Jesse Jackson and Larry Magid

Jesse Jackson Visits Silicon Valley
by Lawrence J. Magid

April 11, 2001

Expressing a "great sense of relief," Jesse Jackson gave President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell "high marks" for the way they "finally" handled the negotiations with China that led to the release yesterday of our detained service men and women who were aboard the spy plane that was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan island in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet 11 days earlier.  "At first there was threatening rhetoric that was getting us nowhere," he said, "but that shifted quickly to a more calm resolute approach." 

 

I sat down with Jackson for a one on one interview in San Jose yesterday after he addressed a group of religious leaders at the Emanuel Baptist Church.  Jackson is in Silicon Valley all week for Rainbow/PUSH Digital Connections 2001 Conference which is taking place at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel through Friday.  

 

Jackson has been pressuring Silicon Valley companies to be more inclusive. "When we look at boards of directors, executive offices, the vendors and the venture capitalists in the Valley you see a huge divide in opportunity."  Jackson's non profit bought stock in 50 public corporations in the Valley last year. At the time, "only three had a person of color on their board of directors and only one had a Latino, he said."  "A year later we see some progress, Hewlett Packard, Agilent and Cisco now have an African American on the board of directors."

 

Jackson argues that the "board represents a signal of inclusion."  He points to Apple computer advertisements with Jackie Robinson, Caesar Chavez and Miles Davis which give "the impression that they were really going after the Black and Brown market, but their board of directors did not look like the ads." Jackson argues that people of color are often "locked out" and "when you include the locked out and invest in the locked out, you'll grow." 

 

Jackson has also called on minorities to invest in their own homes and in the stock market.  Last year he and his son, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.,co-wrote a book It's About the Money! which urged minorities to learn how to invest in the stock markets.  In response to my questions, Jackson pretty much dismissed the concern that anyone who might have taken his advice last year could have lost a considerable amount of money. The market it's a rough place for well heeled sophisticated investors and can be extremely risky for those who have little to loose. His comeback: "If you're playing professional baseball, basketball or football, it's high risk. You get home runs sometimes and you get hit by the ball sometimes. You make a touchdown, you get tackled sometimes, but the playing field is even and the rules are public We'll take the risks and the success."  I'm sure that's a consolation for the millions of working people who have lost a substantial portion of their savings in the market in the last several months.

 

I also asked Jackson, who has been married for 38 years, to comment on confirmed reports that he fathered a child with Karin Stanford, a former employee of his organization, Rainbow/PUSH.  "In our maturity, we face our pain and we function with our pain," he responded. "We don't alibi. We have some responsibility for our actions with contrite hearts for those whose spirits may have been injured." He added, "You get knocked down sometime. The ground is no place for a champion. You fall down, you get up and you keep working and you keep serving." Ms. Stanford, according to CNN, received $35,000 in severance pay from Rainbow/PUSH in addition to a $3,000 month of child support from Jackson.  

 

Jackson says that he's a strong supporter of the Internet. "We want all of our churches wired on the Internet. We want Sunday school teachers trained to teach computers in their churches. We're building in our organization 1,000 churches that are wired and computerized and connected for instant communication on issues that matter… We must use this moment to close this divide and build economic and educational literacy bridges."

 

Is he concerned about kids being exposed to pornography on the Internet? "Pornography and vulgarity didn't start with the Internet." He added, "whether it's the Internet, or movies or video, people simply must make more choices and parents have to teach their children in their formative years choices and consequences. You can not avoid what's in the atmosphere but you can determine choices".  And who should enforce it? "It must start at the home… The foundation must be parental guidance and oversight."