Tuesday Jan. 28,1986
Black Ink
Why We Can’t Walt
mother and says, “Momma, ya know
what? When I grow up, I wanna be
just like J.J. Yeh, Momma I wanna be
able to shuffle the women around like
he does and most of all Momma, I
On January 12, The Mu Zeta
Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Frater
nity, Inc. sponsored an oratorical
contest to commemorate the birthday
of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The
winner of the contest was Janet
Roach, a broadcast journaliam major.
Her essay entitled “Why We Can’t
Wait” is printed below.
Black pride, black pride, please tell us
Where have you gone to hide
Happily we thought you'd come to
stay
But your actions indicate otherwise
Oh Black pride, young black pride
It saddens us so much today
To find that we lost you along the
Way
This poem by Margaret
Burroughs makes me realize how
badly we need our black pride. With
the existing problems in the black
community, we can’t afford to lose our
black pride. We can’t afford to lose it
because we need it in order to con
tinue a struggle for freedom. It is the
loss of this pride that has been one of
the main contributing factors to the
problems in the black community.
Now we can’t wait on or sit down on
these problems because our future is
at stake. We can’t wait because we
will have nothing to leave our chldren
and they will be lost when it comes to
black history! We can’t wait because
our people are trapped at the bottom
of the economic ladder! We can’t wait
because prejudice lurks in every
corner. Blacks hate whites, and whites
hate blacks! We can’t , wait because
right here at this university black
enrollment is going down and only a
handful of us graduate. Ladies and
gentlemen, I don’t think we have the
time to stand in a waiting line. We as a
race and we as an entire nation can’t
wait if we have any interest in seeing
the American Dream come alive.
Before we can enter the world of
equality, we have to undertake the
responsibility of getting our priorities
and sisters who are less fortunate
than we are. We’re too involved with
meaningless things. To a good portion
of us, the important thing in life is
getting a good job so we can buy a
nice car, nice clothes, and just sit back
and live the good life. But there will
be no good life as long as we allow
things such as discrimination exist. I
met a man not too long ago, and he
told me that he was a student back in
the 60’s. He also told me that the only
thing he was interested in was getting
involved in the struggle. If his contri
bution was small, it didn’t matter. He
just wanted to get involved in the
struggle, something meaningful.
Certainly this man wasn’t the
only man who devoted a good portion
of his life fighting for equality. There
were several others who fought for
the integration of the hotels we sleep
in today. There were several others
who were beaten or spit at for taking
a seat in a restaurant that we sit in
today. These people fought too long
and too hard for us to just sit back and
enjoy the benefits resulting from
their struggle.
I have been told that back in the
60’s at black colleges the students
who spent their time concentrating on
meaningless things such as who looks
the best or who dresses the best wer-=^
the students who were ridiculed and
ostracized. They were treated this
way because the majority of the
students knew that something more
important was going on —something
that would determine the future of
the black race, something to some
blacks worth putting aside their
education because they felt the educa
tion of their children and their
children’s children was more impor
tant. Therefore they got involved in
the struggle which was something
meaningful.
According to Martin Luther
King Jr.’s book Why We Can't Wait,
in the 60’s during the marches and
protest, there was a little girl march
ing in a demonstration with her
mother. An amused policeman looked
down at her and asked “What do you
want?” Unafraid, the girl looked
straight in his eyes and replies,
“Freedom!” She couldn’t even pro
nounce the word “freedom,” but as
King put it, “No Gabriel trumpet
could have sounded a truernote.”
Today a child as young as this
probably doesn’t know the meaning of
the word “freedom” and understand
the extent of the problems we face
today. We need to get our priorities
straight so that we can teach
ourselves and our children that
something more important is still
going on besides the meaningless
things we focus on. We also need to
learn how to come together and stop
destroying ourselves.
Because we live in a nation
where the white man has viewed and
still views the black man as inferior,
some of this negative thinking has
actually been accepted by our own
black race. We place a negative light
on blackness ourselves. Some of you
may not realize that this goes on but it
does. I’m sure some of you have
observed a fellow black brother or
sister acting a little rowdy, loud or
just doing anything out of the ordi
nary. The first thing you observers let
come out of your mouths is, “He’s
actin’ black and showin’ his color!”
Comments like this indicate that we
associate rude behavior with
blackness! Whether you realize it or
not, we destroy ourselves! We need
our Black Pride!
It may be true that the white
man cannot ignore the problems in
the black community because our
problems are his problems. But
sometimes it might not matter if he
ignores us if we do not have desire to
help ourselves.
Our children today are
desperately seeking black role
models. They need someone to look up
to to help them develop a sense of
confidence and competence. Because
of the lack of emphasis on black
history in schools, churches, and in the
community on a whole, our young
people are looking up to the wrong
people. An illustration of this can be
seen with a little boy who picks his
role models from people he sees on
television. He lives at home with his
mother. His father left the home when
the boy was just a baby. One day the
boy walks in the room with his mother
after looking at the T.V. show “Good
Times.” The boy looks up at his
wanna be DYNOMITE! Yeh, when I
grow up I wanna be like J.J.”
His mother looks down at him
and says, “Son, now there’s nothing
wrong with being popular and
DYNOMITE but do you want to live
in a ghetto all your life and be unable
to keep a decent joy?”
A week later the boy walks up to
his momma again and says, “Momma
when I grow up, I wanna be just like
George Jefferson! Yehhh Momma, I
wanna be rich, own dry cleaners and
live in a big apartment in the sky!
Yep, when I grow up I wanna be like
that ’ole Jefferson!”
His mother then says, “Well son,
certainly there isn’t anything wrong
with being rich and owning dry
cleaners, but do you always want to
find the easy way out even if it means
bribery, cheating, and lying?”
The boy looked up at his mother
so confused, he dropped his head and
just walked out the door.
There are probably many
children with this same problem in
our black community. One factor
contributing to this is the weakening
black family. In Chicago, over 65
percent of the black families are
single-headed. Nationwide, one-half of
single mothers are in poverty, with 70
percent of them being black. In order
to minimize the problem of the black
family, now is the time to examine the
strengths of the family and incor
porate these coping mechanisms into
family planning programs and
demand black participation. As far as
other problems in the black com
munity are concerned, now is the time
for the black community to develop
programs in academics, career coun
seling, and black history.
Economically, now is the time for
blacks to take control of their
economic destiny. Black businesses
need to emerge in black communities
and they need to take advantage of
assistance programs and training
opportunities.
Politically, now is the time for
black organizations to assist black
families to vote in every election from
the local school board to the elections
held nationwide.
Now is the time for us to come
together and continue to be together
tomorrow. It is the time to strive to do
God’s will because he is on our side.
We can’t let our future slip away from
us. It’s true that many doors of oppor
tunities are opening for us and we
can’t stand at an open door, we must
enter in.
And most of all, now is the time
for us to pick up that black pride
because we as blacks should be proud
of our accomplishments. We must hold
this pride up high as we travel the
road towards freedom.
continued on page 8