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Perspectives
By Naomi McLean
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yiMumcie c,oim*>nist
Isn't it strange that the things
that once thrilled us as children
seem trivial and meaningless
when we grow up and take
another look at them?
A carnival, for instance, was a
fascinating wonderland as we
walked along the grounds slowly
with father, mother or another
adult. The ferris wheel, the fluffy
cotton candy and the colorful
clowns seemed like pictures come
to life from a storvbook. As we
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wandered past the huge canvas
tents, perhaps stopping to peep
into them, we came to the sword
swallow er. We could have re
with "amazement as he thrust
tremendous swords into his
mouth. The smell of peanuts as
we rode the gentle ponies filled
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wrap itself in a cloak of selfrighteousness,
claiming to have
done this job. It is rather obvious
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mat tne oiack church has not
demonstrated that it has these
answers, because otherwise black
Americans would not be assailed
by the depressing moral and
spiritual problems that threaten
to destroy them.
Divorces and separations daily
rip black families apart. Suicides
are increasing, and progressively
younger black Americans are
committing suicide. Homicide is
the number one cause of death
for young black men between 18
and 24 years old. Teenage
pregnancy is almost an epidemic
in the black community. Femaleheaded
households with children
are outgrowing any other segment
of this community.
Crime runs rampant. Each
year an ever-increasing percen
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our heads and made us dream of
running away with the carnival.
There was the carousel with its
majestic black and white horses,
not to mention the thrill of catching
the brass ring for one more
ride. The delicious candy apples;
the hot, buttered popcorn; and
the sounds of men standing on
wooden boxes, beckoning all to
a
Naomi's Vie^K.
A. A m. mm
NAUMI
? MCLEAN
come and watch their shows,
world.
As we finished eating the last
box of popcorn, watched the last
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tage of youn? black men spend
what should be their most productive
years in jails and prisons.
These are not social, political
or economic problems at their
roots.
These are problems of the
human spirit.
These are problems the black
church must successfully address,
and quickly.
Failure to do this means we are
not facing genocide from outside
forces, but self-annihilation
because we have not solved these
problems of the human spirit.
That is the mission of the black
church. It is a mission without
precedent and unless it is accomplished,
all of the educational,
economic, political and
social progress will continue to
De, in the words of King
Solomon, vanity, and a vexation
of spirit.
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ge as people \
clown perform and reluctantly
walked home, we could barely
contain the excitement of our
evening at the carnival. Finally,
when we lay in bed, sleepy from
the fresh, summer air, visions of
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dreams. We vowed that we would
go to the carnival every night of
our lives when we grew up.
Now, we are-grown and may h.e..
a carnival. As we wander along,
the grounds may be uneven and
difficult to walk on and perhaps a
little muddy. The odor of popcorn
and sight of sticky candy apples
will no longer seem so appealing,
but rather make us think
longingly of the wholesome food
in our homes.
The voices of the barkers will
soon make heads hurt and probably
we will refuse the ride on
the ferris wheel. Our adult minds
will think of the dangers of the
carnival rides -- a wheel may
loosen or the ride may make us
dizzy. We will watch the children
all jumping around in anticipation
of the evening ahead. ShakT
pffprs
the personal interviews, which
were conducted during the
hectic rehearsals for the
Awards Day Program.
You can be sure I will urge
all Upward Bound parents
who are not current
subscribers to subscribe to the
Winston-Salem Chronicle as
an excellent source of local inppHHHppiv.:
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?row older
ing our heads, we wonder where
they get all their energy. The
downs no longer amuse us, for
we know their acts by heart, so ...
no more will we wish for the
pleasure of seeing a carnival
every night. Once a year, if then,
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The sword shallower, once a
mighty hero, will be simply
another man earning a living.
Besides, we know the trick to his
magic. The carnival plays loud
parade music. Men walk through
the crowds selling peanuts, dolls
and frankfurters. The noise of
laughter, mingled with the crying
of a lost child, may surround us
and we begin to wonder why we
_ yj^jted the carnival in the first
i* 4V , Rat^ rKS we ktart-~
homeward, we may stop before a
stand where clowns are juggling
colored balls and sticks.
We notice the faces of children
light up in wofoder as they watch.
A - ? e -r
a\ nine ooy in ironi 01 us may express
his desire to run away and
join the carnival, which was a
part of our dream. Joining the
carnival, we thought, would
make us great.
9 Thinking seriously as an adult,
it is more important to be a great
human being than it is to be great
in some profession or business.
We are appreciated for what we
are, not for what we own, and we
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ucepiy icaii/x mai 100 many people
pay too dear a price for the
externals of living
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formation.
Again, I would like to commend
Ms. Williams for two
well-written articles in the
Chronicle.
Addie Hymes
Upward Bound Director
Winston-Salem
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tion of the African-American
from hopeful tenant farmer to
hopeless ghetto-dweller, from
spirited migrant to disenchanted
outcast.
Yet, notwithstanding the
fact that the industrial North
did not have the legacy of
slavery and oppression as the
agrarian South, the black man
nonetheless was subjected to
and victimized by mob
"violence, police brutality, and
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discrimination with
systematic, unrelenting
viciousuessl _
History quietly records
numerous incidents of whiteracist-led,
bloody riots in New
York, Chicago, Boston,
Washington, Baltimore, St.
Louis and New Haven -- the
coup de grace perhaps being
the lynching of a black World
War 1 veteran in 1919 from a
New York City lamp post!
To be sure, actions such as
the aforementioned did not go
unchecked. Indeed, this
quagmire of indignity, injustice
and repression plowed
the ground for the rise of such
outstanding leaders as William
Monroe Trotter, W.E.B.
DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A.
Philip Randolph, Ida WellsBarnett,
Rev. Henry McNeill
Turner, Rev. Adam Clayton
Powell Sr. and the great Paul
Robeson.
Out of this oppression arose
the inspiring writers of the
Harlem Renaissance, such as
Langston Hughes, Paul
Lawrence Dunbar, Countee
Cullen and James Weldon
Johnson.
Leaders and writers who
challenged a hypocritical
America and whose struggles
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for political parity, economic
equity and social mobility
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v?uuiu ia> mc grounaworx ior
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and
Shirley Chisholm; Elijah
Muhammed and Malcolm X;
Gwendolyn Brooks and
Richard Wright; Roy Wilkins
and Whitney Young; James
Baldwin and Maya Angelou;
Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez;?
Max Stanford and
Stokeley Carmichael; Louis
Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson
- sistuy'/arnfcrfri uthetJ1
established a base'- "Up
South" from which to
justifiably attack "Down
South" intransigence and "Up
South" indifference to the
plight of African-Americans.
As one who has recently
relocated from "Down
South" to "Up South," I will
attempt in subsequent articles
to analyze in more deptff the
historical and present-day
similarities anrt rnnlractt
struggles and successes of the
black experience above and
below the Mason-Dixon
Line.Particular focus will be
given to North Carolina and
Connecticut, the states where I
relocated from and to, respectively.
Was/is Malcolm X correct?
Is the United States still one
big "South" for the AfricanAmerican?
Stav tuned. It nro
mises to be interesting.
A Luta Continual (The
Struggle Continues!)
(Clifton H. Graves Jr. is assistant
corporation counsel for
the City of -Vew Haven,
Conn.)
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