4A
EDITORIALS/ QD^e dWTlottC
Thursday, December 4, 2003
Charlotte
The Voice of the Black Community
A Consolidated Media Group publication
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson
CEO/PUBLISHER
Robert L. Johnson
PUBLISHER/GENERAL
MANAGER
Herbert L. White
EDITOR IN CHIEF
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The true
meaning of
Hirkey’s Day
By James Clingman
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
By the time you read this article many of you will have eaten
enough to feed one of those starving children for a week, and
some of you wiU have gone out and spent your hard-earned
money on things you did not need just because the advertisers
told you the biggest shopping day of the year is the day after
Thanksgiving.
By the time you read this, you will have taken advantage of
the big sales and all of the bargains, thus, continuing the trend
of enriching others by creating wealth for them, while main
taining the current level of economic enslavement that exists
among Aftican Americans, Oh yeah, and we will inevitably
hear the post-Thanksgiving fallout about “Black Friday” and
how we should have spent our money at black-owned busi
nesses and vendor marketplaces.
I have written several articles on this subject and decided to
curtail my pre-Thanksgiving pleadings this year. It seems to
do no good to suggest that we incorporate a daily, year-round,
sustainable economic strategy rather than get aU bent out of
shape when Thanksgiving and Christmas roU around. I sup
pose that’s too easy and we definitely like things to be difficult,
don’t we? For instance, I have pushed and advocated for a
mindset, a collective consciousness among black folks that
would create in us a daily “habit” of seeking out black busi
nesses and mutual support.
If we could ever get to that state of mind we would not have
to revisit the annual flawed strategy of waiting for the holidays
to react to our economic plight in this country. We would not
need Black Out Days and other superfluous eflbrts that only
last for short periods of time and have no sustaining effect on
those we are attempting to hurt. As a matter of fact, we get so
himg-up on hinting others and often neglect the fact that we
should be helping ourselves.
With aU of that said, I am suggesting that we are the real
turkeys in the economic scenario of this country. They carve us
up and divide us up every year - as a matter of fact, they do it
all year long. 'They stuff us with advertising and marketing
campaigns, rub us down with the oil of credit, tie our legs
together in order to keep us contained, and then they bake us
all day long in their oven mails until we are done, I mean real
ly done. Then they feast on us for the following four weeks or
so, as turkey stew, turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey
hash, and turkey salad.
'They shce us, dice us, fly us, mix us up, and stir us up in an
effort to keep that turkey flavor flowing for as long as they can.
And we accommodate them by continuing to buy, buy, and buy
all year long, aU the while neglecting our own economic sur
vival.
Yes, we are indeed their Thanksgiving turkeys, brothers and
sisters. We are also their Christmas presents. When are we
going to wake up from our fantasy-land economic delusions?
Black people in this country are the economic fodder for every
one else’s well-being and prosperity. We complain, march, and
come up with strategies and tactics that do no more than make
ITS feel good about getting an apology from those who econom
ically exploit us. Our so-called leaders teU us when to be angry,
what to be angry about, and at whom we should be angry 'They
even tell us when it’s time to stop being mad, but they seldom
tell us anything we can do to economically empower ourselves
to the point where it would no longer matter who calls us a
name or fails to give us good service at their restaurant.
What brand of leadership serves its own people up for din
ner? I often say that we have enough intellectual capacity to
great things for our economic future and that of our children.
'The message from our “leaders” shoidd be couched in econom
ic freedom, self-reliance, and empowerment, rather than feed
us a steady diet of mere “feel-good,” “you can do it,” and “you’re
a winner,” speeches and strategies.
’They should be teaching us how to move beyond the rhetoric
to real action and progress from year to year. They should, in
addition to the registering to vote campaigns, teach us what
Booker T. Washington taught us: How to register our dollars
all year long. They should show us the way to economic free
dom; they should lead us there, and they should serve us, as
Carter G. Woodson wrote, with their expertise in business,
finance, and entrepreneurship.
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are marinated, bast
ed in our own savory juices, and cooked to perfection until the
meat just falls off our bones, not unlike the dollars that fall out
of our pockets and purses. We traipse to the stores, plop down
the green, and return to our abodes to complain about how
miserably “they” treat us.
This year, as we move through another holiday season that
used to be a Holy Day season, let’s resolve to change the menu
and take turkey off the tables of the corporate hordes. And let’s
stop allowing our people to be consumed and digested, only to
be excreted upon when the New Year begins. I apologize fdr the
graphic language, but this is just that serious, brothers and sis
ters. We’re supposed to have the meal, not be the meal. It’s
called “T\jrkey Day,” not “Turkeys’ Day.”
JAMES E. CLINGMAN, an adjunct professor at the University of
Cincinnati's African-American Studies department, is former editor of
the Cincinnati Herald and founder of the Greater Cincinnati African
American Chamber of Commerce, He can be reached at (513) 489-
4132, or by e-mail at jclingman@blackonomics.com.
6
Jackson’s mess is no Thriller
George E.
Curry
•Unlike many of my col
leagues, I had planned to
abstain from writing about
Michael Jackson’s latest
troubles. I wanted to just say
no. And I was doing fine
until Jermaine Jackson
asserted that his brother
was being lynched.
The problem is that when
we take cases that have only
a tangential relationship to
race and characterize them
as “racism” or a “lynching,”
we cheapen the instances
where that is actually the
case. Getting justice or even
media attention in a legiti
mate discrimination case is
hard enough without the dis
traction of throwing irrele
vant analogies into the mix.
We don’t like to admit it,
but there are some African-
Americans who see a con
spiracy \n ever3^hing nega
tive that involves a black
person. I suspect that when
it rains, some black people
beheve that a white person is
disturbing the clouds to
make African-Americans
wet. It’s time to get a grip.
The latest case is the result
of the alleged victim of child
molestation confiding to a
professional counselor who,
as required by law, shared
that information with law
enforcement authorities. A
search was made of
“Neverland,” Jackson’s
sprawling California estate
Jackson
in Santa Barbara County,
and the singer was subse
quently charged with multi
ple counts of lewd and lasciv
ious conduct with a minor,
booked and released on a $3
million bond. Jackson has
steadfastly maintained that
he’s not guilty.
This would have been a
major story if such accusa
tions had
been filed
against
Captain
Kangaroo.
Jackson’s
race is not
the
It’s
more
s t (
because a decade ago,
Jackson reached an out-of-
court settlement to resolve a
similar complaint.
Unfortunately for Jackson,
these charges came in
November, a sweeps period
in which many television
stations measure their audi
ence. The larger the audi
ence, the more a station or
network can charge for com
mercials. Coverage is also
expanded because we live in
a world of around-the-clock
cable television networks
that need stories to fiU all
that airtime.
The media deserves criti
cism, but for a different rea
son.
The name and the photo
graph of the boy making the
allegation against Jackson
have been widely circulated
in foreign newspapers and
on Web sites. An Australian
site, newscom.au, has repro
duced a picture of Jackson
with the boy, now 14 years
old, and disclosed his name.
South Africa’s Sunday Mail
ran the headline, “The boy
who outed Jacko.” A head
line in the Sydney, Australia,
Sunday Telegraph read,
“Jackson’s accuser —
Revealed: The boy who
brought down superstar
Michael Jackson.”
While professing not to
stoop to such low levels, U.S.
newspapers have not used
the name of Jackson’s
accuser. Anyone who saw a
British documentary by
Martin Bashir on Michael
Jackson, the one in which he
admits to having slept in the
bed with young boys but sees
nothing wrong with the
practice, can easily identify
the boy.
The Los Angeles Times,
under the headline “Hard
Life for Jackson’s Alleged
Victim,” quotes the boy in
the documentary: “There
was one night I asked him if
I could stay in the bedroom.
And he let me stay in the
bedroom.” Jackson quickly
added at the time that he
had slept on the floor that
night. The Times further
identifies the kid by writing,
“The boy had leukemia and
received treatment at
Children's Hospital in Los
Angeles.”
The New York’s Daily
News struck a self-congratu
latory tone: “And the boy -
who has not been identified
by police, and whose name is
being withheld by the Daily
News - is caught in a tug-of-
war between his estranged
parents.”
Considering the amount of
details the Daily News pro
vided about the boy, they did
not need to publish his name
in order to identify him.
The paper’s story began,
“Be careful what you wish
for.” It continued, “The can
cer-stricken boy said to be at
the center of the Michael
Jackson kiddie sex scandal
was introduced to the pop
star by a soft-hearted busi
nessman who wanted to
make the youth^s dream
come true.. .His wish was to
meet Adam Sandler, Chris
Tucker or Michael Jackson.
The child got his wish - for
ever altering his life and
Jackson’s.”
Syndicated columnist
Leonard Pitts Jr. put it best:
“He is a 45-year-old man
wearing lipstick and eyeliner
on a surgically altered face
that could give Charles
Manson nightmares. He is
10 years removed from a
child molestation scandal.
His home is a monument to
arrested development.”
And the boy’s parents are
not without fault. Michael
gave everyone a clue when
he named his larger-than-
life • playground.
“Neverland.” It should have
sent all parents a clear mes
sage: Never let your son land
in this place.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief of the NNPA Hews
Service and
BlackPressUSA.com. His most
recent book is "The Best of
Emerge Magazine, ” an antholo
gy published by Ballantine
Books. He can be reached
through his Web site, georgecur-
ry.com.
Urging leader to make adjustments
D.G. Martin
President Bush’s quick
Thanksgiving visit to the
troops was an appropriate
and touching gesture from
the commander who sent
them there.
The president’s trip and his
dogged determination to find
a winning solution in Iraq
reminded me of a leadership
trait of someone whom I
admired very much.
That person was smart,
had good judgment, and
most often made veiy good
choices of the options that
were presented to him. But
it was not for these good
qualities that I most
admired him. It was when
he sometimes made a deci
sion that was not the best
choice that he showed his
great strength.
He was so tenacious, deter
mined, and strong that he
would make even his
“wrong” decisions turn out
well.
Lots of us would argue that
the best thing to do when
you have made a wrong deci
sion is to back up, change
course, and try to minimize
the damage. Sometimes, for
some people a decision rever
sal is best.
On the other hand, it is to a
leader’s great advantage to
have people know that when
he starts something, he is
going to stick with it until
the job is done. Those who
follow or support such a per
son can know that they wiU
not be left to “hang out to
dry” by a “wishy-washy”
leader. None of us can get
comfortable following some
one who changes his mind
after we have gone out on a
hmb for him.
I thought about aU of these
things as I watched the pres
ident’s Thanksgiving trip
that showed symbolically his
determination to make his
decision to invade and occu
py Iraq turn out for the best.
I observed his efforts with
admiration even though I
disagreed with his initial
decision - and still do. The
consequences were too obvi
ous from the beginning. As I
wrote in this column in
March just before the inva
sion, the president must deal
“with the hard responsibili
ties that will come from the
expected military success in
Iraq. Governing this diverse
country, composed of war
ring factions and peoples, is
hard enough for a brutal dic
tator hke Saddam Hussein,
who has no reluctance to
eliminate dissent by torture,
murder, and widespread
repression.
Even if we had broad-
based support from other
countries and the United
Nations, trying to impose
peace and democracy on Iraq
would drain the financial
and spiritual resources of
our country. Without that
international help, the presi
dent must be beginning to
imderstand that he may be
committing us to a ‘Vietnam-
type’ enterprise, one that will
keep us from other impor
tant tasks to keep our coun
try safe and healthy.”
Still believing that the
president made the wrong
initial choice about Iraq, I
want very much for him to
make this project a success.
Success will not come easy.
Iraq is proving even harder
to govern than I thought
back in March. Imposing
order on the many dissident
groups more and more
seems to require the ruthless
style of Saddam Hussein —
a style our militaiy is not
conditioned to duplicate. Nor
can we in good conscience
now leave those groups to
fight among themselves,
until another Hussein rises
up to impose order by crush
ing all dissent.
The leaders we most
admire are not only deter
mined ones, but ones who
learn that to stay the course
to success, they often have to
make painful adjustments.
Those of us who wish for a
successful conclusion in Iraq
should advocate for those
adjustments, including an
immediate and real interna
tionalization of the occupa
tion, and urge them on the
president — even as we
admire his determined spir
it.
D.G. MARTIN hosts UNC-TV’s
North Carolina Bookwatch,
which airs Sundays at 5 p.m.