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Role Models for Our Young People
. It's become common to cite star entertainers
and alhtatas as role models for our young peo
ple, far good reason.
Such outstanding individuals excel because
of their great talent, their hard work and their
ability to focus on the essentials, all worthy traits
oar young people should emulate.
And most athletes and entertainers have to
be able to work with
and visibly supporting self-development of the
community.
But Charles Barkley also has a strong point
If many adults did their parenting as well as he
plays basketball, more of our youngsters would
be more firmly on the right path.
We should face up to the fact that a lot of
youngsters grow up without the values and the
others toward a com
mon goal, either on a
sports team or on a
movie set ? another
trait necessary for
young people 10 master.
Unfortunately, too J
TO BE EQUAL
By JOHN E. JACOB
many youngsters focus
- on the huge sharks and
celebrity status, and not on the long hours of
turd work required to develop their talents. Oth
ers are stuck in fantasies of stardom that can
only be fulfilled by a small handful.
Sometimes, entertainers and athletes are
themselves confused about what roles they
AoaUplay.
For example, basketball ace Karl Malone
write* in Sports Illustrated that accepting "... the
glory and money that comes with being a
famous athlete" comes "the responsibility of
being a role model, of knowing that kids and
even some adults are watching us and looking
for us to set an example."
Bui superstar Charles Barkley created quite
a controversy by saying: "I'm not a role model. I
am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to
wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents
should be role models. Just because I dunk a
basketball doesn't mean I should raise your
kids."
They're both right
Karl Makme's view exemplifies the Biblical
saying thai to whom much is given, much is
required. By virtue of their celebrity status, stars
are role models, whether they like it or not.
There are implicit responsibilities that come with
the territory, and they should try to help influ
ence young people for thebetter.
They can be powerful forces for good by
helping kids to stay in school, working with
community groups to improve neighborhoods,
commitment to make it in this society.
Sure, there's plenty of blame to go around
? racism, discrimination, unemployment and
more. But too many of us take comfort in those
excuses for failure.
? However real those obstacles are, solid role
'models can show our young people that they can
be overcome and how to do it What really
counts is developing one's self to overcome the
challenges, not developing one's excuses for
flailing them.
I recall that when I was growing up, our role
models weren't famous athletes. They were our
teachers, who taught us we have to be twice as
good as other people to make it in a hostile envi
ronment ? and showed us.
They were local business people and profes
sionals, who demonstrated by example what it
took to get ahead.
And they werenour parents and neighbors,
who, by word and deed, instilled solid values
and strict, high standards.
If celebrities have become role models these
days, it is in part because many of the rest of us
have defaulted in our obligations to the younger
generation.
So more of us ought to be involved in com
munity activities, in school and church activities,
and in working closely with youngsters.
They need all the positive role models they
can get. And the stakes are loo high for us to opt
out
Who Do Black Politicians Represent?
. When the political description "liberal" is
used by the mainstream media, it now refers
exclusively to black Democrats and, to a lesser
extent, white and black feminists.
And liberal causes are now relegated to
such social welfare issues as increasing the very
"entitlement** programs that are driving the debt
and the interest on the debt (your family's share
is about $50,000 as of this week ? and grow
ing) ? without limiting even their growth or
cutting the political pork payoffs that hide in the
so-called "stimulus" bills.
So it's not hard to understand why budget
conscious White America and a handful of
blacks see the liberal
Congressional Black
Democratic Caucus as
a group representing
fringe issues. The
result is that liberal
blacks, virtually all
black politicians, are
an increasingly mar
ginal force in American politics ? despite the
numerical increase in black elected officials.
Most of them will blame racism for their
political isolation, but a closer look will show
their politics to be the real culprit.
The flip side of this concern is the question:
Are blacks in Congress representing thelegiti
male interest of the black community or white
liberal causes? Case in point: abortion.Last
week, blacks in Congress, allegedly defending
the rights of poor black women to get an abor
tion, pot on a television show not seen since the
Anita Hill - Clarence Thomas soap opera.
According to the Washington Post , "tem
pers flared" after Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a
black Democrat from Georgia, said she had
1 "just about had it** with the white men, Republi
can and Democrat, who were backing a "dis
criminatory policy against poor women who
happen to be disproportionately black."
After the hisses died down. Rep. Henry
Hyde (R-Ill.), sponsor of the 1977 Hyde amend
ment, which has limited government payments
for abortion to saving the life of a woman and
now wants it amended to include federal funds
for rape and incest victims, responded to the
wwi|wH chorus:
?>
"We tell poor women, 'You can't have a
Job, you can't have a good education, you can't
have a decent place to live. I'll tell you what
we'll do. Well give you a free abortion because
there are too many of you people and we want
to, ldnda refine, refine the breed.' "
Essentially, Hyde said what black people
are saying everywhere. The system prefers dead
black babies to radically changing the condi
tions which could make them successful as liv
ing human beings.
But the double standard doesn't permit a
white, and certainly not a Republican white man
like Hyde, to say what many, if not most, black
people believe. So the black liberals tried to shut
him up with the worn-out tactic of "racism.**
"At that point,** the Post said, "an angry
Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-IU.) rose and grabbed
the nearest microphone. Tm offended by that
type of debate.' 44
TONY BROWN
Syndicated Columnist
"I'm going to direct my friend (Collins) to a
few (black) ministers who will tell her just what ?
goes on in her community," an tmintimidated
Hyde shot back.
"Several other black female lawmakers
quickly got out of their seats and tried unsuc
cessfully to respond. During a subsequent pro
cedural vote, tempers still raged as several black
women screamed at Hyde," the Post observed.
Then the abortion-on-demand black
women's lobby turned on white male Democrats
as well in what the Post story called "a bizarre
kind of chaos on the House floor.**
Are these black politicians in step with the
abortion-rights movement or the black commu
nity? The answer is readily at hand.
A poll by Home Box Office and the Joint
Center for Political and Economic Studies, a
black think tank, proves that most blacks flunk
the ideological abortion litmus test of these lib
eral feminists. Almost a majority, 47 percent of
blacks, believe that abortions should be legal
only under "some circumstances** ? conditions
very similar to the revised Hyde amendment
Only 32 percent said abortions should be legal
under any circumstance, whenever you want
one at government expense, as the black politi
cians want for poor black women.
That's why these outraged black politicians
will not make these same abortion-when-you
want-it demands in the black churches, where
they must go to get re-elected.
The Joint Center's study also found that 33
percent of blacks consider their political views
to be "conservative,** 31 percent "moderate,**
and only 28 percent "liberal.**
So who does this tin-cup brigade of fringe
liberals represent?
? * *
African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela speaks in New York at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn
recently. Mandela began a two-week visit of the United States in which he will cross paths with South Africa President F.W.
de Klerk.
Independence Day is Not for Blacks
This week, America underwent another orgy of patriotism,
celebrating a Declaration of Independence that proclaimed that
"all men are created equal.** Of course, women were left out of
the declaration as were Africans and indigenous people. Two
hundred and seventeen years after the signing of this celebrated
document, the sons and daughters of Africa have yet to experi
ence the full measure of freedom and equality in this land.
Over a century ago,, the noted abolitionist and African Ameri
can leader, Frederick Douglass, asked the question, "What is
your Fourth of July to me?" That questions is as pertinent
today as it was in the time of Frederick Douglass.
- ... Despite all the "progress" that black people are
supposed to have made, black people are still vic
timized by racism and genocide. Because some
blacks have been permitted to live the good life,
White America expects, even demands, that black
people be silent in the face of racism and genocide.
Since the feeling is that any gains made by African""
Americans have been granted based oo the good wilt & white
folks, black people should be appropriately appreciative of
what white folks have given up on our behalf. It would appear
that white supremacy is still the dominant world view for a
majority of white Americans who see America as a white
nation. In that regard, things have not significantly changed
since Africans were ignored in the Declaration of Indepen
dence and written into the Constitution as 3/5 of a human
being. Now that we have blacks in prominent positions in
many areas of American society, there is the illusion of
progress. In reality, we are still 3/5 of a human being as a col
lective community.
Even as President Clinton was withdrawing the Lani
Guinier nomination, (for fear of provoking a divisive racial
debate) the nation's newspapers were filled with reports of the
existence of discrimination based on the color line of this
nation. Denny's restaurant chain and S honey's were both iden
tified as businesses whose affiliates had discriminated against
their black customers. A report in USA Today cited an incident
in Alexandria, Va., where a black woman was denied a room at
a major hotel because of her color. When the white woman
who was traveling with her went into the same establishment to
request a room, she was immediately permitted to register. That
same week, the Washington Post carried a very extensive story
detailing raeial discrimination in mortgage lending in the
greater D.C. metropolitan area. No matter how much politi
cians like Bill Clinton would like to ignore it, racial discrimina
tion is still very prevalent in American society.
There is also growing resentment of the fact that African
Americans are still pressing for civil rights laws and affirma
tive action fio remedy the damages of past and present segrega
tion and discrimination. Jet magazine published the results of a
survey that clearly indicate that young whites are particularly
resentful of the persistent complaints about racism voiced by
African Americans. White resentment is boiling over into inci- .
dents of racial violence and resistance to any policy or program
that is perceived as being primarily beneficial to blacks and
GUEST COLUMNIST
By RON DANIELS
minorities. The dominant view expressed by white Americans
is that they have given up enough.
The impact of racism in American society, however, goes
far beyond the kindness of inconveniences and indignities that
are associated with the denial of access to public accommoda
tions or fair treatment at the lunch counter. The most devastat
ing impact of past and present segregation and discrimination is
found in the job market, in the educational system and in eco
nomically depressed neighborhoods. Black people are being
destroyed by a callous system which has abandoned the black
poor as expendable. Inferior education, chronic unemployment,
environmental pollution, inadequate housing and inadequate
health facilities are among the multiplicity of plagues ruining
life within inner-city black communities.
African Americans cannot give in to the expectations that
we be silent in the face of racism and genocidc. Wc must not
let our people suffer peacefully. Nor can those of us who have
been permitted to prosper afford to forget or abandon our less
fortunate sisters and brothers. An injustice to any African per
son anywhere is an injustice to every African everywhere.
Hence we must continue to stridently charge racism and geno
cide and struggle to amass the economic and political power to
break the hold of white supremacy over our lives once and for
all. America and its Fourth of July can never have meaning for
African Americans until the festering cancer of racism has been
eradicated from the American system.
VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
Across the country, the debate continues on whether high schools should provide condoms to students as measures
against disease and teen-age pregnancy. The Chronicle asked city residents whether schools should take that step. Here
. are their responses: .
EU Watts, 22
Bowman Gray student
"Schools should pro
vide condoms because peo
ple (have sex) anyway, and
it demonstrates AIDS
awareness. It doesn't
encourage teens to have
Mildred Edwards, 32
PPG of Lexington
"Yes, with parental
consent, because youth have
sex anyway. Even though
they go behind their par
ents* becks without permis
sion, they still need to be
protected. M
Karen Perry, 19
Gemstone Jewelry
"Yes and no. Yes,
because we can't tell our
teens not to engage in sex.
No, because we are actually
telling kids that it is okay to
have sex."
I "B'8I
Eugene Smith, 24
R.J, Reynolds Tohacco Co.
"Yes, definitely. Teens
already know the basics of
sex, especially with televi
sion hyping it up. In the
1950s and '60s, television
was not like that"