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Editorials The Kitchen’s Too Hot Liken the race conference now going on in Durban, South Africa to a hot kitchen. Remember the adage: "If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Well, a.sure bet is that the race conference is one hot kitch en in which the United States, Israel and any other nations that turn thumbs down on or walk out of because they can’t stand the heat. In this case, the "heat" is a combination of the truth and their guilt. Their complicity in wrongdoings against people of color everywhere is well known aro.und the globe. But that heat has brought their wrongdoings to center stage and the ohallenge is too much for them to beaf. Their meanness and .shortsightedness leaves them unwilling to face that truth, ad mit their wrongs and do whatever is neiessary to try to make amends. Rather than trying to do what they know their wrongs justify, they try to promote any weak claim they think will bamboozle the public — especially the white pub lic — then tuck their heads and run, to get out of the kitchen. The position United States President George W. Bush is currently invoking should be a message to every person of color in this nation and all over the world. That message is clear: We don’t care how you are being or have been mistreated. We don’t care how much you have suffered and continue to suffer. We don’t care what the residual effects of that mistreatment (slavery) on succeeding generations are or have been. Don t ever expect equal, unbiased treatment. In other words, we intend to keep you down as long as we pos sibly can. We are going to continue to refuse to apologize andfer pay for the free labor of your ancestors that enabled thus to become the richest nation in the world (ill-gotten gains!). We are going to deny you every single thing we can deny you to keep you at the bottom of the economic level. Oh. how noble it could have been for President Bush to al low Secretary of State Colin Powell and staff to attend that conference to bring confession and admission of United States wrongs, and, if not apologize, at least express the na tion's determination to henceforth attempt to live up to its creed. It could have immediately eliminated the "kitchen heat." Such a performance would have elevated this nation to heights heretofore unknown in the world. But he "blew it." Instead, he is willing to sacrifice tire soul of the nation for his political future with the "don’t intend to do right" crowd. The Word Gets Around You may have watched the recent Oprah Winfrey show when her guest was Tommy Hilfiger. If you did not, here is what transpired: On the show, Oprah asked Tommy Hilfiger if the state ments about race he was accused of making were true. Such as "...if I’d known African Americans, Hispanics, Jewish and Asians would buy my clothes, I W'ould not have made them so nice. I wish these people would ’NOT’ buy my clothes, as they are made for upper class white people." His answer to Oprah was a simple "YES." Oprah immediately asked him to leave her show. Now', what are YOU going to do about buying his clothes? SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2001—THE CAROLIN' Still Considered a Sell-Out to Black Community Decade After Bitter Confirmation Fight, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Marches to Conservative Tune BUILDING MATERIALS WASHINGTON (AP and Staff Reports) - Most workdays, Clarence Thomas beats his eight Supreme Court colleagues to the office. He drives his black Corvette through the sub urban Virginia dawn and scoots into the court’s guarded ga rage by 6 a.m. After a decade on the nation’s high court, Thomas has settled into a comfortable routine that balances the court’s heavy workload of reading and writing with a busy life of travel, lecturing and raising a young grandnephew. He has also found a comfortable home on the court’s far right. “He remains in the shadow of ideological bunkmate Antonin Scalia but is willing to write separate manifestos that stake a more absolutist position on cases involving reli gion, free speech and other issues. The court term that begins this fall offers Thomas, the sec ond black to serve on the court, another chance to rule against affirmative action. He steadfastly opposes it as an in sult to the values of hard work and self-reliance. Yet, he en ter Yale Law School under an affirmative action program "Justice Thomas enjoys marching to his own drummer,” said Clint Bolick, vice president of the conservative law firm Institute for Justice. Bolick has known Thomas since they worked together in the 1980s. Bolick has been anti- affirmative action since its inception. Comfort has not come cheaply for the man whose searingly public Job interview in the fall of 1991 featured naughty words, allegations of lewd office come-ons and Thomas’ famous, furious charge that he was the victim of a "high-tech lynching." An array of liberal and civl rights groups had opposed Thomas from the start and described him as a potentially dangerous, far-right extremist. But 10 years later is it proba bly the surprise allegations,of Thomas’ young accuser, Anita Hill, that linger in most Americans’ minds. Thomas denied Hill’s allegations,-President Bush stuck by him. and Thomas was confirmed by a 52-48 vote. He took his seat in October 1991. "He has been every bit as conservative and more as his crit ics thought he would be," said Earl Maltz, a constitutional law profes.sor and Supreme Court specialist at Rutgers Uni versity’s law school, "I think he has also been more of an in tellectual force to be reckoned with than people thought he would be." Thomas is still haunted and aggrieved by the fight over his nomination, associates say, and the whispers of tokenism and ,,i.ntellectual inadequacy that persisted when he took the bench. ^ _ He rarely speaks in court, is gun-shy with the press and has cut off at least one former friend who spoke too candidly , about him. He declined a request for an interview for this story. I Steel Buildings, new, must sell \ 30 X 40 X 12 was $10,200 now $6,990 40x 60 X 12 was $16,400 now $10,971 50x 100 X 16 was $27,590 now $19,990 60 X 200 X 16 was $58,760 now $42,990 1-800-406-5126 It is not the strength but the duration of great sentiments that makes great men. —Friedrich Nietzsche FSU Alumni Board to Meet September 15 The Fayetteville State University National Alumni A.ssociation Board of Directors will meet Satur day, September US, at 1 1 a.m. in the Chancellor’s Dining Room, Jones Student Center, on the campus of Fayetteville State Uni- ^ Workers’ Compensation 60 Years Combined Experience In North Carolina, Workers' Compensation laws are veiy complex. Put our 15 lawyer firm on your side to be sure you receive everything you/rightfully deserve. Call us for a free AARP Meeting Set for Wed., Sept. 19 The AARP (American Associa tion of Retired Persons)’ will con vene its first meeting of the fiscal year on Wednesay, September 19, ai 2 p.ni. The meetings are held every third Wednesday at the Duke Senior Center', 807 S. Duke Street. Membership is open to all races, both males and females, and new nembers ai'e invited to join. Yet he is also willin^ to speak more freely outside the court than most of his colleagues, and is the only current justice known to cry '■ ng a speech; in May, he broke downAvhile talkin'’ bout how he came to have custody of his grand nephew. ^ Around the court Thomas is known as a friendly, even jo vial fellow wi'tii a booming laugh that startles timid new law clerks. Although f .rer and grayer than he was during the hear ings, Thomas at 53 is still the youngest of 'le nine justices, He is also the only one with a school-age child at home, an expenence that associates say delights him. P.trt of the reason for his early hours is that Thomas tries to be home to help his grandnephew, Mark, with homework after school. Like Thomas, Mark was born to le.ss.than promising circumstances in Georgia. Thomas sought custody of the boy four years ago, when the boy was 6, much as his own, strict grandfather took in the young Thomas at about the same age. As one of the few high-ranking black people in govern ment, Thomas remains a polarizing figure and persona non grata for many civil rights groups. He also has avoided, al most religiously, black groups that have questioned his posi tions. He refuses to take questions at almost any forum not dominated by children and young adults and white conserva tives. Thomas has been a mentor and tutor for black students, but has hired just one as a law clerk. Supreme Court clerks- are the cream of the cream of the crop at the nation’s top law schools, Thomas has said, and any black students in that select group are welcome to apply. Thomas finished Yale La'v School in the lower middle of his class and was not considered an exceptional student. Thomas seems to accept the lot of a junior justice without complaint. He leaves the courtroom showboating to Scalia and tells audiences he does not mind writing so many opinions in dull bankruptcy and insurance cases. As he was in the Bush v. Gore decision that ended presi dential ballot counting in Florida last year, Thomas is typi cally among the five-member moderate-to-conservative bloc that usually prevails in disputed cases. Even when he agrees with the majority, Thomas is the jus tice most likely to file a separate, solo opinion. The traditional goal of the court is' unanimity or at least a minimum number of overlapping opinions, but Thomas is content to state his individual views even when he cannot persuade anyone else to join him. He is also a prolific dissenter. Only Justice John Paul Stevens, the liberal justice with whom Thomas least agrees, has dissented more often since Thomas joined the court: "His influence is growing and will grow increasingly over time," Bolick said. "Thomas is more willing than any other justice to return to the original text of the Constitution and to urge the court to correct past mistakes." Ironically, the programs he has assailed against, .are the same ones he used to enter elite undergraduate and law school. , Register To Vote EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES I NEED HELP WORK PROM MOMC Earn $500-$1500/pt-$2000-$4000/ft www.work2excel.com 1-888-518-3718 l-COgPCW^VC^^ COUPONTCQURON COUPON.COUPON'^ THE CAROLINA TIMES L,E. AUSTIN Editor-Publisher 1927-1971 (USPS 091-380) Published every Thursday (dated Saturday) (except the week ' 'ii-t-;-;.... Incorporated. Mailing address: P.O. Box 3825, Durham N.G. OTC’ eet, Durham, N.C, 27701. Periodicals Postage paid at Durham, North Cu.v . Volume 79, Number 34 POSTMASTER: Ip.'Jiacldress changes to THE CAROLINA TIMES, P.O. Box 3825. P’ • - •HOI r RATES: One year, Durham County, $18.00 (p^ua * {plus $1.32 sales tax; one year, out of state, $22.00. SiPfllQ unsubscriptions. 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