FORUM
Hmerico*/ Oujn Child; flliiii/tei loui / forrokhan
Can America feel the healing warmth of its Black Rage?
In what is really a conservative, pull- less)? Who else challenges the most dispossessed ? America's
Harvard s otticial watcher of African-American lite and cul- yourself-up dictum, he challenges legions of black ex-offenders ? to clean themselves up, to get off
ture, Henry Louis Gates, would have loved it. Minister Louis Far- them to relieve and improve the drugs, to stop the fratricide, and to take on responsible and manly
rakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, came to Winston-Salem the conditions in neighborhoods com- behavior?
other night. The local media trumpeted his coming to speak at prised entirely of people who He strikes fear mostly in the hearts of white liberals, who, it
WSSU, heralding him as "the controversial leading spokesman of are debased, slack and offen- seems, sometimes want to rid society of its ills. But they want to
black rage in America. Visions of treachery and treason and agi- sive. Not always through ? ? ... d? it in their oft-times disputable ways: where blacks would be
tating otherwise peaceful politics abound. One would have fault or making of their dependent on them and the government. Louis Farrakhan is
thought that Attila the Hun had returned, on Martin Luther King own. respected by many because he is up-front. He is nothing like the
?Drive, no less. Who out there these executives at Texaco or Avis Car Rental. He's never been caught
There were throngs of police escorts and bow-tied Fruit of days, besides Farrakhan, is "on tape" belittling whites and plotting to destroy his documented
Islam security guards on rooftops and behind bushes and cars. The speaking about that part of actions. He speaks forcefully and nondefensively about his right
air was expectant of a fiery oration filled with anti-white denunci- America that is decidedly to have open relations with certain African and Arab leaders who
ations and tongue- ^;are considered despots and dictators.
lashings. Neither can he be found following "legal ambulances, running
But the next to the corporate trough." He never seeks the spoils of race dis
day, after the bright >.A- y - - crimination lawsuits and diversity consulting contracts. Some
lights went down, Mr. ^B' ^\w other African-American leaders and business people
can't say that. Some can be heard, in the
rhetoric of what is little less than
blackmail, "deal with us, or deal
with Farrakhan."
He exposes and terrorizes the
"us" that is "them," the so-called
black underclass.
Farrakhan also puts the cuffs
on middle class blacks, who are
wary of charges that they are
not genuine and who suffer
from deeply-felt racial uncer
tainties. Most blacks find his
Baptist preacher-like oratory
alluring, even if they don't
DR WILLIAM H. TURNER chaotic BUI agree with his messianic
message. But, since Martin
Luther King was killed.
African Americans have
with loud biting realism ? is still there. He is on to the next those places continued to look for the
Farrakhan's detractors,
adherents, and disci
ples alike all went home
? to the same America
that was there before he
came. The America Far
rakhan speaks of ? at once
with comical simplicity and
sarcasm, and, in the next sentence
place, like any good evangelist.
LIFT EVERY VOICE
messiah. Not entirely
When the murmuring stopped and the students went to sleep, many black unexpected of a people
America, even Winston-Salem, yet had a critical mass of its citi- kids live in who, for every one son
zens of African descent ? that Mr. Farrakhan neither invented Godless ^^^BB^K^ 1 ' t :.\%n graduating college. 100
nor perpetuates. Those faces stuck at the bottom of the well, worlds, go to prison.
Beyond the platitudes, including Mr. Farrakhan's, there are some where mil- America's
stark realities in Black America that may well, without him, fester of these ship with Louis "Man
even Farrakhan ? man
Perhaps he alone can articulate it; but whatever other purpose children, too many love to hate sym
they serve, his eloquent utterances provide a venting to African more than bolized by an ancient Ethiopian proverb: "A cow
Americans. Until somebody else, perhaps someone keen to "mak- half of them gave birth to a fire; she wanted to lick it, but it
ing people feel good about America" comes along, Farrakhan in poverty, burned; she wanted to leave it; but she could not,
actually helps people, especially young black males. He helps are father- because it was her own child." Until further
them to discharge the frustrated thinking that comes with the sim- less (and notice, we will always need and have a Minister
pie act of reading about the goings-on in urban America in "Jet" if the it M Louis Farrakhan, who freely says that America
every week. If they don't read, all they have to do is walk out fathers made him what he is today. Even Harvard's
their front doors and get bashed in the face with a brick. Others are Gates agrees that some alternatives to Farrakhan
look to the pages of "Readers Digest" and the "Wall Street Jour- around, are frightening,
to read about a generation of remorseless killers and radically ^
We Need to Turn Welfare Repeal Into Real Reform
Pat's daily battle to escape an abusive husband and keep a
roof over her child's head has not always been victorious.
The welfare system she turned to in times of great need was
not perfect. She often called it "a major roadblock" ? another
"trauma" of life for a woman with few skills and a child to raise
alone. Sometimes trying to get help was "so hard that she nearly
went back to the abusive husband whose violence had driven her
and son Jonathan out into shelters and even onto the streets.
But when the welfare check came, she felt there was some
chance to crawl out of her situation and create a better life. The
check certainly didn't make her rich ? no Cadillac, no pent
house, no fancy wardrobe ? but it gave her some hope, and a lit
tle more time to think and get herself together.
Pat is one of the many women who have turned to the welfare
rolls with their babies in tow. By and large, they are neither teen
mothers nor daughters of women who had been on welfare. Nor
are they "welfare queens." Many rely on welfare only when
emergencies hit. Most have held some type of job before. Most
are victims of domestic violence. All live near the edge, one step
from falling over.
Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), created
in 1935 as a joint state and federal program, ensured that women
like Pat could get the help they needed, regardless of the state
they chanced to live in during recessions and times of economic
peril. The states chose how much to pay, hut all who met basic
eligibility guidelines were ensured crucial, though meager, gov
ernment cash assistance to help their families survive crises. For
a poor family, AFDC was making all the difference between hav
ing a place to live or not. Data show that those not getting assis
CHILDWATCH
By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
tance ended up on the street at three times the rate of those who
got benefits. AFDC was the life preserver many clung to on
stormy seas while they searched for a way to shore. But the wel
fare revisions passed by Congress and signed into law by the
president abolished this six-decade-old guarantee for poor chil
dren and their families, without putting anything in place to help
people work. As a result, many may go under, unless President
Clinton, Congress, and governors act to ensure jobs and adequate
supports to help parents work and protect their children. The sad
dest thing about the welfare legislation is its assault on working
families and legal immigrants who work every day.
More than two-thirds of the nearly 13 million people on wel
fare are children, who cannot work to support themselves or vote,
so they were easy targets in an election year. In 1997 we must
insist that our political leaders turn welfare repeal into real
reform by acting to lift children out of poverty and getting them
off to a healthy start. Pat's child is not the cause of all of Amer
ica's current problems, but he is a part of America's future. Will
it be a productive or dependent one9 The answers lie with the
choices we and our leaders make today.
To find out how you can help your state protect children
under the new welfare law, please call (202) 662-3542.
(Marian Wright Edelman is the president of the Children's
Defense Fund, and a leader of the Black Community Crusade
for Children (BCCC), whose mission is to leave no child behind.
For information, call 1-800-ASK-BCCC.)
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