A Good Day

Sunday past was Fathers Day.  Unlike many others my father is still with us and we’re still building memories.  I’d like to share this one:  1956 I was five years old.  The family piled into the car on a Sunday drive from Gum Springs into the District of Columbia to visit my maternal great grandparents. A pony ride operated at the intersection of Richmond Highway and Fort Hunt Road.   Little kids were lined up giddy with anxious excitement. The idea of taking his three kids on a pony ride delighted my father, and he asked if we wanted to. My brother and sister spoke up willingly. I had reservations. My father parked and along with my mother we waited in the car and watched him approach the attendant. Moments later he returned and started the car. My mother asked what happened. He responded, the man said they didn’t allow niggers to ride their ponies. We drove off everyone in silent wonderment. I can’t tell you how relieved I was at not being mounted on a beast and paraded about the smelly stable grounds. Though I had a cowboy outfit, I never wanted to be a cowboy.  Like I said, it was a good day to be a nigger –for me at least–not so for my father.  Can you imagine the indignities our forefathers endured?

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
 

Sculpture:  Lift Every Voice and Sing by August Savage, 1939

Fashion’s Lack of Diversity

The lack of minority input was apparent when French Vogue’s October cover sported a white model in blackface—and to add insult to injury the entire magazine layout failed to include a single non-white model. At a time of the declining print media this was Vogue’s mad attempt to grab publicity and sell magazines regardless of political correctness. This sort of in your face racism is generally expected from the French.

In the U.S. the same disregard was aired on Project Runway when Emile Sosa a Black Dominican born New Yorker won weekly competition after competition only to lose the coveted grand prize to the lack luster performance of Seth Aaron Henderson, a white male. The reason given was that Sosa produced a line while Henderson produced a collection. If I understand the difference correctly, a collection is a designer’s creation for a single season meant to be more edgy and artistic while a line reflects a longer lasting commercial appeal. I thought it was about whoever produced the best work of redeeming quality. Reviewing past competitions evidence suggests line vs. collection became a new standard. Rather than give the Black designer the award the all white judges simply moved the goal post.

As for the dearth of diversity in print, Fashion editors claim their backs are against the wall, with their magazine’s sole income dependent on advertisers their decisions are based on advertiser preferences. It’s all business nothing personal or racist. The fear of low sales and advertisers pulling back prevents editors from putting dark-skinned models or celebrities on the covers of fashion/women’s magazines (which are mostly Caucasian owned). When ethnic consumers quit patronizing these advertisers then what? This same specious argument was used by Southern businessmen to oppose integration during the civil rights movement. Hindsight has shown by opening the doors of opportunity and embracing all, it enhances a business’s goodwill as well as its bottom line.

It all comes down to the personal taste of editors who wield an awful lot of power in the industry (remember the Devil Wears Prada). Now is the time for consumers to exercise their power. If fashion’s print media is to thrive and reverse the decline in readership it needs to become more relevant and by that more inclusive. It can only do so by recruiting more minority editors and writers, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians who are as acutely aware of their own ethnic aesthetic as they are the Anglo-American.

And minority consumers can make their preference known by insisting that industry giants the likes of Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, Bazaar and Glamour begin to recruit minority editors and writers. Consumers can further demand the Council of Fashion Designers in American become more accountable and step up its efforts to bring diversity to the industry. A minority presence would put an end to stunts like Vogue’s black face.

Me Nigger Too

In Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport I spotted a group of twenty something dudes–or is it dawgs–dressed in that distinctive urban hip hop style– baggy slacks oversized shirts and baseball caps decidedly cocked or worn backwards.  Ordinarily I wouldn’t have given much attention except all were of Chinese descent.  They could have been Jamaicans or from the States, San Francisco, New York even London or Beijing.

They were reminders of an incident in DC during the ’68 riots following Martin Luther King’s assassination.  In the inner city inferno a fearful Chinese laundry proprietor placed a scribbled sign in his window pleading No Burn–Me Nigger Too.  However inartful his language it was nevertheless a striking acknowledgement of our common humanity.  African and Chinese first coming to America albeit under different circumstances shared a common experience facing the same hostile forces. 

 By the 1950’s and the advent of the Civil Rights movements the Chinese had achieved a tenuous integration throughout the South.  Too few to be regarded as a threat most owned their own businesses as grocers and shopkeepers relying on black customers and accommodating white neighbors.  It wasn’t until the 1960s after more than a century of racial injustice would they find their voice challenging the system.  Two American born Chinese, Grace Lee Boggs and Fred Ho, activists and writers both in their work borrowed heavily on the African American experience demonstrating, protesting, marching, and speaking out. 

Grace Lee Boggs the daughter of Chinese immigrants educated at Barnard College receiving a Ph.D from Bryn Mawr in 1940 worked with West Indian Marxist historian C.L.R. James using the pen name Ria Stone.  In 1953, she moved to Detroit where she married James Boggs, an African-American labor activist, writer and strategist.  The two worked together in grass roots groups and projects for 40 years until Boggs’ death in July 1993.  Their book, Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century was published in 1974.

American jazz baritone saxophonist, Fed Ho is also a composer, bandleader, playwright, writer and social activist though most often identified with the Asian American jazz or avant-garde jazz movements.  Many of his works fuse the melodies of indigenous and traditional Asian and African music.  The first to combine Chinese operas and African American music he is a prolific composer and writer with a third book in progress about African Americans and Asians working together in civil rights. 

 There is a common thread of oppression discrimination and violence against African and Chinese Americans throughout American history.  The word Nigger has come to symbolize that inhumanity.  As Langston Hughes declared I Too Sing America, and no doubt Americans Grace Lee Boggs and Fred Ho wouldn’t hesitate to claim Me Nigger Too.

As part of Asian Pacific American Heritage month this is the 2^nd of a four part series.

Sanford Roan’s First Round for Diversity

In 1939 Sanford Roan made several attempts to integrate the Ohio Highway Patrol. The first African-American applicant brought superior credentials, a graduate of North Carolina A&T with a business degree. He was a star athlete and later a trained pilot with military service. John Bricker an ambitious Ohio gubernatorial candidate urged Roan’s application suggesting the State was eager for an African American patrolman. In a ploy to capture the Black vote Roan unwittingly became a political pawn in Bricker’s election bid.

Ostracized throughout cadet training Roan coped with the humiliating and hostile environment as he would later express to President Roosevelt: “The boys when they would talk to me would make sure no one else was around to see them. Generally, they expressed their sympathy at the conditions, but said there was nothing they could do. I began to realize then that a business or an organization could only be as good as the person or persons controlling them.”

A popular athlete Roan attended a racially mixed high school. Graduating from college into the world of work his race made him a social outcast. Fed up with the treatment he quit the academy. Bricker promptly summoned him and with promises of support and assurances of being in his corner, Roan was persuaded to return. But thing’s grew worse, and again he quit. By then Roan’s difficulties became front page fodder closely followed by Ohio voters. Again in his persuasion this time Bricker promised a political appointment if Roan would only return until after the election. All the while Bricker’s cohort, the Ohio Highway Patrol department’s founder Colonel Lynn Black was determined to keep the force all white and set out to block Roan’s appointment. With a wink and nod from Colonel Black the “Jim Crow” treatment grew more intense. In what was to be routine sparring Roan stepped into a boxing ring surprised in the opposite corner as five white cadets filed in.

Bandaged and brutally beaten Roan submitted his final resignation. The sitting democratic Governor Martin L. Davey promised if re-elected to fire Colonel Black. Bricker promised an investigation. Both candidates only intended to energize the Black vote. Bricker won but his promise for change, an investigation, and a political appointment were quickly forgotten. Roan’s ambition of being a highway patrolman faded.

Bricker too in his ambition would also suffer defeat. The Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1944 shared the unsuccessful ticket with Presidential nominee Thomas Dewey losing to Franklin Roosevelt. Roan might have found some solace in Bricker’s defeat but then Bricker served out his public life in the U.S. Senate. Sanford Roan, the father of Kay and Gary, went on to become a successful businessman in Columbus Ohio.

Sanford Roan was one of those rare men, a courageous pioneer who cleared a path for others. Because of men like Roan who stepped up to a challenge the struggle is no longer about fisticuffs, but continues in the greater goal for diversity. Local Human Rights Commissions now work side-by-side with police departments to overcome past wounds and to open new dialogue towards an inclusive future for all our citizens. Police forces now actively recruit from HBCUs. Sanford Roan’s story clearly illustrates the difficulties of getting to this point.

Prestigious Law Firms Scale Back Diversity Recruitment

In February, 2009 Yolanda Young filed a discrimination complaint against her former employer Covington & Burling alleging racial discrimination. The firm countered with innuendo calling her an average law student citing her Bar Exam scores as less than outstanding. This despite during her tenure she received a bonus for her outstanding performance. The bar exam tests the minimum competence to practice law. The firm didn’t argue Young’s lack of competence and no wonder, she graduated from Howard University and Georgetown Law; lectured at Vassar College and Louisiana State University; sold her first book (On Our Way To Beautiful) to Random House; provided commentary to NPR and wrote for both The Washington Post and USA Today. Young obviously a high achiever was hired by the firm in February, 2005 as a Staff Attorney. Staff attorneys are the lowest of the pecking order under Partners, Associates, and Special Counsel and are rarely promoted onto the partnership track. Young spoke out writing a piece published in U.S.Today exposing the firm’s practice of concentrating minorities at the bottom rung. Subsequently Young alleged management began a clandestine campaign of harassment and discrimination ending in termination.

Young’s experience doesn’t come as news to most African American lawyers who came out of law school long before her. The legacy of gifted Black attorneys none of whom made their mark in America’s prestigious law firms: Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, William Henry Hastie and Charles Hamilton Houston and many other great African American legal minds were excluded from the top firms but rose to prominence as judges, civil rights leaders, politicians and academicians.

As minorities and particularly African Americans increasingly move into the executive ranks of corporate America, the prestigious law firms have been slow to follow. Firms like C&B play statistical card tricks creating an illusion of diversity while a closer inspection reveals minorities concentrated in low level positions that offer little or no opportunity for advancement.

The Diversity Scorecard has a adopted a new methodology to address the card tricks by no longer looking at the overall percentage of minorities within a firm but also focusing on the partnerships ranks and the breakdown of the various minorities. The figures in the 2010 Scorecard reflects the larger labor market with African Americans losing ground with law firms. The data shows a strong correlation between firms that drastically cut overall head count and firms that saw significant losses of minority lawyers. Blacks are long familiar with the last hired first fired.

Change starts at the top. The top of the legal profession while giving lip service has pretty much resisted change. We know that as the world becomes more multicultural the more important it is for law firms to rise and meet the challenge. Where you have people from different backgrounds you get different perspectives, more ideas, new ways of thinking about things, and more opportunities for problem solving.

Young eventually abandoned her suit. I can imagine why. Being treated badly by an employer for whom you gave your best can be a painful experience you’re forced to revisit constantly through litigation. It’s not worth the cost both financially and emotionally. Sometimes it’s easier to just let it go, forgive, and move on. I give praise to Yolanda Young for pointing out the errors of Covington and Burling’s way.

« Previous Page — Next Page »