If you believe former chairman of the Roger Williams University, Ralph Papitto, this is what happened.

Pappito was a board member for nearly 40 years so, I can only imagine how he might have used his position to make it harder to recruit black students and staff. I say that because last May, when the board met, there was a heated discussion on the university’s difficulty in recruiting black people to the school.

Then it happened.

Barbara Roberts, then a board member, said Papitto became irate when he discussed pressures to make the board more diverse, at one point using the slur to refer to black candidates.

She said he then told the board he knew he couldn’t say that because of Don Imus, the radio host who was fired after referring to Rutgers University women’s basketball team members as “nappy-headed hos.”

“There was, like, this complete and utter silence, and I was shocked beyond belief and very angry,” Roberts said.

Papitto has given the school at least $7 million, and his name is on the law school, the only one in Rhode Island.

He said he had never used the term before.

“The first time I heard it was on television and then rap music or something,” Papitto told WPRO.

Awww…hell no. You’ve never used the word before and your old a$$ first heard it while listening to rap? Please stop. There’s no fool like an old fool. The sad part is that he’s been able to hold this attitude while overseeing the direction of an institution of higher learning. This says a lot about Roger Williams University.

Popularity: 45% [?]

A few months ago, I shared a story about a South Carolina teacher who stood accused of having sex with an 11-year-old student. At the time, I wasn’t feeling to confident that justice would be served based on the light treatment she was given in the lead-up to her trial.The teacher, 37-year-old Wendie Schweikert, is white. Her victim, who was 11-years-old at the time, is black.

Well, today, I can say that Schweikert will indeed be going to prison. The now-former teacher was sentenced to 10 years after pleading guilty to criminal sexual conduct with a minor and committing a lewd act on a minor.

As Schweikert heads off to jail, the town awaits a trial another teacher, 24-year-old Allena Ward. Ward is white, as well, and is accused of having sex with no less than 5 boys, all of them black. Like Shweikert, Ward is also married. Some of Ward’s victims were students where she taught. While Ward has yet to see a jail cell, parents can take solace in the fact that she has been fired and her teaching license has been revoked, which means she can’t work for any South Carolina public school system. If Ward does not get convicted, she can reapply for a license in 3 years but, it would require a federal background check, which would reveal these charges.

So, one sexual predator is off to jail and, hopefully, another’s on her way. There’s already enough for parents to worry about. We shouldn’t have to worry about teachers sleeping with the students, as well.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Early on, I was discouraged from attending a historically-black college because I was told things such as, “the workforce is not all-black so, you need to go somewhere that offers a more realistic environment.” As I got older, I realize that this was not true. However, I wonder what those folks would say today knowing that a lot of HBCU’s are actively recruiting white students.

Some are taking them up on the offer, drawn by the allure of scholarships and tuition that, on average, costs $10,000 less per year than their traditionally white counterparts.

By no means am I suggesting that the educational experience at these schools is somehow now enhanced by the presence of white students. What I am suggesting, however, is that the quality of an education at an HBCU is just as good as any other university (and in many cases better) and the fact that students of other cultures attending these schools may be indicative of that notion.

Popularity: 39% [?]

I remember, in a previous incarnation of this site, talking about a Georgia school that continued to hold separate proms — one for black students and one for white students. When asked why, people there just stated, “that’s the way it’s always been”.

A new group of seniors have decided to give a go at having an integrated prom. The battle is an uphill one: only 160 students have purchased tickets, so far, and white students are talking of holding a competing party.

However, there are also some positive signs. For the first time, the school has not named separate black and white homecoming queens and, instead, named a mixed-race student as homecoming queen.

Sadly enough, there are still places in the country where blatant racial hostilities still exist but, with hope, younger people may be agents of change.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Oh, were the images of this party as tame as the one on the right, we would not be talking about this.

If you have read this blog, you will know that I have posted stories about racist college parties mocking black folks (see here and here). However, we are not the exclusive targets of these insults.

In California, Santa Clara University students are (and rightfully so) getting heat for a “South of the Border” party they threw there. This party, mocking Mexicans, featuring partygoers dressed as “Latino janitors, gardeners, gangbangers and pregnant homegirls.”

This party was brought to light when photos from partygoers were posted on the school newspaper’s web site. The school newspaper also reported on and posted photos from an earlier, “Fresh off the Boat” party thrown by students, which mocked immigrants.

However, there is a great irony in all of this. Santa Clara is a Jesuit university whose motto is “compassion, conscience and competence.”

Well, I think the compassion is sorely lacking here.

Popularity: 42% [?]

I remember, in college, I had people both “Greek” and non-Greek asking my why I never wanted to join a fraternity. I often gave them one of two reasons. The first was that I could never understand calling somebody “brother” after them beating on me for several weeks. The second reason was that I would probably not have made it because I am vindictive and would have caught each of them alone and paid them back for the beatings I’d suffered.

During my time at Ohio State, I saw an Omega Psi Phi chapter basically shut down for 4 years (could not pledge) because, during one hazing incident, they broke a pledge’s sternum and left him tied to a tree overnight. I saw the Kappas (Kappa Alpha Psi) treat one pledge as an outsider after he “crossed” because, during the pledge period, they had broken his ankle. I presume they “crossed” him to avoid legal concerns. I even saw the “AKAs” (Alpha Kappa Alpha) get kicked off the yard for one year for hazing.

Needless to say, I find that, by being black, I have plenty of opportunities to get my a$$ kicked without volunteering and spending my hard-earned money to do so.

So, when I recently saw that two Kappas at FAMU are serving two-year jail sentences for the beating of a pledge that landed in the hospital, I can’t say I felt too sorry for them. The two were convicted under an anti-hazing law enacted in Florida in 2005, which makes hazing a felony when it results in serious bodily injury or death.

According to the victim, Marcus Jones, he and his line brothers were struck so hard with canes that, in some instances, the canes actually broke.

Now, what some will immediately say is, “why do these pledges allow this to happen?” Some will even hold the abusers blameless.

However, Lawrence C. Ross, Jr’s thoughts on this are more in line with my own. He questions why those that haze break both their own rules against hazing and the laws of the land in regards to their actions. He calls out those who engaged in this hazing and those attempting to hold them blameless, labeling them “fake brothers”:

But alas, the rest of us live in the real world. Hunter and the two Kappas who are now in jail for two years are finding out that being fake brothers can have consequences. Fake brothers cause real injuries that can send you to jail for real time. I don’t shed a tear for the Kappas in jail, except for the notion that as young educated black men, they had real opportunities to avoid their plight, but chose not to. And now they pay the piper. C’est la vie.

But I have a warning for Hunter and those black Greeks who think like him. The day of the fake black Greek is coming to an end. Create a fake pledge process and you’ll end up in a real jail. And despite how much you’d love to blame the brutalized pledge for your plight, the responsibility will be all your own.

Well put, indeed.

Popularity: 35% [?]

As a computer geek (yeah, I said it), I really don’t care too much for Microsoft. However, I do have to admit that, when it comes to helping enriching the lives of average people, the company puts its money where its mouth is.

This was evidenced most recently with its $5 million technology grant to the Urban League to help the Urban League enhance the services it offers. According to Urban League President and CEO, Mark Morial:

“..the National Urban League and our affiliates will have the technology needed to enhance our wide array of programs from education assistance and job training to home ownership and business development initiatives. In turn, we’ll be able to better assist the over 600,000 African-American children and families we serve nationwide and help them to acquire the necessary skills to close the digital divide that still exists in America today.”

While $5 million doesn’t fix the problem, it certainly goes a long way towards helping. So, despite the geek in me, I have to give kudos to Microsoft on this move.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Most of us are too young to remember real minstrel shows but, we know that folks parading around in blackface is a no-no.

So, what makes white college students think that it’s cool to show up at parties, emulating black stereotypes, complete with blackface? Earlier this week, I shared a story about party thrown on MLK day at Tarleton University in which people came dressed in their favorite black stereotypes. One white student attending the party came as Aunt Jemima, complete with a red/white checkered “mammy” dress. The same web site that broke this story also brought another story out about a similar party held by University of Connecticut Law Students (let that soak in) a few days later. Those attending this party came dressed as gang members with do-rags, gold teeth, gang signs and fake guns.

Well, completing the trifecta was a party held by Clemson University students a couple of weeks ago. The party was held on the eve of Martin Luther King Day and its theme was “Living the Dream”. Like the other two parties, the pictures got out because they were posted on Facebook.com (when will people learn?).

This one is probably the most disgusting of the three because it included at least one person in blackface, women who put padding in the back of their pants to make their butts look bigger (mocking black women) and attendants with 40 oz. bottles duct-taped to their hands.

According to the the students involved, they threw the party “to show unity.” (Okay, now we’re supposed to be stupid enough to believe this?)

For its part, the Clemson University is working to stem the tide of negative reaction (i.e. “bad press”) that this party has generated and is hoping to act as a mediator between the partygoers and the folks they offended.

Well, since parties like this seem to go on all over the place, I’m sure we being seeing this incident play out again at another school in the near future. Remember, Black History Month is beginning tomorrow. That gives somebody 28 days to come up with something really offensive.

Popularity: 53% [?]

“I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death.”

Nas - “New York State Of Mind”

If you are old enough to remember the movie “I’m Gonna Get You, Sucka!”, you’ll remember a scene with Clarence Williams III in which he played a revolutionary. When asked about what happened to his group of revolutionaries, he says something to the effect that they went down to a government building to protest and came back with government jobs.

I think about this a lot when I think about where we, as black people, are going. We have been so lulled to sleep by our “success” that we forget that some of the things that prior generations fought for (and that we benefit from) are hanging on by a thread.

For example, many of us believe that if affirmative action ended tomorrow, everyone would be hired in a job or admitted to a school solely on the basis of merit. We forget that black folks who merited consideration never got a shot and this is why the laws were enacted in the first place. Even more sad is that some of us believe that this is the reason for hostility against us by some whites and they would suddenly accept us if laws like these did not exist.

Well, sadly enough, their “theories” could very well be put to the test in the very near future. Right now, the Supreme Court is looking at two cases that could do away with integration requirements in schools and “Uncle Ward” Connerly is working his hardest to do away with the same affirmative action that has helped him become successful in business. So, this could be the year that affirmative action dies a terrible death.

But, if this is the case, at least the negroes will be happy that “more deserving” white folks will reap the benefits of these changes.

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s interesting how reality can play out in a way a writer could never script. As I have stated her, I consider Ward Connerly to be the worst kind of sellout there is. His anti-affirmative action activities have had a devastating effect on the higher educational opportunities of a lot of black students. However, in at least one instance, it’s also had a negative effect on education access for white students, as well.

In 1996, Ward Connerly, as a member of the University of California Regents Board, successfully pushed through a ballot initiative (Proposition 209) to end the consideration of race in higher education. As a result, black enrollment in the University of California’s system plummeted. However, it appears another unintended effect occured, also — white enrollment took a big hit. Whites made up 40 percent of freshman admission before Prop. 209. Today, they make up 32 percent. What happened? White enrollment dropped because there was a group of students against which they could not compete — Asians. When race was no longer considered, there were no longer “numerical admissions goals” for whites, either. This gave Asian students unrestricted access to the UC educational experience and, as a result, their numbers grew from 36 percent, in 1996, to their current enrollment of 42%. During that same time, Latino student enrollment rose by 3%, as well.

So, Connerly, in his attempt to right “injustices” against whites, instead cost them, at least in this case. In a way, it is kind of a sweet irony. But, in another way, it is a shameful indictment on the argument against affirmative action. Perhaps, to make sure that more people of different groups get access to opportunity, we really do need it. Because, it seems, that white students in UC’s system are seeing their numbers shrink without it, as well.

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