In Pursuit of Perfection

Geraldine Ferraro’s Contempt For Black People

Another killer from BP!

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position.” - Geraldine Ferraro, Daily Breeze, March 7, 2008.

One thing that I must say about the Republican Party is that their collective contempt for the black community is worn on their sleeve. Relatively speaking this contempt is held in the open for all to see. In the eyes of the typical Republican Party member the black community is not entitled to any special treatment from its government. A Republican president would rather spend a half trillion dollars and four thousand American lives in a battle of ideology to help the people in a country on the other side of the world than spend a dime building schools specifically for the black community. A Republican in the White House would rather give a corporate entity like Blackwater or Halliburton special treatment in the form of “no bid” federal contracts worth tens of billions of dollars and handsomely uplifting the profits of these companies during a time of war before they would help people in the black community during times of peace. A Republican controlled American government would rather give tax cuts worth more than four trillion dollars to billionaires and millionaires before they would give a black family the opportunity to apply for health insurance for their children. The Republican Party makes no attempt to appear to be a friend of the black community.

Continued...

Obama Campaign Headquarters in Texas Vandalized

Care of WOAI NBC 4 in San Antonio.  I was sad to see this and want to direct as much attention to these kinds of incidents as possible.  No doubt there will be others, but that's no excuse for any of us to accept this kind of base reprisal.  Let's be vigilant in our condemnation of these acts.

UVA Considers Applicant's Wealth in the Admissions Process

Who's your daddy? 
The University of Virginia acknowledges it tracks applicants based on their parents' donor potential.
 

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By Alisa Roth 

 

Jan.   14, 2000 | Amid heated debates on affirmative action, there has been little discussion on another form of admissions favoritism: financial. While it was long suspected that family wealth might have an impact on an applicant's prospects, few schools would ever acknowledge it. But last fall, the University of Virginia disclosed that along with legacies and friends of university VIPs, it tracks candidates whose rich parents are likely to make major contributions to the university.

The school newspaper, "The Cavalier Daily," broke the story after obtaining three memos regarding a list that defines applicants according to family worth and the probability of a big donation. The memos were sent by the development office and addressed to the president's assistant, Gordon Burris.

In some cases, the notes made specific reference to the family fortune: "-- nonlegacy son of William --, godson of Randolph Preston Pillow, MD ('42 A&S, '44 Health Sciences) -- is an heir to the Boeing Family fortune." (The dashes refer to places where the Cavalier Daily deleted some names before publication to protect students' privacy). In other cases, parents were rated by how much they were likely to donate: A for $10 million or more, B for $9.9 million to $5 million and so on.

Each year, about 400 students are put on Gordon Burris' master list to receive special consideration; along with rich kids, this record includes legacies and people who know people, typically politicians or board members. After admission decisions have been made, but before applicants are notified, Dean of Admissions John Blackburn meets with Burris. (Both Burris and Vice President for Development Robert Sweeney declined to be interviewed for this story.) The men compare lists and, in some cases, tweak a decision.

"A lot of it is maintaining good relations," says university spokeswoman Louise Dudley, who defends the list as primarily a means to inform so-called important people about how an applicant has fared. But in 1998, one-quarter of the 412 most-favored students had wealthy connections and were recommended by the development office. Of those, 20 were admitted.

Dudley emphasizes that the list is maintained alphabetically and the dean of admissions would never see information like that in the memos. While being on the list is no guarantee of acceptance, it can sway a decision. "[Burris] tells me the importance a student would have to the institution," Blackburn explains. "In some cases, I would make a change to the decision." Dudley's point is moot: It doesn't matter whether the list is alphabetized or if the admissions dean doesn't see the names on paper. Burris essentially verbalizes the list for Blackburn and prioritizes the names for him.

Ironically, the University of Virginia is not lacking for money or qualified applicants. Its endowment is a noteworthy $1.2 billion, and the school is about to complete a $1 billion campaign nearly one year ahead of schedule. On average, there are between 16,000 and 17,000 applicants for 3,000 spots in the freshman class. With two-thirds of those spaces reserved for Virginians, the acceptance rate among out-of-state students drops to about 20 percent.

Does that mean sending a bank statement along with an application or promising to build a state-of-the-art sports center will open an admissions door? Probably not. "For the most part, we're not talking deals cut for future giving," Blackburn clarifies. "We're quite leery of promises." He hastens to point out that UVA is hardly alone in considering wealth. Officials at the University of California, a prestigious public system, and Ivy League member Cornell University both readily admit that such considerations are a fact of life at any institution.

Tolerance of Ignorance begets more ignorance

    "I know that that phrase didn't originate in the white community - that phrase originated in the black community," Imus said. "I'm not stupid. I may be a white man, but I know that these young women - and young black women all through that society - are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected by their own black men and they are called that name. I know that doesn't give me, obviously, any right to say it, but it doesn't give them any right to say it either."

Who said the preceding?  If you guessed Don Imus, you're right!  Now take a look at the following.

clipped from www.cnn.com

  University benefactor and board chairman uses N-word 

• Story Highlights
• N-word "kind of slipped out," university board chairman says
  
• Ralph Papitto apologizes but adds, "What can I do? Kill myself?"
  
• Witness: Papitto irate over discussions to diversify board
• Next Article in U.S. »

"The first time I heard it was on television or rap music or something..."

clipped from www.cnn.com

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- The longtime chairman of the Roger Williams University board admitted Monday to using the N-word during a board meeting, saying it "kind of slipped out."

Ralph Papitto, at graduation ceremonies in May 2006, said he had never used the slur before.

"I apologized for that," Ralph Papitto said in an interview on WPRO-AM. "What else can I do? Kill myself?"

Papitto, 80, who stepped down earlier this month after nearly 40 years on the board, admitted he had used the racial slur at a May meeting of the school's board of trustees.

He had been discussing the difficulty of finding blacks and other minorities to serve on the 16-member board, which at the time included 14 white men and two women.

Barbara Roberts, then a board member, said Papitto became irate when he discussed pressures to make the board more diverse, at one point using the slur to refer to black candidates to the board.

She said he then told the board he knew he couldn't say that because of Don Imus, the radio host who was fired after referring to Rutgers University women's basketball team members as "nappy-headed hos."

"There was, like, this complete and utter silence, and I was shocked beyond belief and very angry," Roberts said.

Papitto, who has given the school at least $7 million and whose name is on the only law school in Rhode Island, said he had never used the term before.

"The first time I heard it was on television or rap music or something," he told WPRO.

Papitto said Monday that his decision to step down from the board was based on his age and his desire to spend more time with his family. He denied a newspaper report that he was forced out over the racial epithet.

Several board members said they were forced out after calling for Papitto's resignation after the incident. At least one has called for his name to be removed from the Ralph R. Papitto School of Law.

A man who answered the phone at a home listing for Papitto hung up on an Associated Press reporter Monday morning. Law School Dean David Logan and a university spokeswoman did not immediately return phone messages.

Roger Williams University in Bristol has roughly 3,880 undergraduate students. The law school was founded in 1993 and later named for Papitto, the founder of the Fortune 500 company Nortek Inc.

In the aftermath of the Don Imus incident, what has bothered me much more than Imus' comments is the effectiveness of his diversionary tactics.  He mixed his apology with his counter-attack.  A move which I must say has turned out to be very effective.

Now witness Round 2.  An otherwise uninteresting story for me becomes pivotal.  Is this to be the ploy of every public figure who is revealed to be racist in their way of thinking?  And is the public buying this??  I suppose Ralph Papitto wants us to believe that Africans came to America and thought of the word nigger all of their volition.  Those damn rappers!

Blink.

Thanks Don.

James Crow, Esq

The full damage done to America by the current administration will only become clear to us long after Mr. Bush and his cronies have left office.  Thank you Sonya.

clipped from make-it-plain.blogspot.com James Crow, Esq.        Since 2003...the criminal section within the Civil Rights Division has not hired a single black attorney to replace those who have left. Not one. Back in April, I wrote about how the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice was only interested in protecting the civil rights of white people.  At that time, the full extent of discrimination at the DOJ was unknown to me.  ...the current face of civil rights prosecutions looks like this: Out of fifty attorneys in the Criminal Section - only two are black. The same number the criminal section had in 1978 - even though the size of the staff has more than doubled.  The dearth of African American lawyers at the DOJ is an issue that has been lost amid the attention given to the myriad scandals unearthed at the DOJ in the wake of the departures of dozens of career lawyers.