amofiiu com Economic Parity And Human Rights By Hoyle H. Martin Sr. Post Executive Editor In an address delivered to the Mid-Winter Conference of the Nation Association of Minority Contractors earlier this month, Dr. Berkeley G. Burrell, president of the National Business League, said that the deve lopment of minority business enter prises in American face an uncer tain future largely due to the steady deterioration of the nation’s com mercial centers. He warned that in the ‘ ‘absence of a national economic policy for the revitalization of Ame rica’s centers of commerce” minori ty group efforts to achieve economic parity may be doomed. Burrell echoed the same theme in an address a few months ago. At that time we editorialized (December 2. 1976) the view that economic parity for blacks would come only if blacks look beyond Richard Nixon’s narrow definition of “black capitalism” to seven minimum requirements for economic development ranging from black owned profit-making and community development corpora tions to the complete elimination of racism as a basis for profit decision making. As important as these require ments are, they are not in and of themselves sufficient to provide pa rity-a parity that takes into conside ration the needs and uses of human resources. However, this is not the concern of some of those responsible in part for maintaining social and economic order. \ For example, the Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism, a group of police and law enforcement offi cials, predicted recently another siege of urban riots and a continuing increase in terrorism. They warn that the nation is in a period of false calm and would like to give local authorities emergency powers. Such, powers would allow law enforce ment officers to search without warrants, arrest and jail certain individuals for “reasonable” peri ods of time because they are poten tial law breakers, forcibly relocate residents under certain circum stances and limit freedom of speech when it was judged (by whom?) to be “inflammatory.” Thus, while President Carter champions the cause of human rights around the world, the Task Force, a supposedly government advisory group, favors the suppres sion of minority economic right and the human rights guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution. The “false calm” and the possibi lity of new urban riots is in our view real. It is real because of the frustrations and tensions that cha racterize the lives of people consis tently denied their full measure of human rights in the form of decent unsegregrated housing, equal em ployment opportunities and a fair chance to participate to what we continue to call the free enterprise capitalistic system. If governments - federal, state or local - accept the Task Force’s recommendation to deny human rights because people cry out with so-called “inflammatory” rhetoric or even riots against such denials, then all Americans are doomed to a life of injustice and the loss of any hope for economic parity. UNCC 49ers - Talent Plus Maturity Legend, if not fact, tells us that when Tommy Burns was the heavy wight boxing champion between 1906 and 1908, he traveled around the world and challenged everyone. Ead«p6 ha did this thlt«tented~* black boxer Jack Johnson Would raised his hand and said, “I’ll fight you Mister Burns,” but the champ did not want to fight Johnson, so each time he ignored the challenger and moved on to another country. Finally, in Sydney, Australia, in 1908, Burns again ignored challen ger Johnson and was about to leave the country when the authorities told him that he bad to honor his commitment to fight any challenger before leaving. Johnson, history tells us, beat Burns badly for 13 rounds before knocking him out in the 14th. Such has been the history of the UNCC 49ers basketball team for the past three years. Lame-duck rea sons have come from established basketball schools as to why they won’t play UNCC on a home-and home basis. However, just as Burns could no longer avoid challenger Johnson, the established basketball powers can no longer avoid the 49ers. What accounts for this phenome nal success of the 49ers? Writers and newspapers across the country have answered this question in classic fashion. A LEXINGTON HEROLD headline said: “Charlotte Destroys Syracuse...” The story that followed said: “If Charlotte has a weakness, it wasn’t apparent last night...Like (Coach) Rose, the 49ers showed marvelous composure and made the win (over Syracuse) look easy.” Local sports writer Bob Quincy eloquently explained the 49ers suc cess when he wrote after the win over Michigan: “The story behind the most impressive triumph in UNCC history can be found in the dressing room. As impressive as the victory was the players weren’t turning cartwheels. The 49ers took their success in their usual unexcit ed manner. Therein, I think, is their secret.” The POST is proud to salute the 49ers as they journey to Atlanta In quest of the NCAA Basketball Cham pionship. While we wish them well, there is no doubt in our minds that UNCC richly deserves No. 1 status. Regardless of the outcome in the Atlanta, UNCC is the only one of the finalist to have beaten the very best. Right-On UNCC! BLACK AMERICA ROLL UP VOUR SLEEVES 'BLACK FOLKS THEMSELVES ARE SOI,HS TO HAVE TO,HORK OUT MANY OF THEIR OUN PROBLEMS, INSTEAD OF LEAVING IT Ul> TO THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AMO PROGRAMSf h a . hL Blacks9 Destiny In Own Hands The Real Bias In Tests The use of standardized tests for college admission and employment all too often results in blacks being shut out. The discriminatory as pect of these tests may not lie so much in the questions asked on the test as in the applica tion of a single standard on a' dual society. For example, Jt both French-speaking and English-speaking people must take the same test, the use of French as the language of the test would surely discriminate against those whose native tongue is English. Standardized tests are bas ed upon the language and culture of literacy. Even though we commonly think of literacy as simply being able to read, Marshall McLuhan describes it as a separate and distinct culture, with its own vocabulary, language struc ture, life style and pattern of thinking. A test which is based upon the literate culture exa mines the vocabulary which is unique to the language of literacy; it examines the knowledge which has been passed on by the institutions of literacy; and it judges reason ing ability by the thinking patterns which, according to McLuhan, have been shaped and altered by print techno logy. Segregation laws, however, have kept black people ex cluded from the literature culture, and have denied blacks equal access to the main sources of literacy, namely, schools and libraries. The result has been the deve lopment of an “oral language culture” within a literate soci ety, which is essentially differ ent from the literature cul ture. Even though many mem bers of the oral culture may read equally as well as those of the literate culture, dis criminatory laws and prac tices which have segregated the oral society places upon them the burden of having to live and function within one language culture while having to complete on tests which are based on a different language culture. Any test which is based upon the language and culture of literacy will give to those who are native to that culture an advantage over those who have been excluded from it. Though two children may be of equal ability, the child who is a native of the literate culture should be able to score higher on a reading readiness test or IQ test than the chUd who has been confined to the oral language environment. The job applicant who has been segregated to the oral language culture is more like ly to be eliminated by a literacy-based test than an applicant who has grown up in the literature environment, *vr*t though he may be able to read as well and perform the job as well or better than the other applicant. As long as literacy-based tests are used to determine who shall receive more lite racy and who shall receive the advantages of literacy in terms of employm«*, .tbofe who 4>aVe been deMjhhjiitigSii access to literacy will automa tically be denied equal access to education and jobs, and we will continue to have separate and unequal societies divided along the color line. Hornets9 Nest Girl Scout Council To Meet Hornets’ Nest Girl Scout Council will hold a Freedom Forest Arbor Day Celebration Friday, March 25 (Rain date March 27), 7:30 p.m., at Free dom Park in Charlotte. Over 2400 Girl Scouts will partici pate in presenting to the City of Charlotte approximately forty “Freedom Trees” they have received from the gover nors of various states through out the U S. During the closing candle light ceremonies, hundreds of miniature block boats carry ing lighted candles will be launched on the lake at Free dom Park. The event is open to the Dublic. TO _BE EQUAL Vernon E. Jordan Jr. * T ». Young’s Unfulfilled Legacy it has been six years since Whitney Young’s death deprived our nation of one of its most creative and forceful leaders, and the passing_of time has not dimmed his stature. Rather, it has enhanced it as we see how right he was about America’s need to change, and how the specific measures he fought for are still needed. Most prominent in Whitney Young’s unfulfilled legacy is his concept of a Domestic Marshall Plan to rebuild the cities. His idea was that a broad coalition of the public and private sectors should concentrate national resources on inner city problems worsened by racial discrimina tion. He was the first person to put forth that idea, ^ and while many others have followed - using his ^ phrase and concept - the task is still to be done. In fact, the opposite policy was followed - a program of federal and private sector disinvest ment in urban areas, a massive redlining of the nation’s cities. The pressing financial needs of older cities are bound to get worse unless Congress revises the 1974 Housing and Community Development Act. Despite its name, the law set up a formula for federal aid to urban areas that means decreas ing amounts of money will go to the cities that need it most, while small towns and suburban communities in relatively good financial shape will get more. This amounts to a huge transfer of tax funds from the cities to their suburbs, precisely reversing the priorities rational policy demands. But that’s not all - not only do the funds move more heavily to areas where they aren’t needed as much, but those that do go to the cities are often misused. Urban areas get their aid on a complex formula that is supposed to ensure funds for cities characterized by older housing, overcrowding, and poverty pockets, but evi dence indicates most such cities put the money into middle income sections. a Key pari oi wmtney Young s program was rate UNLV will end up in thr finals. UNCC will meet Marquette and we have already covered the 49er's. Marquette Is an emotional team that is not well disciplined. Disciplined yes, but not well disciplined They will be well prepared and emotionally charged for this one as coach McGuirre is an expert at inspiring his team They are not as sound fundamentally as UNCC, but can explode at any time UNCC should win it but any thing goes with a team as explosive as Marquette I pro diet UNCC should win It but diet UNCC in a squeaker