(
The Bosnian Quagmire
Like most Americans, I am torn about what
our government should do to end the slaughter of
innocents in Bosnia.
There is the emotional tug of wanting to
send massive force to impose peace. The insane
orgy of murder and rape cannot be allowed to
continue. A civilized world has to stop it.
The memory of Nazi Germany's genocidal
murder of Europe's Jews while the world silently
watched is a constant goad to action.
But there are other considerations clamoring
w for attention. Should we allow media coverage to
determine foreign policy? After all, this world
has many Bosnias and we don't hear about them.
And African Americans contrast the concern
about "ethnic cleansing* ^
But if it becomes enmeshed in a nasty war in
the former Yugoslavia, the economy and the
Administration's most precious goals may go
down the drain.
So when all is weighed, this may be, as
many say, the wrong war in the wrong place at
the wrong time.
But that doesn't mean we can just sit on the
sidelines. In the absence of willing allies to stop
the fighting, we can still take the lead in pressing
for a total embargo on the Serbs and other
aggressors.
And we should be clear about identifying
"ethnic cleansing" with the crime of genocide
and insist on its punishment. The U.N. ought to
amass evidence of war crimes and eventually
in Bosnia with the
worldwide indifference
to it when it was prac
ticed against blacks by
white South Africa.
Another considera
? tion is whether we can
do anything construc
TO BE EQUAL
John E. Jacob
tive or whether American intervention will just
prolong the civil war and allow the violence to
continue.
Whatever President Clinton decides, he is
faced with the public's doubts that there are com
pelling national interests at stake that would jus
tify such a commitment of troops and resources."
There's another factor that worries me most
Whether justified or not. American intervention
could lead to another Vietnam ? an endless
guerrilla war in a hostile environment.
The Clinton Administration faces a serious
political dilemma too ? it wa> elected to renew
the faltering American economy" and put it on a
long-term growth trajectory^ ?
hold an international trial.
Serbia and, if the evidence warrants, Croatia
and other guilty new nations, should be barred by
the U.N. and from international bodies until they
turn their war crimes offenders ? including their
_ leader? over to the designated UN body^AncL
stiff embargoes should be applied to Serbia and
any other aggressor.
The U.S. can join that U.N. effort to punish
the guilty, even as it avoids becoming ensnared
in the Bosnian quagmire. Bosnia presents the
President with the most painful challenge of his
young administration, and it will takejcourage-to '
steer a course that is both-mofalTy and practically
NAACP and the Black Press
\ r 1 t
In the more than 15 years* F have been privi
leged to serve as the executive director/CEO of
the NAACP, the nation's oldest, largest and
most effective civil rights organization, 1 have
found that one of our staunchest allies, one of
our most enduring friends., lias been (he Black
Press. . 4>
This was certainly not new knowledge, for I
cannot remember a time in my more than six
decades on this earth and since I mastered the
art of reading, that I have not been aware of the
power of the Black Press, or the gteat debt we
African Americans owe to this unique institu
tion which for over 150 years has waged a
ceaseless war on our behalf
. My earliest exposure to the Black Press
came as a child in my hometown o1 Memphis,
where I both read alTd^sotd the TrhSrare
tied for first place with an 87 percent approval
rating.
That is hardly the mark of an institution that
has lost ground or is in any way irrelevant to the
needs of African Americans.
Over the past decade and a half, the
NAACP, your NAACP, has achieved a truly
amazing number of legislative and judicial vic
tories, fought racism and discrimination on
every front, pioneered with new innovative pro
grams aimed at correcting social problems
affecting our communities, made it possible for
billions of dollars of fresh economic benefits to
be channeled into the pockets of African Ameri
cans. and fostered educational excellence and
pride among our young people.
For 1 2 of the years I have served as the
NAACP's executive director, we have a hostile
Defender , beginning a
relationship that has
lasted and been
enriched through ot^
the years.
As I prepare to
retire from the
NAACP, I have cause
to reflect on how so
GUEST COLUMNIST
By BENJAMIN L. HOOKS
many of our institutions ? and I speak specifi
cally of the Black Press and the NAACP ? are
so often taken for granted, with the good deeds
they have achieved so frequent Is unappreciated
or even discounted.
In the instance of the NAACP. one of the
most frustrating challenges I have faced over
these years has been to counteract the misinfor
mation that has appeared in much ot the general
media about the work of this organization.
Much too often, the NAACP has been por
trayed in this media as being out of date and out
of step with today s world. Conversely, it has
been the Black Press that has understood what
we have been about and brought to its readers a
more accurate rendering of our stewardship of
this venerated institution.
In so doing, the Black Press has kept alive
.the noble tradition, begun With the fir^t black
newspaper. Freedom's Journal, in l&2"\ when
its editor set forth its purpose as providing a
medium for African Americans to tell their own
story, not leaving this task to the often
unfriendly hands of others.
This purpose remains as valid and needed
as it ever has been. A telling example of why
this is so can be found in a public opinion poll
taken several months ago by a daily newspaper
chain.
After sampling well over 1 .000 adults on a
nationwide basis, it used screaming headlines to
trumpet its alleged discovery that the NAACP
had run out of steam and fallen into disfavor
among its constituents, who had lost the faith.
However, once a reader gut past the nega
tive headlines and looked at the Yesults of the
poll, it was apparent that an entirely false
impression had been conveyed.
When the respondents were asked to list the
most effective institutions within their commu
nities, the black church and the N XACP were
White House under Reagan and Bush; a radi
cally conservative Supreme Court chomping at
the bit to turn back the clock; and the ominous
growth of a particular ugly brand of racism cen
tered on attacks on affirmative action and' other
efforts to redress past racial wrongs.
Such an array of toes wouIcTsurely have
taxed the patience of Job, but despite the odds
against us, the victories of the NAACP, often in
collaboration with other groups, have been
many including the Civil Rights Bill of 1991,
the Fair Housing Amendments, the South
African Sanctions Bill, the Civil Rights Restora
tion Act, the Martin Luther King Holiday Bill,
among others.
Through our membership j?i over 500,000
and our network of some 1 ,800 adult branches,
college chapters and youth councils, the
NAACP has been engaged in a daily battle on
the front lines to protect and defend the rights
and best interests of African Americans.
In a five-year period, our Fair Share Pro
gram. which has developed agreements with
more than 50 major corporations, has been
responsible for SI 8 million in contributions to
African- American organizations; $10 billion in
the purchase of goods and services from minor
ity entrepreneurs; $1.2 billion deposited in
African-American banking institutions; $75 mil
lion expended in advertising in African- Ameri
can media; $36 billion in insurance placed with
African-American insurance firms; $200 million
in construction contracts to African- American
firms: and 60 franchise/dealerships or distribu
torships.
As impressive as the preceding citations
are, they represent only a very small part of
what the NAACP has accomplished over the
past decadc and a half, with the support and
understanding of the major institutions within
the African-American community ? and that
most assuredly embraces the Black Press.
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