Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Jan. 22, 2004, edition 1 / Page 6
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6A NEWS/IC|e diatlatte Thursday, January 22, 2004 flHne socuiiu prognm has *slawe’overtones By Hazel Trice Edney NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON - The pro posed computerized federal airline security system that would require passengers to present identification, undergo a background check and be color-coded, based on their perceived risk, harkens back to slave laws that pre vented blacks from travel ing, says a Harvard University researcher who specializes in privacy issues. ‘"What this is really remi niscent of is what happened on plantations during slav ery when black people or persons of color had to have passes in order to travel,” says Richard Sobel, a priva cy policy researcher at the Harvard Medical School. “Essentially, the 13th Amendment ended involun tary servitude, but when you have to ask the government’s permission to do certain things such as to travel or to work, you are no longer your own person.” Despite strong opposition from civil libertarians and civil rights activists, the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration is pushing ahead with the so- called CAPPS 2 program with hopes it will be in full operation within a month. It is a heightened version of the Computer Assisted Passenger PreScreening pro gram (CAPPS 1), instituted to heighten security follow ing the Sept. 11, 2001 terror ist attacks. The TSA argues that cur rent security measures, which centers on the scruti ny of packages and people in search of potential weapons - is not enough. CAPPS II would collect the names, home addresses and phone numbers, dates of birth and travel itineraries of travel ers. The information would then be fed into huge data bases, such as Lexis-Nexis and Acxiom, that are con nected to public records. It would draw on credit bureau reports. Social Security numbers and other personal data before assigning a threat level to potential pas sengers. A red rating would prohib it the traveler from boarding a flight. A yellow rating would mean a passenger will be scrutinized and ques tioned further before allowed to board a plane. A green rat ing allows a person a stan dard flight experience. While there have been increased advocacy - even from liberals — to sacrifice some conveniences since Sept. 11, CAPPS 2 is the level of scrutiny that simply goes too far, according to some activists. “Requests for I.D.s happen to blacks and minorities much more often than whites,” Sobel says. “Travel is a civil right. The black migration that occurred in this country brought a wave of migration from the South... Imagine what it would be like now if people had to get government’s per mission to go to Chicago.” As early as 1690, laws were established to criminal ize transported Africans who moved about or even visited fiiends on other plantations without passes. Slave patrols, mostly White males with guns, were set up to enforce the laws. “The real danger to civil liberties is that the govern ment assumes that it has the right to tell people whether they can travel or not. And that’s not a stretch. That’s exactly what the system is about,” Sobel says. “It’s also saying it’s okay for the gov ernment to go into your pri vate records, even if you haven’t done anything wrong, to potentially restrict what you’re able to do.” Sobel says he hopes activists will oppose CAPPS 2. And many are. Bill Scannell, the activist who led the successful boy cott against Delta Airlines last spring, after the airline worked with the TSA to implement CAPPS II on an experimental basis, has established a new site, Ebony magazine editor honored at Livingstone By Mai Li Munoz Adams SPECIAL TO THE POST SALISBURY — The editor of Ebony magazine will be hon ored at Livingstone College’s Founders’ Day ceremonies Feb. 5 in Varick Auditorium. Lerone Bennett Jr., an historian and the publication’s exec utive editor, will be given an honorary' degree, along with Abdul Sm Rasheed, president and chief executive officer of the North Carolina Community Development Initiative and for mer Charlotte City Council member Ron Deeper. The event is free. The keynote address will be given by Bishop Cecil Bishop, chair of the Livingstone College Board of 'Trustees, senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and bishop of the Piedmont Episcopal District. Beimett, a Mississippi native, is an alumnus of Morehouse College in Atlanta. Early in his career, Bennett worked as a reporter and then city editor at the Atlanta Daily World. He assumed the post of associate editor at Jet magazine in 1953 and in 1954 became associate editor at Ebony, which was established in 1945 by John H. Johnson. In 1958 he became Ebony’s senior editor and in 1987 was named executive editor. Bennett was also a visiting professor at Northwestern University from 1968-1969 and a senior fellow at the Institute of Black World in 1969. For more than 40 years, Bennett has been writing the his tory of blacks in America. Out of a series of articles written for Ebony emerged Bennett’s first book, “Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America: 1619-1962,” published by Johnson PubUshing Company. Other history books by Beimett are “The Negro Mood,” ‘What Maimer of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.,” and “Confrontation: Black and White.” lb recognize those who helped the college with its $20 mil lion capital campaign, Livingstone President Algeania Freeman Ph.D. will also present meritorious commendations to trustees Bishop George Battle Jr., chair of Livingstone’s capital campaign; Dorothy Colson, president of the Livingstorie College National Alumni Association and director of the UNCF/Annual Fund at Bennett College; and Bishop Cecil Bishop. Immediately following the ceremonies, guests are invited to the renovated Old Hood Building for a rededication ceremony. Rooms inside the building will be named for individuals for their donations and/or contributions to the college’s $20 mil lion capital campaign. They include Bishop William and the late Mrs. Edra Hilliard, the late Bishop Charles Foggie, Dr. and Mrs. Winsel Black, Bishop Cecil Bishop and Battle. www.dontspyonus.com. “To think that my own country that I served in the Army and aU of that stuff, wants to put up internal bor der controls that I’m sup posed to get permission granted to me to determine whether I can travel from one part of my country to another part of my countiy. It’s appalling,” Scannell says. The TSA projects that at least 5 percent of flyers might be coded yellow or red under CAPPS II. Under cur rent security measures 15 percent of customers are flagged for further checks. Even some conservative groups are raising questions about CAPPS 2. “There are procedural and operational questions that need to be worked out,” says Charles Pena, a defense pol icy analyst for the CATO Institute, a Libertarian, non profit research foundation in Washington, D.C. “I’m all for catching crimi nals, but is this a counter- terrorism measure or is this a crime-fighting measure? The more you blur the two, the more you’re on a shppeiy slope,” says Pena. “And racial profiling is a concern that we cannot dismiss.” Profiling of Muslims after Sept. 11 will also add to the profiling of blacks, says LaShawn Warren, legisla tive counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The MusHm faith is the fastest growing religion among African Americans,” Warren says. “And so, our concern is that this is going to unfairly impact African Americans and it’s going to target them.” The expansion of CAPPS 2 can be stopped in several ways, aU requiring a coali tion of people taking stands, say activists: • Citizens contacting members of Congress and even local and state legisla tors could put pressure on the TSA to reconsider the plan; • Congress could decide to make a law to defund the program and simply say no money can be spent on it; • Airlines could rebel, say ing they fear losing cus tomers to other forms of transportation and. • Boycott and divest in companies and reservation systems that are used in con junction CAPPS 2. “I’m not saying there’s not a problem. 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