Racial Justice

House and Senate conferees are trying to reconcile differences between their two versions of the omnibus crime bill. One sticking point is the House amendment often called the Racial Justice Act. This legislation, no whisper of which is in the Senate crime bill, allows those condemned to death to offer statistics as evidence of racial discrimination in the sentencing jurisdiction. Some studies in the past have shown that capital punishment is more often resorted to in cases where the killer is black and the victim is white than in all other cases.

T he recent firing of an adjunct art instructor by Towson University because the instructor used a racial slur raises many important issues related to race and the power of language, political correctness, and the over-reliance by state universities and state legislators on adjunct employees. Less obvious, but more important, are problems that this incident demonstrates in the discussion of race in our country. First, focusing on the use of a racial slur - in this case, the notorious "N-word" - reinforces the narrow practice of thinking about racial justice only in terms of the treatment of individuals rather than the inequalities in outcomes between racial groups.

WASHINGTON -- If may be true that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, but never have statistics been more important than they are today.217-212.The Senate, with only one black member, not only left the RJA out of its crime bill, but voted 58-41 in a nonbinding resolution to oppose the RJA.(The politics of capital punishment were evident in how California's two Democratic senators split on the issue: Dianne Feinstein, up for re-election this year, voted against the RJA and Barbara Boxer, not facing re-election until 1998, voted for it.)

In today's culture, rebels often get a bad rap. But not all of them deserve the negative connotations that come with the word. A number of people who were once labeled rebels are now considered heroes by mainstream America, according to Cherrie Woods, the director of marketing and public relations at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was once considered a rebel. So was Rosa Parks, she said. "In the '50s and '60s, any African-Americans who were not treated as equals and chose to challenge this system were viewed as rebels," Woods said.

Seven women were honored this month for their contributions to racial justice, equal opportunity and community service during the 14th annual Fannie Lou Hamer Awards Reception at St. John's College. This year's honorees are U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski; Vanessa Bass, senior manager of recruitment and staffing for Anne Arundel public schools and vice president of the Anne Arundel County Alliance of Black Educators; Jan Chapman, founder, owner and CEO of an investment advisory firm; Victoria Bruce, an author and filmmaker with a background in science whose second book, "Hostage Nation," will be published next year; Karin Hayes, a writer, director and producer who co-wrote "Hostage Nation" with Bruce; Caldonia Johnson, a volunteer who works with the Anne Arundel County Red Cross, Lincoln Heights Community Association and Foster Grandparent program; and Alice Wright, a registered nurse who retired in 1997 after a 43-year career.

WASHINGTON -- Death row murderers find few champions among those who get elected for a living.To a politician, sticking up for a killer is a no-win proposition.The Racial Justice Act, however, seemed to be an exception to this rule.The act, part of the House version of the Crime Bill now before Congress, would allow condemned killers to escape death if they could show through statistical analysis that their sentences were the result of racial bias.And many in the House, especially the Congressional Black Caucus, thought this was only just.

TO MILLIONS of admirers around the world, the disclosures about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his doctoral dissertation cast a shadow on his memory; a shadow should not, however, be confused with a cloud.Scholarship rests on truth and trust, which is why scholars are right to denounce plagiarism mercilessly; that's why it is so dismaying to learn that King's doctoral thesis contained an extraordinary amount of material borrowed or copied, unattributed, from the work of others.But however just it may be to denounce his scholarship, that should not be confused with his leadership.

Citing the need for dedication to social and racial justice issues, the political action committee for Howard County's largest African-American network released its endorsements for candidates in the Nov. 5 election yesterday.The committee -- African Americans in Howard County -- is an outgrowth of the African-American Coalition, which represents more than 20 county groups, said Rev. Robert A. F. Turner, the president.In all but the nonpartisan judicial and school board races, the committee endorsed Democrats:For president and vice president, President Clinton and Al Gore.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has abandoned efforts to get the Senate to accept safeguards against racially biased death sentences in the $30 billion crime bill, risking the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus rather than lose legislation that would be a precious political trophy.The president's decision, conveyed by an aide Wednesday night to the caucus chairman, Rep. Kweisi Mfume of Baltimore, presumably lifts the threat of a Senate filibuster against the sweeping measure. At least a dozen senators have threatened to filibuster the crime bill if it includes the so-called "racial justice" provision.

JIM CROW lives again, thanks to the U.S. Congress.As the House and Senate negotiated the final version of the $30 billion crime bill, they abandoned the Racial Justice Act -- a section of the crime bill that would have allowed death-row convicts to cite racial bias in appealing sentences.That such bias exists is no longer in dispute. A wealth of data vTC clearly shows that this country executes its citizens based on the answers to three questions: What color are you? How much money do you have?

Seven women were honored this month for their contributions to racial justice, equal opportunity and community service during the 14th annual Fannie Lou Hamer Awards Reception at St. John's College. This year's honorees are U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski; Vanessa Bass, senior manager of recruitment and staffing for Anne Arundel public schools and vice president of the Anne Arundel County Alliance of Black Educators; Jan Chapman, founder, owner and CEO of an investment advisory firm; Victoria Bruce, an author and filmmaker with a background in science whose second book, "Hostage Nation," will be published next year; Karin Hayes, a writer, director and producer who co-wrote "Hostage Nation" with Bruce; Caldonia Johnson, a volunteer who works with the Anne Arundel County Red Cross, Lincoln Heights Community Association and Foster Grandparent program; and Alice Wright, a registered nurse who retired in 1997 after a 43-year career.

Barack Obama's election to this country's highest office powerfully shattered a centuries-old racial glass ceiling. But we must not be tricked into thinking that this inspiring milestone means we have dismantled all structures of racial discrimination in America, or that we can take a breather from the tireless fight for racial justice. Fighting against individual acts of intentional discrimination is important, but the real cause of persistent segregation is institutional discrimination.

On Thanksgiving morning, the top right-hand corner of this page quoted Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center on what he said was the reaction of hate groups to the dawning of the Age of Obama: "We've seen everything from cross-burnings on lawns of interracial couples to effigies of [President-elect Barack] Obama hanging from nooses to unpleasant exchanges in schoolyards. I think we're in a worrying situation right now." The Southern Poverty Law Center is a thriving business. The Alabama-based "nonprofit" firm has become a font of riches for founder Morris Dees and his associates.

Madeline Wheeler Murphy, a passionate community activist, civil rights champion and popular panelist on the WJZ-TV show Square Off, died of a heart attack Sunday at her Roland Park Place residence. She was 84. Mrs. Murphy was active in city politics and ran for City Council three times, twice in the 1960s and again in 1983, the same year that her son, William H. Murphy Jr., made an unsuccessful bid to unseat then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer in the Democratic primary. Mrs. Murphy often appeared as a guest on local television and radio shows, most notably Square Off, where she aired her progressive views and seemed to relish clashing with conservative panelists.

David S. Sheridan, 95, who is credited with inventing the modern disposable catheter, died Thursday in Argyle, N.Y. Active in the catheter business until the age of 90, he was dubbed the "Catheter King" in 1988 by Forbes magazine. Until World War II, urethral catheters were usually made of braided cotton strings that looked like shoelaces. Mr. Sheridan built a machine that made disposable plastic catheter tubes. He later figured out a way to produce plastic catheters with wider ends and put a line of radioactive paint down a catheter that would show up on X-rays.

NEW YORK -- To a chorus of boos, shouts and cheers at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Bill Bradley and Al Gore engaged in the most brutal presidential debate of the year, with Bradley attacking the vice president as a "conservative Democrat" and Gore describing his opponent as a "desperate" candidate intent on "tearing down" his fellow Democrat. The two men drew their swords almost as soon as the session began and turned almost every question into an attack. It was politics as spectacle, produced in an 87-year-old theater that is better known for the music of Charlie Parker and James Brown than for debates between men seeking to be president.

A leader of a new county group formed to promote racial equality and understanding plans to sponsor a "racial justice weekend," and asked Carroll's commissioners and mayors Thursday to publicly support the organization's mission."

TRENTON, N.J. -- Citing extensive evidence that New Jersey State Police officers have discriminated against minority motorists, the Justice Department announced yesterday that it will appoint an outside monitor to oversee the police agency and to ensure that it enacts reforms.The monitor, who will be chosen by the U.S. attorney in New Jersey and will report to a federal judge, will have broad powers to inspect virtually any function of officers and their supervisors, but will specifically order them to keep records of arrests and traffic stops by race to make sure that minorities are not being singled out.The monitor will also be charged with following through on the Justice Department's recommendations that New Jersey overhaul the Police Department's secretive internal affairs system, which many civil rights advocates and former troopers said was used to protect abusive and bigoted officers.