4A
EDITORIALS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, November 13, 1997
Cljarlotte ^osit
The Voice of the Black Community
A subsidiary of 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 CHIEF
N.C. cities
turn to right
By Jonathan C. Jordan
SPECIAL TO THE POST
We all know better in race debate
RALEIGH - Voters in North Carolina’s largest cities sent a message
of support for less government and more conservative leadership in
the recent municipal elections.
When citizens in four of North Carohna’s five largest cities, with a
total population of 1.2 million, went to the polls this election cycle,
they chose Republican mayors to lead their cities. They retained
Republicans Pat McCrory in Charlotte and Tom Fetzer in Raleigh and
swept into office Republican Jack Cavanagh in Winston-Salem, who
defeated incumbent Democrat Martha Wood, and Republican Nick
Termyson in Durham, who defeated Democrat City Councilman Isaac
Robinson in an open mayoral race.
Repubhcans now preside over 83 percent of the population of the
largest urban areas in North Carolina.
What explains these victories, unprecedented in our state’s history,
and what were the issues in these races?
Winston-Salem’s two-term incumbent Wood had supported a con
troversial city bond referendum in June. The $75 million bond pack
age, designated for city improvements, failed overall by at least a 2-1
margin. City residents objected to the lack of specificity for the uses of
the money and perceived that the timing of the vote was to take
advantage of low voter turnout.
Cavanagh had been theprimary leader of the bond opposition group.
Cavanagh defeated Wood 56 percent to 43 in the November election,
largely on this issue, becoming the first RepubUcan mayor of Winston-
Salem in 84 years. Two other bond opponents were elected to seats on
the Board of Aldermen with Cavanagh. One of those new aldermen,
Vernon Robinson, bas worked tirelessly across the state in support of
charter schools and other forms of educational choice.
In Durham, Republican challenger Nick Tennyson defeated
Democrat City Council member Isaac Robinson for the open mayoral
seat. The Oct. 7 primary results showed the two separated by a mere
135 votes, while the Nov. 4 results gave Ibnnyson a 3,000 vote lead,
with almost 55 percent of the total vote.
'Tennyson’s campaign focused on how he as an outsider would work
to reduce crime, and Robinson made several misstatements during
the campaign about the council’s stands on crime and the police
department. In the end, voters chose the outsider, representing
change, rather than the council insider, representing the status quo.
RepubUcan incumbent Fetzer in Raleigh was easily re-elected this
election cycle with 56 percent of the vote, largely based on his tax-cut-
ting, crime-fighting stances of the past four years. His successful tax
cuts were even mentioned by candidates in other races this year.
Though Fetzer no longer has a majority on the council, he pushed
through reductions in property taxes during his first term despite
having only two aUies on the coimcil.
McCroiy, the RepubUcan incumbent in Charlotte, was also easily re
elected with 78 percent of the vote, his only opposition being a disci
ple of fringe candidate Lyndon LaRouche. McCrory will also have a
RepubUcan city council, as his party captured that body by a one-vote
margin.
Finally, in perhaps the most interesting episode this election cycle,
Greensboro’s Democrat mayor, Carolyn Allen, survived her re-election
to a third term, but by less than a majority. John Hammer, the pub
lisher of a conservative weekly newspaper in Greensboro called 'The
Rhinoceros Times, ran a strong, last-minute write-in campaign and
garnered 31 percent of the vote.
Hammer’s platform was a crystal-clear call for ‘lower taxes and less
government.” He explained why he decided, a mere three weeks
before the election, to run for mayor: “One reason I am running,”
Hammer wrote, “Us to bring some life to this election by giving the vot
ers a choice. The traditional candidates are so similar in their views
that a voter who wants any change from the status quo has no choice.”
Hammer cited his opposition to “giveaways” of taxpayer funds to big
business and to nonprofits. Hammer also mentioned Mayor Tom
Fetzer’s tax cuts in Raleigh as a good model for Greensboro.
The results of the recent municipal elections show that North
Carohna’s urban residents want leadership that supports less gov
ernment, lower taxes, and safer streets. As evidenced by results in
large cities around the country, such as New York City or Los Angeles,
residents of this state’s cities also have called for new conservative
leadership for the fiitime.
JONATHAN JORDAN is director of research at the John Locke
Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank in Raleigh.
William
Raspberry
I hear the arguments over affir
mative action - highUghted this
week by the Supreme Court’s
refusal to review California’s
Proposition 209 and by the
Senate Judiciary Committee’s
dogfight over Bill Lann Lee’s
nomination for the top civil
rights job in the Justice
Department — and I think: They
know better.
No. We know better. But Usten
to us. One side pretends to
beUeve that racial discrimina
tion, no matter how rampant and
flagrant it used to be, is now
ended. Oh, maybe there’s a bigot
or two in the woodpile, but dis
crimination as a matter for gov
ernmental concern is a thing of
the past.
The other side pretends to
believe that only racists who
oppose minority progress could
be against affirmative action.
Discrimination a thine of the
past indeed! A black man in
America still hasn’t got a chance.
Each side knows (but feels no
urge to acknowledge) that there
is at least some justice to the
other’s position. The blatant seg
regation and discrimination are
largely over. Law now forbids
such racism, and - I really do
believe - public opinion won’t
countenance it.
But racial fairness (in some
instances, in some arenas) still
eludes us. Corporate manage
ment and directorships, legal
and accountancy partnerships,
and even concern for the plight of
our children clearly are not dis
tributed on the sole basis of
deservedness. Race matters.
The truth is complicated and
inconsistent and hard to figure
out. Instead of undertaking the
effort to figure it out, we draw the
Liberals and conservatives both make compelling arguments when it comes to the merits of
affirmative action and racial discrimination. But neither side will admit the other may be right.
lines as starkly as we can and
force the public to choose one
incomplete reality (ours, we
hope) and reject the other side’s
partial truth.
It happens not just in our race
relations but throughout our pol
itics. It even happens in our
courts, as when the clever Barry
Scheck deliberately cut out any
middle-gray consideration in the
trial of Louise Woodward, the
British au pair. Force the jury to
choose between the cold-blooded
murder of an innocent child and
innocence (or at least reasonable
doubt), he thought, and surely
there won’t be a conviction.
His now-famous miscalculation
(he was in court this week trying
to reinstate the grays) might
serve as a lesson to us all. And it
might show us the wisdom of
changing the terms of the debate.
Much of what I’m saying, I
admit, is based on my belief that
most Americans want to be fair
and want orrr important institu
tions to reflect that fairness.
I don’t believe there are signifi
cant, poUticaUy influential seg
ments of the society that are
happy over the fact that African
American admissions at Boalt
Hall, the University of
Cahfomia-Berkeley’s law school,
are down 80 percent as a direct
result of Proposition 209’s han on
racial preference, or that the
first-year class has but a single
black member. I don’t believe
there are laree Dockets of secret
jubilation that a similar trend is
in evidence at the University of
Tbxas.
On the other hand, though, I
doubt that many affirmative
action supporters - including the
beleaguered Bill Lee - want to
parcel out society’s goodies on the
basis of racial entitlement. Many
of us may defend, but few of us
are thrilled by, voting districts
drawn purely on the basis of
race.
We want (is this hopelessly
naive?) the same thing: a society
in which gifts and grit and char
acter matter more than pigmen
tation.
So what are we fighting about?
Mainly, I think, about how to
produce such a society. Some of
us beHeve that the best way to
achieve a colorblind fiitme is to
practice colorblindness now. And
some of us bebeve that color- »
blindness after centuries oft
racism will merely lock in white ■-
advantage — that we need to>i
level the playing field before i
insisting on a single set of rules. i
I remember when black quar-
terbacks were a rarity in the j
National Football League — when ^
the most talented collegiate
passers were, if they were black,, __
swdtched to defensive back or
running back or some such. Then ^
a couple of coaches broke the>
mold - affirmative action? - and,-,
then a couple more. .
Do the six starting quarter
backs (out of 30 NFL teams) com
stitute parity? Wrong question..,,
What is true is that there is, at.^
last, reason for young black ath
letes to believe they can go as far,
at any position, as their talent
takes them. As Gene
Washington, a black front office;^
executive with the league, told a'!
reporter:
“What’s most interesting to me
is that I don’t notice it. That’s a ^
good sign.”
'That’s a very good sign.
WILLIAM RASPBERRY is a
Washington Post columnist.
aiipalr(o h »n .
IMOKWN Wijc A fAMitV IN feXc/jANSS/
fCfe AND (seB
idiot
Teaching children survival skills for police stops
Bernice P. M
Jackson
I remember when I first
heard a parent talking about it.
It was right after the Bernard
Goetz incident in the New York
City subways where several
black youth were shot by a man
who claimed they were menac
ing him.
The mother was talking
about teaching her teenaged
sons how to survive in New
York City—how not to look
“threatening,” how to dress,
what to look at on the subway.
But now, according to a recent
New York Times article, par
ents of children of color are
feeling the need to teach their
children, especially their sons,
how to act when they are
stopped by the police. A new
kind of survival skill for chil
dren of color.
One African American par
ent, a banker, had to strategize
with his son prior to buying
him a new car. They planned
what to do when a police officer
stopped the son because he was
driving a nice car. 'They decided
that the son would carry his
father’s business card and offer
to let the police officer call his
father.
A Hispanic parent told how
her child, despite much coach
ing from his parents, already
had been stopped three times
at gunpoint by the police. Each
time he was in a car that the
police suspected of carrying
drugs, but no charges were
ever brought.
Some agencies which work
with young people are teaching
them survival skills in dealing
with police officers. One Bronx-
based youth program is begin
ning lessons in legal and civil
rights issues for youth and a
Harlem agency already is
teaching a course called
Conflicts with Cops to help
young people in their encoun
ters with police officers.
Even minority police officers
associations counsel youth on
how to deal with police. The
president of the Latino Officers
Association, for example, tells
the young people to note the
officer’s name and to use it
throughout their encounter.
Targeting youth of color is not
a tactic of every police officer,
but clearly it happens too often,
across class, education and
political lines. Children of mid
dle class families are just as
subject to be stopped as chil
dren of the poor. And girls are
victims’ as well as boys.
One African American moth
er told how her two daughters,
17 and 18 years old, were com
ing out of a subway station
with their boyfriends when
they heard gunshots. All four
found themselves pushed
against a wall with guns to
their heads by police. And her
son, a champion fencer, was
stopped in a subway station in
a white community and asked
what he was doing there.
When he replied he was going
to a fencing club down the
street, he was taunted and not
believed by police.
And make no mistake about
it, this is not just a New York
City phenomenon. Parents of
color in cities across the nation
are finding they must teach
their children these new sur
vival skills. Polls show that
people of color believe that
police officers do not treat peo
ple of color and whites with
equal fairness. Indeed, that is
one of the greatest chasms
between white Americans and
people of color — their belief in
the justice of the criminal jus
tice system.
The fact that many police offi
cers do not live in the commu
nities they serve aggravates
many of the stereotypes that
some of them have about youth, ]
of color. Thus, they scoff at the .j
stoiy by the black youngster
that he is a fencer or they.,
believe that only a drug dealer .,j
could be driving a nice car. ^ ^
It’s a sad commentary for chil-,
dren of color. It’s a sad com-, -
mentary for our nation. As long ,
as parents of color find themT ^ j
selves having to teach their .
children how to survive an
encounter with police, we will
know that racism is alive and.
well in this country. In the. ,
words of one parent, let’s. If 1 i
had not told my son to be cool ;
and respectful, he would proba-t
bly be dead.
BERNICE POWELL JACK- .
SON is executive director of the I.
Commission for Racial Justice
in Cleveland, Ohio.