Newspaper Page Text
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April 15, 2004
National World
Rice embraces families of Sept.ll
victims after contentious hearing
WASHINGTON (AP)
—When it was all over, after
nearly three hours of some
times contentious question
ing before the 9-11 com
mission, it was Condoleezza
Rice who offered the first
hugs. The national security
adviser rose from the wit
ness chair Thursday, April 8
and came to face to face
with those who still have so
many questions about why
their loved ones had to die.
Rice smiled and offered a
few family members hand
On the ‘Down-Low’
By KWELI 1. WRIGHT
BET.com Staff Writer
Just a few weeks ago, Star
Jones, co-host of The View,
and her fiancée, Al Reynolds,
rejected reports that their
whirlwind relationship and
engagement was in trouble
because of rumors about
Reynolds’ sexual preference.
¢ e had one
mm&m in a
gay section of Fire Island and
attended an all-male Hal
loween party in his Speedos,
ignited talk that Reynolds
was on the “down-low” —a
man who doesn't call himself
gay or bisexual, but has sex
with men, often behind the
back of his wife or girlfriend.
Jones and Reynolds dis
missed the reports, saying
they discussed their “person
al histories” and, basically,
that it was nobodys damn
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Nielsen delays ‘people meter’ rollout in New York
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — After
accusations that black and His
panic viewers were being under
counted, Nielsen Media
6 to delay its rollout of its new
“people meter” television rating
system.
Nielsen insists its numbers are
accurate, but agreed to the delay
shakes, then reached out
her arms to embrace a few
more.
Some politely thanked
her for her testimony, but
others wanted more.
“Accountability, ma’am,
accountability,” called out
Carie Lemack, whose
mother died on American
Airlines Flight 11, the first
hijacked plane to hit the
World Trade Center on
Sept. 11, 2001. “I want the
full truth.” Lemack said she
was too flustered to remem
business.
Men on the “down-low” is
nothing new. In the 19905,
E. Lynn Harri§ popular
books about bisexual African
American men who lead
double lives hit the stores.
Today, the musical adapta
tion of Harris' best-selling
story of the same name, Noz
A Day Goes By, continues to
the African American com
munity, which is far more
than an issue of whether
black men are deceiving
black women.
The issue of bisexual men
and the potential for spread
ing deadly disease, including
H.LV/AIDS, is a major fear,
especially considering the
studies showing that African
American women are more
likely to contract AIDS via
heterosexual sex.
Government studies of 29
“out of respect and concern for
how the community sees this,”
said Susan Whiting, the compa
ny's president and CEO.
In tests of the new system,
almost all of the most popular
shows in black households
dropped in the ratings, some up
to 60 percent.
Whiting announced the deci
sion to put off Thursday’s
scheduled launch until June 3at
a news conference in U.S. Rep.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
ber what Rice said in
response. ;
Rosemary Dillard, whose
husband died on the plane
that hit the Pentagon, her
self offered Rice a hug, say
ing she wanted to “give her
some support.” But even so,
Dillard said she wasn’t com
pletely satisfied with the
answers Rice provided.
“I don't know if we'll ever
find out what genuinely
happened,” Dillard said.
Some of Rice’s answers, she
said, were “political spin.
states show that an African
American woman is 23 times
more likely to be infected
with AIDS than a white
woman. In addition, black
women accounted for 71.8
percent of new H.LV. cases
in women from 1999
through 2002. While the
recent number of infections
has stabilized, the incidence
of picking up the ' discase
through heterosexual sex has
increased.
Other studies suggest that
some 30 percent of all
African American bisexual
males may have the HLV
infection — and 90 percent of
that number do not _know
they are infected.
In 2002, African Ameri
cans — who comprise about
13 percent of the national
population — accounted for
42 percent of those having
AIDS, and more than half of
those diagnosed with new
infections.
Researchers believe that
the high incidence of blacks
having sex with blacks only
keeps the disease within an
African American “sexual
network.”
Within this “network,”
black women outnumber
black men— the 2002 census
data show there are 12.6
women 21 or older, com
pared with 9.9 million black
men.
And on the heels of the Star
Jones story, marriage rates in
the African American com
munity are dropping, which
means folks are having more
than one parter at the same
time. '
Charles Rangels (D-N.Y)
Harlem office.
Rangel, who said he had just
been made aware of the con
cerns, said he and Nielsen
would form a task force to study
the issue. “T'm satisfied that at
least I'll have the time to figure
this out,” he said.
Nielsen is'in the midst of a
gradual rollout of its “people
meter” in the nation's largest tel
evision markets.
We didn’t get the answers
we wanted.”
It was a notably different
scene from two weeks ago,
when family members
spontaneously moved to
embrace former Bush coun
terterrorism aide Richard
Clarke after his testimo
ny, in which he apolo
gized for the adminis
tration’s failure to
thwart the attack and
criticized the govern
ment’s failure to do
more.
‘Color-ism’ still prevalent
among African Americans
%PHAZEL TRICE EDNEY
’A_Correspondent
This is the first of two arti
cles on how ones complexion
still colors how many
African-Americans view
themselves and others in their
community. :
S AS NG To N
(NNPA) - Atima Omara-
Alwala had just left her
office at the State Capitol in
Richmond, Va. and was on
her way to lunch when she
heard a voice from a passing
car scream, “Blackie!”
It was the kind of insult
that she has come to expect
but not accept:
A few years earlier, as a
sophomore at the Universi
ty of Virginia in Char
lottesville, 40 miles away,
she heard some guys in a
passing car laugh as one
yelled, “Darkiel”
That anyone would stoop
to that level of behavior was
disappointing enough. But
what made these insults
doubly painful was that
they were uttered by black
men.
“It’s not surprising any
more. But it’s still some
what painful,” Omara-
Alwala admits. “I kind of
wince or flinch on the
inside. Even when I work in
black communities, I'm
always conscious that there
might be some reason that
I'll be picked on - not
because of any fault in my
personality — just the fact
that 'm this complexion.
And, of course, I'm no good
\if ’m this complexion.”
Currendy, 500 households in
each big city record their view
ing habits in a diary kept during
four ratings “sweeps” months.
The new system uses a larger
sample — 800 households —and
electronically records what peo
ple are watching every day
through a device connected to
their TV.
Nielsen already uses the “peo
ple meters” to measure national
ratings in an entirely different
e 2 o y b M.;
‘ ‘ ':?
R
Condoleezza Rice
Omara-Alwala’s complex
ion is dark. She was born in
Providence, R.I. to parents
from Uganda in East Africa.
C. Yveute Taylor, a psy
chologist who counsels
many women of color at
the University of Virginia
says stereotypes based on
colos are novusnusual. .
yfi“&m% stilff exist'
and they are age old,” she
says. “And they very likely
will always be around. And
the ramifications of them
are myriad. Lots of people -
women and men — struggle
with the skin-tone issue.”
Taylor argues that light
skinned African-Americans
are favored because they
more closely resemble the
white majority in the U.S,,
which is depicted as the
paragon of beauty in photo-
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; Photo by Hazel Edney/NNPA
Danielle Smith proudiy displays her “Black is Beautiful” tattoo
sample.
Boston is the only city where
the new local system is operat
ing. Nielsen — which wants
“people meters” in the 10 largest
dties by 2006 -has similarly
delayed launches in Chicago
and Los Angeles. In Los Ange
les, there were concerns the new
sample did not have enough
minority representation,
Nielsen said. :
That's not the case in New
graphs, television commer
cials and popular culture.
She also traces it back to
slavery and the favoritism
the master showed toward
light-skin slaves, some of
whom he had sexually
exploited against their will.
Books, such as Delores
hillips’ . Darkest, Child,
f,’fifid il ;fiigfiu,
addresses the issue of preju
dice among people who
have been the object of
prejudice for years. She
observes, “Attitudes of prej
udice have been adopted by
its victims. And the result
ing struggle of those who
are darker complected is a
struggle, not only against
outsiders, but against the
closest of kin.”Omara-
Alwala knows about that
See Color page 10A
York; Whiting claims the new
sample better represents the
city’s ethnic makeup than the
group filling out diaries.
However, during test runs of
the new system, virtually all of
the most popular programs in
black households showed rat
ings declines, some more than
60 percent, according to U.S.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
(D-N.Y.), who had urged the
delay.