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Confederate
History is
Supremacy
History
Julianne
Malveaux
Guest
Columnist
(NNPA) - Last week,
Virginia Governor Boh
McDonnell proclaimed April
Confederate History Month in
his state. In fact, he pro
claimed the date on April 7.
which is the same day in I X65
that Confederate General
Robert E. Lee began to negoti
ate the terms of surrender w ith
United States General Ulysses
S. Grant In some states, this
day is considered Contederate
Memorial Day, and Virginia is
not alone is celebrating
"Confederate History Month
Alabama. Mississippi, and
Louisiana have celebrated this
month for quite some time. In
the last decade or so Texas
(since 1499). Florida (since
2007), and Georgia (since
2009) have also instituted cele
brations of Confederate
History Month
Virginia celebrated trom
1994-2002 before the com
memoration was revoked.
Southerners say there is no
racism in their celebration ol
the confederacy. They claim
they just want to celebrate their
ancestors who valiantly fought
for that which they believed in
What exactly did these folks
believe in. though? In his
famous Cornerstone speech,
delivered in Savannah Georgia
on March 21. 1861.
Confederate Vice-President
Alexander Stephens stated
"Our . foundation are laid, its
cornerstone rests, upon the
great truth is that the negro
(this is how Negro was spelled
historically) is not equal to the
white man; that slavery - sub
ordination to the superior race
- is his natural and normal
condition
Anyone who believes in
freedom, justice and equality
and reads these words has to
cringe, not only at the* senti
ment. but also at the notion
that this sentiment has been
resurrected, nearly 150 years
later, by contemporary gover
nor of a state that is at least 1 2
percent African American. To
celebrate the so-called confed
eracy is to celebrate the words
that Stephens despicably
uttered, and that ought to be an
anathema to any thinking
American .
Governor McDonnell
seems to think that he cleaned
up his contemptible proclama
tion by adding language that
speaks to the abomination ol
slavery. He is talking out of
two sides of his mouth. How
can you describe slavery as
"evil, vicious and inhumane
without acknowledging, as
Stephens said, that slavery is
the "cornerstone" of the
Confederacy that he wants to
celebrate?
This matter has been so
digested in the public space
that it seems almost redundant
to address it again At the
same time, it seems that not
enough can be written or said
about our historical myopia
and its consequences For all
of our so-called post-racialism.
Harbour
race really does still matter,
and this pro-Confederacy non
sense shows exactly how
much. For some southerners,
ihe civil war is still really not
over, and there are those w ho
truly believe that "subordina
tion to the superior race" is the
"natural and normal condition"
ol Black Americans. Imagine
the chagrin these folks feel
when they realize that despite
their deeply held beliefs, the
elected leader of our nation is a
man of African descent. As
Black Americans close social,
economic, and political saps,
the Tea Party posse and the
C onlederacy celebrants seem
to clamor for more and. more
attention
I realize that I write this
with some risk The Tea Part\
folks are so extreme that they
run around threatening people,
'ike Tennessee Democratic
Congressman Steve Cohen,
who raised questions about
their motives. Yet historv is
written by those w ho hold' the
pen. and we are all remiss if we
do not remind those w ho are
thinking about our nation's his
torv that the Confederacy was
a rebellion against the United
States of America. Why
should this rebellion be com
memorated and celebrated?
History belongs to those
who hold the pen. and it seems
to me that many penholders
have a profound ambivalence
about the Civil War and its
aftermath. To be sure, cousins
fought cousins, friends fought
friends, and West Point class
mates fought each other. To
clean it up. after the fact, the
conflict is said to be about
states rights, an enduring con
flict that continues to plague
our nation, instead of slavery,
which Stephens declared (and
no one disagreed on record) as
the cornerstone of the confed
eracy If the Confederacy had
ever been written out of histo
ry as an aberrant loser we
might not still be struggling
whether domestic terrorists
should be celebrated. Instead,
our nation's ambivalence
about race and equal rights has
empowered governors and oth
ers to celebrate supremacy.
Instead of a celebration of
C onfederacy, we really need a
repudiation of its principles b>
all of those rogue states that
were once Confederate
Instead, Mississippi Governor
Haley Barbour calls the cele
bration of Confederacy "no big
deal loo bad Mississippi vot
ers - 38 percent Black
American ? can't make this
man accountable for his
supremacist views
Jitlianne Malveaux is prey
idem of Bennett Coll, ve tin
Women
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Summer jobs for teens needed
Marc
Morial
Guest
Columnist
(NNPA) - After months
of pressure from the National
Urban League, the
Congressional Black Caucus
and other members of the
civil rights community, the
White House has endorsed a
key provision of the National
Urban League's six-point
Plan for Putting Americans
Back to Work - summer jobs
for chronically unemployed
urban youth. In a recent con
ference call between CBC
Chairwoman Barbara Lee
and White House officials,
the Administration urged
Senate passage of H .R. 4KW.
a bill that would allocate
$600 million to create
300.000 summer- youth jobs
which passed in the House on
March 24.
This renewed interest in
job creation that leaves no
one behind comes in the
wake of a March jobs report
showing that while 162.000
jobs were created last month
and overall unemployment
appears to be leveling off at
9.7 percent. African
American unemployment has
now risen to 16.5 percent and
Hispanic joblessness stands
at 12.6 percent. Even more
troubling as the summer
approaches is that over 40
percent of Black teenagers
are unemployed ? a recipe
for disaster for the young
people, their families and our
economy. We know that
summer jobs not only put
needed money into the budg
ets of struggling families, but
also provide valuable work
experience that can start
young people on the path to
productive . adulthood, and
help jump-start local
economies. Summer jobs
also take idle kids off the hot
summer streets where they
are more likely to get into
trouble.
In recent months, the
National Urban League has
waged a relentless campaign
for job creation in communi
ties of greatest need Last
November we presented our
six-point plan to the White
House and Congressional
leaders. In February, we met
with President Obama in the
Oval Office to reiterate the
need for a more targeted
approach to job creation.
And we carried that message
directly to Capitol Hill dur
ing last month's annual
Legislative Policy
Conference. The jobs crisis
was also the cover story of
this year's State of Black
America Report
A summer jobs bill is
sorely needed, but as
Congress woman Barbara Lee
has said, it would merely be a
down-payment on job ere
ation. A much bolder and
more comprehensive plan is
called for In fact,
Congresswoman Barbara Lee
recently teamed up with
California Congressman
George Miller to structure a
$100 billion jobs bill, "The
Local Jobs for America Act,"
which would create or save a
million public and private
sector jobs. The bill contains
many of the elements of the
National Urban League s six
point plan, including direct
job creation, job training, and
targeted help for communi
ties most in need.
CB.C member Bobby
Rush has also introduced the
"Employing Youth for the
American Dream Act,"
which tracks many of the
National Urban League's rec
ommendations.
1 am pleased that the
White House and the
Congress are finally respond
ing to the recommendations
of the National Urban
League, the CBC and others
We must increase efforts to
create jobs for the chronical
ly unemployed, especially in
communities of color. But
we don't have months to
debate this issue. Summer is
fast approaching. Our young
people need jobs now
Mart H. Mortal is the
leader of the National Urban
League
America's obsession with skin color
Michael
McMillan
Guest
Columnist
(NNPA) - The April 4th
observation of Dr Martin
Luther King Jr.'s bloody
death in Memphis produced
another .round of speech
excerpts of him saying his
dream was to see people
judged on the basis of their
character, not their skin color.
But the color of one's skin
- 42 years after Dr. King's
assassination - is still a major
issue in America. The notion
that a person can look at
another individual and know
his or her race is an extremely
flawed one. I know this from
personal experience
My mother is an African
American and my father is
white. As a result, I am very
light-skinned. So much so
that people often confuse me
with being white; some
unsuspecting Caucasians
have actually uttered the
dreaded n-word in my pres
ence When I informed them
that I am biracial. they
cringed in red-face emharass
nient
I am not alone. The late
Harlem Congressman Adam
Clayton Powell's was of a
very light complexion. U.S.
Rep. G.H. Butterfied (D-NC).
secretary of the
Congressional Black Caucus,
is so light skinned that he is
often mistaken for being
White Motivational speaker
George Fraser often begins
his lectures bv declaring. "I
am Black "
If this were not such a
US. Rep. Hutterfield
serious matter, it would he
laughable. But bigotry and
ignorance is no laughing mat
ter Moreover, some people,
especially in the political
arena. tr> to exploit this w ide
spread ignorance about race
Still, we need not be willing
victims.
The concept of race is a
concocted construct.
"Today, scholars in many
fields argue that race' as it is
understood in the United
States of America was a social
mechanism invented during
the ISth century to refer to
those populations brought
together in colonial America:
the English and other
European settlers, the con
quered Indian peoples, and
those peoples of Africa
brought in to provide slave
labor," the American
Anthropological Association
(AAA) said in a statement on
race "...It subsumed a grow
ing ideology of inequality
devised to rationalize
European attitudes and treat
ment of the conquered and
enslaved peoples."
The AAA said race
evolved into "a Nxlv of pre
ludgmcnts that distorts our
ideas about human differ
George Fraser
ences and group behavior."
Interestingly, there are far
more variations within desig
nated racial groups than
between different races
"In the United States kith
scholars and the general pub
lic have been conditioned to
\ iew ing hur^ian races as natu
ral and separate divisions
within the human species
based on \isible physical dif
ferences." the anthropology
group said in its statement.
"With the \ast expansion of
scientific knowledge in this
country, however, it has
become clear that human pop
ulations are not unan\bigous.
clearly demarcated, biologi
cally distinct groups
Evidence from the analysis of
genetics (e.g.. DNA) indicates
that most physical variation,
about 94*^. lies within so
called racial groups."
It concluded.
"Conventional geographic
'racial' groupings differ from
one another only in about
of their genes. This means
there is greater variation w ith
in racial' groups than
between them."
The U S Department of
I nergv Human Genome
Project issued a statement that
was even more unequivocal:
"DNA studies do not indicate
that separate classifiable sub
species (races) exist within
modern humans While differ
ent genes for physical traits
such as skin and hair color
can be identified between
individuals, no consistent pat
terns of genes across the
human genome exist to distin
guish one race from another
There is also no genetic basis
for divisions of human ethnic
ity"
Placing so much emphasis
on the questionable construct
of race ^ what Rev Jesse
Jackson calls majoring in the
minor By no means am I sug
gesting that disparate treat
ment of African-Americans
over the years does not war
rant corrective remedies, such
as affirmative action In fact. I
argue the opposite.
All of us. must face up to
the reality that the United
States is quickly becoming
what political scientists like
to call a majority minority.
According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, minorities
comprise one-third of the
U.S. population However, by
2042. they are projected to
make up the majority and rise
to 54 percent of the popula
tion by 2050 Meanwhile,
non-Hispanic whites will see
their share of the population
dip from f>6 percent in 2008 to
4(> percent in 2050. No single
group will comprise a majori
ty of the I'.S population
Clearly , we need to come
together if we are to survive
as a nation Divisive and mis
leading talk about race in the
abstract doesn't help us get
there
Michael McMillan is the
City of St. Louis License
C ollector.