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PRESIDENT BUSH blames the media for filtering
out good news on Iraq. He says he does not even read newspapers. "The best way to get the news is from objective sources,"
Bush said in a Fox News interview. "And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening
in the world."
This is the same president who erases history
itself.
Bush's desire for us to become ostriches
over the deaths and wounding of American soldiers in Iraq -- 379 dead and 2,155 hurt at last count -- is but one more pathological
act in sticking all of America into the sand. Bush severely limited access to the presidential papers of his father. Vice
President Dick Cheney erected an iron curtain around his energy task force. Hundreds of Muslim immigrants were detained without
due process and with no evidence they were involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The administration wiped out
parts of an Environmental Protection Agency report that specifically tied human activities to global warming.
Bush has his eraser out again. The Justice
Department recently released a commissioned report on diversity among its attorneys. Half of its 186 pages were blacked out.
The Bush administration made sure to filter
in the good news in the report. The federal government, regardless of which party is in power, has long been more inviting
to people of color at the entry level than the private sector. The Justice Department is no different. Its attorney work force
is 15 percent of color and 38 percent women, compared to 12 percent and 30 percent, respectively, in the national legal labor
pool.
The blacked-out pages betray a Justice Department
that does not want America to know what happens after people are hired. The full report is available on a Web site called
the Memory Hole, which electronically lifted the blacked-out sections. Among the conclusions of the full report were:
"When controlling for component, grade, and
salary, we found that the average minority is currently residing approximately one-third step lower than the average white
and the average woman is currently residing approximately one-half step lower than the average man. These effects are statistically
significant."
"Race and gender combine for a particularly
strong negative effect of identity for minority women."
"Section chiefs are an extremely critical
element of the department's diversity climate. They have significant authority in recruitment, hiring, promotion, performance
appraisal, case assignment, and career development. The section chief work force is not diverse, and turnover is low. This
pattern, combined with the generally low attention that these managers pay to staff career development, leads minorities to
perceive a lack of advancement opportunities."
The sections on "stereotyping," "racial and
gender tension," "harassment behavior," and "mentoring," were completely blacked out. Asked if employees felt free to "express
differences that may be due to different cultural backgrounds," 83 percent of white men and 73 percent of white women said
yes. Only 56 percent of men of color and 42 percent of women of color said yes.
Deleted was this statement: "More than 40
percent of racial minorities participating in the study believe that stereotyping of minorities having limited abilities is
a problem. Further analysis shows that an actual majority (51 percent) of nonwhite women hold this belief. Although we do
not know the extent to which this belief is based on actual differential treatment of people, it clearly represents a barrier
to the goal of creating an environment where all members feel equally valued and able to contribute."
An further analysis provides an even more
deeper divide. While only 13 percent of white attorneys at the Justice Department say people of color are stereotyped, 60
percent of African-American lawyers say attorneys of color "are often stereotyped here."
Deleted was a paragraph that showed that
about 20 percent of lawyers of color say they have personally experienced racial harassment at the department. Deleted was
the fact that only 53 percent of attorneys of color felt that the promotion process was fair with respect to color compared
with 87 percent of white attorneys. Deleted was the fact that 60 percent of women felt that the promotion process was fair
with regards to gender, compared with 81 percent of men.
Deleted was the fact that only 45 percent
of attorneys of color, compared with 74 percent of white lawyers, "feel that assignments I receive, and management decisions
about my career development, have been made without regard to my race/gender/ ethnic origin."
With all these deletions, it was no surprise
that all nine pages of "Recommendations" were blacked out. Hear no problem, see no problem, solve no problem. Bush blames
the media when he is bringing back memories of Nixon erasing tapes. The administration deleted the data on global warming.
It blacked out diversity reports. It disappears immigrants. With a war built on falsehoods failing with fatal consequences,
Bush now wants to disappear the media. It is all part of Bush erasing you.
©
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. | 
