www . thEskaNNER . COM
s EptEMBER 28, 2011
s EattLE , w ashINgtON
V OLuME XXXIII, N O . 48
25
CENts
MBE 2 0 1 1
Minority Business Enterprise
Special Edition
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Reform
the
NCaa
Troy
Davis
vigil
A few ideas for
changing young
athletes’ lives
By roger M. Groves,
Professor of Law
Florida coastal School of Law
T
Photo BY SuSan Fried
Chris harris hands out flyers about
georgia death row inmate troy Davis,
at a vigil held prior to his execution on
wednesday, sept. 21, at westlake
park. Davis was executed despite
lingering doubt about his guilt.
susan Fried photo
author Isabel wilkerson in seattle Oct. 9
Pulitzer-winner reads from her book, ‘The Warmth of Other Suns’
T
he Central District Forum
for Arts & Ideas hosts
Isabel Wilkerson reading
from her award-winning nation-
al bestseller, “The Warmth of
Other Suns,” Oct. 9, at 7 p.m., at
Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave.
Winner of the National Book
Critic Circle Award for
Nonfiction, The Warmth of
Other Suns, chronicles one of
the great untold stories of
American history: the decades-
long migration of black citizens
who fled the South for northern
and western cities in search of a
better life. The book was named
one of New York Times’ 10 Best
Books of 2010 and among
Amazon’s Five Best Books of
2010.
Wilkerson, as Chicago Bureau
Chief of The New York Times,
won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for
feature writing for her coverage
of the historic floods in the
Midwest and for her profile of a
ten-year-old boy growing up
with a man’s obligations on the
South Side of Chicago. The
award made her the first black
woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in
indeX
News ........................2,3
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journalism and the first black
American to win for individual
reporting in the history of the
prizes. She also won the George
Polk Award for her coverage of
the Midwest and was named
Journalist of the Year by the
National Association of Black
Journalists.
Wilkerson spent most of her
journalism career at The Times,
and her work has been widely
anthologized. She has come to
be known for nonfiction narra-
tives that combine the disci-
plines of journalism and ethnog-
raphy. She has written exten-
sively on issues of social policy
and the human condition, as
well as on major stories of the
day, such as the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina and the chal-
lenges of upward mobility for
the Times’ 2005 series and
book, Class in America.
She has lectured on narrative
nonfiction at universities, at
newspapers and at professional
writing workshops throughout
the country and has conducted
writing seminars at the Nieman
See author on page 3
he NCAA enforcement problem has
festered beneath the surface for
decades, and allowed to grow into a
multi-institutional monster. I think its prob-
lems are too complex for a single simple
solution. There are root causes we still don’t
dig down and deal with. Some societal,
some economic, some just plain greed or
ignorance. Nor can all the issues be ade-
quately treated in a single post. But there are
some issues that seem obvious to me that no
one seems to what to address. I have a few
suggestions or considerations. One seeks to
inspire players to do the right thing. The
other is more drastic, borrowing from crim-
inology and technology. That’s for those
who still don’t get it. But I’ll save that for
another post.
First, we need an enhanced way of inspir-
ing the at-risk teenagers to do the right
thing. The reason is because the university
setting is not supposed to act like the crimi-
nal justice system. We must admit that we
are asking for voluntary compliance by
players to comply with NCAA rules. The
problem with getting at-risk star players to
conform to NCAA rules doesn’t start with
college. Grown-ups identify and coddle
those with superior athletic ability at or
before puberty. Then the adoring communi-
ty that loves to see their schools win, includ-
ing some teachers, sends the subtle but con-
sistent message that for these youngsters,
the normal rules do not apply. It should not
then surprise us that some of these mixed-
messaged 10-12 year olds become teenagers
who are high risks for rules violations. And
then there is often family dysfunction where
too often the absent or incarcerated father is
replaced by AAU coaches or other sports
pimps of sorts. The player becomes more a
commodity than the loved one.
Yet the essence of fatherhood is irreplace-
See ncaa on page 3
Feds Launch Civil Rights Investigations
Feds looks at cases in which white students receive more services
By nadra Kareem nittle
Special to the nnPa from america’s
Wire
WaShinGton—The U.S. Department
of Education is seeking to improve the qual-
ity of education for minority and poor pub-
lic school students by aggressively launch-
ing civil rights investigations aimed at pre-
venting district administrators from provid-
ing more services and resources to predom-
inantly white schools.
Faced with public schools more segre-
gated today than in the 1970s, the depart-
ment is using the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to
improve the quality of education for stu-
dents from minority and low-income back-
grounds. The department has outpaced the
Bush administration in initiating civil rights
probes.
During 33 months under the Obama
administration, the department’s Office for
Civil Rights (OCR) has launched 30 com-
pliance reviews compared with the 22
begun during the eight-year Bush adminis-
tration. Investigators determine whether
school districts have violated Title 6 of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits
See education on page 3