Updated: Friday, 03 Dec 2010, 4:16 PM EST
Published : Friday, 03 Dec 2010, 4:16 PM EST
http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/hampden/Group-calls-for-police-racism-training
Jackie Brousseau
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) - Protesters showed their discontent over what they say is consistent police brutality.
Members of Arise for Social Justice stood with signs outside the courthouse in Holyoke.
They're calling for members of the police department to receive mandatory anti-racism training and for the establishment of a Community Hearing Board with disciplinary powers.
"The police dept has an environment that condones this type of behavior. This training will rid this environment and hold people accountable," said Community Activist Garry Porter.
"We need a review board that has some serious teeth and that is part of the community and not handpicked by the Mayor," said Ellen Graves of Arise for Social Justice.
Three other officers were disciplined in connection with the Melvin Jones the Third case.
Arise for Social Justice wants those officers fired and charged as well.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Black community fear racism at Russian 2018 World Cup
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=18560
Black community fear racism at Russian 2018 World Cup
THE BLACK community have voiced concerns about travelling to Russia to watch the 2018 World Cup fearing that racism will be rife.
Following news that England had lost out on its bid to host the 2018 games, members of the black community instantly frowned upon the chosen country.
Choice FM radio host, Martin Jay told his Twitter followers that he would instead watch the game from the comfort of his home as opposed to travelling to the Eastern European country.
Jay said: "Wow Russia hosts 2018 World Cup ! That's a TV watch for me then !!!”
While Facebook user Alexander Clarke jokingly added: “i wont be russian to go there!! lol”
Despite winning backing from Prince William, former England captain David Beckham and Prime Minister, David Cameron, England were unsuccessful in securing the much-coveted bid.
In a major embarrassment, England apparently did not even make it through to the second round of the voting in Switzerland, which was won overall by Russia.
Black community fear racism at Russian 2018 World Cup
THE BLACK community have voiced concerns about travelling to Russia to watch the 2018 World Cup fearing that racism will be rife.
Following news that England had lost out on its bid to host the 2018 games, members of the black community instantly frowned upon the chosen country.
Choice FM radio host, Martin Jay told his Twitter followers that he would instead watch the game from the comfort of his home as opposed to travelling to the Eastern European country.
Jay said: "Wow Russia hosts 2018 World Cup ! That's a TV watch for me then !!!”
While Facebook user Alexander Clarke jokingly added: “i wont be russian to go there!! lol”
Despite winning backing from Prince William, former England captain David Beckham and Prime Minister, David Cameron, England were unsuccessful in securing the much-coveted bid.
In a major embarrassment, England apparently did not even make it through to the second round of the voting in Switzerland, which was won overall by Russia.
Racism Alive and Swell in NFL
LeCharles Bentley, provided by
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The National Football League does an excellent job of publicly attacking some issues and problems. Unfortunately, the league disguises one of its most embarrassing issues within a veil of euphemistic lingo and "throwback" logic. This issue doesn't exist within the walls of NFL boardrooms, but is embedded into the league's fabric: racial prejudice and stereotyping.
Today, Peyton Hillis, the Cleveland Browns' most impressive running back since Kevin Mack, is the latest "victim" of the NFL's color cycle. Hillis isn't the run of the mill 6-foot-2, 250-pound chocolate bruiser. He's an Arkansas born-and-raised white guy. Don't you remember the white running back who starred at the University of Arkansas before Darren McFadden and Felix Jones (both African-Americans) pushed him off the depth chart? What about the guy who played for the Broncos and averaged 5 yards per carry before being traded to the Browns? None of this rings a bell?
I'm sure, too, that you are familiar with the names Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter. These two bronzed tailbacks are the guys Broncos coach Josh McDaniels felt were better than Hillis. Buckhalter missed the 2002, 2004 and 2005 seasons with knee injuries. Apparently a white running back who struggled because he was pigeon-holed as a fullback isn't as valued as a black running back with multiple knee injuries. This is eerily similar to the early years in the NFL when black players struggled with typecasting but kept their mouths shut for fear of being labeled a "troublemaker."
Many NFL coaches pounded the notion into Hillis' head that he could only be a fullback in the NFL and he should brush up on his special teams play. Evidently, that's as far as his skin tone would take him.
The only way a black running back enters the NFL with that kind of resume without being drafted in the first round is if his 40-yard dash time is slow, like Shonn Greene.
It is also widely known that former Stanford star Toby Gerhart was advised to do the same. Gerhart was the 2009 Heisman Trophy runner-up, Doak Walker Award winner, consensus All-America -- and second-round draft pick. The only way a black running back enters the NFL with that kind of resume without being drafted in the first round is if his 40-yard dash time is slow, like Shonn Greene.
The Cleveland Browns drafted Montario Hardesty in the second round, eight picks after Gerhart was selected. Hardesty endured multiple knee surgeries in college -- to the point he had to take a medical redshirt year to recover from injuries.
The Browns traded away three draft picks in order to move into the second round to draft an injury-prone running back. This is the running back the Browns envisioned establishing their run game, not Peyton Hillis.
After the 1932 season, Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall -- affectionately known, according to African-American studies professor Dr. Charles Ross, as the "... leading racist in the NFL" -- convinced other club owners to implement a non-formal ban of black players. This "ban" lasted 13 seasons.
Understanding there was a 13-year period when no black players were allowed to participate in the NFL is critical in understanding why the prejudices and stereotypes exist today. There was a collective and concerted effort to maintain white rosters throughout the league that impacts today's game and thinking.
Post-1933 there were zero black players for 13 years, when the league was still in its infancy and going through its most formative stages. While the foundation of the game was being laid it was being done under the formidable flag of bigotry. White privilege constructed the concept of a quarterback, center, safety and middle linebacker. White thought designed who was deemed capable to lead and coach. White power built the game brick by brick and the mortar of racial intolerance holds the house together even today.
Integration didn't turn the NFL into a utopian society; it only guided the racial rhetoric into the consciousness of the landscape. Kenny Washington (HB-DB) and Woody Strode (WR) were the first black players to be integrated in the NFL -- and as more arrived typecasting took full effect.
The black players were placed at the "skill" positions, which is another way of saying they were asked to just run fast. Their white counterparts held on to the positions that were considered the "cerebral" or "central" positions. "Centrality" is an advanced theory many sociologists point to in order to explain why positions like quarterback, center, middle linebacker and safety were off limits to the black players.
These positions were "central" because they required critical thinking skills and communication to teammates. Black athletes during that period were deemed not smart enough to communicate effectively and incapable of leading. I don't want to fail to mention there was a natural quota system in play because all of the black players were competing for the same few jobs. So the league was "integrated" but with positional stipulations and numeric accountability. Black players readily accepted their "roles" because prior to 1946 blacks weren't playing at all.
The game grew and athletes of varied ethnic backgrounds began to excel at all positions. One would assume that this would be great for the game because performance would now become the ultimate deciding factor in who was considered capable or incapable. That assumption would only be partly accurate. It's partly inaccurate because of the foundation that was laid in the early years.
The coaches and executives were the gatekeepers of the antiquated ideologies on who was physically and mentally equipped for particular jobs. As the black players settled into and accepted their "roles" the white players did the exact same because players understood they could control only one thing and that was their performance. Coaches and executives understood they could control everything. Although the control quotient wasn't intended to affect the white athletes, bigotry's omnipotent presence through time inadvertently boiled over onto the white players as well.
As a former center in the NFL, I experienced what it was like to play a position that the NFL culture didn't envision me worthy of playing. In 2005 I was the only black starting center in the NFL. I was far from a pioneer. I followed in the footsteps of two of the league's greatest centers in Dermontti Dawson and Dwight Stephenson. My peers during that time were Matt Birk, Olin Kreutz and Jeff Saturday. I was much younger than those guys, but I was in the elite conversation based on my performance.
What was interesting was the type of conversation that surrounded my play compared to theirs. I vividly remember hearing a commentator speak of Saturday's ability to study defenses, lead the line and display his overall "cerebral" approach to the game. All of this is absolutely true, but Saturday and I played against the same defenses. I studied the same film he did and made the same line calls. I was categorized as "big and physical."
Growing up I wanted to be like Stephenson and Dawson, but once I reached the pinnacle of my success I realized in order for me to be respected as a complete player I had to sprinkle in a little Mike Webster and Mark Stepnoski. During my free-agent trip to Cleveland the offensive line coach took me into his office and broke out some film.
I assumed we were going to watch my highlight reel considering I was coming off of my second Pro-Bowl berth. Instead of the highlight reel, we watched clips of their offense and I was asked to identify certain defensive looks just "to be sure I understood the concepts."
To this day I wonder if the conversation would have been the same if Matt Birk or Jeff Saturday walked into that meeting.
There are seismic shifts taking place in the NFL and they are all for the greater good of the game. It's often said that change is good but change that is preceded by open and honest dialogue is better. Labor issues will be resolved, concussions will be handled more appropriately and helmet to helmet hits minimized, but will those changes leave the NFL where it genuinely wants to be?
The culture of the NFL was forged when the league's foundation was laid. This foundation is haunted by the ghost of George Preston Marshall and universally discriminates against black and white athletes. It's an irony that can no longer be ignored.
LeCharles Bentley is a former NFL player for the New Orleans Saints and current NFL analyst on FanHouse TV.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The National Football League does an excellent job of publicly attacking some issues and problems. Unfortunately, the league disguises one of its most embarrassing issues within a veil of euphemistic lingo and "throwback" logic. This issue doesn't exist within the walls of NFL boardrooms, but is embedded into the league's fabric: racial prejudice and stereotyping.
Today, Peyton Hillis, the Cleveland Browns' most impressive running back since Kevin Mack, is the latest "victim" of the NFL's color cycle. Hillis isn't the run of the mill 6-foot-2, 250-pound chocolate bruiser. He's an Arkansas born-and-raised white guy. Don't you remember the white running back who starred at the University of Arkansas before Darren McFadden and Felix Jones (both African-Americans) pushed him off the depth chart? What about the guy who played for the Broncos and averaged 5 yards per carry before being traded to the Browns? None of this rings a bell?
I'm sure, too, that you are familiar with the names Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter. These two bronzed tailbacks are the guys Broncos coach Josh McDaniels felt were better than Hillis. Buckhalter missed the 2002, 2004 and 2005 seasons with knee injuries. Apparently a white running back who struggled because he was pigeon-holed as a fullback isn't as valued as a black running back with multiple knee injuries. This is eerily similar to the early years in the NFL when black players struggled with typecasting but kept their mouths shut for fear of being labeled a "troublemaker."
Many NFL coaches pounded the notion into Hillis' head that he could only be a fullback in the NFL and he should brush up on his special teams play. Evidently, that's as far as his skin tone would take him.
The only way a black running back enters the NFL with that kind of resume without being drafted in the first round is if his 40-yard dash time is slow, like Shonn Greene.
It is also widely known that former Stanford star Toby Gerhart was advised to do the same. Gerhart was the 2009 Heisman Trophy runner-up, Doak Walker Award winner, consensus All-America -- and second-round draft pick. The only way a black running back enters the NFL with that kind of resume without being drafted in the first round is if his 40-yard dash time is slow, like Shonn Greene.
The Cleveland Browns drafted Montario Hardesty in the second round, eight picks after Gerhart was selected. Hardesty endured multiple knee surgeries in college -- to the point he had to take a medical redshirt year to recover from injuries.
The Browns traded away three draft picks in order to move into the second round to draft an injury-prone running back. This is the running back the Browns envisioned establishing their run game, not Peyton Hillis.
After the 1932 season, Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall -- affectionately known, according to African-American studies professor Dr. Charles Ross, as the "... leading racist in the NFL" -- convinced other club owners to implement a non-formal ban of black players. This "ban" lasted 13 seasons.
Understanding there was a 13-year period when no black players were allowed to participate in the NFL is critical in understanding why the prejudices and stereotypes exist today. There was a collective and concerted effort to maintain white rosters throughout the league that impacts today's game and thinking.
Post-1933 there were zero black players for 13 years, when the league was still in its infancy and going through its most formative stages. While the foundation of the game was being laid it was being done under the formidable flag of bigotry. White privilege constructed the concept of a quarterback, center, safety and middle linebacker. White thought designed who was deemed capable to lead and coach. White power built the game brick by brick and the mortar of racial intolerance holds the house together even today.
Integration didn't turn the NFL into a utopian society; it only guided the racial rhetoric into the consciousness of the landscape. Kenny Washington (HB-DB) and Woody Strode (WR) were the first black players to be integrated in the NFL -- and as more arrived typecasting took full effect.
The black players were placed at the "skill" positions, which is another way of saying they were asked to just run fast. Their white counterparts held on to the positions that were considered the "cerebral" or "central" positions. "Centrality" is an advanced theory many sociologists point to in order to explain why positions like quarterback, center, middle linebacker and safety were off limits to the black players.
These positions were "central" because they required critical thinking skills and communication to teammates. Black athletes during that period were deemed not smart enough to communicate effectively and incapable of leading. I don't want to fail to mention there was a natural quota system in play because all of the black players were competing for the same few jobs. So the league was "integrated" but with positional stipulations and numeric accountability. Black players readily accepted their "roles" because prior to 1946 blacks weren't playing at all.
The game grew and athletes of varied ethnic backgrounds began to excel at all positions. One would assume that this would be great for the game because performance would now become the ultimate deciding factor in who was considered capable or incapable. That assumption would only be partly accurate. It's partly inaccurate because of the foundation that was laid in the early years.
The coaches and executives were the gatekeepers of the antiquated ideologies on who was physically and mentally equipped for particular jobs. As the black players settled into and accepted their "roles" the white players did the exact same because players understood they could control only one thing and that was their performance. Coaches and executives understood they could control everything. Although the control quotient wasn't intended to affect the white athletes, bigotry's omnipotent presence through time inadvertently boiled over onto the white players as well.
As a former center in the NFL, I experienced what it was like to play a position that the NFL culture didn't envision me worthy of playing. In 2005 I was the only black starting center in the NFL. I was far from a pioneer. I followed in the footsteps of two of the league's greatest centers in Dermontti Dawson and Dwight Stephenson. My peers during that time were Matt Birk, Olin Kreutz and Jeff Saturday. I was much younger than those guys, but I was in the elite conversation based on my performance.
What was interesting was the type of conversation that surrounded my play compared to theirs. I vividly remember hearing a commentator speak of Saturday's ability to study defenses, lead the line and display his overall "cerebral" approach to the game. All of this is absolutely true, but Saturday and I played against the same defenses. I studied the same film he did and made the same line calls. I was categorized as "big and physical."
Growing up I wanted to be like Stephenson and Dawson, but once I reached the pinnacle of my success I realized in order for me to be respected as a complete player I had to sprinkle in a little Mike Webster and Mark Stepnoski. During my free-agent trip to Cleveland the offensive line coach took me into his office and broke out some film.
I assumed we were going to watch my highlight reel considering I was coming off of my second Pro-Bowl berth. Instead of the highlight reel, we watched clips of their offense and I was asked to identify certain defensive looks just "to be sure I understood the concepts."
To this day I wonder if the conversation would have been the same if Matt Birk or Jeff Saturday walked into that meeting.
There are seismic shifts taking place in the NFL and they are all for the greater good of the game. It's often said that change is good but change that is preceded by open and honest dialogue is better. Labor issues will be resolved, concussions will be handled more appropriately and helmet to helmet hits minimized, but will those changes leave the NFL where it genuinely wants to be?
The culture of the NFL was forged when the league's foundation was laid. This foundation is haunted by the ghost of George Preston Marshall and universally discriminates against black and white athletes. It's an irony that can no longer be ignored.
LeCharles Bentley is a former NFL player for the New Orleans Saints and current NFL analyst on FanHouse TV.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Editor of Vogue's Italian edition celebrates black and brown women and fat ones, too
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 28, 2010;
MILAN - Franca Sozzani, the editor of Vogue Italia, has taken the lead on one of the most fraught topics in her industry: diversity. She did so in reaction to runways that, in the past few years, had turned strikingly homogenous as a steady stream of pin-thin, white models - most hailing from Eastern Europe - began to dominate the catwalks of New York and Europe. The result of the whitewashed runways meant that the women being funneled into magazines, cosmetics contracts and ultimately into our popular consciousness as archetypes of the feminine ideal were overwhelmingly white and often emaciated.
Under the prestigious banner of Vogue Italia, Sozzani now celebrates black and brown women, fat girls and obese ones, too.
Sozzani works out of a modest, book-strewn, brightly lit office overlooking Piazza Cadorna, which is dominated by a two-story sculpture of a blunt-tipped needle threaded with a loop of rainbow-colored yarn. Sozzani's magazine claims a modest circulation of about 120,000 to 170,000, compared with American Vogue's 1.2 million. But do not be misled by Sozzani's small footprint.
The seasonal moda donna collections are a citywide affair centered on Piazza del Duomo. Video screens, several stories tall, flash runway images to the public; wall-size speakers throb morning to night with the rhythms of a dance party, and live catwalk productions unfold in the urban center for the entertainment of anyone who happens by. Fashion is woven into the personality of Italy's industrial capital, where mom and pop businesses have blossomed into international brands and fashion week's evening bacchanals - which have attracted everyone from soccer stars to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - are as crucial to dealmaking as lobbyists are to Washington.
All of which means that Sozzani is an extremely important woman.
Her magazine rides herd over designers, pushes aesthetic boundaries and often offends. The cover of the August issue featured model Kristen McMenamy dressed as an oil-soaked bird. Sozzani described the photo as a commentary on the fragility of nature; others complained that it glamorized the BP oil spill.
Vogue Italia is an insider's magazine, and where it goes, American magazines will follow - albeit with far less nudity.
In July 2008, Sozzani published an attention-grabbing all-black issue of her magazine. She followed that with a tribute to Africa in sister publication L'Uomo Vogue. She developed a whimsical special-edition ode to black Barbie. And this spring, she launched Vogue Black, a Web site devoted to black models, designers, stylists and other players in the creative field. To feed the new Internet channel, she dispatched black photographers and writers to cover the recent collections in New York and Europe.
"One day I saw her and went over to say hello and she said, 'If I never see another black person . . .!' " recalls her friend Bethann Hardison, who is black, with a laugh. "You can only feel comfortable saying something like that because you're invested. You relate."
Sozzani also started Vogue Curvy, a site that focuses on plus-size fashion.
The Black Issue that launched her on this path was a way to talk about diversity in fashion, but also about diversity and acceptance in general. "The issue made, for me, a special point," Sozzani says. "When you talk about fashion, you are also talking about many things. . . . I wanted to give a message.
"Even young people are very conventional. They are very bourgeois, generally speaking. But they buy Vogue, people who would never buy other things. They discover it's not bourgeois discourse. It's art and life." And, perhaps, through fashion their view of life will be broadened and changed.
Sozzani's activism, while modest in the great history of social upheaval, nonetheless is noteworthy because of the social climate in which this global industry is operating and because of the outsize role that fashion occupies in the culture at large. Questions about public and personal identity are at the root of a host of international antagonisms. Italy is wrestling with immigration phobia; France is busy banning the burqa; and the United States is analyzing its "post-racial," obese self. At issue in each case is how individuals define themselves in the public space and how they want the world to see them.
And within the porous confines of the fashion industry, race has, in the past months, inspired public protests, self-conscious self-analysis and debates about what constitutes racism and sizeism and what should be classified as ignorance.
In the midst of this storm of fretfulness and rebuke stands Sozzani, a diminutive, 60-year-old white editor who grew up in the northern Italian city of Mantua.
"She's creative, but she's also open," says Hardison, a former model and model agency owner. "There's a lot of creative people out there and they don't do this.
"She's a crusader," Hardison says. "She probably doesn't think so, but she is."
The Black Issue
As the editor of Vogue Italia - and the head of its Italian siblings that report on menswear and jewelry - Sozzani makes up one-third of fashion's holy trinity of Vogue czars. The others are French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld and Anna Wintour, the devil who doth wear Prada. Roitfeld enjoys the smell of cigarette smoke, lurks behind a side-swept curtain of brunette hair and favors pencil skirts, stilettos and tight-fitting jackets - a wardrobe that would best be described as painful.
The mythology surrounding the publicly inscrutable Wintour is such that few bat an eye when she arrives at fashion shows flanked by a rotating detail of beefy bodyguards. One of them favored a black-leather duster like a character out of "The Matrix." Another had a gold tooth. The most recent pair included a fire hydrant with a buzz cut and a Jean Reno doppelganger.
Sozzani travels from show to show without her own muscle. She is petite and waif-thin, with golden Rapunzel waves that reach well below her shoulders. Her features are strong and her eyes pale blue. She has an unhurried manner that calls to mind the phrase "comfortable in one's skin."
Told that she is photogenic, she observes that "sometimes I take a beautiful picture that I love. Sometimes, I see a picture of someone who looks like me but" - and she shakes her head in dismay over how a photo can go so wrong - "I think, 'Who is that?' "
Her style is unfussy, but by no means minimal. One particular afternoon in the middle of fashion week, she is dressed in an olive silk military-style shirt and a knee-length navy skirt, both by Lanvin. She prefers significant jewelry, low heels - today's reptile versions are by Manolo Blahnik - small clutch handbags and an iPhone.
Of her Conde Nast compatriots, Sozzani is closest to Wintour. The two have become friends over the years, and Wintour notes, quite simply, that "Franca is magnificent." They have worked together on the global orgy of shopping, Fashion's Night Out, as well as on finding ways to support young designers. In their tete-a-tetes, diversity on the runway is a topic that regularly comes up.
"Right now, it seems as though we are experiencing a wave of Asian models, and while there is certainly a strong African American presence with Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman, sadly we don't see as many African American models as we could," Wintour says.
The prestigious September issue of the American flagship featured actress Halle Berry on the cover and one of the fashion stories depicted a "We Are the World" multicultural mishmash. Still, its efforts at diversity pale compared with Vogue Italia.
"Franca's decision to take a stance on the issue of racial diversity is typical Franca - she does not tackle subjects in a low-key manner," Wintour says. "She wanted her readers to notice."
The Black Issue began to take shape during the fall of 2007 when Sozzani was struck by the homogenous aesthetic on the runways. "All the girls looked the same. The only one who stood out is Liya Kebede," who is black, Sozzani recalled. "Everything she wore I liked. I started to question myself.
"We cannot use only these girls who are the same," Sozzani says. "We go to the East Side and Russia. We go looking for tall, thin and blue eyes. But we have to scout in Africa, everywhere.
"I decided to do an issue only with black girls. People say, 'It's a ghetto.' But we do thousands of issues with Russian girls and it's not a ghetto."
There was grumbling and skepticism from cultural observers that the issue was a gimmick or that she was exploiting international interest in the American presidential election. "People accused me of doing it because of Obama and said that I was very clever," Sozzani says. "But I started the previous October, before Obama and Hillary Clinton began to fight."
Still, her timing proved prescient. When the issue arrived on newsstands July 1, 2008, Obama had wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Black Issue was distributed with four different newsstand covers, each featuring a well-known black model. Inside, a roster of relatively unknown mannequins was spotlighted along with several veterans like Gail O'Neill and Alva Chinn. The plus-size model Toccara Jones - once a contestant on "America's Next Top Model" - posed topless.
The special issue turned into a collector's edition. After its initial print run of 120,000, it had to be reprinted for the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, which makes up 40 percent of the magazine's readers.
"It was like Michael Jackson was coming to town in the fashion industry. People were scrambling to buy every single cover," says Michaela Angela Davis, a New York-based cultural critic.
"If you put Vogue in front of anything," Davis says, "that brand means something in the hearts of women."
For Sozzani, the Black Issue was only the beginning.
Launching Vogue Black
There have been no cultural pressures on Sozzani to broaden the embrace of her magazine or its Web site. Indeed, the Black Issue did not sell especially well in Italy. Some Americans complain that she created separate venues for women of color - and for larger women - instead of welcoming them more enthusiastically into the pages of Vogue Italia. But what is the extent of an Italian magazine's responsibility for representing such women in its pages? Should their presence reflect their visibility in Italy? The degree to which they are high-end fashion consumers? Or is there some other matrix?
While obesity rates are rising in Italy, only about 13 percent of women there are obese compared with 48 percent of women in the United States. And not so long ago, the few black faces on Italian streets belonged to the Ethiopian immigrants who arrived in the 1970s and '80s. Today, immigrants make up only about 7 percent of the Italian population and many of them, such as those from North Africa and Eastern Europe, have been met with hostility and distrust. Recent stories have detailed the backlash against the Roma, whose large Gypsy camp in northern Milan is under threat from local officials. The Northern League, with its strong anti-immigration stance, thrives in the Milan area, where the only encounter a tourist is likely to have with a minority is along the stone streets of Via Brera, where black Africans sell knockoffs of Prada and Gucci handbags. The Northern League, Sozzani jokes, has a problem with anything south of Florence.
Acceptance of outsiders is "happening step by step," she says. "We are not a big country. We are not as rich as [immigrants] think we are. Probably they think they will find more than they find . . . but we all work with foreigners at home and in the office."
Sozzani was taken aback by the success of the Black Issue. The business opportunity was evident: A market was being ignored. But Sozzani did not want to be perceived as a dabbler, a cultural tourist.
"For me, it became a commitment," Sozzani said. "I talked to these girls. I promised to take care of them."
Before launching Vogue Black, Sozzani conferred with Hardison - tall, dark-skinned with close-cropped hair, a self-declared revolutionary - for advice. Sozzani has known Hardison since the early '80s when they met through the Paris-based designer Azzedine Alaia, who, as it happens, is known for his affection for black models. In 1994 Hardison helped black male model Tyson Beckford sign a groundbreaking advertising contract with Polo Ralph Lauren. In the past three years, she's aggressively rallied the fashion industry to question its own standards. "No one wants to be a racist. The people in this industry are not," Hardison says. "But the results of what they do are racism."
Vogue Black went live in February with Hardison as editor at large. While it's headquartered in Milan, it clearly speaks to an American audience. The site opens in English in the United States, and many of the topics are culled from American popular culture. It mixes model profiles with street fashion pictures and short stories about creative types such as artist Kehinde Wiley. The reaction has been a mix of optimism, ambivalence and curiosity.
"It strikes me as strange, to be honest. Italy is such a small country and it's not particularly diverse," says writer Claire Sulmers, founder of Fashion Bomb Daily. "I wasn't sure where there was a shared common interest."
"I think she's trying to be a maverick," says Sulmers, who covered the spring 2011 Paris collections for the site. "I think they saw what a huge stir the Black Issue caused and felt this is how we can make our mark."
The idea of Sozzani, a white Italian woman, taking even partial ownership of black beauty might be a prickly one, given the negative emotions stirred when Essence hired a white fashion director this summer. The topic was so fraught that during September's fashion week in New York, some industry observers took to the streets in silent protest. And Davis - a tall, cosmopolitan black woman with a sandy-colored Afro - who was quite vocal in her criticism of Essence, hosted an hours-long panel discussion/community conversation/venting session at New York University.
During that town hall, moderators held up the October issue of Elle as an example of how white editors fail in their representation of black women and large women. Actress Gabourey Sidibe was on the cover and her image was derided as unflattering. Had she been the target of overzealous retouchers who lightened her complexion? Unskilled hairstylists who victimized her with a dime-store wig? Fatophobes who cropped her plus-size body out of the picture? (No, no and no, said Elle.)
For her part, Sozzani has mostly escaped criticism for insensitivity.
"She has a breadth of experience and knowledge," Davis says. "Franca gets it."
Can't please everybody
It's easier to turn a smaller boat than an aircraft carrier. Sozzani's third-floor office at Vogue Italia is tiny compared with the grand quarters from which American editors in chief typically reign. There is no fancy reception area, just a couple of nondescript chairs tucked against a wall in a corridor lined with rumpled gray carpeting and crowded with boxes and file cabinets.
The rows and stacks of magazines that fill the bookshelves in her office are a testament to the 22 years that she has ruled Italian fashion. And as she sits talking at one end of a large glass conference table, one can't help but notice the two unopened bouquets of flowers that lie forlorn in their brown wrapping paper at the other.
Vogue Italia doesn't have the commercial pressures of its much larger American counterpart. Its greatest strength is its nimbleness and its point of view.
"Italian Vogue magazine is an experimental magazine - that's the impression people have," Sozzani says. "I don't think it's experimental; it has a vision. It can't please everybody. I don't want to please everybody."
Still, Sozzani has decided that she will happily embrace anyone - black, brown, thin, fat - who sees the world as she does.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 28, 2010;
MILAN - Franca Sozzani, the editor of Vogue Italia, has taken the lead on one of the most fraught topics in her industry: diversity. She did so in reaction to runways that, in the past few years, had turned strikingly homogenous as a steady stream of pin-thin, white models - most hailing from Eastern Europe - began to dominate the catwalks of New York and Europe. The result of the whitewashed runways meant that the women being funneled into magazines, cosmetics contracts and ultimately into our popular consciousness as archetypes of the feminine ideal were overwhelmingly white and often emaciated.
Under the prestigious banner of Vogue Italia, Sozzani now celebrates black and brown women, fat girls and obese ones, too.
Sozzani works out of a modest, book-strewn, brightly lit office overlooking Piazza Cadorna, which is dominated by a two-story sculpture of a blunt-tipped needle threaded with a loop of rainbow-colored yarn. Sozzani's magazine claims a modest circulation of about 120,000 to 170,000, compared with American Vogue's 1.2 million. But do not be misled by Sozzani's small footprint.
The seasonal moda donna collections are a citywide affair centered on Piazza del Duomo. Video screens, several stories tall, flash runway images to the public; wall-size speakers throb morning to night with the rhythms of a dance party, and live catwalk productions unfold in the urban center for the entertainment of anyone who happens by. Fashion is woven into the personality of Italy's industrial capital, where mom and pop businesses have blossomed into international brands and fashion week's evening bacchanals - which have attracted everyone from soccer stars to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - are as crucial to dealmaking as lobbyists are to Washington.
All of which means that Sozzani is an extremely important woman.
Her magazine rides herd over designers, pushes aesthetic boundaries and often offends. The cover of the August issue featured model Kristen McMenamy dressed as an oil-soaked bird. Sozzani described the photo as a commentary on the fragility of nature; others complained that it glamorized the BP oil spill.
Vogue Italia is an insider's magazine, and where it goes, American magazines will follow - albeit with far less nudity.
In July 2008, Sozzani published an attention-grabbing all-black issue of her magazine. She followed that with a tribute to Africa in sister publication L'Uomo Vogue. She developed a whimsical special-edition ode to black Barbie. And this spring, she launched Vogue Black, a Web site devoted to black models, designers, stylists and other players in the creative field. To feed the new Internet channel, she dispatched black photographers and writers to cover the recent collections in New York and Europe.
"One day I saw her and went over to say hello and she said, 'If I never see another black person . . .!' " recalls her friend Bethann Hardison, who is black, with a laugh. "You can only feel comfortable saying something like that because you're invested. You relate."
Sozzani also started Vogue Curvy, a site that focuses on plus-size fashion.
The Black Issue that launched her on this path was a way to talk about diversity in fashion, but also about diversity and acceptance in general. "The issue made, for me, a special point," Sozzani says. "When you talk about fashion, you are also talking about many things. . . . I wanted to give a message.
"Even young people are very conventional. They are very bourgeois, generally speaking. But they buy Vogue, people who would never buy other things. They discover it's not bourgeois discourse. It's art and life." And, perhaps, through fashion their view of life will be broadened and changed.
Sozzani's activism, while modest in the great history of social upheaval, nonetheless is noteworthy because of the social climate in which this global industry is operating and because of the outsize role that fashion occupies in the culture at large. Questions about public and personal identity are at the root of a host of international antagonisms. Italy is wrestling with immigration phobia; France is busy banning the burqa; and the United States is analyzing its "post-racial," obese self. At issue in each case is how individuals define themselves in the public space and how they want the world to see them.
And within the porous confines of the fashion industry, race has, in the past months, inspired public protests, self-conscious self-analysis and debates about what constitutes racism and sizeism and what should be classified as ignorance.
In the midst of this storm of fretfulness and rebuke stands Sozzani, a diminutive, 60-year-old white editor who grew up in the northern Italian city of Mantua.
"She's creative, but she's also open," says Hardison, a former model and model agency owner. "There's a lot of creative people out there and they don't do this.
"She's a crusader," Hardison says. "She probably doesn't think so, but she is."
The Black Issue
As the editor of Vogue Italia - and the head of its Italian siblings that report on menswear and jewelry - Sozzani makes up one-third of fashion's holy trinity of Vogue czars. The others are French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld and Anna Wintour, the devil who doth wear Prada. Roitfeld enjoys the smell of cigarette smoke, lurks behind a side-swept curtain of brunette hair and favors pencil skirts, stilettos and tight-fitting jackets - a wardrobe that would best be described as painful.
The mythology surrounding the publicly inscrutable Wintour is such that few bat an eye when she arrives at fashion shows flanked by a rotating detail of beefy bodyguards. One of them favored a black-leather duster like a character out of "The Matrix." Another had a gold tooth. The most recent pair included a fire hydrant with a buzz cut and a Jean Reno doppelganger.
Sozzani travels from show to show without her own muscle. She is petite and waif-thin, with golden Rapunzel waves that reach well below her shoulders. Her features are strong and her eyes pale blue. She has an unhurried manner that calls to mind the phrase "comfortable in one's skin."
Told that she is photogenic, she observes that "sometimes I take a beautiful picture that I love. Sometimes, I see a picture of someone who looks like me but" - and she shakes her head in dismay over how a photo can go so wrong - "I think, 'Who is that?' "
Her style is unfussy, but by no means minimal. One particular afternoon in the middle of fashion week, she is dressed in an olive silk military-style shirt and a knee-length navy skirt, both by Lanvin. She prefers significant jewelry, low heels - today's reptile versions are by Manolo Blahnik - small clutch handbags and an iPhone.
Of her Conde Nast compatriots, Sozzani is closest to Wintour. The two have become friends over the years, and Wintour notes, quite simply, that "Franca is magnificent." They have worked together on the global orgy of shopping, Fashion's Night Out, as well as on finding ways to support young designers. In their tete-a-tetes, diversity on the runway is a topic that regularly comes up.
"Right now, it seems as though we are experiencing a wave of Asian models, and while there is certainly a strong African American presence with Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman, sadly we don't see as many African American models as we could," Wintour says.
The prestigious September issue of the American flagship featured actress Halle Berry on the cover and one of the fashion stories depicted a "We Are the World" multicultural mishmash. Still, its efforts at diversity pale compared with Vogue Italia.
"Franca's decision to take a stance on the issue of racial diversity is typical Franca - she does not tackle subjects in a low-key manner," Wintour says. "She wanted her readers to notice."
The Black Issue began to take shape during the fall of 2007 when Sozzani was struck by the homogenous aesthetic on the runways. "All the girls looked the same. The only one who stood out is Liya Kebede," who is black, Sozzani recalled. "Everything she wore I liked. I started to question myself.
"We cannot use only these girls who are the same," Sozzani says. "We go to the East Side and Russia. We go looking for tall, thin and blue eyes. But we have to scout in Africa, everywhere.
"I decided to do an issue only with black girls. People say, 'It's a ghetto.' But we do thousands of issues with Russian girls and it's not a ghetto."
There was grumbling and skepticism from cultural observers that the issue was a gimmick or that she was exploiting international interest in the American presidential election. "People accused me of doing it because of Obama and said that I was very clever," Sozzani says. "But I started the previous October, before Obama and Hillary Clinton began to fight."
Still, her timing proved prescient. When the issue arrived on newsstands July 1, 2008, Obama had wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Black Issue was distributed with four different newsstand covers, each featuring a well-known black model. Inside, a roster of relatively unknown mannequins was spotlighted along with several veterans like Gail O'Neill and Alva Chinn. The plus-size model Toccara Jones - once a contestant on "America's Next Top Model" - posed topless.
The special issue turned into a collector's edition. After its initial print run of 120,000, it had to be reprinted for the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, which makes up 40 percent of the magazine's readers.
"It was like Michael Jackson was coming to town in the fashion industry. People were scrambling to buy every single cover," says Michaela Angela Davis, a New York-based cultural critic.
"If you put Vogue in front of anything," Davis says, "that brand means something in the hearts of women."
For Sozzani, the Black Issue was only the beginning.
Launching Vogue Black
There have been no cultural pressures on Sozzani to broaden the embrace of her magazine or its Web site. Indeed, the Black Issue did not sell especially well in Italy. Some Americans complain that she created separate venues for women of color - and for larger women - instead of welcoming them more enthusiastically into the pages of Vogue Italia. But what is the extent of an Italian magazine's responsibility for representing such women in its pages? Should their presence reflect their visibility in Italy? The degree to which they are high-end fashion consumers? Or is there some other matrix?
While obesity rates are rising in Italy, only about 13 percent of women there are obese compared with 48 percent of women in the United States. And not so long ago, the few black faces on Italian streets belonged to the Ethiopian immigrants who arrived in the 1970s and '80s. Today, immigrants make up only about 7 percent of the Italian population and many of them, such as those from North Africa and Eastern Europe, have been met with hostility and distrust. Recent stories have detailed the backlash against the Roma, whose large Gypsy camp in northern Milan is under threat from local officials. The Northern League, with its strong anti-immigration stance, thrives in the Milan area, where the only encounter a tourist is likely to have with a minority is along the stone streets of Via Brera, where black Africans sell knockoffs of Prada and Gucci handbags. The Northern League, Sozzani jokes, has a problem with anything south of Florence.
Acceptance of outsiders is "happening step by step," she says. "We are not a big country. We are not as rich as [immigrants] think we are. Probably they think they will find more than they find . . . but we all work with foreigners at home and in the office."
Sozzani was taken aback by the success of the Black Issue. The business opportunity was evident: A market was being ignored. But Sozzani did not want to be perceived as a dabbler, a cultural tourist.
"For me, it became a commitment," Sozzani said. "I talked to these girls. I promised to take care of them."
Before launching Vogue Black, Sozzani conferred with Hardison - tall, dark-skinned with close-cropped hair, a self-declared revolutionary - for advice. Sozzani has known Hardison since the early '80s when they met through the Paris-based designer Azzedine Alaia, who, as it happens, is known for his affection for black models. In 1994 Hardison helped black male model Tyson Beckford sign a groundbreaking advertising contract with Polo Ralph Lauren. In the past three years, she's aggressively rallied the fashion industry to question its own standards. "No one wants to be a racist. The people in this industry are not," Hardison says. "But the results of what they do are racism."
Vogue Black went live in February with Hardison as editor at large. While it's headquartered in Milan, it clearly speaks to an American audience. The site opens in English in the United States, and many of the topics are culled from American popular culture. It mixes model profiles with street fashion pictures and short stories about creative types such as artist Kehinde Wiley. The reaction has been a mix of optimism, ambivalence and curiosity.
"It strikes me as strange, to be honest. Italy is such a small country and it's not particularly diverse," says writer Claire Sulmers, founder of Fashion Bomb Daily. "I wasn't sure where there was a shared common interest."
"I think she's trying to be a maverick," says Sulmers, who covered the spring 2011 Paris collections for the site. "I think they saw what a huge stir the Black Issue caused and felt this is how we can make our mark."
The idea of Sozzani, a white Italian woman, taking even partial ownership of black beauty might be a prickly one, given the negative emotions stirred when Essence hired a white fashion director this summer. The topic was so fraught that during September's fashion week in New York, some industry observers took to the streets in silent protest. And Davis - a tall, cosmopolitan black woman with a sandy-colored Afro - who was quite vocal in her criticism of Essence, hosted an hours-long panel discussion/community conversation/venting session at New York University.
During that town hall, moderators held up the October issue of Elle as an example of how white editors fail in their representation of black women and large women. Actress Gabourey Sidibe was on the cover and her image was derided as unflattering. Had she been the target of overzealous retouchers who lightened her complexion? Unskilled hairstylists who victimized her with a dime-store wig? Fatophobes who cropped her plus-size body out of the picture? (No, no and no, said Elle.)
For her part, Sozzani has mostly escaped criticism for insensitivity.
"She has a breadth of experience and knowledge," Davis says. "Franca gets it."
Can't please everybody
It's easier to turn a smaller boat than an aircraft carrier. Sozzani's third-floor office at Vogue Italia is tiny compared with the grand quarters from which American editors in chief typically reign. There is no fancy reception area, just a couple of nondescript chairs tucked against a wall in a corridor lined with rumpled gray carpeting and crowded with boxes and file cabinets.
The rows and stacks of magazines that fill the bookshelves in her office are a testament to the 22 years that she has ruled Italian fashion. And as she sits talking at one end of a large glass conference table, one can't help but notice the two unopened bouquets of flowers that lie forlorn in their brown wrapping paper at the other.
Vogue Italia doesn't have the commercial pressures of its much larger American counterpart. Its greatest strength is its nimbleness and its point of view.
"Italian Vogue magazine is an experimental magazine - that's the impression people have," Sozzani says. "I don't think it's experimental; it has a vision. It can't please everybody. I don't want to please everybody."
Still, Sozzani has decided that she will happily embrace anyone - black, brown, thin, fat - who sees the world as she does.
Race, Criminal Records, and Getting a Job
Sociological Images
In this video sociologist Devah Pager describes her experimental research on race, criminal records, and employment with Dalton Conley. Using matched pairs of black and white students posing as job applicants, she finds, stunningly, that black men without a criminal record are as likely to get a call back for a job as white men with one (see the tables here). Black men with criminal records receive call backs for only about one in 20 completed job applications.
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/10/15/race-criminal-records-and-getting-a-job/
In this video sociologist Devah Pager describes her experimental research on race, criminal records, and employment with Dalton Conley. Using matched pairs of black and white students posing as job applicants, she finds, stunningly, that black men without a criminal record are as likely to get a call back for a job as white men with one (see the tables here). Black men with criminal records receive call backs for only about one in 20 completed job applications.
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/10/15/race-criminal-records-and-getting-a-job/
Former Professor Claims Nursing Textbook Contains Racial Stereotypes
sserts Refusal to Use Textbook Caused Firing
by AFRO Staff
Afro: http://www.afro.com/sections/news/afro_briefs/story.htm?storyid=3314
A former professor at the University of Central Florida recently filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming she was fired for refusing to use a textbook that contained offensive racial stereotypes.
According to The Orlando Sentinel, the suit, filed in federal court on Nov. 10, states that Dr. Nancy Rudner Lugo was a tenured professor at the university’s College of Nursing, but the school chose not to renew her contract in 2008.
Rudner Lugo, who is racially mixed with Jewish and Hispanic backgrounds, alleges that she was let go after speaking out against and refusing to use the textbook “Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care.” The suit claims the university ignored her concerns over the book after it received numerous student complaints.
The alleged stereotypical material first appears in the third chapter titled, “People of African American Heritage.” In the material, authors Larry D. Purnell and Betty J. Paulanka say that, “Because significant numbers of African Americans are poor and live in inner-cities, they tend to concentrate their efforts on day-to-day survival.”
The chapter also asserts that African-Americans are usually “high-keyed, animated, confrontational and interpersonal” and said that in the Black community, “being overweight is seen as positive” because “its important to have meat on one’s bones to be able to afford weight loss during times of sickness.”
Material on other ethnic groups appear later in the text when it explains that Japanese wives “care for husbands to a great extent [because] Japanese men are presumed not to be capable of managing day-to-day matters.”
“The book is one of the best-selling publications about nursing cultural trends in the country, and it won the American Journal of Nursing book award in 2005,” Grant Heston, spokesman for UCF told Reuters. “The American Association of Colleges of Nursing includes teaching the book’s ‘Purnell Model for Cultural Competence’ in its tool kit of resources colleges are encouraged to use.”
Paulanka said she believes the statements mostly hold true to new immigrants and their native culture, and said she can see how others who have lived in the U.S. for a long time would take offense to the material.
“I can see it because if I was totally Americanized and I grew up in a very American neighborhood and people were saying this is what I thought, I would find that offensive,” Paulanka told Reuters. “But it’s true if you go back to the native culture.” She added that the material was written by either an expert of the culture or a native of the group.
Purnell, the book’s co-author and a faculty member of the University of Delaware’s nursing department echoed Paulanka’s defense of the material, telling Reuters, “Culture is very sensitive. The statement may be true but that doesn’t mean they like it. It’s true for the group, not for the individual.”
The suit alleges that the university fired Rudner Lugo in retribution, violating state and federal statutes. The former professor, who once earned $70,000 a year while at the institution, seeks lost wages and damages.
by AFRO Staff
Afro: http://www.afro.com/sections/news/afro_briefs/story.htm?storyid=3314
A former professor at the University of Central Florida recently filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming she was fired for refusing to use a textbook that contained offensive racial stereotypes.
According to The Orlando Sentinel, the suit, filed in federal court on Nov. 10, states that Dr. Nancy Rudner Lugo was a tenured professor at the university’s College of Nursing, but the school chose not to renew her contract in 2008.
Rudner Lugo, who is racially mixed with Jewish and Hispanic backgrounds, alleges that she was let go after speaking out against and refusing to use the textbook “Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care.” The suit claims the university ignored her concerns over the book after it received numerous student complaints.
The alleged stereotypical material first appears in the third chapter titled, “People of African American Heritage.” In the material, authors Larry D. Purnell and Betty J. Paulanka say that, “Because significant numbers of African Americans are poor and live in inner-cities, they tend to concentrate their efforts on day-to-day survival.”
The chapter also asserts that African-Americans are usually “high-keyed, animated, confrontational and interpersonal” and said that in the Black community, “being overweight is seen as positive” because “its important to have meat on one’s bones to be able to afford weight loss during times of sickness.”
Material on other ethnic groups appear later in the text when it explains that Japanese wives “care for husbands to a great extent [because] Japanese men are presumed not to be capable of managing day-to-day matters.”
“The book is one of the best-selling publications about nursing cultural trends in the country, and it won the American Journal of Nursing book award in 2005,” Grant Heston, spokesman for UCF told Reuters. “The American Association of Colleges of Nursing includes teaching the book’s ‘Purnell Model for Cultural Competence’ in its tool kit of resources colleges are encouraged to use.”
Paulanka said she believes the statements mostly hold true to new immigrants and their native culture, and said she can see how others who have lived in the U.S. for a long time would take offense to the material.
“I can see it because if I was totally Americanized and I grew up in a very American neighborhood and people were saying this is what I thought, I would find that offensive,” Paulanka told Reuters. “But it’s true if you go back to the native culture.” She added that the material was written by either an expert of the culture or a native of the group.
Purnell, the book’s co-author and a faculty member of the University of Delaware’s nursing department echoed Paulanka’s defense of the material, telling Reuters, “Culture is very sensitive. The statement may be true but that doesn’t mean they like it. It’s true for the group, not for the individual.”
The suit alleges that the university fired Rudner Lugo in retribution, violating state and federal statutes. The former professor, who once earned $70,000 a year while at the institution, seeks lost wages and damages.
If You're Black in Philly, Every Day is a TSA Day
Change.org
Why all the furor and consternation about the government sanctioned group grope playing out in our nation's airports this Thanksgiving season?
Okay, I'll admit the prospect of having a blue uniformed minion of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) feeling me up - the so-called "enhanced pat-down" - isn't something I find appealing. Still, it isn't an indignity that any of us has to put up with day in and day out.
If you are an African-American like me, however, and you happen to live in Philadelphia or in an ever growing list of US cities, having to possibly endure the humiliation of being singled-out, pulled aside and frisked is a daily concern.
Of course the uniformed authority behind these invasive and dehumanizing body pat-down security screens isn't the TSA but local police. Worse yet, this type of civil rights violating affront is not confined to just the airport, where at least the reasoning behind the searches (to guard against terrorists) is clear and where everyone is subjected to basically the same treatment. No, the security screening measures I'm speaking of are being conducted on the streets of cities like Philadelphia.
Further, unlike the understandably disgruntled folks who believe the airport invasion of privacy is an outrage, black folks in Philly don't have the option of opting out. If you're black or Latino and walking down a Philadelphia street, you're fair game.
Philly police, at the direction of that city's mayor and its Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, have "stopped and frisked" thousands of its black and brown citizens, subjecting them to illegal searches and questioning for no other reason than they "looked suspicious." The declared goal of the policy is to fight crime and get guns off the streets.
However, according to a recent article on Philly.com, Philadelphia police department statistics indicate a dramatic jump in pedestrians being stopped and frisked, from 102,319 in 2005 to 253,333 in 2009 - an increase of 148 percent. Of those individuals stopped in 2009, some 72 percent were African-American. Only 8 percent of the searches led to arrests, and most of those arrests were for disorderly conduct because the folks stopped and frisked complained about their treatment.
When it comes to Philly, a brother shouldn't expect any love, at least not from the authorities.
Both the mayor and Commissioner Ramsey defend the policy and argue such measures need to be taken in order to combat crime.
But earlier this month, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of eight black and Latino men, including a state lawmaker and a former police officer, who claim Philly's "stop and frisk" policy is unconstitutional. The lawsuit asks the federal court to bar police from searching and questioning Philadelphia residents simply on the basis of race, nationality or without reasonable suspicion - basically, asking for a ban against racial profiling.
Instead of waiting for the lawsuit to play out in the courts, contact Philly's leaders directly and tell them to rescind Philly's stop-and-frisk policy now.
Why all the furor and consternation about the government sanctioned group grope playing out in our nation's airports this Thanksgiving season?
Okay, I'll admit the prospect of having a blue uniformed minion of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) feeling me up - the so-called "enhanced pat-down" - isn't something I find appealing. Still, it isn't an indignity that any of us has to put up with day in and day out.
If you are an African-American like me, however, and you happen to live in Philadelphia or in an ever growing list of US cities, having to possibly endure the humiliation of being singled-out, pulled aside and frisked is a daily concern.
Of course the uniformed authority behind these invasive and dehumanizing body pat-down security screens isn't the TSA but local police. Worse yet, this type of civil rights violating affront is not confined to just the airport, where at least the reasoning behind the searches (to guard against terrorists) is clear and where everyone is subjected to basically the same treatment. No, the security screening measures I'm speaking of are being conducted on the streets of cities like Philadelphia.
Further, unlike the understandably disgruntled folks who believe the airport invasion of privacy is an outrage, black folks in Philly don't have the option of opting out. If you're black or Latino and walking down a Philadelphia street, you're fair game.
Philly police, at the direction of that city's mayor and its Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, have "stopped and frisked" thousands of its black and brown citizens, subjecting them to illegal searches and questioning for no other reason than they "looked suspicious." The declared goal of the policy is to fight crime and get guns off the streets.
However, according to a recent article on Philly.com, Philadelphia police department statistics indicate a dramatic jump in pedestrians being stopped and frisked, from 102,319 in 2005 to 253,333 in 2009 - an increase of 148 percent. Of those individuals stopped in 2009, some 72 percent were African-American. Only 8 percent of the searches led to arrests, and most of those arrests were for disorderly conduct because the folks stopped and frisked complained about their treatment.
When it comes to Philly, a brother shouldn't expect any love, at least not from the authorities.
Both the mayor and Commissioner Ramsey defend the policy and argue such measures need to be taken in order to combat crime.
But earlier this month, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of eight black and Latino men, including a state lawmaker and a former police officer, who claim Philly's "stop and frisk" policy is unconstitutional. The lawsuit asks the federal court to bar police from searching and questioning Philadelphia residents simply on the basis of race, nationality or without reasonable suspicion - basically, asking for a ban against racial profiling.
Instead of waiting for the lawsuit to play out in the courts, contact Philly's leaders directly and tell them to rescind Philly's stop-and-frisk policy now.
Celebrating Secession Without the Slaves
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
NYT
ATLANTA — The Civil War, the most wrenching and bloody episode in American history, may not seem like much of a cause for celebration, especially in the South.
And yet, as the 150th anniversary of the four-year conflict gets under way, some groups in the old Confederacy are planning at least a certain amount of hoopla, chiefly around the glory days of secession, when 11 states declared their sovereignty under a banner of states’ rights and broke from the union.
The events include a “secession ball” in the former slave port of Charleston (“a joyous night of music, dancing, food and drink,” says the invitation), which will be replicated on a smaller scale in other cities. A parade is being planned in Montgomery, Ala., along with a mock swearing-in of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy.
In addition, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and some of its local chapters are preparing various television commercials that they hope to show next year. “All we wanted was to be left alone to govern ourselves,” says one ad from the group’s Georgia Division.
That some — even now — are honoring secession, with barely a nod to the role of slavery, underscores how divisive a topic the war remains, with Americans continuing to debate its causes, its meaning and its legacy.
“We in the South, who have been kicked around for an awfully long time and are accused of being racist, we would just like the truth to be known,” said Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the Sons, explaining the reason for the television ads. While there were many causes of the war, he said, “our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion and for their independence.”
Not everyone is on board with this program, of course. The N.A.A.C.P., for one, plans to protest some of these events, saying that celebrating secession is tantamount to celebrating slavery.
“I can only imagine what kind of celebration they would have if they had won,” said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina N.A.A.C.P.
He said he was dumbfounded by “all of this glamorization and sanitization of what really happened.” When Southerners refer to states’ rights, he said, “they are really talking about their idea of one right — to buy and sell human beings.”
The secession events are among hundreds if not thousands that will unfold over the next four years in honor of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial. From Fort Sumter to Appomattox, historic sites across the South, and some in the North, plan to highlight various aspects of America’s deadliest conflict — and perhaps its least resolved.
Many of the activities are purely historical, and some, like a gathering this month in Gettysburg for the 147th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, will be solemn. At Antietam, on Saturday, the annual memorial will feature 23,000 candles, representing that battle’s casualties.
Some cities and states are promoting their Civil War history with an eye toward attracting tourists. In Atlanta, the Cyclorama, a giant painting-in-the-round that depicts the first day of the Battle of Atlanta, is being “refreshed and rebranded” as part of an overall marketing plan, said Camille Love, the city’s director of cultural affairs.
Commemorating the Civil War has never been easy. The centennial 50 years ago coincided with the civil rights movement, and most of the South was still effectively segregated, making a mockery of any notion that the slaves had truly become free and equal.
Congress had designated an official centennial commission, which lost credibility when it planned to meet in a segregated hotel; this year, Congress has not bothered with an official commission and any master narrative of the war seems elusive.
“We don’t know what to commemorate because we’ve never faced up to the implications of what the thing was really about,” said Andrew Young, a veteran of the civil rights movement and former mayor of Atlanta.
“The easy answer for black folk is that it set us free, but it really didn’t,” Mr. Young added. “We had another 100 years of segregation. We’ve never had our complete reconciliation of the forces that divide us.”
The passion that the Civil War still evokes was evident earlier this year when Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia designated April as Confederate History Month — without mentioning slavery. After a national outcry, he apologized and changed his proclamation to condemn slavery and spell out that slavery had led to war.
The proclamation was urged on him by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which asserts that the Confederacy was a crusade for small government and states’ rights. The sesquicentennial, which coincides now with the rise of the Tea Party movement, is providing a new chance for adherents to promote that view.
Jeff Antley, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Confederate Heritage Trust, is organizing the secession ball in Charleston and a 10-day re-enactment of the Confederate encampment at Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the war were fired on April 12, 1861. He said these events were not about modern politics but were meant to honor those South Carolinians who signed the state’s ordinance of secession on Dec. 20, 1860, when it became the first state to dissolve its union with the United States.
“We’re celebrating that those 170 people risked their lives and fortunes to stand for what they believed in, which is self-government,” Mr. Antley said. “Many people in the South still believe that is a just and honorable cause. Do I believe they were right in what they did? Absolutely,” he said, noting that he spoke for himself and not any organization. “There’s no shame or regret over the action those men took.”
Mr. Antley said he was not defending slavery, which he called an abomination. “But defending the South’s right to secede, the soldiers’ right to defend their homes and the right to self-government doesn’t mean your arguments are without weight because of slavery,” he said.
Most historians say it is impossible to carve out slavery from the context of the war. As James W. Loewen, a liberal sociologist and author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” put it: “The North did not go to war to end slavery, it went to war to hold the country together and only gradually did it become anti-slavery — but slavery is why the South seceded.”
In its secession papers, Mississippi, for example, called slavery “the greatest material interest of the world” and said that attempts to stop it would undermine “commerce and civilization.”
The conflict has been playing out in recent decades in disputes over the stories told or not told in museum exhibits and on battlefield plaques.
“These battles of memory are not only academic,” said Mark Potok, the director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “They are really about present-day attitudes. I don’t think the neo-Confederate movement is growing, but it’s gotten a new shot of life because of the sesquicentennial.”
NYT
ATLANTA — The Civil War, the most wrenching and bloody episode in American history, may not seem like much of a cause for celebration, especially in the South.
And yet, as the 150th anniversary of the four-year conflict gets under way, some groups in the old Confederacy are planning at least a certain amount of hoopla, chiefly around the glory days of secession, when 11 states declared their sovereignty under a banner of states’ rights and broke from the union.
The events include a “secession ball” in the former slave port of Charleston (“a joyous night of music, dancing, food and drink,” says the invitation), which will be replicated on a smaller scale in other cities. A parade is being planned in Montgomery, Ala., along with a mock swearing-in of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy.
In addition, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and some of its local chapters are preparing various television commercials that they hope to show next year. “All we wanted was to be left alone to govern ourselves,” says one ad from the group’s Georgia Division.
That some — even now — are honoring secession, with barely a nod to the role of slavery, underscores how divisive a topic the war remains, with Americans continuing to debate its causes, its meaning and its legacy.
“We in the South, who have been kicked around for an awfully long time and are accused of being racist, we would just like the truth to be known,” said Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the Sons, explaining the reason for the television ads. While there were many causes of the war, he said, “our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion and for their independence.”
Not everyone is on board with this program, of course. The N.A.A.C.P., for one, plans to protest some of these events, saying that celebrating secession is tantamount to celebrating slavery.
“I can only imagine what kind of celebration they would have if they had won,” said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina N.A.A.C.P.
He said he was dumbfounded by “all of this glamorization and sanitization of what really happened.” When Southerners refer to states’ rights, he said, “they are really talking about their idea of one right — to buy and sell human beings.”
The secession events are among hundreds if not thousands that will unfold over the next four years in honor of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial. From Fort Sumter to Appomattox, historic sites across the South, and some in the North, plan to highlight various aspects of America’s deadliest conflict — and perhaps its least resolved.
Many of the activities are purely historical, and some, like a gathering this month in Gettysburg for the 147th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, will be solemn. At Antietam, on Saturday, the annual memorial will feature 23,000 candles, representing that battle’s casualties.
Some cities and states are promoting their Civil War history with an eye toward attracting tourists. In Atlanta, the Cyclorama, a giant painting-in-the-round that depicts the first day of the Battle of Atlanta, is being “refreshed and rebranded” as part of an overall marketing plan, said Camille Love, the city’s director of cultural affairs.
Commemorating the Civil War has never been easy. The centennial 50 years ago coincided with the civil rights movement, and most of the South was still effectively segregated, making a mockery of any notion that the slaves had truly become free and equal.
Congress had designated an official centennial commission, which lost credibility when it planned to meet in a segregated hotel; this year, Congress has not bothered with an official commission and any master narrative of the war seems elusive.
“We don’t know what to commemorate because we’ve never faced up to the implications of what the thing was really about,” said Andrew Young, a veteran of the civil rights movement and former mayor of Atlanta.
“The easy answer for black folk is that it set us free, but it really didn’t,” Mr. Young added. “We had another 100 years of segregation. We’ve never had our complete reconciliation of the forces that divide us.”
The passion that the Civil War still evokes was evident earlier this year when Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia designated April as Confederate History Month — without mentioning slavery. After a national outcry, he apologized and changed his proclamation to condemn slavery and spell out that slavery had led to war.
The proclamation was urged on him by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which asserts that the Confederacy was a crusade for small government and states’ rights. The sesquicentennial, which coincides now with the rise of the Tea Party movement, is providing a new chance for adherents to promote that view.
Jeff Antley, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Confederate Heritage Trust, is organizing the secession ball in Charleston and a 10-day re-enactment of the Confederate encampment at Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the war were fired on April 12, 1861. He said these events were not about modern politics but were meant to honor those South Carolinians who signed the state’s ordinance of secession on Dec. 20, 1860, when it became the first state to dissolve its union with the United States.
“We’re celebrating that those 170 people risked their lives and fortunes to stand for what they believed in, which is self-government,” Mr. Antley said. “Many people in the South still believe that is a just and honorable cause. Do I believe they were right in what they did? Absolutely,” he said, noting that he spoke for himself and not any organization. “There’s no shame or regret over the action those men took.”
Mr. Antley said he was not defending slavery, which he called an abomination. “But defending the South’s right to secede, the soldiers’ right to defend their homes and the right to self-government doesn’t mean your arguments are without weight because of slavery,” he said.
Most historians say it is impossible to carve out slavery from the context of the war. As James W. Loewen, a liberal sociologist and author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” put it: “The North did not go to war to end slavery, it went to war to hold the country together and only gradually did it become anti-slavery — but slavery is why the South seceded.”
In its secession papers, Mississippi, for example, called slavery “the greatest material interest of the world” and said that attempts to stop it would undermine “commerce and civilization.”
The conflict has been playing out in recent decades in disputes over the stories told or not told in museum exhibits and on battlefield plaques.
“These battles of memory are not only academic,” said Mark Potok, the director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “They are really about present-day attitudes. I don’t think the neo-Confederate movement is growing, but it’s gotten a new shot of life because of the sesquicentennial.”
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