Some Columnists Irked by Idea of Designated Time
The annual Black History Month debate is under way over whether African Americans, instead of reveling in the month, should be insulted.
As Erin Texeira of the Associated Press reported, John Wiley Price, the only black county commissioner in Dallas, says he no longer makes public appearances during Black History Month. “I’m not going to be, as the kids say, ‘pimped’ during the month of February'” and ignored the rest of the year.
“If speakers do not choose their venues carefully, Black History Month lectures can become ‘kinds of performances. They are not necessarily intended to solve problems,’ said Robin D. G. Kelley, a professor of African American Studies at Columbia University,” the story continued. “‘They’re enlightening and interesting. It’s enlightened entertainment, which is not a bad thing.'”
This year, Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Byron McCauley joined the cry: “Black History Month has become a nuisance, and I want to blow it up,” he wrote on Feb. 6.
“Then, I want it to be rebuild it as part of mainstream thought, and not have it treated as it is today—a set-aside every year in February, where we gratuitously highlight the many talents and accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans to American culture and society.”
Others have taken different approaches.
On BlackAmericaWeb.com, Wayne Dawkins reprised the objections, then added:
“Let’s continue the February focus on black history, yet understand that black history is a year-round exploration. Some people get this. Many others need to get it.
“Second, and this is a memo to black folk: Protect the historical integrity of Black History Month. [Princeton historian Nell Irvin] Painter explained that February has become ‘a corporate holiday, a way for corporations and museums, and the U.S. Postal Service to declare they’re multicultural bona fide.’ I’m fine with well-intentioned corporate interest, but troubled if we stand by and let the rigor or richness get watered down or erased from our story by others.
“Also consider this: Black History Month is about to share the year-round calendar with other emerging ethnic and gender groups. This is a heads-up to get ready to share the attention, black America.”
In USA Today, DeWayne Wickham declared, “I’ve never been a big fan of Black History Month,” but used the column to expose three “false beliefs”: that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, that “the Civil War was fought over states’ rights, not slavery,” and that there are more black men in prison than in college.
A would-be columnist countered the naysayers:
“First, ‘they’ didn’t want us to know our history at all. Then, ‘they’ didn’t want us to celebrate for a week. “‘They’ still can’t understand why we expanded it to celebrate for a month. Now ‘they’ have ‘us’ questioning ourselves, figuring if ‘we’ kill it, ‘they’ won’t have to.
“Ridiculous!”
This writer did not want to be identified, but continued:
“Commemorating it gave institutional America a way to package it that was not previously done: in curricula, in museum programming, in the publishing schedules of the major book houses, on preachers’ agendas. (See how it has spawned others: March is now Women’s History Month.)
“There’s a good argument for expanding the discussion and recognizing our history beyond the 28 days of February: the most enlightened individuals and institutions already do this. However, I doubt that ‘eliminating’ the commemoration would yield that result for the institutions.”
Misplaced anger thwarts healing dialogue (Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times)
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Hunter-Gault Opposes Excising “N” Word Quote
Charlayne Hunter‘s experiences integrating the University of Georgia with fellow student Hamilton Holmes in 1961 helped persuade her to become a journalist.
And now, the adult Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a correspondent for CNN in South Africa, is at odds with some students over the portrayal of that incident in a mural at the university.
The mural includes the unattributed quote “Make way for the nigger” under a photograph of Hunter-Gault pushing her way through a white crowd at UGA in 1961, as Kelly Simmons wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today.
“UGA officials covered the offensive quote after students complained and have said they would replace that section of the mural if that is the consensus of the university’s students, faculty and staff,” Simmons recounted.
But Hunter-Gault wrote in an opinion piece in the student newspaper, the Red & Black, that the words should stay.
“I would hope that having raised the issue and sparked the debate, (black students) will be a part of a solution that will allow those words to stand as a reminder, however painful, that they are the heirs to a legacy of struggle, but also of victory over bigotry,” Hunter-Gault wrote from South Africa.
On Monday, the Macon Telegraph editorialized on her side. “In this context, the words are as powerful as the photographs in telling the story,” the editorial said.
Members of the University of Georgia NAACP yesterday proposed a compromise: A statement from Hunter-Gault should accompany the mural, which should include the “N” word, as the Red & Black reported today.
But the NAACP chapter does not have the last word. Rodney D. Bennett, the interim vice president for student affairs, told Journal-isms today that “we appreciate the feedback and are taking that under advisement. I’m continuing to talk to other stakeholders.” He said he had no timetable for making a decision and wanted to hear from staff members and other student leaders on campus.
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3 Women Share Settlement With Spanish Station
“A federal civil rights official hailed a $185,000 settlement Monday in a sexual harassment lawsuit against a Monterey Spanish-language television station,” Larry Parsons reported Tuesday in California’s Monterey Herald.
“The settlement was announced last week between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Entravision Communications Corp., a Santa Monica-based affiliate of Spanish-language global giant Univision.
“‘That’s very important because in this industry there are very few jobs in Spanish-language television in terms of careers,’ said William Tamayo, the commission’s regional attorney in San Francisco.
“The EEOC filed suit in November 2003 on behalf of two former news employees at KSMS channel 67 and other female workers who were allegedly sexually harassed by the station’s former news director.
“The two—news reporter Sofia Long and videographer America Medina—said the news director harassed them during 2000 and 2001 by forcibly kissing, touching, grabbing and propositioning the women.
“. . . A third woman, a former news assistant who became a reporter, also was a target of harassment, Tamayo said. The three victims will share the monetary settlement, he said. Her name was not immediately available.”
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Reporters Committee Calls for Federal Shield Law
“The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called for a coordinated effort to support a federal shield law in the wake of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit today that two prominent journalists do not have a privilege to keep sources of information from a federal grand jury,” the organization said Tuesday.
“‘The decision in this case underscores that these are perilous times for journalists and the public’s right to know,’ said Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish. ‘There are more than two dozen cases pending across the United States where journalists are being asked to operate as investigators for the government and litigants. The ability of the media to act as independent sources of information for the public is in jeopardy.’
“The shield bills current[ly] under consideration in Congress were introduced in early February by Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) in the House (H.R. 581), and by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in the Senate (S. 3440). A similar bill was introduced late in the last Congress by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), but no action was taken.
“In today’s action by the D.C. Circuit, the three-judge panel unanimously held that no privilege would protect Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller from being compelled to testify about their sources.”
One of the two dozen pending cases involves Pierre Thomas of ABC News. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered Thomas, a black journalist, and journalists at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press to reveal who in the government might have disclosed derogatory information to them about Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear weapons scientist who was the chief suspect in an espionage case. Thomas was CNN’s reporter on the story at the time.
The case is before the Judge Rosemary Collier of the U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit, Thomas’ lawyer, Charles D. Tobin told Journal-isms.
Is Novak getting a free ride? (Jamin Raskin, Nieman Watchdog)
Tuesday’s D.C. Circuit Court decision (PDF)
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Elvis Mitchell Takes Job With Columbia Pictures
Film critic Elvis Mitchell has been hired by Columbia Pictures to canvass the film festival circuit for movie projects, it was reported yesterday, but Mitchell’s new job does not necessarily mean he will no longer work as a journalist.
“I’m a big one to put everything on the table,” Ingrid Sischy, editor-in-chief of Interview magazine, told Journal-isms. “The real issue is I will have to be super-vigilant” about conflicts of interest, she said. Mitchell has done interviews for the magazine since September 1985, when the publication was known as Andy Warhol’s Interview and Mitchell questioned record company executive David Geffen.
Interviewers in the publication are sometimes people in the same field and not always journalists, she noted. “I fully plan for Elvis to do interviews with actors,” as well as others, Sischy said.
Mitchell continued his reviews on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition Saturday” after he left the New York Times last May when his colleague A. O. Scott was promoted over him.
NPR spokesman Chad Campbell told Journal-isms Tuesday that “Weekend Edition Saturday” producers had not yet had a chance to speak with Mitchell, whose position at the Times made him the most visible African American film critic.
“He literally knows everybody,” said Mark Urman, president of distribution at independent film company ThinkFilm, in the New York Daily News. The story by Phyllis Furman added, “Times execs were said to be miffed by Mitchell’s close relationships with stars and filmmakers, as well as his numerous outside activities. The former Times critic is a visiting lecturer at Harvard.”
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Hill Agrees to Pay Victims’ Grandma $100,000
“Convicted sexual batterer and former television reporter Stephen Hill agreed Monday to pay $100,000 to the grandmother of the four teens Hill admitted he tricked into having sex with him,” Kimball Perry reported yesterday in the Cincinnati Post.
“The grandmother sued Hill, 45, after criminal charges were filed against the former WCPO reporter.”
Hill’s lawyer, Tamara Parker, said Hill agreed to the settlement “only because he is hoping to sell ‘his story’ to someone who will turn it into a book or movie,” Perry’s story continued.
“‘We’re hoping that we can market it,’ Parker said.
“‘Mr. Hill is broke. He’s lost his home. He’s lost his car and with his crime, which was widely publicized, his employment prospects were not very good once he gets out.’
“If that doesn’t happen, she added, the settlement may be meaningless.
“‘There’s still the possibility that they won’t get any money,’ she said,” the story continued.
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“Like It Is” Returns to an Hour on Sunday
The public affairs show “Like It Is,” the nation’s longest-running African American-produced television program, is returning to a full hour on New York’s WABC-TV on Sunday, an ABC spokeswoman told Journal-isms.
The show’s reduction to half an hour late last year caused anxiety among New York black journalists and prompted an op-ed column last month in Newsday by freelance journalist Curtis Stephen, who charged that “The move . . . reflects a steady retreat from locally produced, ethnically themed discussion programs on television.”
However, ABC spokeswoman Julie L. Summersgill said that WABC’s general manager, J. David (Dave) Davis, “loves the show” and assured host Gil Noble after he arrived in 2003 that “we want to help keep it on as long as you want. This man is an icon,” Summersgill said.
She said half an hour of the show, which debuted in 1968, was pre-empted because ABC was obligated to carry “NBA Inside Stuff” from noon to 1 p.m. on Sundays, which meant lopping off a half-hour of “Like It Is.” The entire hour could not be pushed back because that would conflict with other contractually obligated programming, Summersgill said.
Noble was reported out of the office today and unavailable for comment.
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Philly’s Monique Braxton Suspended Two Days
“NBC-10 reporter Monique Braxton has been suspended by the station for at least two days for allegedly, sources say, telling a cop not to talk to her colleague Harry Hairston, as he wasn’t to be trusted,” Dan Gross reported today in the Philadelphia Daily News.
“On Monday, Braxton was suspended.
“She did not work yesterday, and did not return our calls.
“NBC-10 insiders say she’s getting a bum rap.
“They don’t believe Braxton badmouthed Hairston, but do say that he, convinced she had, told management as much.
“‘If there is anything at the station, I don’t think it’s appropriate for people at the station to be talking about it outside of the station,’ Hairston told us yesterday.
“NBC-10 declined comment on the suspension, saying it does not discuss personnel matters,” Gross’ item continued.
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Chicago’s Hsu Ready for “Desperate Housewives”?
“Here’s hoping Judy Hsu, morning news anchor at WLS-Channel 7, is feeling at least a little remorse for the way she promoted her ‘special report’ pegged to Valentine’s Day,” Robert Feder wrote today in his Chicago Sun-Times column.
“In a scene fit for ‘Desperate Housewives,’ the ad displayed Hsu—flashing sexy red lips and a come-hither look—sprawled out on a bed.
“‘We kept waiting for Dave Savini to come in and swab the quilt,’ one insider joked.” Savini is an investigative reporter at rival WBBM.
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ACT-SO Continues as Tribute to Vernon Jarrett
“Some 200 enthusiastic Black high school students from throughout the New York metropolitan area will converge under one roof to showcase their talents in the humanities, arts, and sciences at the 18th annual Olympics of the Mind competition set for Saturday, April 23, 2005, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Manhattan’s Martin Luther King Jr. High School, 122 Amsterdam Avenue, between 65th and 66th streets,” the New York ACT-SO program announces.
“The 2005 NAACP ACT-SO season is the first since last year’s passing of Vernon Jarrett, who created the national program in 1977. Mr. Jarrett was best known as a legendary award-winning journalist, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists Inc. NYC ACT-SO will uphold and expand Mr. Jarrett’s legacy through its annual student enrichment and fundraising activities.
“‘We dedicate this year to my dear friend Vernon,’ said NYC ACT-SO Executive Director Anton Tomlinson, who founded the NYC ACT-SO chapter in 1987 with Ben Duster,” [a direct descendant] of justice crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett.
Wells-Barnett, the anti-lynching crusader who lived from 1862 to 1931, is, of course is another icon among black journalists.
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“African-American” Labeled an “International” Dish
“A few employees at Condé Nast’s Times Square headquarters—whose fourth-floor cafeteria offers an ‘International Table’ menu highlighting a designated foreign cuisine—were rolling their eyes yesterday,” Lloyd Grove reported today in his New York Daily News gossip column. “The International Table offering for Feb. 15?
“‘African-American,’ said signs posted around the Frank Gehry-designed lunchroom, touting ‘Jamaican beef patties, shrimp jambalaya, rice, okra, corn, black-eyed pea stew, deviled eggs and biscuits.’
“Admittedly, Si Newhouse‘s publishing empire—led by such slick monthlies as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Glamour and Gourmet, not to mention the weekly New Yorker—isn’t famous for emphasizing people of color, either as profile subjects or subscribers.
“This month, of the 18 titles listed on the Condé Nast Web site, only GQ features a black person (Oscar nominee Jamie Foxx) on the cover.
“But African-Americans as foreigners?”
Grove goes on to quote Al Sharpton as saying that the table “is symbolic of their corporate view that we are not part of American culture. Their attitude is ‘Let them eat soul food!'”
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N.Y. Services Saturday for Photog Bert Miles, 76
Bertrand Miles, a photographer who worked for Ebony and Jet magazines and later for CBS News, died Feb. 1 at age 76 of heart failure, a daughter, Jennifer Miles, told Journal-isms today.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, where musician Billy Taylor is expected to play, the legendary Gordon Parks plans to read a tribute and writer and editor Ida Lewis is scheduled to read a Langston Hughes poem, “Heart of Harlem.”
Miles, a Harlem resident, devoted his last years to trying to preserve the landmark Small’s Paradise building. “I’m trying to save the jazz future of Harlem . . . I want to restore Harlem,” he said in a 2001 appearance on CBS-TV’s “The Early Show.”
Miles began work in 1952 for Ebony magazine in Chicago as a contributing photographer; the next year, he won an editorial photography award for his portrait of Mary Church Terrell, a founder of the NAACP.
Bert eventually relocated to New York and contributed to various publications, including Look, Collier’s and Life magazines.
His work in documenting the civil rights era, including the 1963 March on Washington, can be found in New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
In 1968, Miles became personal photographer for Nelson Rockefeller during his bid to win the Republican presidential nomination, and in 1969 he joined the “CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite,” documenting such events as the trials of the pacifist priests the Berrigan brothers over their raiding of draft boards, and the Watergate trials in Washington. Miles was the only photographer to go inside the Attica prison in upstate New York during the 1971 riots there, according to the obituary prepared by the family. He retired from CBS in 1980.
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