*
Page A4-The Chronicle. Thursday, March 1. 1984
Wiqston-Salem Ctir^oqicle
Founded 1974
ERNEST H.PITT , P>tf>u **'
i NDUBIS1 EGEMONYE ALLEN JOHNSON
- c o rounder Etecuii*e Editor
I ELAINE L PITT JOHN SLADE
Office Manager Auutint Ednoe
i Thank you
The Chronicle has been fortunate enough recently to ^
receive an award or two. We imagine we've tooted our own
horn loudly enough for you to already know that.
[ What we haven't said as emphatically as we'd like,
: though, is that we couldn't have done it without you.
: Sometimes we get mad at you at missing the community
news deadlines or expecting us to be everywhere all the time.
Sometimes you get mad at us for spelling a name incorrectly
or not covering an event you felt ought to have been covered. ^
But you've stuck with us and we've stuck with you.
You've been there through thick and thin ? and take it
from us, we've seen enough thin to last a lifetime. After all,
it wasn't that long ago that our boss was the editor,
publisher, reporting staff, photographer and paper boy. And
it wasn't that long ago that curious black and white folks
alike wondered why that crazy boy with the beard and Afro
and the Polaroid Zip camera was trying to start a black
paper in Winston-Salem, and when he'd give up and go back
to where he came from.
But many of you saw the vision he saw and not only paid
your nickles and dimes for the Chronicle, but helped him sell
subscrintions and natted him on th^hark nnrp in a whiU tr*
let him know you appreciated hj^rfforts.
The partnership continues Sid grows and so do the
Winston-Salem black community and this newspaper.
But no matter how much w$ grow, and we're far from
where we'd like to be ? thoughVe feel our goals are within
reach - our community is our most precious resource and we
intend never to forget that.
Thank you.
Being there
There's nothing on the face of this planet like the CIAA
tournament.
It's an athletic event, a history lesson, a posh social, a
homecoming, a reunion, a non-stop four-day party and a
r i i
tasnion snow an roiled into one.
Though it generally isn't hazardous to your health ?
unless you're a coach or an unpopular official -- the tournament
is addictive: once you've been, it's hard as the devil not
to come back.
We wefe especially pleased to see Winston-Salem State
perform so well.
Though the Rams were no match on paper for eventual
champ Norfolk State, which incidentally is the number one
team in the nation, they certainly were on the hardwood,
pushing the heavily favored Spartans to the limit before succumbine
in the semi-finals. *
Coach "Bighouse" Gaines has hlad more talent in the past,
and he more or less kept this year's team together with good
coaching, a Band-Aid and a paper clip or two. But the Rams
won 20 games anyway and played very well during the second
half of the season, though they weren't supposed to.
What was even more encouraging was the statement the
tournament makes about black enterprise.
Amid the slam dunks, hospitality suites and pre-dawn parties
was an event staged by black people for black people, attracting
50,000 fans to Norfolk and apparently fast outgrowing
the city's basketball arena, which seats nearly 10,500.
The next frontier for the CIAA tournament has to be live
television. It just isn't fair or logical for so unique and exciting
an event to be denied the national exposure it richly
deserves.
But even when live telecasts come ? and they will ? we
plan to reserve our hotel rooms and tickets just as early as we
always have.
Crosswinds
Why support Jackson?
From the Carolinian.
Nation of Islam spokesman Minister Louis Farrakhan has
succinctly and pointedly laid out a political premise for black
Americans' which should be wrestled with by each black
leader and voter:
"If Jesse Jackson can register millions of blacks,
Hispanics, native Americans, women and poor whites to
vote, this would be a marvelous achievement, for it would
change the face, style and base of the Democratic Party,"
says Farrakhan. "Jesse's candidacy will lift the ceiling of the
* thinking of our people, especially our young people."
After chewing on the above, think about this:
U'TI - - 4. . I T ? ? < ... #? ?
i ne movement mat jesse s candidacy win tuci may produce
the greatest earthquake in our history,'' continues the
Islamic leader. "This earthquake will stimulate and awaken
the sleeping giant, the black church. And she will finally take
her proper and rightful place and lead the chosen of God to
the promised land of freedom, justice and equality."
And then Farrakhan makes a crucial statement for those
who, for some reason, just cannot find it within their hearts
Please see page A5
4
t
I WANT TO G T El
eps UNION AND
you THM FCol
\ -v TOWM TttKT
x p-6y A.LL IN BU
5-'
fx 5
It's time to
By JOHN JACOB
Syndicated Columnist
The belief that there is a social safenot
~ n A : r
\y uti pi mcniug an nuici nans irum
the worst privations of poverty has to
be replaced by the reality that the
safety net is in shreds and needs immediate
repair.
In fact, for significant numbers of
the poor, there is no safety net at all
since eligibilty rules and other barriers
keep them from participating in
key programs.
Intact families, no matter how
poor, are often excluded from
welfare aid; costly red tape and
bureaucratic mandates keep many
schools from offering subsidized
meals to poor students, and most of
the jobless don't get any unemployment
compensation benefits.
And those are just a few of the
many instances in which desperately
needed assistance simply doesn't
reach the poor despite the existence of
programs supposedly designed to
form a safety net for the needy.
"Virtually all of the highly publicized
rise in federal social spending goes
to programs that mainly benefit the
middle class. Social Security and
Medicare expenditures cost many
times more than the modest programs
for the noor u/hirh t?Lr#?n tno<?thor
.? ?- r~~ ? i >v0v>nvi i
amount to a small fraction of the
domestic spending budget.
Indirect costs tilt the balance even
further toward the middle class -- tax
deductions for mortgage interest, for
example, come to well over three
times the cost of subsidized housing
for low-income families. And the vast
majority of poor families don't get
any housing subsidies at all.
Black male:
By DR. MANNING MARABLE
Guest Columnist
Several weeks ago, one of the most
A A _ t ? i r*
interesting scnoiariy conierences was
held by the University of Cincinnati's
Office of Minority Programs and Services
in conjunction with the Department
of Afro-American Studies. Key
organizer P.. Eric Abcrcrumbic
brought together black scholars and ?
hundreds of students and community
people from across the Midwest. The
controversial topic of discussion was
"The Black Man ? Endangered
Species."
Abercrumbie, an articulate administrator
at the University of Cincinnati,
had earlier evoked the wrath
of many neoconservatives at the
school by challenging the university's
racist environment. This conference,
the second annual event, was part of
a larger sturggle to combat academic
racism while simultaneously creating
the forum necessary for blacks to
discuss our own concerns.
The topic itself could not have been
more timely. Too many blacks have
been lulled into complacency by the
illusion that we as a people have
achieved "equality." The rise of
BfcfOKfc NbO VCTft, IDCM KT AXLTM6
hAONDN-fc'S ttADfc
}
f
4
ipofthe "ttll
? contract and v
iyjfe
fa out of . v6
' dke5s6s th
\ck?? v\?
if)
repair the sa
In the years of federal domestic
austerity, it has been the means-tested
programs ~ those whose eligibility requirements
demand low-income
levels - that have been cut most.
Broader-based programs keep on
growing, and defense spending is
busting the budget, with no visible attempt
to get cost-efficient results or
to put a lid on the cost overruns that
make weapons cost estimates a joke.
It is common for cost estimates of
new weapons systems to be constantly
revised upwards by 50 percent or
more.
Ultimately, all that is at the expense
of people programs that form the
safety net, for unnecessarily high
"In the years of federal domei
means-tested programs ? those
demand low-income levels - the
defense expenditures, along with the
ill-advised tax cuts, lead to sfoch high
deficits that lawmakers become leary
of providing adequate funding for
poor people's programs.
That's fine for those who would
like to see the government abandon
the poor entirely, but it has made
conditions far worse for the growing
numbers of the poor. America, the
world's richest nation, lags far behind
other industrial countries in maintaining
a decent safety net for its
needy.
For examDle. in Sweden an
unemployed mother with two small
children gets benefits amounting very
close to the wage of the average unmarried
production worker; in Germany
the figure is two-thirds. But in
An endangi
feminism in the 1970s sharpened our
appreciation of the impact of sexual
discrimination upon black women,
who, in socioeconomic terms, remain
at the very bottom of American society.
No ^ruggle for black liberation,
to be sure, can be separated from the
efforts to combat rape, wife-beating,
'IToday, aver S00,000 black y
males suffer over two million
How do we begin to combat i
males ? and, in turn, the obliu
income inequality and all other forms
of anti-women violence.
But the Reagan administration's
criminal contempt for blacks has accelerated
the destruction of black
men as well as women - particularly
young black men. Dr. Robert Staples,
associate professor of sociology at the
University of California-San Francisco,
presented some devastating
statistics on the pressing plight of our
young males:
Less than 20 percent of all black
college graduates are males.
One-fourth of all black males fail
to complete high school.
OH, 1 kNOA/- TO LABOR, TO WOMW,
TO THE to\N0C\T\BS.,.
JJ4
l
fcfA VlfRE BHJiCRVJn: *
F mece's tbdubls,
IN THE ENFORCES
tm/
? . J
P*S\ ? > p
? SUPREME COURT | s
I
A ~f
tety net
the U.S., even in the most generous ^
states, the total of that economically
vulnerable family's benefits comes to
half or less than half of the typical
worker's income.
One of the reasons for the disparity
lies in the way some other countries
have converted means-tested programs
into universal ones. Some
European countries have universal
children's allowances and housing
allowances. That ensures aid to all
who need it while the allowances are
partially recovered through taxes on
the payments to the more affluent.
It's hard to avoid the conclusion
that our so-called safety net has just
about broken down. It extends prostic
austerity, it has been the
whose eligibility requirements
i i ?. . ??
ii nuve ueen cui mosi.
tection to only a portion of the poor
and the valui^of (fiat prot&tion has*
of budget cuts and higher living costs.
The haphazard design of safety-net
programs and the limited resources
available to them mean that people in
need can't get help, or, if they can,
the aid they get doesn't begin to help
them meet the minimally adequate
living standards a safety net - by
definition -- implies.
So the U.S. social safety net is long
overdue for rebuilding, and that
means devoting the necessary
resources to sound programs that
assure decent standards of living to
opportunities for America's poor.
John Jacob is president of the National
Urban League.
1
irea species
Since 1960, blacks aged 15 to 20
commit suicide at a rate higher than
that of the total population of all
ages. Suicide is now the third leading
cause of death after accidents and
homicides among black males aged 15
to 24.
85 percent of all executions for
?ii i i " >! ???mi H HI mm?BMi?yi i i
oungmen ^are^Jn^prison^Black
arrests every year in the U.S.
'he destruction of young black
e rat ion of our communities?"
rape have involved black men and
white women, despite the fact that
only 10 percent of all rape cases in
volve black males and white females.
No white male has ever been executed
for raping a black woman in U.S.
history.
About half of aX$>lack men over 18
have never been married, separated,
divorced or widowed.
Despite the fact that several million
black male youths desire a career in
professional athletics, the odds of any
black youth making it are over 20,000
to one.
Please see page A5
He's iame Wornses To NeN&y
evecvoNE AIL
Chronicle Letters
Thanks for
the nrofile
To The Editor:
I would like to sincerely thank
Robin Adams and James Parker
for featuring me in the "Upfront"
column in the Feb. 3 issue of the
Chronicle.
Robin and James are doing a
super job of covering the black
community and its political,
economical and religious events.
The struggles of the black community
had been ignored until the
Chronicte began to report accurate
news. Black citizens have now I
begun to realize the problems we
encounter daily. I would like to say
to Robin and James that you are
considered to be the best staff I
writer and photographer this city I
has ever had.
On behalf of our citizens, I say
thank you for your news coverage
and for keeping us well-informed.
William H. (BUI) Tatum
Winston-Salem
Congratulations
To The Editor:
Congratulations on being named
the best weekly in North Carolina
once again. This merely confirms
the feelings of most AfricanAmericans
in Winston-Salem.
Your new format is exciting,
your new features are interesting,
and you continue to maintain high
professional journalistic standards.
Last, and probably least, you've
done an excellent job in making a
certain young preacher I know
seem presentable. Audrey
Williams and James Parker are to
be thoroughly praised. The
preacher, 1 know, is eternally
grateful.
Rev. Carjfon A.G. Eversley,
Pastur
Dellabrook Presbyterian Church
f i x N. i ?
. ? 1- ..
^ ^ mi
To The Editor:
Please accept my sincere thanks
for recognizing me as the Chronicle
Woman of the Year. My
dedication to community service is
a long-standing one, and being
honored so is a very moving experience.
The Neighborhood Justice
Center is providing an important
service to the citizens of WinstonSalem.
The success we have attained
is a result of the diligent commitment
by the board of directors,
volunteers and staff, and they all
share in this honor.
I would also like to commend
the Chronicle for its achievement
on being recognized recently by the
N.C. Press Association. You and
your staff are doing an excellent
job, and the awards you received
were well-deserved.
Norma T, Smith
Winston-Salem
W iikc. XJp$?1*^
The greatest waste of our
natural resources is the number of
black people who never achieve
their potential.
For a black female, getting pregnant
around the ages of 14-17 is
common. From what I see, black
males around the^e ases are ton
busy getting high and making these
young females pregnant. They
could be using their minds to be
creative and doing things that
could benefit them in the long run.
They aren't told enough by some
parents the way it was not 30 years
ago. Blacks could not even eat at
the same places or even drink out
of the same water fountains as
white people. Less than 25 years
ago, black people were not even
Please see page A5
WCUJDWG HA9/ ^