Word: civilizations
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1990
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sincerity and the classic notion of dulces et utiles (to instruct while delighting) were evident in unlikely places. For five nights, Americans were riveted to a spare, elegiac documentary about the Civil War. Its popularity denoted a certain retrospective spirit. Rap hip-hopped from violent rhetoric ) into its own didactic mode, rhythmically urging kids to study, pray and love themselves...
...scholarship imbroglio so visibly unbalanced Bush -- and so glaringly spotlighted the Administration's inept handling of civil rights -- that it all but eclipsed Alexander's generally well-received nomination. The drama hurtled Administration officials into a rushed series of consultations. Result: a policy flip that flopped spectacularly. Civil rights leaders blasted the White House for threatening to slam expensive college doors in the faces of under- represented minority students. Conservative critics lambasted the decision for its failure to reject unambiguously racial preferences of any kind...
...crisis was touched off two weeks ago when Michael Williams, a mid-level Education official in charge of civil rights, announced a startling reinterpretation of existing federal anti-discrimination laws. College scholarships exclusively earmarked for minority students are illegal, he declared, and institutions that offer them may face a cutoff of federal funds. Colleges and universities around the country immediately set off alarm bells and sent the Administration scrambling to clarify a policy that Williams had apparently enunciated without consulting the White House...
...news conference, the President explained lamely that the new policy would "continue these minority scholarships as best we can." But civil rights advocates and educational professionals immediately cried foul. The latest policy twist, they charged, was administratively unworkable, legally shaky and likely to invite endless litigation. Moreover, by outlawing the use of general funds, the ruling placed the largest source of money for minority scholarships off limits. "On issues of race and sex discrimination, Bush is merely Ronald Reagan in sheep's clothing," fumed Ralph Neas, head of the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights...
...scholarship ruling also embarrassed and enraged some Republican operatives. "The political people here are tearing their hair out," said an Administration official. Coming on the heels of Bush's October veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990 on the ground that it encouraged employment quotas, the scholarship compromise threatened to alienate further the black constituency that some Republican strategists have been urging the President to cultivate. It also emboldened congressional Democrats to redouble their efforts to pass a new civil rights bill next year...