(Note to readers -- Part D contains new material added on 1/8/07)

A. Racist Remarks

The Gateway's Editor checks four major search engines every week to compare the Gateway's ranking with the rankings of other Websites that contain content related to HBCUs. In other words, the Editor submits the term "HBCUs" to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask. On the evening of 10 December 2006 (Sunday) he first noted that Yahoo! had posted the following question to its visitors at the bottom of the first page returned in response to his search:

"Why do hbcus (historically black college and universities) never get the recognition and respect they deserve?"

The Editor was stunned to find the following response -- "Chosen by Voters":

"bekawze tey giff sekkond teer educkatshions. weez awl no tat.black foolks are naturally dumber. i went to many schools with them and all they do is hold up the rest of the classes and fill a position that should be filled by a person who had better qualifications. like grades, sat scores etc. affirmative action gives these seats to them and all it tells them is that they cant make it on their own. it cheapens the programs.is this the answer that you are looking for?"

The Editor ignored this insult under the assumptions that (a) Yahoo! may have been the victim of a malicious hack, and (b) Yahoo! would promptly remove this slur. However, when he conducted his search for "HBCUs" one week later on 17 December 2006, he was disappointed to discover that the slur was still there.

B. No Apologies

He immediately completed a complaint form on Yahoo!'s site alerting them to the slur, requesting its speedy removal, and demanding that Yahoo! post a prominent apology to all African Americans who ever attended and/or worked for an HBCU.

• Yahoo! finally removed the slur from their results page on Tuesday afternoon 12/19/06, but did not see fit to post an apology nor to provide a courtesy reply to the Editor with regard to his complaint. Perhaps it was naive to hope that such an unapologetic display of blatant racism would not find such a prominent forum in cyberspace. Hopefully the new year will bring new commitments to the ideals that Dr. King and others had dreamed would become unchallenged tenets of our public discourse. But until the new year begins, the page the reader is reading now will be prominently displayed on the Gateway as a reminder that while some segments of the new cyber-media consciously strive to use their new technologies to lend new support to old ideals, other segments clearly don't give a damn.
  
  
• In the process of submitting this complaint the Editor discovered that a person can only submit responses to the questions on Yahoo!'s results page by logging on via a Yahoo! account. In other words, Yahoo! not only published this offensive response, it has some record of the author's identity.
  
  
• A copy (cached on the Gateway) of the first page of the search results that was returned on 12/17/06 when the Editor searched for "HBCUs" can be found here. The comment's initial sentence will be found at the bottom of the page on the left side.
  
  
• A (cached) copy of the linked paged that contains the full comment will be found here.

C. No Respect

On December 31st the Gateway's Editor queried the four major search engines about "HBCUs" for the last time in 2006. Their responses provide additional insights about Yahoo!'s lack of respect for HBCUs:

• Yahoo! returned its own directory of HBCUs in fifth place. A cached copy Yahoo!'s first page is found on Yahoo!-FirstPage. A cached copy of its directory is found on Yahoo!-Directory.
  
  
• None of the other three engines returned the Yahoo! directory in their top ten. Indeed none of them returned Yahoo!'s directory in their top twenty. Cached copies of their search results can be found on Google10, Google20, MSN10, MSN20, Ask10, and Ask20.

Why don't Google, MSN, and Ask share Yahoo!'s high regard for Yahoo!'s directory? Is it possible that Yahoo!'s directory provides special insights about HBCUs undetected by the other search engines? Unfortunately, a close examination of Yahoo!'s directory suggests that the other engines probably ignore it because it contains so many glaring deficiencies:

• First of all, the Yahoo! directory includes colleges and universities that are not HBCUs, e.g., Chicago State University, Shorter College, and Simmons Bible College.These worthy institutions may serve predominantly Black student bodies and serve them well, but they are not HBCUs. Like it or not, the White House Initiative specifies which colleges and universities are HBCUs, not Yahoo!
  
  
• The Yahoo! directory still includes Mary Holmes College, despite the fact that this institution closed its doors in 2005.
  
  
• The Yahoo! directory doesn't identify some HBCUs by their proper names. A number of HBCU colleges changed their name to "university" as a result of their enhanced course offerings and expanded academic activities. But Yahoo! still lists Coppin State College and Harris-Stowe State College instead of Coppin State University and Harris-Stowe State University.
  
  
• Finally, the Yahoo! directory omits the following HBCUs: Allen University (SC), Arkansas Baptist College (AR), Barber-Scotia College (NC), Bishop State Community College - Main Campus (AL), Clinton Junior College (SC), Coahoma Community College (MS), Concordia College (AL), Denmark Technical College (SC), Florida Memorial University (FL), Gadsden State Community College (AL), Hinds Community College, Utica (MS), Huston-Tillotson University (TX), Interdenominational Theological Center (GA), J.F. Drake State Technical College (AL), Lawson State Community College (AL), Morris College (SC), Paine College (GA), St. Philip's College (TX), Savannah State University (GA), Selma University (AL), Shelton State Community College-Fredd Campus (AL), Southern University at New Orleans (LA), Southern University at Shreveport (LA), Southwestern Christian College (TX), Talladega College (AL), Tougaloo College (MS), Trenholm State Technical College (AL), Virginia University of Lynchburg (VA), and Voorhees College (SC).

Question: do the sponsors who are paying Yahoo! for all those advertisements on the sides and at the bottoms of the pages of Yahoo!'s directory realize that they are paying to associate their good names with such a defective publication?

D. And the Beat Goes On ...

On Monday 8 January 2007, the Editor checked Yahoo!'s Directory -- cached copy found here -- and was pleased to see that it contained the following corrections:

• The non-HBCUs -- Chicago State University, Shorter College, and Simmons Bible College -- had been removed
  
  
• The closed HBCU -- Mary Holmes College -- had been removed.
  
  
• Coppin State and Harris-Stowe State are now recognized as "universities"
  
  
• Two of the missing HBCUs had been added -- Concordia College and Virginia University of Lynchburg.
  
  
• Six of the missing HBCUs had been added as "new" -- Allen University, Arkansas Baptist College, Bishop State Community College, Clinton Junior College, Denmark Technical College, and Florida Memorial University. Yet it does seem strange that an "historically Black" institution would be added as a "new" entity to a Yahoo! directory of Black institutions in the first week of 2007 ... :-)

That Yahoo! made these corrections is commendable. That it did so without apology for the egregious errors in the previous edition of its Directory is lamentable. But the fact that the "corrected" Directory still omits a large number of HBCUs that have been providing critical educational services to African Americans for eons longer than Yahoo! itself has been in existence is reprehensible.

Once again the Editor has to wonder whether the sponsors who are paying for all those advertisements on the sides and at the bottoms of the pages of Yahoo!'s "corrected" directory realize that they are paying to associate their good names with a publication that still contains egregious errors? But hey, maybe they don't care? Maybe they don't think any African Americans will notice these insulting defects. After all:

"... weez awl no tat.black foolks are naturally dumber ..."