By Rebecca Rivas
Special to the St. Louis American

(NNPA) Aggressive supporters of the Washington University fraternity pledges involved in the racial incident last week bombarded social media after the Association of Black Students released a statement requesting that the administration take “unequivocal action in resolving this issue of ignorance and racism.”

“It is our expectation that the administration will suspend both the primary students directly involved in the incident and those that specifically gave the directive for the task of concern,” ABS leaders stated.

On Feb. 26, some Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity pledges offended a group of African-American students eating dinner in the dining hall when one of the pledges read rap lyrics with the N-word in front of them, as part of a scavenger hunt.

The racial incident made national news, and the fraternity’s national leaders ordered a “cease and desist” of all the chapter’s activities until it completes an investigation of the incident. On Feb. 27, Vice Chancellor for Students Sharon Stahl emailed the Washington community saying, “It is unacceptable when any member of our community is a victim of discrimination, ignorance or hatred.”

The story first broke in the campus’ Student Life newspaper, where the online story has received hundreds of anonymous comments dismissing the racial incident.

“It was the pledges who were unfairly maligned here,” one commenter stated. “Let the lawsuits begin.”

Some stated they were donors who would pull their funding if the pledges were punished. One Wash. U. freshman wrote a letter to the editor stating that the comments on student newspaper’s site and Facebook will deter prospective students.

“If I were a prospective student and I read some of the comments on that article, I would never even consider attending Washington University, and many of my friends feel the same way,” stated freshman Schuyler Atkins.

African-American students make up six percent of undergraduates, according to the university’s website. Senior Jason Parks wrote that the anonymous online format allows students to hide behind their insensitivity, and it breeds fear on campus among minorities and the entire community.

“Imagine walking through campus thinking that any one of your fellow students can be racist or cares very little about your suffering,” Parks stated.

After monitoring the comments, the Student Life editorial staff stated in an online letter that they have seen dozens of community members attempt to “minimize emotions of hurt as overreactions.”

“Shaming students for feeling hurt by a racial slur devalues the actual pain that such a word can inflict,” they stated.

David Yang, chair of the Diversity Affairs Council, said that council members met for five hours on Feb. 27 before releasing a statement that called for a “collective response” and a safe space to discuss the campus climate.

University administrators, led by Stahl, have been meeting with student groups continuously, Yang said. However, they have not volunteered to host a campus-wide forum.

On Tuesday night, the Diversity Affairs Council held and facilitated a forum for Wash. U. students at the Karl D. Umrath Hall at 5 p.m., which was closed to the public. Spring break starts next week.

“Our goal following spring break is to continue the discussion and formulate a plan of action,” Yang said. “This will be aimed at improving the structure of our community so we can prevent situations like this.”

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton released a letter to students Tuesday night applauding their efforts to build dialogue. “I encourage more of it,” he stated.

Discipline debate

Facts of the incident, photos of the pledges and a copy of the pledge’s scavenger hunt list hit social media quickly. A group of black students were eating dinner at Bear’s Den Tuesday night and were approached by a group of SAE fraternity pledges on a scavenger hunt, who took a picture of a pledge brother standing behind them. Then, one pledge began reading the lyrics to Dr. Dre’s “B—— Ain’t S—,” and some of the black students got up to leave.

Student Life posted a copy of the scavenger hunt instructions, which showed the pledge could also have chosen Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’s “Get Low.” Both songs contain multiple uses of the N-word.

In regards to the fraternity members’ discipline, Joe Craig, a junior and Interfraternity Council president, issued a statement distancing the students’ actions from the council and chapter of SAE.

“The actions of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges are not consistent with our values, or the values of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and we are confident that the responsible parties will be disciplined accordingly,” Craig wrote.

Disciplining the fraternity members is just one part of multiple strategies students are working on to address the issue, said Jamala Rogers, longtime social-justice activist and chair emeritus of the Organization for Black Struggle. Students have organized a “Dear Chancellor Mark Wrighton” video campaign on Facebook, where students can voice their opinions.

OBS supports the Association of Black Students’ request to suspend those involved in the incident.

“At minimum that needs to happen to send a message that this behavior won’t be tolerated,” Rogers said. “It’s an opportunity for the chancellor to show how you address an incident like this.”

The anonymous aggressive comments are all part of this becoming a teachable moment, she said.

“You really get to see where the people are,” she said. “And now you know what kind of work you have to.”

Oberlin reflection

This week, Oberlin College in Ohio also responded to racial incidents. On Monday, Oberlin canceled classes and convened a “day of solidarity” after a person wearing a robe and hood appeared near its Afrikan Heritage House early Monday morning. In a statement, Marvin Krislov, Oberlin’s president, said that the recent series of hate-related incidents on campus called for a series of discussions.

A campus-wide gathering of solidarity would be helpful on Washington University’s campus as well, said Shanti Parikh, associate professor of sociocultural anthropology and African and African-American studies.

“This isn’t about blaming people,” she said. “It’s about understanding what our actions can do, whether intentional or not. Coming together would be very useful.”

Sharon Stahl said things are happening on a micro level, and administrators are partnering with students on action plans. She said she didn’t want to say what prospective plans have been discussed and how soon they would be put in place. The university’s investigation into the incident is still in process.

Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network

(GIN) – Bombardments of presumed strongholds of the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb militia entrenched in Mali are continuing from the air by French planes. But the fight on the frontlines is being waged almost alone by fighters from the north African nation of Chad. And losses are piling up.

Earlier this week, military planes returned 26 coffins of Chadian fighters who were selected for their intimate knowledge of the Saharan desert. “Chad has one of the world’s true desert armies,” said Al Jazeera reporter May Ling, “but they have also born the main brunt of the war.”

Most Chadians don’t believe the war serves their priorities, Ling, reporting from N’djamena, Chad, says. “France is pushing Chad into this war,” said a disgruntled citizen interviewed in the news video. “The majority of the Chadian people don’t agree with it. They’re very sad because this is Mali’s business. It’s not Chad’s fight.”

Another citizen told the reporter: “We don’t know whether or not the Parliament voted for this or not. All we know is we went to bed one night and woke up the next day to hear us telling us that they’re sending 2- or 3,000 troops to Mali. We’re not happy with this intervention at all.”

Chad’s government has pleaded with ECOWAS, a regional security group, to send more African troops but for the moment they are fighting alone. The U.N. is withholding peacekeeping troops until the “appropriate time.”

Meanwhile, reports of abuses by Malian soldiers of civilians of Arab and Tuareg origin are alarming human rights groups. Five soldiers are reportedly under investigation for atrocities committed against civilians.

Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network

(GIN) – A video that went viral of South African police tying a man to the back of a pick-up and letting him drag along the ground, shocked nationals in both South Africa and Mozambique where the man, who later died of his injuries, was from.

Mido Macia was a taxi driver who reportedly parked his cab on the wrong side of the road. After a brief scuffle with officers he was roped up and tied to the police vehicle, despite calls from area residents that he be freed. Police claimed they put the “resisting suspect” into the police van and took him to the police station. The Congress of South African Trade Unions alleged that Macia died when other men attacked him in the cell.

“Prison is not enough to punish those who murdered my husband”, said his widow, Biuda Mazive. “Those who committed this crime will come out of prison, but my husband will never come back”.

“We are asking for help from the Mozambican government to ensure that justice is done,” said his father, Jossefa Macie, interviewed by Radio Mozambique. “We don’t accept what happened to our son.”

Mido’s sister, Hortencia Macie, said he was the oldest son of their parents and, in addition to his own three year old daughter, he had taken responsibility for the orphan children of a deceased brother.

Macie had been living in South Africa since the age of ten. His father had been a migrant worker on the South African gold mines. After his parents returned to Mozambique, he would regularly send food back to them. That lifeline has been abruptly cut off, and relatives in South Africa now wonder who will support Macie’s parents.

Two officers and six constables have been charged with the murder of the 27 year old Macia. A scheduled hearing on the charge was postponed until Friday. “We want to hold an identity parade (line-up), so no pictures must be taken in order to prevent the prejudice of the case,” said prosecutor December Mthimunye.

Residents of Daveyton, where the incident took place, rallied at the courthouse to denounce the rising number of police brutality cases in the area.

By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In the oral arguments last week before the Supreme Court to determine whether a key section of the Voting Rights Act should be upheld, Justice Antonin Scalia referred to the provision as “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

It was the kind of comment that could easily spark a demonstration in front of the court. But when Scalia made his comment about the pre-clearance provision of the 1965 law last Wednesday, there were already protesters in front of the U.S. Supreme Court marching in support of the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act was originally passed in 1965. When Section 5 was scheduled to expire, it was extended by Congress in 1970, 1975, 1982 and for another 25 years in 2006. It was approved the last time with broad bipartisan support. It passed the House by a 390-33 margin and the Senate 98-0.

Under Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination must receive pre-clearance from the Justice Department or a federal court before they are allowed to make any changes in their voting procedures.

Inside the court, Scalia addressed the various extensions of the Voting Rights Act since its passage.

“…The initial enactment of this legislation in a – - a time when the need for it was so much more abundantly clear – - in the Senate, there – - it was double-digits against it. And that was only a 5-year term. Then, it is reenacted five years later, again for a 5-year term. Double-digits against it in the Senate. Then it was reenacted for seven years, Single digits against it. Then enacted for 25 years, eight Senate votes against it. And this last enactment, not a single vote in the Senate against it. And the House is pretty much the same.

Scalia then said, “Now, I don’t think that’s attributable to the fact that it is so much clearer now that we need this. I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement. It’s been written about. Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political process.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not let Scalia’s entitlement comment go unchallenged.

She pressed Bert W. Rein, the lawyer representing Shelby County, Ala., four times on the issue. She asked, “Do you think that the right to vote is a racial entitlement in Section 5?” Rein finally answered, “…May I say Congress was reacting in 1964 to a problem of race discrimination which it thought was prevalent in certain jurisdictions. So to that extent, as the intervenor said, yes, it was intended to protect those who had been discriminated against.”

Stephen G. Breyer said the case should be looked up through a historical context.

“So in 1965, well, we have history,” he said. “We have 200 years or perhaps of slavery. We have 80 years or so of legal segregation. We have had 41 years of this statue. And this statue has helped a lot. So, therefore Congress in 2005 looks back and says don’t change horses in the middle of the stream, because we still have a ways to go.”

If Section 5 is upheld on this conservative-leaning court, it would probably be on the vote of Anthony M. Kennedy. The right-leaning justice hinted that the Voting Rights Act may have run its course.

After Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. praised the effectiveness of the Voting Rights Act, Kennedy said, “Well, the Marshall Plan was very god, too, the Morale Act, the Northwest Ordinance, but times change.”

Sotomayor said Shelby County has not changed enough.

“Assuming I accept your premise, and there’s some question about that, that some portions of the South have changed, your country pretty much hasn’t.” she said. “In the period we’re talking about, it has many more discriminating – - 240 discriminatory voting laws that were blocked by Section 5 objections.”

Shelby County went to court after the Justice Department rejected a redistricting plan that evidently played a role in the defeat of Ernest Montgomery, the only Black member of the 5-member city council in Calera, Ala., a bedroom community of 12,000 people near Birmingham.

Montgomery was elected to the council in 2004 from a district that was nearly 71 percent Black. The district was redrawn two years later, reducing the Black presence to 23 percent. Montgomery narrowly lost his 2008 re-election bid to a White challenger. But the Justice Department invalidated the election because district changes had not been pre-cleared. Shelby County went to court to overturn the decision. In meantime, Montgomery won a newly-called election.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote an opinion in 2009 that might signal how he will vote in this case.

He said at the time, “Things have changed in the South. “The evil that Section 5 is meant to address may no longer be concentrated in the jurisdictions singled out for preclearance. The statute’s coverage formula is based on data that is now more than 35 years old, and there is considerable evidence that it fails to account for current political conditions.”

Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, referred to Senate support of the Voting Rights Act.

“Well, that sounds like a good argument to me, Justice Scalia,” she said. “It was clear to 98 Senators, including every Senator from a covered state, who decided that there was a continuing need for this piece of legislation.”