Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 25, 1989, edition 1 / Page 7
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mmm Thursday, May 25, 1989 - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Page 7A John McDonald Disproves Myths About Black Business Some 150 black organizations spend $3 billion each summer holding annual meetings In white hotels, discussing white racism and black poverty. The most recent example was the so-called "Black Summit" In New Orleans at, of course, a white hotel to discuss an " agenda" which will then be for warded to President George Bush for his approval and exec utive action. McDonald, a black man who has operated the famous McDo nald's Cafeteria in Charlotte, North Carolina for years, has opened a mini-major, $3 million hotel, appropriately called the Best Western McDonald's Inn. If the inconsistencies in both of the above, do not jump out at you, you might save yourself some time by reading the com ics instead of reading further. The excuse that there are no black-owned hotels will also be piii to the test. Now that McDonald and his wife, Eunice, have succeeded, af ter years of saving and hard work, in opening one of the fin est hotels in the state, they must now convince a biased black community that they can com pete (if they were white, many of us would accept them on face value). Tony Brown’s Commentaries school, I checked into McDo nald's Inn. Ijt won't be the acid test be cause we still don't own one ma jor Hotel in America. But John Therefore, let me review my ex perience at McDonald's Inn. First, I was in Charlotte speak ing at Johnson C. Smith Univer sity, a bulwark of black educa tion in that state, and at the suggestion of my host at the A brand new building with 105 rooms, appointed with all of the latest electronic gadgets -- re mote control TV, climate con trol, AM-FM radios — gave me Unemployment "Crackin" Up Youth Guest Editorial By CHARLES E. BELLE NMPA Business Editor "We spent $50 on a $50 dou- ble-up (five rocks or coke). You can make $100 on 5 rocks of co caine - each one worth $20.00." Tim Hawks. 16, THE CRISIS. "Cocaine is a business that al lows turning $ 1 million of a raw material into $5 billion of reve nue," says Richard W. Held, Agent-ln-charge, San Francisco Bay Area, Federal Bureau of In vestigation (FBI). Furthermore, • it is in all aspects of American society not just low Income, Afii- can American neighborhoods. Nice, white couples who earn in excess of $150,000 a year have had their lives ruined by using cocaine's derivative "crack," ac cording to Held. He and other law enforcement officers are helpless without the support of sincere citizens to clean up the drug traffic in America. A call for help by Held was Issued in front of a 99.9 {per cent pure white audience at the regular Friday luncheon meet ing of the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. Obviously, drugs are a national disgrace dealing at its base on nearly a decade of unemployed African American youth. It is a known fact from readers of this column to the White House that there has been near ly 50 percent unemployment of African American youth during Ronald Reagan's two terms of office in this country. Condi tions which cocaine traffickers took full advantage of to get a foothold in the lucrative Ameri can drug market. Money is be ing paid to "kids" at 12-years of age or less to be "runners" for $150 per day plus a new car, while President Bush is pushing for less than decent minimum wage of under $5.00 an hour. The Illegal drug business is big in the African American youth community because it offers what on the surface appears to be a better pa5lng job. What's more, at the moment, the imme diate superior is also an African Amerlcan-gang boss. These "kids!' armed with AK47 auto matic rifles, run their own flou rishing death trade. To try and take it away from them without giving something other than a jail sentence is silly! Sensible and constructive job training programs have to be put back on the books by the President with an affirmative action executive order and not a moment too soon. Slaughter of themselves and other "mushrooms," foreign objects that pop up and get popped away, will eventually spill over into the whole society. Since drug-related crimes already claim a third of the cause of to tal crimes, it is creeping around the comer. Cutting the outra geously high understated Afri can American youth unemploy ment rate is the battle for Bush. Believing that a two-thirds white male police force in most major U.S. cities can stop the cocaine crack business is not only "kinder" dumb, but danger ous to the health of the nation. Abolish The Death Penalty Now Amnesty International has been joined by hundreds of hu man rights groups throughout the world in the recent launch ing of a new international ceim- peilgn against the death penalty. Here in the United States, the issue of capital punishment continues to be hotly debated. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Commission for Racial Jus tice aifd numerous other civil rights and humam rights organi zations in the United States have long argued against the death penalty. John G. Healey, executive di rector of Amnesty International, USA stated, 'The death penalty is a human rights violation. It is cmel and degrading. It Is bar baric and should be stopped immediately." In a 268-page re port that details how and why the death penalty is applied worldwide. Amnesty Interna tional concluded that in many nations the death penalty is used "for blatant political rea sons and/or disproportionately against the poor or racial and eUinlc minorities." Since 1979 it is estimated that more than 40,000 women, men, and even in some cases children have been officially executed in some 90 different nations as a result of the imposition of the death pen- Civil Rights Journal By Benjamin Chavis position of the death penalty is immoral and unjust in any situ ation. The state does not create life and the state does not have the right to take life. Although African Americans today are approximately 15 per cent of this nation's population, African Americans comprise 41 percent of those on death row. Hispanics, Native Americans, and other racial and ethnic communities also dispropor tionately are sentenced to death. alty. In the United States the re port cites statistics that "86 per cent of prisoners on death row in 1987 have been convicted of killing whites. Forty-five of the 98 prisoners executed between January 1987 and May 1988 were black or Hispanic and 98 percent of them have been con victed of killing whites." Capital punishment in the United States has been rarely Imposed when the victim was an African American or Hispanic. Because of racism, the values of the lives of the victims of crime and vio lence is socially determined by race and socio-economic cir cumstances. The point here is, however, not the color of the race of the victim or of the ac cused. TTie issue is that the Im- In those states where capital punishment has been made le gal, the argument that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime has failed. In fact, there has been a gradual increase in the murder rate in those states where the death penalty is rou tinely Imposed. We, in the Unit ed States, should join the inter national campaign to abolish the death pen^ty by first taking this action here. The Supreme Court of the United States needs to be petitioned, and the death penalty should be outlawed. But, of course, the present mem bers of the Supreme Court would only take such a vote in the wake of a national public outciy against this type of inhu mane cruelty jind baibarlty. What It Takes To Improve Our Schools Guest Editorial by MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN We know that many public schools serving the black com munity, especially those tn low- income neighborhoods, are not as good as our children deserve. Many classrooms are over crowded. Halls are often unsafe. Teachers are often over whelmed by the burdens of their job. Improving our schools is a big task, with plenty of work for eve ryone. Government must Invest more resources in our schools. Communities must do more to support them. And parents too can play an important role in improving their children's school experience. Here are sev en different ways you can con tribute: every week to tutoring children who need extra help. Pick a sub ject you're especially good at. Talk to one of the teachers to find out which students need your help. ' Get to know the School Staff. second grade) should have bus service if they live more than a few blocks from the school. Talk to the principal if they do not. Be Politically Aware and In- Find out who your children's teachers are, and make a point of getting to know them person ally. Working together, you can do a lot to help your children learn better. Another key per son to know is the school coun selor. He or she can give you special Insights into the school and the teachers and can help you work with your child to over come any problems that crop up. Help Raise Funds for Your volved. Learn who is serving on your local school board. Find out if they are doing a good job for your children. Attend public meetings and follow school board news in your local paper. Most important, vote on your convictions. Keep Your Child Learning at • Get Involved in School Func tions. Visit your school on "Parent Night." Become an active member of your school's PTA. Help out with the graduation ceremony, or with other school activities such as basketball games, concerts, and plays. • Volunteer An Hour of Teach ing. Devote an hour of your time School. Work with other par ents, teachers, and students on holding a fundraising event such as a carnival. These events are fun and can help raise the funds schools desperately need to improve learning facilities. ' Help Make Travel to School as Home. Ask your children which lessons they enjoyed today and which they did not. Help them identify and cope with any prob lems. Take an Interest in their homework, and encourage them to try harder. All of these ac tions send them the signal that you think school is veiy impor tant. Safe as Possible. Check to make sure your school has all of the traffic signs and crosswalks youngsters need to arrive safely. Small children (kindergarten to my second impression. My first Impression came from a warm, friendly staff. So much for our I>erennlal complaint that we are not courteous to one another: some of us aren't but they don't work at this Buy Freedom busi ness. I rented a suite and paid one- fourth what it would have cost in New York (where the quality of the room would have been as good) and one-half what it would have cost in Pittsburgh, Phila delphia, Houston, Los Angeles, or probably where you live. Sp>eaklng of prices, I went to the cafeteria and saw a man or der ham, bacon, grits, two eggs, toast, cooked apples and orange juice and pay $2.71, if my memo ry is correct. In a New York ho tel, you would have needed a credit card and a co-signer to pay the bOl. Although I had made plans to visit the intimate cocktail lounge after I returned from Johnson C. Smith, I got back too late to testify to the quality of the "spirits." But I'm sure they're up to par. If you get the impression that I'm trying to sell you on a visit to McDonald's Inn, you're correct. I want us to learn to respect one another and to spend ■^th one another (which follows respect ing one another) the way we re spect and spend with everybody but one another. Many of us who are black share white-racist views of our selves -- which contributes greatly to our spending 95 per cent of our money with non blacks. However, the McDonalds have taken the racist excuses awav from us. You can't say these blacks are not courteous. You can't say the prices are too high. And you can't say the parking is too ex pensive — because it's free. But don't take my word for it, call the McDonald's Inn TOLL FREE. That's right, call 1-800- 456-9797 and have a brochure sent to you, get room rates or groups rates or ask about the ja- cuzzl, conference rooms, exer cise room --or make a reserva tion. Or ask how you can spend some of that $3 billion within a Buy Freedom hotel business that your group normally spends with non-blacks that will keep all of McDonald's em ployees employed and employ some others who are unem ployed -- and will remain so un til we stay at a McDonald's Inn somewhere. TONY BROWN'S JOURNAL TV series can be seen on public television Sunday on Channel 42 at 5 p.m. It can also be seen on Saturday on Channel 58 at 1:30 p.m. Please consult listings. Raleigh Knows Not What He Speaks Dear Editor: As a graduate of the Char- lotte-Mecklenburg School System and former PTA Chairman and long time resi dent (over 45 years) of Char lotte Mecklenburg, 1 became very disturbed while watching Channel 36, WPCQ, on May 19, 1989. During the weather report, weatherman Mr. Steve Ra leigh, noted that he had visit ed Billingsville Elementary school. The anchor, Tom Mill er, asked Mr. Raleigh whether or not the students (at Bil lingsville) were smart. Mr. Raleigh commented that these students were "more enthu siastic than smart." One wonders what discussion had taken place between these two news people prior to this question. Would this question or answer have been given had the school been Charlotte Lat in, Providence Day, etc.? Billingsville Elementary is a school located in east Char lotte in an area known as Grlertown that happens to be predominantly black. To have the intelligence of these stu dents questioned by aweather- man is rather unsettling to me, as if being a member of MENSA was a prerequisite for being a weatherman. A call was made to Mr. Ra leigh who was cordial but not aware of the p>otential harm of his statement. On the 11 p.m. news, Mr. Raleigh once again spoke of visiting Billingsville. This time he referred to the students as a "good group." One wonders if this is the same group he referred to earlier. If this was meant as a retrac tion, it deserves a Harris rat ing, as in C.C., of minus ten. Hopefully Mr. Raleigh will confine future remarks to are as of "alleged" expertise such as barometric pressure, tem perature (as in hot air) and wind velocity. C.C. HARRIS A Dream Of Blacks Against Drugs Dear Ekllton Many times it has been stat ed that I am a person who is critical of the black leader ship. It is true that I have stat ed that most of our leaders do not care one way or another about the welfare of our peo ple. But I had a dream that black pastors united as a part of Drug and Violence Awareness Week and spoke as one. Black leaders took to the streets walking in the low Income ar eas telling the people, "we care." Elvery hour on the hour, black radio stations carried a message agsilnst drugs and vio lence. The war on drugs in the black community was started by first a call for p>eace among the leadership. Black men took their places as role mod els. For the first time in years, drug use in the black commu nity was down. All because the community united. While this was only a dream, it is one 1 plan to work to see come true. We must win the war on drugs or drugs wlU de- strcy us. Where is the leadership of the black community? JAMES E. BARNETT WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? Let us hear your comments, ideas and opinions. Write to: Letters To The Post P.O. Box 30144 Charlotte, N.C. 28230 Please include name, address and phone number. We edit letters for clarity and grammar. Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children's De fense Fund, a national voice for children. The CDC is located at 122 C Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001. Perspective " More and more Independent black scholars are coming to see the civil rights approach as having already done Its work, and now needing to be superseded by new approaches to other serious problems of the black community — of which massive teenage preg nancy and violent crime are among the most devastating. Yet, however intellectually correct these scholars may be, politics runs on other fuel." — Economist Thomas Sowell, Issues & Views, Januaiy/February 1988 3 I?; % I
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 25, 1989, edition 1
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