4A
EDITORIALS/The Charlotte Post
Mays, 1997
Wl)t Cliarlottc
The Voice of the Black Community
A subsidiary of the Consolidated Media Group
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson
CEO/PUBLISHER
Robert Johnson
CO-PUBLISHER/
GENERAL MANAGER
Herbert L. White
EDITOR IN CfflEF
leaders can turn a public
gathering into a specta
cle, especially when it
happens during a meet-
ing that brings African
-Americans together eveiy
week.
Although the antago-
Watson nists have decidedly dif- Greene
ferent views of what hap
pened at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting,
everyone should hold off on affixing blame or guilt until
Greene and Watson have their day in court or settle the
matter between themselves. Whether a gesture or words
led to the confrontation is not as important as keeping a
sense of fair play and respect for others. In other words,
just because people say things to upset us it doesn’t give
us the right to retaliate physically. But because Charlotte,
hke the rest of the world, is becoming an in-your-face soci
ety, decorum is going to take some hits, even among peo
ple who are generally well-behaved community leaders.
In the meantime, we should take a collective lesson from
this unfortimate situation and dedicate ourselves to the
old sage advice of disagreeing without being disagreeable.
Legacy of Tliskeegee syphillis study
Bernice P.
Jackson
Out of
Africa
Despots should bow out - now -
without African America’s help
America shouldn’t be supporting African dictators, nor
should African Americans, who have too often been silent
on the issue.
We applaud Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cahf.), chairwoman
of the Congressional Black Caucus, for encouraging black
Americans to resist the temptation of countries like
Nigeria that spend “tremendous amounts of money” on
pubhc relations that have left her “constantly contacted
by African American (church) ministers, heads of organi
zations and business people” on their behalf.
According to Waters, African dictatorships have asked
her to persuade the U.S. government to end sanctions
against Nigeria, receive Nigerian military ruler Sani
Abacha in Washington and to recognize that “he’s doing
for Nigeria what nobody else could do,” she told the Africa
Fund, a New York-based private foundation that pro
motes expansion of U.S. relations and investment in
Africa.
“And I almost always answer Yeah, in the name of dic
tatorship,” Waters added.
i We agree. For almost 400 years, Africa has been imder
the dominant thumb of the West, first as a part of the
sldVe' ttade and later exploited for her vast natural
resources. Although we don’t always make the connection
between Americans of African descent and Africa, we
have a role to play in making our wishes known to gov
ernments here and abroad. Instead of turning our collec
tive heads away from the abuse of power and human
rights in Axfiica, we should demand democratic elections
in nations like Zaire and Nigeria as we have in previously
white-ruled Zimbabwe and South Africa.
“We are allowing them to advance the wrong leaders,
leaders that are not about democracy, leaders that are
starving people, leaders that are killing people,” Waters
said. As long as they run roughshod, there will be civil
wars and obscene loss of life in the motherland.
We shouldn’t have to stand for that. Although African
Americans have enough to fight for here, we shouldn’t for
get that Africa holds a significant role in a changing - smd
shrinking — world. It’s imperative that we join forces to
work toward a day that African people decide the fate of
their homeland, rather than have spinmeisters and pohti-
cal operators make those decisions.
Can’t we all just get along?
The news about a confrontation between Charlotte City
Coimcd member Malachi Greene and businessman Troy
Watson points out how quickly disagreements can turn
physical. It’s disappointing to hear two respected city
Sometimes European
Americans find it difficult to
imderstand the reaction by peo
ple of color to events and believe
that we overreact or are a bttle
paranoid. But to really under
stand our reactions, one must
know the history of people of
color in this nation.
For example, one must know
that Japanese Americans were
put in concentration camps dur
ing World War 11. One must
know of the many treaty viola
tions which have been experi
enced by native Americans. And
one must know of the Tuskegee
syphilis study undertaken by
the federal govenunent using
African American men as its
subjects.
Earlier this year four of the
eight living survivors of this
terrible experiment gathered
at the Shiloh Baptist Church
in Nostalga, Ala., to ask that
President Clinton publicly
apologize for the government’s
actions in this horrible study.
The President has indicated a
wiUingness to do so.
“It is a peculiarly American
tragedy of race and medicine,”
said James H. Jones, author of
a 1981 book on the Tuskegee
study, in a recent Washington
Post story. In 1932 the govern
ment began a study on the
treatment of syphilis and lured
399 men, mostly poor and une
ducated African Americans, to
participate with the promise of
free lunches, transportation
and medicine. The study fol
lowed the progress of this
dreaded disease in these men,
some of whom were told they
were being treated, but who
actually were being given
placebos. The subjects were
told that they had “bad blood.”
But the most horrible part of
this 40 year study is that even
after penicillin was introduced
as a successful cure for syphilis
in the late 1940s, the study was
continued until 1972 and only
ended then after it was exposed
pubhcly. Thus, men who could
have been treated successfully
for this disease went untreated.
“It essentially reduced black
men into unwitting laboratory
animals,” said the Washington
Post story.
There is some evidence that
some of the researchers contin
ued the study based on the
incredibly racist belief that
African American men would
respond differently than
European American men. In
addition, there is also evidence
that the government got local
Alabama doctors to cooperate
with them by agreeing not to
treat the Tuskegee subjects
with antibiotics.
After the study’s pubhc expo
sure, the federal government
did agree to pay $10 mihion in
compensation to the victims and
their famihes, but it never apol
ogized for one of the most bla
tant examples of racism in our
nation’s history. It is that apolo
gy that the survivors and their
families now seek. The sur
vivors themselves range from
87-109 years of age and there;
' are 23 wives, 15 children and 2
grandchildren whose families
have suffered because of this
study.
While the suffering of the fam
ihes is very real, the impact of
this horrible study is far greater
than those 399 families. As
African Americans became
aware of this government study,
many now hving with HIV and
AIDS have refused treatment,
actually citing the Tuskegee
experiment as their primary
reason. Some beheve that it has
also led some African
Americans to charge that ADDS
itself is an outgrowth of an gov
ernment experiment.
BERNICE POWELL JACK-
SON is executive director of the
Commission for Racial Justice,
in Cleveland, Ohio.
4
Church exposed with Chavis decision
By Michael Muhammad
SPECIAL TO THE POST
I would hke to take this oppor
tunity to thank the N.C.
Commission of the United
Church of Christ for publicly
acknowledging the termination
of Brother Minister Benjamin C.
Muhammad.
I would hke to thank you for
exposing yotrr hypocritical and
arrogant misunderstanding of
your ovm Bible. If man called
man to the ministry then that
minister would be preaching
about man and his obvious limi
tations to change the human
condition, but God, the one God,
calls man to not only preach but
to teach his word with clear
understanding so that we would
become doers and hvers of the
word of God.
Brother Benjamin has not dis
carded the Bible, he’s picked up
the Holy Quaran, such as many
of you who are Masonic
Shriners, to further enhance
his understanding and service,
not to you, but to God. There
never was a prophet called by
man to teach God’s word. The
disparaging condition of the
people caused God to produce a
man that leads, teaches and
guides others back to God after
they have strayed entirely off
the path. It is this arrogance
that UCC revealed that keeps
oppressed people subjected to
miseducation and misdirection
that we are faced with today
and thus do not possess the
quality to change the condition
of the people and to make mock
ery out of the term United
Church.
How will you know lest you
have a preacher, how could you
have a preacher lest he be sent?
Who’s going to send the preach
er? How will you know of his
ministiy? You will know by his
works. But the arrogant and
envious will both bear witness
to truth and they will try to lead
others who are without the
power to raise them back up to
stand the way God intended.
When have you called one mil
lion black men to accept respon
sibility for their lives, family,
and community?
When have you had the
courage to challenge this gov
ernment’s wicked foreign and
domestic pohcies when it comes
to our people? When have you
traveled the world and spoke to
world leaders about atonement
and recondliation?
Brother Minister Ben'
Muhammad opted to join a man i
who has and will stand to doj
work for Jesus. Dear reverends i
you can’t just preach Jesus, you t
must pick up the cross of Jesus,”
follow Jesus and become a little
like Jesus in order to affect
change. Scared to death people
won’t change anything but their
minds depending on the whims,
of their masters. Therefore the
pubhc revelation, for all intents;
and purposes, is a form of pubhc-
humiliation. Perhaps we can;
determine this fostering of reh-
gious divisional tactics using the.
mathematical equation of the
letters in the United=6,
Church=6, (of) Christ=6 (666X
for those who have understand-'
ing.
MICHAEL MUHAMMAD
lives in Charlotte.
How will blacks fare with city redistricting?
By Robber Mackins
SPECIAL TO THE POST
As I look over the map of the
City Council redistricting, I am
perplexed as to how African
Americans will have any repre
sentation at all.
When these districts were ini-
tiaUy drawn up, it was dehber-
ately done in a way that would
deny us representation, but
after many years and much
debate, the powers that be
decided that it was only fair for
us to have at least some repre
sentation comparative to our
population. 'Their weapon has
been, the majority rule system,
and that same majority has
used their power, and their
numbers to not just take away
sovereignty as a free nation, but
to deny us our most basic
human rights as well.
They say the reason for redis
tricting is that the districts were
divided to accommodate
African Americans, that we
might be represented. Now it
appears that they have changed
their minds, and arc changing
the rules again. I would hke for
some one to explain to me exact
ly what constitutes a divided
district, is it an area that has a
high school, and elementary
school, and a middle school,
with X amount of stores, or is it
a piece of land shaped in a cer
tain fashion? Which is more
important, that the land be rep
resented, or that the people be
represented?
When the Caucasians decide
to mess with us, they always
come up with some lame excuse
that even a fool can see through.
The right to be represented is
bigger than the City Council.
'This act is insensitive, unlawful,
and bordering on the line of bla
tant racism, morals are not even
a question. The law has to be
based on something more than
simply what the majority
wants, law must be built on a
solid foundation, like freedom.
justice, and equality. The law
should be interpreted by moral
ly conscious men of wisdom. We
recently marched on
Washington for the purpose of
atonement, it appears that the
march had little or no effect on
the selfish Caucasians. They
should be begging for forgive
ness for all the inhumane acts
they have the audacity to con
tinue.
We should know that modem
worldwide racism emerged in
the 15th century along with cap
italism, African enslavement
and the decimation of Native
Americans. The most interest
ing aspect of Colonial American
economic history that I am
aware of is that racism was
used as a device to insure
Caucasian class unity and soU-
darity. Rich colonial Caucasians
could control the rebellious ten
dencies of poor Caucasians, if
those poor Caucasians could be
shown that they have economic
and social privileges that
enslaved Afiicans did not enjoy. ’
Poor Caucasians could feel bet- '
ter about their own pitiful condi
tions and
could dream
of better days
in a peaceful,
non-rebelhous
Mackins
way.
If it were not
for the on-'
going pres
ence of
racism, there'
really could be
no American
superpower, as we see it today. ^
For racism fostered Caucasian „
devotion to the ideals ofj
Caucasian class equality and ^
democracy for Caucasian folks, ^
and with little or no political
empowerment for hon-cau- ^
casians is a necessary ingredi- j
ent in Caucasian unification
under the baimer of the capital- ^
ist system of exploitation.
ROBBER MACKINS lives in '
Charlotte.