AKAlades!!!

[AKA2D '91]

Kamala Harris elected San Francisco DA

S Rajagopalan
Washington, December 10



The United States now has a District Attorney of Indian stock. In a bitterly-fought election, Kamala Harris has trounced her former boss and two-term
incumbent Terrence Hallinan to become the DA of San Francisco, a coveted public office.

The 39-year-old Kamala, daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, defeated the 67-year-old Hallinan by a wider margin than what some pollsters had projected. She polled 56 per cent of the votes against Hallinan's 44 per cent.

After Bobby Jindal's narrow defeat in the Louisiana gubernatorial race, the San Francisco DA election had come to attract disproportionately large attention among the Indian Americans. But then, African-Americans also claim Kamala Harris as their own.

Kamala thanked her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, for her success. "My mother raised two daughters in Berkley, where she fought for civil rights. She raised us in an environment where women were strong and giving back to community was important," she told a jubilant crowd of her supporters.

A political novice but a protege of outgoing Mayor Willie Brown, Kamala had mounted a vigorous campaign, attacking her opponent's work record of low convictions, huge backlog of cases and strained relations with the police department. The police union had come out in full support of her candidature.

"I'm just delighted that Kamala Harris...will bring San Francisco back to real competence," Mayor Brown said as he joined Kamala's victory celebrations. Paul Grewal, president of the South Asian Bar Association
of Northern California, hailed Kamala's "historic victory".

Kamala, who will also be San Francisco's first-ever woman DA, said: "I'm optimistic and hopeful about the future. We've done a great job. I'm honoured and I don't feel entitled to it because no one's entitled to
serve in a public office -- you have to earn it."

A prosecutor in Alameda County for eight years after graduating from San Francisco's Hastings School of Law in 1990, Kamala had a two-year stint in her opponent Hallinan's team. The association came to an end in
2000.

During the campaign, Hallinan grumbled that his challenger had hijacked his agenda. "She came after my voters. She adopted my agenda -- in fact she hijacked my agenda. And it appears she did a pretty damn good
job of it," he finally conceded.

[Steeltrap]

Soror Victoria Franklin (Fall 2000, Iota Tau) is participating in the upcoming Miss USA pageant from Nevada. The pageant is April 12. Unfortunately, the Miss USA site hasn't been updated with Soror Franklin's information, but here's a couple of links. One has a picture of Soror Franklin:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...516053628.html

http://www.tftj.com/miss/USA/04states/NV/a_NV.htm

UPDATE: Have also learned that Soror Janaye Ingram (Fall 1999, Alpha Pi), is competing from New Jersey.

http://www.ninimomo.com/2004missnewjerseyusapageant.htm

[Steeltrap]

I'm an alumna of the Maynard Institute, a post-graduate journalism education program. Here's a thought-provoking column by William Wong, a veteran NoCal journalist, that appeared on its Web site.



The D.A. Is Half Asian, So Why Does The Media Label Her 'Black'?
Posted Feb. 9, 2004

By William Wong

When Kamala Harris was elected as San Francisco’s district attorney in December, local press accounts made special mention that she was the “first black woman” to win that high office.

It is common journalistic practice to note pioneering facts about prominent public figures – the first woman this, the first black that, the first Latino whatever, the first openly gay something or other. It’s either a sign of social progress or “political correctness.”

But how accurate and how relevant are such ethnic and gender labels? In Harris’ case, not totally accurate and somewhat relevant.

A minority of the stories I read about Harris leading up to her election provided information about her mixed ethnic background. Her father is black; her mother is of South Asian descent. I even recall reading that Harris is proud of her partial Asian heritage.

But most stories, when they used an ethnic label, limited her to being a “black woman.” Why was that? Doesn’t that simplistic – and misleading – label deny part of who she is? And why is any kind of ethnic labeling needed, in the first place?

Racial Labeling Is Controversial

It is worth noting that racial and ethnic labeling is a journalistic tradition, usually loaded with controversy. That is certainly the case with slapping a racial or ethnic label on crime suspects. The press has been somewhat schizophrenic on this particular practice. Once it was common to put a racial or ethnic label on criminal suspects. Then it was verboten. Now one sees such labels creeping back into stories.

Why may ethnic labeling be needed? Well, it’s California in the early 21st century.

Diversity Is Part Of Our History

The Golden State has a rich, and racially and ethnically contentious history, ever since James Marshall discovered gold near Sutter’s Mill in the California foothills in 1848. That monumental event attracted fortune-seekers from around the world. San Francisco (then called Yerba Buena) ballooned from a sleepy little village to a rousing, wild frontier city almost overnight. Its population – and that of the region surrounding it – became more “multicultural” in a matter of months, but power resided with white men who took charge of the major public and private institutions. (Native Americans and Spaniards were numerous before the Gold Rush.)

That’s ancient history. What about now? Even more so, California and San Francisco are “multicultural” to a fare-thee-well. Latinos, or Hispanics, are a major presence in California. So, of course, are people who trace their ancestral roots to Europe. Asians and African Americans are also a significant, but less numerous, presence. People with West Asian roots (Persians or Iranians, Afghanis, and so-called Middle Easterners) are in California in growing numbers too.

Does Blackness Trump Other Identities?

With that kind of racial and ethnic diversity and with many political, social and cultural issues related to race and ethnicity still largely unresolved, it is no surprise that the local press makes it a habit of identifying a newly elected public official like Kamala Harris by ethnicity. But why is she mostly “a black woman” to some Bay Area reporters and editors? Why don’t most press stories, when they choose to label her ethnically, tell the whole truth?

The same thing happens to Tiger Woods, the golf superstar. In most early stories about him after his meteoric rise as a professional golfer, he was called an African American. That is only partially true. His mother is Thai. His father is only partially African American. Some stories about Woods’ ethnic background say his father has a mixture of races and ethnicities, including Chinese. That makes Tiger Woods more Asian than black, yet, according to most news-media labeling, he is black.

Not Only Blacks And Whites

I suppose Harris is called a “black woman” because it reflects an old black-white paradigm of U.S. race relations. For the eastern half of the United States, especially the Deep South, that model has been dominant throughout most of the country’s history. In California and other Western states (including Hawaii), the black-white scenario has never been the governing model.

I am not here to deny the profound significance of black-white racial relations to the nation’s history. I realize that labeling people who descended from African slaves has a complex history. I also realize that many, perhaps most, African Americans aren’t “pure” black African but are of mixed racial and ethnic heritage too. One aspect of that complexity has to do with the so-called “one-drop” rule that deemed that a person in the United States who had “one drop” of “African blood” was considered “black,” even if he or she also had “white” or “native American” blood. The one-drop rule and other aspects of how white society regarded “black people” reflected institutional racism that stubbornly hangs on today, in perhaps less overt ways than the old Jim Crow era.

I am here to try to help set the record straight as it relates to California and western U.S. history. People of Asian descent – Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos mostly in the last half of the 19th century – and of Mexican background are integral to California and the west’s history. So, of course, are Native Americans of various tribal nations. And black people too, but not to the degree African Americans have been in the south and eastern U.S.

How Should Press Treat Ethnic/Racial Labels?

As much as I wish we lived in a “colorblind” society, we don’t, so some form of race and ethnic labeling is inevitable. This is so even though some political thinkers argue that race isn’t a scientific, but a social, concept. Whatever it is, “race” and ethnicity continue to be profound forces in our political, economic, social and cultural lives.

The United States has made impressive progress in racial, ethnic and gender relations over the past 40 or so years. But we have not reached the social “promised land” yet. That means there are and will continue to be public issues with racial, ethnic, religious and gender implications. And these are issues that the news media need to write and comment about.

I am reluctant to offer a journalistic Top Ten list on How to Label Someone by Race, Ethnicity, Religion, or Gender With Sensitivity, Compassion, and Historical Accuracy. There are style guides around, offered by various “minority” journalism associations, but some of those suggestions are too prescriptive and pedantic for my tastes.

The Relevancy Test

There is a relevancy test, however, that I believe should govern a journalistic ethnic or racial label. Journalists ought to engage in active discussions about the use of a label like “the first black woman” when they report about Kamala Harris or whether it is relevant to put a racial or ethnic label on a criminal suspect. Answer the question, “Is it relevant to this story that we label someone by race, ethnicity, gender, religion?” If it is, then get it right. Don’t leave off some of a person’s heritage.

On the matter of labeling a criminal suspect by race or ethnicity, the test should be more precise and bear high standards. Generalizations about racial or ethnic characteristics, as well as vague height and weight features, are virtually useless and can feed negative stereotypes of certain people. Moreover, eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. If, however, law-enforcement officials have precise and detailed descriptions and if a suspect is considered a threat to public safety, then I would say an ethnic or racial label is warranted as part of a physical description.

Mixed-race identifications can be wordy or awfully cumbersome. Maybe reporters should avoid shorthand descriptions and instead construct a sentence or two to describe someone’s racial or ethnic background, if it is deemed necessary to do so. In an increasingly nuanced and complex world, brevity may not be a virtue.



William Wong is author of "Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America" (Temple University Press). For more than 30 years, he was a reporter, columnist, and editor for, among others, The Wall Street Journal, The Oakland Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, and Asian Week. In the mid-1980s, he served as the ombudsman for The Oakland Tribune.

This article first appeared in Grade The News. An earlier version appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.



http://www.maynardije.org/columns/guests/040209_harris/

Copyright © 2004 Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education

[TonyB06]

As always, Steeltrap, another thought-provoking piece, with a lot of credible points. It seems most racial categorizing is government-sponsored, so this issue is going to be with us awhile...I don't see it as a major problem.

However I do view Tiger slightly differently. He's certainly entitled to be "Cablinasian" or whatever label he chooses. But he was fine being "Black" when Nike put $40 million in his pocket in 1997 when he came on tour. Remember his commercial ----> "Hey world, are you ready for me?...There are courses I cannot play because of the color of my skin, blah, blah, blah."

His golf dominance provides a natural platform to say things that would advance his sport. He seems smart, credible, and would most likely bring a different perspective, given his upbringing.

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by TonyB06
As always, Steeltrap, another thought-provoking piece, with a lot of credible points. It seems most racial categorizing is government-sponsored, so this issue is going to be with us awhile...I don't see it as a major problem.

However I do view Tiger slightly differently. He's certainly entitled to be "Cablinasian" or whatever label he chooses. But he was fine being "Black" when Nike put $40 million in his pocket in 1997 when he came on tour. Remember his commercial ----> "Hey world, are you ready for me?...There are courses I cannot play because of the color of my skin, blah, blah, blah."

His golf dominance provides a natural platform to say things that would advance his sport. He seems smart, credible, and would most likely bring a different perspective, given his upbringing.

Good point, Tony. And I do remember Eldrick's commercial. But I'm not surprised that Eldrick wouldn't strongly ID with being "Black." He grew up in Orange County, Calif., where we make up less than 2 percent of the population , and it was even less back in his formative years. I know a little something about OC -- it's my residence during the week.

[Choo-ChooAKA]

This is a very confusing issue. I suppose the best thing to do is to ask Ms. Harris how she would like to be identified. Although I wouldn't ask anyone "what are you." I may ask, as a journalist, how he/she would like to be identified in the article.

I know two sisters, Asian mother and Af Am father, who differ in how they would like to be identified. One just says, "I'm black" (and is interested in Our Fine Sorority, BTW) and the other is adamant about not leaving out her Asian heritage if you chose to label her at all.

Have you ever heard of a campus student group called HAPA? They are a group of people who are of partly Asian descent; all of them are Asian and (something else). It seems that there are many of these types of groups cropping up. Many people whose looks don't define their race seem to like to associate with groups where their identity is defined by the group so that they can avoid questions, I guess.

Anyway, very confusing. I guess the "one drop" rule doesn't apply any more, for many, many, many reasons. Things are changing and I'm trying to understand but it seems like the "Black" population is getting smaller and smaller as people of racially mixed parentage chose not to identify as Black (probably in part because young black people who do identify as black don't accept when people who don't look black say they're black). How do we unify and have strenghth in numbers if this is the way the trend is swinging?

[Conskeeted7]

Racial classification is very personal for all of us. There are some that prefer to be called African American, while others prefer Black. However, for those of mixed heritage, solo inclusion in one group excludes not just the other group, but the other parent.

Imagine being a Black woman with an Asian husband and your child refused to be called Black. How would that make you feel as a mother? As a woman? As a Black woman? That child is undoubtebly considering that at some point in life as well.

I commend those who acknowledge all the components of their cultural collage. But we shouldn't chastise those who refer to something other than what we think they should. The world can be complicated enough for everyone with anything other than purely White heritage and features.

[UpPinkies]

Originally posted by Conskeeted7
Racial classification is very personal for all of us. There are some that prefer to be called African American, while others prefer Black. However, for those of mixed heritage, solo inclusion in one group excludes not just the other group, but the other parent.

Imagine being a Black woman with an Asian husband and your child refused to be called Black. How would that make you feel as a mother? As a woman? As a Black woman? That child is undoubtebly considering that at some point in life as well.

I commend those who acknowledge all the components of their cultural collage. But we shouldn't chastise those who refer to something other than what we think they should. The world can be complicated enough for everyone with anything other than purely White heritage and features.

Excellent point.

[Choo-ChooAKA]

This is kind of an interesting topic that seems to merit its own thread so that AKAlades can go back to being AKAlades. What do you think? Is there a thread on this already? I guess I'll try a search (have no idea how to do this but will figure it out).

[Steeltrap]

The Louisiana Weekly

Work in progress to address Cosby's criticisms
By Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Washington Correspondent
06-21-04


WASHINGTON (NNPA) -- While comedian and philanthropist Bill Cosby was
busy criticizing low-income black people for not fulfilling their
obligations to society and to their race, there were thousands of
people already engaged in helping the very people Cosby was
upbraiding.

"We run a wide range of after school programs across the country. And many of them are successful. We touch probably about 600,000 to 700,000 kids a year, which is considerable," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. "For example, we have a male responsibility program that we run in Chicago. I said to the director, 'How many people do you serve in a year?' He said, '300.' I said, 'How many could you serve?' He said, 'Awe man, I could serve
5,000 if I had the resources.'"

More than 100 Urban League chapters around the country, most surviving on corporate donations, foundation grants or government contracts, reach as many people as possible with after school tutorial, job training, leadership development and responsible decision-making programs.

And they would be doing more -- if they had the resources.

"On an overall basis, one of our core competencies, one of the most important things we do is reach out and serve youth in America's urban communities," said Morial, former mayor of New Orleans. "But one thing I have noticed is that even with our most successful programs, we're not touching the ones we need to touch because of money."

The Urban League is among thousands of organizations that seek to address many of the age-old problems cited by Cosby.

Speaking in Washington, D.C. at an observance of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Cosby complained that "the lower economic people are not holding up their end of this deal."

He said, "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for their kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics'...They're on the corner and they can't speak English ..."

Psychologist Julia Hare, co-founder of the Black Think Tank based in San Francisco, said Cosby's comments would have been more helpful had he suggested ways to address the problems.

"He should have said, 'Following this meeting and this feel-good
session of Brown v. Board of Education, I am going to personally
gather together the Jack and Jills, the Links, all of the Greek letter
organizations, the coalition of this, the coalition of that, like 100
Black Women, 100 Black Men and the Black Church," Hare said. "You (Cosby) throw out all of these criticisms and you don't have any kind of solutions, I've got to look at you and I just wonder if you're just floor showing."

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), the oldest of the black
Greek-letter sororities, has operated its Ivy Reading Academy for
grades K-3 has for nearly two years with $1.5 million from the U.S.
Department of Education.

Linda White, AKA's national president, eagerly explains why her
organization chose to focus on the early years of a child's life.

"Children who have not developed the basic reading skills in the very early years find it extremely difficult to become competent readers in the later grades," she said. "And when they are unable to read effectively, then they don't perform well in the other subjects and other higher-level educational tasks and they don't finish school, they can't function in society."

She adds, "Most of us would not be where we are today if someone had not reached back and helped us, whether it was the neighbor next door who encouraged you or the teacher in your school. Most of us did not come from well-educated well-to-do backgrounds. What matters is the person who shows some caring and love and provide encouragement for that child."

Hare said children too often get the blame for circumstances over
which they have no control.

"They're not responsible for the ebonics," Hare states. "They're not responsible for the situation that causes them to stand on street corners. If you look at the figures, you have a society that will not employ their mothers, will not employ their fathers. In fact, you have a society that sent most of their fathers to prison."

DeLacy Davis, a sergeant in the East Orange, N.J. police department and executive director of the department's TRY (Together Redirecting Youth) program, is using the police department to help rather than lock up troubled youth.

"They come every day and they go straight to the police department. We give them access to the Internet. They do their homework at the police station. My staff comes from behind the desk and the children take over. We teach them office skills. We show them value and love," Davis said.

"We call it giving an overdose of support services for that child. In
other words, while the parents may be drug addicted, it doesn't mean that child can't make it. They may say, 'I go to the gang because it's protection. I go to the gang because they feed me. I go to the gang because it's my family.' What we're going to have to do is make sure that child is eating every day, that we remove all of the factors that our children have told us as reasons for them going to gang activity. We take those arguments off the table."

And the program is working, says Davis, who is also president and
founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality.

"Two children last year who failed every subject, they were 15 and 16, they were held back in the 9th grade and now are on honor roll."

Such support and encouragement is crucial, said MaryLee Allen,
director of Child Welfare and Mental Health Division at the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that researches and advocates on behalf of children.

"We try to ensure that there are comprehensive services and supports available to the children and their families because you can't separate a child from the family and community in which they're living and in which they're being raised," she said. "There are gaps in terms of being able to reach the needs, but there are some things that we know work. But what we've got to do is try to make those things work for many, many more children."

The federal Head Start program is a terrific example of a
comprehensive program that provides an early childhood education to children three to five years old, Allen said. But Head Start serves only 60 percent of eligible children, more than a third of them black.

Allen said Head Start should be expanded to serve children from birth to age three as well as assisting their parents.

Morial said everyone has an obligation to help the needy.

"Anybody who's halfway enlightened understands the interdependence in society," he said. "You can't build a wall around yourself and pretend to be successful if there's pain and suffering all around."

[AKA2D '91]

Yay, but our Reading program is more than 2 years old.



Sidebar: Ummmmmmmmm, this paper isn't heavily circulated on my side of the River. I'm going to have to travel to get it.

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91
Yay, but our Reading program is more than 2 years old.



Sidebar: Ummmmmmmmm, this paper isn't heavily circulated on my side of the River. I'm going to have to travel to get it.

Oh, I know our program's more than 2 years old. The writer should have mentioned that, but I digress.

[abaici]

She was initiated into Mu Pi (Spelman College) chapter Fall '00. She competes for the title of Miss America on Sept. 18th.

ETA: Apparently, she is also the FIRST African American to hold this title.

[Paradise359]

Alright! I love seeing Sorors do the dern thing!

[TheEpitome1920]

That dress is beautiful.