Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 12, 2006, edition 1 / Page 6
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OPINION Ernest H. Pitt Elaine Pitt T. Kevin Walker Publisher Co- Founder Business Manager Managing Editor PuMM NortMCaroNN* Wal-Mart's debacle Ernie Pitt This & That Once again we are witness to a major corporation making a racial boo-boo, this time by linking DVDs of farnpus African-Americans to the DVD "Planet of the Apes." Apologize all you want to, but I'd be willing to bet that the person who did that did it intentionally. He she probably is laughing right now about it. And that's what's so sick about the whole thing. People have become so callous and insensitive about the feelings and struggles of African Americans that tlfley don't even have the heart or com, passion of decency nor respect. What's really sad too is how some. of us... yes... some of us believe that we can ingratiate ourselves with racist people and corporations that practice this despicable activi ty. I am reminded again of the African-American who stood up in a meeting and declared that he would not hire any blacks because they wouldn't work. That's not much better than Wal-Mart matching our heroes with "Planet of the Apes." ? For me, that's why we must support our own even when it hurts, and sometimes it does. But look at what our forefathers had to go through so we could have the opportu nities that we have today. Imagine what it must have been like growing up in Mississippi during the 17th and 18th centuries - when children were literally bred for slavery... when mothers were afraid to bond with their chil dren because they knew that soon the children would be on . 1 the auction block for sale. Think about how slaves were brought to America in chains and forced to have babies with members of tribes who were natural enemies. Think about the venom that slave owners forced down the throats of house slaves and field slaves... making the house slaves feel superior to those who were forced to work in the fields. Think about the degradation, the scorn, the wrath brought on our people, who were at the time legally classified as only three-fifths of a man. That's what makes what Wal-Mart did so egregious and hateful. And something ought to be done about it. Wal-Mart has no visible relationship with the African-American community. Wal-Mart doesn't participate in any community events to speak of. It just sucks the economic blood from our communities, and some of us help Wal-Mart do it. There is no excuse for what Wal-Mart did. Wal-Mart ought to issue a serious apolo gy and then look at the corpo ration's lack of relationships with our community and do something about it. Wal-Mart should immediately look at how it can begin to partner with organizations to begin to give back. It also needs to use African-American media for some of the hundreds of mil lions of dollars, it spends on promotions and other market ing efforts. I sincerely hope that we will stop taking this crap off of big corporations and small minded African-Americans as well. God bless you. Amen. Ernie Pitt is the publisher of The Chronicle and presi dent of the N.C. Black Publishers Association. E mail him at erpitt@wschroni cle.com. Submit letters and columns to: Chronicle Mailbag, P.O. Box 1636, Wins ton- Salem, NC 27102 Please print clearly. Typed letteh^and columns are preferred. If you are writing a guest column, please'include a photo of yourself. We reserve the right to edit any item submitted for clarity or brevity. You also can e-mail us your letters or columns at: news@wschroniclerom. . 21 GeoRse bush cae^Na b of G?T Me a GcMeRNMONX CDNTRaCV... wrav<eira DcxBue., RIGHT Bf&i. StR... WXJLD WLlWe a tax cut wtu TV0T? Snatching the King legacy Earl Ofari Hutchinson Guest Columnist The scramble to snatch a piece of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy has not diminished one bit in the 20 years since the first King national holiday was celebrated. Ironically, Ronald Reagan was the first to grab at it. Reagan fought tooth and nail against passage of the King holiday bill. After insinuating that King was a Communist, Reagan signed it only after Congress passed it ovy whelmingly, and virtually ensured that the bill was veto - proof. But then Reagan reversed gears and apologized to a deeply hurt Coretta Scott King, King's'widow, and effu sively praised King as a cham pion of freedom and democra cy. Reagan said that King's struggle for equality was his struggle too. During the furious battles that raged over affirmative action in the 1990s, conserva tives snatched a flowery line from King's "I Have a Dream" speech and boasted that he would have opposed racial quotas, preferences, and by extension affirmative action if he had lived. It was a wild stretch. King almost certainly would have been a vigojous supporter of affirmative action if he had lived. But in his speeches and writings, he also stressed personal responsibili ty, self-help, strong families, and religious values as goals that blacks should strive to attain. * In the late 1960s when King denounced the Vietnam War, embraced militant union struggles, and barnstormed around the country blasting wealth and class privilege, the "Red-baiters and professional King haters branded him a Communist. The Lyndon Johnson White House turned hostile. Corporate and founda tion supporters slowly turned off the money spigot. The NAACP, Urban League, black Democrats, and some in King's own organization turned their backs on him. During his last days, King spent much of his time fund raising and defending his poli cies against the critics within and without his organization The backbiting, carping of and backpedaling from King not by his enemies, but by some of his one-time friends and sup porters got worse when he railed against the penchant for lavish personal spending, lux ury apartments and fancy homes by some of his group's staffers. In his last installment on The nation will remember Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday. ? King, "At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68," Taylor Branch told how King stormed out of a ?planning meeting on his Poor Peoples March in fury at the attacks jit him by some of his top aides who wanted to scrap the march. The issue of uniting masses of poor people for eco nomic uplift smacked of class w ar, and was just too risky and dangerous. The fear was that it would hopelessly alienate their Democratic Party boost ers. King was unfazed by their criticism and hurled another broadside at them for their personal egoism, selfishness, and opportunism. King's civil, rights friends weren't the only ones who took shots at him. Many black ministers joined in the King bash. At the National Baptist Convention in 1961, then and 4iow the largest black religious group in America, King and a band of dissidents challenged the convention's leaders to give more active support to the civil rights battles. They want ed none of that. They flung un Christian-like threats and insults, at King and the civil rights advocate-ministers, engaged in fisticuffs with them, and slandered King as a "hoodlum and crook." When the dust settled, King was summarily booted out of the organization and set up a rival ministers group. Even after King's death, and he took his place among America's heroes, many black ministers still remained stone silent on the assault on civil liberties protections, the gut ting of job and social pro grams, and U.S. militarism. These were all issuesj that King relentlessly and loudly spoke out against w hen he was alive. In an even more insulting twist, many black ministers, and that included one of King's daughters, shamelessly and unapologetically evoked King's name to pound gay rights and same-sex marriage There's not a shred of evi dence that Kmg woulcL&ave been a gay rights opponent Coretta even demanded tfiat one group of ministers cease using his name to back an ariti gay referendum in Miami a few years ago. Yet they still snatch at his legacy and hail King as one of their owji on the King holiday. Then there's the King holi day. Though many corpora tions and government agencies plaster full-page ads in black newspapers that extol King on his holiday, and tout how much he's done for them, the King holiday is still rock bot tom among the national holi days that businesses and gov ernment agencies observe.,.An annual survey by BNA Inc., a Washington-based business news publisher, revealed that about one-quarter of business es give their workers a day off with pay. That number pales even in comparison with the next least celebrated holiday. Presidents Day. King is no different than other towering historical fig ures, especially those that had the bad fortune to fall t<4 an assassin's bullet The hypocrisy, mythmaking. embellishments, and outright distortions quickly kick in about them. Everyone wants a piece of the fallen legend to puff up his or hir importance and whatever social and polit ical ax he or she seeks to grind. Fortunately, King's legacy is still big and wide enough to snatch chunks of. Earl Ofan Hutchinson is a political analyst and social issues commentator, and the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black" (Middle Passage Press).
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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