CYNTHIA TUCKER IS A CLASSY LADY

I don’t think anyone who knows her would say that Cynthia Tucker is anything less than a very classy lady. And, when her last term at the MCAD ended months and months ago, she remained on the job in carry-over status working hard and waiting patiently for her reappointment, which she had every reason to expect would come eventually. So, it is disappointing that an inattentive Republican Governor Mitt Romney, who would have you believe that he is a civil rights supporter, would allow his staff to call Cynthia on Christmas Eve and end her services on the spot. We understand partisan politics and that some Romney folks want to put the screws to our new Democratic governor-elect at all costs, but their Christmas present to Cynthia was ugly and partisan politics at its worse.

BARAK IS HOT!

Veteran White Senator Evan Bayh is probably still shaking his head over the contrast between the reception he received during a recent presidential probe in New Hampshire and that received by Black freshman Senator Barak Obama. Bayh drew a crowd of 70 and was observed lunching unnoticed with two companions. Obama addressed a standing room only crowd of 1500 and was mobbed like a rock star by New Hampshire voters wherever he appeared in public.

“WILLIE HOUDINI” MAYBE?

Congressman William Jefferson got caught red handed on video tape taking a bribe from a federal agent and the $90,000 bribe was discovered by the FBI hidden in his freezer. He survived his subsequent re-election runoff by a substantial margin. I don’t know if he is guilty or not but you can probably expect him to put up a fierce fight for acquittal on all charges. Why shouldn’t he? After all, it doesn’t take a political science genius to understand that the only difference between Jefferson and many of his colleagues is that Jefferson got caught.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COLOR MAKES

Of the more than 500 sports radio talk shows in America, only one is hosted by two Black commentators who specifically gear their commentary to a Black audience. Jason Zengerle of The New Republic (May 29, 2006) wrote of the dramatically different approach taken by the team, whose show is titled “2 Live Stews.” “Where most sports talk shows consist of angry white hosts and angry white callers braying about the myriad shortcomings of…black athletes, 2 Live Stews feature the reverse: black hosts and black callers voicing sympathy, understanding and support for black people who play the games.” He provided some interesting examples, such as the hosts’ defense of Barry Bonds who was long ago convicted by the White media.

BARAK IS VERY HOT!

The latest polls have Barak O’Bama pulling even with front-runner Hillary Clinton. I think he’s gonna run!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COLOR MAKES II

66% of White students use the Internet while only 47% of Black students and 44% of Hispanics do. Even worse, 54% of White students use the Internet at home while only 27% of Black students and 26% of Hispanics do so.

GO OPRAH!

Just ignore those rappers, Oprah. An interview with rapper 50 Cent wouldn’t be worth the garbage he spits out on his rap albums.

THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING

Time columnist Joe Klein (December 18, 2006) made some proposals for how to get rid of affirmative action and still retain student diversity. His first suggestion: “CHANGE THE DEFINITION. Make it poverty not pigment.” He considers it an imperfect solution since “You’d need an economic affirmative action program six times the size of the current (system). He then suggested that it be coupled with a program to end legacies, which are programs that give preference to kids of former graduates even though they are often less qualified. Klein makes the astute observation that “If we’re going to end affirmative action for African Americans, we should end it for the Affluent Americans.” That’s what I’ve been saying!

AND IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DO THAT…

Klein wrote, “CHANGE THE SYSTEM. Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap. The only real long-term answer to inequality is to provide a better educational system for the poor, and I mean really better: new facilities, longer school days and school years, the best college prep classes…and significant salary bonuses for teachers who choose the toughest neighborhoods…”

HOT SELLERS ON THE CHEAP!

New York Knicks’ guard Stephon Marbury has endorsed a hot-selling Starbury One basketball sneaker that retails for $15.00 and the kids love the sneakers, while economically hard-pressed parents love Marbury for diverting the kids away from Michael Jordan’s $175 sneakers and Kobe Bryant’s $130 ones.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COLOR MAKES III

Well, repairs to Hampshire County’s vandalized South Hadley High School gymnasium are almost completed and the total cost of clean-up and repair came to about $36,000 and the two 17 year-old students who caused the damage were suspended from school for 20 days each but will be allowed back in school after 10 days if they perform community service. It doesn’t appear that any legal action was taken against the two. Now you remember the bizarre series of events that occurred in Springfield after those Central High School students vandalized the auditorium. They were never allowed back into Central. They were weeks away from graduation, yet faced a real effort to expel them until protests from leveler heads caused them to be placed in alternative school programs. And the politicians and pundits pounced like hungry lions after baby antelopes. They inflated the initial damage estimates by at least three-fold and probably four and used the inflated numbers to whip the public into a frenzy and attempted to make public examples out of them with calls for legal penalties that were way out of proportion to the crime. The saddest part is that the relatives who called me were so frightened by the public lynching of their kids that they asked us not to print their comments for fear that spiteful officials would retaliate by escalating the attack, which, in fact, a couple of elected officials brazenly did. It was so ugly that I like to give periodic reminders so that we will never forget what happened here! n