I DECEMBER 14, 1992
Ex-wclfure recipient defies odds, owns business
By John McCann
Ink Stc^ Writer
Despite being raised in sub-stan-
dard conditions, a Chapel Hill pub
lic housing resident is living proof
that anyone can achieve in America.
Industrious and ambitious, 44-
year-old Delaine Burnette, who
grew up on welfare, said she ful
filled hCT dream of becoming a cos
metologist in her hometown of
Chapel Hill.
But her success has not allowed
her to escape the confines of public
housing—where she grew up. A
single mother of five children,
Burnette said Chapel Hill’s high
cost of living is keeping her from
achieving her other dream of be
coming a {Hivate home owner.
About 15 years ago. Delaine
Bumette.aresidentof Chapel Hill’s
Colony Woods West public hous
ing unit, woiked as a mail sorter for
Blue Cross andBIueShiddofNorth
Carolina.
“I waked for 13 years, but I
wasn’t satisfied there,” said
Burnette.
She said racism at Blue Cross
and Blue Shield kept her from ad
vancing in the company. “I was
passed over for a lot of promo
tions,” she said. “People that I
trained became supervisors.”
So Burnette went back to school
sevCTal times.
“When my daughter, who is 22
now, got into the sixth grade, I went
back to school,” said Burnette.
“I’ve gone to school several
times since then,” Burnette said. “I
went to Durham Tech one year and
I quit I was a quitter in the begin
ning.
“Then I went back to Rutlege
college and graduated. But I always
wanted to go to cosmetology
school.”
And she did, graduating from
Anna’s Beauty College in Durham.
But Burnette did not want to
work under someone. She wanted a
place of her own.
“I’ve always been sort of an in
dependent lady,” said Burnette.
“One mOTning my sister called
me and just told me to call people
and see if I could find a shop and I
did,” she said. “I just got up and
started calling, and this man named
George Tate didn’t even check my
credit records. He just gave me a
break and told me lo come look and
see what he had. I went and looked
and he let me set up.”
Burnette said Tate owns Tate
Building and Construction Co. in
Chapel Hill.
Now Burnette is the manager of
Delaine’s House of Beauty on AOO
W. Rosemary Sl in Chapel Hill and
said thCTe is no feeling like being an
entrq)reneur.
“Oh man, you just don’t know,”
said Burnette. “I thank God every
day. I feel that he just picked me up
and moved me out”
But Burnette has not forgotten
where she came from. Being the
second-oWestof eightchildren from
a distressed home, Burnette knows
well the meaning of hard times.
“We were \ery poor,” she said.
“My parents wctc alcoholics and
they fought a lot Oh God they fought
a lot”
Burnette said she has benefited
from her childhood expCTiences. She
is less likely to fight and argue with
peq)le after witnessing her parents
torment one another, she said.
B umette said her deprived child
hood helps hCT appreciate the little
things in life.
“We should nevCT feel bad for
being poor, because you always ap
preciate it when you get something,”
said Burnette. “We used to have
one chicken and we had eight chil
dren. I loved to eat the chicken neck
and my sister loved the chicken
feet But now we can eat a chicken
breast and we’re tickled to death.
But Burnette’s success has not
taken her out of public housing.
“I make pretty good(money) but
not so much that I’ve gotten to
middle class yet,” said Burnette.
“I’m still on the poor list”
Burnette said the overhead from
running the business keeps her from
profiting. She said half of what she
makes goes into buying products.
Burnette has been trying to enter
the private sector of home owner
ship but said Chapel Hill’s housing
market will not allow her to do so.
“It’s too high,” she said. “Be
cause it’s a university place. Chapel
Hill is just not like it used to be. It’s
more catered to the University and
the middle class. They don’t have a
lot to offer poor people.”
Bumetle has lo(*ed into pro
grams like Habitat for Humanity
but said she is not financially able to
leave public housing.
“I don’t have enough money to
get out yet,” Burnette said. “I’m
still poor.”
In the meantime, she is doing all
she can to help others find their
place in the capitalist system.
Burnette said everyone does not
want to go to a four-year college or
university, and she views cosmetol
ogy as an opportunity for a pCTSon
to become a professional. She said
the ladies that work in her shop are
independentand set their own hours.
Their only obligation to her is the
monthly booth-rental fee.
“The rest of the money belongs
to them, so they can work as hard as
they want and when they want,”
she said. “They don’t have to an
swer to anyone. They become the
person they want to be.”
Burnette is looking to expand
her 2-year-old business that now
employs five cosmetologists.
“I feel so good and I thank God
so much for opening up this shop
that I want to open up another one
and give other young people a
chance to work,” said Bumetle.
Burnette’s sister, Kathy Gomez,
has benefited from her good deeds.
Gomez, a former cocaine-user, was
given a second chance at life by her
older sister as a nail technician.
Burnette said, she will still re
member where she came from. “I’m
not above the housing projects,”
she said. “You have to start some
where.”
African-Americans search
for the true meaning of Al-Islam
Bj Aneeqah Siddeeq
Ink Sf^ Writer
In my first article I attraipted
to address the Islarac fad sweep
ing thrm^ America i^xxit the
legacy of fte one sp*esman of
the HonoiableElijah Muhammad,
Malcolm X, or El Haij Malik
Shabazz.Tliis b becoming a very
popular source of irference fw
the youUt of this generation of
Afrfcan Americans, and unda«
standably so.
He was a very wise leader. He
also was a very honest and sincere
human being in search of his pur
pose for existence.
He was noc “faddish” cw scMne-
one who gives himself to trends.
He did not join the Nationof Islam
because evCTyone else seemed to
bedoing as such. He wasathinker.
He deeply contemplated his life
and the environment in which he
lived.
He embraced the teachings of
the Nation of Islam because that
jAilos^y, when aanpared to
Christianity as it was taught to
black Americans, did not leach
that to be black is to be inferior.
The teachings of the Nation of
Islam really appealed to our com
munity (hmng the 30s, 40s, 50s
and 60s.
It was during die late 60s and
etffly 70s that mmy of us following
those teachings b^an to realize
some 3^mts flaws in ^ phitoso-
phy of the movement. Malik
Sluitazz was a prime eximple of
this change in thinking. He repre
sented one who was true to his na
tive; it is our nature as humans to
seek to do that which we think is
r^L
At one time, Malik Shabazz, like
thousands of other forma’ members
of the Nation of Islam, traly felt that
the teachings found in “The Mes
sage to the Black Man,” were right
It was easy to believe since we
were, and still are, being oppressed
by the prejudices that exist within
society here in America.
While it is true that racism still
exists, we have to be very wise
about how we go jixMit identifying
a solittion in oiff tives. It will not
solve the {jroblem to adopt a {Ai-
losophy that is slanted in favw of
one race over another.
We, as African Americans,
should leam from history. We first
realize and accept that no race, black
OT white, is superior tt> the other on
the basis of cotor,
Allah says in the Quran that “He
ofyou who is best is he who is most
r^teous and God-ctmscious.” So
as a Muslim, I must reject the oW
te^hings that many of us as Afri
can-Americans used to follow in
the Movement fwrnerly called
the “Lost Found Nation of Is
lam "because itdoes not provide
the best solution to our problems
as a people, not is it capable of
addressing problons of a more
universal scope.
The rally way a people can be
»jccessful is when they latch onto
a goal or a purpose that is bigger
tham their immediate environ
ment
We must see ourselves in our
universal perspective. Once we
can do this, then we can make
wiser more informed choices in
our local areas. It is good for us as
African Amaicans to have a self-
interest, but Al-Islam teaches us
to have a healthy sdf-interest;
one that does not exclude the
good of others.
So I challenge those of you
who are truly interested in the
African-American dilemma to
sUidy true Islam as Malcolm did,
and then you can be one of our
great leaders that we greatly need.
Please feel free to contact the
(MSA) Muslim Student’s Asso
ciation if you have any ques
tions, or would like to discuss
some points raised. Next time: “
True Islam’... What is Mearrt by
That?”