Steele says all-white club should
reconsider policy on blacks
BALTIMORE (AP) - In a change of course. Maryland's lieu
tenant governor says he understands (he anger of blacks and other
minorities at the membership practices at the ' .
all-white Elkridge Club, telling a radio station
that the club should reconsider its policies.
Michael Steele, the state's first black lieu
tenant governor, spoke Saturday to WBAL
AM about the criticism surrounding a June
20 fund-raiser that Republican Gov. Robert
Ehrlich held at the exclusive Baltimore club,
raising SlOOjOOO for the 2006 re-election
campaign.
"With Elkridge, the core issue there is the
perception of discrimination is just as insidi
ous as the reality of discrimination, so we
need to tackle it on all fronts," said Steele.
Steele
who is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2006. 'There is a sen
sitivity with respect to this issue, particularly in the African- American
community, that cannot be lost. ... The symbol of this club grates*"
No policy at the club bans blacks, members have told The (Balti
more) Sun. but there has never been a black member. After a state law
was passed prohibiting country clubs from getting a property tax
break if they discriminated in their membership policies, the Elkridge
Club gave up its tax break in 1977 rather than give its membership list
to the state, Robert A. Zamoch, an assistant attorney general, told The
Sun.
The fund-raiser drew strong criticism from black leaders, some of
whom pointed out that Ehrlich attended an event at a club where
Steele wouldn't be welcomed as a member.
National NAACP endorsing
two Connecticut tribes
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Ttoo Indian tribes in Connecticut
have the support of the NAACP in their quest for federal recognition.
Meeting at its annual convention in Milwaukee, the civil rights
group endorsed a resolution supporting the Eastern Pequots and the
Schaghticokes, who have had their federal recognition overturned.
"We believe the resolution was a first step in calling national
attention to the unrelenting and unfair attacks being mounted against
both the Eastern Pequots and the Schaghticokes," said James Griffin,
president of the Greater Waterbury Branch of the NAACP and author
of the resolution. "We can't afford to sit by and let lies and distortions
destroy two legitimate Native American tribes. We must make the
process fair."
The resolution states, "The NAACP will vigorously oppose,
through legislation, public rallies and court action, any and all
attempts to discriminate against Native Americans in the federal
recognition process."
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is reconsidering the federal
recognition of both the Eastern Pequots and the Schaghticokes. In
May, an appeals board at the Interior Department overturned the
recognitions of both tribes. A decision is expected by October.
Federal recognition gives tribes access to federal funding for edu
cation, health care and housing. It also makes tribes eligible to oper
ate casinos.
Black state senator claims
racial profiling by Chicago police
CHICAGO (AP) - A black state senator said he was the victim
Meeks
of racial profiling when a white officer pulled
his car over and waved a gun in his face.
Sen. James Meeks, who is also a minister,
said the confrontation happened recently
when his driver was taking him, his wife and
his son home from the lOjOOO-seat House of
Hope Church, where he is pastor.
Meeks said the officer pulled over their
vehicle after they passed his police car
stopped in the middle of a street. When Meeks
got out of the car, the officer allegedly pulled
out his gun and repeatedly yelled at Meeks to
get back inside his vehicle.
"If this is the way a respected clergyman, the pastor of the largest
church in Illinois, a state senator and the chair of the Illinois Black
Caucus is treated, I know the average young black person on the street
doesn't stand a chance," Meeks said in a statement.
The officer issued four tickets, including one for failure to stop at
a stop sign and another for an unfastened seat belt, the senator said.
; Department spokesman Dave Bayless said that no action had
been taken by the department against the 34-year-old sergeant, whose
name was not released. He said the 10-year veteran remained on duty
pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Mayor Richard Daley promised a thorough investigation.
Two radio personalities are suspended
over comments about police officers
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Two hip-hop radio personalities have
been suspended for an on-air discussion of ways to fight police
officers - comments made not long after an officer was slain.
Officials at- KATZ-FM would not detail the comments but
said the remarks made last week related to ways to hurt or disarm
police officers.
The two suspended disc jockeys, whose professional names
are DJ Kaos and DJ Sylli As?, were discussing with callers on
their morning show how to fight for an officer's radio solie or she
cannot call for help, the station said.
Lee Clear, general manager of the station, apologized for the
comments, calling them "entirely inappropriate."
The radio personalities, whose real names were not immedi
ately available, also apologized.
Clear noted that the station's owner. Clear Channel Commu
nications, had just used its stations to ask the public for informa
tion to help find the killer of Sgt. William McEntee. who was
fatally shot July 5 in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. A suspect
has been arrested.
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Study: Blacks'
problems are
tied to slavery
BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY . '
NNPA CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - The tenets of American
slavery, with its disregard for the cohesion of the black
family - the auctions and sales of family members and use
of the black man as a stud to increase the slave owner's
stock - may be a main cause of what appears to be a mod
em-day failure of the black family, says a study released
by a Boston, Mass. -based black Christian think tank
"The unique historical experience of slavery has
exacted a high price on black people in the United States,"
said the report by the Seymour Institute for Advanced
Christian Studies. "The impact of the decay of marriage
among black people has been enormous, resulting in
higher poverty rates among black families, school failure
among children, and the intergenerational transmission of
high teen pregnancy rates and female-headed households.
"Sociological research has implicated fatherlessness
in violence, drug use, and criminal behavior, especially
among young black males."
The Seymour Institute is headed by the Rev. Eugene
Rivers III, co-founder of the Azusa Christian Community
in Boston.
The report, titled, "God's Gift: A Christian Vision of
Marriage and the Black Family," says a significant answer
to the crisis in the black family is the black church return
ing to its leading role in being an example and speaking
out against social ills and immorality.
Statistics compiled by Seymour, in part, from 2002
U.S. census data, paint an ominous picture:
? Blacks were 38.6 percent less likely than whites to
be married at all, 35 percent to 57 percent.
? With 8.8 million black families and 53.6 million
white families in the United States, nearly half of the
black families, 48 percent, were intact, married mother
See Slavery on A3
Black men continue to be absent from families .
Interracial marriages on the increase
Black men more
likely to 'intermarry'
than black women
BY JIM LOBE
IPS/GIN
WASHINGTON (NNPA) -
The number of interracial mar
riages in the United States
increased more than tenfold
between 1970 and 2000, accord
ing to a new report that concludes
that U.S. attitudes toward interra
cial dating and marriage have
undergone a "sea change" over
the past generation.
Owing in part to increased
immigration and higher educa
tional levels, the percentage of
interracial couples grew from
under I percent in 2000 to more
than 5 percent of the estimated 57
million couples recorded in the
2000 census, according to the
report by the Washington-based
Population Reference Bureau
(PRB).
That translated into an
increase from roughly 300,000
interracial couples in 1970 to 1.5
million in 1990 to more than 3
million in 2000, according to the
36-page report. "New Marriages,
New Families: U.S. Racial and
Hispanic Intermarriage."
That trend, which shows no
sign of slackening, suggests that
the United States is shifting
increasingly from a "salad bowl"
- where racial groups maintain
their separate identities and resist
marrying outside their groups - to
an updated "melting pot," where
they are far more open to rela
tions, including marriage, with
people of a difference race.
And interracial marriage
means more bi- or even multira
cial children. Of the 281 million
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INDEX
OPINION. Jk 6
SPORTS. 81
RELIGION. B6
CLASSIFIEDS. 89
HEALTH. C3
ENTERTAINMENT.. ..C5
CALENDAR. C7
people enumerated in the 2000
census, more than 2.4 percent, or
7 million people, reported "multi
ple race," a figure that PRB sug
gested probably understates the
actual number.
The 2000 census was the first
in which -the "multiple race" cate
gory was listed as an option for
respondents to check, along with
15 other categories, including 11
Asian and Pacific subgroups.
The "melting pot" metaphor
became even more popular years
ago when advertising executives
on Madison Avenue remade the
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