Forum
Success-Seeking Blacks Should
Discard Foes and Hangups
Two puzzling and disturbing questions
confront parents and teachers of young, ambi
tious, Black adults. They are:
1. Why do Black college students from
Insofar as Black students are concerned,
the big cities of the south seem to have public
school teachers and community dispositions
simiIar4a those^4n the small Northern towns^
Milan luwns in
the North usu
ally perform bet
ter academically
and socially than
Black students
from big cities I
in the North? |
2. Why do
Black college students from big cities in the
South usually perform better academically and
socially than Black students from small towns
in the South?
One answer to the first question is said to
be the availability of good teachers in small
towns in the North. Small-town Northern
teachers tend to be well-respected, seasoned
pillars of their community ? veteran, solid
practitioners of their craft, their self-esteem
and community appreciation interacting to
produce a dedicated and hard-working servant
proud of his or her student output. Generally,
the only private schools are Catholic and they
usually supply teachers who give the same
dedication and receive the same appreciation.
The teachers in the big Northern cities,
however, tend to be less dedicated to their pro
fession for several reasons. Frequently they
' are not well-known, established pillars of their
community, buuare anonymous, short-term
^ilTsTns~witlTshbrt-range goals ? transient
persons with no real allegiance to the local
persons and institutions. Frequently, White ?
teachers sent to predominantly Black schools
are insensitive to the Black student's needs
and aspirations and are handicapped by stereo
typical thinking reinforced by B4ack students'
ghetto behavior.
Too many Black students in the Northern
big cities do not have the values and priorities
that help them academically or psychologi
cally across the bridge to Mainstream America
unless they are the product of well oriented or
well-educated parents.
The Black students in the small Northern
cities seem to have integrated more thoroughly
into the behavior patterns and value systems of
middle-class Blacks and Mainstream America.
These assets are very conducive to good col
lege work and to success in life.
MINORITY REPORT
By JAMES E. ALSBROOK, Ph.D.
Possibly this similarity arises because Blacks
in the big Southern cities tend to form rather
homogeneous enclaves of like-minded people
having similar goals, aspirations and values.
Young Blacks trapped in ghettos and others
"locked out" of success in small Southern
towns are losses to all Blacks.
Perhaps a Black person trapped in a
Northern city ghetto or in a small Southefti
town can realize his dream by getting a new
start in another place with public policies and
traditions based on human equality. These
places really do exist. These small cities usu
ally are inhabited by people whose ancestors
were despised or rejected in Europe ? inde
pendent, self-reliant people who hated human
slavery ? people who admire other humans
for their industry, integrity, intelligence and
dependability.
Just as millions of poor, rejected people
from Europe and elsewhere came to American
lands and made them bloom even less than
100 years ago, so can American Blacks who
want equality and freedom for their children
and themselves go to smaller towns and begin
anew either alone of with people who value
work and integrity more than they question
skin color. Living and working in a friendly,
congenial climate of public behavior and com
munity opinion can do much to reverse many
Black persons' fruitless, aimless paths to
nowhere and redeem the Black man's innate
goodness and faith in himself and in others.
We did not get the 40 acres and a mule
after the Civil War, but we can devise a way to
get "new ideas" or "head starts" for our less- :
fortunate kinsmen who have not revived them
selves from the heinous nightmare and conta
gious culture of personhood - destroying
slavery.
Reno's Mandate: Civil Rights
It has taken a long time for the United
States to confirm unanimously a person to be a
Attorney General of the United States. Presi
dent Clinton's choice of Ms. Janet Reno to be
the nation's first female Attorney General was
a sound judgement call given the political
polarization that snrronnrifri the othpr potential
candidates.
mend that one of the many gallant civil rights
lawyers in the nation be chosen to be Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights. In recent
years we have witnessed across the nation a
resurgence of racially motivated violence,
resegregation of public schools in many school
districts, hyper&egregation in housmg. and the
overall retrenchment of civil rights enforce
National
attention is now
focused appropri
ately on the lead
ership team that
Attorney General
Reno will bring to
the U.S. Depart
I
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR.
ment of Justice. We believe that the key posi
tion* for Deputy, Associate, and Assistant
Attorney General should be filled by persons
who have experience and a demonstrated
record of effective commitment to ensuring
equal protection under the law and a strong
record of enforcing federal civil rights laws.
Racial discrimination still exists in the
United States across a wide array of social
concerns and institutions. Racism is alive and
well and there is renewed necessity for the
U.S. Department of Justice to speak and act
for the cause of racial justice.
After the Senate confirmed Reno in a his
toric 98 to 0 vote. President Clinton and Sen
ate Judiciary Committee Chair, Sen. Joseph
Biden, were elated with the conclusion of the
confirmation process. Given the past ques
tionable actions of the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee on racial and civil rights matters, espe
cially during the Clarence Thomas hearings,
the confirmation of Reno gives the status quo
an important advance in the quest for justice
for women of which we fully support.
Racism and sexism are twin evils that
should be consistently challenged. Once
" again, however, we must be steadfast in our
demands for racial justice within the Depart
ment of Justice. There is no better time than
now for the Clinton Administration to send a
clear and priority message to the nation con
cerning the future of civil rights advocacy.
Attorney General Reno should recom
<
ment by the federal government
The Civil Rights Division of the Justice
Department should play a leading role in chal
lenging the old and new forms of racial dis
crimination in the United States. But this will
not happen if the leadership of the Civil Rights
Movement does not demand greater civil
rights enforcement from Reno and the Clinton
Administration.
Reno was quoted as saying, "The first
agenda item is to build a Department of Jus
tice, to bring on the best possible people to
create a team that reflects America, that repre
sents the best in their various areas, and move
forward with that department." We support
this goal. Now the mandate is to fulfill the
necessity for racial diversity at the top of the
Department of Justice.
Our increasingly becoming a multiracial
society demands stronger civil rights protec
tion for all persons and communities, in partic
ular those communities that have had to bear
the history of America's racial exploitation
and discrimination.
*
President Clinton needs to hear a strong
unified voice on this issue. Attorney General
Reno needs to respond with an aggressive pol
icy and action to enforce fairly, equally and
forcefully our nation's civil rights laws. The
racial divide in the nation demands action
now.
CORNSLL '
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