Com sentation of theec aes Los = AngelesNAACP's Lifetime AchievementAward, named after civil rights pio-neer H. Claude Hudson, to L.A._ Police Chief Bernard Parks got some- ?,?ommunity circles up in arms forsome very obvious reasons. Convo-luted in the debate, of course, is whywould someone want to protest anaward given to an obviously popu-ar chief of police. The counterpointis why give the award at a timewhen the department is in the midstof a growing scandal, one of theworst (if not, the worst) in its his-tory with the public disclosures thatstreet cops are straight-up framingfolks (something the community hasknown for 30 years).The point that was missed wasthat awarding a olifetime achieve-ment ? recognition on Park was sim-ply premature, particularly beforeParks does what he was put there todo, which is reform the nation Tsmost (historically) corrupt munici-pal law enforcement, the Los Ange-tes Police Department. Parks T ap-pointment and civil service career~The Minority Voice Dec. 31 - Jan. 7, 2000that T s owe what they should.have give him "a meritoriousaward), the ultimate Bernard Parks olifetime ? achievement (as far asLAPD goes) would come.after thereform and he Ts not-there yet. infact, he Ts a long way from.it... .The Colored People Ts Assn., onthe other hand continues to live upto its state of perpetual dysfunctionand celebrated compromise by con-tinuing to recognize people forthings other than honorable motivesThe Los Angeles branch of NAACPhas a history of selling its awardsfor sponsor.and popular celebrityfavor, a position juxtaposed to thereal purpose of H. Claude Hudson Tslife achievement, long time truth,advocacy and struggle.It really didn Tt matter to mewhether Bernard Parks received theaward not. We really have morecritical issues in our community toworry about. People honor who theywant to, it doesn Tt mean the recog-nition is always worthy. Protesterstried to make it about Parks T posi-tion on the Margaret Mitchell shoot-ing and current scandal which pre-KLEAVER TS KLPPINSAn Unusual Reason for Giving Thanksgreene prs Parks T appearance atthe Urban Issues Breakfast, Forumlast month) that he is making someheadway. Not olife achievement ?kinda T headway, but headway still.Headway worthy of some recogni-tion. I Tm not raising opom-poms ?_ for the chief, but if the choice wasn TtParks, it would be another compro-mise awardee. That Ts how theNAACP is these days.Every now and then they get itright (as they did with Tom Bradleylast year), but most times they Tre aminute too soon or a minute too latein their positions.The L.A. NAACP doesn Tt knowwhether its T comin T or goin T, andwith low membership, with slowadvocacy positions, the award othing ? is just a popularity piece.But the Parks award is not the worstchoice this branch has ever made.It Ts not as distasteful as when FrankSinatra received the Life Achieve-ment Award in 1987 (a year afterthe award was started with Hudsonhimself being the first recipient).That was an ugly situation.The irony of this whole award- ' dideessio is we speak up whenthere Ts nothing to talk about, andremain silent when there Ts some-thing to say. Twelve years ago,Sinatra was selected to receive theaward in a backroom deal amongst afew branch executive committeemembers that started the biggestbranch fight (and split whereby5,000 members walked away fromthe branch) in this city Ts history.Sinatra Ts people agreed to osellout ? the dinner (to the tune of$350,000) if Sinatra received theLife Achievement Award. Sinatrawas also on the human rights (Am-nesty International) oblacklist ? forperforming at the South African re-sort, Sun City, during the height ofapartheid oppression, and most inthe branch opposed the award butwouldn Tt state it publicly since thedeal was oalready done. ? Sinatra, infact, legitimized the resort whenmost other major entertainers pub-licly stated, oWe ain Tt gonna playSun City ? (the name of a song thatcame out of the campaign). TheNegro leadership in Los Angelesremained silent (because theNAACP wasn Tt the only organiza-Back in the spring, Jan MariaPye had the honor of being thefirst black woman to serve on the Desert HotSprings City Council. For the uninformed, DesertHot Springs sits out by Palm Springs and isconsidered a relatively affluent community.. She did not win an election or even run foroffice. Because of her involvement in the com-munity, she was chosen to fill the unexpired termof a former council member. She had no politicalambition and candidly said so. Her term of officewas slated to be over in November of this year,when a special election would be held._- Well, November rolled around and Jan Pye,who is incidentally the daughter of noted sports writer Brad Pye Jr. and Eunice Pye, had notreally changed her mind. She had enjoyed herbrief stay on the council and had become ahighly respected member of the body."It is really kind of hard to describe the thingsthat happened next. She didn Tt launch a politicalcampaign and when donors sought to make acontribution to her non-campaign, she refused.the money. It was like she had been conscripted or drafted I the council race.» Herresolve never wavered. She refused. She refused to author a statement to be included on"the ballot and she had no campaign literature.' She was truly an oambassador without portfo-slio. ? Hér thrust seemed to be to offer whatever:level of expertise she had to the city and to takescare of her teenage daughter, Amber, who is an"honor student at Palm Springs High School.» Amber is, without question, the apple of her-grandfather Ts eye. If you don Tt believe it, justcask him. Anyway. As the political osilly season ? be- gan to reach a climax, Jan Pye Ts name was on theballot. She was nonchalant and even casual aboutsit. She had no great aspirations or even hopes about winning the election. She accepted the fact that she had virtually been drafted and keptLyURBAN PERSPECTIVE ScamsAfrican Americans T Silence is Wieccmace to Kidson about her business.On the night of Nov. 2, however, the votersmade their position and their desires clear. Whenthe dust had settled and the votes had beencounted, she had garnered more ballots thanboth of her opponents combined.As a matter of fact, she received more votesthan the mayor. Jan had 9990 votes and themayor had only 714. One of her opponents,Angela D, Avramidis, finished with 461 votesand Rochelle Esser managed to get 274 votes.Please note. This is not a predominantly Af-rican American community. It is of some ex-treme interest that Jan Pye was endorsed by theconservative newspaper, the Desert Sun. TheSun charged that Jan Pye had been one of themost focused and effective members of the coun-cil, as well as the most popular.In It Ts endorsement of Pye, The Sun said, oPye, who joined the council in March has dis-tinguished herself as a no nonsense leader ofvision and passion. The one council membermost voters trust and rightfully so. She wasinstrumental in getting the June utility tax passedand has taken the lead-on preparing another taxmeasure to ensure the city Ts viability. ?The newspaper went on to say o... with theassistance of proven incumbent Jan Pye, the cityshould finally be able to maximize the tourismand economic development strengths so badlymismanaged under previous administrations. ?Jan calmly accepted her victory, but therewas a hint of pride when she said, oThis is likegetting an oa ? on my report card for my perfor-mance so far. I said I could take care of businessand focus on the issues. ?She is scheduled to be officially sworn intooffice on Dec. 7. She will serve a two-year term onthe council. A graduate of Crenshaw High School,she is a former UCLA student. She spent most ofher adolescent years living in the Leimert Park area.Maybe this won Tt mean very much to somepeople. It is however, and indication that somebarriers have come down and others are comingdown. Some of these will be slow in moving.Others will perhaps tumble much faster. At thesame time, we must be constantly vigilant tomake certain that we don Tt miss a trick. Thereare still snakes in the wilderness and they arewaiting for us to come close before they strike.Jan Pye is one of those who overcame theodds. But then she had the background to makeit almost impossible for her to fail. She had afather who had come from someplace calledPlain Dealing, La. (A place nobody ever heardof or went to) and who was a Marine. Her motherran a taut ship so there was little room for failure.Her daughter, Amber, will in all probabilitybecome a brain surgeon or a paleontologist ormaybe a Supreme Court Justice. She might evenbecome the president of the United States. Shehas the ability of her mother and the drive of hergrandfather. On top of that, she Ts pretty.Jan, on the other hand, might serve anotherterm or two on the city council. And then bedrafted to run for mayor. If that happens, it willmark the first time in history that a young womanwho was born and bred in South Central LosAngeles would ascend to the highest seat in thecity next door to one of the richest communitiesin the world.I just hope it happens during mylifetime.Indeed, this family has adequate reasonto give thanks at this time of the year.On a more solemn note. At this time ofthanksgiving, we should all look around us andrecognize that we have something for which tobe thankful. There will be those who will notawaken on Thanksgiving morning. And no mat-ter what the circumstances, we must rememberthe Arabic proverb, oI complained because I hadno shoes until I met a man who had not feet. ?May God bless you as we celebrate this sea-son of thanksgiving.tion taking ocompromise money ?).-The newspapers reported it, but therewas no commentary on it (unlikehas been the case on the Parksaward). Only a few people publiclyCHIEF BERNARD PARKS... Making headway.opposed it at the time.Ron Wilkins and his anti-apart-heid organization, Amnesty Inter-national had a few people to speakout, and myself, who was then firstvice president of the Los AngelesNAACP. The dinner was protested,and Sinatra went home with hisaward (after telling protesters tostick it). After the dinner, the branchmembers who organized the dinnerbecame the opposition group againstmy re-election for branch presidenttwo years later.It was their public smear cam-paign that subsequently led to me: History Repeatedbeing investigated and prosecuted.But it all started with my oppositionto Frank Sinatra being given theLife Achievement Award, speakin Tup when it was time to speak up. Notbecause it Ts now popular to.slam thefigurehead (police-bash) in mediafor ograndstand of the week. ? Pro-testers now want to say the L.A.NAACP did something inappropri-ate when they have been doin T it allalong. This was really a onon-issue ?taking up space.Atleast, they can Tt be accused of oselling ? Bernard Parks the award.That was strictly the case with theSinatra recognition 12 years ago.The worst they can be accused oftoday is being a little premature inthe recognition. As history repeateditself, the dinner was protested andBernard Parks went home with hisaward. And in the larger scheme ofthings, does it really matter? Doesanother plaque on Bernard Parks Twall change the quality of life foranyone in South Central?Does it bring Margaret Mitchellback, or correct the department Tsimpending scandal, since he neitherpulled the trigger nor caused thescandal? Nope, it doesn Tt. It doesprovide further ammunition aboutthe NAACP being relevant, or atleast, conflicted in focus and pur-pose. And that Ts not going to changeby who it chooses to recognize withchicken dinner awards, but whoselives they start impacting. Only thenwill the NAACP change public per-spectives of it Ts mostrecent history,ones of irrelevance, ill-prepared-ness, organizational confusion andof compromise.ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVEAre Cops Killing Blacks?Before the horrific shooting at the Littleton, Colo., high school, themedia sat around like the Maytag repairman on Prozac.Monica Ts gone, impeachment and trial over with, the Jon BenetRamsey mystery dormant. Oh, sure, there Ts the occasional O.J. flare-up,but, for the most part, until Kosovo came along, one could almost hear thesound of the media begging, oMore firewood, please. ?But, wait a second. Look at these crime stats. Hmm, looks like blacksget busted more often than whites. This appears to the trained eye like aclear-cut case of racism. Driving while black. Race oprofiling. ? Gentle-men, start your laptops!Does this emotionally-driven, factually-devoid brand of journalismsound familiar? Sure, it does. Remember the oepidemic ? of arson againstblack churches? USA Today and many other prominent newspapersbombarded us with stories about the oepidemic, ? orash, ? oscourge ? "pickone "of the burning of black Southern churches. The bigots are back, thebigots are back!Soon public service announcements popped up, urging citizens to digdeep and help rebuild those black churches. Just when you thought youhad the bigots on the run, they Tre ba-a-ack. Little buggers are moretenacious than a Serb under a NATO air attack.But, uh-oh, iceberg ahead. Turns out, the story was bogus. Not onlywas there no increase of racially-motivated burnings of black churches,but church-burnings are dramatically down since 1980! By 63 percent. Infact, more mosques, synagogues, and white churches have been burned inrecent years than black churches.But for our race-tinted guys and gals in the media, it only got worse.Nearly a third of those arrested for burning black churches turned out tobe... black. USA Today prominently featured the burning of a Texas blackchurch. Authorities suspected bigotry.But, the cops later busted one of the firefighters summoned to put outthe firc. That Ts right. A firefighter set the fire and later had the nerve torespond to a call to help put it out. And he was black. USA Today gave thein the school district. If there wereonly 100, or one, their interests mustalways be protected. Who but Afri-can Americans have primary re-sponsibility for protecting the rightsof African American children?The Board of Education Ts recentflawed process and questionableethical procedures "as well as itsneedless alienation of large num-bers of Latinos "is cause for con-siderable concern because the samething can happen to African Ameri-cans. It goes without saying thatAfrican Americans T failing to re-spond to important actions by theschool board signals an uninformedor disinterested, politically impo-tent community. It lets the boardoff the hook by not holding it ac-countable for educating all children.Given the urgency of currentLAUSD issues, an array of AfricanAmerican groups should make theirpositions known. The board Ts com-promise in temporarily restoringSuperintendent Zacarias T authorityand hiring Ramon Cortines as in-terim superintendent, effective Jan.16, 2000 does not lessen the need tobe vigilant, Such groups should in-clude parents, teachers, adminis-trators (including the Council ofBlack Administrators), legislators(the Legislative Black Caucus wasquoted» as protesting the school-board Ts.action, but did not issue anofficial statement), civit rights andRecently in this col-umn I urged Afri-can Americans tospeakout about the Los Angeles Board: Of Education Ts process in stripping: Superintendent Ruben Zacarias of his: authority, transferring it to real estate: attorney and former school board: member, Howard Miller. I suggested* that the school board Ts process was? flawed and likely illegal, with serious: implications for African American* students who remain at the lowest» educational levels in the district. These, children are especially vulnerable,, since African Americans continue to lose power both within and outside of; the second largest school district in» the nation.. Since my Oct. 28 column, a tell-; ing, inexcusable silence continues* unabated. Despite the potential negative impact of the school, board Ts Zacarias/Miller decision on African American children and the* ensuing chaos, black people have° said virtually nothing. This is as-® + tounding! Are African American} students less important than other} children and, therefore, less deserv-, ing of community support?Of course, they are as important* as all other children, but the Afri-: can American community creates the impression of not caring by not* consistently demanding a quality+ education for black students andnot taking the school board to task+ for actions that affect these stu-dents, such as the board's Oct. 12decision to remove and recreate the ganizations and churches shouldWistrict's top management, in- also speak out because the broadertly, African American community's{Despite dwindling nymbers,, destiny is inextricably T woven withthere T are approximately 100,000 that of the black child,» |African American studentsenrolled A word on strategies by African' ' ] f ®mernrerre ee Kd MDS |black businesses; professional or-ae community-based organizations,»Americans to improve educationalresults is necessary since school boardpresident, Genethia Hayes is such astaunch opponent of oracial/identitypolitics. ? Hayes suggests that condi-tions in the United States have im-proved to a point where focusing onrace or ethnicity is no longer neces-sary in order to achieve political andeducational gains. She also urges thatpeople not use the word orace. ? Howthen will Hayes effectively advocatefor black children?If conditions were really thatmuch improved, and discriminationand inequities were no longer basedoncolor, anti-identity politics wouldmake sense. However, until race andethnicity are no longer significant,(I suspect that they will always be),the opponents of identity politicsare doing a disservice to AfricanAmerican students by minimizingthe systemic barriers to their suc-ceeding, while at the same time pro-moting race-neutral strategies whichsmack more of opportunism thantools to improve educational results.Some may wonder whetherGenethia Hayes herself is a oben-eficiary ? of the identity politics sheso vehemently rejects, publicly. LosAngeles T African American politi-cal leadership is by no means unani-mously supportive of Hayes, butseems to be ositting out ? the recentschool board action and subsequentchaos which dominated. much ofthe news for several weeks. Couldblack leadership's silence be basedon Genethia Hayes T color? Is ra-cial/identity politics more palatablethan Hayes and her cohorts are will-ing to admit?_ Cross-racial/ethnic collabora-tion is a necessary component-ofstrategies to improve educationalresults. In order to play a vital rolein such collaboration, AfricanAmericans, like all others, musthave their act together. This meanssuccessful intra-group collaborationbefore collaborating with others.(The anti-identity crowd likely re-jects intra-group unity as a form ofracial or identity politics.)Curiously, these same opponentsof identity politics do not criticize ocorporate identity politics, ? (e.g.,the Richard Riordan variety), nor ahost of other groups such as gays,Jews and women, who fit the iden-tity politics definition such as it is.Opponents T caustic, degrading re-jection of racial and identity poli-tics is apparently reserved for Afri-can Americans and Latinos exclu-sively.Implications of African Ameri-cans T failure to deal with the cur-rent school board and the districtcrisis extend well beyond educa-tion to politics, economics and thecultural values that shape our lives.No matter how pervasive the deni-als however, the future of AfricanAmericans rests with the childrenand always has, It is vital that Afri-can Americans weigh in-on all is-sues affecting the education of Af-rican American students, Not to doso abdicates a fundamental respon-sibility and, by default, entrusts toothers our children Ts destiny.It is imperative that the schoolboard hears from African Ameri-cans now, and regularly. Why? Be-cause the board's actions and deci-sion-making processes, (as in ter-minating Zacarias), impacts thelives of each and every AfricanAmerican child.arrest of the suspect only a fraction of the coverage given the initialburning.Which brings us back to today Ts accusation: reckless, out of controlcops who oracially profile. ? In New York, the cops beat a Haitian man.And, later, the police shot, numerous times, an unarmed black immigrant.Based on media reports, the New York cops seemed Gestapo-like. Butthen there Ts that troubling thing called data. Where is it? What supportsthe contention that police brutality against minorities is widespread andon the increase? In the last three years, NYPD shootings actually de-creased by a third. And fatal police shootings are down by nearly 50percent. New York crime did not go down because police brutality wentup.The fact remains that a small number of minorities commit a dispropor-tionately large amount of crime. It stands to reason that more from this ohigh risk group ? will be stopped, questioned, and arrested, for the mostpart, with good cause.Are cops guilty of ogender profiling ? because cops target and arrestmore men than women? Did the Rev. Jesse Jackson oracially profile ?when he once said, oThere is nothing more painful for me than to walkdown the street and hear footsteps and start to think about robbery, andthen see it Ts somebody white and feel relieved. ? Do we really want copsto spend less time in high crime areas and more crime in low crime ones?Don Tt trout fishermen go, like, where the trout is?And let Ts not forget. Arrests protect other people, you know. Thevictims of urban crime remain urban dwellers.Some lawmakers want to require officers to keep detailed informationabout the race or ethnicity of persons T stopped. Police departments,irritated at the guilt-by-badge accusations, resist. Fellows, don Tt fight it.Tell em, ogo ahead, make my day. ? Keep the data. Remember, you workfor the public. Your ocustomers ? demand this information. So, give it tothem. Then what? What will the screamers do when the data fail to showa pattern of discrimination, that most stops and searches are justified?And remember the president's executive order directing a study on oenvironmental racism, ? the allegation that the government puts toxicdump sites near minority communities? According to the Detroit News,the government failed to find environmental racism. And never releasedthe study! In fact, Jared Taylor writes in Paved with Good Intentions, thatwhites are more likely to'live near toxic waste sites than blacks. He calledenvironmental racism an outterly spurious charge. ?The pigs-are-coming argumentdoes not wash, Thesearch-for-the-great-white-bigot crowd, as usual, ignores real problems:Irresponsible breeding, irresponsible parenting, bad schools, crime. But,as long as they have a cop to Tkick around they'll kick.Until they néed one.(Larry Elder can be heard.on KABC TalkRadio.)\