Grants are available specifically to improve existing efforts to diversify the faculty in regards to race and ethnicity.
“The chancellor and the provost need to have a meeting with black faculty as soon as possible to understand what our concerns and needs are before a mass exodus of black professors begins. Then, LSU should implement a very aggressive recruiting campaign for black professors just like the football team does for black athletes,” said Moore.
Whatever the means university officials should make a conscious effort to consider what methods need to be taken to contribute to successful URM faculty recruitments and retention. An institutional capacity for diversity should be instilled in order to better ensure the success of all students entering the university.
Confirming Stereotypes: Virgina Tech Massacare
It has become difficult to avoid both making and perpetuating social stereotypes. Many of us have preconceived notions and develop stereotypes because we are unable or unwilling to collect the necessary information to make fair judgments. Last Monday as I watched the tragic news about the massacre at Virginia Tech, I waited for the newscaster to report that the suspect was a middle or upper class white male with severe psychological issues. Like many others, my preconceived notions were way off target which left me feeling ignorant and apologetic.
Mainstream media and our personal experiences make it easy to conform. It would take much effort for the average person to do their own research. Stereotypes are convenient and opportune helping us avoid the rigid labor of taking time to learn about others. Although we sometimes subconsciously perpetuate these stereotypes, it is important that we differentiate between myth and morality for the sake of social equity. Blurring these lines is not only negligent, it’s dangerous.
Our criminal justice system is a prime example. One of the more callous but common stereotypes made is that all prisoners on death row or serving life sentences deserve to be there. Larry Marshall, a law professor at Northwestern University and former director for Northwestern’s Center for Wrongful Convictions believes that 5 to 10 percent of the prisoners on death row may be innocent. One of his chief reasons is racial bias. In an interview with Oprah, he said, “A Chicago Tribune investigation reports that in Illinois at least 35 black prisoners on death row were convicted or condemned by an all-white jury.” Other reasons included legal incompetence and the fact that only Illinois and New York give death row inmates the right to DNA testing.
Another abrasive stereotype often made is that many rape and domestic violence victims put themselves in compromising situations thus somehow warranting their abuse. According to the Coalition of Education about Sexual Endangerment in the United States, 1.3 women are raped every minute. That results in 78 rapes each hour, 1,872 rapes each day, 56,160 rapes each month and 683,280 rapes each year. Nearly half of those cases go unreported, leaving several reliable testimonies unaccounted for and more unsubstantiated assumptions to be made. According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, Louisiana ranked third in the nation in 2003 for females murdered by males in single victim/single offender homicides, with 56 homicides.
To offset these notions we make another severe social mistake by constructing “countertypes”. According to “Popular Culture: an Introductory Text,” a “countertype” is a positive stereotype (one which arouses “good” emotions and associates a group of people with socially approved characteristics) which evolves as an attempt to replace or “counter” a negative stereotype which has been applied previously to a specific group of people. For example negative stereotypes of women have been challenged with shows like “The Closer,” where a headstrong female is portrayed as so hyper-masculine it is difficult to perceive her feminity. However “countertypes” are only visible on the surface, dig a little deeper and there lies the same negative stereotype.
Although stereotyping is an innate function of the mind, seeking to simplify complex realities by actively using them does us more harm than good. Assuming a woman who is a victim of sexual assault somehow deserved it makes me wonder where our ability to empathize with the victim and condemn the offender has gone. Our moment of clarity should not come at the expense of so many lost lives.
As we grieve the victims, families and residents of Virginia Tech we can also acquire new perspective on stereotyping. Anybody can be a victim and anybody can be a suspect. We can never think ourselves so divine that we are not capable of being subjected to the simple dangers of living in a less than perfect world. Common stereotypes directly reflect our beliefs. Becoming conscious about their harmful existence is the only way we can begin to eliminate them.
Veteran Treatment Echos Vietnam War Era
Growing up in Los Angeles, it was not unusual to see the homeless on nearly every street corner, sleeping in the most remote of places and pleading with pedestrians and stopped cars for a little spare change.
Though I haven’t put much thought into it until now, I remember seeing many of those homeless men with signs that read “Vietnam veteran, please help.”
According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, veterans make up only 9 percent of the US population but 23 percent of the homeless. Almost 47 percent are from the Vietnam era.
America has failed at many things, including health care, the war on poverty and the objective in Iraq but why have we failed so miserably at taking care of America’s national heroes?
The president and other government officials lay a thick layer of guilt on Americans when it is time to enlist and serve on behalf of their country. The call to duty comes with a uniform, a one-way ticket and generic speech about how you’re “doing the right thing.” But, how many generations of war veterans have to suffer before we take a more critical look at how little the government cares about them?
The striking similarities between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq are difficult for any history buff to miss. In 2004 USA Today reported mounting casualties and growing guerrilla resistance, skepticism about the justification for going to war in the first place and no clear strategy for finishing the job and coming home. Like Vietnam, the war in Iraq is giving Americans a clear perspective on presidential authority.
For Vietnam veterans this is like a bad dream. They watch as their grandsons march off to fight a war that has indiscriminately lost its objective and caused the death of thousands of American soldiers and countless Iraqi militants and civilians.
“I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war…suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own,” Philip Caputo, American author, journalist and Vietnam War veteran told ThinkProgress.org.
In his book “In Retrospect,” Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the 1960s said “We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation. . . . Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.
One can’t help but wonder if a similar statement will be made fifty years from now.
Recent news about the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is depressing and leaves no doubt that our troops are being mistreated and neglected. The Washington Post called the center “a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients.”
The living conditions at the center are deplorable. Cockroaches, cheap mattresses, mouse droppings litter the facility which is covered in mold. No person, especially a severely wounded war veteran should have to transition from uncomfortable conditions in a foreign land to repulsive conditions at home.
“We’ve done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it,” said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months in an interview with The Washington Post.
The Government’s priorities are distorted. It has have let down the sick by failing at healthcare reform, it has let down the poor by failing at the war on poverty, it is letting the children down with atrocious public school systems, and it has let the elderly down by attempting to privatize social security.
Our service men and women deserve better than this. They deserve to come home and be thanked for their honorable efforts. This tradition of neglect and ill-treatment of our troops after they’ve become “damaged goods” is unacceptable.
The powers that be need to take a critical look into budgeting. Many Americans hope the war in Iraq will end in the near future, but if this doesn’t happen funding must be appropriated to ensure the healthy homecoming of our wounded soldiers.
WORK AT THE WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER
The Women’s Media center is a phenomenal network of women who give back to the literary community by pressing issues important to women.
The Women’s Media Center was founded in 2005 as a non-profit progressive women’s media organization by writers/activists Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem.
The Essence of It All: WNBA Rookie Lands Far from Rutgers Controversy
by Shanelle Matthews
With a name derived from one of Americas most recognized landmarks, the New York Liberty has a rich past. One of the eight original teams to begin the WNBA in 1997, the team has retired basketball greats such as Teresa Weatherspoon and Rebecca Lobo, and has graced the WNBA finals four times. The women’s league, however, still struggles for attention. Neither history nor media has been kind to women’s sports. But for New York, newcomer Essence Carson might just be the attention grabber the Liberty needs.
As the WNBA celebrates its twelfth year of play, Carson makes her transition from Rutgers Scarlet Knight to her post as rookie for the New York Liberty. Carson, 22, spent her collegiate years playing under C Vivian Stringer, renowned head coach of the Scarlet Knights, and was picked seventh overall in the 2008 WNBA draft. Carson’s teammate Matee Ajavon was selected fifth overall by the Houston Comets.
“I was able to be drafted by the New York Liberty and stay close to my hometown of Paterson, New Jersey,” Carson told the Women’s Media Center. That, she said, “has made my transition to the WNBA a lot easier than most.”
Today Carson can take an optimistic approach to her draft experience—embracing her new city, coaches, teammates and title as rookie—but her days on the court have not always been so positive. In April 2007, shock jock Don Imus stunned the nation when he referred to the lady Scarlet Knights as “nappy headed hos.” The team, as members later made clear, was in mental disarray, feeling disrespected and insulted by Imus’s contemptible outburst. Coach Stringer encouraged her players to forgive and forget and focus on the task at hand, their game. If the lady Scarlet Knights were bothered by Imus’s comments, they never once let it show on the court. Carson, who played a leadership role with the press for her team, took the controversial media attention and turned it into something helpful.
“I feel my experiences at Rutgers prepared me well for any type of media spotlight as a pro. Being at the center of the media market helped me become comfortable with speaking,” Carson said.
Although Imus’s type of shock-jock commentary threatened to diminish the game, Carson didn’t let the irresponsibility of the media affect her transition to the WNBA. She has a fresh start with a fresh perspective.
“Even with the history of ‘controversy’ surrounding Rutgers, I don’t feel
singled out as a player,” said Carson. “My encounters with people in the pro ranks thus far have yet to make me feel uncomfortable. Everyone has been nothing but encouraging,” she said.
Carson met her former teammate Matee Ajavon on the court June 6 at Madison Square Garden for the first time since the draft in April, and the Liberty slipped past the Comets 81 to 73. Coach Stringer watched from the stands as her former players faced each other as rivals—their bond formed by the Rutgers drama intact.
Imus’s crack at the Rutgers players sparked a debate across America, which forced, in addition to Imus’s all-too-short withdrawal from the airways, a consensus that such repugnant commentary, often directed at women, could no longer pass as humor. Under pressure by advocates from the civil rights and feminist communities, including the Women’s Media Center, the media acknowledged some excess but stopped far short of any long-lasting attitude adjustment. A deeper analysis at the time might have tempered the media backlash against women in powerful roles that has tarnished coverage of both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama in the political arena.
Hardworking WNBA players, and other professional women athletes, have created a solid fan base, but nothing compared to that of their male counterparts. Carson’s ability to surpass the controversy at Rutgers and shine on one of the largest and most well known athletic stages in the country can only help attract more ardent admirers.
Meanwhile, Essence Carson is banking highlights, which so far this season include logging 15 points off the bench May 30 against Connecticut, followed by her first start of the season on June 3, when the Liberty stormed past Seattle 77 to 63 at the Garden. Her jump shot June 11, with 56.6 seconds left in the game, gave the Liberty the lead against the Atlanta Dream, which they held for an 81 to 77 victory.
