Newspaper Page Text
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April 22, 2004
National World
Charlottesville, Va., police revise DNA
testing policy that targeted black men
By LORRAINE BLACKWELL
Associated Press Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE,
Va. (AP) — The city police
chief said Friday, April 16,
he will not stop using DNA
testing to catch a serial
rapist, but he is revamping
the process of collecting
random samples from black
men, something many resi
dents called racial profiling,
Police Chief Timothy J.
Longo Sr. said police will no
Kerry regrets Ilimited
Civil Rights involvement
B% GEORGE E. CURRY
A Editor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON
(NNPA) — Senator John
Kerry says that although
he was supportive of
civil rights during his
college years, he regrets
that he didn’t take part
in the March on Wash
ington, the Selma to
Montgomery March and
other major protest
events of the 19605.
The . presumptive
Democratic nominee
made that observation
in a recent meeting at
his campaign headquar
ters in Washington with
five black journalists.
When asked about his
civil rights involvement
while a student at
Yale University, Kerry
replied, “I took part in
demonstrations in New
Haven and we helped to
fund and raise money
for the Freedom Rides,
the buses and (to)
recruit people to go.
And I went from a very
difficult personal choice
about going or not
going. I was on one of
the athletic teams at the
time. I did not go.”
Asked if he has any
regrets about the choice
he made, the junior
Massachusetts senator
said, “It would have
i k.
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longer request cheek-swab
samples from black men
who have been stopped
because they reportedly
looked suspicious or resem
bled a composite drawing
of the serial rapist.
If officers consider a man
suspicious, Longo said they
will complete an informa
tion card that can be used
later for further investiga
tion.
Police officers also will
have to contact an investi
been a great experience.
I didn’t, I made other
choices at the time.
Again, I was supportive
and proud that I was
conscious of it and
aware of it and cared
enough to be supportive
of it. But I just made a
different choice at that
point in time.”
When asked if he
would make a different
choice today, Kerry
became pensive.
“I would have found a
way to get there, I
think, for partof it,” he
said, slowly. When
another reporter
attempted to ask Kerry a
question, he continued
in a reflective mood. “I
think I missed some
thing. Did I miss some
thing in that regard?
Yeah, I think I did. I am
glad I was aware of it
and helped in some way,
a small way from the
side, but sure, today,
holding that in the
regard that I do, it
would have been some
thing that I would have
been proud to have been
part of.”
Kerry was eager to
draw a contrast between
his vision for America
and the Bush record. -
“I think George Bush
has a truth deficit of
enormous proportion,”
AUGUSTA FOCUS
gator for permission before
asking a suspect to submit
to a DNA sample, and
must inform the men of
their right to say no.
“These strategies ... were
not something that took a
lot of difficulty for us to be
able to think about and
come up with,” Longo said
at a press conference after
meeting with religious and
community leaders. “The
real challenge was to main
tain the public trust in the
he said.
“Almost every promise
he’s made to the coun
try, he’s broken. He
promised that he would
create 5.1 million jobs.
He’s lost 1.8 million. He
promised that his tax ut
was affordable within
the budget because we
had a surplus of $5.6
trillion.
We now have a deficit
of $520 billion in one
year, the largest deficit
in the history of the
country...
“He promised to be a
uniter, he’s been a
divider. He promised he
would bring people
together, he arttacks
affirmative action on
Martin Luther King’s
birthday.
And not having
learned that year, he
appoints Judge
(Charles) Pickering on
Martin Luther King’s
next birthday. The level
of breach of trust, in my
judgment, is larger than
anything I've ever seen.”
The Bush campaign
has attacked Kerry for
unfairly introducing
religion into the cam
paign..
In a speech last month
at New Northside Bap
tist Church in St. Louis,
Kerry indirectly criti
cized Bush. Speaking at
the African-American
church, Kerry refer
enced James 2:14:
“What good is it, my
brothers, if a man claim
to have faith but has no
deeds.”
Kerry said at the time,
“The scriptures say,
what does it profit, my
bother, if someone says
he has faith but does not
have works? When we
look at what is happen
ing in America today,
where are the works of
compassion?”
Steve Schmidt, a Bush
spokesman, called
Kerry’s comments
“beyond the bounds of
acceptable discourse and
a sad exploitatibn of
scripture for political
attack.”
Kerry told the black
See Kerry page 16A
process.”
Police said a man
described as a black male is
suspected of committing six
rapes in the area from 1997
to 2003, and may be con
nected 0 a dozen other
crimes.
Already, 187 black men
have given DNA samples to
police since the testing
began last year. All have
been cleared, but their
DNA samples are still being
held by police. Longo said
Light-skin blacks can’t
avoid color prejudice
This is the second part of a
two part report on color bias.
mHAZEL TRICE EDNEY
A Correspondent
WASHINGTON
(NNPA) -Akia Dickson, a
student at Howard Universi
ty, was headed home from
work on a Washington, D.C.
subway last month when a
25-year-old brown-skin Black
man slid into the seat beside
her.
“This guy was trying to talk
to me. And he was saying,
‘Oh, 1 bet you have a
boyfriend” And I was like,
‘Yeah.” And he was like, All
the pretty light-skinned girls
do. All I need in my life is a
pretty light-skinned girl,”
recounts Dickson, 23.
“And I said, ‘Are those your
only requirements? You need
to look a litde deeper than
this.” I was very nice and |
explained to him, “This just
can' be it.” But the interlop
er was not deterred.
“He said, ‘I try to date
brown skin girls and it just
doesnt work out. And I
brought one home one time
and my grandfather said I'd
better not do that again.”
Dickson was dumbfounded.
“I was like, ‘Are you serious?
They still make you?””
Yes, even in 2004, African-
Americans still have a color
complex, explains Julia Hare,
a psychologist and executive
director of the Black Think
Tank in San Francisco.
“It’s alive and thriving,” says
Hare. “black men, when they
went to professional schools
like Meharry or Howard, the
thing that assured that they
would be successful to them
selves was a Cadillac and a
light-skinned woman on his
arm.
She was an ornament on his
arm. It was to be sure that his
children would be socially
acceptable and that his chil
dren would not look like him,
to suffer the same punish
ment that his dark-skinned
sisters and his mother suf
fered.”
That suffering has its roots
in slavery, when the white
slave master showed prefer
ence to light-skin slaves, giv
ing them jobs as “House
Negroes” while their dark skin
counterparts labored in the
fields. And more oftmhkednn
man would like to
admiyt, mkm and their
sons would take sexual liber-
Friday police will return or
destroy the samples.
Many black leaders were
pleased by the changes.
“I think (Longo) listened
to the citizens,” said Dr.
Alvin Edwards, pastor of
Mt Zion African Baptist
Church in Charlottesville.
“It was a collaborative
effort. He understood how
we felt.”
Kent Willis, executive
director of the American
Civil Liberties Union of
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Photo by Hazel Trice Edney/NNPA
Akia Dickson on skin color : “You need to look a littie deeper
than this.”
ties with defenseless black
women, producing near
white offsprings that were
neither acknowledged nor
accepted by the slave owner’s
family.
“You would have thought
that this thing would have
ended after the so-called free
movement and slavery sup
posedly was over,” Hare
explains. “But black people
have taken on the same pat
terns as the slave master.
Wherever you go, I don't care
if its in the church, I don'
care if its in the bar, I don't
care if its in the corporate
rooms, I don't care if it's on a
cruise, color still comes up
among black people.”
Dickson 'a Chicago native
with natural blond hair and
gray eyes argues that being
light-skin does not make her
immune from insults.
“In Chicago, theyd say stuff
like ‘light skinned’, ‘blondie’,
‘goldie locks’ and all that stuff.
They think it’s like a compli
ment almost. But it’s not a
compliment. It does not flat
ter me at all. I think its so
ignorant.”
And some members of the
unofficial color club bring
some things on themselves,
according to Dickson.
“I know girls who've tried
to be my friend because we're
all light-skin. And I'm like, ‘I
don't vibe with you like that. I
don't get along with you like
that, so that’s not going to be
our sole connecting factor.” I
Virginia, said there are still
many unknowns about the
use of DNA testing and
police need to do more to
protect individual rights.
“This is a vast improve
ment over what they were
doing, only a few days ago,
and the police ought to be
commended for that,” he
said. “We would still like to
see a 2 more precise and high
er standard applied before
people are asked for their
DNA.”
have friends who are like
every shade of the rainbow
and we vibe off of personality
and who we are.”
Dickson says her complex
ion has sometimes caused her
to alter her personality.
“I would kind of play
myself down and be nicer or
friendlier or more outgoing
than I already was,” she
explains. “So, it kind of com
promised my self-confidence
because I was kind of feeling
like there was something
wrong with me and I had to
change it in order to be liked
by my peers. I guess that was
my thing, my litde problem.”
The problem is no easier for
people who identify them
selves as bi-racial.
According to the 2000
Census, there were 36.4 mil
lion black or African people
in the US. who said they
were mixed with another race
(13 percent of the total U.S.
population of 281.5 million).
Marriages between blacks and
whites, contrary to popular
opinion, totaled only
784,764, less than one per
cent.
Tiffany Reynolds, 21, born
to ‘an African-American
mother who reared her and a
white father whom she has
never met, knows how it feels
to be judged for something
over which she has no con
trol.
“Some people question my
Sec Prejudice page 16A