Post by ecograd on Nov 2, 2005 17:47:12 GMT -5
How Bush Visit Became the Siege Of Howard U.
By Courtland Milloy
Sunday, October 30, 2005; C01
It was Soul Food Thursday at Howard University last week, and many students were looking forward to their favorite meal: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and cornbread. At lunchtime, however, students discovered that much of the campus had been locked down and that the school's cafeteria was off limits.
Apparently, many of them did not know that President Bush and first lady Laura Bush had arrived for a "youth summit" at the Blackburn Center, where the dining hall is located. Stomachs began to growl, tempers flared, and, eventually, a student protest ensued.
In case you missed the broadcast Friday on Fox 5 (WTTG-TV), reporter Robbie Chavez was at Howard trying to interview protesting students when a campus security guard showed up and tried to stop him.
Chavez: The university went to great lengths . . .
Guard: I'm asking you to leave the campus now.
Chavez: . . . to hide angry protesting students . . .
Guard: I'm warning you, you don't do that.
Chavez: . . . a big effort to keep a lid on the growing frustration.
During the protest, dozens of students locked arms around a flagpole in the Quadrangle, a designated forbidden zone at the center of the campus, and refused to move despite warnings from campus security that Secret Service rooftop snipers might open fire on them.
You'd have thought Howard had taken a page right out of the Bush administration playbook on quashing First Amendment freedoms. In a letter posted the day before on a university Web site, President H. Patrick Swygert wrote that, having notified the campus via e-mail in July, he was sending a reminder of the Bush visit. But students complained that they hadn't seen either message and criticized school officials and the Bush administration for poor planning.
Chavez said: "This is what university police and the Howard University administration did not want publicized: students angry after being shut out of parts of their own university."
What might have been a public relations coup for Bush -- a visit to a historically black college to show concern for at-risk youths -- ended up as another Katrina-like moment, with the president appearing spaced-out, waving and smiling for television cameras while students were trying to break through campus security to get to the cordoned-off cafeteria.
Of course, the episode was nothing compared with all the other bad news Bush got last week, including the indictment of White House aide I. Lewis Libby on perjury charges. But what happened at Howard was illustrative nonetheless of how a seemingly minor mess, easily avoided by a more attentive White House, could have repercussions down the road.
The Republican Party is trying hard to win over black voters before the midterm elections, and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele needs the support of black Democrats in his bid to become the first black Republican in the U.S. Senate since Howard alumnus Edward Brooke of Massachusetts (1967-1979). So one thing Bush didn't want was a ruckus during a visit to Howard.
All he had to do was drop in on Soul Food Thursday, be seen sharing a wing and some collard greens with students -- and score one for the GOP.
But the visit went from bad to worse. On a day when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution paying tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who died last week, campus security guards were telling students that if they wanted to eat they'd have to come back when the president and first lady were gone, then go to a service door at the rear of the dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go. Never mind that a student meal plan at Howard can cost as much as $2,500 a semester.
Howard is not some hotbed of political activism. The biggest event of the year is homecoming, which features two fashion shows, a step show and lots of hip-hop celebrities. As the rapper Ludacris put it in his summer hit, "Pimpin' All Over the World":
Jump in the car and ride for hours,
Makin' sure I don't miss the homecoming at Howard.
To set off a student protest at this school, you'd have to be politically tone-deaf in the extreme, out of touch and flying blind. And yet, Bush did it.
God help us in Iraq.
washingtonpost.com
Time for Some Soul-Searching At Howard U.
By Courtland Milloy
Wednesday, November 2, 2005; B01
Dear Howard University students:
Ever since I wrote in Sunday's paper about your protest during a recent visit by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, I've been getting all of these angry e-mails. You say I make you want to puke (and worse), and your university president says he wants me on campus so I can explain myself. Is he kidding?
Actually, it's a pretty clever move. If he can serve me up on a Bison horn, then maybe you'll forget how Bush came to be on your campus in the first place. Nevertheless, I accept his offer. But before I burn in effigy, permit me a few words.
You claim to be upset because I wrote that "Howard is not a hotbed of political activism," and you cite the school's legacy of social protest and political activism. But what have you done lately? A walk down to the Mall for the Millions More Movement, an AIDS Walk and participation in get-out-the-vote rallies does not make your heirs to Walter Rodney or Kwame Toure.
What about honoring the legacy of Roland Scott (chairman of pediatrics at Howard from 1949 to 1973 and the driving force behind the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act of 1971)? Your school has the Center for Sickle Cell Disease, but the organizers of annual walks to find a cure for that dreadful disease can't get you to participate for the life of those hurting black babies.
The home of Carter G. Woodson, a Howard professor and father of Black History Month, almost fell to the ground before the federal government stepped in to save it. Where were you? And why weren't you at the Optimal Health for Black Men conference, held last month at Howard Hospital? A lot of outstanding black doctors, psychologists, scientists and educators gave presentations. You protest about not being invited to Laura Bush's "youth summit," but you are nowhere to be found when your elders hold a lifesaving summit just for you.
You wear Diddy's "Vote or Die" shirts, but fewer than 2,000 of about 7,000 undergraduates voted in student government elections in March. Makes you wonder why Wiley A. Branton, that giant of a law school dean, risked his life teaching black people how to mark a ballot. You say you oppose Bush's war in Iraq. So why didn't you protest the homecoming step show -- which was sponsored by the U.S. Army and included recruiting tables and invitations to step right up?
Some of you said you protested because you just don't like Bush. Period. Others said you protested because classes were canceled at the last minute and, in some cases, tests you had studied for were postponed.
Then I heard that the entrance to the school cafeteria had been closed off -- on Soul Food Thursday, no less. If you really want me to believe that missing a pop quiz in calculus was more upsetting than missing out on a fried chicken platter, then show me a bunch of skinny and smart black students when I visit your school.
Or show me when you show up at The Washington Post -- assuming your efforts to organize a protest by e-mail pan out.
You've sent hundreds of e-mails. Here's one of the better-written:
"BLACK MAN, YOU GOT SOME SOUL SEARCHIN TO DO! Because I know why they were really protesting. Being denied their dinner was just a spark that caused the flame. . . . U are really a coward and there is no use for you in our struggle because in your article, you chose to make chicken and collards the cause of the disturbance and not get deeper."
University President H. Patrick Swygert accused me of "appalling stereotyping" and called my column "inaccurate," "outrageous" and "quite shocking." He went on to say: "And this at a time when the nation is honoring the memory of Rosa Parks, who 50 years ago stood up for the dignity of the African American community."
Actually, I'm kind of glad he brought that up. Suppose Parks had attended one of your famous "Pimp Harder" homecoming fashion shows and seen those half-naked female students, some using their hands for a peek-a-boo bra, sashaying down the runway to the hoots and howls of their salivating male classmates.
Of course, this is about my shocking behavior, not yours. But since so many of you claim to be following in the footsteps of African American civil rights titans, imagine how they might feel if they had to follow in yours.
By Courtland Milloy
Sunday, October 30, 2005; C01
It was Soul Food Thursday at Howard University last week, and many students were looking forward to their favorite meal: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and cornbread. At lunchtime, however, students discovered that much of the campus had been locked down and that the school's cafeteria was off limits.
Apparently, many of them did not know that President Bush and first lady Laura Bush had arrived for a "youth summit" at the Blackburn Center, where the dining hall is located. Stomachs began to growl, tempers flared, and, eventually, a student protest ensued.
In case you missed the broadcast Friday on Fox 5 (WTTG-TV), reporter Robbie Chavez was at Howard trying to interview protesting students when a campus security guard showed up and tried to stop him.
Chavez: The university went to great lengths . . .
Guard: I'm asking you to leave the campus now.
Chavez: . . . to hide angry protesting students . . .
Guard: I'm warning you, you don't do that.
Chavez: . . . a big effort to keep a lid on the growing frustration.
During the protest, dozens of students locked arms around a flagpole in the Quadrangle, a designated forbidden zone at the center of the campus, and refused to move despite warnings from campus security that Secret Service rooftop snipers might open fire on them.
You'd have thought Howard had taken a page right out of the Bush administration playbook on quashing First Amendment freedoms. In a letter posted the day before on a university Web site, President H. Patrick Swygert wrote that, having notified the campus via e-mail in July, he was sending a reminder of the Bush visit. But students complained that they hadn't seen either message and criticized school officials and the Bush administration for poor planning.
Chavez said: "This is what university police and the Howard University administration did not want publicized: students angry after being shut out of parts of their own university."
What might have been a public relations coup for Bush -- a visit to a historically black college to show concern for at-risk youths -- ended up as another Katrina-like moment, with the president appearing spaced-out, waving and smiling for television cameras while students were trying to break through campus security to get to the cordoned-off cafeteria.
Of course, the episode was nothing compared with all the other bad news Bush got last week, including the indictment of White House aide I. Lewis Libby on perjury charges. But what happened at Howard was illustrative nonetheless of how a seemingly minor mess, easily avoided by a more attentive White House, could have repercussions down the road.
The Republican Party is trying hard to win over black voters before the midterm elections, and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele needs the support of black Democrats in his bid to become the first black Republican in the U.S. Senate since Howard alumnus Edward Brooke of Massachusetts (1967-1979). So one thing Bush didn't want was a ruckus during a visit to Howard.
All he had to do was drop in on Soul Food Thursday, be seen sharing a wing and some collard greens with students -- and score one for the GOP.
But the visit went from bad to worse. On a day when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution paying tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who died last week, campus security guards were telling students that if they wanted to eat they'd have to come back when the president and first lady were gone, then go to a service door at the rear of the dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go. Never mind that a student meal plan at Howard can cost as much as $2,500 a semester.
Howard is not some hotbed of political activism. The biggest event of the year is homecoming, which features two fashion shows, a step show and lots of hip-hop celebrities. As the rapper Ludacris put it in his summer hit, "Pimpin' All Over the World":
Jump in the car and ride for hours,
Makin' sure I don't miss the homecoming at Howard.
To set off a student protest at this school, you'd have to be politically tone-deaf in the extreme, out of touch and flying blind. And yet, Bush did it.
God help us in Iraq.
washingtonpost.com
Time for Some Soul-Searching At Howard U.
By Courtland Milloy
Wednesday, November 2, 2005; B01
Dear Howard University students:
Ever since I wrote in Sunday's paper about your protest during a recent visit by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, I've been getting all of these angry e-mails. You say I make you want to puke (and worse), and your university president says he wants me on campus so I can explain myself. Is he kidding?
Actually, it's a pretty clever move. If he can serve me up on a Bison horn, then maybe you'll forget how Bush came to be on your campus in the first place. Nevertheless, I accept his offer. But before I burn in effigy, permit me a few words.
You claim to be upset because I wrote that "Howard is not a hotbed of political activism," and you cite the school's legacy of social protest and political activism. But what have you done lately? A walk down to the Mall for the Millions More Movement, an AIDS Walk and participation in get-out-the-vote rallies does not make your heirs to Walter Rodney or Kwame Toure.
What about honoring the legacy of Roland Scott (chairman of pediatrics at Howard from 1949 to 1973 and the driving force behind the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act of 1971)? Your school has the Center for Sickle Cell Disease, but the organizers of annual walks to find a cure for that dreadful disease can't get you to participate for the life of those hurting black babies.
The home of Carter G. Woodson, a Howard professor and father of Black History Month, almost fell to the ground before the federal government stepped in to save it. Where were you? And why weren't you at the Optimal Health for Black Men conference, held last month at Howard Hospital? A lot of outstanding black doctors, psychologists, scientists and educators gave presentations. You protest about not being invited to Laura Bush's "youth summit," but you are nowhere to be found when your elders hold a lifesaving summit just for you.
You wear Diddy's "Vote or Die" shirts, but fewer than 2,000 of about 7,000 undergraduates voted in student government elections in March. Makes you wonder why Wiley A. Branton, that giant of a law school dean, risked his life teaching black people how to mark a ballot. You say you oppose Bush's war in Iraq. So why didn't you protest the homecoming step show -- which was sponsored by the U.S. Army and included recruiting tables and invitations to step right up?
Some of you said you protested because you just don't like Bush. Period. Others said you protested because classes were canceled at the last minute and, in some cases, tests you had studied for were postponed.
Then I heard that the entrance to the school cafeteria had been closed off -- on Soul Food Thursday, no less. If you really want me to believe that missing a pop quiz in calculus was more upsetting than missing out on a fried chicken platter, then show me a bunch of skinny and smart black students when I visit your school.
Or show me when you show up at The Washington Post -- assuming your efforts to organize a protest by e-mail pan out.
You've sent hundreds of e-mails. Here's one of the better-written:
"BLACK MAN, YOU GOT SOME SOUL SEARCHIN TO DO! Because I know why they were really protesting. Being denied their dinner was just a spark that caused the flame. . . . U are really a coward and there is no use for you in our struggle because in your article, you chose to make chicken and collards the cause of the disturbance and not get deeper."
University President H. Patrick Swygert accused me of "appalling stereotyping" and called my column "inaccurate," "outrageous" and "quite shocking." He went on to say: "And this at a time when the nation is honoring the memory of Rosa Parks, who 50 years ago stood up for the dignity of the African American community."
Actually, I'm kind of glad he brought that up. Suppose Parks had attended one of your famous "Pimp Harder" homecoming fashion shows and seen those half-naked female students, some using their hands for a peek-a-boo bra, sashaying down the runway to the hoots and howls of their salivating male classmates.
Of course, this is about my shocking behavior, not yours. But since so many of you claim to be following in the footsteps of African American civil rights titans, imagine how they might feel if they had to follow in yours.
