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EDITORIAL AND OPINION/ Qe CtlTlottc $iu(t
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Cljarlotte
The Voice of the Black Community
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson ceO/TUBLISHER
Robert L. Johnson co-publisher/general manager
Herbert L White editor in chief
OPINION
Immigraiion
is economic
issue, not
ooiiUcai
Randall Kennedy: Negro please
Do you remember when Mexican President Vicente Fox made
the following comment? “There is no doubt that Mexicans .. .are
doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United
States.” He made that comment to a group of Tbxas business
men in May 2005. Jesse Jackson and A1 Sharpton telephoned
Fox to voice their displeasime, to which Fox responded by invit
ing both of them to Mexico to “join forces” on working for immi
gration rights and civil rights for immigrants in
United States, according to CNN.
Fox at first refused to apologize for the com
ment, saying his remark had been misinterpret
ed. But later said he understood the African-
American community has worked hard to fight
against discrimination and that as a result of
that fight the Mexican community in America
has benefited greatly.
Jesse Jackson replied that he was sure the
president had no racist intent and suggested the
Call it Howard Beach -
Part II. Nicholas Minucci,
now 20, was on trial earlier
this summer for cracking the
skuU of Glenn
Moore, an
African-
American,
with a base
ball bat.
According to
Frank
Agostini, one
of Minucci’s
accomplices in
two meet to discuss ‘joint strategies between blacks and immi
grant groups” in the United States. Fox agreed to set up a visit
to Mexico first by Jackson and then with Sharpton.
Black people have very short memories. Does anyone know
what has happened since those comments were made and since
that invitation was extended and since those black “leaders”
were supposed to go to Mexico and work things out? Now we
have this brouhaha regarding illegal immigrants and what to do
with them, and for the most part black leaders are not even in
the discussion. What does aU of this really mean? What has hap
pened since May 2005?
I participated in a press conference (Choose Black America) on
illegal immigration, held at the National Press Club, on May 23,
during which time I spoke about the economic ramifications of
this topic and how it negatively affects Black people in this coim-
try. I noted our hesitancy to enforce the law when it comes to the
corporate raiders who hire “illegal” immigrants and pay them
well below the going wage, all the while filling their own pockets
with even more profits from this “New Jack Slavery.”
I suggested this is an economic issue, not a political issue, and
not a race issue, as many would have us beheve. It is an eco
nomic issue when corporations and people who enter this coun
try illegally are able to get away with illegal activities. What
else could it be?
I suspect that somewhere, sometime, in some backroom the
statement was made by someone, “Muestrame el Dinero,”
because that’s what this immigration thing is aU about. But why
can’t black people see it for what it really is? Why are we
engaged in conversations about “helping” the immigrants get
their civil rights? Why have I heard brothers saying things like,
“Let’s not get into a fight with Hispanics,” and “We have to
strengthen our alliance with Latinos and support them.”
When did you last see Latinos, or any other group for that mat
ter, standing with black people on, say, reparations for the work
our parents did to help these groups attain what they have, as
Fox acknowledged? What about their support for us during
Katrina? Why were there no marches in the streets then?
Where was this alliance when black men and women were mur
dered by police officers, when black people were being profiled,
and where is it now as black people are unfairly incarcerated,
denied equal access to housing, to bank loans? Where is the uni
fied support for Haitians who are sent back to their country?
And where is this alliance now, as millions of black people lan
guish in perpetual unemployment?
Frederick Douglass said, “The old employments by which we
have heretofore gained our livelihood, are gradually, and it may
seem inevitably, passing onto other hands. Every hour sees the
Black man elbowed out of employment by some newly arrived
immigrant whose hunger and whose color are thought to give
him a better title to the place.”
Booker T. Washington said, “Now is the time, not in some far-
off future, but now is the time, for us as a race to ... do our part
in owning, developing, manufacturing, and trading in the nat
ural resources of our coimtry. If we let these golden opportuni
ties slip from us in this generation, I fear they will never come to
us in like degree again. Let us act... before it’s too late, before
others come from foreign lands and rob us of our birthright.”
David Walker said, “How strange it is to see men of sound
sense, and of tolerably good judgment, act so diametrically in
opposition to their [own] interest.” Tb paraphrase'Earl Trent,
author of “A Challenge to the Black Church,” blacks are taught
to “love everybody, especially whites and other groups,” but we
are not taught to “love one another,” especially ourselves.
Illegal immigration- has leaped to the forefront of the public
discourse as though it just arrived; it has been going on for
decades, but black people, and the issues that keep us at the bot
tom of the economic heap, have been around for centuries. I say,
“first things first.” Black people had better help themselves,
with or without the alliances and those who acknowledge that
our struggle has helped them, even though they paid no price for
it.
The 13th 14th and 15th Amendments were written for Black
people, not minorities, and until we stop playing in the minority
• g^e, black people wiU continue and will forever lose. And the
constant refrain of Muestrame el Dinero will ring throughout
\ the'land.for everyone else except us.
JAMES CUNGMAN is a professor at the University of Cincinnati and
the radally-motivated attack,
the clang of the aluminum
bat striking Moore’s head
“sounded like Barry Bonds
hit a home run.”
Moore, 23, is hardly a
model citizen. But that does
not justify the unprovoked
brutal attack on him. Moore
testified that he and two
friends were looking to steal
an automobile last June
when they ventured into
Howard Beach, the predomi
nantly White neighborhood
in Queens noted for another
high-profile racial assault 20
years ago. But before they
could find a car, a gang of
young Whites, led by
Minucci, spotted the three
African-Americans.' Moore’s
friends ran, but he fell and
was trapped by the group. He
said Munucci called him the
n-word and said, “We’U show
you not to come and rob white
boys.”
Moore said the 240-pound
Minucci, called ‘Tat Nick,”
made him take off his sneak
ers and drop to his knees
before teeing off on him.
Albert Gaudelli, Minucci’s
attorney, claimed that Moore
fractured his skull when he
fell on his o'wn.
The surprise star witness
for the defense was Randall
Kennedy, a Black Harvard
University law professor and
author of a book titled,
“Nigger: The Strange Career
of a troublesome Word.”
■ Kennedy testified: “The word
is a complex word. It has
many meanings.”
Gaudelh would later boast,
“I think I did good. I got a
Rhodes scholar to testify for
nothing and all I had to do is
drive him to the airport.”
Outside the courtroom,
Kennedy defended his action,
saying, “I do not feel I was
championing somebody’s
cause. I was asked to speak
as an expert witness about a
particular issue. Somebody’s
Mberties are at stake here.”
Kennedy testified that the
n-word has multiple mean
ings and is not necessarily
associated with racism. And
he wasn’t the only Black tak
ing the stand for the defense
Gary Jenkins, a hip-hop
music producer, claimed the
n-word has been stripped of
its noxious odor.
“It’s been permutated and
morphed by a generation of
younger people who moved it
around and changed it into a
matter of parlance,” Jenkins
said. “There has got to be
more to it than a word to find
that someone is racist.”
Buoyed by two African-
American “experts,” Gaudelli
said in his closing argument,
“You don’t like that word. I
don’t like that word, no one
over 30 likes it but it’s a fact
that people under 30 use the
word differently. Ignore this
word, it’s merely another
descriptive word.”
Fortunately, the jury was
not swayed by Gaudelli’s
admonition or Randall
Kennedy’s testimony.
Nicholas Minucci was found
guilty of second-degree
assault as a hate crime for
the baseball-bat attack and
firsh and second-degree rob
bery as a hate crime for steal
ing Moore’s sneakers and sev
eral other items. Minucci
could face more than 25 years
in prison when he is sen
tenced on July 15.
Although Minucci’s lawyer
failed in his attempt to sani
tize the n-word, the trial
should serve as yet another
reminder that we can’t use
the n-word as a so-called
term of endearment among
ourselves and get upset when
those outside the race use
that same term in a different
manner.
The n-word should not be
used in any forum.
When I was editor of
Emerge magazine, we helped
lead a campaign that forced
Merriam-Webster to change
its published definition of the
n-word. Cam Gilbert wrote a
short article that noted that
Katluyn Williams, curator at
the Museum of African
American History in Flint,
Mich., was fond of saying,
“Anyone can be a nigger. A
nigger is any ignorant per
son.” When a boy asked her,
“Am I a nigger because I am
black?” she rephed no and
urged him to look up the
word in the dictionary.
Neither hked the definition
they found in Merriam-
Webster’s 9th and 10th edi
tions: “1. a black person. 2.
...member of any dark-
skinned race — usually,
taken to be offensive.”
Williams launched a
national letter-writing cam
paign against the publisher of
the dictionary. An Associated
Press story noted,
“Hundreds of people contact
ed Merriam-Webster after its
definition of the racial slur
was printed in Idle September
[1997] issue of Emerge maga
zine.”
NAACP President Kweisi
Mfume said, “The NAACP
finds it objectionable that
Merriam-Webster would use
black people as a definition
for a racist term.” He threat
ened to lead a boycott of the
company if the definition was
not revised in the next edi
tion.
Merriam-Webster quickly
capitulated. Its revised defin
ition of the n-word states, “it
now ranks as perhaps the
most offensive and inflamma
tory racial slur in English.”
That’s exactly what it is.
And use of the n-word should
never be defended by
Harvard professors, hip-hop
artists or anyone else.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association News Service and
BlackPressUSA.com. To contact
Curry or to book him for a speak
ing engagement, go to his Web
site, www.georgecurry£om.
College bridge to economic mainstream
As the 2006 cohort of
African American college stu- .
dents prepare to go off to
school in the fall, they will
become a part of a living lega
cy that was paved by groups
such as the
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church. The
AME Church
knew the
value of a col
lege education
to tomorrow’s
black
• .Jormer newspaper,editor.
American upward mobihty in
1881 when they started
Morris Brown College as the
only college in the state of
Georgia established by black
Americans for Black
Americans. Blacks being just
a few years out of legalized
U.S. slavery where educating
the slave was forbidden, the
AME church’s ■vision to create
a college helped to undergird
the modem African American
middle and upper class expe
rience. However, in recent
years poor Morris Brown
College business manage
ment practices may have
destroyed that dream today.
A December 10, 2002 arti
cle, “Morris Bro-wn College
loses accreditation,” by The
Associated Press/Newsday
offers a chronology of the mis
takes made by the college en
route to losing its accredita
tion. However, this article
also intimates the existence
of survival problems at
another Historically Black
College.”
Morris Brown College was
stripped of its accreditation
Thesday, a blow that will cost
the historically black school
the federal financial aid most
students depend on to help
pay their tuition.
“Another historically black
institution, Grumbling State
University in Louisiana, will
continue on probation for
another year, according to the
decision by the Southern
Association of Colleges and
Schools.
“Grambling was placed on
probation last year over con
cerns about its confusing
financial records.”
Yet HBCUs have produced
many excellent American cit
izens. You get an appreciation
of the caliber of HBCU citi
zens looking at the Morris
Brown College’s web site wel
coming message to potential
students.
“Morris Brown has gradu
ated thousands of alumni
who are leaders in govern
ment, education, business,
technical fields and the pro
fessions. A Pulitzer Prize
winning author, pilots, jour
nalists, bank presidents,
chemists, actors, doctors, gov
ernment officials and profes
sional athletes, all are among
our graduates. These indmd-
uals - and many more - have
flourished because of the
College’s commitment to pro-
■viding access to higher educa
tion and to fostering achieve
ment.”
As racial integration comes
to fruition, traditionally
white colleges and universi
ties now -view black students
as fair game in their recruit
ing efforts. Yesteryear’s legal
ized racial segregation laws
that once guaranteed HBCUs
a steady supply of students
are now relics of a by-gone
era and have been replaced
by a highly competitive col
lege marketplace.
HBCU Savannah State
University helps us appreci
ate today’s student recruit
ment paradigm shift in their
Recommendations for a
Comprehensive Enrollment
& Admissions Plan 1989-
2007. “...Influential is the
increasingly crowded and
complex higher education
environment in southeast
Georgia, generated by a
recent influx of suppMers—for
example, Armstrong Atlantic
University, The Savannah
College of Art and Design,
Savannah Ifechnical College,
and South College. These
accumulated environmental
changes have, led to a truly
dramatic decline in market
share of southeast Georgia
African-American students
enrolled at Savannah State
University... and the declin
ing share of African-
American students has not
been compensated by a grow
ing share of non-black minor
ity students. It should also be
noted that the changing mar
ket shares are thought to be
highly associated with the
changing nature of students
remaining at Savarmah State
University.”
In essence, traditionally
white colleges are now cher
ry-picking Savannah State
University’s yesteryear
African American student
base for college ready individ
uals to meet their racial and
ethnic diversity goals.
Savannah State University,
therefore, finds itself having
to clean up the educational
debacle emanating from the
public schools under-prepar
ing today’s students to handle
college work.
Are we ignoring yesterday’s
wisdom in setting up
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities that offered
Black Americans access to a
college education when legal
ized racial segregation
reigned? Just think about it,
today obtaining the Bachelor
level degree has evolved into
a rite of passage into-the eco
nomic mainstream. If the
HBCUs disappear, does this
mean that many blacks wfil
ne-yer gain entrance into the
economic mainstream?
SHERMAN MILLER is a syndi
cated columnist from Wlmington,
Del.