Newspapers / North Carolina Central University … / Feb. 25, 1981, edition 1 / Page 4
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Features. pag,e 4 February 25,1981 Image maker Beverly Burke By Janice R. Crump If you are of the mind that arrogance is an undesirable character trait, it is obvious that you have not met Beverly Burke. WTVD’s co-anchor for the 6 and 11 p.m. news is an in triguing combination of self assurance, congeniality, and yes even arrogance. She is good at what she does and she knows it. That she got her start in journalism when it was “fashionable” to be black, she readily admits. “I got a break,” she confesses. Her career took an upward swing when she became the first black and the first female at the top 40’s pop station, WKBW in Buffalo, New York. "I was a screamer; the style of a deejay is fast and furious. People were saying that I sounded white, but said things no white girl would say.” Beverly went on the air at midnight and created nocturnal fantasies in the minds of her listeners until 6 a.m. The 30-year-old native New Yorker and oldest of five children, came to WTVD in Durham from an affiliate station in New York, where she worked on news breaks for the “A.M. America” show. Beverly approaches her move to the South with an “open mind” and finds that she is moved by the warmth and solidarity of the people. She also likes the climate. After two years with the WTVD Eyewitness News team, she reflects on the adjustment that she had to make when she went from radio to television. “I was upset,” she admits. “People were tuning in just to see what kind of clothes I was wearing or how I fixed my hair. Some people were saying WTVD had some nerve putting a black female on as co-anchor for a major news program.” Beverly now realizes that television is a “cosmetic in dustry.” Her classy, effervescensce permeates the homes of thousands of viewers every weekday evening. “I enjoy creating images,” she says. The public enjoys watching her too. So much so that the lagging WTVD ratings soared past those of their chief competitor, WRAL, at 11 p.m., and came uncomfortably close at 6 p.m. Beverly leaves no doubt as to why she thinks she has increased the Eyewitness News view ing audience. “I am successful because I am talented, ” she affirms. She makes full use of that talent by exercising a maximum amount of journalistic control over her news script. “I’m the last one to edit my copy before execution. If I see something that doesn’t sound right, I will discuss it with the reporter who wrote the story.” She has used that authority to strike the word black from the description of a suspect when reporting on a crime. “We try to sensitize our reporters not to look for a black-white issue in an incident,” she declares. On the other hand, Beverly feels that it is important to in sure balanced coverage for minority issues. “I feel responsi ble for making sure that black issues get the kind of coverage they deserve,” she states: “Sometimes it does make a dif ference whether a black or white reporter writes the news.” Regardless of who writes the news, Beverly’s faith in the printed word has not been shaken by the glamour of the elec tronic media. She profeses that television “is the worst place in the world to get the news. What most people see as a half- hour news show realy adds up to about 14 minutes of news. Intelligent people will always want to read more.” Will televi sion ever replace the printed media as the major source of news? Beverly says emphatically, “No way!” When she talks about her future, a poised seriousness set tles on her face, taming momentarily its radiant yivaciousness. She is pensive for a second; the smile that slowly shapes the corners of her mouth mirrors the sense of accomplishment that she feels inside. “I’d like to test my talent in the major markets,” she confides. Will we loose this tall, chic urbanite to the six-figure market? it is likely that we will if talent and self-confidence, coupled with just the right touch of arrogance, continue to propel Beverly Burke towards professional excellence. Now you know By United Press International McDonald's sells enough hamburgers to provide everyone in America with 11a year. Midget wrestler shot BUFFALO, N.Y. (UPl) — A 6-foot, 1-inch man claimed he shot a midget wrestler to death because he was afraid the 3-foot, 9-inch man, known for his feats of strength, would try to kill him. Noe Diaz Rodriguez, 26, of Buffalo, today faced up to 15 years in prison on his conviction Wednesday for second- degree manslaughter. Rodriguez testified Juan “Chico” Morales, 45, of Buffalo had struck him with a pool cue when Rodriguez threw the professional wrestler out of an athletic club on Sept. 7,1980. Morales had a reputation for “abusing people,” Rodriguez said. The wrestler returned to the club and sat across the bar from Rodriguez, who claimed Morales reached into his pocket as if to draw a weapon. Rodriguez, who admitted he had been drinking heavily, said he pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and pointed it at Morales. The gun accidentally went off, he said, striking the unarmed man in the face. HELLO CAROL WTVD’s lovely co-anchor for the 6 o’clock and 11 o’clock news, Beverly Burke. Office romance live and kickin By Dick West WASHINGTON (UPl) — Despite highly publicized com plaints of sexual harrassment by women workers, the office romance is still alive, if breathing hard, and likely to continue to flower. This reassuring outlook, if it is reassuring, comes from In dustry Week magazine and is based at least in part on cold statistics. Says Industry Week, office ardor seems certain to increase “if only because there are more women in the work force now.” . Sometimes, of course, it is difficult to tell when two of your co-workers are that way about each other. The reason, the magazine explains, is that participants in office affairs usually “try to keep such relationships quiet.” That observation certainly fits in my experience. On several occasion, my desk has been smack in the middle of high voltage affairs and I never even suspected sparks were flying until the participants suddenly began suing each other. But I’m nobody’s supervisor, so it doesn't matter that I’m a bit slow on the uptake. Where awareness becomes important, the magazine says, is at the management level. “Even rumors of an affair can be disruptive” and “whether actual or presumed, an affair can send tremors through the company,” it warns. Not to mention the tremors that might be running up and down the spines of the participants. For the benefit of office managers who may be a little dense, or otherwise preoccupied. Industry Week provides a few tips on how to tell when a head of steam is building up. “Among the most common giveaways,” it confides, are “long lunches together, discussions behind closed doors, and joint business trips.” Aha! So that’s why these two correspondents I know keep going off together for the week end! And all the time I thought they were gathering background material for a series on grassroots reaction to the moratorium on federal land pur chases. If the behavior outlined above doesn’t cause an office manager to catch the drift, there may be other signs that amour has broken out on the 9-to-5 shift. “In about a third of the cases,” one authority is quoted as saying, ‘^participants are seen embracing in closets, kissing in supply rooms, or fondling in the parking lot.” It is here that Industry Week begins, for me, to lose creditability. While some of the more giddy supervisors might construe embraces in the closet as evidence of passion, a more likely inference is that somebody is getting mugged. Whatever the signals, the magazine laments that “few com panies seem to have devised policies to effectively deal with the problems of a clandestine romance.” The approach it seems to favor is to “nip it in the bud.” Which may be what was happening in the supply room. Now You Know By United Press International Americans spend about 785 million hours a year filing out government forms, the United States Office of Management and Budget says. by B. Johnson Part of Black Awareness Month History prof, speaks on African image By Letisa Yates How Blacks viewed the exploitation and degradation of Afro-Americans in American society will be discussed by Dr. Sylvia M. Jacobs, NCCU history instruc tor and author of The American Nexus: Black American Perspectives on the Euro pean Partitioning of Africa 1880-1920, Thursday, Feb. 26, at 10:40 a.m. in rooms 145-146 of the Student Union. Explaining that the word “nexus” means link or connection, Jacobs said, “The ti tle refers to the link between Afro-America and the continent of Africa. “Th6 significance in American History was that the link had been minimized. Africa did not care about Afro-America and Afro-America did not care about Africa,” said Jacobs. Pan American History refers to the linkages between Africans of the Diaspora and Africa. Today this refers to all people of African descent throughout the world—blacks throughout Africa and the Caribbean. According to Jacobs, only 7 percent of the Africans came to the United States and Mexico, 49 percent went to Brazil, and 42 percent went to the Caribbean. Because of the segregated society of America, Afro-Americans tend to believe that much more than 7 percent came to the United States. Jacobs explained that 40 percent of today’s population in Brazil is /African. This is because the U.S. system'is based on color and other parts of the world base their system on class. The book specifically deals with Black Americans and how they view the partition ing of Africans. “Blacks saw a direct relationship between the exploitation of land, labor, resources and discrimination, segregation and degradation of Afro-Americans in American society,” said Jacobs. Thefts and damage mar Communications Bldg. By Calvin Lee Williams Is the Farrison-Newton Communications Building becoming a home for theft and damaged property? Several instructors in the building think so. A Monstera plant, a tropical plant with enormous leaves, was taken from the lob by in the Communicaitons Building, according to a source in the Spanish depart ment. The plant, which measured 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall and cost $50, was taken just before last Thanksgiving. “The plant was given to the school to help beautify the lobby of the Communica tions Building,” said the source. This plant is not all that’s missing from the first floor. Dr. Linda Norfleet, chairperson of the drama department, said that “banners placed in the lobby of the Communications Building to announce drama produc tions were also missing.” The theft “shows a lack of concern about the building and also the whole school,” said Dr. Norfleet. People have also been misusing the drama theater. “Students have been putting cigarette butts on the floor, gum under the seats of the theater, and just damaging the theater itself,” commented Norfleet. “A lot of students want to use the theater, and the people in the drama depart ment would be willing to let them use it. But because of damage done, like when the theater was used Halloween Night for the horror movies, they will not let students use it,” she added. “A print named ‘Tree,’ which was on loan from the Art Museum, was damaged by someone when it was in the Green Room on the first floor,” Norfleet said. Wall hangings and plants have also been taken from the 3rd floor of the Com munications Building, according to several 3rd floor teachers in the English depart ment. SORRY, rve GOT TO DO MY LAUNDRY YOU JUST REFUSED A WOMAN S INV/TAT/ON TO HER PLACE SO YOU COULD DO LMNDRY ? I HAO to! m DOWN TO MY VALENTINE'S DAY BOXERS... 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Feb. 25, 1981, edition 1
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