Cultural IQ

A Little Bit of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down

I'll let you in on a little secret: When African-Americans gather, the talk often turns to our community's faults and weaknesses.

We try to handle our family business in private. These conversations generally are in living rooms and meeting rooms under the media's radar. When one of these dialogues draws the spotlight, as happened with Bill Cosby's remarks on "black" speech, values and crime, our leaders become anxious. They fear critics will use these comments to attack us. Some will, of course, but solution-centered communities such as ours must take that risk.

Instead of going on the defensive about Cosby's remarks, I propose an offensive maneuver. Let's applaud self-empowerment and invite cultural, racial, ethnic and religious groups to regularly assess their members' faults, issues and strengths. If all cultural communities audited their members' attitudes and behavior, Cosby's comments would not have stood out.

Imagine how much more effective Congress might be if the Democrats and Republicans provided the public with a truthful assessment of their own members' faults and identified opportunities for improvement. Think of how quickly we might find peace in the Middle East if Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders focused on addressing the behavior of their own members, rather than on the actions of other groups. 

You don't need a Ph.D. to know that when you seek to persuade someone to change their ways, it is unwise to attack them or make fun of them. Cosby, whose message of personal responsibility was reported by the Washington Post, gets an A for effort but a C for cultural communication.

He took issue with less-affluent African-Americans. "The lower-economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he was quoted as saying. "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids — $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 on Hooked on Phonics."

We all make mistakes, and we all need to grow. Whenever we use language to separate ourselves from others, we build barriers to change and unnecessarily fan tensions. Terms such as "these people" divide the speaker from the listener while words such as "our" and "we" unite them and make it easier to discuss areas of disagreement.

Each community is home to individuals who differ in action, thought and behavior. When we fail to account for these distinctions in our comments, we prompt others to reflect on our thought process rather than our message.

I know some poor people who do not fit Cosby's mold, and some who do, so had I attended this meeting I would have been inclined to ask about his implication that poor people are pretty much all the same. An unfortunate choice of words diverted attention from his vital message. The national debate has focused on the reaction to his comments rather than on the need to empower the walking wounded among us to fully develop their potential.

Ironically, Cosby's speech might never have been reported if he had been more careful about his words and said, "In many low-income neighborhoods, some of our children are growing up without attentive and strong parents. Too many of our parents prefer to spend $500 on sneakers rather than on educational books or college classes for their family. These are our children who are being left behind, and we must help."

Each community can and should examine its own culture but members must be persuasive, loving and articulate communicators. In a diverse world, it is not enough to be right: We each must share the responsibility to be effective.

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What If

What if, instead of bickering with each other, we could work alongside one another to learn what it takes to make a community great?

Imagine that you and I could sit together to have a conversation that emphasizes listening and learning rather than proving that our particular view of the world is smarter, wiser and more correct.

Imagine that communities had the capacity to grow simply by changing the words they use, the stories they share, the manner in which they ask questions and frame seemingly insurmountable challenges.

What might happen if diverse citizens, of all classes, learned to appreciate and invest in the extensive portfolio of talent in underutilized neighborhoods – capacity cities need to power local economies forward?

Liberty Lights is a new initiative designed to get the current political conversations unstuck by developing a culture and tone that supports new conversations, close connections and successful collaborations between groups and parties.  It shifts political discussion away from the “preach and teach arenas” and moves it toward open spaces where the culture and tone promotes honest exploration and discovery.

It seeks to increase community capacity to resolve human conflicts, consider opposing views, think creatively, listen, solve problems and promote the belief that diverse thinkers are compatible and interdependent, linked together by a shared future and common fate.

In lean economic times, the greatest challenge is not learning how to do more with less but rather how to appreciate and develop a wider range of community assets and increase the depth of our talent pools.

Liberty Lights seeks to:

1. Respond swiftly, with a sense of urgency, to the destructive floods of bigoted, inflammatory and false online posts on news media websites. 

• Establish and skillfully guide diverse online learning communities where individuals speak freely and respectfully, offer bold solutions and probe more deeply the textures of diversity, which are at the root of so many disagreements. 

• Demand shared responsibility and mutual accountability from elected officials, media, and corporate America.  

Learn more at www.libertylights.info

The Latest Barrier to Voting: Long Lines, But Not The Ones You'd Think

Posted by Linda S Wallace

 

Getting a driver’s license in Tennessee is a test of skill and endurance, but I’m not talking about the road test or written exam, I’m talking about the crazy long lines.

Lines go with the teritory at the diver’s license center at 6340 Summer Ave. (Photo by Tyrone P. Easley)

On Friday, I joined 40 people in an outdoor line at 6340 Summer Ave about 12:30 p.m. We huddled together outside of the service center for nearly two hours, standing one-behind the other in 90-plus degree temperatures and punishing humidity. There were no chairs, no water and no restroom breaks. As I steamed, my hair gallantly fought off frizz.

The security guard called four to five customers at a time inside, where we then stood in a second line for 45 additional minutes. It was then we received a customer number and the official wait began. (The Tennessee Department of Public Safety does not officially begin tracking its customer wait time until patrons receive this service ticket. Up to that point, we were just there visiting and hanging out.)

At the information desk, customers had the first opportunity to talk to an employee who could answer questions and review supporting documents including birth certificates, social security cards, proof of residency, etc. Several of my fellow line companions were sent home because their documents failed to meet state standards.

Imagine waiting in a line for three hours, only to walk away empty handed. Our hearts go out to them. Hopefully, they found the nerve to try again and kinder temperatures to wait around in.

Across the nation, making jokes about the long lines at the driver’s license service centers is a part of Americana. In Tennessee, this spectator sport has taken a sinister turn as a result of the General Assembly-tightened voter ID laws. Wanna-be voters in 2012 will need a driver’s license or a government approved photo ID. That means you have to stand in line here to get to the polls on Election Day. That’s no joking matter.

Studies indicate about 10 percent of the population nationally lack these credentials, and many of them are either low-income, elderly or students. When that wait time stretches to four hours, – two of it spent standing still, outdoors, in the scorching sun – that’s asking a lot. In fact, one might even argue that asking people to stand in the hot sun for two hours is just as much a deterrent as a poll tax might be.

What’s disturbing is how widely the line lengths vary in Tennessee. (The correlation between an area’s racial makeup and the length of one’s wait also is worrisome.) In Chattanooga, the average wait time at the Cherokee Boulevard location is less than 19 minutes for services. The average wait time statewide is between 45 and 48 minutes, according to Driver Services Director Michael Hogan. (My wait time, in contrast, was just over 4 hours. That includes my time standing outside the building – time that the state does not include in its wait time calculations.)

Hogan told me that the longest wait times are in urban areas, which have the greatest demand for services. This also happens to be where the bulk of the state’s minority populations reside. Ninety percent of the people waiting alongside me were African American, Asian or Hispanic.

Asked if the variation in wait times for photo ids might violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which bars different standards from being applied to individuals within a jurisdiction, Hogan replied, “I am not familiar with the Voting Rights Act.” Fortunately, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) was and he told me that he reached out this week to the U.S. Justice Department to determine what they are doing to protect voter rights, and if more can be done.

Hogan suggested the line waiters might go to underutilized service centers, but I pointed out that for many minority, low-income voters and college students, driving to Millington or Oakland, Tenn., is not a viable option.

Even though this line was one of the worst I’ve ever stood in, Hogan seemed sincere about customer care and serious about making immediate improvements. And the workers at the Summer driver’s center did a great job, working under difficult circumstances with frustrated people. I commended their professionalism to their boss.

Hogan was empathetic and apologetic when we talked this week. “We are going to bring in water, we are going to bring in some form of shelter. Our goal is to make sure we get everyone in the building. We are going to promote other outlets where you don’t have to wait,” he said.

I wanted to pass along that apology – and some newly announced changes – to my fellow line standers.

1) The fire marshal limits the number of customers (55) who can be inside the Summer Ave. building. At peak demand times – typically between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. – patrons must wait outside, Hogan explained. Memphians will be advised to use the newly expanded Whitehaven driver service center, which just reopened in May at 3200 East Shelby Drive and handles more than three times the capacity as the Summer location. The new Whitehaven Center includes expanded customer service desks and replaces a smaller facility that was unable to adequately serve customers. While there is a wait time there as well, customers can sit in air-conditioned comfort. The Millington Driver Service Center at 5019 West Union is a third option.

2) Anyone with a health issue that may be aggravated by extreme heat is advised to contact the security guard, Hogan said. These customers – along with those with physical challenges – are allowed to wait indoors.

3) Summer supervisors have been reminded that they should be monitoring the lines to determine if patrons have the appropriate documents. Those who need additional material will receive detailed instructions so they do not end up standing in line a third or fourth time, Hogan said.

4) The department has a restructuring plan in place to reduce wait times. The Tennessee General Assembly has appropriated $30 million for a new computer system to replace the outdated system that the state comptroller cited in a recent performance audit as a contributing factor to the service issues. Unfortunately, the new system will not be online before the 2012 presidential election. In addition, the department is expanding partnerships with county clerks to offer limited services and is piloting the concept of supercenters, which will be equipped to serve larger numbers of customers.

The Lost Voters of Houston

 

Linda Wallace's voting saga

Sept. 2008- Houston, TX - In a year when an African-American visionary and a female warrior made a bid for the globe’s biggest job, I found myself pondering a question: “Who does a woman have to know to get registered to vote in November?”

 As our nation pats itself on the back for all its racial and gender progress on the political home front, I find that I – a person of color long-committed to voting – can’t seem to manage to get registered. I’m a new resident of Bellaire (TX) in Harris County, and I’m over the age of 18. I’ve never committed a crime. I am a citizen (always a good thing) and I am not (yet) mentally incapacitated. Furthermore, my dog thinks I’m a fine person. Now, that may not be part of the legal criteria, but it matters to me just the same.

 Even before the moving van arrived from Philadelphia in January with my furnishings, I had filled out the Harris County voter registration application in my empty house because I wanted to vote in the primary. I popped it into the mail, thinking, “I’ve done it!” I moved without forfeiting my right to vote in one of the most important elections ever. Boy, was I naïve.  

In February, I received a letter from the Harris County Tax Assessor, which handles voter registration, telling me that it needed additional information from me to complete my application. In this county, if you don’t have a Texas driver’s license, which I did not, you have to furnish the last four digits of your social security number. I did so happily, but the County wrote back it couldn’t verify my personal information with the current info. I sent in another application as directed, this one attached to a copy of my Pennsylvania drivers’ license, my SSN, and my February utility bill.

 As the primary neared, I got a little nervous. A week before the election, and still no word about my voting status. I called the Tax Assessors office and a nice lady sadly informed me that it had no record of receiving the second letter I sent. It went out, and never came back. It’s lost out there. I surely hope it found a home with some nice, honest people.

  Friend and foe alike will tell you: Linda Wallace is a pest. Watch out. I have a nose for news, and an uncanny ability for sniffing out hidden stories. This is one of those times.  It just so happens that the Assessor’s Office, which oversees registration, is headed by a Republican. The Harris County Democrats, whose politican fortunes have been lifted by a blue tide of minority residents, have launched a campaign to take over the County’s executive jobs. Voter registration drives are a key part of the strategy. The nice lady answering the phone at the Assessors office recently tried to make me feel better by assuring me lots of other folks were having problems too. (About 40 percent of the 27,000 registration cards gathered by ACORN from January through July have been rejected or placed in limbo pending the gathering of more information, Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt recently informed the Houston Chronicle. ) How come this makes me feel worse, not better?

This is a plot with lots of twists played out by a fascinating cast of characters. But right now, I’m focused solely on getting a leading role that changes my status from wannabe-voter to voter-to-be.

In July, when I finally got around to getting my Texas Drivers License (I held off because I didn’t have a car) I marked the box that asked if I wanted to register the vote.  The clerk  took my photo, checked all the info and she assured me the voter registration process was complete. A warm glow came over me as I walked out. Who cared about the driver’s license? I only got it cause I thought it could help me register to vote.

 Oh, how happy I was!  I had overcome adversity, and with practice and patience, qualified for the final heat in the presidential round. Or so I thought. A few weeks later, I met a local attorney who volunteers with the League of Women Voters. After listening to me tell of my voting drama, she burst my bubble by telling me that – due to some computer issues- some folks who thought they had registered at the Texas Department of Public Safety drivers’ license outlet later found they weren’t ACTUALLY registered. She advised me to check the voter registration rolls to make sure I was now on it.

 I checked the list on August 29 – for the third time in eight months – and for the third time in eight months I discovered that the county still had me cast as a voter wannabe.

 
  So this past Tuesday, good buddies, I got up early, waved goodbye to my dog, and then went off to register to vote - for the fourth time. Now I hold the voting registration record for most times in a single year, at least in my family. But this round, I played it a little smarter and wiser. I printed out a copy of the voter registration form before I left home, filled it out, and put a copy in my safety deposit box so I could prove the information was correct, and the boxes were filled in.  Gotcha! Plus, I didn’t give out my Social Security number to anybody this time.

 State law requires Texans to register at least 30 days prior to the election. After registering so often, I hope I now qualify to vote. But if not, I still have a window. Figure I can fill out the voter registration form two more times still before it’s officially too late. If there is a next time, though, I think I’ll send in the form over the Internet. I’ve haven’t tried that way yet.  You know the definition of insanity right? Keep doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting the results to be different.

 Seriously, folks, there is a moral to this story:

 1) If you registered to vote this year but have not received an official card, call your local voter registration office just to make certain your name is on the list.

2) If you registered to vote when you got your driver’s license and did not receive a card, call and make certain your name is on the list.

3)    Finally, when all this is over and you’re ready to vote on Nov 4, take along lots of proof of your identity. I, for one, am bringing my passport; my drivers’ license; my SSN; and notes from my mother and my dog attesting to my good name and character.

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Texas Democratic Party Chairman later sued the Harris County Assessor's Office: Boyd Richie issued the following statement:  

“The Texas Democratic Party entered this settlement agreement because it specifically requires Harris County to end the practices we believe were largely responsible for almost 70,000 Texans being denied the opportunity to register to vote in Harris County in 2008.  Looking forward, the Party hopes this agreement clearly establishes a legally binding understanding that will make it much less likely that any Texan could be denied the right to vote by an improper government policy or practice. 

“From my first days as Chairman, the Texas Democratic Party has worked vigilantly in both the legal and legislative process to protect Texans’ right to participate fully in our democracy.  The Texas Democratic Party will monitor the current Harris County Voter Registrar’s practices with that same vigilance to make sure the terms of this agreement are carried out properly.

“In this case, the voter registration practices used in Harris County in 2008 were questioned by non-partisan groups, Democratic legislators and the Party well before the election and before we took legal action. The Secretary of State’s office was aware of these concerns but did not intervene. Granted, the Voter Registrar and the Secretary of State were both Republicans, but preventing voter suppression should not be a partisan issue, and no government official should condone or practice it. 

“It’s a shame that the Texas Democratic Party has been forced to go to court time and again to do what our state and local officials should be doing – protect the right to vote.  As a great Texas Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965: ‘It is wrong–deadly wrong–to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.’”

 

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Leave No Voter Behind

Thanks to all of you who offered heartfelt condolences yesterday, along with best wishes for a kinder and speedier voter registration process. Your warm thoughts and contagious optimism have kept hope alive here in Texas.

With all that good will,  it is little surprise that, by mid-morning, our prayers were answered. OK, so we had some help. I happened to drop a line to the Houston Chronicle (one of my very favorite newspapers), and the paper assigned a reporter to check out my voter registration complaints. (I wouldn't have believed me either. )

Reporter Rosanna Ruiz  called yesterday morning with miraculous news: my voter registration record was now available on line. (And dated August 27, but more on that later)  I got misty as I was telling her how my girlfriend, Pam, dropped by my house on presidential primary day to urge me to walk over to the polls -- even though I would not be able to vote.  Pam is such a warm and lovely person.  Her thinking:  if you go over there, at least you can SAY you were at the polls. You will still be a part of history.

 So we walked together - one Jewish American and one African American -  two neighbors, traveling side by side, sharing a common precinct. We stuck our heads in the room, and watched the voters standing in line. The only thing that could have made the day better was if the Harris County Assessor would have let me vote. (You see, if you missed the primary here, you missed the poll vote and the caucus vote. Really, how often does one get to vote twice in a presidential primary, and then brag to their friends?)

After Ms. Ruiz and I got off the phone, I headed to the Harris County voter registration website to inspect my registration record. In journalism school they taught us, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." I call my mother often and quiz her still. She hates it, but she would worry that I was sick if I stopped.

I put in my name as Linda (S.) Wallace, and no records came up. After I emailed her, Ms. Ruiz kindly informed me I needed to put in my name in backward. (It clearly says so on the website.) Of course, that makes sense. Tried again, but still couldn't find it. Then I put in my home address and I got this message: "no records found." So next I called the Assessor's office. A friendly clerk pulled up my file and informed me  that I, Linda S Wallace, still wasn't registered to vote in Harris County. My application, submitted last February, was still incomplete. 

(I didn't let her in on the hot rumor that I may be newly registered.) When I told her that I filled out a fourth voter registration form Sept. 2, and had included my Texas' driver's license number, she was elated. She asked me to call back Friday. Perhaps, by then, my application would have arrived downtown, and the process would be complete. I felt she was really rooting for me!

Don't know about you but I haven't been this confused since I took high school trig. Just for fun, I put my home address in the online form again. This time, my voter registration record pops up.  Question is: where had it been hiding? Why weren't the clerks who work with voters able to pull up that record when I called on August 29 and, again, on Sept 3? (If voters are told they are not registered,chances are fairly good they won't go to the polls. Not everyone may respond, as I did, by taking time to fill out a fourth voter registration application. When my voter registration card arrived on Sept 5 (seven months after I submitted my first application), I mistook it for a prize notification award. It is bright orange and white -- and the words voter registration certificate are in extremely small print.

Now I shall pray for wisdom and guidance, in addition to the safe return of the envelope containing my social security number that went out into the world and lost its way. What's important, really, is that I now have proof that I am a voter in waiting. It is tucked away in a lock box, along with all of my identity papers that I will transport with me to the polls on Nov. 4th in an armored car.

Hope to see you there, voters to be. Wannabe voters, don't give up. When you register often, remarkable things do happen. So, rest if you must, but don't you quit! 

Choosing to Participate

FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES is bringing its nationally acclaimed civic initiative and exhibition, Choosing to Participate, to the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library September 6 – November 30, 2011.

Created by Facing History and Ourselves, Choosing to Participate is part of a global initiative encouraging young people and adults to think deeply about the importance of participating in a democratic society.

 The centerpiece of this initiative is a multimedia exhibition that is currently on a five-city national tour. Host cities include Cleveland, Washington, D.C.,Memphis, New York, and Chicago. The previous seven-city tour reached hundreds of thousands of students, educators, and community members.

Facing History invites teachers, administrators, and civic organizations to participate. Choosing to Participate offers a variety of ways to get involved, including guided tours for student groups; workshops for educators; volunteer opportunities for guides; and an exciting calendar of events with internationally renowned speakers to deepen ongoing dialogue on civic responsibility, exploring the central question,

What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy?

Visitors to the exhibition view a series of multimedia installations about people and communities whose stories illustrate how courage, initiative, and compassion are necessary to protect democracy. They challenge us to recognize that our choices matter—to ourselves, our community, and to our world.

• Crisis in Little Rock examines the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.

• Not in Our Town describes how citizens in Billings, Montana, fought a series of hate crimes in 1993.

• Everyone Has a Story depicts the challenges faced by a young Cambodian refugee as he struggled to build a

new life in rural New Hampshire in the 1980s.

• Little Things Are Big tells of a Puerto Rican man who, late one night, encountered a white mother in need of assistance on the New York subway in the 1950s.

• “Give Bigotry No Sanction” explores religious freedom and intolerance around the world, drawing on George Washington’s landmark letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport Rhode Island.

Singing the Labor Day Blues

On Labor Day, 2011, an article in my local newspaper posed this question: Are Americans losing patience with the unemployed? The article addressed the belief that 99 weeks of unemployment benefits simply gives laid-off workers an incentive not to work and not to look for it. People who toil  long hours at understaffed companies are understandably wary and upset by these reports:  Why  are they working day and night to tuneup the economic engine while others are getting a free ride? 

"As the nation celebrates U.S. workers this Labor Day weekend, many jobless Americans say they sense a growing indifference to their plight, and even a certain level of demonization. For years, people who lost their jobs were the sad, sympathetic faces of the nation's economic meltdown. But more than two years after the Great Recession officially ended, America's empathy for the unemployed is showing signs of wear."

Meanwhile, Computerworld tackles this issue from the other side of the block: What barriers are faced by the unemployed and high-risk groups like older workers? To what extent are hiring policies to blame?

"Computerworld — Age bias: Some consider it IT's dirty little secret, or even IT's big open secret.Most high-tech employers would likely deny that age discrimination is an issue at their company. But many IT workers over 50 beg to differ, saying they have experienced age bias or know someone who has.

"The bias can take several forms, they say. Their salaries might stagnate. They might have few or no opportunities for advancement. They might not be included in training and professional development programs. And they could be the first to be laid off and the last to be hired.

"Age bias is "something that no [employer] talks about. But it's a reality in tech that if you're 45 years of age and still writing C code or Cobol code and making $150,000 a year, the likelihood is that you won't be employed very long," says Vivek Wadhwa, who currently holds academic positions at several universities, including UC Berkeley, Duke and Harvard."

Huffington Post offered yet a third view: Unemployed Face Tough Competition: Underemployed

   It is important, always, to walk across the street and introduce yourself to facts and views on the other side.