RAPPER TO APPEAR IN ADS AGAINST BIAS CRIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 19, 1993                   TAG: 9302190296
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
RAPPER TO APPEAR IN ADS AGAINST BIAS CRIMES
Marky Mark, the rap performer and model for Calvin Klein underwear, agreed Wednesday to appear in public service advertisements against bias crimes. The decision was the result of a three-week campaign by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, seeking an apology from the performer for being associated with incidents they said were cases of bias.
While Marky Mark's manager, Dick Scott, and the two groups have not come to terms on who will pay for the ads, a spokeswoman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, said it hoped for video advertisements of the type that could be shown on MTV. Late Wednesday, the groups and Marky Mark's publicist, Gary Stromberg, were trying to come to terms on the wording of a statement to be read at noon Thursday in Times Square on the singer's behalf.
Calvin Klein issued a statement saying: "We at Calvin Klein in no way condone any act of violence, be it anti-racial, anti-homosexual or crimes of any bias. I truly believe that the Mark Wahlberg that we know today as Marky Mark is, in fact, a reformed young man who has grown way beyond his years as a result of a particularly difficult childhood."
The campaign against Marky Mark, whose real name is Mark R. Wahlberg, started with a letter sent to Klein's offices by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
When the letter went unanswered, the group threatened a full-scale protest against the performer, to be conducted under the huge Calvin Klein billboard in Times Square bearing his underwear-clad image.
The letter referred to an appearance by Marky Mark with the reggae singer Shabba Ranks on a British music program, where the singer made anti-gay statements, and Marky Mark did not protest. He went on to perform with Shabba Ranks.
The letter, signed by Ellen Carton, executive director of the alliance, asked "that Marky Mark apologize to the lesbian and gay community and publicly condemn the rising tide of anti-gay violence."
The alliance then contacted the Asian group, citing a tabloid report that Marky Mark had been arrested for a 1988 attack on a Vietnamese man in the Dorchester section of Boston. The two groups organized a pressure campaign.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance is calling Wednesday's reading of the apology a news conference celebrating Marky Mark's cooperation.
"He has to admit that he's been involved in bias crime," the group's publicity director, Donald Suggs, said, "because the biggest stereotype about bias crime is that it's just guys getting out of control. That's not what it is. It is systematically targeting members of a minority group for violence."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB