Letters
Tony Snow’s ‘Tar Baby’ Gaffe
More than anything else, [White
House Press Secretary Tony Snow]
suffers from the same malaise as too
many other people: too little contact
with people unlike them (“‘Tar Baby’
Comment—Is Bush’s Press Sec
Racist?” DiversityInc.com, May 18).
When you have a diverse group of
friends, sensitive issues are discussed,
exchanged and bandied about in a
comfortable, non-threatening setting.
Sensitivity evolves. When you don’t,
you make public reference to hugging the tar baby without a clue as to
whom it might offend.
Ellen Sweets
Reporter, Denver Post
Denver, Colo.
Black Vs. Latino Interests
The article “As Millions of
Latinos Protest, Most Black Leaders
Silent on Immigration”
( DiversityInc.com, April 10) begs the
question: Why aren’t more African-American leaders speaking out on
the immigration issue? African
Americans have been speaking out
on immigration issues for decades.
In fact, both Dick Gregory and
Catherine Dunham went on hunger
strikes to protest the discriminatory
and biased immigration policy of
the United States.
I do not recall Latino leaders
speaking out in a large manner on
issues that have faced the African-American community, so I find this
inquisition quite perplexing.
DiversityInc should focus on
encouraging these two groups to
work together and to deal with the
factions that have separated them
for too long.
Lisa Rice
Fair Housing Center
Toledo, Ohio
Race Explains
Healthcare Disparities
Regarding your [May 2006
healthcare disparities] issue, you
missed important evidence that suggests that racism, independent of
class, explains part of the reason
African Americans receive worse
healthcare than whites.
Consider studies of the treatment
of heart disease. The most telling
study examined the racial disparities
in revascularization procedures by
examining the treatment of 822,930
heart-disease patients at United
States Veterans Affairs [VA] hospitals between 1987 and 1991.
Overall, whites were 50 percent
more likely than African Americans
to undergo angioplasty and 122
percent more likely to undergo
coronary bypass surgery. The evident conclusion is that physicians,
the vast majority of whom are
white, take better care of white
patients than African-American
patients, even when there are no
economic factors at stake.
David B. Oppenheimer
Professor, Golden Gate University
School of Law
San Francisco, Calif.
Lack of Senate Diversity Shameful
Kudos to C. Stone Brown and
Mark Lowery’s June 2006 article
“Who’s Worst for Diversity? The
U.S. Senate.” It’s clear that America
is changing but the Senate is not.
For those of us who advocate, every
day, in volunteer chambers and
meetings with business writers and
editors, I depend upon DiversityInc
to give me a reality check on who’s
succeeding and who’s failing at promoting equality for everyone and
diversity practices. DiversityInc helps
me feel connected and inspires me.
Let’s hold corporations accountable.
Sue Kozel
SK Visions & NAWBO SJ Diversity
Committee Chairperson
Cream Ridge, N.J.
Corrections
In the June 2006 issue, “Who Is
Worst for Diversity? The United States
Senate.” included incorrect information
about the composition of the staff of Sen.
Barack Obama, D-Ill. Sen. Obama’s
overall staff is more than 50 percent
people of color, and 65 percent of his
senior staff members are people of color.
In the June 2006 issue highlighting companies on The 2006
DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for
Diversity, the official name and business type of auto manufacturer Toyota
Motor North America were incorrect.
In the June 2006 Issue, “Global
Diversity: The Next Frontier,”
HSBC’s pretax profit from the Asia
Pacific region was incorrected stated.
It is one-third.
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