Chicago SunTimes:

The City Council champion of the slave reparations movement demanded Monday that Carole Brown apologize to African Americans or step down as CTA board chairwoman for “allowing herself to be used” to defend a financial services firm with past ties to slavery.

Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) said it’s insensitive and insulting for Brown, senior vice president of Lehman Brothers, to suggest that “the Lehman Brothers in the 1850s is not the company that it is today.”

Brown made the statement after the company she works for became the first city contractor to admit past ties to slavery.

“She should have kept her mouth shut and said, ‘I’m not going to speak against my people.’ Why is this young lady trying to speak on behalf of slave owners? [They’re saying], ‘Let’s parade this black woman out there,’ ” Tillman said.

“Who is she to say that things have changed? Things have not changed. The economy for blacks in this country is just as bad as it was under Jim Crow. We still have only 1 percent of the wealth. She’s not there because of her merits or because someone loves her. She’s there because of the fight we waged for parity in this country.”

Tillman demanded that Brown make a choice: Apologize for allowing herself to be used to sanitize the reputation of a company built on the backs of her own people or step aside as CTA chairwoman.

While black leaders fight this epic battle, SayUncle estimates that in America today: 21 black people will commit murder; 22 black people will be murdered; 506 black people will be arrested for drug trafficking crimes; 1,000,000 black people are in prison; and 26,500,000 black people live in poverty

Posted in uncategorized on November 25th, 2003 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |