Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Jan. 22, 2004, edition 1 / Page 4
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4A EDITORIALS/ (T^e C)«iOttt Thursday, January 22,2004 Cljarlotte 3^osit 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 What’s the lesson from fvSi (FPfl Coimerly maligns black colleges ^ caused black colleges to HBCUs, by their very percepti( Leake By Earl Leake SPECIAL TO THE POST There have been much written and spoken about the recent deaths of seven teenagers, resulting from joyriding in a single automobile and pursued by a Troutman police officer. We have heard from the somewhat less compassionate, “I know where my child is at 10 o’clock at night”, and those who would ques tion the pohce officer for his role. Should he have pursued the kids, even if they were breaking the law? Also, those attempt ing to advance their political careers have surfaced. What is concerning about the above is, as the investigation began looking into how and why this occurred, we immediate ly started assessing blame. We referenced the socio-economic enviromnent in which a number of the teenagers lived - “a community of small, single-family homes ravaged by poverty and drugs.” First of all, the use of illegal drugs should never be acceptable behavior, but to date, it doesn’t appear that drugs played a part in the accident. Also where an individual lands on the eco nomic ladder, above or below the poverty line, does not explain why seven kids would pile into an automobile and go joyriding. They could have easily been residents of south Charlotte, where licensed youths have been fatally injured in auto accidents due to exces sive speed, substance abuse, in the wee hours of the morning. Although a point worth stating, this com mentary is not about how this terrible tragedy times seven was reported, but the way some in the StatesviUeArroutman area are responding in a positive manner. It can be summed up by Pastor Glenn Usry of Christian Outreach, “Now is not the time to blame any body for anything. Now is the time to heal wounds and to help.” Also, what is the lesson to be learned from such an unfor tunate tragedy? I have often said, nearly anyone can be a biological parent if their reproductive system works, but it takes time, commit ment and a lot of effort to be a true parent. 'This is more evi dent today than at any other time in our history. Our children are exposed to so much that the parental guiding hand is a must. Nothing should stop us from providing that guidance. When the late actor Carroll O’Coimor of “In the Heat of the Night” fame was tiying to address his son’s drug addiction problems, he said “get between your child and drugs anyway you can.” In other words, nothing is more important than being there when our children need us the most. Our pace in life is frantic, tiying to pay the mortgage or rent, juggling two jobs at times, and addressing other needs. No parent, absolutely no parent, would knowingly place their chil dren in danger. Although the lack of knowledge, insight or “parental instinct” can never be a sufficient explanation for what happened to these seven young people. When God blesses us and places a child in our care we have the responsibility to learn what we need to know and to prior itize that responsibihty in our fives. This is not an indictment of the parents, but a call for all parents to examine where our kids are in our priorities. As a parent of a teenager, I know she did not come with a “how to” manual. As teenagers approach adulthood, there are more challenges for parents. There is nothing wrong with seeking assistance and counseling to help work through the huge responsibilities of parenting a teenager. In the African-American community, we talk a great deal about how it takes a total village to raise a child. It’s a catchy and worthwhile statement. It would be more effective if it were practiced more. This is far from a criticism, but as adults, we need to understand the pressures on our children, and collab orative parenting can be helpful. Our children are going to make mistakes and do wrong things. What we don’t want to happen is for those indiscretions to cost them their fives. So when Eugene Arnold possibly saved his son’s fife by refusing to permit him to go joyriding with his friends, there was an opportunity for him to get between those seven kids and the tragedy. What could he have done? Anything and everything necessary to change a potentially dangerous situation that unfortunately became reality. Howard Hunt, one of the unfortunate dads of one of the seven fatally injured teens, acknowledged his son and friends had previously borrowed cars to go joyriding. The assumption by Mr. Hunt was probably that someone had a driver’s license, knowing his son did not, and the car was truly borrowed and not stolen as-reported. This is where knowing yoirr children’s friends become so important. Although our teenagers would accuse us of “grilling” them, if it saves their fives, they will at least be around to complain about it. So as the community heals with the help of Pastor Usry and others and we offer up our prayers for their recovery, let’s be motivated by the mother who in so much anguish lamented about her late son, “someone please wake him up. He was only 13.” It is this ciy that should be etched in our minds not to place blame, but propel us to find solutions. That would be the ulti mate lesson learned. George E. Curry It’s getting to be axiomatic: If Ward Connerly attacks a program or institution, you can be assured that it is serv ing a valuable purpose for African Americans. We’ve seen this with the black conservative’s anti- affirmative action crusades in California and now he’s attacking black colleges. Writing recently in the Congressional Quarterly Researcher, Connerly says, “...Directly opposed to the diversity ideal are historical ly black colleges and univer sities (HBCUs). An HBC’s entire reason for being is to not be diverse.” That’s plain ignorant. Black colleges were estab lished during the Reconstruction era' because many white universities would not accept African- American students. Southern states were so determined to maintain racial segregation that they offered to pay the tuition of blacks who wanted to attend a northern university. Legally-sanctioned racism caused black colleges to come into existence. As Bill Gray, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund, correctly observes, black colleges are far more diverse than major ity White institutions of higher education.' “Over 13 percent of stu dents at HBCUs are white while fewer than 6 percent of students at white colleges are black,” he wrote in the November issue of the CQ Researcher. “More than 25 percent of faculty at HBCUs are white compared to less than 4 percent of black facul ty at white colleges. More than 10 percent of deans and administrators at HBCUs are white compared to 2 per cent at white institutions who are black.” Connerly - who led the successful movement to eliminate affirmative action from the University of California higher education system — is even more disin genuous by blaming the exis- • tence of black colleges rather than his actions for the paucity of black students in California universities. “.. .It is hypocritical to sup port the public fimding of HBCUs and then turn around and criticize a lack of diversity” at other public col leges and universities, since HBCUs, by their veiy nature, draw away many black students who would otherwise attend racially mixed schools and affect their ‘diversity,’" Connerly writes. HBCUs represent only 3 percent of the nation’s 3,688 institutions of higher educa tion. More than 85 percent of all black students attend predominantly white col leges. So, the problem clear ly isn’t that black colleges are draining black students from majority white univer sities. What is telling is that although black colleges rep resent just 3 percent of the nation’s colleges, they pro duce 24 percent of all bache lors’ degrees. “These institutions also account for nine of the top 10 colleges that graduate the most black students who go on to earn Ph.D.s, and four of the top five colleges that pro duce black medical-school acceptances,” Gray writes. “Students select HBCUs for their educational excellence, low costs and nurturing environments.” A larger article in the CQ Researcher on Dec. 12, 2003 also repeated some popular misconceptions about HBCUs. Responding to those mis perceptions, M. Christopher Brown II, the executive director of the UNCF’s Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute in Fairfax, Va., writes: “The article suggested that enrollments at HBCUs are declining. Please note that student enrollment at HBCUs has increased regu larly for several decades, and is in fact at an all time high. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there ' were 190,000 black students attending HBCUs in 1980; 208,600 in 1990; and 227,000 in 2000.” Instead of maligning black college, critics such as Ward Cormerly should be praising them for accomplishing so such against tremendous odds. They should also recog nize that more students are attending HBCUs by choice. For example, one of my nephews, Iverson Gandy HI, was accepted by Harvard Universily after he graduat ed from high school. But he chose to enroll at predomi nantly black Alabama A&M University - and he now says he is happy with his decision. GEORGE E. CVRRY is editor- in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. Mixed messages from D.C. primary Ron Walters Howard Dean edged A1 Sharpton in the District of Columbia’s non-binding pri mary by a margin of 43 per cent to 34 percent. All but ignored by the national media, the D.C. pri mary last week pitted front- rurmer, Dean head-to-head against the rest of the pro gressive candidates for the Democratic nomination for president, all hoping to -win over voters who were mostly White liberals or African- Americans. Moreover, Dean went head on with the two black candi dates in the race, A1 Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun, who has since ended her campaign. The results: Dean 43 percent, Sharpton 34 percent, Moseley Braun 12 percent and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio,.8 per cent. So, how is it that Dean beat A1 Sharpton, both of whom campaigned in the District, a city that is 60 per cent black and 31 percent white? An analysis of the voting shows that it was not a clear- cut victory for Dean. The Democratic front-runner beat Sharpton in the pre dominantly white areas — Dean Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6 — but Sharpton defeated Dean in all of the black wards - 4,5, 7, and 8. For example, in' Wprd 8, which is almost entirely black, Sharpton trounced Dean 59 percent to 24 per cent. In the mostly white Ward 3, Dean beat Sharpton by a 10-to-l margin. For tHose blacks who voted for Dean rather than Sharpton or Moseley Braun, they followed the lead of the Congressional Black Caucus and other black leaders in ignoring the black candi dates and supporting one of the white candidates they believe can actually win. For most of them, it is not just about race, but about the “’realism” that neither Sharpton or Moseley Braim could eventually win the election. But there is the circular logic that says if they don’t vote for them, then they surely will not win. So, besides the fact that so many blacks want to be -with the •winner, for others, their eval uation is not just that Dean can -win, but that there is something undesirable about the black candidates in comparison to him. Those who voted for either Sharpton or Braun highlight the split in the black com munity over these two candi dates; but that split is over now that Moseley Braun has pulled out of the race. The District of Columbia primary shows what we might be seeing on the national scene: the black vote thus far has no unity, no leadership, no coherence. If this continues, it means that the black vote will not make a difference in the primary election because it will be so fractured. Anyway you cut it, a victo ry in the District primary elefction is a boost for Dean; he can assert that he has strong African-American and white liberal support and can win in a place that both has a significant black population and a tilt toward the South. This me&ns that he may be positioned, as he comes out of the elections in Iowa and New Hampshire, to make a strong showing in South Carolina, where John Edwards, a regional favorite has the current edge. But Sharpton is also posi tioned well to begin to seri ously contest for the nomina tion in South Carolina. However, since he did not have the strength to win the District primary outright over Dean, it may mean that he might not have the strength to win Super Tuesday over the seven other candidates, especially if the black vote is distrib uted among them. Whether the major media fikes it or not, this election result represents the first victory by any candidate in the 2004 presidential elec tion season, and initiates the movement of the Howard Dean juggernaut down the field toward the goal post of the nomination. The Dean victory in the District could add important momentum to his campaign. It should also continue to strike fear in the hearts of Gephart, Lieberman, Kerry and Edwards that Dean beat Sharpton in a place fike the District of Columbia that could make him competitive in the South as well. So, his victory in the District should hasten the frantic efibrts by the major Democrats and the media to “stop Dean” as the person who has the lead, but who they think can’t win the presidency because he is too liberal. It should give every Democrat pause that the main argument against Dean is that he is too much of a Democrat to win. They should ask themselves: “What is winning for?” RON WALTERS is director of the African American Leadership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of gov ernment ami politics at the University of Maryland-College Park His latest book is “White Nationalism, Black Interests” (Wayne State University Press).
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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