Rev. Jackson issues diversity report card on IL firms

Crain's Chicago Business has a report on the preacher who will not go away:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition released a diversity report card on Illinois’ top 50 public companies that found half earned As or Bs, though he said he was “not satisfied” with the results.

Jackson’s Fairness Index, to be presented Monday at a symposium, issued grades to companies based on the number of African Americans in key decision-making positions.

One point was awarded for an African American executive officer, one point for an African American board director and two points for either a diversity officer or diversity initiative.

Companies near the bottom on the list questioned the accuracy of the report card, which the Coalition said was researched through phone calls and Web site searches. Thirteen companies received no points because they failed to respond to the survey.


“We weren’t aware of the survey,” said Jeffrey Smith, a spokesman for U.S. Cellular Corp., which earned 1 point, a D grade.

Mr. Smith said the company has an African American on its board, a diversity initiative and a director of diversity which should have earned U.S. Cellular three points or a B grade.

Some companies which performed poorly also said they were also puzzled by their standing. CDW Corp. has an African American on its board of directors and a diversity officer and diversity program, which should have given it a B grade instead of the D grade in the report.

We'll bet that if CDW made a nice big contribution to Operation Push they could get a better grade.For those of you who don't know about Operation Push and Jesse Jackson you can read this book by Kenneth Timmerman.It describes a preacher who used a street gang to to intimidate people into giving to some money.Who's says you can't advocate socialism and be a millionare? Who says you can't advocate public education but send your kids to expensive private schools? Who says you can't call yourself a preacher and have an alternative style marriage?