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    7/31/2010
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OP-ED
Harry Alford

Bigotry Raises its Ugly Head at the FCC
by Harry C. Alford
NNPA Columnist




Beyond The Rhetoric

A few months ago, Black and Latino advocacy groups, such as the National Black Chamber of Commerce, were shocked to learn that the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) derided us as incapable of writing articulate position papers and filing official comments to the FCC.

He did this while addressing the very conservative Aspen Institute in Colorado. He called us by name and said anything we file at the FCC must be written by White entities that pay or persuade us to lend our names and reputations to their cause. His point was that we colored groups don’t know anything about pertinent issues at the FCC and suffered from low intellect. President Bush has used the term “soft bigotry of low expectations”.

Well, it seems that he has appointed an FCC Chairman who goes well beyond the “Soft Bigotry”. This here is cold-blooded hard core bigotry.
I am very proud of the advocacy we and other minority organizations have demonstrated on FCC issues throughout the past two decades. The NBCC has been engaged with FCC issues since 1995.

Filings, comments, letters are numerous and the issues vary widely such as broadband deployment, Internet availability, mergers, phone costs, etc. Most importantly the digital divide and how we, African-Americans, can overcome this challenge. Clearly, Chairman Kevin Martin has access to our history of involvement but his mindset seems to be getting in the way of logic and reason.

This is quite a contrast to Chairman Martin’s predecessor, Michael Powell (son of General Powell), who not only had an open door policy for minority organizations but demonstrated outreach.

He always wanted to know what we were thinking and encouraged our input. Sitting down across from his desk and sharing our views was indeed a pleasurable experience even when we differed on policy. He served his President and nation well.
You can’t do that unless you are inclusive in your assessment and thought process. To block out organizations by the race of people they represent is totally un-American and unwanted. From what I understand, Chairman Martin has chased out most of Chairman Powell’s staffers. Was it about politics or race?

It equally contrasts with former Chairmen William Kennard and Reed Hundt. In fact, none of the previous three chairmen had any thread of exclusivity especially when it came to race.

Chairman Hundt’s son was a school chum of my boys. The relationship that minority organizations have had with the democratic process of input with the FCC can best be described as engaging and overall positive until now. We have been insulted and slighted and that may just be the beginning.
Since his bigoted tirade about “us” to an audience he thought was insulated from our ears there have been strange things happening between the NBCC and the FCC.

Every time we submit a filing we are chased by an investigative reporter from the Associated Press who challenges our authorship. It gets worse. The GAO (General Accounting Office) has performed a “phone audit” on one of our filings. They went through a charade with the formality and at the end of the questioning they queried “Who wrote this for you”? When I immediately replied that I wrote it myself they began laughing as if to say “Negro, you can’t write like that”!

There have been other forms of harassment which I won’t go into detail at this time. I believe you can get the gist. The precious freedom of speech which we all depend on in this democracy is being challenged by someone who chooses to abuse his power based on his prejudgment of people who are of another hue than his.

I regard Chairman Kevin Martin as a public enemy. It is incumbent upon all of us to challenge this assault. We should submit filings and comments to the FCC like never before and dare him to try and stop us.

People who know me understand that I don’t use the terms racist and bigot lightly. However, when I see it my conviction is to challenge it and prevent its growth.

The next time he shares his feelings about people of color in a public arena I will organize a march to the White House to demand his firing. In this day and age, our nation can ill afford backward thinking and harassment on its citizens, especially when they exercise their right to opinion and free speech. I am totally appalled.

Chairman Martin needs to realize that we have come too far to turn back now. And yes, we have college degrees, impressionable IQs and have been blessed with the talent of the written word. God is good to all of us.

Harry Alford is the co-founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. Website: www.nationalbcc.org.


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