Page A4 The Chronicle, Thursday, June 28, 1984
Winston-Salem Chronicle
* hounded IV74
ERNEST H. PITT,
NDUBISI EOEMONYE ALLEN JOHNSON
( <> I I'ufuh r ( |ti,\r hlHttf
ELAINE L. PITT MICHAEL PITT JOHN SLADE
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Forsyth County Democratic Party played a familiar
tune Tuesday night when it caucused to nominate a person to
succeed the late Fred Hauser on the Board of County Commissioners
and shunned Pat Hairston.
By all rights, and according to precedents set in similar
cases, Winston-Salem's outspoken NAACP president was
the most logical choice and, indeed, should have been elected
to Fill the post.Hairston
narrowly missed the cut among BernoeraV
nlissioncrcandidates in the primary and graciously declined ~
to request a runoff, though he had the legal right to.
As for his qualifications, Hairston has tirelessly served the
Winston-Salem community over the years and has been a
loyal, if not blindly faithful, Democrat.
But Pat Hairston makes white people and conservative
Negroes nervous.
He speaks his mind often and clearly. He calls situations
as he sees them. He doesn't whisper in dark corridors what
he wouldn't say publicly in crowded meetings.
To put it bluntly, the Democratic Party tends to reward
those blacks within its ranks who are "safe" and not prone
to rock the party's boat when the political sailing gets controversial.
Hairston, obviously, does not fit that category.
Thus, were we inclined to wager, we wouldn't have put
our money on him.
After all, hadn't Earline Parmon, a black woman who
herself became chairman of the county's Democrats after the '
death of Joseph Parrish Jr., had the nerve to tell the media
two weeks ago that the consensus in Democratic circles was
that a white male should succeed Hauser?
What's more, she said it with a straight face, as if it were
the only fair thing to do..
So the party's precinct leaders and executive committee
voted Tuesday evening and chose Mabel Holton, a 63-yearold
housewife who has worked in the party since 1928.
Whither black voters, who have once again been sold a bill
of goods, now?
We don't know for sure. But as Hairston himself has said.
there is more than one poltical party in this country ~ and
there is an election in November.
Crosswlnds
Buy black American
From The Carolinian
The black community is often described as the margin of
profit in the economic world, and the margin of victory in
politics. ,
In the economic arena, if it were not for the consumer
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pensities, and not for its productive abilities), much of
America's industry would be stymied in its growth. .
All we need to do is think of the automotive, leisure,
beverage, clothing'and food industries, and we should have a
grasp of the significant impact that the black purchaser exerts
on the marketplace.
One hundred eighty billion dollars is not to be sneezed at
in this economy. Black America represents the ninth largest
nation in the world in economic terms.
This economic strength has developed substantially as a
result of alleged integration. In recent years, many more
dollars are made and spent in the area of the mainstream
economic America. Major corporations, chain stores and a
general new policy of "equal employment opportunities"
throughout the network of industrial employment have
These dollars are immediately sucked back into the
mainstream economic system to be redeployed to attract
more payroll dollars from the unsuspecting.
However, on the other side of the economic coin, wherein
mainstream America is reluctant to perform as good
neighbors and good citizens by being a part of the full community,
black and white, warrants our concern.
Just as corporate America is part and parcel of the comnlf*tP
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philanthropists and defenders of the free enterprise system,
it shoud be part of the same in the black community in our
country.
Why should the mainstream business world on one hand
gladly accept "the profits the black community brings it, but
on the other hand demonstrate poor citizenship by turning
its back on the black community when it could bring on progress
in that community?
The "buy American" slogan is an effort to promote and
stimulate improving the economic quality of life for
Americans. We accept this as an honorable pursuit.
"Buy black American" is likewise an honorable and
American* quest.
Not only do the workers on the automotive assembly lines
in Detroit have a just concern about the American car industry,
but the printer, the vendor or the manufacturer of a
product who happens to be black has a just beef also.
Please see page A5
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Blacks and i
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By CLIFTON GRAVES
Chronicle Columnist
As Americans of all races and
classes prepare for,the Annual "July
4th-Independence Day'* festivities, I
think it proper and necessary for all
of us to take a moment and reflect
upon the true meaning of this holiday.
For if we truly take into consideration
the continued oppression and
repression of African Americans,
Native Americans, Asian and
Hispanic Americans in the U.S. today;
if we honestly assess the recent
vicious attacks on affirmative action,
Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan;
if we candidly look at the crippling effects
of unemployment^ crime and
drug traffic in America's ghettoes
and barrios; if we frankly analyze the
hypocrisy of this^ nation's foreign
policy which condemns a Poland and
embraces a South Africa; then, certainly,
we must ask the same question
that our ancestors posed on previous
July 4ths: freedom for whom, inHpnonrlflnca
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Accordingly, it is only fitting that
we take special note of the words of
the great abolitionist and human
rights fighter, Frederick Douglass,
who, on July 5, 1852, delivered
perhaps the best indictment of the
American body politic in history.
The black fc
By DR. MANNING MARABLE
Guest Columnist
Probably - the most concrete
economic benefit of the black extend
ed family vs. the white nuclear family
structure was that the former had
more potential income earners per
family member.
In 1967, for example, only 10.2
percent of all black families had no
income earners. Almost six out of ten
black families had two or more income
earners, and 16.4 percent had
three workers or more ? a much,
black males between the ages of 16-24
years who weren't in school had jobs,
and those who worked full time earned
76 percent of what black men 25
years and older earned.
With the structural crisis of
capitalism, several million black
workers have been pushed into
joblessness and marginal employment
in the 1970s and early 1980s. The
economic impact upon black families
consequently has been in many
respects as severe as the Great
Depression of the 1930s. By 1977,
17.2 percent of all black families had
no wage earners; the percent of
families with three workers or more
dropped to 11.9 percent, and the
average number of earners per family
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the Fourth of
o
Read and reflect as you picnic in <
the park, wade in your pool, or
munch on that watermelon -- for
despite much change and progress,
these words of brother Douglass' ring
as truthful today as they did when he
articulated them some 132 years ago:
"... I am not included within the <
pale of this glorious anniversary! I
Your high independence only reveals i
the im- .... 1
measurable J0*
distance bet- M
ween us. The j m
blessings in f
which you this I
day rejoice are (
not enjoyed in ^
common. The W. 4/i| 3| <
rich in- ^11 t
heritance of f OV J
- justice, liberty, Clifton Grav?? '
i*
prosperity, ana J
independence bequeathed by your I
fathers is shared by you, not by me. I
The sunlight that brought life and 3
healing to you has brought stripes 1
and death to me. This Fourth of July I
is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I i
' must mourn ... <
"At a time like this, scorching I
irony, not convincing/argument, is I
needed. Oh! had I the ability, and <
could I reach the nation's ear, I <
would to-day pour out a fie/y streak
imily in crisis
declined to 1.5, slightly below that of I
whites. By 1983, black young adults r
were experiencing unemployment s
rates of about 50 percent, and their c
ration of earnings compared to black 1
adults fell to 66 percent. c
Spiraling unemployment must be 1
seen as fundamental factor in the \
contemporary crisis confronting i
black families. As Tom Joe and Peter f
Yu, researchers of the Center for the <
Study of Social Policy noted recently
in the New York Times, 20 per- i
black households, and the Reaga
socioeconomic policies simply t
1980s."
cent of all working-age black men v
-nearlv twn million rvrcnnc
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out of the labor force, or simply
unaccounted for. The comparable
figure for white men is 22 percent/*
Joe and Yu suggest that the
"chronic deterioration of the employment
status of black men leaves
millions of them incapable of heading
a household. Researchers and
policymakers may therefore
ireating the symptoms of poverty I
rather than the causes."
The U. S. economy's crisis set in
motion the destruction of black
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July party
of biting ridicule, blasting reproach,
withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
For it is not light that is needed, but
fire; it is not the gentle shower, but
thunder. We need the storm, the
whirlwind, and the earthquake. The
feeling of the nation must be quickened;
the conscience of the nation must
be roused; the propriety of the nation
must be startled; the hypocrisy of the
nation must be exposed; and its
:rimes against God and man must be
denounced.
"What to the American slave is
/our Fourth of July? I answer, a day
:hat reveals to him, more than all
Mher days of the year, the gross inlustice
and cruelty to which he is the
:onstant victim. To him your celebra?
ion is a sham; your boasted liberty
in unholy license; your national
greatness, _ swelling . vanity; -your
?ounds of rejoicing are empty and
heartless; your denunciations of
:yrants, brass-fronted impudence;
/our shouts of liberty and equality,
tollow mockery; your prayers and
lymns, your sermons and thanksgivngs,
with all your religious parade
ind solemnity, are to him mere bombast,
fraud, deception, impiety, and
typocrisy -- a thin veil to cover ud
:rimes which would disgrace a nation
:>f savages. There is not a nation on
Please see page A5
: Part II
Households, and the Reagan adn
i ni'st rat ion's reactionary
ocioeconomic policies simply ac:elerated
the process in the 1980s,
rhe National Urban League's State
of Black America, 1984 has listed ony
part of the economic devastation
vhich impacts blacks. Black family
ncome is only 55 percent of white
"amily income, the largest gap recorded
in over two decades. Over 70 percnt
of black families with female
louseholders and two or more
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n administration s reactionary
iccelerated the process in the
:hildren live below the poverty level,
ever half of all black children under
iree years live in poverty. Black
omen who have full-time employncnt
earn 47 cents to every dollar
arned by males for jobs of comparable
worth.
_i * . - i
io mis aire suuanon, Keagan nas
lashed Aid to Families with Depenlent
Children by 13 percent, a proram
whose recipients are 45 percent
nlack and 98 percent women and
.hildren. With school lunch programs
:ut 28 percent since 1981, over 3
Please see page A5
,AN'T Flit CLASS ACTIOJ SUITS AMD
^ CAVTT SAV
grj \&N0(2\N&THE LAW
Simple coverage
hides problem
By JOHN JACOB
Syndicated Columnist
Every month the Labor Department
releases unemployment
statistics for the previous month.
The media response during this
recovery period has been to stress
the strength of the recovery and
the swift decline in the jobless rate.
But that kind of simplistic
coverage hides the very real, continuing
problem of high unemployment.
The overall jobless rate, now
just under 8 percent, is better that
it was but far worse than what it
ought to be. Some eight million
people are still officially ??J
- mumlanA ?
But that's just the tip, of the
iceberg. Counting discouraged
workers, who have given up jobhunting
because they couldn't find
work, and part-time workers who
really want full-time jobs, real
unemployment is far higher. We
still have recession-level jobless
rates. And black workers still have
Depression-level unemployment
-about 17 percent.
I have to wonder if the complacency
about unemployment is
due to the fact that its victims are
disporportionately blacks and
other minorities. White adults, for
example, have unemployment
rates of under 6 percent. But black
adult men have jobless rates of
over 15 percent, while the black
teen-age unemployment rate is
about 47 percent.
But it's wrong to focus on that
single, highly publicized national
unemployment rate for another
reason ? what is important are the
long-term trends, not the monthly
blips that go up and down by a
fraction.
If we look at those long-term
trends, we see the unemployment
problem in its full dimension, for
there is a clear pattern of most fre
quent recessions, shorter recovery
periods, higher employment and a
permanent Depression in the black
community.
Since 1971 we've had four recessions
and two of them, including
the last one, would have been
labelled Depressions in the past.
The beginning of each recession
period found more people
unemployed than at the start of the
previous recession.
Unemployment is getting longer
too, as the jobless are out of work
for longer periods. Currently,
some two million people were
jobless for 27 weeks or more - not
including almost as many who are
no longer counted as being in the
labor force.
Another disturbing trend is the
fact that fewer of the jobless get
unemployment compensation
benefits. In the past about half did
--that's down to about a third now.
Still another trend has serious
implications for the economy, and
especially for opportunities for the
jobless. The official statistics tell
us how many jobs there are but
while the job-generating capacity
of the economy looks impressive, a
large proportion of the jobs are
part-time or marginal.
About 20 percent of the jobs in
ovc,r^v
when they want full-time work.
* And many of those full-time
jobs aren't really full-time, since
they are chacterized by periodic
layoffs. Only about half the
workforce works full-time 52
weeks a year.
Blacks, relegated to marginal
jobs, are the prime victims of the
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of all black workers had two spells
of joblessness last year. Each
typically lasted over 16 weeks.
Add to that the millions of jobs
that pay below-poverty level wages
and you can see that the monthly
figures mask the real weakness of a
labor market that leaves many
Please see page A5
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