Word: civilations
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...recent years, civil rights leaders have awakened belatedly to the toll of AIDS among black Americans, who now account for more than half of the new cases of HIV infection in the U.S. But for all their kente-cloth shawls and lavish Kwanza celebrations, only a handful of African-American leaders, such as Julian Bond of the N.A.A.C.P., philosopher Cornel West and former Congressman Ron Dellums, along with a few church and charitable organizations, have aggressively addressed the disaster in Africa. As Rivers says, it's long past time for black leaders "to come from under the shroud of denial...
...N.A.A.C.P. president cast himself as the leading man, a swaggering yet politically correct Terminator of all things racist about Tinseltown. His first mission: to strong-arm the networks into hiring more minorities to work in front of and behind the cameras. Mfume's early salvos had the fire of civil rights rhetoric of the '60s, as he railed against the "virtual whitewash" on network TV. In private he was just as confrontational. "I don't like this diplomacy s___," he whispered to an aide before a meeting with CBS Entertainment president Leslie Moonves in August. "We should just bring...
...meetings between network chiefs and N.A.A.C.P. officials in Baltimore over the past couple of weeks, the four networks are close to an agreement to implement a series of diversity initiatives, while the N.A.A.C.P. has all but dropped its boycott threat. Mfume seems to have realized that old-line civil rights tactics of boycotts and picket lines hold less sway on the Left Coast than power lunches and air kisses. What finally worked was the same back-room conciliatory politics that made Mfume a force on Capitol Hill for a decade. "Network TV will never again look like it did this...
Diversity on TV is not exactly a front-burner issue for many African Americans either. And it's likely that Mfume will face some grumbling from civil rights old-liners that any goodwill covenant with the networks that lacks enforcement teeth is not worth much. But Mfume may wind up having more impact by playing the Negotiator than the Terminator...
Ryan says the current alliance between students and organized labor represents the first time since the civil rights movement that the two have worked together...