FORUM
Welfare Reform: The New, Raw, and Real Deal
Upfront Slavery . That was the title of the autobiography of Booker
T. Washington, the 19th century's greatest spokesman behind the call
for social uplift of newly-freed slaves. To h:m, this was America ?
where the individual, rooted in a spirit of self-help and industrious
ness ? could take advantage of many opportunities that existed, in spite
of racism.
In fact, to Booker T., a mule-like trudge through the racism would
end in a glorious display of achievement, proving to the African Amer
LIFT EVERY VOICE
By Dr. WILLIAM H. TURNER
icans their self worth; and, to his white fellow citizens, it would dispel
the widely-held belief that blacks were lazy and had become depen
dant on hand-outs from slavemasters and kindly whites.
Now we are faced with a new twist on Booker T's vision. Peter
Kilborn of the New York Times calls it Up From Welfare : how the
Contract With America might be the driving force behind efforts to
e^ourage, inspire, induce and prod the seven million Americans who
benefit from AFDC ? the principal welfare program ? into work and
lilies of self-sufficiency.
The form of the welfare system, as concerns African Americans ?
principally women would propel these head of welfare households into
the Great American Middle Class. Too many welfare recipients are
seen as having come to expect and accept government handouts. They
are shiftless and lazy. They won't take the jobs that are available so
that they to can join the middle class. Sounds great.
Few of the many people who don't understand why those mired in
poverty don't simply get out and work do not realize that the economy
is not like it was in th^days of Mr. Washington. In fact, those of us
who are highly-educated and with technicakskilis may not know that
the hourly wages are the stingiest since th^ welfare system, as we
know it, came in with FDR's New Deal. How many of us from smug
suburban homes with green lawns and picket fences stood in line last
year in NYC with the 15 black women heads of household chasing a
single $4.25 an hour job in a fast-food restaurant? A year later, 75% of
them in that line still don't have a job.
How much do we know about the labor market that is glutted with
people who are better qualified than most welfare recipients? How
many people in good-paying trades such as plumbers, electricians, and
construction workers? who sneer at idle black men? were themselves
steered into their jobs by apprenticeship programs? Now the Republi
can Congress, through the Contract With America, is hell bent to close
down affirmative action programs that goad employers to hire the very
Booker T. Washington
people that most Americans think
make up the bulk of the welfare dole:
blacks and women. . ?
< What is more, think next time you
drive past a public housing complex,
that the people there are physically
quite far from where the jobs are! "A
welfare recipient, if they wanted to,
could find a job by sunset," but, the
? jobs are outside the urban core. For the
many for whom commuting and the
drop-off at the day-care is a way of life,
there are many more who lack trans
I portation and are too unschooled in the
culture of work to get and hold a job. It is
very hard for people to do what they never had an opportunity to do
and can't get there to be around those from whom they could learn
how to do it.
Many of us who commute each day spend more on gasoline,
lunch, and dry cleaning than is to be earned by those who would fill
our tanks, wash our cars, serve our meals, bathe our loved ones at the
hospitals and convalescent centers, clean and guard our offices and
hotel rooms and pick our veggies. These jobs ? most of which are part
time ? are held by the working poor who are paid less than $7 an hour.
Virtually all low-wage jobs are temporary or part time and nearly two
in ten of those who hold these jobs work less than 30 hours a week.
And, these poor souls must still depend in part of public assistance
such as food stamps and subsidized housing.
With the rate of inflation, such workers could buy 25% more with
similar earnings twenty years ago. For women, marriage has always
been the best alternative to welfare; but, for the average poor African
American women, the wages of the few available men they could
many have fallen lower than theirs! These men are more likely to be
high school dropouts and tainted by infractions with the law.
Even so, Booker T. would be happy to know that in spite of what
the framers of the Contract With America are saying, many welfare
recipients do try to make it by working. Btrtr for what we Jmow about
the difference between the reality and the myths, two-thirds who do go
to work return to the rolls within three years. 30 hours a week brings in
about $900 a month, without any benefits. Take $200 for child care,
$150 for transportation, leaving about $550 for everything else. Such
folk, like those of us trying to lower out earnings and taxes equations,
are not fools. They can get $375 a month from AFDC, up to $325 in
food, stamps for a family of three, free health care through Medicaid,
and assistance for housing, heat, and transportation. Who needs a high
school diploma or a low-paying job to figure which is a Raw Deal, a
New Deal, or the Real Deal? In today's world, lawmakers might do
better to figure out ways to provide welfare recipients job training so
that they will qualify for tolerable jobs, with child and health care.
(Dr. William H. Turner is a regular freelance columnist for the
Chronicle).
This may be the last column 1*11 write for some time about the
Coalition on African American Education's proposal for "high quality,
Afrocentric" schooling in Winston-Salem as soon as possible. It is the
last column because I've been writing for over a month as to what this
means. We appreciate the Chronicle's coverage .because the daily
"newspaper" failed to even give us the courtesy of an interview for
almost five months. And when they did cover an Afrocentric educator,
on April 20, they put "Afrocentric" in quotation marks depicting skep
ticism and cynicism that anyone can understand the word. You'll
notice they didn't put "magnet zone" in quotation marks when they
headlined the school systems proposal.
We refuse to believe that "the learning curve on Afrocentrism is so
laige iMneahs either everything to everyone or nothing to anyone."
Instead, the Coalition believe it has defined Afrocentrism for expres- -
sion in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County public schools and in the
columns over the last several weeks.
You'll recall we've written of "unconscious Afrocentrism" mean
ing high expectation of students, strong administrative leadership, strict
teacher/principal discipline and schools as institutional presences that
center a community. We've also discussed "Conscious Afrocentrism"
including valuing Africa through the Ethiopian, Egyptian, Ghanaian,
Malican, and Songhayan civilizations, an African American history of
resistance to oppression, understanding different Black learning styles
and other recently published data on African American students, hav
ing school buildings, classrooms, flags, songs, culture and teaching
styles reflective of the history and inheritance of Black folk.
Finally, conscious Afrocentrism would create a very strong com
munity advisory group to the principal and faculty of these schools
with the notion that "it takes a whole village to raise one child." All of
us who are well educated and middle class need not only to talk about
schools, we need to volunteer in these schools. Indeed, whatever the
level of education or unemployment all parents and all persons of good
will can be volunteer because everyone has something to offer. If my
own two children are able to get a chance to be educated at these
schools, I would love for them to; but whether they are or not, I will be
a volunteer at these schools.
This is not something the organized Black Community is asking
iinii'kinirr
the school system to do for us. This is something the organized Black
Community is asking the school system to partner with us as we take
back the primary responsibility for educating our children. A strong
community advisory group would also be in the business of raising
money. Currently, the three county wide magnet Elementary Schools,
the Downtown School, Kimberly Park and Moore's, have some of the
lowest percentage of poor children. Consequently, a very socio-eco
nomically elite group of parents raise high significant sums of money
(in Moore's case, more than the $70,000 of my cnurches annual bud
get). Does anyone believe the P.T.A. at say, the proposed Diggs School
or Forest Park is capable of such amounts of cash? How else will they
compete for computer technology and the like unless folks whose chil
dren either don't attend or are grown, help raise dollars?
Everyone who works in these schools as professionals, should
undergo annual mandatory racial/cultural sensitivity training, that is
administratively monitored. At least 60 percent of the teaching faculty
should be Black with perhaps an African American principal and a
non- African American assistant principal. Black educators don't auto
matically or always know how to work with all Black children,
because some of them are so "middle class" they look down their
noses at poor folk of any race. 1 know by my 1 ,082 mile drive through
Trenton, NJ; Philadelphia, Pa; and Washington, DC , last week, as well
as by meeting Ray Johnson, principal of Paul Roberson Academy in
Detroit that Afrocentric , high quality curriculum instruction and learn
ing cannot only meet all state educational requirements, they can
greatly surpass them.
(Rev. Carlton Eversley is pastor of Dellabrook Presbyterian
Church).
QUEST COLUMNIST
By REV. CARLTON EVERSLEY
Bridal Gown Liquidation Sale
(Closing Kernersvilie Store)
50% to 80% Oil
Must Sell To Make Room For New Stock
__
I sr(i Tu\?*<los l or Salt*
3i%ennan'&
im Mi ' Bridal ? Prom ? Tuxedo
i<m Sat. 1606 S. Stratford Kotd (Next to Clrcwit Cil
Bennie
McBride
"See me, Bennie McBride,
for the best price and the
best service on any new
Chevy, Geo or used car."
4th & Broad St.
721-4191
ECONOLINE
Insurance Agency, Inc.
Automobile Insurance
Financing Aiwilable
Automobile Ins. ? Collision
Liability ? Bonds ? Final Expense
L ife Insurance ? Motorcycle
659 W. 5th St.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
\ f '
(Across from Main Library)
<910) 7*27-0189
PUBLIC NOTICE
The ?ity of Winston-Salem
Department of Transportation will
hold a public Drop-in meeting to provide
information and answer questions on the
proposed extension of West Cletnmonsville
Road to Peters Creek Parkway (NC 150). All
-citizens are- invited to attend the meeting on:
Wednesday May 3, 1995, 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Georgia E. Taylor Recreation Center
1471 West Clemmonsville Road, Winston-Salem
For additional information, please call (910)
727-2707. All requests for appropriate auxiliary
aids, services and transportation must be made to
Greg Errett at (910) 727-2707 or TDD (910)
727-8319.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
REZONING OF PROPERTY
CITY OF WINSTON-SALEM
The Board o! Alderman will consider requests to amend the City of
Winston-Salem Zoning Ordinance by rezoning property as shown below:
Date: May 15, t995 Time: 7:30 P.M.
Place Board of Aldermen Chamber, City Hall
1 . Petition of Samaritan Ministries and Samaritan Soup Kitchen; property
located on at the southeast corner of Patterson Avenue and Northwest
Boulevard; from LB and Gl to PB. W-1959
2. Petition of D. Wayne and Sandra Williams; property located at the
west intersection of First Street, Cloverdale Avenue and the westbound
on-ramp of Business 40 at Cloverdale Avenue; from RM 18 to NO
W-1961.
3. Petition of United House of Prayer for Special Use Permit Issued by
the Board of Aldermen for Institutional Parking in a Residential (RS-7)
Zoning District (UDO Section 2-5.52); property located on the east side of
Ivy Avenue between 25th Street and 27th Street. W-1960
The Board will also consider the following amendments to the Unified
Development Ordinances:
1. Proposal of Carolina Investment Properties, INC. to amend "table 3.8
Off-Street Parking Requirements" of the Unified Development Ordinances
(UDO). This proposal is a request to decrease the parking requirements
for "Medical and Surgical Offices" and "Medical or Dental Laboratories" for
buildings that have more than 10.000 square feet gross floor area Zoning
Text UDO-4.
2. Proposal to amend "Section 3-1 Salem Lake Watershed Protection
(F.W)" and "Section 4-1 Watershed Protection (F)" of the Unified
Development Ordinances (UDO). This proposal is a request for "Special
Intense Development Allocations (SIDA)" which would permit up to tive ?
percent (5%) of these watersheds to be developed with up to seventy per
cent (70%) development - Zoning Text UDO 6
Prior to the hearing, interested persons may obtain any additional infor
mation which is in the possession of the City/County Planning Board in
that office City Hall on weekdays. 8:00 a m. to 5 00 p.m.
Interested citizens will be given an opportunity to be heard.
All requests for appropriate and necessary auxiliary aids and services
may be made within a reasonable time prior to the hearing to Angola
Carmon at 727-2056 or TDD No. 727-8319.
THIS MEETING WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE ON CITY TV -IX .
Marie Matthews, Secretary
to the Board of Aldermen
illLlI
Winston-Salem Chronicle
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