OPINION/ LETTERS
Winston-Salem Chronicle
Ernest H. Pitt, Pubiisher/Co-founder NdUBISJ EgEMOVYE, Co-Founder
Richard L. Williams, Executive Editor
ElaINX PlTT, Director of Community Relations
MICHAEL A. PITT, Advertising Manager MEL WHITE, Circulation Manager
Editorials _u.
Buying Black this Season
This holiday season, African Americans need to make a
conscious effort to spend more money at African- American
owned businesses. According to the area Chamber of Com
merce, nearly S335 million were spent by all residents at city
and county businesses last month. November is almost
always the highest sales-volume month of the year. A good
portion of that $335 million ? about 20-percent, according? -
to the Chamber's Director of Research Louis Abramovitz ?
came from the pockets of African-Americans. And most of
that $67 million spent by African Americans were spent at
large, white-owned department store chains. A mere pittance
of it went across the counters of black-owned businesses.
Many area African-American businesses continue to suf
fer because African Americans refuse to spend dollars in
their community. Furthermore, many large, department-store
chains take for granted black spending. Some, including Dil
lard's, have been accused of mistreating black employees and
harassing black customers.
Africans Americans must realize the importance of turn
ing a dollar over at least once in the community.
This holiday season, African Americans should pause -
and reflect on the gains they have made as a race in this
country. But they should also reflect on what needs to be
done in order to make future advancements.
Economic viability is the lifeblood to self-preservation of
a people. And who better to ensure that self-preservation
than African Americans themselves. African Americans
should not have to depend on any other race to do for them
what they are capable of doing for themselves. And white
participation should not be the bellwether of African-Ameri
caq viability and success.
*fft&-owrie<f businesses, afid theffefore the African
American community, will always suffer as long as it is per
ceived that the white man's ice is colder.
Gift of Giving
This is the season when hearts are usually filled with love
and helping those in need is bountiful. Many charitable orga
nizations need to see an outpouring of that love and gratuity
in order to fulfill their mission of serving the community's
neediest. The Rescue Mission is one such organization. The
organization brings a holiday cheer into the lives of thou
sands of the area's less fortunate each year. It needs your help
in bringing forth that same effort this holiday season.
The Rescue Mission has placed at 39 businesses and
schools around the city boxes where non-perishable items,
preferably canned goods, can be dropped off. One location
where you can drop off items is the office of the Chronicle at
617 North Liberty Street. The Rescue Mission will collect
the goods on Dec. 16. This year, the Rescue Mission has
served over 86,000 meals; at Thanksgiving alone it served
809 meals and expects to do the same on Christmas day.
Your donations will go a long way toward bringing cheer
to those who feel they have little reason to smile.
__ ^
Credo of the Black Press
The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world
away from antagonisms when it accords to every person ? regardless
of race or creed ? full human and legal rights. Hating no person, the
Black Press strives to help every person, in the firm belief that all are
hurt as long as anyone is held back.
How To Reach Us
722-8624
Production
Kathy Lee, Supervisor
Charlotte Newman
Scarlett Simmons
Karen Hannon
Doug Ritz
Reporters
Mark R. Moss
David Dillard
Micheal Johnson
Circulation
Walter Mickle
Varnell Robinson
Todd Fulton
Patrick Edmunds
Business Office
Lexie Johnson
Crystal Wood
Tamika Hicks
Tamah Gray
Advertising
Carol Daniel
Judie Holcomb-Pack
Audit Bureau ? A
of Circut?tlora
Letter Does Not Tell Whole Truth
To the Editor:
I recently read a letter to the
editor in the Chronicle that disturbs
me ("NAFTA, Tax Hikes, Unions
& Jobs"). Many of your readers
may have wondered who is Peter C.
Holland and why is a man from
Kannapolis concerned about what is
happening in our city. Well, I know
of the author, and of his personal
financial interest in the issues that
he outlines in the letter. Holland
failed to reveal those interests.
Holland criticizes an effort by
workers at Lee Apparel's Winston
Salem plan to join the Teamsters
Union. However, he conveniently
avoided telling the readers that he is
getting paid to oppose the union
campaign.
Peter Holland works for B&C
Associates of High Point. Lee hired
the firm to target its African- Ameri
can employees. B&C advertises
itself as a public relations firm that
counsels companies on "minority
affairs." In reality, it is a firm that
helps large corporations avoid giv
ing their employees decent wages
and working conditions. B&C is
made up of union busters for hire.
B&C is run by Bob Brown. He
has been criticized for selling out
the interests of African-Americans
since he worked for the Nixon
Administration in the 1970s.
Brown's firm now earns large fees
from corporate clients. In turn, he
pays top dollar to ministers, ex-civil
rights leaders, and others who
manipulate the African-Americans
involved in union campaigns.
They did it with Fieldcrest
employees in Kannapolis. They did
it with Tultex workers in Mar
tinsville, Va. Now, they are
attempting to do it with the employ
ees at Lee. What are their methods?
Peter Holland is a minister. He is
using that religious station to ask
Lee employees to consider opposi
tion to labor unions from a spiritual
point of view. Tragically, the work
ers at Tultex and Fieldcrest who
came under B&C's influence find
superior benefits that union
African-Americans enjoy and the
advantage is far greater. Moreover,
union contracts offer legal protec
be a good corporate citizen and give
all of its employees, regardless of
color, the respect, wages, benefits, *
and working conditions that they
CHRONICLE MAILBAG
Our Readers Speak Out
themselves worse off.
Plying workers with food and
drink, Holland and other B&C rep
resentatives gather information
about the workers' problems on the
job. B&C then uses this information
to advise management on what
changes they need to make to defeat
the union in the election. The
changes, however, have proven cos
metic and temporary.
Besides employing ministers,
B&C hires ex-civil rights leaders.
Take the Golden Frinks example.
Once a formidable civil rights
leader, Frinks works for B&C. He
has told workers that the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. opposed
unions. Frinks knows better. Every
sincere student of history knows
that King believed we could not
achieve real social justice and civil
rights without fighting for economic
rights through union organization.
Remember, King was killed
while in Memphis, Tenn., helping a
public employees union win dignity
and fairness for sanitation workers
there. Frinks' comments are not ?
only inaccurate but dishonest, yet
B&C cunningly employs this
approach to cast doubts among
African-American workers about
the value of union organization.
In fact, African-Americans fare
very well with unions. U.S. Depart
ment of Labor statistics show that
the average African-American
union worker earns $146 per week
more than nonunion blacks. Add the
tions and written guarantee that pro
tecst African-American workers
from the injustice and racial dis
crimination that we have suffered
for so long.
My biggest problem with Hol
land, Frinks, Brown, and the others
at B&C is their lack of moral
integrity. B&C's dishonest manipu
lation of African-American workers
is leaving them without solutions to
their serious economic problems.
African-American ministers and
civil rights leaders have always
been in the forefront of the struggle
for better lives. They should not
side with elements who profit from
holding down our people. ? ; -
I am proud to be part of efforts
to bring justice to workers of all
creeds and color in our community.
I have seen first hand how workers
like those at ARA are mistreated
because they have been denied
union representation.
I support the efforts of the
workers at Lee to join the Team
sters Union. Lee has failed to live
up to the promises it made when
city and county officials put up
$330,000 of our tax money to lure
the plant here Regrettably, even
human service officials publically
acknowledge they they do not refer
welfare recipients to Lee because
the pay is so low.
The Winston-Salem commu
nity is best served by pressuring
Lee to live up to its responsibility to
the workers and the city. Lee should
deserve. The company must also
understand that the old divide-and
conquer tactic will not prevail
among African-Americans here
because we will work to reveal the
truth about their methods.
Rev. John Metxftez
Pastor, Emmanual Baptist Church
Unfair Criticism
1 ? To the Editor.
The editorial staff of the
Chronicle did the cause of equitable
law enforcement no good when it
implied, in its lead editorial of Nov.
18th, that Police Chief George
Swear wishes the deaths of African
Americans. Not only is such an
implication preposterous, but it
damages the Chronicle's credibility
among all the citizens of Winston
Salem. There was a time when
Chronicle readers could expect rea
soned, rati6r\al, dispassionate edito
rials on questions of fairness and
social justice. Now, it seems, read
ers must be subjected to knee-jerk
harangues that are long on personal
< vitriol and short on substance. A
convincing case can be made for
police reform without resorting to
ridiculous charges of genocidal ten
dencies in the Police Department.
Andy NUstoci
Bank^ Wider Pressure Over Lending Bias
Despite long-standing laws and regulations
banning bias in lending, African-Americans con
tinue to face discrimination in home mortgage
loans or loans to start or expand a small business. ?
Finally, the federal government seems ready
to apply the kind of tough pressures that get
lenders' attention.
Last month the Federal Reserve Board
refused to approve a big New England bank's
purchase of a smaller bank because it is under
investigation for possible violations of the fair
lending laws.
This is the first time that has happened. In
the past, evidence of lending discrimination has
been treated like crossing against a red light ? a
minor infraction that could be ignored.
Now, it is being treated as a major offense
that will prevent banks from implementing such
strategic business plans as mergers or acquisi
tions.
That should make their executives sit up and
take notice,, but the irony is that very often those
senior executives have framed strong anti-dis
crimination policies and programs.
But they haven't been able to get those prin
ciples embedded in their corporate cultures, and
unless branch loan officers change their behav
iors the best-sounding policies are doomed to
failure.
Some of those bias behaviors may be uncon
scious, since racial stereotyping is so pervasive
that lenders may think they are objective when in
fact they set the bar higher for minorities.
As a result, in 1992, application for mort
gages by African-Amercians were rejected at
Whre I1w Coming From
more than double the white rate ? about 36 per
cent for blacks versus 16 percent for whites.
The discriminatory pattern holds for appli
cants with similar incomes and credit histories.
And very often white applicants who might oth
erwise be turned down for loans will get advice
and help to qualify while minorities are simply
rejected.
The new mood of activist government
enforcement is having a healthy effect.
Many banks are hiring minority staff, adjust
ing loan criteria and working with community
based organizations such as the Urban League to
help applicants qualify for loans and to review
procedures that discourage minority applicants.
We can expect
that trend to accelerate
The Office of the Comptroller of the Cur
rency, for example, is examining mortgage
lenders to determine whether their practices have
a "disparate impact" on minorities.
Evidence indicating discrimination is turned
over to the Justice Department for possible pros
ecution, and that agency is itself initiating inves
tigations that could lead to prosecution.
The Department of Housing and Urban
Development make ending racial discrimination
a priority, and is using white and minority
"testers" to apply for mortgages to see if they are
treated alike.
So the message is getting out loud and clear,
that the anti-discrimination laws can no longer be
after the Federal
Reserve Board's
action.
In 1993, there
have been over 320
bank mergers and buy
outs totaling over $20
billion. As the industry
continues its trend
TO BE EQUAL
By JOHN E. JACOB
toward consolidation,
even those huge numbers will rise.
With the stakes that high, it would be incred
ibly irresponsible for bank management to risk
losing a merger opportunity because some loan
officers at faraway branches let prejudice guide
business decisions.
But even more is at stake, for other federal
agencies are getting into the act.
broken at will.
Now the government should be as vigilant in
enforcing community lending mandates, so that
the credit squeeze that chokes off investment in
low income neighborhoods can be overcome.
(John Jacob is president of the National
Urban League.)
By Barbara Brandon
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