It was eventually discovered after a heated exchange between between editor and writer that a typical news story with the appropriate amount of Who, What, When, Where & Why dosages would have been inadequate.
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The Reverend Al Sharpton’s publicized tour to inspire college students to become involved with Civil Rights and social justice issues arrived late March on this campus where he delivered a lecture to an audience of students, faculty and visitors that some would have described as a colorful truth and what others might have regarded as the truth colored.
I was assigned to cover this event, sponsored by the College’s Office of Student Activities, and write a news story for an event that I expected would attract a good size turnout because of the Reverend’s prominent visage in the Civil Rights and social justice landscapes as well as his ubiquitous presence in news stories across the country if not around the world. And I wanted several friends to join me that night, March 30, and was startled how my invitations were rebuffed.
“No way. I don’t like that man. What does he have to say about anything,” said one student and friend, reflecting clearly the sentiment of others who had turned down my offer. For example, before the event, I was with a friend at the Student Resource Center on the second floor of Thomas Hunter Hall. I was holding a flier of the Sharpton event.
“So, you’re coming, right?”
“Oh my God, the man is a racist,” he said, “he hasn’t done any good. Why are you covering him anyway?”
One of his friends, Giovanni Alvarado, 19, a medical lab science major working behind the desk at the SRC that day, overheard what he said and jumped in.
“That man is full of it,” said Alvarado of Puerto Rican descent. “He thinks he can run to Vieques and do something. What good did he do? He doesn’t even care about PR.”
In 2001, the Reverend was jailed for 90 days for protesting against the use of the island by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps for bombing target practice.
“He didn’t accomplish anything except going to jail,” said Alvarado. “He can’t fight something like that, unethically. Rather than portraying the good qualities of an activist, he makes himself seem obnoxious.”
I told them that they were talking irrationally and that they should attend the event and hear him speak, but I couldn’t change their minds. Wherever I went and whomever I approached, for the record or just casually, I listened to negative comments about Sharpton.
The Reverend showed up a few minutes late in the faculty cafeteria on the eighth floor of the West Building. The space had been converted so that it looked like a makeshift amphitheater, so much more than a space where professors dine. I had collected contact information from several members of the audience so that I could speak to them about their feelings and impressions and opinions of the event on a later day.
The Reverend started his lecture saying he was committed to closing the race gap as well as the education gap and that students shouldn’t quietly accept what goes on in the city, meaning, of course, that they shouldn’t tolerate policies and practices and traditions that negatively effect their communities. It was irrational that the U.S. government was bailing out banks, Sharpton told the crowd, because the same banks loan student money with such high interest costs that it seems that students would be paying off the loans the rest of their lives.
Now, he said that in the fight for social justice, students have to question their friends and talk to their enemies. He believed that advice, which he said had been part of his strategy since he became a sincere activist, could help students get what they wanted in their struggles with the Powers That Be. Yet, when asked by a student in the audience what students could do about tuition hikes and CUNY’s budget cuts, the Reverend said, “Put the spotlight on what you want.” Well, there have been attempts by students and others to generate publicity to address these issues. Avowed Hunter activists, concerned students, adjunct and full-time professors as well as the PSC activist members – the PSC is the union for faculty and some staff – have organized and participated in rallies. There has been publicity — there is always controversy regarding CUNY — yet, tuition continues to go up, and class availability continues to seesaw.
Hunter has had at least two in the past academic year, including a walkout by student activists in the spring. Many at the Hunter protest-walkout later joined a rally in Borough of Manhattan Community College, which is part of CUNY. And then many from that rally marched to City Hall for a really big demonstration. The mainstream news media was at ALL the events. Yet, tuition is going up, adjuncts have been cut and more could be cut. And students are hustling for jobs. The City’s unemployment rate was reported to be 8.1 percent in late March. Things are really bleak.
Also, in his response to the student concerned about tuition increases, the Reverend, recalling his personal experiences and in what seemed to be a bigger attempt to get his “spotlight” message across, used an analogy. Roaches, he said, only misbehave in the dark. Turn the light on and they scatter. He also went on to say, “I’m not saying go get arrested for tuition hikes.”
So, what was he trying to say?
The Governor is key power player causing behind the tuition increase as well as the slashing of CUNY’s budget. The student who asked the question sat helpless: How were students going to put the spotlight on this. News media were there at all the demonstrations.
It is generally known that a lot of criticism portrays the Reverend as an opportunist, alleging that in his battles for social justice and rallies against racism, he has been too narrow and has only been putting the “spotlight” on race issues and himself. Where do the economic concerns of students fit in his plans for social justice?
“He has only been building the fire on race issues and stirring things up as it occurred with Vieques,” Alvarado had said in an earlier interview.
Days after the event, I attended my feature writing class and spoke to my editor about the article I would be turning in. I had told him before the class that I wasn’t sure where the article was going. I had spoken to several students before and after the event. I had also done a lot of background research. How could I possibly write a news article on someone who was very unpopular with many of the students I interviewed and who had delivered a lecture that didn’t really seem to have accomplished what he wanted: Inspire students to join his campus surge for social justice and Civil Rights?
For example, Jahneille Edwards, 20, interviewed over the phone, said, “In terms of alleviating social injustice and resolving issues, he hasn’t been so successful; in talking about them, yes, and he’s helped only a few individuals. At the end of the day he’s thinking, how do I get money?”
Edwards, who resides in Hunter’s Brookdale dorms on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, also described Sharpton as a “hustler activist” whom she said was someone who makes a living out of what he does or claims he does but doesn’t really help anyone other than himself.
A SUNY Old Westbury student visiting Hunter, Stephany Ramirez, 20, said, “He should have been clearer on his purpose.” After the Reverend’s speech some students, including the ones I formally interviewed later on, felt that they had received insufficient information from him. How exactly the Reverend was planning on engaging students in the movement of social justice and racial equality was not certain.
Were students supposed to be in some way inspired by his many personal life stories and maybe discern methods to use for their concerns, which right now for many involve the rising costs of tuition and reduced classes and the dwindling availability of the kind of low-paying jobs students are accustomed to having. And those students living in the metropolitan area must deal with the brutal economic realities bludgeoning their families and neighborhoods. This is not to say that students can’t be concerned about social justice and bigotry. But the wolves at our doors don’t look like the predators of injustice and bigotry that Sharpton was saying had to be confronted.
“This is the idea of his public speeches. Understandably he is suggesting active protest, that individuals follow in his shoes; he can’t outright state that,” said Gregory Chan, 21, a film major and psychology minor.
Edwards, a second-year student with a major in political science and minor in philosophy, said, “He’s just a hustler activist and he won’t give his answers as (simple as) A, B, C, D. What he sees as more important is what he focuses on.” She also said, “He wasn’t very helpful on the issue of tuition hikes and in terms of helping students. If he could really help maybe he would’ve been a little more vocal about it.”
Ramirez, a second-year student majoring in biochemistry, said, “He shouldn’t have come and spoke on things he obviously is not ready to help with, and I don’t think that he can get students involved in discussions on social justice like that.”
“I came to hear his speech but he didn’t give much advice, and it’s just funny how he speaks to students about social justice when after two years of college he dropped out,” said Ramirez. She wasn’t inspired and it may be that many in her generation just won’t tag along and follow or view anyone as a leader who dropped out of college, something students are emphatically encouraged not to do.
Sharpton said he dropped out after two years and had followed and worked for singer-performer James Brown, whom he identified as one of his influences growing up. Edwards, agreed, and said, “He is only following the steps of those influences he had, and maybe it’s easier for him to make that connection to those things.”
In his lecture, the Reverend did say, “In the fight for social justice, you have to question your friends and talk to your enemies, if it’ll get you where you need to go.” Yet, he did not mention the Governor at all in his poor response to that student concerned about tuition hikes. Chan, a third-year student who resides in the Parkchester area in the Bronx, said, “His words may not have any effect on Paterson, and I guess it would be a foolish move to promise something he obviously can’t deliver.”
In a New York Times piece, Black Voters Waver on Support for Paterson, published on April 13, the Times wrote that the Governor had met with a group of black legislators who “complained that their constituents were furious over Mr. Paterson’s cuts to hospitals and schools, and that his administration had failed to consult with them on important issues.” In spite of that, the Governor’s close friend, the Reverend Al Sharpton, was quoted in the Times to have said, “Better communication was needed and lawmakers should stand behind Mr. Paterson – especially now.”
That being the case, it makes more sense why he gave such a poor answer to the student who asked for his advice. The Reverend wasn’t going to embarrass his powerful political buddy for the sake of CUNY students. If, as the Reverend said, lawmakers should stand behind the Governor, then the implication is that students facing serious rising costs of their education and other brutal economic realities should stand behind a principal perpetrator of the increases.
The students interviewed for this article said Sharpton seemed to be an opportunist who shows up whenever there is a big public issue regarding racism. “When it comes to race, he’s just there. He wasn’t there for students even though the protest at city hall was on the news, he didn’t show up,” said Edwards. “If the issue is on his plate he will continue to pursue it. I guess he’s just more comfortable with race issues.”
Chan said, “Frankly, the guy is a racist hypocrite who at often times does more bad than good.” Edwards said, “He raises the alarm on issues in a way that he gets his own visibility. As for his battle for social justice, there are still underrepresented groups; it’s disheartening to think that.”
In an interview with David Shankbone, editor and reporter of Wikinews, Sharpton said, “He (James Brown) taught me how to take adversity and use it to your advantage.” Addressing this comment, Edwards said, “He’s made a name for himself and he primarily focuses on race issues. Honestly, it’s the most important thing to him, being the voice of the black community.”
Except for Vieques, I couldn’t find one example of Sharpton involving himself in an issue that had no racial implications and none of the students interviewed formally and informally could recall such a situation. And that was also true in my Institutional Racism class where all the students expressed negative views of Sharpton. That class is based on the study of the persistence of racism, how it is especially magnified in institutions and in certain situations where minorities are given unfair advantages. I spoke to that whole class about the Sharpton event and no student had anything to say positively about him.
Chan said, “Being an individual of multiracial background, I grew up overlooking race.” Chan said he did not have to separate himself into one certain group and view others differently. Along the same lines, Edwards said, “What he [Sharpton] does doesn’t include are other races like Asians or Latinos. It would be progressive to stick together but he separates us into ethnic categories.”
After interviewing several students who attended the event and speaking to several others in informal discussions, I handed in my first draft, which included the comments made above by those interviewed. I got into a heated argument with the editor/professor. He accused me of personally disliking Sharpton, yet, said that it was okay as long as I clarified that opinion in my article. He said that I shouldn’t use gratuitous quotes of students to support my position. I told him that was not the case at all, that I didn’t dislike Sharpton.
What should have been a discussion turned into an argument for the whole class to witness. I believe he was trying to embarrass me and I didn’t understand why. He continued to try and make me acknowledge that my article was poorly written and that I had manipulated students’ negative opinions to support my dislike of Sharpton. He did this in front of the whole class. At one point, a student in the J-Lab where the class is held, said, “I don’t like Sharpton,” and my editor – he seemed caught off guard by the comment – addressed the whole class.
“Who doesn’t like Sharpton?” Everyone raised a hand.
Jim Forrestal, one of the students in the class, later emailed me and said, “He (Sharpton) always cries racism whenever an act of violence against a minority, primarily blacks, is made public. He never seems to give a shit about Asians or Jews.”
The argument in class went on, just me and the instructor. He didn’t like the way that I quoted the students.
I quoted them accurately, I told him.
He said over and over that accurately quoting what the sources said wasn’t enough. The context of the quote must be as accurate as the quote.
And there was other stuff but I can’t remember the exchanges accurately. The class, however, was on my side but the other writers were quiet. After class I had to meet with him and he apologized. He said he would apologize again in front of the whole class about the clumsiness in how he had challenged me. But he also said that he could better explain in an Op Ed piece or a blog what he was trying to do in class.
I told him I wasn’t comfortable about being targeted in a blog. He said that I wasn’t to be targeted and that the story about the event couldn’t be told in the third-person, so-called impartial approach he had been expecting, that I would have to write a first-person piece that incorporated everything, from the students’ comments before and after the event as well as Sharpton’s lecture and what took place in the feature writing class. A regular news story about the event, he said, would be insufficient.
I summarize here. I went to the event and interviewed people, listened to people’s comments and even conducted informal interviews with others and heard numerous comments from students in my Institutional Racism class. I also did additional research on Sharpton but no matter what I did, no student had a positive thing to say about him. It seems that many students of color in this generation — or at least at this College — just don’t like him nor see anything good emerging from him. They are very skeptical about the Reverend.
Merely thinking about all of this makes me realize that must be the reason why he is touring college campuses: Many, many students don’t like him or what they suspect as his real agenda.