Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Dec. 30, 1993, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page2A - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, December 30,1993 Black employees chaise General Electric with racism ASSOCIATED PRESS PORTLAND, Ore. - Black un ion employees at Portland General Electric are accusing the company and their union of allowing racial Intoler ance and inadequate minori ty hiring practices. Company officials deny the charges, saying that they have been trying hard to re cruit blacks. And officials at Local 125 of the Internation al Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Insist there are no problems in the union with racism or lack of attention to black concerns. 'We've been around for 93 years now, and it's never been an Issue," said Bill Mill er, the union's business man ager. Blacks in the company, however, cite racist com ments, general insensitivity to minorities and at least one death threat. The percentage of blacks In PGE's work force has in creased from Just under 1 percent In 1971 to 2 percent today, while overall employ ment has declined from 2,700 to 2,627, company oSi- clals say. By comparison, 7 percent of Portland's popula tion is black. A substantial number of employees work as engineers or in other jobs that require specialized training and ex perience - something not enough blacks in the labor pool have. PGE President Dick Relten said. Jenean Dunn, a PGE em ployee and president of the company's African Ameri can Network, said that while that may be true, the compa ny could do more to spur mi nority hiring by offering more minority internships and promoting more blacks from entry-level jobs. Meanwhile, 2 percent of PGE's unionized workers are black. The number has re mained largely unchanged for years. Virile blacks criticize the union for having just 18 blacks among its 992-person work force at PGE, union of ficials say that number is PGE's responsibility, not theirs. In March, Leon Brewer III found a note in his locker at PGE's Portland Service Cen ter that read, "Stay off our crew you dumb nigger." He re ported finding two more notes over the next few weeks, including one death threat. "You will get shot and killed after work." the note said. PGE established a $10,000 reward, set up a hotline for tips and hired former U.S. Attorn^ Charies Turner to work on the case. The inves tigation so far has come up empty. Relten called the affair an "isolated situation," but some black workers say it is just one example of a history of racial Intolerance In the company. Twenty years ago, when Dale Levy was just two days Barnett leads Crusade against black violence Continued From Page lA drug problem Is linked to ;U.S. policy in Central Ameri ca. In 1989, Barnett started the anti-drug, anti-violence Crusade, under the auspices of the North Caro lina Interfaith Task Force on ^Central Ameri- :ca. In 1991, ;Stop the Killing -was added as a ‘component to ;the Crusade. : It was in 1981 ■that Barnett jtalked openly iabout black-on- • black crime - 'still a taboo iamong many ;blacks. He turged more ac- ■tion to find a Westslde rapist 'who assaulted '.six women. He criticized black ■ leadership for ‘falling to sup- :port his efforts. Police appreciation j Charlotte police appear to be appreciative of Barnett's efforts. "The question may hot be whether he's effec tive," said Assistant Chief Ellison Laney of the Char- lotte-Mecklenburg Police. "At least he's out there and that's more than you can say for a lot of people. If every in dividual would have expend ed a third of the energy he •has, we wouldn't have the problems we have now. No one per son can do it alone." Several ar rests of drug traffickers and convict ed felons have been at tributed to the Stop the Killing ef forts. Barnett was instru mental in helping police Im plement a program allowing citizens to turn in weapons and call in to report weapons violators. Barnett was one of .the early supporters of a new state law banning possession hf handguns by people under >21. J; Although the Athens. Ga. ^native has been in Charlotte ;;;$Ince 1966, he remains enlg- to many. He left Char- 5;otte in 1967 to serve in Viet nam. "I don't talk about Vietnam much. I haven't Veen to the wall in D.C." Jfronlcally, a wall he helped establish for Charlotte mur- >der victims was patterned af- Jier the Vietnam Memorial in V^ashington. Called to preach before fyietnam, Barnett, the di vorced father of a 20-year- 'old son, served as an asso- 'i;iate pastor at Gethsemane ^Missionary Baptist Church idnd later as pastor of Mt. iZion Baptist Church for Vbout three years in the early '1970s. He has not had a -bhurch since. "Somebody needs to be do- Ting the job the ministers are Voing. I wanted to be out ;;there changing the world, -getting people out of jail, ^helping like Jesus Christ." ■ His Stop the Killing Cru sade headquarters is on May- fair Street on the Westside in from the Fighting Back Pro ject and is scheduled to get PBOTO/CALVIN FEROUBON m Davis, Linda Sanders, James Barnett, Ron Phillips and "VlTginia Ball (left to right) are rs in the Crusade's efforts to reduce black-on-hlack violence. 1 Laney a community plagued with drugs and poverty. No sign or shingle hangs on the door. A Stop the Killing logo sits in the window. In the sparingly furnished apartment unit, there is a meeting room downstairs and an office up stairs with an electric type writer, Stop the Killing para- phernelia, letters, memos, buttons and fliers scattered atop two long tables. If the black leadership doesn't, Barnett certainly takes him self seriously. Lost momentum "We were sure once we got the homicide rate down, it would stay down," Barnett said, referring to the drop in 1992 (from 115 in 1991 to 99). 'We did a lot of candlelight vigils. We saw a decrease in the homicides. We should have had the same momen tum." With only about 25 active Crusade members, Barnett moves throughout the city with anti-drug patrols and candlelight vigils to win back communities. Friday and Saturday nights are prime time for the patrols, where people on the street are addressed as "brother" and handed fliers. In 1994, Barnett plans to step up Crusade activities with prayer vigils held in front of the homes erf absen tee landlords. "If their home is in southeast Charlotte, we plan to be there. We're work ing with the Drug Enforce ment Administration to get quicker action on problems with absentee landlords." Barnett's goal for the new year is to reduce the homi cide rate 25 percent. 'We're going to work more with the youth and hold more black town meetings." he said. While Barnett forges on with his plans, he"s not sure of his support. "I need every black minister to go on record with their support. They don't have to walk with Stop the KUllng, just endorse what we're doing." Financial support for stop the killing has come from a variety of sources. Z.Smlth Reynolds Foundation gave Stop The Killing $30,000 last year. For this fiscal year, Barnett received $10,000 another $10,000 from Meck lenburg County. Feuding cousins If Barnett wants black leadership to align itself with him, a rebuff to an invitation to a recent crime sum- Walton mit Dec. 18, did nothing to encourage any working to gether. The meeting was called by Barnett's cousin Rev. Bob Walton, the only black member on the Meck lenburg County Board of County Commissioners. 'To get a James Barnett and a Bob Walton working to gether Is unheard of," Bar nett said sarcastically. "To get James Barnett and a pas tor of a big church working together is unheard of." Bar nett's mother and Walton's father are first cousins. While the two say they get along at family gatherings, publicly they often clash. Walton said that Barnett needs to be more accountable In how he spends money for the Crusade. "In order to gain confidence, he needs to give a financial accounting of what he collects from the public. I know some ministers who would not give one cent be cause they don't know what he's doing with the money." And Walton was particu larly disturbed that Barnett sent a letter to television sta tions saying he wouldn't at tend the crime summit. "He wrote the letter to the orga nizers of the summit, but we didn't know about it until we saw it in the media. That's another thing he's good for. He confronts people through the media. He's more media than substance," Walton said. Barnett said the black com munity needs to heal and that should start with an apology from black leader ship. "They've got to redeem themselves. It's like they've been AWOL all this time. They've got to say to the peo ple we support what you're doing already." Barnett listed Stop the Kill ing, Fighting Back, 100 Black Men, Save the Seed and the Young Coun- cllmen as groups to sup port. "We don't need any more groups. We've got to win some battles first. I have no faith at all in the summit," Barnett said. "It's the fourth meet ing they've had." '60s tactics Barnett's tactics lack substance and a plan that takes people be yond march ing, his crit ics say. 'We have to question whether he's doing anything substantive," Walton said. "Marching is ef fective to a degree. I have joined him on some occa sions. But It has to be some thing beyond the marches. How does he translate marching into saving lives?" Well aware of the criti cisms of his tactics, Barnett said he is often called "the radical from the '60s." Some critics say he lacks polish and sophistication to pull off a substantial anti-crime movement. And they point out that he doesn't have cha risma. With a lean frame, an Afro from out of the 1970s, Bar nett often sports shiny poly ester pants that flare at the heel. He drives a 1989 Ford Topaz he got from an old woman who let him assume payments on it. He also owns a 1978 Thunderbird. On a recent afternoon, four toddlers huddled around Barnett outside his office while he blew balloons with the Stop the Killing logo on them. Later that evening, he spoke at a meeting at Queens College. Rev. Con rad Pridgen, pastor of Greater Be thel AME Church, said Barnett con nects well with people on the street. Pridgen has marched with Barnett occasions. "I Pridgen on several think he has a kind of cha risma. He is kind and gentle. He has a good rapport with people on the street," he said. "I see him as modest. I don't see him being afraid of let ting others take a piece of the movement. I think he's just seriously interested in see ing the killing stopped." Pridgen applauded Barnett for sticking to the anti-crime effort. "You could see why he would stick with It if 10,000 people were showing up for the marches," Pridgen said. "I perceive that the Lord has been in this movement. The effort had an effect in '92. I attribute that to Stop the Killing." from finishing a 3 1/2-year wireman's apprenticeship program, his participation was terminated. A supervis or told him blacks don't have the qualities to be journey men, he said. Today, Levy, a 26-year PGE veteran, is a painter and nev er got another chance at the higher-paying job. Jackie Palmer, a black un ion member for 23 years, said he applied for jobs five times and lost out to whites with less seniority and ex perience. "It got to the point where people at PGE were saying I had a bad attitude," he said. 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