MADER'S 'BRANTS Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., the Rainbow/Push Coalition and Corporate Terrorism June 11, 2005 - One of the issues that faces America today is the influence that special interest groups hold over our society. An example of this came to my attention recently. Nationwide Insurance (NWI), with tens of thousands of employees, over a span of six months terminated the jobs of six individuals in a couple of southern states. None of these people knew each other and their being fired was due to things each individual had done or, in some case, failed to do. In short they had no connection to each other and deserved to be fired. One thing they did have in common was that they were African-American. By itself this would not be a problem. People get fired all the time black, white, yellow, pink. Take your pick. Except one of the people also happened to have a contact that was involved with the Rainbow/Push Coalition (RPC). You would think the rest is easy to guess but you would be mistaken. Instead of by providing the people financial help or doing the usual grab for media attention with Jesse standing on the step of Congress decrying NWI’s “Jim Crow” mentality. The RPC contacted NWI and made a simple offer. Fix it or we go to the press. Sounds altruistic doesn’t it? No need for this to get ugly, just help the people that got fired etc etc. But was it? Upon further investigation the NWI discovered that the RPC has a history of going to corporations that have large public images and blackmailing them. It would seem that companies that have made donations to the RPC don’t find themselves smeared in the news as racists. Those companies that have not contributed money to the RPC war chests either get a polite call like the one described above, as a chance to correct their short sightedness, or get hung out to dry publicly. It’s sort of like getting a call from a very tan Tony Soprano. Needless to say when last I checked with my various sources NWI was going to pay the RPC whatever they wanted. If you think about it, it does make good business sense. NWI is a publicly traded company with a vast and diverse client base. It could have fought the issue on principal but in today’s sound bite, media fed, world even the slightest hint of racism, regardless of if it is true or not, could cost them tens of millions of dollars in business. Looking at this from the outside posed some curious questions. For example 1. Who decided that the RPC was responsible for policing corporate America? 2. If the RPC was indeed concerned about right and wrong wouldn’t they have been better served taking the complaint to the Feds and making it public as opposed to extorting money from a company in exchange for keeping the issue silent? 3. Is the RPC really working to better the lives of minorities or is it working to create more racial tensions? After all would there be a need for organizations like the RPC and their media hound/carnival barkers like Jesse Jackson if the false perception of discrimination disappeared? A perception that organizations like the RPC help propagate. Remember, the RPC is a business and Jess has a wife, kids and several mistresses to feed. Now you may be thinking that I am being unfair. Not true. In today’s world several federal agencies already exist to protect the rights of workers. In fact one of the ex-employees in question did call the EEOC and then called a radio station in Atlanta and announced that fact and all the other details except the RPC involvement on the air. Which begs the question why involve the RPC in the first place and what did the RPC get paid for? Even with the best of intentions these self proclaimed watch dog groups can be easily corrupted when you consider the amount of money involved. It is much easier to extort money from a company and claim they are clean than actually cure social ills. It’s also more profitable. We as a society decided long ago that vigilantes and lynch mobs are not the way to handle our social problems as individuals. Why should corporate America be any different? Later, Mader