How
does NAACP's Kweisi Mfume define diversity?
When I first decided to
analyze articles (written in other newspapers and/or reported on TV and radio, from a
Black publisher's perspective at my editorial staff's behest), it never occurred to me how
much I took for granted. I suspect I was like most people who scanned articles without
really questioning the validity of what was being reported. I accepted a lot of news at
face value, unless it was a controversial article that I was interested in.
I tended to dismiss catchphrases and rhetorical clichés without questioning what was
being said, but never again. And for that reason, I found myself analyzing a statement
made by NAACP President Kweisi Mfume in the Houston Chronicle's Bill Murray May 10, 2002
article. "You have a wonderful and diverse population," Mfume was quoted in the
article ("Houston praised as convention site: NAACP's Mfume like city's
diversity"), "As goes Houston, so goes the nation." My first thought, of
course, was that Mfume sure knows how to grease the press.
And well he should since he was a five-term Congressman from Baltimore, Maryland and
headed the Black Caucus before taking over a financially-troubled NAACP. Never-the-less,
it bothered me that Mfume so blatantly played on Mayor Lee P. Brown's pet diversity theme
that has been a political albatross around his neck since day one. Surely, Mfume is fully
aware that Houston, Texas is one of the most politically-divisive cities in the nation,
insofar as seven members of the City Council publicly declared war on Brown's
administration before he was sworn into office.
Factor in a hostile mainstream media that persistently tried to make Dr. Brown, Ph.D., a
bumbling, clueless bureaucrat and Houston had a problem. And, since African-American
News& Issues is an uncompromised newspaper that reports all news without fear or
favor, we would be remiss not to mention Brown's ongoing vendetta with Houston's second
oldest Black-owned newspaper that was orchestrated by its White news editor. So one must
question how Mfume defines diversity, insofar as he claims to "like the city's
diversity."
Certainly Houston's brand of diversity isn't something a civil rights advocate would want
emulated throughout the nation. No, I'm not trying to pick a fight with Mfume, or the
local NAACP. What I am doing is forewarning African-American leaders to be careful what
they say to the media, because it's coming up again. Mfume shouldn't take it personal,
insofar as analyzing news and issues is why Publisher's News Analysis was created.
Meanwhile, about 20,000 people, including 5,000 delegates, are expected to attend the
NAACP's 2002 annual convention on July 6-11 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Invited speakers include President George W. Bush, who turned the NAACP down last year and
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with Dr. Rod Paige, HISD's erstwhile general
superintendent and current secretary of Education. The theme of the convention is
"Freedom under Fire". Should I assume the theme is rhetorical, or am I being a
bit too analytical to take it literally?
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