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4A EDITORIAL AND OPINION/tile C^rUitte $g«t Thursday, December 15, 2005 tllje CJjarlotte ^ost The Voire of the Black Community 1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 2S203 Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher Robert L Johnson CaPUBI.ISHER/GENERAL MANAGER Herbert L White EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIALS tavnigraiion debate goes beyond county seniices Municipalitie.s won’t make headway without cohesive federal policy State should do more to fund district attorney office EDITORIALS Face it: Integration is a farce Nightclub guilty until proven innocent Mecklenburg County commissioners have jumped into the politically and socially sensitive subject of immigration. Republican commissioners, who make up the m^ority of the board, propose that the county refuse to offer services to illegal residents, arguing taxpayer-funded programs such as food stamps or mental health ceire should be accessible only to U.S. citizens or documented aliens. In addition, they propose fines for businesses that knowingly hire illegals. The Republicans are ri^t, A nation that purportedly is built on laws crafted to protect all citizens should be in no position to encourage or even reward lawbreaking. Those are powerful arguments, but represent peirtial solutions. Should education and health services be off-limits as well, considering the possible repercussions on the county’s residents? And how many busi nesses — especially those that don’t have the resources to do extensive background checks - keep track of applicants’ immi grant status? The commissioners face a difficult path. An estimated 11 mil lion illegals are in the U.S., and conservative guesses put North Carolina’s illegals at 330,000. Counties and cities can only do but so much if they decide to crack down on who is eligible for cer tain services. Legally, there’s the risk of running afoul of state and federal laws. There’s also the cultural pressure to provide services because the larger society benefits when everyone has Charlotte businessman Stefan LaTbrre contin ues to have his uptown establishment, Menage, labeled as unwelcoming to Afiican Americans. It is unfortunate and as far as I am concerned it is untrue. I have known Mr. LaTbrre for six years and there is nothing I have seen in his per- As I See It Gerald O. Johnson The real solution to this problem isn’t in Charlotte or even Raleigh. Federal officials and Congress have been spinning their collective wheels for years in terms of a cohesive immigration platform that «icourages lawful entry Of course, with so much in this country, iumiigration comes down to economics, Imiuigrants around the globe are willing to come here and work in low-paying jobs for a chance at economic and socieil fieedom. The key is low-paying service jobs, which are a magnet for immi grants. If Americans - especially those who control those jobs - would rather not pay living wages that would make them more appeeding for native-born Americans, then immigration will con tinue to be a divisive issue. sonality or character that is racist, He is a very smart, shrewd businessman. It does not make business sense for him to be unwelcoming to any racial segment of the community The times I have visited Menage, the crowd was very diverse with Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and everybody was wel comed. Moreover, here are some facts about Menage after one year of operation- Thirty per cent of the estimated atten dance of 60,000 guest was African American. Twenty five percent of the Menage staffis Afiican American. The manager of Menage is Afiican American. Hence, the unwel-' coming label does not make sense. It appears to have gained a life based on unsubstantiated facts and innuendos. Sadly, otherwise dis tinguished people in our commxinity who should know better, bought into the hype and helped propel the life of this situation. It is time we give this mat ter a rest and move on to issues and concerns that mat ter, If we want something to get upset about try this on for size: “Black Boys: The Sad Facts” The most compelling case behind the vulnerability of black boys in school comes finm these selected findings collected by the Schott Foundation. • Expulsions and suspen sions: Consisting of only 8.6 percent of public school enrollments, black boys rep resent 22 percent of students expelled fix)m school and 23 percent of students suspend ed. • Dropouts: Between 25 percent and 30 percent of America’s teenagers fail to graduate fix)m hi^ school with a regular high-school diploma. Tliat figure climbs to over 50 percent for black male students in many U.S. cities. • Special education: Studies have foimd that black students nationwide are 2.9 times as likely as whites to be designated as mentally retarded. They also have been found to be 1.9 times as fikely to be designat ed as having an ^notional problepi and 1.3 times as likely to have a learning dis ability Since twice as many black boys are in special edu cation pro-grams as black girls, it is difficult to blame heredity or home environ ments as the root causes for these figures. In some metro politan districts, 30 percent of black males are in special education classes, and of the remaining 70 percent, only half or fewer receive diplo mas. • Graduation: While 61 per cent of black females, 80 per cent of white males and 86 percent of white females receive diplomas with their high school cohorts national ly only 50 percent of black males do so. • Juvenile incarceration: One hundred and five of every 100,000 white males under 18 are incarcerated. That figure is three times as high for black youth at 350 per 100,000. Also, more black males receive the GED in prison than graduate fiom college. • Unemployment: Nearly 25 percent of black youths 16 to 19 were neither employed nor in school, a(xx)rding to the 2000 census, nearly twice the national average for this age group and six times the national imemployment rate. - Rosa Smith If you want something to get upset about, then here it is. ■ GERALD O. JOHNSON is pub lisher of The Post. Punishing children of illegal immigrants As crime statistics continue to climb, so does the cry by politi cians for more police officers and jail cells. The public gets pulled in the fiay when asked to support bond packages to pay for more prisoits or asked to accept more taxes for a laiger police force. Interestingly there is very little outcry for the main piece of the crime coAimdrum — the district attorney’s office. The depart ment responsible for convicting those the police officers arrest continue to go underfunded, which hampers the legal system’s ability to prosecute cases, and ultimately serve the interests of justice. They are utilizing aixhaic equipment and technolcgy which makes it very difficult to keep the criminal element under Icxk and key Lcxrally the police department is the responsibility of the dty while the prison system is the purview of the coimty The DA’s office falls imder the state. The county only provides the DA’s office with office space and furniture, which is little considering the growth in Mecklenburg’s population, and the crime that comes along with that growth. The state’s constant foot-drag ging over funding the department, especially in a booming coun ty like Mecklenburg, does a disservice not only to its citizens, but to the state as a whcde. As a mqjor economic engine for the state, Mecklenburg’s growth and safety are paramount to North Carolina, and should be undertaken with all deliberate speed. Until the state gets behind paoperiy funding the local DA offices, then the impact of more police officers and more prisons is marginalized. If you’re not a Native American, you’re an immi grant. We're a country of immigrants. Yet, the nation is embarking on a nasty and divisive debate over how to stem the flow of illegal inuni- grants, mostly fiom Mexico and Central George E. Curry America, and what to do about the undocument ed workers already living here. Suggestions have ranged from Just finished reading your article “The Party’s Over” (Dec. 1) regarding allegations of racial bias at an uptown Eharlotte nightclub It reminded me of the flap caused by similar all^a- ticais by an annual Uack motorcycle rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C. From where I sit, the soluticm is simpde: Dispel the myth of “integraticHi.” As a people, we have been sold a 1^ of goods that is rotten to the core. Black folk cannot integrate white society. Yet, even The Post is formatted to encourage its readers to seek this impossiUe dream. How do you bdend a fly in a bottle of milk? When will we. as a people, realize that we are really a “nation within a natiwi?^ When will we realize that “integration” is a failed experiment? What would happen, for example, if Uack folk decided to spend their money where you are welcomed, especially among our own people? What would happen if tkick fcdk voted with their debars and channeled those dollars into local biak businesses? The goal (ff integration has caused us to get hysterical ev^ time we are refused service in a white estathshment. It seems to have also caused us to foiget how to turn lemons into lemcsi- ade. Wesley Barnard Sahshurv President Bush’s guest work er proposal to erecting a wall along the 2,000-mile Mexican-U.S. border. Until now, nothing has worked. That - and raw pol itics - has prompted a group of federal and state elected officials to seek alt^natives that would curb the flow of illegal immigrants. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigraticai Control Act of 2005 (HR. 4437), which has already been reported out of the Judiciary Committee. One erf* the most controver sial plans is to circumvent the birthri^t citizenship provi sion of the constitution. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to protect the ri^ts of newly- emancipated slaves, dedeires: "All persons bom or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citi zens the United States and of the state wherein they reside.’ Tb get around the difficult task of amending the consti tution, anti-immigraticin advocates are aiguing that inasmuch as Ulegal immi grants are not in the U.S. lawfully, the parents are tech nically not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S. and therefore their children are not covered by the birthri^t citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment. This is a matter that is likely to be set tled by the Supreme Cburt. Supporters of curbing ille gal immigration note that the United States is one of the few m^or industrialized nations that grant broad birthright citizenship with no additional requirements. Even some backers of the chaise acknowledge that ending birthri^t citizenship will not solve the problon of Ulegal immigration. "Illegal immigrant.^ are coming for many different reasons4 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tfexas) told the Los Angeles Times. "Some are coming for jobs. Some are coming to give birth. Some are coming to commit crimes. Addressing this problem is needed if we re going to com bat illegal immigration on all fionts.i The challenge for Republicans is that some want to enact get-tough immigration polices whUe simultaneously courting the burgeoning Latino vote. California Republican Gov. Pete ^^filson backed an anti immigrant Proposition 187 in the mid-1990s, only to face a Latino backlash. Clearly, Americans of all political stripes have strong feelings about the need to curb illegal immigraticsi. A 2004 GaUup Poll found that 85 percent of Americana believe that 'laige numbers of immigrants entering the U.S.i poses a vital threat to the U.S. over the next decade. A September Zogby poU foimd that by a 3-tol maigin, Americans believe border control is more important to national security than gun control. And a Pew Research (Center for the People and the Press poll two years ago found that 76 percent of Democrats and Independents agreed with the statement: 'We should restrict and con trol people coming into the country to live more than we do now.i In August, the Pew Hispanic announced the find ings of polling it did in M^co. About four of every ten adults in the Mexican popula tion say they would migrate to the United States if they had the means and opportu nity and that two of every ten are inclined to live and work here without legal authoriza- tion4 tbe report found. While it is clear that Americans want tougher immigration laws, many hold stereotypical views of migrants coming across the border. A popular perception is that most of them were unemployed. In fact, most worked before entering the U.S. to take menial jobs for wages higher than what they were earning back home. However, a recent Pew study found that of the esti mated 6.3 million to 11 mil lion Mexicans living in the U.S. filially, most arrived to find better jobs and because of family connections, not because they were unem ployed in Mexico. Of those polled after applying for iden tity cards at seven Mexican consulates in the U.S., most are believed to have moved here illegally, more than 80 percent had a relative other than a spouse or child living in the U.S. As everyone knows, there are no easy solutions. Even if the U.S. were to miraculously build a steel and wire fence along the U.S.-Mexican bor der, illegal workers would still find a way to enter the U.S. No one knows how many children are bom each year to illegal immigrants. Estimates generally range fixim 100,000 to 350,000. Whatever solutions lawmak ers come up with should not be predicated on punishing babies that had no say in their parents' decision to cross the border for a better life. GEORGE E. CURRY is editor- in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and BlackPressUSAxrom. He appears on National Public Radio as part of 'News and Notes with Ed Gordon f Web site: www.george- curryjcom. While it is clear that Americans want tougher immigration laws, many hold stereotypical views’ of migrants coming across the border.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Dec. 15, 2005, edition 1
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