Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Dec. 16, 1993, edition 1 / Page 13
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FORUM Isn't It Time to Legalize Drugs? African -Americans have the power within . sidelines. Whites use eight time more drugs themselves to start helping our children make than we do, but our young black men are the urban streets safe for them, and us, again. The ones who are paying the price for drugs. It's a violent crime sweeping our cities is uncon- proven fact the marijuana, cocaine and heroin scionable and blacks have to be the one to step are no more dangerous or addictive than alco forward and say "this foolishness has to stop " hoi or nicotine. If we allow the sale of drugs in now." Too many of our so-called "leaders" are controlled quantities, as we now do with alco going along with this genocide in order to per- hoi and nicotine, the economic incentive and sonally "get along" in American society. The violence associated with these products would government's War on Drugs is not working and disappear immediately. we are the ones that are losing an entire genera- The War on Drugs has been a dismal fac tion because of it. As thousands of young black ure. Though the rate of incarceration for drug males die by guns, and languish in jails, black dealers has quadrupled over the past 16 years, America remains paralyzed and our preachers, drug trafficking, and its associated fury, have politicians and media seekers, stand around not gone wanting. Starting talks on legalizing with comments, like "Just Say No!" drugs wouldn't be a new thing for us to do. The While middle-class blacks are trying to European country of Holland has had legalized show whites that they believe in American values," d | BUSINESS EXCHANGE l ?-? ? ? ? ? black inner-city areas are virtual war zones. Most of By WILLIAM REED the urban violence can be directly attributed to drug dealing. The quick money associated with selling drugs, coupled with the lack of opportunity available to young black men, has pushed more and more African American males over the edge of current laws. Even given the inherent dangers of drug profi teering, one of every four African-American male youth is immersed in the court and jail system. The lure of "living large" from the bil lions in drug dealing has proven too tempting for many to resist. Blacks need to remember that during the 1920s, prohibition spawned the same type of violent upheaval we are witnessing now. There was one distinct difference however ? then it was white-on-white crime. What did Ameri cans do? They replaced prohibition, not because drinking was such a moral situation, but because the specter of whites killing whites wholesale became unacceptable xo TJociety. In the 1990s, we have blacks killing other blacks, in volume, over drugs and drug turfs, while the majority of whites are simply sitting on the drugs for some time. Other European countries are in vaiying stages of decriminalizing drugs. ? Be it Africa, South America, Asia, or any other place on the planet, we are the only people who are suffering the side effects of drugs in such a manner. From the perspective of many blacks truly concerned about crime in our society, it is time to start discussions on whether legaliza tion is a solution to our problem. Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schomke has suggested that we start talks on the subject. And many other blacks say "go further" and discuss how the African-American community can benefit from the commercial, and regulated, sale of certain drugs. It is sheer folly for us to continue to go along with people who are not suffering from The effects of the war on drugs as we are. Black American must consider legalizing drugs in regulated amounts so the killing fieldsor urban American can become a distant memory. (William Reed is a national freelance columnist .) . Why Dinkins Lost: Part I To much of American, New York City is identified as a bastion of liberal politics, multi * culturalism and social permissiveness. Regis tered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a five-to-one margin. Conventional wisdom declared that the probability of a Reagan repub lican being elected mayor of New York was something like Fidel Castro's chances of being elevated as mayor of Miami. Yet political appearances are deceiving. The defeat of incumbent Democratic Mayor David Dinkins of New York by former Reagan administration Associate Attorney General Rudolph Giuliani should have been a major shock. But the sad truth is that David Dinkins was the first, and probably will be the last African-American mayor, for a least a decade. Dinkins had spent a lifetime preparing for the job, progressing quietly from Harlem assemblyman to city clerk to Manhattan bor ough president and finally mayor in 1989. Always well-attired, he carefully cultivated an image of cautious optimism. He. advanced coalition politics rather than confrontations, and developed strong ties with the city's large Jewish com munity. His style as problem of daily life for which the mayor had little or nor responsibility or control. On the eve of the election, a NeW York Times/ WCB$-TVU study declared that 59 percent of all New York ers interviewed "thought life in the city got worse during the Dinkins years." Another thirty percent judged the quality of life to be "the same", with only 8 percent claiming that things had improved. Dinkins' reputation as a racial healer soured with the Crown Heights disturbances, with the failure of the mayor to act decisively. But in the end, what really destroyed Dinkins* chances for re-elections was the omnipresent specter of race. When President Clinton came to town last month and said what was obvi ously true ? that many white Americans have difficulty voting for people who are racially different from themselves ? the critics went ballistic. New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal blustered that Clinton and Dinkins "ought to spare us piety about voting across ALONG THE COLOR LINE By Dr. MANNING MARABLE a conciliator repre sented a sharp departure form the provocative manner of his demagogic prede cessor as mayor. Ed Koch. But Dinkins never lived up to most white voter's expectations. True, there were some positive initiatives by his administration, such as the establishment of thirteen walk-in health care center for the poor. His low-income hous ing rehabilitation program was the nation's largest, with 1 7,000 units which were available in the past year. But in only four years, the city lost more than 300.000 jobs, and the mayor was the logical public figure to blame. Critics began to point to one thousand and one example of New York's social disintegra tion and escalating violence: the alarming fact that there were 5,761 violent incidents in New York's schools last year, and that one out of five high school student now regularly carry weapons in the classroom; that between Jan. through Oct., 1993, 362 black people under the age of 21 were murdered by other blacks in the city: that 125,000 black people under the age of 21 were murdered by other blacks in the city; that 125,000 New York residents are estimated to be infected with HIV, and more than 50,000 diagnosed with AIDS to date, creating a mas sive public health crisis; that 5,700 homeless families in the city are in shelters, an increase of 1.700 since Dinkins assumed the mayor's office; and that the city's immediate budget deficit was between S250 to S750 million. Eventually, people blamed Dinkins for the color lines." But as noted political scientist Andrew Hacker explained: "(Giuliani) stands I for turning the city back to white New Yorkers. He doesn't even have to say it. When he talks about crime and the life, white people know | what he means." In effect, Giuliani's goal was j to construct a white united front, with sufficient numbers of Hispanics and others to create an electoral majority. He succeeded. Exit polls show that Giuliani won 75 percent of the white vote citywide. He won 85 percent of the white Catholic voters, 62 percent of all voters who earn SI 00.000 or more annually, and two-thirds of all voters over age sixty. Significantly, sixty percent of all voters who had been victims of crimes voted for Giuliani. With the loss of Dinkins, African- Ameri can have been defeated or removed as mayor of four of the five largest cities in the nation. Whites in large numbers are refusing to vote j for black politicians who genuinely try to empower their communities. And those blacks who win election are frequently "postblack" or deracialized politicians, such as Norm Rice of. Seattle or Michael White of Cleveland, who don't challenge the status quo. The question blacks are now asking themselves is whether "coalition politics" remains viable. (Manning Marble is professor of history and political science and director of the African-American Studies Institute at Colum bia University in New York City.) Doonesbury Sir, you'rb ooino to have to 5P5AK TO 7HB FACULTY AGAIN ABOUT 6RAP5 INFLATION. S1ANQAPQS AP3 JUST fALUNOOFfTHB CHART BY GARRY TRUDEAU 3 RACIST? BUT.., BUT YGU'RZUJHrrt / UJea.OKAY, TECHNICALLY, BUTISTIU. FeeiMAR GNAUZBP! THIS B* IS JURQN6, MAN' iOi/FB PISStN' MB HERB 016 TIME! t MR.SLOCUM, I MERELY GAVE YOU THE GRAPE YOUPB servbp. \ rrs not just anpmhat ME, MAN! WHEN COMMUNITY YOU GIVE ME A WOUUPTHAT eoGus&we, ? be.mr. YOWRB SH0W/N6 CUMT PGRBSPECTFOR \ my whole commun CAN'T Be, AS WAS YOURBN MAN' T/RB FIRST PROOF, THIS IS IN WHICH YOU. MAY OFF HEW THE SQUARE base' root of m wbf WELL, SURE, from A NARROW, ABSO LUTIST, BUROCEN TRJC PERSPECTIVE, MAYBE IT'S 1Z. SO? SO MY CULTURE TEACHES ITS 13, MAN' FASONKTINe, WOULPTHtSBE ANAPVANCEP CIVILIZATION *. X fZ-23 MY FRATERNITY, ? BUTARENT MAN! NHICH MEANS I FRATBRNI A IOT MORE TO ME THAN A BUNCH OF A CALLEV DEAPGRBBK GEEKS U KB PYTHAGORAS, ARCH/MEPBS ANP HYPOT ENUSE1 BACK OFF, MAN. WE'RE Alr REAPY TALKING MAJOR IN - SENSITIVITY. OKAY * PLUS. THIS, GRAPE MESSES ME UP 10/TH B-SCHOOLS, SO MY L/FB IS, LIKE, \ ^ NJINBP ! y2uc6>i HEY,,. POBSTtife YO' YOU GOON IN WOLim WHAT OTHER PE sue wmrrmrmi^? I man1 THINK I \ COULP I THINK fTS BECAUSE I'M A MBMBER OF THE FRATERNITY COMMUNITY1 TM BEING VICTIM I ZEP BY YOUR LOW EXPEC TATIONS' ANP THAT'S NOT FAIR, MAN.., JULES! LUHATtALL THIS ABOUT &V/N6 OUT A IQUJ GRAPE TO A STUDENT* tOE'VE JUST BEEN SLAPPEP WITH A *5 MILLION LAW sum As THE KIP SAYS HE'S BEEN ujuat? "STIGMATIZE?" BY HIS LOW GRAPE, MH/CH PER PETUATES A VICIOUS 'STEREOTYPE' OF HIS CULTURE ? IT'S A GREEK THING -YOU li/OULPNT UN PERSTANP. UJELLfHELP ME OUT. ARE YOU SOME SORT OF ATHLETE7 SIR., HIS CULTURE 19 A FRA TERNITY. \ \ UJRON6. ITS THE "GRECO AMERICAN ATHLETIC COMMUNITY. ? / Doonesbury BY GARRY TRUDEAU No Thanks, I Don't Care for Another Cookie Do you remember the word Oreo? And no I am not talking about the cookie. I am talking about the term that is derogatory and is meant to suggest that a black person has lost sight of his or her identity. Today, black middle-class and upper-class par ents find that raising a black child poses special challenges. How do you live in the communities of mainstream white America and give your children the African American identity he or she needs? Children are smart little cookies and most experts agree that an African - American has to be aware that the mainstream white society often prejudges African-American people as inferior in many ways, thildrens will emulate those things in their environment that they find, impression able, and in the communities of mainstream white America they will not find much, if anything, to build a strong and positive foundation for themselves about their African -American culture. I've known some who've learned to accept stereotype of their own people, not realizing that as African-American children raised in the middle-and upper-class of mainstream American they could easily find themselves faced with the dilemma of being too black in the eyes of whites jarKtnot-black enough in the eyes of blacks. As parents, it is your responsibility to expose your children to their culture and teach them that because of their culture diversity they may truly be different from their African- Ameri can peers. In school, your child may be chided by African American classmates because his or her diction and tone is far too proper, which is often known as "sounding and talking white." Professor Harriette Pipes McAdoo at the Howard Univer sity School of Social work was quoted as saying: "They have a double development task. They must incorporate the dominate values of our society . These values insidiously include devalua tion of those who arc nonwhite. At the same time, they must GUEST COLUMNIST BY ART BOONE incorporate the value of the black community, which often are in conflict with the dominant society." For your children it could be a tightrope act that they must master. The dream of the 1960s civil rights efforts was for equal access to better housing and schools. But integration has come with a price. Not many paused to think that the cost of assimila tion might be a loss of identity. So as you work to give your children the boost they need to become the bright cookies you've dreamed they could be, accept the vital role in passing on a cultural history or the cookie you send out into the world might be oreos. (Art Boone , a resident of Winston-Salem is maintenance supervisor at RJ Reynolds.)
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Dec. 16, 1993, edition 1
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