ACRI Ballot Initiative (Oklahoma): Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative Group Withdraws Initiative Proposal

The Tulsa World reported that the Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative (OkCRI) decided to withdraw its anti-affirmative action initiative proposal. Voters who oppose OkCRI’s initiative proposal filed a challenge in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The reason for the withdrawal: OkCRI determined that it had not collected enough signatures to get on the November ballot.

‘Based o[n] the number of signatures delivered to the Secretary of State, the validity rate for the signatures would need to be in excess of 90 percent, which is a statistical impossibility given historical validity rates and the limited time to verify the signatures,” the motion says.

The backers “do not want to waste this Court’s efforts nor taxpayer money on pursuing State Question 737 when (the backers) are reasonably certain that it will fail to garner the requisite number of signatures.’

OkCRI’s parent organization, the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) has proposed a similiar initiative proposal in Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska and Missouri (place the state name in the search box in the left column for my other posts on this issue).

ACRI Ballot Initiative (Arizona): Student Columnist Defends Initiative Proposal

A student opinion columnist for the Arizona Daily Wildcat favors the American Civil Rights Institute’s (ACRI) initiative proposal to end affirmative action in Arizona (column titled “Racism by Any Other Name“). [Note: For my previous posts on Arizona's anti-affirmative action initiative proposal, search on Arizona in the search box on the left column.]

The writer writes his column as if social minorities in the United States are in control of social institutions in Arizona. If this were the case, his column would be persuasive.

Reality, though, vehemently contradicts the writer’s assertions. Contrary to the opinion of student writer, power is not measured by wealth alone. The social group that has the most people possesses the most power. As a result, there is no question that Whites have the most power in Arizona and the United States. Whites are, by far, the largest racial group.

Arizona (population: 5,130,632 (2000 Census) [NOTE: high number of “some other race”])

Race	Percentage of population	Number
White	75.5%	3,873,611
Black	3.1	158,873
Native American	5.0	255,879
Asian	1.8	92,236

 

United States (population: 281,421,906 (2000 Census)

Race	Percentage of population	Number
White	75.1%	211,460,626
Black	12.3	34,658,190
Native American	0.9	2,475,956
Asian	3.6	10,242,998

 

Thus, neither situation in Zimbabwe nor in Malaysia is equivalent to the United States’ obligation to correct the damage done by its slavery institution. For more information on Zimbabwe, see an article by Dr. Chika A. Onyeani in The Black Commentator.

For Malaysia, see a Reuters article. The purpose of affirmative action in Malaysia is to help the impoverished majority population, the opposite of the goal of the United States, which is to help those who are not part of the powerful majority.

While Bumiputera [ethnic Malays and indigenous people] wealth went from just over 2 percent in 1970 to about 19 percent in 2004, Malays, who make up more than half of the population of 26 million, are still the poorest racial group — well behind the minority ethnic Chinese, who hold about 40 percent of the nation’s wealth.

ACRI’s anti-affirmative action proposal is not needed in Arizona. The small non-White population needs assurances that their ability to live will be respected.

Jeremiah Wright: Full Context of Remarks on YouTube

Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright has been the focus of extraordinarily unfair criticism this week for certain statements made during sermons.

It happens that the news organizations selected statements of Rev. Wright that were dramatic and removed the context of his statements in his sermon.

The fortunate thing about the Internet is that it provides a medium for research and discussion. There is a site on YouTube that now provides the part of the sermon that gives context to Rev. Wright’s statements that were displayed on the news programs.

Here is the sermon that includes Rev. Wright’s “God Damn America” statement with the other part of Rev. Wright’s sermon that provides context for his remarks.

There are other videos at the YouTube site for Trinity Chicago that also provide context for Rev. Wright’s televised comments.

For example, Rev. Wright in speaking of the chickens coming home to roost was actually referring to a statement made by an ambassador featured on a Fox News program.

The condemnation of Rev. Wright is unwarranted and unfair.

ACRI Ballot Initiative (Oklahoma): Editorial Opposes Ballot Initiative for Public Employment

An editorial in the Muskogee Phoenix opposes the ballot initiative proposal from the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI).

The editorial explains that the state government employees should reflect the population of the state.

Public employment should be balanced, and the balance should reflect the greater community at large. That balance always has been attained best by legal protections, and there is no reason to remove those programs in this state.

The editorial also states that public contracts should not be subject to affirmative action but given to those who provide the best service at the best price.

ACRI Ballot Initiative (Oklahoma): Initiative Supporters Submit 145,000 Signatures to the OK Secretary of State

According to the Tulsa World, the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), Oklahoma branch (OKCRI) submitted 145,000 signatures to the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s office.

The Tulsa World explained that initiative supporters need to collect 138,970 signatures for the initiative process to continue.

Should OKCRI collect enough signatures, there is a protest period before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the Tulsa World reported.

Condoleezza Rice: Questionable Use of Birmingham Story

 

The Washington Post had a story about how the Israeli foreign minister felt insulted about not being recognized by foreign ministers from other Middle Eastern countries (that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel).

What caught my attention is where the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, made a comment that her experience with the Birmingham church bombing helped her to understand the feelings of the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Rice began by saying she did not want to draw historical parallels or be too self-reflective, but as a young girl she grew up in Birmingham, Ala., “at a time of separation and tension.”

 

She noted that a local church was bombed by white separatists, killing four girls, including a classmate of hers.”

 

Like the Israelis, I know what it is like to go to sleep at night, not knowing if you will be bombed, of being afraid to be in your own neighborhood, of being afraid to go to your church,” she said.

 

But, she added, as a black child in the South, being told she could not use certain water fountains or eat in certain restaurants, she also understood the feelings and emotions of the Palestinians.”

 

I know what it is like to hear to that you cannot go on a road or through a checkpoint because you are Palestinian,” she said. “I understand the feeling of humiliation and powerlessness.”

 

“There is pain on both sides,” Rice concluded. “This has gone on too long.”

When I read and thought about this quote, I did not feel comfortable with Secretary Rice’s statement concerning the Birmingham church bombing. Surely, what occurred with the Birmingham church bombing was horrible (understatement). But I feel that a witness to such inhumanity would have a mission to seek social justice (particularly for Blacks in the United States, given that it was a Black church that was bombed).

The problem with Secretary Rice’s statement is not that she used the imagery of the Birmingham church bombing with respect to the Palestinian struggle for a state of their own. Rather, it is the use of the horrible event in Birmingham to justify inaction. Her words did not put the parties on the road to peace nor to a final peace agreement.

As a result, her use of Birmingham is a gratuitous abuse of history as a mere talking point. Other writers have noticed this (here, here, and here).

I did some research on Secretary Rice’s use of the Birmingham story. Throughout, I noticed that her use of Birmingham was consistently questionable. In essence, the Birmingham experience did not serve as a spur for peace, but rather bellicosity (more human suffering, ironically with bombs).

In the Telegraph (a United Kingdom newspaper):

Miss Rice rarely plays on her upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama - a hotbed of racial strife in the Sixties, culminating in the fatal bombing of a black church. However, addressing the National Association of Black Journalists in Dallas, she used that personal history to issue a direct challenge to all those critical of the Bush administration’s ambitions in Iraq and beyond.

 

“Like many of you, I grew up around the home-grown terrorism of the 1960s. I remember the bombing of the church in Birmingham in 1963, because one of the little girls that died was a friend of mine,” she said.

 

Black Americans should stand by others seeking freedom today, she went on, and shun the “condescending” argument that some races or nations were not interested in or ready for Western freedoms.

 

“We’ve heard that argument before. And we, more than any, as a people, should be ready to reject it,” she said. “That view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad and in the rest of the Middle East.”

Dr. Rice’s opening statement at her confirmation hearing:

Four years ago, Secretary Powell addressed this committee for the same purpose I do now. Then as now, it was the same week that America celebrates the life and legacy of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a time to reflect on the legacy of that great man, on the sacrifices he made, on the courage of the people he led, and on the progress our nation has made in the decades since. I am especially indebted to those who fought and sacrificed in the Civil Rights movement so that I could be here today.

 

For me, this is a time to remember other heroes as well. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama — the old Birmingham of Bull Connor, church bombings, and voter intimidation — the Birmingham where Dr. King was thrown in jail for demonstrating without a permit. Yet there was another Birmingham, the city where my parents — John and Angelena Rice — and their friends built a thriving community in the midst of the most terrible segregation in the country. It would have been so easy for them to give in to despair, and to send that message of hopelessness to their children. But they refused to allow the limits and injustices of their time to limit our horizons. My friends and I were raised to believe that we could do or become anything — that the only limits to our aspirations came from within. We were taught not to listen to those who said to us, “No, you can’t.”

 

The story of Birmingham’s parents and teachers and children is a story of the triumph of universal values over adversity. And those values — a belief in democracy, and liberty, and the dignity of every life, and the rights of every individual — unite Americans of all backgrounds, all faiths, and all colors. They provide us a common cause in all times, a rallying point in difficult times, and a source of hope to men and women across the globe who cherish freedom and work to advance freedom’s cause. And in these extraordinary times, it is the duty of all of us — legislators, diplomats, civil servants, and citizens — to uphold and advance the values that are the core of the American identity, and that have lifted the lives of millions around the world.

 

One of history’s clearest lessons is that America is safer, and the world is more secure, whenever and wherever freedom prevails. It is neither an accident nor a coincidence that the greatest threats of the last century emerged from totalitarian movements. Fascism and Communism differed in many ways, but they shared an implacable hatred of freedom, a fanatical assurance that their way was the only way, and a supreme confidence that history was on their side.

This use of the terrible tragedy of discrimination against Blacks is deplorable. Readers should be aware of Secretary Rice’s tactic.

ACRI Ballot initiative (Oklahoma): Allegations of Deception in Petition Signature Gathering Arise

According to the Tulsa World, a Oklahoma state legislator stated that deception is being used to obtain signatures for the American Civil Rights Institute’s (ACRI) ballot initiative to ban affirmative action.

“What this is about is fear and hate and misleading information,” Rep. Jabar Shumate said Monday morning at a news conference at the Church of the Living God, 1559 E. Reading St.

Shumate said a petition drive worker approached him and “asked if I wanted to end discrimination in government employment,” and then offered him a signature sheet.

“When I asked to see more information, she hurried off,” he said.

His constituents have told him similar stories, Shumate said, leading him to believe that the campaign’s workers are trying to get black people to sign the petition by misrepresenting its intent.

In a related development, there is a ten minute video on YouTube showing a discussion between a petition signature collector and a citizen. In summary, the discussion was about the signature collector’s description of the petition to ban discrimination rather than to ban affirmative action.

The Hoya: The Persistent Saga of College Newspapers and Race

The Editor-in-Chief of The Hoya, a Georgetown University student newspaper, wrote a column assessing the racial aftermath of a Hoya editorial decision giving minimal coverage for a on-campus student event protesting the Jena 6 issue (placing it in a News in Brief on 9/21/07), while prominently covering a protest against rules restricting alcohol consumption on campus. [Note: See Hoya articles related to this point here, here, here, and here. A student columnist wrote a column explaining that he did not want to write about the issue out of fear of being considered a racist (see my posts under The Hoya category in the right column for my previous post related to this column).]

The assignment of writers and placement of the two stories were not accidental, Hoya editors decided how to cover the two stories. It just so happened that some of The Hoya’s readership disagreed with The Hoya’s editorial judgment.

The Hoya’s Editor-in-Chief does acknowledge that his staff’s social connections largely determine staffing and coverage.

The fact is, THE HOYA is an unfortunate reflection of the divides that pervade this campus. If you were to put every member of our staff and each of their closest friends in a large room, some minority groups wouldn’t be represented too well.

And for an under-resourced student newspaper where social connections play a large part in determining both our recruitment and our coverage, it’s a problem. Especially since we’re the organization with the best opportunity to promote racial dialogue on campus.

This problem is a direct reflection of the fact that it’s often difficult to find a lot of meaningful interaction between those of different ethnic and social groups on campus.

This is how the lack of coverage of the on-campus Jena Six student event occurred. Sadly, if the coverage of campus news depends on knowledge of a person on the Hoya staff, what happened with the Jena 6 story will happen again.

In addition, The Hoya’s Editor-in-Chief noted that the lack of coverage partly is a result of The Hoya’s organizational dependence on Georgetown University.

If we were a non-profit corporation independent from Georgetown University, we would eventually be in a better position to attract a more representative staff, since our current relationship with the university does not permit us to adequately compensate staff members.

I do not know anything about The Hoya’s financial affairs, but I do not believe that independence from Georgetown University will be the miracle cure. The Cavalier Daily, an independent newspaper of the students of the University of Virginia (UVa), also has had a racial controversy (in 2002) involving a disagreement of the interpretation of a off-campus party between the mostly White student staff and Black UVa students.

[...] A black student, who happens to be the new student member of the Board of Visitors, wrote about what he viewed as a racist party, and what does he get for his effort? A white Cavalier Daily columnist attacking his view.

One reader complained about the turn of events but did not focus on the racial aspect. He pointed out that the tone of the response column sent the message of “Sure, we take guest columns, but then our columnists can humiliate you in print.” Given the subject matter and the respective races of the two authors, The Cavalier Daily came out looking bad.

I have emphasized before that columns represent the opinions of their authors, not the opinion of The Cavalier Daily. But when a black student opens the opinion section and consistently sees a lot of non-black faces spouting off about racial matters, I start to understand why black students feel frustrated with The Cavalier Daily as an organization. [...]

The Cavalier Daily’s Ombudsman for 2001-2002, wrote about the problem The Cavalier Daily had in attracting Black staffers.

In my 1993-94 Cavalier Daily staff photo, there are about 70 people. One is black. Today’s staff also has a very low number of blacks. Why is this the case, year after year? [...]

[...]

The vicious cycle has proved hard to break. The Cavalier Daily does not have many black staffers. Therefore, black viewpoints are not regularly represented in the newspaper. Therefore, blacks do not join because they feel The Cavalier Daily is not a “black-friendly” organization. Result: The Cavalier Daily does not have many black staffers. Repeat.

The Hoya is not alone in facing this issue. The racial issue facing The Hoya is systemic. Hopefully, the Editor-in-Chief’s ideas (not including independence) will help The Hoya to begin to address the situation.

Post Script:

The Hoya’s Editor-in-Chief stated in his column that his publication and staff is not racist because they do not favor one race over another. This is a rather limited definition of racism as one does not have to hate Black people overtly to discriminate (see the ABC’s Primetime Live 1992 story, “True Colors” (Author’s Note: I cited this program in a previous post), for an example). The overwhelming White majority in the United States also guarantees that the races can never be truly equal.

College Board: The SAT–A Square Peg Being Forced into a Round Hole?

The SAT, a test from the Educational Testing Service, measures a person’s ability to solve multiple choice puzzle-type questions (click here for an example) within a fixed time period. The problem is that this skill is not used in the bulk of college work.

The SAT has been found to correlate with first-year college grades. But psychologist Claude Steele pointed out that the test has been found to measure only about 18 percent of the things that it takes to do well in school, and thus is not a very good predictor of how a student will do in college. “The SAT is not going to get you very far with predicting who’s going to do well in college,” he told FRONTLINE.

This skill at solving puzzles within a timed context is not a focus in daily schooling or closely related to college study. The academic tasks of college are (in general):

• to be attentive to schedules to arrive at the proper class at the right time as well as ensure that long-term projects are completed by the deadline date,
• to coordinate the activities of non-academic student life with academic responsibilities,
• to possess the academic background to understand the coursework (for example, knowledge of pre-calculus to progress to college calculus),
• to behave appropriately in the class: listen to a lecture, ask questions of the instructor, write notes,
• to be able to study without prompting from others,
• to write term papers, in grammatically correct English, on an assigned topic,
• to complete a end of course examination-more likely in essay format.

None of these tasks are related to the SAT’s puzzle-type questions. Also, according to The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (fairtest.org), the test is designed to be separate from high school curricula, the foundation for college study.

A direct descendant of the racist anti-immigrant Army Mental Tests of the 1920s, the SAT was first administered in 1926 but did not become a largely multiple-choice exam until after World War II. The test is designed to be independent of high school curricula (unlike the SAT’s main competitor, the ACT). It includes questions attempting to measure reading comprehension, vocabulary, basic writing techniques, algebra, geometry, statistics and probability. The SAT does not include advanced mathematics topics nor does it attempt to assess higher-order thinking or reasoning skills.

In order to train the skill of solving the SAT’s puzzles, there are SAT preparation courses. These preparation courses provide the training for students to learn how to answer SAT questions. Students who are not able to afford preparation courses will be at a distinct disadvantage to those who are thoroughly trained for the SAT’s method of asking questions.

Overall, the SAT’s testing methodology is being forced into the college admissions process where it does not belong. [Note: Fairtest.org addresses this issue in its SAT Factsheet.]

Because of my concerns about the SAT, I have a link to the excellent work of The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (fairtest.org) in the blogroll.

Post Script:

There has been discussion on whether preparation courses are necessary to help a student increase the student’s score on the SAT.

A Cornell Daily Sun editorial supported the deemphasis of the SAT I in Cornell’s admissions because of the advantage available to those who can afford the SAT preparation courses .

We support Cornell’s decision to de-emphasize the importance of the SAT I, particularly because it innately favors candidates from higher incomes who can afford tutoring, and is not a good indicator of one’s academic achievement.

A College Board executive, Laurence Bunin, senior vice president for operations, disagreed with the editorial’s assertion in a letter to the editor, stating that students do not need the preparation courses to prepare for the SAT.

Your editorial states that the SAT “favors candidates from higher incomes who can afford tutoring.” That statement is both wrong and misleading. The SAT cannot be “cracked” or “gamed” with expensive, short-term test prep courses. Research proves that these courses do not improve scores more than the free and low-cost practice tests available online or in bookstores. Expensive test prep courses only serve to give affluent parents and students the illusion of [control] over a scary process. In fact, the best preparation for the SATs is developing good study habits, taking rigorous high school courses and becoming familiar with the SAT by taking sample practice tests.

The editorial also incorrectly states that the SAT is “… not a good indicator of one’s academic achievement.” In fact, dozens of independent research studies prove that the SAT, along with high school grades, is the best single predictor of success in college.

However, Glenn Elert, author of The SAT: Aptitude or Demographics, states that a Federal Trade Commission study demonstrated that scores can be increased through coaching.

In 1976, the Federal Trade Commission responded to ETS’ long standing wish for a government investigation of the coaching schools. Their claim was that the aptitude the SAT measured was acquired over years — promises of significant results (over 100 points) in six weeks were false advertising. In Effects of Coaching on Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores the College Board reported that:

Despite variable factors from one study to another, the net result across all studies is that score gains directly attributable to coaching amount, on the average, to fewer than 10 points — a difference of such small magnitude… that it is unreasonable to expect it to affect college admissions decisions. The magnitude of the gains resulting from coaching vary slightly, but they are always small regardless of the coaching method used or the differences in the students coached.

Unfortunately for ETS, the plan backfired. The test preparation schools were not cited with fraudulent advertising — ETS was. The initial FTC report found that coaching courses, on the average, raised scores more than 100 points on both the verbal and math sections. “Contrary to [the] explicit claims of ETS/CEEB,” said Albert Kramer Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, “coaching can be effective…”

I disagree with Mr. Bunin because of the SAT’s reliance on puzzle-type questions. Mere preparation with a few old SAT tests will not do unless one is also trained in how to recognize what the test-maker is looking for in a particular test question.

For example, I do not believe that merely studying hard in school or taking practice SAT exams by oneself, as Mr. Bunin suggests, would necessarily allow a student to solve a question like this.

For more information:

PBS.org-Frontline’s “Secrets of the SAT” program

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing

DC: Pope Benedict XVI Scheduled to Visit NYC, DC in 2008

According to The New York Times, Pope Benedict XVI, is scheduled to visit the United States from April 15-20, 2008.

Pope Benedict is planning to visit New York City and Washington, DC.