August 21, 2000


Features

What's in Your Green Tea?
BY FRANCES CERRA WHITTELSEY
An In These Times special investigation.

Why I'm Voting for Nader ...
BY ROBERT McCHESNEY

... And Why I'm Not
BY JAMES WEINSTEIN

Fox Shocks the World
BY RICK ROCKWELL
Now comes the hard part for Mexico's new president.

Tijuana Troubles
BY DAVID BACON
NAFTA is failing workers.

Unions Get Religion
BY DAVID MOBERG


News

Safety Last
BY DAVE LINDORFF
As oil prices soar, so do the number of deadly accidents.

Sale of the Century
BY GEOFF SCHUMACHER
An unusual government auction helps preserve the Nevada wilderness.

Water Wars
BY CHARMAINE SEITZ

A botched deal leaves Palestinians high and dry.

Profile
BY BEN WINTERS

Lowell Thompson, a.k.a Raceman.


Views

Editorial
BY JOEL BLEIFUSS
Toxic shock.

Viewpoint
BY KIP SULLIVAN
HMO's invasion of privacy.

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

A Terry Laban Cartoon


Culture

Give It Away
BY DAVID GRAEBER
The Maussians are coming.

Good Fela
BY HILLARY FREY
The music, politics and legend of Nigeria's Fela Kuti.

Time's Arrow
BY CARL BROMLEY
A Chilean dissident finds the cinema in Proust.

Mission: Impossible 3
BY BILL BOISVERT
Goodbye, Mr. Secret Agent ...

 

Raceman Cometh

By Ben Winters

The stereotypical advertising executive has evolved over the years, from gray flannel to counterculture chic. But one thing hasn't changed: He's still white.

Not for long, however; not if crusader Lowell Thompson has his way.

Lowell Thompson, a.k.a. Raceman. Credit: Howard D. Simmons.

In the early '90s, the mild-mannered Thompson - an African-American career ad man - ducked into the phone booth of his soul and emerged as Raceman, launching a one-man crusade against segregation in the advertising industry. In 1992, Thompson conducted a survey and discovered that of an estimated 6,500 creative personnel in the top agencies, only 60 were African-American; he published those numbers in Print magazine, and he's been trying to change them ever since. "I want 15 percent of the creative departments of the top 25 ad agencies to be African-Americans by the year 2005," Thompson says. "Blacks comprise between 12 to 14 percent of the population at this point, and they should be much more fairly represented than they are."

 

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Vol. 24, No. 19