5A
OPINIONS/ tClit Clatlotte
Thursday March 4, 2004
Some are still battling ‘massive resistance’
Virginia bills would include education as reparations
William
Raspberry
My feelings when it comes
to reparations have run from
cool to pretty darned hot.
I’ve been generally cool to
the notion that black
Americans are owed repara
tions because their — our —
ancestors were enslaved
with the blessing of the fed
eral government; the prob
lem of sorting out damages,
victims and perpetrators is
just too great.
The recent claims against
certain American companies
that admittedly benefited
from slavery are a bit more
interesting, though no easier
to sort out. You can establish
that the companies — Aetna,
Lehman Brothers and R.J.
Reynolds among them — are
continuing entities. But how
do you get from the fact that
Aetna made money insuring
slaves to a payment of repa
rations to the descendants of
slaves?
If you want to get my juices
flovraig, talk to me about the
claims made by victims (and
their descendants) of the
1921 race riots in Tulsa. It’s
pretty well accepted that the
city officially folded its arms
while white mobs destroyed
black Tulsa’s thriving busi
nesses in the Greenwood sec
tion. The obstacles I see are
statutoiy (how do you stop
the clock on the statute of
limitations?), rather than
moral.
And then there is Prince
Edward Coimty, Va., where
what we used to call the
“white power structure’’ shut
down the public schools
Are Democrat pit
bulls encouraging
Bush attacks?
Sherman
Miller
The 2004 Democratic pres
idential primaries morphed
from a solely presidential
candidate selection cam
paign to a dogfight where pit
buUs are unleashed to reck
lessly tear and slash at the
presidency of the United
States.
The Democratic Party elec
tion hope is to turn President
George Bush’s character
from his strength to his
weakness whilst allowing
their candidate to appear
above reproach for orches
trating any political skull
duggery.
Democratic National
Conunittee Chairman Ibrry
Me Auliffe showed his pit
bull tactics by exploiting the
symbolic “there is fire in the
hotel” antic in hopes of see
ing who runs out of the
building to take compromis
ing pictures of prominent
people. He charged that
President George Bush was
AWOL during his National
Guard tenure. This AWOL
allegation forced The White
House to offer proof that this
charge lacked credibility.
What is troubling here is, if
this allegation had merit,
why was it not found credi
ble during the 2000 General
Election period?
In the Wisconsin debate,
Rev. A1 Sharpton called the
president a liar in the harsh
est terms. Rev. Sharpton has
a slim to none chance of win
ning the nomination, so one
must ask why didn’t he fol
low Howard Dean’s lead and
drop out of the primary
process as Sens. John Kerry
and John Edwards took one
and two respectively.
Furthermore, Reverend
Sharpton is not the Black
political savior as Reverend
Jesse Jackson achieved in
his use of the Democratic
Presidential primary process
to gamer mainstream legiti
macy of being the 20th cen
tury black messianic leader.
Therefore, Rev. Sharpton
wdl not become the de facto
president of the black com
munity that now frees him
to expand his pit bull attacks
on President Bush without
fear of the political conse
quences for his actions.
Dennis Kucinich’s percent
of the vote in the Democratic
Primaries is at best insignif
icant. He was well behind
Howard Dean; surely, he
should have gotten out of the
contest by now. However,
Kucinich is a good pit bull.
He should win an award for
his role in accusing
President Bush of lying on
weapons of mass destmetion
in Iraq.
When you look holistically
at President Bush’s inter
view with Tim Russert on
NBC’s “Meet The Press,” it is
clear that the president
knew that weapons of mass
destmetion would be a try
ing subject for him. However,
President Bush gained char
acter points because he did
n’t duck this tough interview.
President Bush garnered the
respect highlighted by John
C. Maxwell in his book titled,
“The 21 Indispensable
Quahties of a Leader.”
Maxwell writes, “How a
leader deals with the circum
stances of life tells you many
things about his character.
Crisis doesn’t necessarily
make character, but it cer
tainly does reveal it.
Adversity is a crossroads
that makes a person choose
one of two paths: character
or compromise.”
SHERMAN MIUER is a syn
dicated columnist
rather than integrate them
in accordance with the 1954
school desegregation deci
sion. The schools remained
closed from 1959 until 1964,
during which time there was
no tax-paid education for
black children. (White
youngsters were sent to a
newly established “private”
academy.)
Victims of this last gasp of
American apartheid have an
obvious (to me) claim for the
educations they were forced
to miss.
What’s more, the Virginia
General Assembly agrees.
Both houses of the state leg
islature passed bills unani
mously to provide scholar
ships for the victims of
Virginia’s strategy of “mas
sive resistance” to desegre
gation orders.
Yes, Virginia, there are
reparations.
But backers of the legisla
tion say it would take at
least $2 million to meet the
expected claims. The most
generous version of the state
budget provides only
$100,000.
Virginia, you see, has bud
get problems.
“There are a lot of nice
things we’d like to be able to
do,” House Education
Committee Chairman
James H. Dillard II said last
week. ‘We have at-risk kids
who are out there and are an
immediate problem, and we
had to cut $41 million out of
the budget that would have
gone to them.”
The problem, he and oth
ers insist, is not a lack of vriU.
Del. Viola Baskerville, a
sponsor of the House version
of the biU, isn’t buying. With
enough will, she insists, the
state could find a way.
‘We have passed budgets
that contain $1 million for a
horse farm. We can find the
money if there is a will.
Education is a core responsi
bility, whether it’s about chil
dren at risk now or children
who were at risk 50 years
ago.”
Who could disagree with
her? Even the $2 million
strikes me as an exercise in
tokenism: a promise to pro
vide the public-school educa
tion that is the commitment
of all the states, but 40-odd
years late, long after the
effects of undereducation
have taken their economic
toll. (The legislation does
provide for undergraduate
education, in addition to
funds for high school diplo
mas or equivalency certifi
cates.)
It’s hard to know what the
recompense ought to be.
New districts improve our voice
Dannelly
By Charlie Dannelly
SPECIAL TO THE POST
In 1965, the federal government enacted
the Voting Rights Act to protect the rights
of minority voters and to right the wrongs
of the past. Since that time, the Voting
Rights Act has been a key factor for state
legislators in drawing new
district maps after every
10-year Census.
We have come a long
way. In 1983, only one
African American served
in the state Senate. Tbday,
12 percent of the Senate is
comprised of African
American lawmakers. And
the 2003 Senate districts
could increase that number to 18 percent.
Now awaiting federal approval for compU-
ance with the Voting Rights Act, the 2003
Senate districts embrace the idea set forth
in a landmark Supreme Court ruling
(Georgia v. Ashcroft). This ruling holds
that it is not only important for African,
Americans to have their voices heard in
districts where black voters make up the
majority of the population, but also to have
their voices heard in other districts as well.
The African American members of the
Senate were actively involved in the devel
opment of these new districts, and without
our blessing the new map would not have
been approved. It is also worth mentioning
that noted dvil rights attorneys, such as
Adam Stein and Juhus Chambers, have
reviewed our map and have concluded that
the new districts do abide by the Voting
Rights Act.
Much commotion has been made about
the fact that the numbers of African
American voters has been reduced in a few
Senate districts. It is important to remem
ber that this was done in order to increase
African Americans’ influence in other dis
tricts. As a result, besides protecting the
existing African American Senate seats,
this map creates two new open districts
that also have an excellent opportunity to
elect African American candidates: District
7 in the northeast and District 40 in
Mecklenburg County.
Critics of this plan argue that it dilutes
the voting strength of African American
voters. These critics would prefer “pack
ing” African Americans into districts with
higher populations of black voters. On the
surface, that approach may appear to
strengthen minority representation - but
in truth, it dilutes our influence by isolat
ing our votes.
The question we must answer for our
selves is this: Do we want our voices heard
in only a few isolated pockets of the state
or in other areas as weU? The answer is
simple: we should maximize meaningftd
opportunities for African Americans to par
ticipate in our political process. We should
not settle for having our say in just a few
isolated black districts - in fact, we should
demand to be heard in other areas where
our votes can make a difference.
This map provides those opportunities
beyond just a few isolated districts. That is
in keeping with the Voting Rights Act on
all levels - not just complying with the let
ter of the law, but the values behind it.
CHARLIE DANNELLY of Charlotte is deputy
president pro tempore of the N.C. Senate.
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Think of the difference
between your present cir
cumstance and what it
might have been if you had
been forced to miss five years
of schooling.
Or simply listen to John W.
Hurt, who was 7 years old
when they shut his school
down. Five years later, when
the schools reopened, he still
had the reading skills of a
first grader. He endured the
taunts for a time, then
dropped out of school. And
now?
“If they had cut off my leg,
I could have learned to walk
with just one,” HEirt, now 57,
told my Post colleague Jo
Becker. “But to take my edu
cation — I can’t even think
about what I might have
been if they hadn’t done
that.”
WILLIAM RASPBERRY is a
Washington Post columnist
Our voices
What about
Sojourner
Truth Soup?
On February 11, Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools served
a Ivmch called the “Black
Histoiy Month Meal.” I
looked forward to joining my
kindergartner that day. I
had no doubt that the fried
chicken, combread, black-
eyed peas and greens would
be accompanied by the
entertainment of a shuffling
man in blackface introduc
ing “The Birth Of A Nation.”
I have read over that day’s
selection often, thinking that
surely a school system that
purports to teach accurate
histoiy to all of our children
would not promote stereo
types, even in food, as fact.
As a graduate student of his
tory with an avid interest in
foodways, I take issue with
the limited view of history
that such a meal promotes,
and as a parent at the mes
sage that it reinforces ...that
black folk are one dimen
sional (chicken’ eatin’, water
melon suckin’) Sambos.
“Black” food is not chicken
and gravy. The food of Black
America reflects the com
plexity, diversity, and
uniqueness of a race of peo
ple who are not monohthic;
rather they originate from
many cultures and ethnici
ties. The food of the black
Diaspora includes, among
thousands of others: Cape
Verdean stew, Moroccan
couscous, Jamaican peas
and rice, Brazilian feijoada
and Nigerian pepper soup.
While fried chicken may be
southern, it is not uniquely
African American. Why not
celebrate Black History
Month, like President’s Day
with “Fought Alongside
Washington Waffles,”
Madame Walker Millionaire
Muffins,” “Tuskegee Airman
Tarts,” or “Thurgood
Marshall Marshmallow
Salad?”
Hope Murphy Elliott
Charlotte
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