Page A4-The Chronicle, Thursday, March 29, 1984
"* t
Winston-Salem Chronicle
* j
hounded 1974
r ERNEST H. WTTr?iw..?r.
NDUBISI EOEMONYE ALLEN JOHNSON
C (? /mmii/i*' ?ifin(nf tdiu"
ELAINE L. PITT MICHAEL PITT JOHN SLADS
Ofluf Mwiuk*-' Ci'iulafion WumjMrr Atu.Uvtit tdiiitr
Stephanie and S. Africa
Sometimes we demand too much of the pe6ple we call
"stars."
Because they can sing songs or dance or act, we expect
them to be model citizens, to subscribe to political
philosophies that reflect our own, and, in many cases, to be
more perfect than normal human beings.
As hard and preposterously overbearing as we may be on
celebrities, however, sometimes we aren't hard enough. *
Take, for instance, the case of Stephanie Mills, the
diminutive singer with the big voice who earned fame as
Dorothy in the Broadway production of "The Wiz." Miss
Mills has returned to the cast of the musical, which currently
is playing in Philadelphia. But she apparently has caused
much more of a stir offstage than on.
Miss Mills, 26, performed in racist South Africa two years
ago, but said she was unaware of that nation's inhumane
treatment of its majority-bla6k population.
"I am saddened by this," she said, according to The
Philadelphia Tribune. "I did not know all of these things
were going on."
Yet, Miss Mills' biggest transgression was not so much her
plea of ignorance as it was her half-hearted apology for the
South Africa trip at a March 6 Philadelphia press conference.
V Y _ a 1 1 1 % % ? -
inoi oniy aid miss muis seem impatient and discourteous
to black reporters, but she also failed to take apartheid very
seriously, reported Tribune entertainment writer Barbara
Faggins.
Miss Mills "lashed out frequently at black reporters for attempting
to question her on her performance in South
Africa's Sun City in May of 1982," Faggins wrote in her column
last week. "She even resorted to laughter at times on
the subject of the apartheid country."
Small wonder the press conference.earned Miss Mills more
scorn than forgiveness.
After public outcry at her comments, including Pennsylvania
state Sen. Hardy Williams, who picketed the theater
where "The Wiz" appeared -- as well as lagging ticket sales
for the musical ? Miss Mills issued a second apology.
To make the amends more substantive, she also announced
that money ravsed from the March 29 performance of
"The Wiz" would ^benefit the United .Nations Center
Against Apartheid South Africa.
And again, she pleaded ignorance concerning her previous
knowledge of apartheid.
tinner Miss Mills colored the truth or she is, at age 26, incredibly
naive and ignorant.
Whatever the case, we pray that, at this point, she's learned
that black performers have responsibilities to their senses
of conscience, if nothing else.
Unfortunately, Miss Mills is not alone. Performers who
have ignored a boycott against South Africa's racist regime
to stage concerts there include such well-known black and
white celebrities as George Benson, Ray Charles, Johnny
Mathis, Cher, Curtis Mayfield, Millie Jackson, Chick Corea,
the Mighty Clouds of Joy, Helen Reddy, the Staple
Singers, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton, Liza Minelli, Kenny
Rogers, Elton John and the Beach Boys.
Fortunately, those who refuse to compromise their principles
for lucrative concert engagements have plenty of company,
too. They've formed a coalition called Athletes And
Artists Against Apartheid, which has actively mobilized
against South Africa's racism and encourages others to do
likewise. The organization includes in its ranks Sidney
Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Cosby,
Ramsey Lewis, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, the Commodores,
Bill Withers, Phyllis Hyman, Bernie Casey, Santana,
Dionne Warwick and Paul Newman.
As for Stephanie Mills, we wish her continued prosperity
fT?_ iii hci" jotfiin.'ys 'iu'0grWtroiriy'lHrpg tfratTrfayrno^
?reabzes-the yellow- brick road does- not lead to Sun City,?
South Africa.
/ Crosswinds
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The wrong investment
From The (Cleveland) Call And Post.
State Sen. William F. Bowen, D-Cincinnati, as all other .
blacks as well as liberty-loving white citizens should be, is
thoroughly fed up with American institutions giving financial
support to South Africa and its vicious, dehumanizing
apartheid system.
As an influential member of the Ohio General Assembly,
Bowen has literally led a legislative crusade against American
corporations and various state institutions doing business
with racist South Africa.
Specifically, Bowen has sponsored legislation during three
consecutive sessions to force the state's public retirement
systems to divest themselves of stock in companies which do
business with South Africa.
Bowen, sponsor of S.B. 53, which has been recommended
for passage by the Senate, said the bill is designed to force
the state's five retirement systems, with over $12 billion in
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Just anothei
By CLIFTON GRAVES
Chronicle Columnist
; //we must die
let it not be like hogs, ,
hunted and penned in an
inglorious spot,
While round us bark
the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at
our accursed lot ...
-Claude McKay,
African American poet
Circa 1940
The scenario is, oh, so painfully
bill. TL.
i auuuai . iviiis Uiailt yuuill. 1 I1C
result so disgustingly consistent: All
white jury finds cop innocent of any
wrongdoing.
In recent years - and again last
week -- the locale has been Miami,
Fla. But do not be deceived. Miami
obviously has very serious policeblack
community relations, compounded
by pervasive individual and
institutional racism. Yet, the problem,
indeed epidemic, of police .
brutality against African-Americafts/
and subsequent sanctioning by white
Americans juries, is hardly confined
to any geographic area.
New York, Milwaukee, Houston,
Los Angeles, St. Louis, Raleigh,
Philadelphia, New Orleans, Detroit
and Chicago are just a few of the
cities where the police have historically
been akin to an occupation army in
third-world neighborhoods. And
Racism in L
By DR. MANNING MARABLE
Guest Columnist
Last year I traveled to Boston tq
speak for Mel King's mayoral campaign.
King's subsequent defeat by
white candidate Ray Flynn reveals the
inherent racism inside U.S. politics
and tells us why it is so difficult to obtain
progessive change in this country.
Mel King has a very rich history of
progressive work within multi-racial
movements in Boston. For four
yeaFSV h&wau wesmrtiwdingtftwof tbr
-From 1^73 to 1982, Kifrg was thtstate
representative of Boston's black community,
Roxbury, and for other
mostly white neighborhoods. King is
an unabashed socialist, and, in fact,
had resigned from the Democratic
Party because of its conservative
policies.
In 1979's mayoral race, King came
in third with 15 percent of the vote.
This time around he came in tied for
first in the first rare anH finicheH u/itVi
over 35 percent of the vote in the runoff.
Td like to see any white candidate
with King's socialist credentials
run for mayor of any major U.S.
city and obtain over a third of the
vote. Thus, in the sense that King's
running helped to increase the black,
Asian and Latino electorate, and that
*Lty
ikM
9
I1MI&
r worthless
while racist police brutality and
harassment has been confronted in
cities like New Orleans, Chicago and
Detroit where black mayors have
spearheaded reform, the fact remains
that in 1984 America, a black life still
ain't worth a damn.
Whether it is rampant, officially
sanctioned police brutality, or tacit
public accepsentences
forcrimes
perpe- Clifton Graven
trated against blacks than for similar
_ /?/ -
onenses against wnites - it all adds
up to the same seem total: White
America still adheres to Justice
Taney's ominous dictate in the Dred
Scott decision that black folk have no
rights which white folk areibound to
respect.
To be sure, as it pertains to people
of color and folk without wealth in
this society, in the "halls of justice,"
justice remains in the hallways.
To be sure, when it comes to the
sanctity of black life, there are still
too many in America who view us as
trash in a pile, worthy of the indifference,
denigration, brutality,
neglect, and oppression heaped upon
i '
IS. politics:
it forced the eventual winner, Flynn,
to take many positions similar to
King's, the race was a real success.
ti n ? * * ? ??
wny aia Mei King lose tne general
election? Thousands of white liberals
and progressives who share his
politics capitulated to Flynn, a candidate
who had First become prominent
as an anti-busing leader. When
both were serving concurrent terms in
the state legislature, Flynn had voted
yes for re-establishing the death
penalty, for the limitation of abortion
rights and for corporal punishment in
" Why did Mel King lose the
white liberals and prog res
capitulated to Flynn, a candid
nent as an anti-busing leader.
schools, while King had voted no.
Flynn opposed handgun registration,
taxing landlords for violations
of the housing code, prohibiting sex
ual preference discrimination by the
state and increases in state environmental
funds. To be fair to
Flynn, in the past six years, he has
made a measurable shift to the
liberal-left, principally on bread-andbutter
issues.
But Flynn tended to skirt the term
"racism" in his campaign, declaring
that "economic discrimination" is
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black life
us at various times.
The late Sam Cooke once song "A
Change Gonna Come." Sisters and
brothers, a change is going to have to
come. Black life^livelihood and wellbeing
are just as sacred and worthy of
respect as anyone else's.And if that
message is not conveyed to the
powers that be, and then properly
acted upon, there may, indeed, come
a time in the not-distant future that
Claud? McKay's admonition may
take on new meaning and
significance: *
//we must die,
oh, let us nobly die, let not our
precious blood be shed in vain
So that the monsters we defy
snail oe constrained
to honor us
though dead.
O, Kinsmen,
let us meet the
common foe,
And though far outnumbered
let us show us brave
and for their thousand blows,
deal one deathblow;
What though before us
lies the open grave,
like men we 'II face
the murderous, cowardly pack
pressed to the wall dying,
but fighting back. ,
1
Clifton Graves is affirmative action
officer at Winston-Salem State
University.
fan u
the real problem, and that it affects
poor white people in South Boston or
Charlestown just as seriously as it
does poor black people in Roxbury.
This posture allowed Flynn to pick up
the votes of the constituency of a
James Kelly, of the racist South
Boston Information Center, while
i holding the allegiance of most white
i liberals.
[ However, an anlysis of greater
i Boston's labor market reveals the
i reason that thousands of blacks and
i Hispanics viewed Mel King's camin
III I'V mmi II ? I general
election? Thousands of
sives who share his politics
ate who had first become promi??
paign as a significant battle against
racism. Of all black workers in
Boston 22.3 percent are found in lowpaying
service jobs, compared to only
8.7 percent of the white labor force.
Almost two-thirds of all black
workers (64.2 percent) are in either
service, unskilled, semi-skilled or
clerical jobs.
Conversely, 38.3 percent of whites
and only 19.7 percent of black
employees are either managers, professionals
or technicians. Side by
Please see page A11
AND STvac bvoug \\AGIV*S IN NO\
Ttfc SrGesTs OF Bfcicvrr ^ ON
*
v'
Chronicle Letters
How soon
they forget
To The Editor:
I was chagrined and saddened
when I read in your "News
Digest" recently that Martin
Luther King Sr. and Coretta Scott
King, the father and widow of
Martin Luther King Jr., have once
again supported Walter Mondale
and have encouraged black voters
to vote for him.
The Kings must be aware of the
importance of keeping alive the
candidacy of the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, a courageous black man,
who, in my opinion, is making a
tremendous sacrifice of not only
himself, but for all of those who?
closely surround him. The Kings
must also be aware of the shoddy
treatment given to many blacks
throughout this country during
Mondale's and President Jimmy
Carter's administration, in spite of
claims to the contrary.
How soon the Kings forget.
How soon they forget the indifferent
treatment given the black
representatives (approximately 30)
at the National Field Staff Seminar
held at Lake Lanier Islands, Ga.,
in August 1976. Approximately
160 people from various parfs of
the United States were invited to
attend this four-day strategy
seminar.
After an extremely cordial, redcarpet
style greeting at the Atlanta
airport, most of the 30-odd black ^
participants at the Pine Isle
meeting became acutely aware of
how little their collective work in
pulling together the black voters
during the primaries was appreciated
by the Carter-Mondale
hierarchy.
Evidence of this absence of ap
preciation was the treatment of
Ben Brown, a black legislator from
Atlanta. Second only to Hamilton
Jordan (who was later to become
President Carter's chief of staff),
Brown was excluded from many of
the activities at this four-day
seminar. At this time, Brown was
the national deputy campaign
director under Jordan.
The whites who had been invited
to the seminar received I.D. cards
and personal budgets. Their names
were included in their respective
state bntfgets as line items and their
titles and areas of responsibilities
were clearly outlined in their
packets which were distributed to
them at the hotel reception desk.
None of this consideration and
recognition had been given to the
blacks who had earned the right to
be invited to the meeting. To their
credit, they voiced their
displeasure in not-so-polite terms
to the Carter-Mondale
people.Voicing their dissatisfaction
accomplished little, though,
since of the 30 blacks in attendance
less than 10 received National cam
paign credentials. I happened to be
one of those who received this
distinction.
Brown complained to what was
then called the "Kitchen Cabinet,"
a black group in Atlanta who had
the responsibility of advising the
Carter-Mondale forces regarding
methods in the continuing black
voter support in the upcoming
election. Further, the Kitchen.
("aJjuu-v had iu mmaaimm ,nn ship
the Rev. Martin Luther King
' i '. ' i ? ?ir.r. ? ?
Sr., Jessie Hill, Andrew Young,
John Evans and Coretta Scott
King. These members had the
responsibility of monitoring the
actions of the Carter-Mondale
hierarchy in the campaign. They
were to assure that the rewards to
blacks would be commensurate
with their contributions if they succeeded
in winning the election.
r> -
orown ioia tne members of the
Kitchen Cabinet, including a call
to "Daddy King," as the elder
King was referred to during the
campaign. That lamentation also
fell on deaf ears. Absolutely
nothing changed during the campaign
as a result of Brown's and
other's complaints.
Please see page A5
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