Nie Trink Wasser
2nd July 2003, 06:30 AM
Project 21 has joined a campaign begun by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) to urge NASCAR to stand up to what appear to be intimidation tactics employed by Jesse Jackson and fight an apparent corporate shakedown.
Members of the African-American leadership network Project 21 are calling upon NASCAR to sever its financial ties to Jackson.
A board member of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition publicly implied June 24 that the NASCAR auto racing organization is racist.
NASCAR reportedly has given over $250,000 to Jackson's groups in recent years. After criticism by Jackson that the sport does not do enough to attract minorities, NASCAR officials also embarked on a targeted publicity campaign and now have a "mandated sensitivity program" for its employees. Despite this, at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition annual conference in Chicago on June 24, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition board member Bill Shack called NASCAR and other auto racing organizations "the last bastion of white supremacy" in professional sports. Referring to attempts to increase minority participation, he said these organizations "don't particularly want you out there."
Peter Flaherty, president of the NLPC, recently told CNSNews.com: "NASCAR is finding out the hard way that appeasing Jesse Jackson doesn't work. The more you give, the more he demands."
"It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how much you give to Jackson, you will only invite more hostility," adds Project 21 member Kimani Jefferson. "In my view, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Jesse Jackson are interested in nothing more than perpetrating a cult of victimization for profit."
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8691
Members of the African-American leadership network Project 21 are calling upon NASCAR to sever its financial ties to Jackson.
A board member of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition publicly implied June 24 that the NASCAR auto racing organization is racist.
NASCAR reportedly has given over $250,000 to Jackson's groups in recent years. After criticism by Jackson that the sport does not do enough to attract minorities, NASCAR officials also embarked on a targeted publicity campaign and now have a "mandated sensitivity program" for its employees. Despite this, at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition annual conference in Chicago on June 24, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition board member Bill Shack called NASCAR and other auto racing organizations "the last bastion of white supremacy" in professional sports. Referring to attempts to increase minority participation, he said these organizations "don't particularly want you out there."
Peter Flaherty, president of the NLPC, recently told CNSNews.com: "NASCAR is finding out the hard way that appeasing Jesse Jackson doesn't work. The more you give, the more he demands."
"It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how much you give to Jackson, you will only invite more hostility," adds Project 21 member Kimani Jefferson. "In my view, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Jesse Jackson are interested in nothing more than perpetrating a cult of victimization for profit."
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8691