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FORUM I Don't believe the hype f Nigel Alston <? [ Motivational Moments ???.??? I [? ' ! I used to think that eleven o'clock on Sunday (morning) was the most segregated hour 'in America because that's when we all dressed up and r went to our own churches. But tl've changed my mind... The I most segregated hour comes at about four p.m., when (news ; paper editors) sit down and !decide what is news. - Ben Johnson, St. Peters burg Times | ?? "Interesting," it began. !"Just a little information for iyou to think about and ; digest." [ That was the introduction ?to a quiz sent to me recently. ; The series of questions were ; guaranteed to test your racial ? issues IQ. ' I am still digesting it and I thinking about the misinfor mation communicated daily. ! Intentional or not, misinfor mation is often taken as the gospel. ~ It fuels inappropriate behavior and perceptions. \ It's the mother of stereo types. You have probably heard that there are more black males aged 18 to 24 in prison than in college. According to the quiz that found tits way into my mailbox, this is incor rect. It's hype - misleading, exaggerated and a extrava gant claim. In 1991, there were 378,000 black males aged 18 to 24 in college and only 136,000 the same age in prison! When you think about media coverage of violent crime and people on welfare whose face comes to mind. Chances are it is a black, female one. Ask anyone which group is most apt to use drugs and chances are they'll say blacks. Truth is African Americans make up 12 percent of the nation's drug users. The rest, 70 percent are white. Are you surprised? Proba bly. It isn't surprising then that a major finding of a race rela tions study in Forsyth County indicates that blacks and whites consistently differ in their perception of race rela tions and racial harmony. Incorrect, obsolete and mis leading information con tributes to this difference of perception. The media bears part of the blame and Americans by and-large are unaware of hpw images of minorities are manipulated. +r. Sixty of 62 comments from a focus group were also negative regarding media cov erage that were race-related. "I blame the news media for portraying negative images which feed the stereo types," said a white respon dent. Back to the quiz. Accord ing to a 1993 study, what per centage of network news about African Americans is negative in tone? What per centage of newspaper reporters are black? What percentage of U.S. newspa pers don't have any black reporters on staff. Sixty percent of the news is written from a negative slant. But that's understand able when the you take into account that only nine per- : cent of reporters at major papers are black. What's worse, 45 percent of the nation's newspapers have no black reporters. This quiz and the chal lenge to digest it lead me to read "Don't Believe the Hype - Fighting Cultural Misinfor mation About African-Amer icans," by journalist Farai Chideya. She is also the author of the recently released "The Color of Our Future." "What we know about one another," she writes, "is often secondhand, passed through a filter - the filter of the media." The book is intended to provide factual ammunition to combat stereotypes and misinformation often accept ed as the truth. "Perhaps naively," she continues, "this book can help blacks and whites under stand each other a little bet ter." I agree with her assess ment that the problem with skewed presentation is not simply that it is incorrect. , There's * much more at stake than correctness. "The larger dilemma is that many white Americans have little to base their knowledge of African-Ameri cans on but what they see, hear, and read in the media," Chideya writes. But perceptions in the media don't equal reality, she says. There really is no such thing as a reporter with absolutely no bias. Journal ism is one of the most segre gated professions in America. Journalists and others in the media are human - they work from that which they know. It's easy to get stories from the ghetto. White journalists are presumed to be objective; black journalists, quite often, are presumed not to be objec tive about racial issues. And. once something becomes "conventional wisdom," and is presented in the "paper of record" it's hard to correct. "The media belongs to all of us," Chideya says. "If we want it to work, we have to work. The worst crisis we face today is not in our cities or neighborhoods, but in our minds." Don't believe the hype. Nigel Alston is an execu tive with Integon Insurance and can he reached at PO Box 722, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102 or e-mailed at nalslon23 7@aol. com Caucus continues to build strength Rev. Carlton Everaley Guest Columnist The next meeting of the NAACP Education Caucus will be held March 2, 1999. at Dellabrook Presbyterian Church, 115 Dellabrook Road. ? It will be over at or before 9:30 p.m. We are pre cise about time because we .,-are organizing the entire Black community bn mat ters of public education; and it will take at least five tp ten years to win the most important victories for our children. In order for you to commit to this long term struggle, the Caucus cannot afford to waste one minute of your time in long, bor ing, unproductive, repetitive meetings of whining and complaining. We are men and women of action, not mere talking and we are ^determined to succeed. 'Therefore, we are injecting a ^higher and better level of organizing than most black people have ever seen or Experienced before. In two short months the r r f Caucus has: A. committed itself to five long term goajs (high and editable expecta tions of students, equitable discipline, hiring Black teachers at about a forty percent rate, more Afrocen tric curriculum and extracurricular activities and annual, mandatory racial/cultural sensitivity training for educators), B. organized into nine sections (parents, teachers, students, administrators, professional and vocational support staff, pastors and other reli gions professional, legal action and business) C. committed to two short term goals-suing the school system for desegregating and, most importantly, organizing the entire black community to embrace and enhance virtually all black schools in our neighbor hoods, D. fundraising, lob bying and volunteering). These are ambitious goals and we need you. Secondly, I wish to inform you of the revival of the On? Hundred Black Men. Any positive Black man, Black boy age five to twelve . or Black male teenage 13 through 17 is eli gible. We're meeting Satur day, Feb. 20. at the Dellabrook Church. We will meet every third Saturday, at the church. The meeting will open with prayer and there'll be a half hour orientation to the organization. We will briefly visit the Special Occasions Bookstore to meet Mr. James Cameron an 84 year old escapee of a vicious lynching in Marion, Indiana in 1930. He's since estab lished an African American Holocaust museum to reveal the evils of lynching. Our main activity from about 10:40 until at least 11:15 is a itour of The Chronicle. After that's over we'll go the McDonald's on Martin Luther King Drive where participants will receive, at no cost to them, a sandwich, small fries and a drink. That is the general oui line of the monthly One Hundred Black Men's pro gram. The goal is to expose oilr boys and teens to places and people where African Americans are doing posi tive things. Previous visits have been to Radio Station WAAA, Wake Forest Uni versity, Winston-Salem State University, a house being built by a Black con tractor, a Black owned transportation company, Special Occasions Book store, Contract Office Fur nishings, Econoline Insur ance Company, etc. Our philosophy is simple. No one can teach black boys and male teens how to be black men other than black men. Manhood has to be defined, not by how many women one can have sex with or how much liquor, nicotine or other drugs one can consume, nor by -how much money one makes, formal educatfbH one has or how many other men you can beat up or kill, j Rather manhood has to be child centered in the sense' of preparing boys and teenS for manhood. Again, .we invite all serious brothers (no uncle Toms, whiners, complainers, do-nothings, non-recovered addicts or child molesters) to come and help. *? The Rev. Carlton Eversley is pastor of Dellahrook Pres byterian Chruch. The Chronicle The Choice for African American News and Information L Subscribe Today. l Call: 722-8624 | WHOLESALE Come By Today and See 224 BERRIER AVENUE Our GreatSetectton. LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA 27292 Jewerty Men's and Women s Clothing 336-248-2157 Socks ^ Monday 11am til 7pm Pictures and much more Tuesday 7am til lpm Still Aching From The Accident? * There is Help Dr. Gentle is specially trained to assist you in recovery. Take the first step-call for a FREE INFORMATION package that explains your condition and how we can help you heal. Gentle Chiropractic 659-9859 (available 24 hrs a day) 9 E. Clemmonsville Rd, winston-Salem - I \ You discovered them at Doubletree. them at Club Hotel by Doubletree. [_ You're probably ready for one W\M^B now. <8S|5l * ? >?- ? POUILCTREE'S DPtAM DEALS HAVE JOINED THE CLUI. Club Hotel by Doubletree continues the Doubletree tradition with OvMellUitM You get a terrific weekend rate, free continental breakfast for two, our complimentary chocolate .*'?? chip cookies and your choice of check-out times. Rate 1s per room, per night based on double occupancy. Rate subject to change without notice. Not applicable to groups. Additional restrictions may apply. ? ? n t,? - ABiimiami. >. www.clHklietaU.cew ? V - - . ?' ? ?g^!S Partners in our business trevel revolution". ?" <. ,Club Hotel,by Doubletree Raleigh North 2815 Capital Bou-levard," Raleigh, NC ?7604 (919) 872-7666 ????is I* \ The Chronicle . ?> The Choice for African American News UVS 0*7*10 617 N. Liberty Street i Winston-Salem, NC 27101 1 ' ?' The Chronicle was established by Ernest Pitt and 2 Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974, and is published every Thursday by The Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc. The Chronicle is a proud member of National Newspapers Publishers Association ? North Carolina Press Association ? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Feb. 18, 1999, edition 1
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