…they ought to check out this very depressing story in today's Fayetteville O.
State Sen. Larry Shaw of Fayetteville charged state lottery officials Monday with using black children to persuade black people to buy lottery tickets.
Shaw’s reaction came after learning the N.C. Education Lottery is filming a television commercial today at Fayetteville State University’s Early Childhood Learning Center. Some 4-year-olds and parents who participate in FSU’s early childhood development program — called More at Four — were scheduled to appear in the program. Tom Shaheen, the lottery’s executive director, also is scheduled to appear at the taping.
'They are targeting black kids to get black folks to buy lottery tickets,' Shaw said.
Shaw, by the way, voted for the lottery.
The article also features a copy of the actual letter sent out to all of the UNC chancellors by Erskine Bowles last May in which he told them "ix-nay on promoting the lottery."
…I urge you to refrain from entering into any further advertising sponsorship agreements with the North Carolina Lottery Commission and ask that you terminate any existing agreements as soon as it is feasible to do so.
All of which leads to the rhetorical question asked of me this past weekend by a veteran progressive activist at a Sunday School class that I was addressing:
Why don't we just admit this lottery business is a disaster and repeal it?
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.
