Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 2, 2003, edition 1 / Page 4
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OPINION ? The Chronicle Ikf r kmnjsr 4fn?+- 4mmm? W ErHCST H. PlTT Publisher/Co-Founder (j. ElAIHT PlTT Business Manager E r If It a Asbury Office. Manager t. klvih V/alkir Managing Editor Kay Stultz Production Supervisor 1 / North Carolina ??? ?? Amalgamated ? National Newapaper Praa* Asaoclabon of Circulation Pubiiahara. Inc. Putollahara Aaaociation ? GOP outreach: Where's the beef? iRon Walters Guest Columnist ? Much has been made about the fact that Trent Lott had to be , (jemoved because his racist state ijlment complicated the ability of ,'the Republican Party - and Pres J ident George Bush - to conduct j "outreach" to the black commu- - ;? nity. It is being said that Bush ?i was on the right track with his ,'{! so-called faith-based initiative V and the appointments of Colin ?'?Powell and Condoleezza Rice to ? ? top foreign policy positions. But tit strikes me as odd that some 2 people actually believe they can ij.use these things to attract blacks !into the party that has been i;regarded as racist - an impres ? J'sion only deepened by Lott's !? remarks. But they continue with ? this pablum. I Bush rolled out his faith J based initiative in the form of an ? executive order at a black church vin Philadelphia, providing a ? J stage for him to try and separate ! ?! himself from Lott by denouncing vhis statement. At the same time. J he was sponsoring a law that has ? been widely considered discrim ? inatory because it gives churches the right to prohibit certain indi viduals from utilizing their serv ices if they are not of the same faith. ; Then. Powell and Rice repre ? sent the fact that conservatism I can also be multicultural; that is, ; they can pursue policies that are ? .just as much against black inter jests, but do it as part of a conser vative coalition of whites, ?iblacks, Hispanics, Asians and i "others. That coalition represents the ideology that has given blacks so much hell in the past three decades. Therefore, it is the ideology that will be regarded as the more important hase for any attempted "outreach" rather than the complexion of thoy; doing it. But let's get down to it. Any successful outreach to the black community will be based on the same principle as "outreach to the white or any other community - on addressing the interests of blacks through the principles and policies pursued by the party. The question then is how much change will there be in the Republican leadership and its rank and file. This is a legitimate question because several senators, includ ing Mitch McConnell of Ken tucky and others, already have said that they will not alter their approach to race. Right after Trent Lott had his midnight con version and endorsed affirmative action, seeming to put on the brakes, McConnell, who spon sored a bill eliminating affirma tive action in the 104th Con gress. said that he "doesn't believe Republicans are going to start endorsing preferences and quotas." Furthermore, Orrin Hatch, who will he the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also believes like Lott that the nomination of Judge William Pickering should be reintroduced by the White House. Pickering is a Mississippi judge whom Lott sponsored for the 5th Circuit and was defeated in the Democratic controlled Judiciary Committee in March. Pickering had con stantly scolded defendants before his bench for putting too much emphasis on racism, and. in a recent cross-burning case involving an interracial couple, he voided the mandatory mini mum sentence of one of the white KKK perpetrators. Sen. Bill Frist has taken over the reins of the Republican Party in the Senate. In his first state ment addressed to "healing" after the Senate leadership con firmed his position in a tele phone conference call, Frist voiced no hint of how he would heal the racial breach caused by Lott's statement. The one issue that he mentioned of urgent con cern to the black community because of increasing unemploy ment was extending unemploy ment benefits. So. we are left not knowing whether he will heed the counsel of the senior mem bers of his party or strike out on a new course - a course oriented toward the interests of the major ity of the black community, not the black right-wing fringe. Before his debacle. Lott was gearing up to put in play Bush's agenda. "Wled with items such renominating Pickering, beefing up the Homeland Security Department, facilitating Bush policies toward Iraq.Hponsoring oil-based legislation to promote American "emergency inde pendence" and other such pro posals. If Frist simply follows this outline, and beefs up the moder ate image side of. Republican "outreach" as I think he will, rather than the real beef of policy outreach, he will continue the Republican sleight of hand on the issue of outreach to blacks that has been so common - and such a failure. Ron Wallers is Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leader ship Institute and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland-College Park. His latest hook is "African American Leadership," with Robert Smith. Sports still no ticket out of the^ghetto Earl Ofari Hutchinson Guest The sports world buzzed with the recent news that Black Entertainment Televi sion founder Bob Johnson became the first African American to purchase a majority ownership in a pro fessional basketball team in Charlotte. But a few days later with little fanfare the ^CAA issued a report on the academ ic performance of black ath letes. ^ . While Johnson's acquisi tion was widely hailed as proof that blacks had finally cracked the clubby, and many say bigoted, world of white billionaire pro sports owners, for most black college basket ball players their dream of stocking his team remains a cruel pipe dream. Only a microscopic frac tion of the thousands of black male college basketball and football players will ever don professional uniforms, hven more embarrassing, the majority of them won't gradu ate. The NCAA report found that though 60 percent of ath letes at Division I schools graduate in six years, only slightly more than 40 percent of black male athletes gradu ate. For basketball players, the figure is a dismal 35 per cent. And even more embar rassing, many of these ath letes will skip through three or four years while in college and still emerge as education al cripples.' The low graduation rate for black male athletes comes at a time when the enrollment for blapk males at many col leges has sharply declined. At the University of Southern California, many black males on campus repeatedly complain that they are constantly asked whether they are athlefes. The question is not necessarily racist since nearly 14 percent of black male students on the campus are football or basketball players on athletic scholar ships. This compares with 2 percent or less of the white, Asian, and Latino males on campus. The aspiring Michael Jor dans in basketbalband Emmitt Smiths^ in football spend countless hours mastering their dribbling or ball carrying skills with little thought to their futures after their sports days are finished. They live for the day when they will sign megabuck pro contracts. Few ever will. In 1994, the Washington Post did a 10-year follow-up on 36 basketball players who played for Georgetown, the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia in ihe 1980s. Most told sad tales of failed careers, part-time jobSv unsuccessful tryouts with NBA teams, and barn storming tours with 'semi-pro or European teams. Twenty eight eventually got their degrees and settled into careers as salesmen, teachers or counselors. Even though the story is repeated by thou sands of otheF ex-athletes, illusions die hard today. A group of black high schpol athletes were told that the odds against them making a pro team were nearly impos sible. Fifty-one percent still believed that they could beat them. The late tennis great Arthur Ashe was deeply trou bled by the slavish adulation of athletes by many young blacks. During visits to black high schools, he was thunder struck by "the obsession" with sports. The sport?_obsession that Ashe spoke of tells much about.the otherworldly intoxi cation of sports. For many it blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Coaches know this better than anyone. They wheel and deal to ram as many blacks as they can into their schools' uniforms. The name of the game is not study, baby, study; but win. baby, win. Major colleges have a huge vested interest in keep ing their well-oiled athletic assembly lines moving smoothly. It means hard dol lafs. Major NCAA universi ties bag millions in revenues from their athletics programs. In the two major revenue-gen erating sports, basketball and football, blacks make up 50 and 70 percent, respectively, of the college players. The message in this shameful sports saga is that black parents whose sons and daughters are involved in ath letic programs, and who har bor delusions of pro sports fame and fortune, must hold coaches, teachers and school administrators accountable for their children's courses, grades and campus activities. They must make it clear that if their sons and daughters don't perform in the classroom, they don't get to perform on the field or the court. Black professionals and educators must create aca demic self-help programs to recycle young blacks from reports junkies to serious stu dents. They can provide edu cational scholarships for aca demically sound athletes and establish career counseling, job and skills training pro grams. The ultimate responsibili ty, though, is on the colleges that reap fortunes off of black athletes. They must do much more to ensure that their "stu dent-athletes" graduate or at least better prepare them for business or professional careers. This means providing them counseling, tutoring and financial assistance to encour age them to complete their studies when their' eligibility ends. Sports can be a rewarding and even profitable experi ence for many black athletes. But if NCAA Division 1 schools don't stop solely exploiting black athletes as athletes and start educating them as students, sports will never be their ticket out of the ghetto. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and columnist. Visit his news and opinion Web site: wWw.thehutchinsonre port.com. He is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black" IMiddle Passage Press). Bob Johnson is the NBA's first African-American owner. NOWMLCrol GONE.WERt'S NOTM0 TO SEE DOWN 1 HERE,.. I ? > fef fpo \ lUrli iSSj 'I BfcTA
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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