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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Track "Officials" in Booth Hit Foul
Hip-Hop Note at C. H. Flowers Meet


"Business": Mr. Franklin and Miscellaneous Fat (decidedly not Phat) DJ in the press booth at the Maryland South Regional Outdoor Track and Field Championships
Location: C.H. Flowers High School, 10001 Ardwick Ardmore Road, Springdale, MD
Date of incident: Saturday, May 19, 2007

Quick Hit
Grab a sandwich and a frosty beverage, and put your feet up for this one, people. It's a doozy.

So, how can we expect our up-and-coming generations of youth (black, especially, and you'll understand why I single them out as this lament unfolds) to behave like they have at least a modicum of the sense that God gave them if the adults charged with governing and guiding them have lost their minds?

To begin, let me pose this scenario and some questions to you, my intelligent, sensible, responsible 13 loyal readers: Imagine that you're the head guy or gal in the press booth at a high school track meet. Your job (apparently) is to announce everything relating to the events as they unfold (where and when athletes should report for their events, who's running in what place/position during a race, results of the different events, etc.), and to generally make sure things run smoothly inside the booth. The fan base populating the bleachers includes babies, toddlers, adolescents, teens, young adults, middle-aged adults, and traditional grandma/grandpa types.

So, to the queries: Given the nature of the thing, would you consider it pleasurable, would it lend to your enjoyment of the event to have a DJ blasting music—any kind of music with lyrics—pretty much during the entire five to seven hour meet, even while the announcer is sorting out for you what place the person you came to cheer is currently running in a race? Or would that quickly become an annoying distraction? Ok. Now let's say the music is of the Hip-Hop variety. What's your reaction? Now let's imagine that said Hip-Hop is espousing lewd and lascivious bedroom behavior and cheating on one's significant other, and is blithely tossing around that notorious "N" word, is generally denigrating and disrespecting our mothers/sisters/daughters, and is arbitrarily touting the "freaking" of this and the "working" of that (as this genre of music is wont to do). How you feel about it now, keeping in mind who's in your audience?

(As a point of reference before you read on, feel free to sample the video from the meet. Don't worry, the most offensive stuff has been edited out.)

That's what I thought. You'd never let something like that occur on your watch, because you're of sound mind and have a strong sense of decorum, and you got scruples (else you'd be reading some other rag of a blog). Well, read on to learn how two gentlemen (and I use that term quite loosely in this case, especially when it comes to the younger, thick-necked culprit in this tome) seemingly completely lost touch with reality and any sense of responsibility as they ran the show at a high school track meet back in May at C. H. Flowers High School.

After a fruitless and disheartening confrontation with the two men in the booth, I e-mailed everybody in the county and state I could think of (and their mommas) who might have even the slightest bit of oversight concerning this incident, and the Washington Post and Gazette Newspapers (neither of which followed up or followed through), and others. I've included the e-mail (mainly directed to Earl Hawkins, Prince George's County Schools Director Interscholastic Athletics) that I sent, and many of the responses we received (or I've indicated how they chose not to respond).

All I can say is, if these are the men who are officially charged with policing our young people and enforcing the county or state guidelines governing them, then we've got a much more pressing, in-our-face issue to be concerned with over and above Al-Quaeda and the price of gas. Appalling. Read on.

The Beef
Carlyle.Rose@pgcps.org (C. H. Flowers High School Athletic Director), Helena.Jones@pgcps.org (Principal, C. H. Flowers High School) EHawkins@pgcps.org, Patricia.Fletcher@pgcps.org (District 3 Prince George's County Board of Education), jbirck@pgcps.org (John Birkhea, Principal, Bowie High School), rich.andrulonis@pgcps.org (Head Track Coach, Bowie High School) jdonatelli@gazette.net, John.Deasy@pgcps.org (Superintendent of Prince George's County Schools): Just a sampling of movers and shakers to whom I sent the following e-mail on 5/19/07.

Mr. Hawkins, even though you were in attendance at Saturday's Regional Track and Field Championships at C. H. Flowers High School you may not be aware of the unfortunate situation that I am about to describe, due to the lateness of your arrival at the event (I came up and shook your hand as you entered and mentioned the athletic awards banquet at High Point last Monday). It involves Mr. Franklin—the only person in the press booth/box whose name I got—and the rather large gentleman in the booth who was at the controls of the music being piped through the PA system at the meet. I'm sure Mr. Franklin can identify this individual. And if these two gentlemen were operating in an official capacity for PGCPS or Flowers High School, then a grievous mistake was made in allowing them to perform in their meet capacities, and at the very least it would seem that a reprimand is in order.

Also, please know that an article is in the works for publication at http://www.beltsvilleshopper.blogspot.com/, and I'll be copying the Gazette Newspaper on this e-mail.

The Incident
So this is probably the 10th or 11th P.G. County High School outdoor meet I've attended this season, and, notably, the first where the officials have taken it upon themselves to "provide" music for the entire fan base during an event. The fact that the Hip Hop music blared much too loudly, making it difficult at times to make out what the announcer was saying, was the least of the problems with the music. What was most disturbing was the content of much of the music, and the irresponsibility demonstrated by Mr. Franklin and the stout DJ when they were confronted with the issue. The large gentleman chose to offer replies such as, "I ain't apologizing for nothin," to a lady who complained, and "you ain't even gotta be here," to me. Mr. Franklin himself chose to make excuses and focus more on how he thought that my intrusion into the booth demonstrated disrespect towards him (rather than recognizing and addressing the more pressing, real issue at hand). My entry into the booth went like this, after I knocked and was bid "enter," I stated in a very calm tone: "But for real, that music you guys are playing is very inappropriate. There are children out there, and they don't need to have lyrics such as 'freak you,' 'in the bedroom,' 'make you scream with pleasure,' and the like, forced upon them." Both Mr. Franklin and the large one immediately took offense, and, as I said, began to make excuses and/or harass me.

Mr. Franklin, who, based on his announcing of the events, I assumed was a reasonable, intelligent track and field patron. I would not assume to make any such characterizations about the DJ, as all of his actions demonstrated just the opposite in terms of character and public relations skills. I must say that I was completely surprised by Mr. Franklin's childishly absurd reaction to my complaint.

There are so very many issues at play that manifested themselves during this circumstance, many of which I think speak volumes about what is at the core of many of the problems with the P.G. County School System: our irresponsible adults. How is it that these two presumed employees assumed that it would be acceptable to play this type of music in a public setting where children of all ages, parents and grandparents would be in attendance? Are there no guidelines in place that speak to what is and is not acceptable at PGCPS-sponsored events? I know there's a code of conduct that the students are supposed to adhere to and be subject to, but why should they when those who have charge over them don't demonstrate any sense of public decorum. Is there no screening process for the personnel who work such events? I realize that the meet itself was very short-handed in terms of help on the track. Did that extend to the announcing booth, as well? (And if it did, that's still no excuse.)

I place more of the blame on Mr. Franklin, who was clearly the elder statesman in the booth, and to whom the large guy deferred on one occasion by saying, "You need to talk to that man right there" (pointing to Mr. Franklin, when the woman complained directly to the DJ). Instead of taking the situation personally, Mr. Franklin should have taken it upon himself to gag the music when it first began. But he did not. In fact, the excuse he offered to me and the woman had to do with, "the kids gave us those songs, and we haven't had a chance to listen to them," and similarly inane arguments. I ask you, what grown man plays a list of songs submitted by P.G. County Public High School students in a public forum without first checking the songs themselves? The only answers can be, "an incompetent" or "a deaf person." And I ask you, what child would be able to offer up the excuses Mr. Franklin uttered and expect to be taken seriously or get away with it? It really concerns me that Mr. Franklin responded as he did, and makes me wonder in what other official school-related capacities he serves and whether he operates as a puppet to the whims of the students, as he apparently did here, in all cases?

But even after offering these excuses, Mr. Franklin did nothing about the offending music still blaring from the speakers. He and the thick-necked gentleman angrily shooed me from the booth as if I was the one in the wrong for pointing out truth to them. I could tell from our exchange that one was belligerent and the other was simply ignorant and that I would be getting nowhere with either of them, especially the ignorant one, so I sought a higher authority. (It should be noted that before I actually entered the booth to voice my complaint I did speak to the stout white gentleman who I noticed moving in and out of the booth. I only note his race for identification purposes in case you need someone to corroborate my version of the event. Besides Richard Andrulonis—whom I trust you recognize as Bowie High School's head track coach—there were no other white men who I saw in or around the booth during this period. This other booth worker said to me, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I'll say something to them but it won't do any good." And I'm not making this up!) Back to seeking a higher authority, I went back to the front gate of the facility to inquire as to which person on site was ultimately in charge of the event. I was told (reluctantly, I might add) that it was Mr. Andrulonis. So, I spoke to the coach of our team who pointed out Andrulonis to me across the field, and then volunteered to speak to Mr. Andrulonis on my behalf. A few minutes after he tracked him down I noticed Mr. Andrulonis heading for the booth. And then suddenly, sweet silence (in terms of the music). We could then hear every word the announcer, Mr. Franklin, so eloquently spoke concerning the races, and our senses were no longer being assaulted. Thank God for at least one responsible grown man in authority (Andrulonis)!

It is very disheartening to me that this incident even unfolded. I had decided to hold my tongue on the matter when it first began on the first day of the meet, Friday, in hopes that maybe they'd leave out the music on today, Saturday. And I may have even let it go on Saturday had they not slipped in the very vulgar and suggestive songs. But in my opinion, having any music with lyrics playing while announcing is going on is counterproductive. (It flies in the face of everything I learned in my radio 101 class 25 years ago.) I trust my complaint will be taken to heart and acted on judiciously.

Responses
The following are some of the e-mailed responses (and/or non-responses) and dialogue resulting from my complaint. We heard from government officials (many—like P.G. County Councilman David Harrington who took the time to call me and left a voice message but never responded to the voice message or numerous e-mails I replied to him with—offering simple lip service or empty gestures, IMHO) and other concerned parties (e.g., community activists, parents). We even received a (pretty anemic) letter from the governor's office just this past Friday. Special thanks to stalwart Prince George's County activist and entrepreneur (and my HU '82 classmate) Arthur Turner for his support in this matter and for getting the e-mail out to a much wider, much more influential audience than we ever could on our own. To the responses (not necessarily in chronological order):

July 6, 2007

Mr. [Beltsville Vicinity Shoppers]
beltsvilleshopper@gmail.com
Dear Mr. [Beltsville Vicinity Shoppers]:

Thank you for your email regarding inappropriate music at the Regional Track & Field Championships. It is disappointing to learn that offensive music was allowed to be broadcast over the public address system at a Regional Track Meet. At the same time, it was encouraging to learn that the music was discontinued once the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Associations (MPSSAA) Regional Director requested its cessation.

Regional meets are qualifying events for the State meet. Those meets are conducted by local school personnel on behalf of the MPSSAA. As a member of the MPSSAA, each school is asked to provide support for State programs.

It is my understanding that this fall the MPSSAA plans to unveil a sportsmanship initiative entitled “Respect the Game.” The purpose of the campaign will be to heighten sportsmanlike awareness and address similar issues as the one you described.

Thank you again for your email and for sharing your concerns on this very important issue. If you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Edward F. Sparks, Executive Director, MPSSAA, who may be reached at 410-767-0555.
Mr. Sparks will be pleased to assist you.

Sincerely,

Nancy S. Grasmick
State Superintendent of Schools
[The Governor's office]
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On 5/24/07, Hathawaybeck@aol.com <Hathawaybeck@aol.com> wrote:

Mr. [Beltsville Vicinity Shopper], I am providing (below) the PGCPS Administrative Procedure that addresses the concern you raised in your recent email Inappropriate Music at Saturday's Track Meet. I hope this provides information as to what the system currently has in place and encourage you to distribute it and provide comments.
Thank you, Donna Hathaway Beck [P.G. County School Board, At-large member]
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Mr. [Beltsville Vicinity Shoppers]--
my name is avis thomas-lester and i am a reporter for the washington post. i would love to talk to you about the incident at the game. would u call me when u receive this at 202-262-0524. i have written extensively about prince george's county. feel free to call jacob and or arthur turner if you would like to ask about me or check me on washingtonpost.com or google. i am looking into a possible story on the incident. i look forward to speaking with u.
atl
[She e-mailed initially, I called...called again...e-mailed...nothing]
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Mr. [Beltsville Vicinity Shoppers]:

Please forgive me for not responding to your email immediately, but I was out of town attending my Godson’s Graduation Ceremony from college.

I wish you had mentioned this to me when I met you at the track meet Saturday. It is truly unfortunate that this occurred. As you know this was a Regional track meet which is part of the State Tournament. The Office of Interscholastic Athletics does not conduct the regional meets. We do provide support if requested by the Meet Director.

I have spoken with the meet director and the athletic director of C. H. Flowers regarding the music. This will not happen again. Additionally, we will add specific language to the Athletic Handbook to address appropriate music before, during, and after contest.

Thank you for your concerns. If you need additional information, please do not hesitate to call me at 301-808-8273 or 74.

Thanks,
Earl

To: Mr. Earl Hawkins

From: Beltsvilleshopper@gmail.com

I appreciate that, Mr. Hawkins, and it was actually my plan to speak to you about the situation when I approached you, but if you recall as soon as we were done with introductions and pleasantries another gentleman (who also happened to be one of the ones hanging out in the booth area, if I recall correctly) came up and interrupted. Had my daughter not been with me I may have waited him out.

But I do thank you for your response. And actually my feeling is that the issue runs deeper than mere handbook legislation. I have to ask myself why many of the track athletes make the flawed assumption that it's acceptable to call someone "N*gger," or use other foul language in my presence or the company of any who might happen to be in the stands as a spectator or simply walking on the school's track during a practice session. And I have to ask why I have had to get into confrontations with students who are cursing loudly at High Point High School basketball games and at other schools in the county when I've been in attendance with my little ones. What is it about their school (and home, probably) environment that puts them at ease with these actions?

I'm venting some here, and those are semi-rhetorical questions. I realize there's no easy solution, especially considering what goes on in some of our kids' homes. I do appreciate you getting back to me and addressing this issue, Mr. Hawkins.

And congratulations on your godson's graduation.

Beltsville Vicinity Shoppers
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Good Afternoon:

There is no excuse nor apology that can nor will suffice for our children and s to be forced to endure such music. I, like Mr. Hawkins, can assure that an incident of this nature will never again occur at Charles Herbert Flowers High School.

Helena Nobles-Jones
[Principal, C. H. Flowers High School]
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Mr. [Beltsville Vicinity Shopper],

Thank you for your attentiveness and proactive response to the situation you describe below. I am adding Mrs. Sylvia Love to my response for the following reason -- in the late 90's Sylvia and I were PTA President and Vice President together and had a similar concern about inappropriate lyrics at our children's dance. We, like you, were outraged that we were doing all we needed to in our homes so our kids would know we did not support vulgar dancing or lyrics but that our schools were allowing unrestricted "music". Like you, our children -- a full decade ago -- were subjected to ual lyrics and lyrics denigrating women and relationships. Sylvia, and her son Justin, were the subject of a newspaper article in the (now defunct) Journal newspaper about this issue. There was a big stink about our protest among the DJ community, however we were able to get a "DJ Contract" (at our school only?) that said the DJ would not be paid of vulgar or ual lyrics were played at events. Some DJs merely censored the offensive word/s -- that the students knew anyway -- and this drew more attention to the dilemma.

I will revisit this issue with Mrs. Love -- perhaps she has the newspaper article from years ago? -- and will research within the system to see what measures are (or are not) in place concerning DJ contracts. Simply put, I share your concern and lived this situation a decade ago. Time to do something.

Sylvia Love: please contact me!

Donna Hathaway Beck
Member, Board of Education
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[Mr. Beltsville Vicinity Shopper],
I have forwarded this email to Dr. Deasy for appropriate action to curtail IMMEDIATELY the playing of "rap music" at school events. Additionally, I have asked him to investigate and take appropriate action regarding school system employees who may have acted outside of proper protocols.
I will follow up to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.
Sincerely, Rosalind A. Johnson
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Epilogue
It's so much easier to give in, to simply acquiesce to the status quo and leave our children to their own devices and those of the rest of the world in matters such as these. But then later when we're the ones complaining, "Young people ain't got no respect for their elders no more. They just treat people any old way!" Can there really be any wonder why? I implore my readership, when you hear that little voice inside you saying, "Something's not ri-ight here...," do heed it and DO SOMETHING! Be smart about it, of course. But resolve to never again have a "Man! I shoulda said somethin'!" regret. You may be surprised who has your back.

Since all this unfolded in May, we've received a whole rack of so-far-hollow feedback, but not one word specific to Mr. Franklin or Heavy DJ. I guess the proof will be in the putting next time we visit Flowers. At the very least, I would think that a public apology for offending and/or aiding in the corruption of hundreds of people would be warranted. (An e-mail to this blog—beltsvilleshopper@gmail.com—for publication would do nicely.) At a minimum, the two culprits should be publicly identified (by more than simply "Mr. Franklin" and "Corpulent Cat"). See, that's the problem: No one is ever truly held responsible in the end.

At the time, I couldn't help feeling sorry for the extremely agitated DJ. He was being snarky and unreasonable, sure, but in the back of my mind I kept hoping that despite his appearance his LDL cholesterol number was below 100. In his agitated state it would have been just my misfortune to have been the only person in the booth well-versed in CPR/mouth-to-mouth at the time. I didn't want him popping and keeling over on my visit! What an ironic ending that would have been. Eeww.

In Closing, For Black Readers Only!
If you are not black, you are invited to continue your daily 'Net surfing elsewhere per normal; you don't need to read this "P.S.," 'cause I'm about to go Bill Cosby up in hur:

Can any of you, my melanin-endowed brothers and sisters, please enlighten me as to why the only two characters on the other side of this drama who displayed a modicum of common sense and decency were the two gentlemen of European descent?! (This is, of course, something of a rhetorical question, which has been answered time and time again, but which I just could not pass up an opportunity to pose once again, in hopes that it might engender some deep introspection in us all.) What makes it even harsher is that the stadium crowd, including athletes, was approximately 80 percent black. So, here we had our people being led astray, once again, by our people. And folks still insist on blaming all our woes as a race on somebody else!

How are you gonna broadcast music that includes the word "n*gger" to a crowd of 400 black people with even one single white person in the audience, let alone the 15 or so who were there on this day? Not to mention the smattering of Latinos in the crowd. How can you do that and look yourself in the mirror and say, "Oh yeah, the ancestors would be proud of you, boy! You a DJ-ing fool!"? Tell me how you do that! What's the message to the other peoples? What observations will they take from it? "Oh, see, it's ok if we call them n*ggers. See how happy they are when they hear their own people call them by that slave moniker? They're such a fun-loving, forgiving people."

And oh! This was evidently not the first time the detrimental duo of Fatman and Franklin have struck at Flowers. Speaking to another track patron and friend a few weeks after my encounter with them, he told me that the same thing happened—minus the confrontation—at a meet he attended at Flowers this year! He said he almost bit a hole in his lip restraining himself from storming the booth! (Granted, it could have been two different antagonists in the booth that time, but as my friend described the situation it bore all the earmarks of my two adversaries. And even if there were different villains involved, this demonstrates a pattern of irresponsibility and lack of oversight on the part of the school itself and other officials!)

I'm not even trying to spin this as a race thing. I'm really not. But it's hard to deny it as one more example of oppression from factions inside our own camp, not from without! As I indicated, this only happened at one of the dozen track meets I attended this season, and the vast majority featured very similar demographics. And maybe it would have happened at one of twelve predominantly white meets had I attended, as well (since their kids are as much into Hip-Hop as ours). But had a patron/parent at one of their meets politely asked—twice—about the music, I can pretty much guarantee it would not have gotten ugly like it did at Flowers! Feel free to disagree, but you'd probably be wrong.

As Mr. Cosby indicated, black children are running around speaking a strange form of the English language, illiterate, and yet this is what we serve up to them at a public, school-related function? "Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n------ as they're walking up and down the street..." And here are these two knuckleheads—GROWN MEN—condoning this rueful condition by foisting more of this garbage upon the kids and the rest of us.

I'd compare these two guys to the black slave owners who fought with the South during the Civil War in order to save slavery. Sure, they were more subtle on this Saturday in question; no muskets or cannons, but the result—the repulsive repression of their own people—was the same. More sophisticated, but the same result in the long run. One of the most unfortunate aspects of this, though, may be that at least the black slave owners stood to benefit financially from their folly. Maybe the portly DJ did, as well, in this case, which would explain his vehement position. But typically the folks who run these meets are un-paid volunteers. Dr. Claude Anderson talks about this type of cultural stupidity that blacks have been inculcated with, yes, by whites, in his book Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America. Youtube.com has some poignant excerpts from one of Dr. Anderson's talks on the matter, just in case you think I'm just making stuff up.

Black people, when will we stop pointing fingers elsewhere quite so much, and start taking responsibility for our own morass? Sadly, I doubt we ever will, wholly. Our leadership isn't bold enough to affect real, visceral change, and Lord knows it won't happen spontaneously. Yes, true, the spectre of hundreds of years of slavery and Jim Crowism continues to glower over us like a hungry vulture ready to strip flesh from our bones. But the beast is being nourished entirely too well and too regularly as a result of the black community's pernicious diet of indifference and irresponsibility, as evidenced by our brethren at Flowers this day.