(This is Bow Wow, his girlfriend Ciara, and Bow Wow’s mom, for those who don’t know)

By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

March 14, 2006

In a tear jerk moment toward the end of Claude Allen’s abortive Senate confirmation hearing in 2003, Utah Senator Orin Hatch tossed a puffball question at him. He asked what his grandfather who was the first in his family born out slavery would say to him about his pending judgeship. Allen visibly moved by the question said that he would tell him to give back to those that he received from.

Allen’s answer told much about the GOP’s two decade long court and tout of black conservatives. And that hasn’t changed even when some of them embarrass the party with their shoot from the lip gaffes or fall from grace in a swirl of corruption and scandal. Allen has fit the bill on both counts. In 1982, he embarrassed the GOP with his slurs against gays and feminists, and two decades later during his confirmation hearing he didn’t back away from them. He oddly claimed that the dictionary defined them as “odd or unusual” and he saw no reason to retract his slur. And now there’s the allegation that he is a two-bit thief.

But Allen is only the latest in a string of black conservative poster boys that have been dogged by scandal. In the 1980s Reagan’s HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce was accused of corruption and influence peddling, and Clarence Pendleton Reagan’s appointee to head the U.S. Civil Rights Commission was hit with allegations of illicit business dealings. Then there’s the sexual scandal that embroiled Bush Sr.’s affirmative action Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas in 1991.

Last year, black Republican pitchman, Armstrong Williams was reviled for grabbing nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the White House to pump Bush’s education policies, all the while masquerading as a neutral media commentator. In each case, the disgraced black Republican administration appointees, and boosters did not tumble as far from grace as might be expected. Pierce and Pendleton served no jail time, and resumed their business careers.
Thomas is the much-prized conservative high court polemicist. Though Williams was bounced from his spot as a commentator on a few media outlets, he is still a frequent guest on talk shows, defending conservative policies. Their names quickly disappear from the scandal sheets. They are simply too valuable [to the Bush puppeteers] to be summarily tossed to the wolves.

Conservatives desperately need blacks such as Allen to maintain the public illusion that black conservatives have real clout and a popular following in black communities. Their great value is that they promote the myth that a big segment of blacks support political conservative principles. In the last presidential election, Bush, Republican National Committee head Ken Mehlman, and strategist Karl Rove spent millions on outreach efforts to attract African-American voters. Mehlman has since barnstormed the country in tow with conservative blacks to primp the GOP’s message to black groups. Allen and a handful of other blacks have relentlessly pumped Bush’s policies on TV and radio talk shows, in op-ed columns, and in debates with civil rights leaders and liberal Democrats.

The young black conservative political activists such as Allen spin, prime, and defend administration policies on affirmative action, welfare, laizzez faire capitalism, and anti-government regulations with the best of white conservatives. Bush’s controversial federal court appeals nominee, black California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, once brashly claimed that she was “one of the few conservatives left in America.” Allen did not make the same bold, and brash claim as Brown, but he is every bit the conservative ideologue as Brown. None of their efforts touting GOP policies have helped much. Bush still got only a marginal bump up overall in the black vote in 2004, and with his Katrina bumble his poll ratings are stuck even deeper in the tank with blacks.

Still, Republicans have done everything possible to ease the way up the political ladder for their bevy of black conservatives. Allen’s career is a textbook example of that. He was barely out of the University of North Carolina when he became the spokesmen for Senator Jesse Helm’s reelection campaign in 1982.

He moved from there to work for Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He then bagged a prize clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Next, he was appointed counsel for Virginia’s Attorney General, and then he became Virginia’s deputy attorney general and later secretary of health and human services. When his nomination for appeals court judge didn’t pan out, Bush made him his top domestic policy advisor.

In years past, scandal plagued black Republican boosters and appointees pretty much skated away with little more than a spate of bad publicity and a hand slap. Allen may not be as lucky. He may eventually be prosecuted. But as long as Republicans find men like him useful in their drive to make the party appear to be an authentic voice in black America, they’ll do whatever they can to keep them as far out of legal harm’s way as possible.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com, an author and political analyst.

A week ago, conservative golden (brown) boy Claude Allen was charged with multiple counts of shoplifting.

Allegedly, he was buying merchandise, bringing it to his car, re-entering the store, picking up another item of the same type, and getting a refund for it. According to authorities, Allen had bilked more than 5000 dollars from 25 local stores. Of course, Allen insists that it’s all a big mistake that will be cleared up in the near future. Right.

The controversy is interesting to me for several reasons.

First, I’m interested in how this will be used as a media smokescreen for the growing dissent among Republicans against the Bush Administration.

Second, it exposes the hypocrisy of a party that spends the bulk of its political life “getting tough” on crime through zero tolerance policies, three strikes laws, and mandatory minimums, but is scrambling to explain away the “shocking and disappointing” actions of one of its own. Suddenly, context, social conditions, and individual circumstance are important factors to consider. If only they could be that sympathetic to people who steal and don’t make $160,000 a year.

Third, this provides Black people with yet another “embarassing nigga moment” with which to contend. I mean, damn, he squandered a stellar career for 5000 dollars? At least White Republicans steal millions. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expecations.

I know that I deserve a late pass for this story, but it’s no less relevant since the young man, Genarlow Wilson, is still in prison. Although no one is doubting the consensual nature of the encounter, a 17 year old boy is facing 10 years in jail for having oral sex with a 15 year old girl. Some of you are going to ding me for whipping out my trusty race card again, but something tells me that if these were white teens, they’d be nowhere near a prison cell. (Note: Given my status as a public intellectual, I’ve resisted the tremendous urge make an off color joke about what the prison population would look like if all white teens were prosecuted for oral sex). Anyway, it is absolutely necessary that we not only lament the moral corruption and racism that is a fundamental part of the criminal (in)justice system. We must also actively fight for this young man’s life. To find out more about Genarlow Wilson’s appeal, visit www.wilsonappeal.com, or click here.

Here’s the story:

Outrage After Teen Gets 10 Years for Oral Sex With Girl

Georgia Reconsiders Law That Imprisoned High School Senior

A wild New Year’s Eve two years ago has landed a Georgia teen in prison for 10 years on charges of child molestation in a case that has state legislators reworking the strict law that put him behind bars.
Genarlow Wilson and a group of friends had the kind of bash no parent would want their teenager to attend. Crime scene investigators combing the room in a Days Inn in the small town of Douglasville, Ga., found evidence of drinking, as well as condoms and wrappers littered all over. Plus, there was a video camera.

In a portion of a tape obtained by “Primetime,” Wilson, then 17 and an honor student and star athlete who was homecoming king, is seen having intercourse with a 17-year-old girl, who was seen earlier on the bathroom floor. During the sex act, she appears to be sleepy or intoxicated but never asks Wilson to stop. Later on in the tape, she is seen being pulled off the bed.

Other portions of the tape show a second girl, who was 15 and later said she did not drink that night. She was recorded having oral sex with several boys in succession, including Wilson.

The following morning, Wilson got a phone call that would change his life. He learned from a friend that the 17-year-old had gone to the police to report that she’d been raped.

“I was, like, ‘What? When was this happening? Did this happen at the same party I was at?’” Wilson said. “It was shocking to me.”

A Decade in Prison

Authorities believed the 17-year-old alleged rape victim and said she was too intoxicated to consent to any sexual acts, which is what Georgia law requires, otherwise these acts can be considered rape.

Six boys, including Wilson, were arrested on various charges, including rape. District Attorney David McDade said the videotape was critical to his case. “There is no doubt that without the videotape we would have to be relying on the statements of these young people, and that would have been a more difficult prosecution,” he said.

Wilson maintained his innocence. “I know that it was consensual,” he told “Primetime.” “I wouldn’t went on with the acts if it wasn’t consensual. I’m not that kind of person. No means no.”

Five of the boys accepted plea deals, but Wilson — the only one without a police record — held out. “I knew Genarlow’s state of mind,” said his attorney, Michael Mann. “He wasn’t going to prison willingly. He wasn’t going to plea to something in his mind he didn’t do.”

He stood trial in February 2005 for five days. And at first, the jury’s deliberations moved swiftly. Jurors voted to acquit Wilson of raping the 17-year-old.

“I mean it wasn’t even an hour,” said jury forewoman Marie Manigault. “We immediately saw the tape for what it was. We went back and saw it again and saw what actually happened and everybody immediately said not guilty.”

But there was one other charge the jury had to decide on. The second girl in the videotape was 15, and the age of consent in Georgia is 16. And under state law, prosecutors charged Wilson with aggravated child molestation. To those close to the young man, it was an outrage.

“Nobody could believe that this is the law,” Mann said.

Even jurors frowned on the charge. “A bad law, absolutely,” Manigault said.

And in Georgia, that they’d had oral sex made matters worse. Until 1998, oral sex between husband and wife was illegal, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. In Wilson’s case, even though he is only two years older than the girl, she was 15 and — willing or not — could not consent legally that night.

Whatever their feelings about the law, jurors felt they had no choice but to find Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation. Moments later, back in the jury room, jurors were told for the first time that the conviction came with a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison. In addition, Wilson would be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

McDade said Wilson could have had a better outcome if he had accepted the plea deal. “What I believe is that Genarlow Wilson listened to people who were trying to use this case for another agenda and he followed their advice,” he said. “Do I believe that [in] Genarlow Wilson’s case justice would have been served if he accepted a lesser plea? Sure I do. I wish he had of. Sure I do.”

‘Doing What’s Right’

Before the incident, Wilson — by any measure — had beaten the odds. The son of a single mom, the high school senior was an honor student and an all-conference football player and track star, with offers to play in college. He was popular enough to be elected homecoming king at Douglas County High.

“I was the first-ever homecoming king at my high school,” he said. “That was a very great privilege for me.”

Atlanta attorney B.J. Bernstein has filed Wilson’s appeal. She said prosecutors should never have brought charges and that justice should have been meted out at home.

And a state legislator who helped pass the molestation law said it was never meant to police teen sex.

“The legislative intent was to protect women and children from sexual predators,” said Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a Democrat in the Georgia State Assembly.

As the court considers Wilson’s appeal, the Georgia legislature is rewriting the law that sent Wilson to prison. In a bill that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate, the crime would become a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than a year in prison, or even probation. And anyone convicted would not have to register as a sex offender.

Today Wilson remains as steadfast as ever about not taking the deal that would have reduced his sentence by half.

“It’s all about doing what’s right,” he said. “And what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. And I’m just standing up for what I believe in.”

To find out more about Genarlow Wilson’s appeal, visit www.wilsonappeal.com, or click here.

For anyone interested in developing a more complex understanding of the Black-White achievement gap, be sure to check out “Beyond Acting White” edited by sociologists Erin Horvat and Carla O’Connor.

The book’s primary purpose is to complicate our current understandings and conversations about the “acting white” phenomenon, or the the belief that Blacks underperform in school out of fear that their academic success will undermine social relationships (what anthropologists call “fictive kinships”) due to the perception that they are acting white. This theory, which has become the equivalent of an urban legend , has dominated recent conversation about Black youth within the public sphere. For example, Bill Cosby and Barack Obama have both referred to this theory in their critiques of the Black poor (Note: Check out Michael Eric Dyson’s wonderful book “Is Bill Cosby Right?” for a brilliant and thorough deconstruction of Cosby’s ridiculous commentary).

Unfortunately, these popular (and academic) appeals to “acting white” theory fail to recognize or willfully ignore the lack of empirical support and theoretical precision surrounding acting white discourse. In “Beyond Acting White,” Horvat and O’Connor assemble a top notch cast of educational researchers who examine the contours, complexities, and contradictions of the “acting white” phenomenon. In this well-organized and timely book, the contributors demonstrate the need to avoid essentializing black identities and experiences, as well as the critical significance of examining particular schooling contexts, in order to better understand Black educational acheivement.

This is a must-read!!!!