IN AN EFFORT TO ERADICATE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BLACK MEN, WE HAVE FOUNDED - FOR BLACK MEN, INC. WE ARE ASKING THAT YOU JOIN US. PLEASE EMAIL US AT: FORBLACKMEN03@YAHOO.COM. PEACE, LOVE AND TRUTH! June 20, 2003 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Figure Bornu (323) 850-8787 BLACK MAN USES THE COURTS TO FIGHT RACISM IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA “Los Angeles is so stuck on racism that I can sue some entity or person almost every day in Los Angeles,” says Roland Hayes Lawrence. Lawrence states that almost everywhere he travels in Southern California, he is confronted with being deprived of opportunities, privileges, and rights due to his race: African-American, his skin tone: Black, and his gender: Male. As a result, Lawrence is fighting back, not with the sword, but with legal complaints and summons filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, pro per, and the U.S. EEOC. To date, Lawrence has filed over ten lawsuits against companies and individuals he says have caused him emotional distress because he is an African-American Male. Some of the companies Lawrence has lawsuits against include: APPLEONE EMPLOYMENT SERVICES – Complaints filed in Los Angeles Superior Court for Intentional and Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress, and the U.S. EEOC for employment discrimination. Lawrence states that AppleOne Employment Services offered him a three-month administrative position with one of their clients, an upscale Century City (Los Angeles) investment company, but rescinded the offer when their client found out that Lawrence was an African-American male. In an attempt to silence Lawrence and escape Lawrence’s claims, AppleOne Employment Services has filed a motion to declare Lawrence a vexatious litigant, a move that only the most unscrupulous uses to try to ban someone’s access to the judicial system. EMMIS COMMUNICATIONS (OWNERS OF RADIO STATION POWER 106) – Probably the most controversial., in this lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lawrence is suing EMMIS Communications, a nationally based media corporation which owns numerous radio, and television stations including radio hip-hop giant, Power 106 in Los Angeles. Lawrence complains that Power 106 does not beep out the word “nigger” in some of the songs it plays. Lawrence also says in the complaint for Intentional and Negligent Infliction for Emotional Distress, that Power 106 plays songs that promote Black on Black violence, that disrespect Black women and that poisons the Black Male Image. -More- June 20, 2003, Page Two LOS ANGELES LAKERS, INC. – Lawrence has also filed a suit against the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. for many charges including Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage, Constructive Fraud, Discrimination under the state of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, and others. Lawrence states that he contacted the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. to present a proposal to them. In turn, the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. invited him to submit his proposal. As a result, the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. used the ideas Lawrence submitted, but refused to include him or compensate him. Briefly, the complaint states that Lawrence introduced himself to the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. as a Celebrity Broker (someone who links celebrities with charitable causes). Lawrence proposed to arrange for a Watts, California youth basketball team, which lost two of its coaches to gang violence all within the same week, to attend a Lakers’ playoff game, meet the players, and show the Lakers’ involvement in the community. As a result of the proposal Lawrence submitted, the ideas and contents of the proposal were used, but Lawrence was not included in any of the events. Lawrence says the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. took his ideas and benefited from them without allowing him to receive any media, community and/or financial recognition. Lawrence believes Los Angeles is so blatantly racist because the African-American community in Los Angeles has decreased in population from 22% African-American in the 1980’s to about 8% in 2000. As a result, Lawrence believes that discrimination against African-Americans in Los Angeles runs free due to the dismantled and weakened social, and political groups and organizations that were once a great protection for African-Americans in Los Angeles. “Today these racist institutions in Southern California only see your skin color when they decide your employment fate and your access to opportunities. I’m fighting them. And I’m fighting them hard,” says Lawrence. # # # ENDS
