•4.::HE.CAR0L1NA TiMHS-SATURrJAY. JANUARY 8,2005
commentary
Vanta2e Point
Life After Mfume
At the NAACP
By Ron Daniels
The shocking news that Kweisi Mfume, President/CEO of black Amer
ica’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, has resigned has settled
in now and the NAACP is setting about the task of finding a new leader.
Mfume is someone who I have always held in high regard. I thought he
was one of the most effective Chairpersons in the history of the Congres
sional Black Caucus. Hence, there were high expectations as he assumed
the mantle of leadership of a scandal and debt ridden organization nearly
a decade ago. The Association was in desperate need of repair if it was to
retain its place as black America’s pre-eminent civil rights organization.
One thing is certain, Mfume restored the credibility of the NAACP, and
he not only leaves it debt free, the organization has a healthy surplus.
This is no small achievement. Moreover, working with the NAACP
Voter Fund in 2000, Mfume spearheaded one of the most successful
voter registration drives in recent history. Consequently, it was not sur
prising that he helped lead the demand for a recount of the vote in Florida
when multitudes of blacks were disenfranchised in the presidential elec
tion. The NAACP’s hearings and investigation helped to provide the
pressure to compel Florida to revamp the machinery and methods of ad
ministering elections. During his tenure Mfume also called on the motion
picture industry to include more blacks in featured roles in movies, and
he responded to allegations of discrimination against blacks in certain
hotel and restaurant chains and successfully signed covenants to redress
the grievances. He also placed the full weight of the national organization
behind the campaign to have the Confederate Battle Flag removed from
the perch of the Capital building in South Carolina.
Though these are important contributions, I must confess that Mfume’s
tenure fell short of my expectations. While a great deal of the Associa
tion’s work is done in local communities by its more than 2,000 bran
ches, I still believe that the national organization should visibly lead and
support campaigns to address the major systemic racial, social, economic
injustices that plague the masses of black poor and working people in this
country. In that sense, I feel Mfume never quite found his voice as Presi
dent/CEO of the NAACP. Perhaps he did not see this kind of leadership
as a priority given the circumstances he inherited when he took office.
On critical issues like the assault on civil rights, the erosion of civil
liberties and the impact of the war in Iraq on blacks, people of color and
the poor, more often than not it has been Julian Bond, the Chairman of
the Board, who has been the most vocal. But even Bond’s protestations
have not been backed by sustained action to lead or support movements
addressing these issues.
Whether expressing the views of the Board or his own, Bond often
sounded more militant and aggressive in promoting and defending civil
rights, civil liberties and a social justice agenda than Mfume. Indeed,
rumors abound that there were tensions between these two giants.
Though insiders with whom I have spoken deny that there was a conflict
between them, it did often appear that there were two leaders of the
NAACP rather than one. This could pose a problem as the Association
begins to search for a new President/CEO. Whoever replaces Mfume will
be asked to lead the Association at one of the most dangerous moments
in American history as it relates to the undermining of civil rights, civil
liberties and the shredding of the social/economic safety net for working
people, the struggling middle class and the poor. In the first decade of the
21st century, our oldest and largest civil rights organizations must retool
itself to face these enormous new challenges or risk being rendered ir
relevant.
As a Lifetime Member of the Association and one who earned my early
stripes as an organizer in the NAACP youth division, I am concerned
about and committed to working with the organization to deepen and
broaden its engagement in the struggle for African and human liberation
in the 21st century. In my view, there is an urgent need for a
debate/dialogue within the one, which is devoted to the uplift of Africans
in America as its primary though not exclusive focus. I would submit
that, now more than ever, there is a need for what Dr. Ramona Edelin
calls a "cultural offensive" to define the nature of the African freedom
struggle in America and the world. With the "black agenda" either being
ignored or under assault and in the face of other racial minorities/people
of color who may not be particularly sympathetic to our interests and
aspirations, there is a crucial need for internal consolidation and an em
phasis on capacity-building - the ability to more effectively articulate,
promote and defend black Interests.
A major component of this internal empowerment imperative is to
reach out to every branch of the African family now represented in a
dramatically changing black community. The NAACP must make a con
scious effort to include, involve and represent Africans from the con
tinent who are now a growing segment of the new African community in
the U.S., Caribbean Americans including Haitians and Afro-Latinos from
Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central and South America. The re-creation of a
united front structure like the National African American Leadership
Summit is another critical priority. The Association must be in the fore
front of the effort to build greater operational unity in the National Black
Community.
Finally, the focus on internal empowerment/capacity-building must in
clude harnessing our human and material resources to strengthen the
cultural-educational, social, economic and political (voter mobilization)
infrastructure in black communities across the country. At this critical
juncture in history, we need an NAACP that is not only the oldest and
largest civil rights organization; we need the Association to retool to be
come a vital force for the liberation of African people in this century!
Celebrating Kwanzaa,
Celebrating Community
S‘
By Marian Wright Edehnan
During the last week of December, many black families and com
munities observed Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a unique celebration because
it’s not a religious or national holiday, but a cultural one. And it doesn’t 1
celebrate a person or an event but a set of ideas. In a year when Amer-'
icans have heard a lot about "values," values are what Kwanzaa is all
about. As Dr. Maulana Karenga, the originator of Kwanzaa, explains,
"There is no way to understand and appreciate the meaning and message
of Kwanzaa without understanding and appreciating its profound and ^
pervasive concern with values. In fact, Kwanzaa’s reason for existence, >
its length of seven days, its core focus and its foundation are all rooted in
its concern with values." And the values Kwanzaa celebrates and asks
people to live up to aren’t about individual private behavior, but the
values a community needs to be strong and thrive.
The Nguzo Saba, or seven principles, are the framework of a Kwanzaa
celebration. In fact, Dr. Karenga exiriaini, they are the key building'
Witness for .Justice
The Female Face
Of HIV/AIDS
By Bernice Powell Jackson
AIDS, thy face now is female. That’s right. Half of those infected with
HIV/AIDS worldwide are now women - and girls. Over the past decade
there has been an increasing feminization of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, so
much so that the 2004 focus of World AIDS Day, December 1, is women
and girls. It is now estimated that 20 million women and girls are HIV
positive worldwide.
AIDS, thy face now is female. Women and girls are particularly vul
nerable. They are biologically, culturally, economically and socially vul
nerable. This vulnerability is due to inadequate knowledge, insufficient
access to HIV prevention services, inability to negotiate safer sex, a lack
of female-controlled HIV prevention methods and the reality of sexual
violence in their lives, in some cases by their intimate partners. More
over, in many places women face a hostile judicial system and lack ac
cess to reproductive services.
AIDS, thy face is now female. Girls are being infected at a frightening
rate. The rate of HIV infection among young people worldwide is grow
ing rapidly - they are 67% of the newly infected and in the developing
world young women make up almost 2/3 of those newly infected. In
many places in the world marriage at a young age can also make for in
creased vulnerability to infection.
AIDS, thy face is now female. With the explosion of sex trafficking of
women in the world over the past decade, it should be no surprise that
HIV infection is on the rise among women and girls. It is estimated that
at least two million women and girls are trafficked each year. Many of
these are young girls sold by their families to brothels in Asia, but they
also include women in the U.S., Mexico, Africa and Europe.
AIDS, thy face is now female. Many of the HIV infected women are
married. A recent study in South Africa, for instance, found that 10.5%
of married couples in that nation were HIV infected. It found that
married women actually are at somewhat greater risk of infection be
cause they did not practice safe sex and did not know their husbands
were infected. There is no reason not to assume that this is true in the
U.S. as well.
AIDS, thy face is now female. Women in war zones are particularly
vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection as rape is increasingly being used as a
tactic against women caught in war zones. But women in other places
also are susceptible to infection by rape. Moreover, many women find it
difficult to negotiate safer sex with their partners who have recently
returned from war, prison or other highly susceptible places.
AIDS, thy face is now female. Many women don’t know their HIV
status until they become violently ill. That’s why it’s critically important
for everyone to be tested for HIV infection..
AIDS, thy face is now female. More and more in the U.S., the face of
the pandemic is that of black women. In the U.S., where African Amer
icans make up about 12% of the population, more than 1/3 of the
HIV/AIDS cases are African Americans and more than half of these are
women.
Indeed, the HIV/AIDS rate for African American women is 20 times
that of white American women. , •
AIDS, thy face is now female - and both young and old. One of the
fastest growing infected populations in the U.S. are black teens, ages 13-
19. They make up 60% of the infected youth population. Likewise, black
senior citizens make up half of the HIV cases in their age group. And two
thirds of the pediatric AIDS cases in this country are black children.
AIDS, thy face is now female and we’ve got to stop pretending that
HIV/AIDS is not "our" disease, both in this nation and in the world.
We’ve got to support those women living with HIV and organizations
which work with them and networks which they create to survive. We’ve
got to make HIV/AIDS funds work for women - we’ve got to demand
that these funds target women. We’ve got to ensure that women learn
about HIV/AIDS prevention and how to negotiate for their own sexual
safety. We’ve got to ensure that women get equal access to treatment.
We’ve got to promote literacy for girls. We’ve got to promote zero
tolerance of violence against women.
This World AIDS Day, December 1, let us pray for women and girls.
Let us pray for an end to this horrible and growing pandemic. Then let us
get busy on working at ending it by naming it, owning it, educating about
it, advocating for those living with it. Only if we name it and claim it can
we end it.
Where the world ceases to be the scene of our pewonal hopes and
wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and
observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science.
—^Albert Einstein
Business Exchange
Does Mixing Politics and
Business Work For You?
Disinvestment in Sudan Is an
Issue about Growing Your Money
By William Reed
Black activists and religious groups are pressing public pension funds
to divest $91 billion in holdings of companies operating in oil-rich
Sudan. In a campaign modeled after the movement against apartheid in
South Africa 20 years ago, activists associated with the Sudan Campaign
are asking public employees to protest their retirement dollars going to
businesses dealing with the regime in Khartoum. "We’re asking the
people whose money is being invested to say that blood business is bad
business," states the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a Washington, D.C., minister
and former delegate to Congress.
He leads the Sudan Campaign, which wants teachers, police, officers,
firefighters and other public employees to know that some of their retire
ment money may be invested in companies that do business in the Afri
can country of Sudan. Their brand of "shareholder activism," is to ask
those people to write to pension fund managers and state legislators and
demand their funds be redirected. But, before public service workers and
retirees allow money for their "golden years" to be guided by Fauntroy’s
brands of politics, stock market activism and international business rela
tions they should review a few facts that seems to have passed the good
reverend by.
First of all, although the Anti-Apartheid activists can take credit for a
few hundred blacks now being in top-levels of the government in South
Africa, there is absolutely no reality that their efforts resulted in changes
for the masses of blacks in that country. Twenty years ago, as Anti-
Apartheid activists pressed for sanctions against that government, black
unemployment was at 50 percent - today black unemployment in South
Africa is still at 50 percent and whites still control 80 percent of all eco
nomic production there.
"This issue has captured the moral center of the vast majority of the
people in this country," said Rev. Walter Fauntroy said. Not to impugn
Rev. Fauntroy’s record of activism and seeking change through action.
He ^ has been extensively and Wigorolisly involved in community and
political activity, in and outside the .governmental system. But, that’s no
reason to trust his financial advice. Plus, according to events on the
ground in Africa’s largest country, Fauntroy’s campaign may be dollars
shorts and days late.
Sudan is set to introduce a new currency under efforts to restore unity.
The new money will replace the Sudanese dinar and will be^introduced
after a peace deal is signed, ending more than two decades of civil war in
the south. The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the
group the Sudan Campaign is supporting has agreed to the idea. Under
the peace deal, due to be finalized by the end of 2004, the SPLM is due
to take up a role in the government as well as a major share of
responsibilities in the south. As part of the peace deal, revenues from the
oil industry, which produces about 320,000 barrels a day, will be split
equally between the north and south of the country.
In spite of its troubles and its isolation from the international com
munity, Sudan has a surprisingly sound and liberalized macro economy.
There are no exchange controls, inflation is in single digits and growth in
2003 was 5.9 percent. The engine for the economy is the oil industry
which is expected to double in production in the next several years as the
15 known oil fields are exploited and the internal oil pipeline system is
upgraded. Sudan’s principal imports are foodstuffs, beverages, chemi
cals, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment. Its main
exports are crude oil, cotton, gum arable, sesame seed, livestock and
gold.
Will public service workers follow Fauntroy’s lead or follow the advice
of their pension fund officials, who’ve shown a propensity to chafe at
political demands to change investment portfolios? Pension fund officials
(Continued On Page 15)
To Be Equal
Ideas That
Are Never
Out of Season
(Continued On
15)
By Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
‘Tis the season, as they say, when the rhetoric about kindness and
goodwill toward all rings out across the landscape.
It shines through even the commercials which accompany the televised
, reruns of those traditional holiday-season movies that have warmed the
• hearts of Americans for generations.
Unfortunately, this year, as every year, there is considerable grim evi
dence that all too often life does not imitate art.
2004 and 2005 mark the fortieth anniversary of two of the greatest
I monuments to American ideals of democracy, the Civil Rights Act of
I 19^ and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet, in recent weeks several
policy studies and news stories have underscored how far from the ■
promised land of equal opportunity American society remains.
That sad fact tolls in a lower register than the usual peals of festive
cheer, almost like a perverse echo reminding us that prejudice and heart-
, lessness never take a holiday.
For example, statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
indicate that racial bigotry was the cause of more than half of the nearly ;
7,500 hate crimes reported to the agency in 2003 and that the 2,500 acts '
j of bigotry against African Americans were far greater than the number ;
- against any other racial group.
The year s totals, which were slightly above 2002 figures, are largely
1 comprised of acts of intimidation, vandalism and destruction of property.
But they also include a total of 14 murders, more than 2,700 assaults and
400 robberies, burglaries and thefts, and 34 incidents of arson, ’
The Federal documents shows that crimes categorized as anti-lslamic
: remained at about the same level as in 2002: 149, although some ques-,
tion whether these crimes are significantly under-reported. By far, most
of the hate crimes motivated by religious bias were against Jews: the 927
incidents were about the same as in 2002.
Spokesmen for civil rights groups said the figures show a need for
stronger federal laws against hate crimes as well as increased Justice
Dept assistance to local law enforcement agencies to prosecute such
crimes.
Such legislation passed both Houses of Congress this year but was
tabled when differences in the House and Senate versions couldn’t be
reconciled.
The need for a stronger federal tools takes on an even greater urgency
when one considers that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a respected
monitor of acts of bigotry and extremist groups and individuals, contends
the federal statistics substantially under-report the reality.
Noting that that because several states have weak hate-crime laws
(some don’t recognize bias against sexual orientation as a basis for a hate
crime) and the reporting done to the FBI by local law enforcement agen
cies is entirely voluntary (less than 20 percent of the nation’s 11,900 law
enforcement agencies do so), the Center estimates the real annual, number
of hate crimes is about 50,000-nearly 7 times the federal estimate.
Thus, it’s even more alarming to read that a recent study by the Trans- s;
actional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University concluded
from its review of Justice Department data that federal criminal and civil
court actions against violations of civil rights laws have fallen sig
nificantly since 1999-to less than 100 in the former, and about 1,900 in
the latter-even as the total number of complaints has held steady at about
12,000 a year.
But it’s not only government inaction that causes concern:
Whether it be an ill-considered comment by NBC’s new network an- >
chor, Brian Williams, that seemed to suggest diversity at the top of the j
network’s .news division needn’t be a matter of great concern. Williams i
later expressed his commitment to diversity at NBC as well as elsewhere
after a protest by the National Association of Black Journalists; )
Or the bizarre behavior of a Louisiana judge who wore blackface
makeup, handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit to a Halloween party (his wife
went as a policewoman), yet contended he meant no insult to blacks.'
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