71 - NUMBER 31
iSPS 09 i -360
DURHAM. NORTH CAROLINA --• SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1993 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE:30 CENTS
SUMMER ARTS QUEST CLOSES AT HAYTi ilERlTAGE CENTER, STORY AND PICTURES ON PAGE 4
Jroup Says Clinton Policy on Angola Proves Dangerous Double Standard
ifrican American headers iJriiicized for Pushing Recognition
he Clinion Administration’s
tnt recognition of the MPLA
ipular Movement for the
btration of Angola] government
Angola demonstrates a
igcrous shift in American
sign policy, according to
irlcs Kalina and Horace Cooper
a National Policy Analysis just
lished by The National Center
Public Policy Research,
f President Clinton extended
gnilion to Serbia, praised
grade for its commitment to
locracy and human rights, and
ned the Bosnians for blocking
ins for peace in the Balkans,
ngress would begin hearings
'orrow on whether he was
ilally competent to hold office,
thrt’s exactly what the
sidert has done for the
Kssive Communist government
Angola,” tliey write.
Whal hurt was the words that
me with recognition," said Dr.
lima Roque, an official of the
posiiicri group UNITA [National
ion for the Total Independence
Angolal recently in Washington,
say that it was a reward for
mocraty and human rights? We
be Africans, most of us may
black, but we’re not stupid."
according to the analysis,
resident. Clinton acted on
sinformation from the pro-
‘LA lobby in the State
parimcnt, which argued that
IITA resumed fighting the civil
afici its leader, Jonas Savimbi,
led to win supposedly ‘free and
ilcctions held last
*embcr..„no candidate won an
■ight majority..."
boper, an African American,
ts Arhorican black leaders to
for their support of the
solan regime. "Apparently the
mg of tens of thousands of black
ioans doesn’t bother America’s
A leadership — as long as it’s
by other blacks. Ironically,
MPLA is now hiring South
lean mercenaries, and of the
re than 2000 political prisoners,
I' the whites and mixed-race
loners have been released,”
iper says.
resident Clinton extended
isnition to Angola on May 19th,
« that tbe MPLA government
won a plurality in national
•ions last September. The
were marred by massive
Stilarities and ballot fraud (later
firmed in a United Nations
*)■ As the MPLA met with
ifA, the largest opposition
"P. to plan a run-off, the
ornment launched a major
offensive to exterminate its
political opposition.
"Police and mobs of supporters
armed by the MPLA slaughtered
civilians suspected of supporting
tlic rebels. UNITA’s two chief
negotiators were tortured and
executed. The mobs launched an
‘ethnic cleansing’ campaign against
groups generally supportive of
UNITA. The Catholic Church
estimates 20,000 or more have been
killed. Two thousand political
prisoners, including UNITA’s
elected members of parliament, are
still being held without adequate
food or medical care,” writes
Kalina.
Kalina and Cooper assert that
extension of diplomatic recognition
and all of the political and
economic benefits that accompany
it have undermined efforts to find a
peaceful resolution to the country’s
cightccn-year civil war.
The report says that "UNITA has
few friend.s in the U.S. State
Department. Foreign policy
sophisticates were never
comfortable with the Reagan
Doctrine’s support for anti
communist insurgencies like
UNITA. They are more interested
in Angola’s ‘53 billion oii industry,
W'hich cxfxyrLs 75% oi its output to
the U.S. Recognition effectively
repeals the Grtisslcy amendment,
whicli denied foreign tax credits to
companies doing business in
Angola,"
The report further cha.''gcs that "it
was African American activists,
including the Congressional Black
Caucus, who pressured Clinton into
extending recognition...African
American leaders have always
opposed UNITA, it for no other
reason that Ronald Reagan
supported it. S.avimbi was backed
by South Africa and dc.scribed
communism as more oppressive
than apatheid — a politically
incorrect sentiment that -won him
few friends in the Congressional
Black Caucus."
Charles Kalma is a research
as.sociate at The National Center
for Public Policy Research. Horace
Cooper serves as legislative
director for Congressman Dick
Armey, and is . a leading Advisory
Committee member of The
National Center’s Project 21, a
progrtim designed to promote the
views of a new generation of
African Amcric.an civic leaders.
Poverty Separates African
Americans Politically,
Researchers Find
Chuck Davis to be
Presented Monarch
Award
Chuck Davis, founder and artistic
director of the African American
Dance Ensemble (now based in
Durham), will be presented the
Monarch Award by the National
Council for Culture and Art on
Sunday, September 26, at Sardi’s
Resuturant in New York.
Davis will be honored for his
contributions to the performing arts
as a leading exponent of African
dance traditions and as artistic
director of the Brooklyn Academy
of Music’s DanceAfrica program.
On the same'evening, the council
will also honor actor, dancer and
singer. Bon Vcieen, and the renown
jazz perc jssionist. Max Roach. The
Monarch Award recognizes
distinguished African Americans
for their life long contributions to
the visual and performing arts.
Past Monarch awardees have
been Geoffrey Holder and Carmen
Delavallade; Alvin Alley; Jacob
Lawrence; James Earl Jones;
Gwendoljin Brooks; Simon Estes;
choreographer Ulysses Dove;
director Vinnoltc Carrol; opera
singer Man is Marlin; and Gregory
Hines.
Tlic Niiiorial Council for the Arts
suppori.s through scholarships and
local pioduciions the work of
emerging artists in the visual and
performing arts.
Uneitipioyrrient
Benefit Goes
Up This month
RALEIGH — Newly unemployed
North Carolinians will see more
money in the benefit checks
starling this week. Officials with
Employment Security Commission
of North Carolina (ESC),
announced an increase in die
maximum weekly unemployment
insurance benefit. The maximtitn
amount eligible North Caixrlinians
can collect will go up $15.03 a
(Continued On Page 4)
The social isolation suffered by
African Americans in the poorest,
most highly segregated
neighborhoods has profoundly
affected ihcir political attitudes and
separates them politically not only
from whiles but also from more
. affluent African Americans,
contends a University of Chicago
political scientist.
Because they feel isolated, the
poorest blacks arc less eager to
participate in the political process.
Political leaders have not
understoed die difference between
the view.-ioints of poor and more
affluent Wacks, and have failed to
develop an effective agenda to
overcome urban poverty, says
Michael Dawson, associate
professor of political science at the
university.
Because blacks from
iinpoveri.siiod neighborhoods see
the political system differently
from other blacks, they are less
able to get their issues on the
political agenda, the re.searchcrs
content.
Dawson’s co-rcscarchcr is Cathy
Cohen, as.dstant professor of
political iciciicc at Yale University.
The two discuss the results of their
exam ina ion of data from poor
Detroit neighborhoods in
"Neighborhood Poverty and
African American Politics,"
published this summer in the
American Political Science Review.
Theirs is one of the first studies to
look at die political consequences
of .severe urban poverty and
segregation among those African
Americans usually considered part
of the underclass.
''What .surprisal me most was
that thtre is an extraordinary
threshold clfccl that occurs in
neighborhoods of severe poverty,"
Dawson ' says. "The African
Americans who live in extremely
poor neighborhoods are quite
consistent in their political
altitudes, and those differ from the
opinions held by African
Americans who live in more
affiiient neighlxirhoods."
The researchers found political
attitudes to be markedly different
from more affluent blacks in
Detroit African American
neighborhoods where more than 31
percent of the residents are below
the pcerty line. In addition to
participating less frequently in the
political process, blacks at that
level of poverty are more likely
than other African Americans to
support black nationalism and
income redistribution proposals,
Dawson says.
The authors use data gathered in
the 1989 Detroit Area Study, a
project conducted by the University
of Michigan, as well as census
information. In the survey, nearly
1,000 people, including 448
African Americans, were
interviewed about their attitudes,
including their political views.
Dawson found many indicators of
social isolation in extremely poor
neighborhoods, including the fact
dial people in those neighborhoods
arc much less likely to belong to a
church. "Thus, living in a
neighborhood with high levels of
economic devastation leads to
greater isolation from [those] social
institutions that arc most involved
in black politics, such as the black
church and organizations dedicated
to racial affairs," Dawson says.
People’s experience with crime
and their apprehension about their
communities also increases in
exfremely poor neighborhoods. "At
the highest level of poverty, the
probability of one’s viewing crime
as a serious problem rises by 44
percent (as compared with the
views of resident of low-poverty
neighborhoods)."
People in extremely poor
neighborhoods also have little
contact with politicians, he says.
The residents of the poor Detroit
neighborhoods arc 17 percent less
likely to discus's politics with their
families than are residents of more
affluent neighborhoods. "Families
in such neighborhoods may have
what they perceive to be more
immediate and important issues
dominating their d'scu.ssions.
Residents in extremely poor
neighborhoods were 12 percent less
likely than residents of more
affluent neighborhoods to attend a
meeting dealing with political
issues.
"The social and economic
isolation African Americans in the
poorest neighborhoods has led to a
different pattern of beliefs about
who has the correct degree of
influence in America, many
African Americans in extremely
poor neighborhoods also believe
that labor unions, working-class
people and middle-class people all
have too much influence in
American society.
Despite isolation of blacks in the
poorest neighborhoods, some
prlitical leaders have been able to
(Continued On Page 4)
Want To Give Your Pooch
A Bath? Show Its ‘Smarts*?
Saturday, August 7, is the day.
Wellspring Grocery parking lot on Ninth Street is the place.
It’s the 6th annual Dog Wash.
Dog Owners can get their pooches clean without the hassle usually
connected with the job.
There will also be Pooch and Owner contests. At 11 a.m., Best Tridk
Contesq 12 noon. Longest Tail Contest; 1 p.m.. Pet & Owner Look-Alike
Contest; 2 p.m., Smallest Dog Contest.
Those interested in entering the contests should arrive promptly at the
times listed.
All proceeds will go to the Animal Protection Societies in Durham and
Chapel Hill.
The same events will be going on in Chapel Hill in the parking lot of
First Citizens Bank across the street from the Chapel Hill Wellspring
Grocery on Elliott Road.