First, USC professors refuse to grant Sneferu Azikiwe a teaching credential because he’s too Black for their tastes, then a Los Angeles Trade-Technical College instructor requires, as a homework assignment, that his art students draw a Black man with a noose around his neck. Now UCLA has downgraded its 35-year-old African American Studies Department to a severely slashed interdepartmental program while retaining full departmental status for its newer Chicano and Asian Studies. What’s next? Where next?

Nobody is taking any of these affronts lying down. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is dealing with the USC insult; Trade-Tech students held a candlelight vigil Wednesday to protest their art teacher’s offense, and a group of students and alumni began meeting last week with the appropriate dean to handle UCLA’s atrocity. The Soulvine will follow developments on all three of these fronts, as we must stay vigilant and ready to spring into action whenever and wherever blatant racism pops up. …

LIKE, FOR EXAMPLE, HERE — The MTA staff has recommended that the MTA board award a $10 million preliminary engineering contract for the Crenshaw light rail line to an Orange County-based team that does not include the two African-American-owned subcontractors who did all the planning for the line to date. Crenshaw area residents, Roland Wiley of RAW International and Terry Hayes of Terry Hayes Associates, have spent the past 15 years performing all the planning work for this project and now that it’s finally getting off the drawing board, Wiley and Hayes are being dumped in favor of some white guys in Orange County! I join Damien Goodmon and his group of public transit activists in denouncing this MTA recommendation to award the preliminary engineering and designing contract for the largest public works project in South L.A.’s history to somebody in Orange County when a team that features highly experienced and eminently qualified Black business owners from the heart of the Crenshaw community, itself, already exists!
And neither will this go unchallenged. Damien and the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, the Fix Expo Campaign and the Joint Committee of South L.A. Neighborhood Councils on Rail Transit are convening an organizing meeting next Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the 2nd floor conference room at 3731 Stocker St. to deal with this.

BETTER THAN TV! — The weekly Anti-Cresia Green-Davis Show at Inglewood City Council meetings just gets better and better, as Michael Benbow, Willie Agee and Diane Zambrano persist in their attacks against Councilman Danny Tabor’s having hired Green-Davis, a convicted felon, as his assistant. The trio is outraged about it and they sling all kinds of mud at Tabor and his assistant during the public speaking portion of each council meeting. This week’s show was a goodie, as it featured Benbow, who personally monitored Green-Davis’ trial and conviction on multiple fraud charges, described for the council meeting attendees evidence presented in court that Green-Davis paid cash — in two lump sum installments — for a brand new Lincoln Navigator vehicle while she was on welfare! And that’s only one of several reasons she went to prison. Benbow-Agee-Zambrano Productions promises to provide equally pithy public vignettes in council meetings until Green-Davis is removed from public service.

PROTECTING AND SERVING — LAPD Officer Jack Richter, a former Central Division lead officer, has organized what is already turning out to be a highly successful benefit for a place called His Sheltering Arms, a charitable facility that houses 70 homeless physically and mentally abused women and their children at 11101 S. Main St. A compassionate man, Richter is thoroughly devoted to this organization, which has provided shelter, food, medical services, drug and alcohol recovery, career guidance and family assistance in South L.A. for 25 years.

With the help of the LAPD command staff, his fellow officers, some city officials and business and civic leaders, Richter is hosting a benefit event for His Sheltering Arms Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the elegant Loft Seven Penthouse, 219 W. 7th St. The event will feature live music, food, prizes, a silent auction and even a rooftop cinema with popcorn. The event is a success before the doors have even opened because Richter has already received more than $2,000 for the shelter and all the food and drinks have been donated. I think I’ll grab somebody and go.

DATEBOOK — A community forum on unsolved serial murders of women in South L.A. will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Community Room of the Armistad Plaza Housing Complex, 6050 S. Western Ave. I think I’ll go to that, too.

State Sen. Rod Wright and Assemblyman Steven Bradford, in conjunction with the UCLA Government and Community Relations Department, will host two town hall meetings Saturday on issues related to the state budget, new technology, health care, community concerns and pending legislation. The first will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Malone Student Center at Loyola Marymount University, with the later one slated for the Lawndale Library’s Community Room from 1 to 3 p.m.

State Sen. Curren Price will make free assistance and counseling available to his 26th District constituents at a “Making Your Home Affordable” event Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., in the Muses Room of the Wallis Annenberg Building at the California Science Center.

THIS AND THAT — A science fair with a twist will be held tomorrow in Carson in which the work of professional scientists will be judged by little kids! Fourth graders from Foster and Carver Elementary schools will view exhibits presented by working scientists and after they’ve evaluated them, the children will vote on their favorite exhibits. The object of this fair is for the students to learn about science and for the scientists to learn how to communicate their work in simple terms. The science exhibits will be presented by faculty, students and staff from Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Cal State L.A., UCLA and Loma Linda University. The fair will be held in the Veterans Park Sports Complex, 22400 Moneta Ave. in Carson, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Assemblyman Mike Davis was honored with the Legislator of the Year Award by the California Association of Veteran Services Agencies for his work in getting AB 1459 — a bill allowing the creation of supportive housing for veterans in need — signed into law.
Congratulations to Sen. Price and to the other supporters of Angie Reyes English, who was elected this month to the Hawthorne City Council. She is Price’s senior district representative.

Great job, SVREP et al. You huffed and puffed and got rid of the big bad wolf — Lou Dobbs!

I AM SO, SO SAD — Even though we knew Tommy Jacquette was dying, his death Monday night has left me devastated. I really hate it when a childhood friend dies. My condolences to his family. Rest in peace, my friend.

AND FINALLY — Jerry Edwards is throwing a party Sunday to celebrate the 39th anniversary of his off-Crenshaw landmark, the Flying Fox. The party begins at 4 p.m. and will last until I leave. Come join me at my favorite bar stool where we can eat and drink and talk bad about Bernard Parks.