PageA4 Winston-Salem Chronicle Thursday, January 14,1988
Winston-Salem Chronicle
ERNEST H Pin
Publisher
MICHAEL A
Assistant to the Publisher ;
ANGELA WRIGHT
Managing Editor
JULIE PERRY
fsAbyeHisIng'Manager
NDUfilSI EGEMONYE
Co Fo-.''d0r
ELAINE L. Pin
O'* ce Manager
YVONNE H B. TRUHON
Produro Ma''ager
Justice still asymmetric
A LOCAL Afro-American family, seeking relief from
what they say has been three years of racial harassment and
destruction of their private property, has had their day in court.
The judgment: no relief from racial harassment.
Eugene Campbell and his accused white neighbor, Charles
McHone, stood before District Court Judge William B. Rein
gold last week. McHone pleaded guilty to throwing a brick
through the window of Campbell’s truck and to threatening his
family.
Reingold ordered McHone to pay for the damage to the
truck, but McHone got away with a warning for issuing racial
ly oriented threats against his neighbors.
This should come as no surprise to anyone. Historically,
the harassment of Afro-Americans by white Americans has
been viewed as a minor infraction, at best, by law enforcement
and judicial officials.
The Campbells say they had been unable to get relief from
the sheriffs department, which maintained that they (the
Campbells) had to witness the crime being committed in order
to bring charges.
When the Campbells provided the sheriffs department
with a metal object that was thrown through the front door of
their home, the object was confiscated, but there was no fol
low-up. When a Chronicle reporter questioned Major E.D.
Alston of the Forsyth County Sheriffs Department, she was
told that the object was examined for fingerprints, but pro
duced no evidence to link it to any one person.
Indeed, there may have been multiple fingerprints, but we
are concerned about only one set - those of the accused.
Considering our current civil climate, when racial violence
against Afro-Americans is escalating nationally and overt big
otry is once agairi popular, it is not too much to expect our law
officers and judgqg to make decisions which forcefully deter
racially intolerant behavior.
Reingold had the authority to issue an injunction against
McHone. He could have required McHone to post a personal
bond which would have been forfeited if McHone persisted
with his antagonistic behavior.
Reingold could have ordered a psychiatric evaluation of
McHone or he could have given him a suspended sentence and
probation. In other words, he could have sent a clear signal
that racial violence would not be tolerated by his court.
Instead, he chose to dismiss McHone with an impotent warn
ing.
In this case. Reingold apparently perceived the damage to
the Campbell's truck to be more significant than the threats
McHone made against their lives.
It can be convincingly argued that it is precisely this type
of indifference, on the part of those pledged to uphold the law,
which contributes to the current climate of racial intolerance.
So, we have to wait until McHone maims or kills a mem
ber of the Campbell family (or until a member of the Campbell
family maims or kills McHone) for this case to evoke the sin
cere attention of law enforcement officials.
One can only speculate as to what the outcome of this case
would have been if a white man had stood before Reingold
accusing an Afro-American man of harassing his family and
destroying his private property.
But for most Afro-Americans, for whom justice has tradi
tionally been asymmetric, the outcome of such a scenario is
unequivocal.
The tragedy of Yvonne Smallwood
NEW YORK - Yvonne Small
wood was 28 years old and the
mother of four children. The
youngest is 2. She worked full lime
for the city of New York and then
worked a second job as a dietitian's
aide for a Bronx hospital, just to
bring in extra money for her family.
On Dec. 3 she was arrested for
protesting the issuance of a sum
mons to Austin Harper, her mate,
who is a cab driver. On Dec. 9, she
was dead while still in police cus
tody.
What happened during those
seven days clearly points to yet
another case of unchecked police
brutality in New York City. Wit
nesses, including Austin Harper
and a bystander, a social work
investigator for New York City,
both confirmed that Yvonne Small
wood was beaten by several white
police officers. The investigator
noted that police threw her to the
ground and kicked her. Mr. Austin
stated that during this first beating
she was knocked unconscious.
Police then took her to the hos
pital, where she was treated and
released back into police custody.
According to Austin, the officers
wheeled her to the police car, where
they beat her yet again: "The sec
ond time, after they wheeled her
out of the hospital, my brother and
I watched as she fell out of the
wheelchair and the police didn't
believe she was hurt so they pushed
her, picked her up, threw her into
the police car and, when her legs
at a time when the Afro-American
community of New York has
become the target of increasing
racially motivated violence. But, as
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
By BENJAMIN CHAVIS JR.
^
Stuck out the back seat, they beat
and kicked them into the car." The
police then took her to jail at Hik
er's Island.
Mary Joseph, Harper's sister,
who is a nurse at Riker's Island,
saw Yvonne in the infirmary there
and confirmed, "She was crying
and crying, saying the police beat
her over and over. Her leg was
swollen, her ankles were bruised ...
I’ve seen beaten people in my line
of work, and she was beaten."
Smallwood's court-appointed
attorney says that when he saw her
at the arraignment, "Her wrists
were very swollen and her leg was
three times its normal size. She was
in really bad shape, dragging the
leg behind her." Smallwood, still in
police custody, later died of a blood
clot that moved from her swollen
leg to her lungs.
The Smallwood murder comes
a result, this community is also
beginning to unify around concrete
strategies for changing the situation
in New York.
As I preached the eulogy at
Yvonne Smallwood’s funeral and
looked down at her young body,
draped with a red, black and green
liberation flag, I reflected, "When
we look upon your face, my sister,
we see ourselves. For you are us.
You in your death personify the
essence of our struggle. They tried
to club your spirit out of existence,
but it is here with us tonight.
"Let us all make a commitment
to her spirit, for the best memorial
we can give to Yvonne is to resolve
to have the kind of unity and action
in our community that makes New
York City a city without racism, a
city without killer cops... Our com-
Please see page A12
The culture that works for you
NEW YORK — Teens who use
drugs are not typical of the acne
society. Half of them started drink
ing and using illegal drugs by age
13.
Moreover, their problems
ranged from sexual abuse to arrests
to self-hatred, if they're Afro-
American. The self-image problem
or racial anxiety among Afro-
American youth is so obvious that a
scientific study is not necessary to
observe it.
Abuse comes in many forms:
physical, sexual and psychological.
Abuse then acts as the basis for
self-destruction or drug usage,
which is this generation's choice of
gradual (not so gradual in some
cases) suicide.
"Poppy" parents are the new
menace in child rearing. They are the
"closet druggies," parents who use
drugs around their children. In one
study, 60 percent of the young people
on drugs reported that someone else
at home also abuses drugs.
Poppy parents present another
of the many challenges to raising
healthy children. Parents such as
these add to the already over
whelming burden of open drug
brought the AIDS problem to the
front door of Black America.
Here are some other drug-
related statistics, reported under the
"endangered species" category: An
estimated 50 percent of young
TONY BROWN
Syndicated Columnist
CHRONICLE CAMERA
dealing on the streets in poor neigh
borhoods.
The battle against drugs in
Afro-American communities is
substantially different from the bat
tle that is fought in white, middle-
class neighborhoods. AIDS, for
example, among Afro-American
drug addicts, is at an epidemic
level. Because they live among
other Afro-Americans and are sex
ually intimate with other Afro-
Americans, the drug problem has
Afro-Americans are unemployed;
25 percent under the age of 25 have
never held a job; one in six has
been arrested by the age of 19;
more than 10,000 Afro-American
males between the ages of 15 and
19 die each year in homicides (their
second-leading cause of death); an
estimated 72 percent of Afro-
American males in New York City
drop out of some high school.
Please see page A12
Taxes soak
poor people
TO BE EQUai
By John'eIacob'^
NEW YORK - Hie.
the ux structure was usehtoj
equalize mcome, as well as to*
revenues. But now 1, looks
nauons tax structure - sbi,
federal alike - is a re^,”
~nt that Widens i«„:
A recent analysis of fedc,
taxes made by the CongressJ
Budget Office says that I
tenth of American families »i|
wind up paying 20 percent mom,
thetr earnings in federal taxes fa,
they did a decade ago. Meanwhilt
the richest 1 percent will
almost 20 percent less.
And this comes at a time wh
the vast majority of Americans
80 percent according to the CBO
have lower real incomes than ili
did back in 1977. That's beca,
wages didn’t keep up with inOaiii
The lowest federal tax n
moves up from 11 percent to
percent this year. Higher soc
security taxes and excise taxes ^
add to the burdens of the typii
family to a far greater extent ih
for affluent families.
So the net result oftheReag
tax revolution is to cut taxes fot
wealthy while taking more fro
low- and moderate-income fait
lies. The rationale was that by ci
ling taxes for the wealthy, they
invest more. But national savin]
and investment rates are down, d
up.
And while the adminisiraiic
correctly claims that even wii
lower rates, the percentage share i
the tax burden paid by the affluei
is higher, that's because their shai
of the national income has risen s
much.
The problem of regressitt
taxes is compounded by the fac
that most states have tax slmcturei
that soak the poor. I
While the federal tax lefJ
virtually exempted most oflM
working poor from federal incoJ
taxes, state and local tax collect
continue ta.squeeze revenues &o(j
those least able to pay.
Even before federal tax re
poor households paid more in
and local taxes than they did ii
eral taxes. In more than hal
states with income taxes, the
at which a family of four start!
ing taxes is more than
below the poverty line.
The poorest 20 percent
taxpayers pay a higher sha
their income in state and local
than do the next 60 percent i
population -- the middle class,
Almost all states have
form of sales tax, and that in
poor families disproportion
since they have to spend all
earn. The poorest fifth of all
lies pay three times as high i
centage of their income in
taxes as do the wealthiest 5 jx
of families.
Taxing the poor is un
scionable. By definition, poor
pie cannot afford to have
small incomes driven still low
taxes. The federal tax reform
year recognized that to some e:
by removing the working]
from the income tax rolls an'
enlarging the earned income
Please see page A12
King holiday revives memories of his tragic death
For some of us, the tragic
occurrence of April 4, 1968, is
something we have become
familiar with only through the
recollections of relatives and
through footage provided by the
news media.
Some of us have learned of
the tragedy, the assassination of the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at
our parents and grandparents knees
and we have listened as they
recounted the impact the murder
had on the lives of Afro-Ameri
cans in this country and on people
around the world.
Many of us can only wonder
about how we would have felt at
the moment we learned of the civil
rights leader’s death. But there are
those of us who actually lived the
historical event.
For one moment, in very tur
bulent times, people everywhere
"I remember
being at home
and there was
a news flash, it
was a heart-
breaker
because he
was doing
some good.".
Collin Morrison
"I remember
listening to the
\ when it
came on. It
was a sad loss
to the world."
James Smart
paused to take note of the assassi
nation that ended the life of a
major American leader and threat
ened to end a movement that chal
lenged inequality around the globe.
For those who were a part of
the movement and even for those
who watched from a distance,
"We were play
ing basketball
because we
had played
hooky from
school and
were waiting
tor him to
come on televi'
Sion."
Tyrone Hatci
April 4,1968 is a day that has been
ingrained in their memories forev
er. Even those who were school
children at the time recall the feel
ing of sadness and a sense of loss.
In keeping with this week's
remembrances of King, the Chron
icle Camera surveyed local resi-
"t was in the
8th grade and I
^ -,was at school.
' It was sad
because I used
4.*to see him on
the news tight-_
mg for civil ^
rights."
Sabrina Griqgs
dents to determine what
strongest memories are about
day King was killed.
Below is a random santp^S
of responses to this weeks
tion, "Do you remember wbal)»
were doing and how you » *
day Dr. King was assassinaK”'
"I was y~r -
hooky.lt was a
big shockW
me andajlefi'
nite loss."
i Vwiter JoMS