OPINION
Chronicle
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Ernest H. Pitt Publisher Co-Founder
Elaine Pitt Business Manager
Michael A. Pitt Marketing
T. Kevin Walker Managing Editor
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National Nawapoper Prcn iiiKot.m
VERIFICATION
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Online Upgrades
Ernie
Pitt
This & That
We. have been working
diligently for the past eight
months on improving the
interactivity of our Web site.
Soon, you will be able to con
nect better with us - your
community weekly newspa
per. The new venture will also
allow you to better interact
with the men and women who
are responsible for putting
this newspaper together each
Week
We will also provide
organizations and individuals
the opportunity to connect to
each other and share ideas,
events, needs and other
processes that help unify our
community. The changing
times require that we meet the
challenges of electronic com
munications
As I'm sure most of you
who are familiar with The
Chronicle know, we have
always tried to be a catalyst
for bringing our community
together rather than tearing it
apart. There are too many
other elements out there that
are more than willing to tear
us apart We don't want that to
happen, and will never be a
party to it. One of the new
features we are anticipating
on the improved site is the
ability to provide video and
podcasts for events in our
community. These features
will be updated regularly and
instant glimpses at local
activities that ordinarily
wouldn't be viewed. Also,
you will be able to give your
input and ask questions about
any event or issue in our com
munity.
We want you to feel that
this is your Web site. It is for
your use in communicating
with us. your neighbors,
friends, organizations and for
posting whatever your indi
vidual needs may be. We als<^
will provide a low-cost
avenue for our small business
es to reach thousands of
potential customers.
I am hopeful that this will
foster greater use of The
Chronicle by more organiza
tions and businesses, particu
larly small ones. 1 know that a
lot of organizations already
have these things in place.
However, as a community
newspaper. I also know that
there are some organizations
out there that don't qualify as
small. They're like a lot of our
businesses that suffer from
being lumped into the small
business category when really
we ought to be classified as
minute businesses. I guess to
some extent, we're looking
for you.
You still have time to e
mail me and give me some
specifics on what you'd like
to see. We're very excited
about this and hope that you
will join us in this effort. May
God continue to bless you.
Amen? Amen!
Ernie Pitt is the publisher
of The Chronicle and the head
of the V C Black Publishers'
Association Reach htm at
erpittto wschronicle.com.
Clarification
An article in last
week's Community
section about recent
honors for Leeanna
Lee, did not mention
that the Doris B.
Jones Lifetime
Achievement Award
was bestowed by the
Piedmont Regional
Association of
Volunteer
Administration
(PRAVA).
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Letter to the Editor
Support Carter
To the Editor:
Roy Carter is without
question the better candidate
for fair and equitable repre
sentation of the citizens of the
5th Congressional District.
Roy is as visible a candidate
for this position as anyone 1
can remember in the past few
years. 1 would encourage vot
ers to contact his Forsyth
County headquarters at 336
499-4140 to find out his pub
lic schedule and to make an
effort to hear him speak.
For voters who belong to a
civic group or any organiza
tion in need of a speaker, Roy
Carter or one of his surrogates
will make every effort to
accommodate your meeting
time and place. From now
until Election Day, Roy will
be hosting a Town Hall
Meeting in each county in
addition to many public meet
ihgs already scheduled. He
strives to be accessible to all
voters.
It is our responsibility as
voters to become familiar
with the issues, and the best
way to do that i? to deal
directly with the candidate. I
would invite and encourage
voters to visit his Web site at
RoyCarterforCongress.com. I
believe voters will agree that
we need a fresh approach to
government in Washington.
Please vote for Roy Carter.
Anne Griffis Wilson,
Winston-Salem
File Photo
Former coach Roy Carter is running for the U.S. House,
Hardly the Death of Black Politics
Ron Walters
Guest
Columnist
Th^ Death of Black
? Politics? Hardly.
When I read Matt Bai's
piece in the New York Times
with the title above, I thought
that he was fooling, but it
turned out to be a serious arti
cle that put forth much of the
thinking that has passed for
this "post-Black Power" even
"post Civil Rights" genera:
tion.
On second thought howev
er, 1 am not so sure that this
has much to do with genera
tion, except for the fact that
some of the successes of the
previous generation ushered
in a new class of more afflu
ent Blacks who eschew the
tactics of the past, not because
they are unsuccessful, but that
in the current atmosphere,
they believe it cost more per
sonally to deploy them.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was not universally loved by
Black people and was hated
and feared by many of the
Whites who now put him on
posters. The primary reason
was that he and many of his
generation made the White
establishment and the Black
who were connected to them
uncomfortable with the main
tenance of a system of prac
tices built on a rScist hierar
chy
The courage to challenge
it by some in that generation
was not universally exercised
by most Blacks because they
fell ibcy had much to lose:
/oh?, prestige, friends and
*vcn the support of relatives. I
(ft conceive of that being a
problem today when a
larger Black middle class -
which has always led the
struggle for justice - now
feels that so entrenched that it
does not have to deploy the
tactics of the past, not because
they would not be successful,
but because they would be
personally vulnerable in the
new corporate atmosphere,
embarrassed, or lose the sup
port of friends and relatives
even more today.
I appreciate the genera
tional feature of the new digi
tal revolution and the use of
the internet and other elec
tronic technology to do mod
ern organizing. But when all
is said and done and the infor
mation is disseminated about
the injustices taking place, it
takes courage to act upon that
information.
In fact, as a leadership
scholar. I have always felt that
of all the characteristics of
leadership, thf courage to act
was the most important.
The courage to act pro
duces the pressure for change
- and it always will. That is
one of the laws of the use- of
power.
It is the responsibility of
civil rights activists in any
generation to make the pain
and suffering that results from
racist oppression visible to
systemic leaders so that it can
be corrected.
That is why they are not
loved, either by those who
control American institutions,
those who shape media
images or even their own peo
ple many times.
Just recently, the courage
to mobilize the masses of
Blacks by civil rights leaders
created the visibility of the
oppression of Blacks in
Benton Harbor Michigan,
highlighted Don Imus' racist
insults to the young Black
women of the Rutgers
University basketball team,
demanded redress from the
federal government to the dis
aster of Katrina, showed the
injustice of the killing of Sean
Bell by the New York City
police, forced the nation to
look at what was happening to
six young blacks who faced a
legal lynching in Jena,
Louisiana, demanded the
Justice Department treat the
emergence of nooses as hate
crimes and so on. The digital
revolution was important to
these mobilizations, but it did
not replace the power of
marching feet and the pres
sure that created for correc
tive action.
I understand the great
yearning for Blacks who have
reached the standard of
American affluence not to
have to mobilize to demand
justice. But until justice
comes, that (will be their
responsibility because they
have access to greater
resources than the poor. The
myth that electing a Black
president will resolve these
problems, is created by some
uncomfortable Blacks, the
media and institutional lead
ers who pine for the emer
gence of non-confrontational
Black leaders because they
work within the systems they
control. .
We need institutional
Black leaders, but they have
other responsibilities. 1
remember that in the mid
1970s, the Congressional
Black Caucus had to make a
proclamation that they would
hence forth not be considered
civil rights leaders, but legis
lators, that they could not take
on those kinds of issues and
tactics. Their task was to pass
the laws that either corrected
or prevented them.
It is still true today. We
need the division of labor in
Black leadership to be under
stood and supported, especial
ly by Blacks, even if the
media does not. So, the only
circumstance in which Black
Politics disappears is if racism
di sappeors , so that those who
suffer from it need not take
extraordinary measures to
achieve justice. In this sense,
we don't live'in a "post" any
thing era, because the chal
lenges are still here.
Dr. Ron Wallers is the
Distinguished Leadership
Scholar, director of the
African American Leadership
Center and Professor of
Government and Politics at
the University of Maryland
College Park. His latest hook
is "The Price of Racial
Reconciliation."