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I Editorials & Comments | Economic Issues The Big Winner! Too often when members of the white news media want to get the views of the black com munity they will seek out one or two so-called "black leaders" for an opinion and then write, "the black community says..." Such an approach represents an at tempt to ignore black self aware ness and black self-images and to substitute a view of black people from the perspective of white people. Unfortunately, too, a few un scrupulous blacks have used a similar tactic in order to assume a self-proclaimed leadership role. It was just such a tactic that the POST opposed last week when two blacks proclaimed themselves to be representing the views of the black com munity in opposing Rowe Mot ley's appointment to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Fred Alexander. It is out of a concern to avoid claiming to speak for the black community, what we view as a need for blacks to more tho roughly review the candidates and their positions on the issues, and our view that there is one overriding issue in the 1980 elec tions that leads us to not endorse any candidates. Elsewhere on pages in the POST are stories and articles about all candidates who sought to offer their view point to us for you to read and judge for yourself. By overriding issue we mean that the nation's economy; that is, the basic economic difficul ties facing the American people is and will continue to be the big winner in the primaries and the coming November general elections. People are finding it hard to pay up to two dollars for a gallon of gasoline, $1.25 for a gallon of home heating fuel, and 17 per ceni interest υη a home mort gage. Furthermore, people can't stand the growing uncertainly from continuing job lay-offs or the inflation tfyat continues to eat away at the size and power of the payroll check. In addition, the recently released "State of the South" report prepared by the Southern Regional Council states that in spite of all our civil rights, equal opportunity-affirmative action efforts over the past 30 years, black males still only earn about 57 percent of what whites earn. This disturbing facts lead us to believe that economic issues will be the primary concerns of voters in general and blacks in particular. For example, in the Wisconsin primaries, black vo ters turned noticeably to Repu blican John Anderson. Does this mean blacks are not satisfied with Carter's economic policies? ai me same urne, conserva tive Republican Ronald Reagan has his chief black campaign strategist Clarence McKee try ing to convince black profession als, government workers, bus drivers and business people that their best interests are with middle-class Republicans. Again, addressing economic concerns, Ben Hooks, executive director of the NAACP said recently, "The few gains black people have made are threaten ed by the present climate of fiscal austerity." Black people must add to their political awareness skills a ta lent for understanding and ana lyzing the economic issues of the day and then voting for the candidate whose political and economic viewpoints will, to our best belief, work to create a more liveable and economically sound environment. It's your vote - use it wiselv Let's Stop Self-Destruction in tne May issue of "Demo graphy," the journal of the Popu lation Association of American, Reynolds Farley details findings which conclude that blacks in the United States are six times more likely to be shot to death than white people. Farley notes the risk is highest between the ages of 25 and 34 when homicide accounts for more deaths than any other cause. "Unlike most causes of death in this country, homicide rates have risen steadily, es pecially since the mid 1950's," he added. "The increase is evident for both blacks and whites, but it is highest among blacks." Farley states further that al most all the rise in black homi cides and a large part of the rise in white homicides has resulted from gun killings. Thus, he con cludes, "There is a clear correla tion between the increased avail ability of firearms and the in crease in murders." While Farley's report does not address a significantly related factor, that is, black-on-black crime, we need to be reminded that much of our homicide rate is caused by other blacks. This is evidenced by two facts. First, crime is often committed against us by someone we know; some one who has been in our homes or businesses. Secondly, there ap pears to be a total disregard for black life and black-owned pro perty by too many blacks; As blacks, we need to stop the feelings of worthlessness, which leads to much black-on-black -homicide. To be blunt we must police our own neighborhoods and be responsible for stopping our own self-destruction. If we don't love ourselves, no one else will. Γν -V νν ν V vV /γ THE STREETS ARE MADE FOR YOU, NCT<FOW\ TRASH OR GARBAGE: ,<i. Ά A Cleaner Neighborhood Is Up To You. As I See It Demise Of The Educational System ay ueraiu υ. jonnson Post Columnist The following article is the third of a series of articles pointing out the end of an era. These ar ticles represent my reflec tions on several great books that pinpoint the end of the' Industrial Revolu tion. Future articles will bring out more elucid points to substantiate this claim. It is interesting-to realize that our educatidnal sys tem is based on a central ization and standardization process. During the turn from the agricultural era to the industrial revolution (see last week's article), the majority of our citizen ry were farmers. As factor ies started popping up all over the country the big gest problem factory man agers faced was employing people to work in the fac tories. Obviously, the ini tial workers were farmers. Farmers were not used to the repetitive, laborous, routine, day-to-day re quirements of the factory. Consequently, the factories did not operate efficiently. It was decided that the only recourse available was to train people to be come factory workers. Standard educational insti tutions sprung up around the country to do just this. The schools were set up to prepare people at the early ages to work in the factor ies. School hours were set to get people accustomed to the work day. Standard curriculums were devel oped that were repetitive and redundant to prepare people for the type work they would be doing. School bells were used to get people accustomed to re sponding and adapting to Gerald Ο. Johnson their sound. The list of things that parallel the rea soning for the school sys tem goes on and op. But the main purpose for the educational system was to prepare people to work in the industrial era. The educational system adjust ed and changed as the industrial revolution ma tured to the system we know today. The one overriding point about the educational sys tem is its ability to control and not expand the mind. All of us think exactly alike. We differ not on an issue but on its perspective to us. It is like the ditch digger and his supervisor. They both have different perspectives of ditch dig ging. One looks at it as it has to be done while the other views how it should be done. The question might be if it should be done at all. Our entire system - economics, poli tics, religion, leisure - churns on our inability to rationalize. It churns on our inability to question. It churns because the major ity of us accept things the way they are, and not on the way they should be. The majority of us don't realize how things should be. This is why television has thrived so well in our society. Advertisers utilize our inability to reason to sell us garbage. Religious leaders utilize our inability to reason to sell us a concept of God. Politicians utilize our inability to rea son to sell us down the tubes. We abuse our inabi lity to reason to sell our selves short. Even the in ternal Revenue Service uti lizes our inability to reason to force us to pay taxes. Ironically, the people work ing for the 1RS are hired because of their inability to reason. They are trained like robots to collect funds and off they go. All of this is due to the overriding purpose of our educational system. This purpose was to produce mechanized humans to subsist for the betterment of society. But recently, our educa tional system has been un der the gun. No one is satisfied with the increas ing cost and the decreasing value of the system. It has become apparent that the system does not work. But it never has. So, why all the fuss now? It is because of integration; bussing; high er taxes; poor education? These are individual causes that help people become aware of the pro blem. But much more lies at the root of the cause. Onv the road lie signs indicating the end of this era. The reason for support of the educational system as we know it today has vanished. Consequently, we are witnessing the de terioration of the support base (people) for the system. With vastly improving see DEMISE on Page 4 ! By Vernon Ε. Jordan. Jr.; TO BE EQUAL ! · Call To Curb Police Violent attacks on policemen ai£ police violence against civilians are growing problems that need to be dealt with. One major element in the deadly equation — the question of police violence, was the subject of an extraordinary meeting last December in which police officials and community leaders met under the auspices of federal officials and minority organiza tions. That meeting was often stormy, but since it was the first such national dialogue that is to be expected. More important was the evident concern of police representatives about the gravity of the problem. Just days after the meeting an incident occurred in Miami that illustrates the seriousness of the problem. A black busi nessman on a motorcycle was chased by four policemen who beat him to death, at first reporting the death as the result of an arriHpnt The four were indicted for manslaughter, and reports of the inquiry into the incident suggest that violence against civilians was far from rare. In fact, one officer admitted that Miami police had a scale to rate injuries inflicted on civilians. It is estimated that about 600 people die each year at the hands of law enforcement officers. That's more than one person every day. About half are minorities. Typically the incident occurs without justification. Often the victim is unarmed, or not in a position to endanger the officers. In too many cases the victim is shot in the back. Few victims were suspected of serious crimes or of being dangerous. Many cases are the tragic result of mutual fears compounded by cultural mis understandings between white policemen and minority youths. Minority policemen have rarely been involved in such incidents, indicating their understanding of the ghetto's values, be havior patterns, and non-verbal signals makes them better equipped to deal with situations that might otherwise be explo sive. Racism is sometimes a fact£~ - a prejudiced officer abusing his authority. But more significant may be the subtle racism that pervades our society and makes it difficult to avoid the negative sterotyping that can spark fear and panic leading to deadly use of force. There is no easy answer to the problem. Model codes, strict police administrative supervision, . community-relations efforts, recruitment of more minority law enforce ment officers, are all part of the solution. No single one of these, perhaps not even all in combination, will totally solve the problem. But those 600 fatalities can be cut to a small fraction of the number if those steps were taken. Cities with strict gun codes - and enforcement of those codes - report sharply reduced incidents of civilian fatalities. Curbing police violence makes for better policing too. Officers can do a better job when they've got strict rules and regula tions that govern anticipated incidents. Police departments should not view the outcry against deadly force as an anti police feeling. Rather it is the pained protest of people who want the police to nrnfo^t fl*Am «λ* λ·» THE CHARLOTTE POST Second 'Mass Postage No. 965500 "THE Pi^Or*LES NEWSPAPER" Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd Charlotte, N.C 28208 Telephone <704)376-0496 Circulation - 9,200 62 Years Of Continuous Service RIM. JOHNSON.. Editor, Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878 Member National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photoes is 5 p.m Monday. All photos and copy submitted become the property of the POST, and will not be returned. National Advertising Respresentative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 45 W. Sth St.. Suite 1403 2400 8. Michigan Ave. New York, N.Y. Ι003Λ Chicago. Ill βοβιβ <212)489 1220 Calumet 5-0200 1 piuicvi luciiif nui enuuiiger mem. From The White House United Méthodiste Urges Carter To Continue Same Course Alfred a L. Madison Special To The Post A representative group from the United Methodist General Conference met with President Carter to discuss the Iran question. They informed him that they represented more than ten million people in the United States and around the world. The group congratulated the President on the restraint he has exercised in the hostage situation. They urged him to continue that same course because they feel that this is necessary since the Iranians are un dergoing the formation of a new government. The group told Mr Car ter that a vast reservoir of support exists in our land, especially among the churches and synagogues for policies which make for peace They implored the President not to give in to those who counsel military intervention, nor take steps which will eventually lead to war, because this will create a state of affairs far worse than the one we now face. That course of action ν Alfreda L. Madison would not only forfeit the lives of the hostages but thousands of lives of Iran ians and Americans would be lost, which would put the peace of the world into instability and jeopardy. The representatives urged the President to re store normal diplomatic re lationships with Iran as soon as possible and to offer assurance to Iran that we will honor their national independence. "We cannot identify with policies of covert or overt intervap tion in the affaira of that nation." The only response the group got from the Presi dent is that he will send them a written reply. Spokesman for the group. Bishop Dale White, of New Jersey, has spent several days in Iran where he had a conference with Ayatollah Khomeini, other leaders and the students who are holding the host ages and the hostages, themselves He was al lowed to move freely throughout the country and talk with the people. The Bishop reports that the Iranian people were very friendly. He visited Be heshti Zahara Cemetery where hundreds of young martyrs of the Iranian Re volution are buried. The Avatollah said he wished ie could stay in Iran long •nough to see what the lhah had done to the eople Youths were tor ured in underground cells, nany were killed and all of fiis was on the ground that fiey were commissioners or the big powers. Bishop White reports that the students are highly intelligent, but they are angry at the U.S. for put ting into and keeping the cruel Shah in power for two and a half decades and thai rapacious U.S. interesta sy phone off their oil money and ruined their economy. Bishop White criticized the squeezing of Iranian stu dents out of American by angry American people. CM course, this anger Is in flamed by leaders of our country who refuse to re veal the truth to the Ameri can people. Dr. Joseph Sisco, archi tect of the Nixon Doctrine, emphasizes that the United States' expertise of multi national business leaders assisted in building Iran's economy. Millions of people were enabled to live in comfort. The Shah push ed a traditional rural cul ture into the twentieth cen tury industry. Sisco, how ever, failed to tell the truth that Iran fertile agriculture lands lie in ruins and that Iran has to import over 93 percent of its food and that hundreds of thousands of farm families have been reduced to abject poverty and forced into slums. Sis u < co did not mention that industrial Jobs were cre ated, but that it was riddled with high inflation and cor ruption. We do not emphasize the fact that thousands of people were killed by the Shah and that Khomeini pardoned 60,000 SAVAK members who were trained by our CIA for support of the Shah. The students are aware that the hostage-taking is against international law; however, they are strug gling with the only weapon they have to expose the vast network of interna tional criminals supported by the great powers who violate human rights and just aspirations of millions of Third World people. They, like black Americans in the fifties and sixties are engaged in civil dis obedience. Dr. Richard Falk of ~ Princeton says that inter national law was written by governments to protect governments and people who live under repression regimes have no interna tional law for their protection. It seems quite clear that the administration's and European sanctions a gainst Iran are really ruth lees and inhuman ; all ία ι big corporation greed at ' the destruction of human ity. Culp Predicts 10,000 Blacks Will Vote continued from Page 1 polls will be open from β:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sample ballots are available at all libraries, First Union and Mechanics and Farmers Banks, and the Election Office. Voters are urged to itudy the sample ballot in advance. All voting will be lone by voting machines
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 1, 1980, edition 1
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