Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / April 18, 1981, edition 1 / Page 13
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V : -2J & U h i as' 51 Atlanta Killings Focal Point For Media Coverage By Yincent McCraw v'StaffWritef , . Atlanta Daily World SAT.,APRIL13Ji3l tkzcauwi times -13 African Trade Prospects For Black Americans (NNPA) During the past twenty months Atlanta's tragic case of twenty (now 23) murdered and two miss ing black children has become the focal point and in some, cases top priority for media coverage for news" organizations throughout the world. 4 , KNEW YORK The new breed of black American entrepreneurs that are braving the fron tier of international trade ,with Africa are the focus Many of the media members have made the crisis front page headline stories or top stories in their broad casts. In the print media headlines of the largest point size have proclaimed such sentiments: "Atlanta Held Hostaee as Killings Continue." "Blacks Denv Riot Threat in Wake of Teen's Death," and other sensa tionalized heads. Furthermore, some have even reported that racial ten sion in Atlanta is at its highest level because the prevail ing thought seems to suggest that a non-black faction or factions are responsible for these heinous crimes. .". i. . .the big problem," states one editorial from a mid-western newsoarjer. "is that I do not believe it would have taken this long to find the killer or killers if jfi the victims were white. Another northern publication implies that this rash of r killings targeted at the black community is a "measure a being utilized by the city's white community to discredit its black administration." 'J 1 ; . Different Versions 9 All of these accounts and others have given a number aJ of citizens outside of Atlanta and Georgia a totally dif ?e ferent, if not slanted version of the factual occurrences in the city. $ While refuting many of the allegations made by the " various media it will not be refuted that tension does reside among the citizens of the community. However, u these tensions are not of racial or violent nature. In every instance the black and white communities have pulled together in a valiant effort to bring to justice the perpetrators) of these crimes. To bCsure, anger and disgust are present, but all of this anger, disgust and frustration is focused upon those person(s) who've taken the lives of the city's children and by virture of these acts threaten the future of the ci ty's remaining youth. While support from the entire community has been overwhelming, via financial contributions to aid in the investigation and to aide the families of the slain i i . i Children, Iher Wppjf : hasalso been established by members of botlffhe; white .and black; communities'. ' ' ; For instanc pjfdgratns addressing themselves' to the mental nee;d$ of the tity'S -youth, some who Have ex- , of the April issue of Black 'jriencUBNMatiiaiai frastratidn-Tdue to the Enterprise magazine. ' crisis, have; beeif .esUbJished ,:, throughout s the The magazine reports metropolitan oaieaiil an Attempt .t o allay the fears har-, , on the prosperous black bored by the kids and theif parents. " ' ' " '.V -American business people 1 Moreover , city of fi$a a . Who became successes in .have cautioned, their qon frorri stig- r ; - African trade despite gesting all these crimes are'rablaliymotivatedirt orderlO'.vr omte. of the financial avoid racial polarization in this most strenuous situa tion. In one Instance, a mid-western neyvspaper colum nist stated in a March 12 edition of his paper that neither Reagan nor the government of Georgia had pro vided any assistance. ". . . .There Is t a lot of rhetoric that the U.S. is discussing some funds, but none has of this date, been forwarded," the article said. On March 5 the Federal government allocated $979,000 to the city to provide after school care for the children in those areas where most of the crimes occurred. Too, it will provide counseling for parents and housing of deprived youth. Moreover, on March 1 1, Georgia Governor Busbee signed a contract allocating over $200,000 to the city to cover soaring overtime costs. The Question Of AfricanBlack American Commercial Link Clear Or Cloudy? By Thomas A. Johnson Director, Harlem Third World Trade Institute Finally, it would be remiss to say that all of the members of the media have misconstrued the crisis in Atlanta, for this is not the case. A number of mediums have taken extreme caution in efforts not to practice overt sensationalism; on the other hand, however, some news agencies have not been totally accurate in repor ting the affairs surrounding the crimes, causing persons outside of the city to construct different and sometimes horrifying portraits of the situation. In the future, if is hoped that the continued coverage of these, activities, while not covering up, should be more careful" and attempt to accurately relay the ac counts in the city. Relay to readers that Atlanta has pulled together and has become a family of one in an all-out charge to not only apprehend the responsible person(s) but also in ef forts to strengthen as well as, further the development and character of the city's youth. Should Black Communities Be Preserved For Blacks? V live By William R. Morris There is already good reason to believe that the ideals of a single society will not only be con tradicted by America's growing political conser vatism but supplanted by blacks themselves in their struggle to transform im poverished ghettos into viable coriftnunities where blacks may continue to area. Recognition of this truth was the basis of the Supreme Court's refusal every to apply the-separate-but-equal doc trine to matters of residence. A parallel trend since World War II has been the growth of governmental" activity in housing. In pro grams of widening scope, the., federal 'government has sought to stimulate the housing freely in other areas. In the meanwhile, the task of revitalizing our cities and upgrading black ! communities must so on. with protections for the poor who choose not to leave With good plann ing, this can be ac ! losses they first experienc ed. Richard Trotman, who once lost $300,000 in fees and : penalties on a Nigerian contract, has completed several con tracts worth more than $10 million through his firm, Afro International (ranked No. 7 on the 1980 BE 100 list of top money making black-owned businesses in the United States). Percy Sutton, former Manhattan Borough presi dent, owner of Inner City Broadcasting Company (ranked No. 41 on the 1980 BE 100 list), and in ternational broker, has made a small fortune through African trade. Gourmet Services (ranked No. 27 on the BE 100 list) president, Nathaniel Goldston, once suffered a $4Q,000 loss. However, the food and transportation firm re mains adamant in its pur suit of African trade that could reap large profits for it. Henry F. Henderson of H.F. Henderson In dustries (ranked No. 77 on the BE 100 list) in New Jersey is exporting high technology products all over the Third World by subcontracting for larger Will American blacks become an ef fective constituency here for African in terests? .Will they lobby, for technology transfers to Africa, for more American aid and will they support the concept of a New World Economic Order? . This amounts to half an inquiry in the context of African-black American rela tions, and it speaks to the roles many Africans would like American blacks to play. The other half of the inquiry, the. one the American blacks envision goes like this: Will Africans make black American a "preferred" trading , partner, an American who "lives in the mouth of the lion" and who, out of historical and familial interest will bring a sense of kin ship to the bargaining table? ' 'V- Whenever representatives of these two poles of the African Diaspora talk seriously of working in one another's best self interest, these questions cotne forward and at times might either clear or cloud their discussions. There are logical and historical reasons for this. 'j That long span of time and terror cjill ed the middle passage began the job of making the two groups strangers to one another, and slavery and colonialism completed the process. And while there were many attempts made to reconnect the severed African ties, the two groups have yet to sef up the systems that would assure them of a consistently meaningful commercial connection. Africans on both sides of the Atlantic have long called for the institutions that would develop these systems. And modern-day America provides some clear and most effective role models for the process. For American Jews constitute a con siderable and effective lobby for Israel as do Polish-Americans for Poland, Italian-Americans for Italy and Irish Americans for Ireland, to mention a few. This groping now of Africans for commercial ties with African-Americans could represent a very important factor in the development of new American en trepreneurs. There is no assurance that it will work there never is in the world of com merce. . But the attempt to make it work is worth it, both to Africa and to black America. c It is within the best self interest of the minority entrepreneur and the nation's gross national product to see if the ques tions surrounding closer commercial links between Africa and black America can become mOre clear than cloudy. A major step toward that goal, we feel, is the Conference on Marketing in Developing Countries held in Harlem on March 10. American firms. Interna tional trade comprises ten per cent pf his business. ' Some of West Africa's leading businessmen com ment on the problems en countered by black Americans doing business in Africa. Political in stability of some African nations and, to a much larger extent, thi un familiarity of, black Americans with African history; geography, customs,. . and business practices rare cited as the major obstacles. "Many of the black Americans we meet now are what we call 'portmanteau, investors' who only want to be brokers. The impression they give is that they are not serious but only want a fast buck from a quick contract," said Chief Jerome Udoji, vice presi dent of Nigeria's Manufacturer's Associa tion. Former United Na tions Ambassador An drew Young, an advocate of African trade for black Americans, noted that, in America, people "do business with their friends. But when they go to Africa, they want to do business by appointment. It doesn't work." -RecfflCyeattjt major expansion m the amount of , housing available to blacks and significant qualitative im provements as well. Most of this increase has come from the transition of residential areas from white to black occupancy. With the lowering of racial barriers and conse quent widening of oppor tunity, subtle but pro found changes are taking shape in the outlook of blacks. Many members of the black community are acquiring new concepts of .what is desirable and possible, and new images ,of their position in socie ty. t. Presently, it is no exag geration to say that the future welfare of blacks is bound up with their segregation. A concentra tion of numbers seems to be almost an essential con dition of group survival. As history has demonstrated, when- the members of an ethnic group cease to live together, their ties to the group become weakened and the group itself tend to dissolve. Although blacks will continue to be identified by others as a distinct group, the degree of awareness of blacks as a group is closely depen dent upon their numbers and concentration. ) In becoming more like other Americans in jobs and incomes,, blacks have also tended to assimilate the goals, the status sym bols, and social standards of the community-at-large. The process is a familiar one historically in the assimilation of im migrant groups into the nation's . mainstream. Where a family lives is a mark of its social position, and people living in similar housing in the same neighborhood or dinarily are judged to be on the same social level. ;It is unlikely that the housing of blacks can be brought up to the general standards of quality while separate residential com munities persist. Indeed, certain componennts of good housing, such as variety to suit individual wants and purses, and jrestige locations, are ob viously impossible to pro- Tide within any limited aid families to , obtain homes, eliminate slums and reduce the concentra tion of minorities and the poor. In the general move ment toward racial equali ty, housing is a crucial area. One of the basic rights of citizens in a free society is the freedom to move and choose a place of residence. No one, of course, has complete freedom of choice in hous ing or in any other field, but the exclusion of per sons from areas because of race (both blacks and whites) is to deprive them of an essential right. This freedom is basic because it is necessary to the enjoy ment of many other rights and privileges. A fundamental problem of housing for blacks is not one of quantity or quality of dwellings, im portant as these may be, but whether blacks should continue to be concen trated in separate com munities or be encouraged to seek their hbuslng in the general marketplace. A whole new value of black communities is emerging. Until recently, racial j segregation in housing has , been sustained by widespread white at titudes, practices of the real estate industry, and policies of local, state and federal governments. Pro bably no aspect of racial i discrimination in the .' United States has been, more institutionalized and! resistant to change. Now, some black community leaders are shifting their sights away from integra tion as a goal. Instead, they have begun to focus on ghetto enrichment pro grams: better schools, bet-j ter housing and more jobs within the black com munity. Federal . integration policies began to shift dur ing the Carter Administra tion and, it seems, will be continued by President Reagan, i.e., the removal of site and neighborhood restrictions on federally assisted projects in areas of racial concentration. The paramount issue, I feel, is "freedom of choice" including the choice to remain in their communities if blacks choose to, or to seek other oil mm Seagronfr f Extra . I Drjv -'C if I ,Jflf rl. i " If Seagram's f fetcd ft OWliLeO AND tOTTLCO V MMlj?4H oil; n MOOf OSHUID OOV GIN " ' fo'v Pf,: if Ml .fei & III $ fx B b r4 .. :f.'". TV 1 Ms v v. J u v
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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April 18, 1981, edition 1
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