美国国家公共电台 NPR After Allegations Of Toxic Culture, Southern Poverty Law Center Tries To Move Forward

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

A well-known civil rights organization is trying to emerge from allegations of a toxic¹ workplace culture that discriminates² against women and people of color. The Southern Poverty Law Center fired its famous founder³, Morris Dees, and its longtime president resigned. After that leadership shakeup, an African-American woman was appointed to run the organization. Interim⁴ president Karen Baynes-Dunning has spoken publicly about the path forward for the first time, and it was in an interview with our colleague, NPR's Debbie Elliott, who joins me on the line from Atlanta. Hi there, Deb.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE⁵: Hello.

GREENE: So, Deb, this renowned⁶ civil rights organization facing these issues now within their own ranks - Karen Baynes-Dunning, who's going to be dealing⁷ with all of this - tell me more about her.

ELLIOTT: Well, she's a former juvenile⁸ court judge. And she had been on the Southern Poverty Law Center's board for a little over a year when her fellow board members selected her to be the interim president and CEO to try to steer⁹ the organization back on course.

GREENE: I mean, it sound like they've been entrenched¹⁰. I mean, long-simmering complaints by workers - current, former - about alleged¹¹ gender¹², racial discrimination, sexual harassment¹³. I mean, what is she even thinking about in terms of confronting all this right now?

ELLIOTT: Well, she says the first thing she's trying to do is just clarify exactly what the issues are. She spent her first couple of weeks traveling around, meeting with staff to hear their concerns. So she's talking to people, finding out what was going on. She declined to talk about specific allegations, citing personnel policy, but generally acknowledges there is a lot of work ahead. Here's what she says.

KAREN BAYNES-DUNNING: We failed to be deliberate about focusing on these issues that we fight for every day inside the organization. And so any organization out there that is not deliberate oftentimes leads to issues around equity¹⁴ and fairness, and so that's what we're trying to uncover.

ELLIOTT: They've hired an outside consultant¹⁵ to analyze¹⁶ the workplace culture and make recommendations for change.

GREENE: And as you've been reporting on this - I mean, speaking to people who work there, have worked there in the past - I mean, what's really standing¹⁷ out to you?

ELLIOTT: This is an organization whose mission is social justice, yet it's wrestling internally with this lack of inclusion and a management structure that really concentrated power among a key group of white decision-makers. Here's what I heard from Dana Vickers Shelley. She is now executive director of the Maryland ACLU but was director of public affairs at the Southern Poverty Law Center from 2012 to 2014.

DANA VICKERS SHELLEY: While there might have been increased diversity over the years, there was still not equity, and there was still not inclusion. You can hire faces. You can say, look. We're diverse. But if the decisions are still being made by the white people in leadership, then you don't have inclusion.

ELLIOTT: Now Shelley says the SPLC's brand promise is broken.

GREENE: So she's suggesting that just by the mere¹⁸ fact of who is making the decisions, it can create an incredible credibility problem for an organization like this.

ELLIOTT: Right. And so Karen Baynes-Dunning says that's where she's got to start, is inside the organization, trying to figure out what's wrong and restore credibility with her workforce¹⁹. She says that starts with acknowledging something went wrong.

BAYNES-DUNNING: I'm acknowledging the fact that we didn't pay attention to the internal culture. You know, as a woman of color, I realize that, in my own experience, we deal with micro-aggressions in the greater society every single day. When you come and work for an organization like the Southern Poverty Law Center, especially for people of color, women, you don't expect this organization to mirror what we see out in the greater society.

ELLIOTT: Now, certainly the turmoil²⁰ at the SPLC comes amid this broader Me Too movement, right? And at a time when you've got a new generation of workers who demand equitable²¹ workplaces. But still, these were not brand-new issues. They had surfaced long ago. Back in the 1990s, the local paper, the Montgomery Advertiser, published a series of reports that exposed racial tensions within the organization and raised some questions about their aggressive fundraising tactics.

Now, Baynes-Dunning points out that their staff has grown exponentially in recent years and that the structures just were not in place to monitor these kinds of workplace issues. Top of her agenda will be to establish such a framework.

GREENE: Debbie, to what extent is the SPLC still tied to the legacy²² of its founder, Morris Dees, and where is he in all this?

ELLIOTT: Well, I tried to speak with Mr. Dees, and he did not return my repeated phone calls. But he has denied these allegations in other news outlets²³, in particular the sexual harassment claims. But, you know, there is a challenge here. The Southern Poverty Law Center, it's so entwined with Morris Dees. He's long been the face of the organization.

But Baynes-Dunning counters that the Southern Poverty Law Center is more than just one person and that that legacy, that work can continue, that it's the 360 staff members who make the impact that the organization has. She says her job now is to start lifting up those workers more and have their voices count.

GREENE: That's NPR's Debbie Elliott. Deb, thanks as always for your reporting here.

ELLIOTT: You're welcome.

1 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

2 discriminates   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的第三人称单数 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• The new law discriminates against lower-paid workers. 这条新法律歧视低工资的工人。
• One test governs state legislation that discriminates against interstate commerce. 一个检验约束歧视州际商业的州立法。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

7 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

8 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

9 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

10 entrenched   

adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯)

参考例句：

• Television seems to be firmly entrenched as the number one medium for national advertising.电视看来要在全国广告媒介中牢固地占据头等位置。
• If the enemy dares to attack us in these entrenched positions,we will make short work of them.如果敌人胆敢进攻我们固守的阵地，我们就消灭他们。

11 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

12 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

13 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

14 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

15 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

16 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

17 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

18 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

19 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

20 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

21 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。

22 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

23 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》