Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Dec. 13, 1975, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
l-TKS CAROLINA TIMES SAT.. DECEMBER H.H7S I 7f;oy Aro fJor Shcutin "fJncoro" cud "Intacto" end VJorco New Housing Program Disappointing TO HATS tS, I .( OEGRAPMG! t. J 7) 'f-'.f,&7 FOREST-HIUS carnas,b Jm I miniiiiiiiiiiiMiiiHiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiMii The long governmental silence on homing policy has finally been broken, but the program recently announced to enable moderate income families to buy homes is a disappointing adaptation of an earlier program, and it contains the seeds of the same kinds of problems that proved disastrous. The program is a reasurection of the old Section 235 housing subsidy,, program that subsidizes mortgages for moderate income families. That program became a haven for every vulture out to rip off poor families and the government. Speculators bought up rotting old houses, threw a new coat of paint over them, and sold them to unsuspecting families who thought they were fulfilling their life's dream--a house of their own. After a little while the old houses just gave out, boilers blew, leaks developed, walls sagged. The new owners had to make repairs they couldn't afford and fell behind on their payments. Then the government had to come in and take back the now worthless house. The result: many poor families lost the little they had, and the government got stuck with an enormous financial loss. The Section 235 program and some other federal housing programs were suspended in January, 1973 pending development of a new approach. Now we have that old program back, with the same central flaw that doomed the earlier program. Then, people were on their own in the housing market. They had to qualify for the subsidy and get homes certified as being in good condition by Federal Housing Administration inspectors. What they needed, and did not get, was some form df community-based counseling service. Without counseling, the program became the most corrupt playing ground for cbiseiers in the country. And by chiselers I mean the speculators TO BE EQUAL If VEINON L Kim bsctfiw Director KatiMil Ufai lets who sold rotten, houses, and those FHA inspectors who took kickbacks and bribes to approve them. Some of those people have been punished by the courts, but that doesn't help the poor people whom they victimized. It doesn't help the taxpayers whose dollars should have been buying a good housing for those who couldn't afford it. .. .. The revived program errs in several ways. The glaring flaw is that it too does not provide for community-based counseling services, virtually assuring that similar problems will develop. A second flaw is that is requires a large down payment It will still be serving people with temporarily low incomes. The poorest families, whom the original 235 program was aimed at, can't participate. Because the poorest families are eliminated from home-buying subsidies, the Department of Housing and Urban . Development assumes Intensive counseling won't be needed. That's a false assumption for several reasons. Even many middle class families need help in learning how to choose, buy, and maintain a bouse. There's nothing to make us think that the moderate-income families in the new program are less in need of such help than the lower-income families were. In the absence of counseling, one would think that the FHA staff would be beefed up to provide such assistance, with more stringent controls against corruption. But no new staff has been added to GHA offices, so the field is again wide open for speculators to feed at the federal trough. All of this is made more serious because the higher down payments by participating families will mean their life savings are at stake. If the house is really not worth the mortgage amount, and if this program goes under the way the previous one did, those families will be left penniless. It doesn't make sense for the government to sink vast amounts into a program and then refuse to protect that investment by not providing for counseling services. It is all the more inexcusable when the life savings of moderate-income families may be sacrificed too. The old 235 program functioned to dump houses that couldn't be sold any other way onto the market while jacking up their prices. It was a subsidy program for the housing industry, not for the poor. Will this new program be any better? Letters of Criticism May Improve Media A Sign Of Changing Times It appears that more and more conservatism regarding basic issues is being piped out to the populace by well known public figures. Their philosophy seems to always return to the basic human problems of the post 1860's through the 1960's. Most of the time those issues revolving around the 1964 Civil Rights Act will focus or evolve if one listens long enough. Alert citizens should pay much more... attention to these 'rabble, rousers whov usually end up criticizing progressing dfiii in human relations and the development of the worth of dignity of all people. To listen is to become more aware of the conservative thought on such issues. More important is to be on guard against such conservative ideas that seek to become a part of our times. Past history will certainly point up the importance of this alertness. Is it more than a coincidence that the resurgence of such figures as Lester Maddox and others of his ilk comes at a time when, the Supreme Court appears scerrMloTiile aJ&oMi&alt aw iSijVe lias istevetttargat tnatieiemas vigilance is the price of freedom and liberty. 2t Black College Population Increases The college enrollment of black student has continued to rise but the number of actual graduates drops sharply by the end of the senior year according to Census reports by the U. S. Department of Commerce. Black college students were nine per cent of the 8.8 million total of college students in 1974 as opposed to only about five per cent of the 4.6 million in 1964. The alarming part of the report is that there is a substantially smaller proportion of black students in the senior year enrollment than was during the freshman year. It also reveals that the college drop-put rates have been substantial for all groups - black, white, male and female. Another significant point was that men who enroll in college as freshmen were more likely than women to remain through four years. Nearly three-fourths of the 16 to 34 year old college students in each group' were attending college fulltime in 1974. If black students are to develop their potential as future leaders of our great country, the increase in actual college graduation for black students must be intensified. Perhaps it may be suggested that greater diligence to the task at hand -more preparation and outside study - can aid one in developing his or her greatest potential in these everchanging times. EDITOR'S NOTE: Through error, we released Commissioner Hooks' previous column ahead of this one. It gives you the full background of his excellent comments last week. Also we are repeating the thoughtful conclusions he drew. A letter from a graduate student, Department of Sociology, University of California, was in a stack of mail I received recently. My mail runs heavy every day letters from friends, acquaintances, well-wishers (and some, of course, who do not wish me too well; thank God there are few of those); invitations to affairs, requests for Federal Communications Commission information, contributions to this or that worthy organization or cause or for me to address various groups. I took especial notice of this letter (actually it was a copy of a letter, sent to several persons, including a newspaper? columnist, the chief of JJPublic. Broadcasting SysWryand to Tony Brown, xeuUv producer ofBMck Jouroal)because. ' the decent ordinary , Wack American citizen is ignored by the media. The student was disturbed . over the mid-October showing on PBS of the controversial Swedish documentary film, "Harlem: Voices, Faces." This film was scheduled for presentation last May 19th, but was withdrawn after a group of blacks, including Brown and Roger Wilkins, of the New York Times, withdrew from a scheduled panel discussion that would have followed the 90-minute film "to give it balance. ' The graduate" student sympathized with the "the Swedish producers" intent ....to show what American has done to its citizens in order to arouse a cry of moral outrage, but they didn't do their homework. In their racial ignorance, they ended up hurting the people they say they are trying to help.' He continued: "What is racist are their assumptions and approach to making this film. Obviously, the Swedes assumed that the 'ordinary' black people of Harlem are a broken and pathology-ridden group. They presented no facts to support these inflammatory assumptions that 'ordinary' black people are whores, drug addicts, pimps, petty criminals and drunks..' or members of sanctified churches. In point of fact, sociologists, even of the most virulent right-wing strain, admit only one-fourth the black populations in this country can be so designated. JL. Mootio Commissioner The student declared that instead of identifying an ordinary family and members and following them 'in the course of their activities," the Swedish producers interviewed jail inmates, patients in emergency rooms, people at the police stations, etc., assuming that this is where the ordinary (black) citizen was to be found. This flies in the face of most Black Americans' experiences. Most Black Americans for example, are Baptist or Methodist; most are hardworking people who despite the fact t: may be underemployed and underpaid, are striving to make a better life for themselves and their families in the accepted traditions of a society that is not always very protective of their Interests. I have said it over and over again: decent, ordinary black people are seldom portrayed in their customary roles by the media. A black militant with an empty gasoline can and a box of matches that won't strike can get more coverage than a ghetto youth leader who has something positive to say about the training of young blacks in this country. (Now we repeat the Commissioner's conclusions.) ....The student's main thrust was directed at the PBS program, but his general criticism was of all television programming and how it deals with ordinary black citizens. I have been very vocal in my criticism of the media, as well. But as a member of the Federal Communications Commission, ! know by law this body does not regulate programming. And it's good that it cannot. I would be the first to oppose the heavy hand of the federal government in this r highly sensitive area that essentiaUyitirrhs on the First, Anwndrfteut's freedom of speScn jn-ovisions. of wfand radio programming not only should be welcomed, but encouraged by broadcasters as a healthy response from that area - from which they insist should arise the only restraining force - the marketplace. For my part, I am heartened to. see more citizens, like the letter-writing graduate student, beginning seriously to question how blacks and other minorities (including women) are portrayed by the broadcast medic and protesting these portrayals in no uncertain terms. This is the right way, the American way, if you will, to help correct historic wrongs. I repeat, the large bulk of American Blacks live quiet, decent, largely uneventful lives that scarcely resembly those portrayed in that and similar documentary films. But you would not know this from watching the evening news, or documentary films, or reading Newsweek or Time Magazines. (NNPA). mi poitir. BY RAY JENKINS Zicaisa And. Rscisra 4 , We've heard much t a 1 k in recent weeks of the Unit e d Nations' resolution to recog nize that Zionism is synonymous with racism. Thus far, moat of us have only heard one sida of the story . the American aide - which is always traditionally distortion KxceUenee. Quite naturally use one may rest assure that the United States will always be oo the side of the tat cats of American corporate interests in its foreign policy. Nor can we be mislead by the likes of such Cithetic weaknesses like Roy ftikins who professes to be a Back civU rights fighter, but always seem to wind up leading the folk to the other side of the fence toward self -defeatism What Is Zionism and bow does it workTTo begin with, let . us not - allow ourselves to fall . into the trap of ignorance by believing that all, or even most Jews are Zionists, Such thought would be a misleading as to say that all Italians are maflosos; all whites are Ku Kluxers; or al tlacks are Panthers. What is needed here is a working definition of Zionism. It is the contention that Jews throughout the world have a right to maintain an exclusively Jewish state in Palestine. They say that the Jews needed a place to go because they had no place of their own. So they chose Palestine to settle the state of Israel saying: "A land without people for a people without land." The only problem is that Palestine was already peopled with Palestinians as it had been for centuries. But the state of Israel became a reality anyway in Palestine. The Zionist movement did not end there. As I stated before, Zionism is the notion of an EXCLUSIVELY Jewish state in Palestine. This could be done by any of three ways: (1) exterminate the Palestinians; (2) exile all of them or; (3) segregate them, American style, and make believe they didn't exist The ZWnists chose all three methods. Utilization of any of the three is clearly and unquestionably racism. They have killed numerous women and children in Palestine and Lebanon. . Over one and a half million Palestinians have literally been shifted from their land and those who remain are subjected to the worst forms of racial discrimination and segregation by the Zionists. According to one report even the former prime minister of Israel, GoMa Meir, went on record as denying Palestinians exist If this to not racism, nothing is. Looking a little further on this matter, the Zionist movement is not for all Jews, many of whom could lay rightful claim of being the recipients of a history of much discrimination. This point was well illustrated when William F. Buckley , asked a v.l.p of the Zionist movement if Sammy ' Davis Jr. who is a Black Jew -would be as welcome and , accepted as a white Jew in Zionist Israel Buckley never got a straight answer from him because the evidence shows that many dark skinned Jews are discriminated against In Zionist Israel. One can clearly see that Zionism is not for all Jews and it proves to be nothing mote than self-destruction for the majority of Jews. So, who are these Zionists? They are the puppets of the American puppeteers. They are those who will sell their own mothers for a buck. They are not all, or even the majority of all Jews. With the help of the United States, they have fooled many in this country that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic.' Such illusions are obscene. So it is not surprising that of the dissenting U. N. countries, the United States (a.kx Daniel Moynihan) yelled the loudest They tell us, the average Joe, that the U. N. is being anti-Semitic to steer our minds away from the real issue. There is no mention of how Zionism REALLY works. If the United States is as benevolent as it claims, then why does South Africa exist as it does with its racist apartheid policies against blacks? It is already a known fact that the South African regime couldn't sustain itself two seconds without American dollars. Its the same old pack of lies guided only by the scrupples and morals of the mighty green MIL What is more incredible is that we have here the same United States which closed its ports to the Hitler panicked Jews from Germany who now ttmps on the liberal bandwagon y saying that a negative statement about Zionism is a statement against Judaism Le the Jewish people. It is outright fallacy, no less than the one's we've been hearing all along. The U. S. Position also raises no eyebrows over Zionist terrorism because, after all, that's how this country was acquired terrorism. That's been a central theme for a substantial portion of United States foreign policy in the Pacific, Latin America and the Carribean. Zionists terrorism,thus far, has revealed itself to be as ruthless and destructive as one could ever imagine. It has killed unmercifully, uprooted countless homes and imprinted an indelible bitter taste of racism In the minds and hearts of innumerable Palestinians. This is Zionism. In the words of one noted columnist, "This thing is bloody.' NAACP Gets BLACK CONSUMER AWARENESS SpO-lSO TO Do you shop with merchants sW who are equal opportunity 1111111 lIIVv employers? NEW YORK - Voicing his encouragement at public : - . m response to the emergency fund fvSScl drive of the National Association Vr rVr wl for the Advancement of Colored mmmmmmmmm . People, Gloster B. Current. in 1 1 i director of branches and fiela THE'CAROLmA TIMES administration, now heading the k i v AtTsmj drlvet uid that one fifth of the ' i"v v $250,000 needed by the end of Edjtor-Publiihw 1927-1971 the year to meet the deficit had Published every Saturday at come in. Durham, N.C. At the same time, he by United PubUsheri, Inc. cautioned against comptacency, explaining that, even when the Mailing Address A Q, Pox 3825 deficit is met, the Association Durham; North Cioltaa 27702 "? W fth n . tangible signs that the depressed Second CkH Portage Paid at economy to abating. Duihjun, North Carolina 27702 NAACP branches around the SUBSCRIPTION RATES inTl One Year..... $8.50 and have stepped up t. u membership and life Sales Tax- . member8hlp driveg other , total... branches have organized special Two Yean - I7.0( fund-raising events, with Sales Tax.................. . 68 proceeds to be turned in to the HOXAL. 17 68 national office. Still others have SeTamev TjTyabS from .th cleIW- Ab rf8Pond,nj to THE CAROLINA TIMES. 1 wgld labor and individuals. Amalgamated Puhttihers, IncJ With Christmas on the way, 810 Madiion Avenue. New York Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive S.Y 10017, National Advertittoi director, has urged people to ,3LT!!tlve 1Memj consider the NAACP in their tttned Pre International Photo ny gjvmg Dy ,ettinj aglde Publiaheri.iiotradbli';,. &U ot nve ,nd ten for the return of aiuoHdted newi1 aolff" . . . , ' pictures, or atartitin copy L .Although funds are unless necessary postasA beginning to come In,' ' Mr. jcoomptuilei the "copy. I Current said, 'We still have a i Opinion . expresssd by long way to go and the end of loofumnisu in this newspaper do; the year is in sight. We not .neoemriry represent thW encourage our friends and HWMsmgm. I 1790 Broadway, New 1 , ,i J York, N. Y. 100J9. 9m Stlit irtfl DEAR EDITOR With the death of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, poor and minority women have lost a precious and courageous voice. Like her parents, she sought the American Dream for all of us. Many of her good works have been chronicled. 'Others have gone unnoticed I would like to bring light to her long and tireless effort to make household employment something more than a job of last resort. She was an early supporter of the National Committee on Household Employment and served both as a member and Chairperson of the Board of Directors. She helped the struggling group grow from a ground zero to a viable, nationwide organization. Even hi her final illness, her interest and effort continued unabated. Those of us who knew her are truly diminished by her death. Sincerely, Edith Barksdale-Sloan Executive Director TMnfj3 You Should Know Herman . pmBY f 4M ?0RN IN HOU8TONJEXAS I873,HE HAD TO QUIT SCHOOL BY THE EIGHTH GRADE TO WORK I TWELVE YEARS 4ATER,HIS FIRST ATTEMPT TO START AN INSURANCE CO. WAS A FAILURE BUT HIS 8E0ONO TRY SET UP THE STANDARD LIFE INSURANCE C0.ATLANTA.0A. - A NE0R0 FIRST t BY ISIS THE PREMIUM INCOME WAS $ S33.3gT.TTl HE SOON ORGANIZED THE SERVICE CO.( CAPITAL 8T0CK;i lOOOOO! AND CITIZEN, TRUST Col CAPITAL STOCK; 1 880.000. SURPLUS', 280000!
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 13, 1975, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75