May music
includes R&B,
'funk androck/lD
Funkmeister GEORGE
CLINTON headlines
May 20 concert at
Neighborhood
Theatre
At BALLANTYNE
INN, tea time is
a luxurious
experience.
CHARLOTTE! N C 28216
The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cab
Focus on
hip hop’s
profit
margin
Activists say
music industry
disrespects women
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATfONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - The Hip
Hop Summit Action Network,
while discouraging radio sta
tions and other media from
the airing of racist and misog-
ynistic lyrics that particularly
degrade black women, has a
board that is top heavy with
chief executives that finan
cially benefit from the record
industry.
“They are funded by the
record companies," says
activist A1 Sharpton, who
vowed to hold record compa
nies accountable for degrad
ing lyrics after he led protests
that got talk show host Don
Imus fired. “There are many
people on the board who are
in the record companies who
could make the decision to
stop using the words rather
than pressuring people not to
play the words that they're
using and manufacturing."
Sharpton, this week, began
leading marches and pickets
on multi-million dollar record
companies in New York,
including Sony, Warner and
Universal in an attempt to
force them to stop recording
and selling songs with racist
and misogynistic lyrics.
"We're going at all of them,”
he says.
In response to pressures
after Don Imus' firing for call
ing the Rutgers University
basketball team "nappy-head
ed hos," the HSAN has called
for the hip hop industry,
including radio and television
stations, to stop airing lyrics
that include the three preva
lent slurs.
"We have recently been
involved in a process of dia
logue with recording and
broadcast industry executives
about issues concerning cor
porate social responsibility,"
says a statement issued by
Chavis and his HSAN co-chair
Russell Simmons. "HSAN is
concerned about the growing
public outrage concerning the
use of the words ‘bitch,’ ‘ho,’
and ‘nigger.’ We recommend
that the recording and broad
cast industries voluntarily
remove/bleep/delete the
misogynistic words "bitch"
and "ho" and the racially
offensive word "nigger.”
Going forward, these three
words should be considered
with the same objections to
obscenity as "extreme curse
words.”
But, Sharpton says the HSAN
request has no teeth because
they have no leverage to make
them comply.
"Ironically, the march that
we’re having will be on com-
Please see HIP HOP/3A
Tiger draws
crowd, buzz
Tiger Woods, the world’s top-ranked
golfer, drew thousands of fans - and most
of the media attention - at Wednesday's
Wachovia Championship pro-am at Quail
Hollow. Woods partnered with Charlotte
Bobcats co-owner Michael Jordan and auto
dealer Skipper Beck for a round during the
PHOTO/WADE NASH
pro-am.
Also among the celebrity players: Bobcats
founder Bob Johnson, Indianapolis Colts
quarterback Peyton Manning. The
Wachovia tournament - with professional
players, that is - starts today.
Herbert L White
N.C. bill aims for popular vote to
determine presidential elections
By Constance Johnson
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
The Electoral College is
under scrutiny in the North
Carolina Senate.
A bill to establish the pres
idential and vice-presiden
tial election through popu
lar vote was submitted by
two groups of lawmakers
that include state Sens.
Charlie Dannelly and Dan
Clodfelter of Charlotte. Bills
S954 and S760, if approved,
would “establish North
Carolina as a member of the
agreement among the states
to elect the president by
national popular vote.”
“Senator Dan Clodfelter
put an identical bill in, not
knowing that I put the bill
in,” Dannelly said. "We both
have agreed to Join other
states calling for that
Gorman
change in our election
process.”
The popular vote does not
determine the winner of the
national election; state elec
tors make that determina
tion. The number of electors
is equal to the number of
each state’s and
Washington, D.C.’s congres
sional delegation ■ a total of
538 nationally. North
Please see ELECTORA173A
mmtmms-oieij 28216 512 PI
James B. Duke Library
100 Beatties Ford fid
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
laeasior
how CMS
handles
dropouts
Myers Park allegations
spark recommendations
By Erica Singleton
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Despite not.finding deliberate wrongdoing
during an investigation of alleged dropout
coercion at Myers Park High School, numer
ous recommendations were made to the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board and
Superintendent Peter Gorman regarding how
the district handles withdrawals.
“Out of this entire investigation, all the
■■ tnforn?ati^,'We-^thered, we
• recommehd^d fd the superin-
■ tendent and to the board that
some changes take place in
the withdrawal process," said
Landis Wade, lead counsel
with Helms, MulUss and
Wicker, which conducted the
probe. "Not just at Myers Park
High School, but system
wide."
The recommendations include improved
counseling for students and parents on alter
native education options, who should con
duct and/or document the conversations.
"There are a few parents and students who
feel they were coerced out of Myers Park, and
there perception is enough, in our opinion to
make some changes,” said Wade. "We think
some things can be done to help cut down on
the misperception...and also put in place
some practices to help students in the
schools going forward.”
Also recommended was training on atten
dance rules, discipline rules, and the rules for
Please see CHANGING/8A
Debate left S.C.
voters wanting
more answers
By Brandi M. Woodson
THE CHARLOTTE POST
ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Voters wanted to hear
more about administration and less about
defamation in last week’s Democratic presi
dential debate.
“As a teacher 1 would like to hear about
education, and what the candidates plans to
do to better the school systems, stated
Beaufort, S.C., teacher Emily Khon, who
joined colleague Desiree Mungin to support
Obama.
The eight Democrats - Joe Biden, Hillary
Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike
Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and
Bill Richardson - sparred over Iraq, health
care and gun control at S.C. State University.
Their supporters, most of them outside
Martin Luther King Auditorium, waved signs
and wore paraphernalia that represented
their candidate choice.
Mungin says she "hopes to hear what can
didates plan to do about school program
funding and building new programs much
like the No Child Left Behind Program.
During the 90-minute debate, Biden and
Obama defended the decision to hold the
debate in Soiith Carolina in defiance of an
NAACP boycott of the Confederate flag flying
at the statehouse, arguing that the entire
country needed to be brought into the dis
cussion on civil rights. Obama brought up
urban poverty and high black infant mortali-
See DEBATE/2A
Gospel Jubilators stay
true to old-school
jubilee styie/SB-
INSIDE
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Business 6C
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