5A
OPINIONS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday May 25, 2000
I Colorblindness’ erodes equal protection
By Robert W, Simmons
skECIAL TO THE POST
lRec(
ecent court decisions, including Judge Potter’s deci
sion overturning Swann, have taken their impetus from
the self-styled “colorblindness” movement. The move
ment’s name arises from a literal misreading of the Civil
\^ar amendments to the Constitution.
Members of the movement use this misreading to chal-
'■ lenge the constitutionality of govem-
ExECUTIVE mental actions undertaken to alleviate
StJMMARY the lingering disadvantages suffered by
-j black citizens for more that 200 years of
s?aveiy and 100 years of subsequent repression.
The “colorblindness” backlash erodes advances toward
^ equal civil rights made during my Ufe-
time and threatens to entrench for the
lifetime of my children the privilege
’ illegally seized by the white majority.
Barely longer ago than my birth in
1958, our nation took its &st steps
toward enforcement of the equal pro
tection prescribed by the Constitution.-
Within my memory, the Civil Rights
Act finally banished “Jim Crow” laws.
Fewer than 30 years ago, the Supreme
Court affirmed Swann, driving out one
of Jim Crow’s last recalcitrant relatives
-■de facto school segregation.
©uring the last three decades, we have made steady
progress away from three centuries of injustice, and we
have begun to approach real equality.
But the remedy is not complete. As a result of justice
delayed, justice is stiU denied. Power, wealth and their
concomitant privileges remain disproportionately in the
hands of the white majority. Relative poverty, homeless
ness, crime, and disease remain disproportionately on
the shoulders of the black minority.
Clontrary to the claims of the “colorblindness” move
ment, the Constitution requires that the law see color to
assure that people of all colors enjoy equal protection. The
Constitution does not allow us to choose to be blind either
to .the continuing disadvantages of people of color or to
Simmons
the historical sources of those disadvantages.
Many of the folks who promote such blindness exercise
a conscious disregard for law and history. ‘T never owned
slaves, so why should I suffer for what I didn’t do?” they
complain.
Of course, the majority does not “suffer” by the loss of
unearned privilege that has been passed through gener
ations of constitutional violations to modem heirs. Those
in the vanguard of the backlash are people of my genera
tion and my race who seek to preserve privilege for their
children while both denying indebtedness to a sordid his
tory and avoiding the responsibility to share their taint
ed inheritance with those fiom whom it was stolen.
'The Constitution is the supreme law in a structure of
laws that provides remedies for violations of law. The
white majority violated the Constitution for more than
the first 150 years of our nation through the passage and
enforcement of unconstitutional laws. The violations
damaged black citizens, and the damage was perpetuat
ed in the institutions of society. Merely removing the vio
lations from the law is not an adequate remedy. Payment
of reparations is not a reasonable remedy for the institu
tional repression of generations.
The only adequate and reasonable remedy is the award
of the legal right to require the institutions of society to
prove that they are not perpetuating the filegal denial of
equal protection.
The appointed Federal judges were the first to exercise
the courage to begin the remedy by striking down uncon
stitutional laws. The executive and the legislature fol
lowed. Enforcement of the remedy still rests with a legis
lature, executive and judiciary controlled by the majority,
and all three branches are now less hkely to exercise the
courage to stay the course against the bitter backlash.
Many in the “colorblindness” movement challenge the
remedy rmder the guise of opposition to a “special right.”
'They claim the remedy unconstitutionally recognizes
color in the enforcement of the law. This “special right” is
nothing other than the focus on race mandated by the
Constitution to assure that equal protection is not denied
based on race, and that the opposition to the remedy is
merely the exhmnation of Jim Crow’s remains to deny
equal protection under an assumed name.
In The Alamo, when Davey Crockett was asked why he
had chosen to risk his life in a fight that was not his own,
he said that a wrong can be opposed in two ways: risk lit
tle by speaking gentle words for what is right, or risk
much by striking a blow against what is wrong.
In our battle, gentle words now go unheard. Folks must
be wiUmg to risk more by striking blows with strong
words.
The nouveau segregationist hypocrites of the “color
blindness” backlash must be subjected to the shame that,
they are so quick to call down on others but so slow to
accept for themselves. Their passive allies must be con
fronted with a mirror reflecting their complicity. Only by
struggling against the “colorblind” denial of equal protec
tion can we hope to reach the day when we wfll stand on
the level field described in the Constitution and rejoice
together in the many hues of the color that we see.
ROBERT W. SIMMONS is an attorney with the firm of
Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson PA. in Charlotte.
Racism in the college sports industry
^ Bernice
t- Powell
"Jackson
hi
J' intentionally chose the head-
hne for this column to include
the words “college sports indus-
tity” because clearly college
sports, particularly basketball
and football in the largest, most
sports-competitive universities
irtthe nation, is an industry. It is
also an entertainment industry,
just like the professional sports
are just as much about enter-
tadnment as they are about ath
letics.
Many of the young people play
ing college basketball or football
are African American.
Unfortunately, aU too often the
adults who work with them—the
cqaches, the trainers, the scouts
— do not seem to mirror that. It
seems that while college sports
do provide an avenue for young
African Americans to get an edu
cation, it may not provide a
venue for employment after
wards.
Now, one young college coach is
brave enough to raise the issue of
employment of African
Americans by college sports
departments. His name is Sean
Sl(eppard and he’s a strength
and conditioning coach at Ohio
State University and he’s written
an open letter calling Ohio State,
the National CoUegiate Athletic
Association, and the broadcast
ing industry into accountability.
Sean Sheppard has 14 plus
years of experience as a college
athlete himself and as a coach in
Division I athletics. He has
worked in small private colleges,
in state imiversities and in huge
athletic departments. He has
coached elite football and basket
ball players and those who are
below average.
I’ve never looked Sean
Sheppard in the eye, but I have
talked with him on the telephone
and I have talked with those who
have known him since childhood
and I would say that I have
never talked with a more sincere,
more respectful, more caring
young man. But he is one who
must tell the truth as he sees it
— something all too many of us
are afraid to do too much of the
time. So when he sent me a copy
of a statement he recently made,
I paid attention.
In it, he calls attention to the
fact that of the 342 employees
within the Ohio State University
athletic department, there are
only 19 African Americans (5 per
cent), despite the fact that most
of the football and men’s basket
ball teams are African
Americans. There are only four
black assistant coaches of the 70
assistant coaches. There is only 1
black female coach. There are
only two head coaches in a
department of 30 coaches.
Indeed, in the 100 years of histo
ry of Ohio State basketball, there
has been only one black head
coach and there has never been
an African American head foot
ball coach.
Sheppard raises the question of
whether the message, conscious
or unconscious, that is being
delivered to the African
American community is that
while universities have no trou
ble awarding scholarships to
black athletes because of the
money these athletes wfll gener
ate, they have a problem sharing
that money vrith the African
American community by hiring
black coaches. It’s a message, he
says, that the African American
community is getting loud and
clear and they are talking about
it in barber shops, black-owned
restaurants and other places
where informal conversation is
held.
The need for more African
Americans in college coaching is
not just about sharing the wealth
of college athletics either. It is
about providing the role models,
the counseling and the much-
needed mentoring which African
American athletes so desperately
need. Who better understands a
young athlete from the inner city
than an adult who’s been there
himself or herself? Who can bet
ter recognize the signs of trouble
which these young people often
show?
Now, it is important to say that
Ohio State probably is not the
only university with such hiring
records. I expect that most of the
NCAA Division I athletic depart
ments have comparable num
bers. While I don’t have statistics
for aU NCAA Division I schools, I
do have the total numbers of
NCAA athletic administrators,
where nationally about 8 percent
of them are African American.
Which means that some of the
larger NCAA universities proba
bly have better hiring records
than OSUs while some undoubt
edly have worse.
Sean Sheppard is quick to
point out that advances have
been made in the college sports
industry over the past genera
tion. 'There are significantly
more African American quarter
backs and more black head
coaches now than 20 years ago.
But, he asks, how far have we
really come. And I would add,
how far are we wflling to go?
Sheppard’s solution to this
inequity is for the NCAA and its
member schools to actively
recruit and market themselves
at job fairs on college campuses
across the country with the sole
purpose of recruiting talented
people of color. Secondly, he calls
upon the television broadcasting
industry, which pays billions
(with a “b”) of dollars to televise
NCAA basketball and football
tournaments, to also put aside
funds for this purpose. Thirdly,
he calls for a new kind of Title IX
program (the government pro
gram mandating equal sports for
women in college) which would
work like Title DC, but would
ensure coaches of color as well as
athletes.
Sean Sheppard has started the
conversation. OSU Athletic
Director Andy Geiger has
responded that Sheppard is right
and that he appreciates his tak
ing the leadership on this. He
calls for a reduction in the
rhetoric and an increase in
results. Let’s hope he really
means that and that he wfll not
only take up the challenge him
self, but invite his colleagues
around the country to do the
same.
BERNICE POWELL JACKSON is
executive director of the Commission
for Racial Justice in Cleveland, Ohio.
Health care indushy is sick because of lawsuit threats
By.Armstrong Williams
SPECIAL TO THE POST
X doctor has a way of reassur
ing. He exudes health and
knowledge. On the golf course,
he maintains a statuesque form.
Iiythe emergency room, we pray
to him. When he restores health
to, our loved ones, we ciy in joy
and thankfulness.
Still, something about the doc
tor galls us. He fattens himself
on our physical vulnerabflify. He
has decorated his house with om
checks. On the highway he
swooshes past us in his candy-
apple Porsche, the gUnt of sun
tingling off the polished
chrome. This makes us feel vul
nerable all over again. And so, on
some level, we wish to take from
him, this medical demagogue
who has the audacity to sit so
high upon the pedestal we erect
ed for him.
Given the slightest opportuni
ty, we wfll drag him down.
Exhibit A: Doctors, who
stopped to help victims of car
accidents, violent assaults, etc.,
found their good deeds rewarded
with astronomical malpractice
lawsuits. Exhibit B: ATfexas lady
sued her nutritionist because her
daughter failed to lose any signif
icant amount of weight following
repeated visits. The list goes on,
endlessly, and senselessly. It is
perhaps the definition of frivo
lousness that a Doctor’s hard-
earned professional reputation
should end in the moment that it
takes to facflitater a lawsuit that
has no genuine merit.
Of course, medical malpractice
is a serious issue, claiming the
fives of an estimated 44,000 peo
ple a year nationally. Perhaps
even more disconcerting though,
is the tide of frivolous suits and
the imburdened ease with which
patients are crying victim. This
fact has doctors on the defensive.
After all, an innocent pat on the
tummy while dislodging a blood
sausage from a dinner compan
ion’s esophagus (ala the
Heimlich maneuver) could mean
heU to pay down the road in a
malpractice suit.
“Many doctors have avoided
the scene of an accident because
every time he would help, out of
that came a lawsuit,” explains
Dr. Ficcara, a former emeritus
surgeon who practiced in New
York. “That is injustice and it
deprives a patient of the help
that is necessary in the time of
emergency.”
Sadly, this tide of frivolous liti
gation is driving a wedge
between patient and doctor. “A
physician today wfll not take
that extra step that is necessary
to help patients, for fear of a law
suit,” said Dr. Ficcara.. “The doc
tor’s now are practicing defen
sive medicine in every area. He
has no choice but to become more
self-protective in the matter
because of malpractice.”
'This came clear to me recently
while I grappled with an eye dis
ease called Iritis, which causes
inflammation and irritation so
pervasive as to threaten blind
ness. While in South Carolina for
some speaking engagements, my
right eye flared up for the first
time in months, sending flashes of
pain throughout my body. The eye
immediately swelled and
watered. When I called McCloud
Regional Hospital in Florence,
S.C., I was told the opthamologist
would only talk to patients or
admittants to the emergency
room. I stood there on the other
side of the phone, dumbly won
dering what to do. I pleaded with
the answering service to speak
with the doctor, at this point gasp
ing in pain. The voice on the other
end reiterated: the doctor wfll not
see you mfless you are a patient.
The words danced around my
head with horror.
Finally, I was able to convince
the answering service to contact
the doctor. Thankfully, one Dr.
Hunter R Stokes Jr. showed
empathy and compassion in
agreeing to advise me as to what
to do, before phoning in a pre
scription at a local pharmacy.
Upon my return to D.C., I
relayed the story to my regular
physician. Dr. Wicker. “That’s a
miracle,” he exclaimed. “Because
in this litigious society, it is
unheard of for a doctor to pre
scribe medicine to someone who
isn’t their patient. And you could
have suffered to the point where
that right eye would have been
jeopardized. .. .it happens all the
time.”
What a sad state of affairs
when a fear of lawsuits rents so
much space in our doctor’s
heads. Plainly, if medicine is to
offer patients the best care avail
able, we must not orfly be able to
trust doctors, they must be able
to trust us. Otherwise, their
sacred oath to heal wfll be sub
verted by the fear of frivolous
lawsuits.
ARMSTRONG WILUAMS is a syn
dicated columnist.
Parents
care; kids
can learn
By Emory Curtis
SPECIAL TO THE POST
Just after writing this piece I’ll
be attending the University of
Southern California
Neighborhood Academic
Initiative annual ceremony,
where achieving students (in
their lexicon, “scholars”) and par
ents, guardians and significant
adults receive recognition for
making the NAI program an
undupficated success in convert
ing low achieving students into
high-performing scholars.
I’m attending for two reasons.
One, just seeing youngsters
pulled off the public school sys
tem’s economic dump road
renews my belief that public
schools can work - with the right
leadership. Secondly, I want to see
if, for once, a locally elected official
wiU attend the ceremony.
In the NAI program, sixth grade
“C” average students in low-per
forming (1 or 2 on a 10 scale) ele
mentary schools surrounding
use in the Los Angeles Coliseum
area are given a chance to get the
equivalent of a good private prep
school education. If the student
and the adultfs) in the home wfll
commit themselves to do the
work, they wfll not only get a good
prep school education but may
also get a four-and-one-half year
free ride at USC.
Commitment requires more
than lip service by both the schol
ar, nee student, and the adults in
the home.
For the student, it means being
at USC for two hours each week
day morning for instructions from
NAI teachers before going to their
regular school for regular classes.
For three days each week the NAI
students go to USC for one-and-a-
half to two hours for tutoring by
USC students.
'That’s not aU. Every school
night, there is a three-hour home
work session at home with no 'TV.
And then on Saturday, NAI schol
ars spend four hours in a work
shop that covers such topics as
communications, mathematics,
information technology, science,
and SAT and ACT exam prepara
tion.
The Family Development
Institute, an NAI support pro
gram, runs a parallel four-hour
program on Saturdays for the
responsible adults in the homes of
NAI scholars. That program
keeps them in tune with their
own scholars and offers parenting
and home management work
shops.
'That’s quite a load on scholars,
nee students, and their parent(s),
guardians or responsible adults.
That load can only be carried if
there is a complete change in
focus and culture within the
household. And that is exactly
what happens.
It happens because the adults
are committed to changing their
own fives and paving the way for
their chfld(ren) to do much better
m fife than they have; very few of
those households had ever had
any member attend a four-year
college. 'Therefore, it is hard for
the adults to have envisioned of
an offspring of theirs attending
USC under any circumstances.
Nevertheless, many have had
that vision come true. In 1997,
there were 46 graduates of the
program. 'Twenty-four are now in
USC on scholarships, five are in
other four-year colleges and 12
are in community colleges. 'The
total for the program for the past
three years are 140 graduates, 63
of which are in USC, 12 in the
California State University sys
tem, 36 of which are in communi
ty college, eight in the University
of California system, three in
other state college systems, four
in other private colleges, three in
Ivy League institutions and three
in vocational school. 'The where
abouts of eight of the graduates
are imknown.
Those figures show that USC’s
NAI program has taken 140 “C”
average sixth graders who were
potential gang members, drive-by
shooters, shooting victims, or
school dropouts and put them on
the threshold of becoming real
contributing and productive
members of this society.
Syndicated columnist EMORY CUR
TIS can be reached via e-mail at. eccur-
tis@hotmail.com.