''Dean talks diversity''

"And though Dean enjoys support from a range of Black leaders like Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Illinois), his record on diversity has also been scrutinized. During the Democratic primary, Rev. Al Sharpton chastised Dean for not appointing any Blacks to top-level positions within his administration during his tenure as governor of Vermont. At the time, Dean scoffed at the criticism, saying that he had tried to bring in qualified Blacks from the private sector to work for him but that Vermont has a very small Black population (it is 99% white, according to the latest census figures). Now, Sharpton and others are pushing Dean to appoint Blacks to leadership positions within the DNC. They want him to appoint Marjorie Fields Harris, who runs Sharpton’s National Action Network, to the national committee of the DNC. Harris ran for vice chair of the DNC last month. Though she lost, she garnered 90 percent of the votes cast by Black DNC members—enough votes, Sharpton contends, that she ought to have a place at the table. Dean refused to say whether he would appoint Harris to a DNC post."-from the story in the Amsterdam News.