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2A 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. - A 2 » 3 7 Gl el o"Es o 0 A e e %, = % 9 BT e i i & o i e e ey %’ & e & s 4 4 ka7 B & e 7#‘* !';. B b™ o 1 b b v %] : ‘ By Bp il o ;"-5'?;,, X . 4 : L] e 7 2 7 ) 4 ¢ Qf il i g ’ .. " ) ¥ B Pl B R J ¥ 5 ;i t 7 .y 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 - . ‘,'ai“ R ; 3 e o m;{ [ At Bt - Ry i ™ W SR AR SR 4 - T e RS ‘ ke TR SR e 7 e ) o b P s L ik i N : Ny R 2 Gire b S : : % o b e o, 4 g " cand b\ \ @8 PRz & . |\ F ~"i.?,‘g 1 e i g~ | faa B | g 8 e 47 ) o P 4 ,‘Qz ‘;:‘-')'f s 1 i L 71y /)? o : ; o A e | [ i 4 R » . 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