Winston-Salem Chronicle "7 he Twin City 's A^ord Winning Weekly Established in 1974 Ernest H. Pitt ? Ndubisi Egemonye Editor/Publisher Co Founder Member in good standing with: Mju.pri* NinMrf North CjLfOiM Audit BUfeHU ? A??oc*lK>n P?*?? A?*oo?t?on Of ClfCUli*tlOPi Pwbt?h??. t?c. Starting Life Over Last week, Walter D. McMillian got his first taste of freedom in six years. McMillian, an African American, had spent the past 4 1/2 years of his life on Alabama's death row after he was wrongly convicted of killing an 18-year-old white woman during a robbery in 1986. Upon his release, the 52-year-old McMillian got no apol ogy (unsurprisingly, of course) from Alabama state officials ? a state with a history of egregious actions against black Americans. The years that McMillian spent in jail ? shut off from his family and unable to lead a normal life ? cannot be replaced. He was a statistic ? an inhuman murderer -in the eyes of the state. And for more than four years, it stood at the ready to pull the switch. It's not the first time that a Water McMillian black man has been wrongly accused of a crime. It won't be the last, either. Remember Daryl Jeter, a black engineer accused and convicted of robbing at gun point a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Dallas? His convic rtion was overturned, but the hurt must still linger. The list is end less. But those are high-profile cases the country has read about or seen on network news programs. There are many other African Americans unjustly incarcerated across the country. And they're not just in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles. They're sitting in jails in Goodman, Miss., Portsmouth, Va., Fergus Falls, Minn., Kalispell, Mont., and Winston-Salem. That might be part of the reason African Americans continue to make up a disproportionate amount of the inmates in the penal sys tem. Of the more than 20,000 inmates in North Carolina prisons, nearly 13,000 are black. That's nearly 6^ percent in a state where the black population is only 11 percent. We should be glad that one _more innocent person was vindicated. And let us hope that Walter McMillian can somehow put the past behind him and live a produc tive life. Changing the Perception When Clifton Graves delivered his eloquent message to some 350 listeners at last week's Chronicle banquet, his words rang familiar. They are words that have been spoken for many years. Spoken so often, in fact, that sometimes _ the medium and the message are taken for granted. But although similar words are resonated across the country at podiums like the one Graves stood behind Saturday night in the Grand Ballroom at the Stouffers hotel, his message must not fall on deaf ears. Truer words were never spoken when he said blacks must change the percep tion of themselves in order to change the reality of the condition they live in. ? u f a "j Clifton Graves Jr. He could have gone further and said blacks must change their perception of how black businesses are run if black are to busineses to thrive again. That the perception of being gun-toting thugs must change if blacks are to reach their fullest potential and become the doctors, judges, inventors and community leaders we are so badly in need of. These attitudes are a large part of the social ills that burden blacks. We must eradicate these ills, or as Graves called them, "the ABCDE epidemic:" Aids; Babies having babies; Crack addiction; Death by violence; and Education and Ecomomic deprivation. That will be a major step to bringing a sustained vitality back into the African-American com munity. Credo of the Black Press The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from antagonisms wfoen it accords to every person ? regard less of race or creed ? full human and legal rights. Hating no per son, the Black Press strives to help every person , in the firm belief that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back . About letters . . . The Chronicle welcomes letters as well as guest columns from its readers. Letters should be as concise as possible and should be typed or legibly printed. The letter must also include the name, address and telephone number of the writer to ensure the authenticity of the letter. Columns must follow ? the same guidelines and will be published if they are of interest to our general readership. The Chroni cle will not publish any letters or columns that arrive with out this information. We resene the right to edit letters and columns for brevity and clarity. Submit letters and columns to Chronicle Mai I bag P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem , N.C. 27102. Opinion 4t' To the Editor: When rappers like Shocky Shay and Da Forf Dimension say that the use of the word "nigger" in their songs is endearing and a way to get close to their peers, I say they have missed the point. The point being, people of European discent have a fixed concept of the term "nigger'', and it doesn't matter how much we use the term loosely within our own peer group, the clearly defined meaning will never change. It w ill , never change because 400 years of dehumanization will not allow it to chan^gtn TfttS dehumanization weren't) But because of the need to stifle Negro potential in a white world. The term is still used today among many professional whites at their private parties and meetings, and is frequently used by whites who have not gotten "a piece of the pie" despite used within our own peer group and definitely should not be allowed to enter into the main stream, According to manning marble a renown sociologist, African-Ameri cans coming into maturity in the 1980's and 199's have never per sonally experienced Jim Crow seg regation. They cannot express how they feel to be denied the right to vote because their electoral rights are guaranteed by law. They have ~ never personally participated in street denominations, boycotts, picket lines, seizures of government and academic buildings. The absence of a personal background of struggle cast a troubled shadow over rappers like Shocky Shay and Da Forf dimension and many other Post 1960 African-Americans who are poorly equipped to truly understand the current complexities of colloqui ? aJ isms,~The Colloquialism of Domu ? nance contain many sayings such as "Free White and Twenty-One", "Nigger in a woodpile", "Work like a Nigger" and such terms as "coon", "shine", and "darky", to dehuman ize African- Americans . This termi nology constitutes powerful direc tives of the ways members of the majority group thifrk about and communicate concerning African Americans. Consequently, the term should not be permitted by the "ingroup" nor the"outgroup". Richard Pryor in his use of the word found it necessary to go back to the "motherland" before he truly understood the meaning and dehu manizing effect of the word. Eddie Murphy and Russell Simmons should also take a trip back home in order to fully understand the story behind the word. When rappers use the term to boost the sale of their records, they are helping to tear down all that we (pre-1960 African-Americans) fought for, so that they would not have to be subjected to being called the "N" word. I commerrcrWAAA radio- sta tion for not playing records that use the "N" word. I know that the choice has caused them to lose money, and therefore, it is important for us to support them in their effort to survive. It would be so easy to look at the monetary effort to sur vive. It would be so easy to look at the monetary side of the issue and give in to popularity, but WAAA understands that being an "African American radio station" means more than being African-American owned and operated. As for the FM stations that we so frequently tune in to, I wish more people would write in (or send a copy of their artir cle) and voice their displeasure with the airing of the "N" word in all songs. I understand that people need to earn a lively-hood, ^>ut, what I don't understand is how some of us can do it at our expense. You don't hear Hispanic rap groups referring to themselves as "wetbacks" in their songs, or oriental groups referring to themselves as "chinks", so why do we use the term to dehumanize us? We would not accept this if it came from the outgroup, so why do we accept this from our own? What's even more puzzling, is why one would buy the records with the "N" word in the first place. We who are truly African Americans in body, mind and spirit and not just "fad" must "stand up" as Marcus Garvey states an