Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / April 14, 1988, edition 1 / Page 4
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Page A4 Winston-Salem awakk Thu rsday, ApriM 4, 1988 Winston-Salem Chronicle Founded 1974 ERNEST H. PITT Publisher MICHAEL A. PITT Assistant to the Publisher NDUBISI EGEMONYE Co-Founder ANGELA WRIGHT Managing Editor ELAINE L Pin Office JJlanager JUUEPESiRY Advertising Manager YVONNE H.B. tRUHON Production Manager We told you so HERE we go again! We hate to say we told you so,, but...we told you so. What are we talking about? Need you ask? We’re talking about last year's bond package and this year's controversy over what was, or was not, promised to the Afro-American voters who overwhelmingly supported it. ^ Most Afro-American voters believed at tlie time the ref erendum was passed that a new county health department would be built in very close proximity to the Reynolds Health Center. Now that is not to say that anyone gave Afro-American voters written guarantees. But the implication was there and no attempt was made to clarify just what the plans for the health department were. At the time, we strongly suggested that our citizens ask questions about the bond package and make those support ing the bonds give detailed information (see Chronicle edi torial, Oct. 8,1987). So, where are we now? We're in a situation where the County Board of Health is proposing a site for the Health Department which is about six miles from the current location, in an area that's not called East Winston. Some county health officials are even admitting that they knew before the referendum was passed that there was no space in East Winston for the building. Others are sug gesting that the site for the new building was never a part of the package. Last year every effort was made to solicit Afro-Ameri can support of the bond package. Many so-called communi ty leaders were engaged to solicit support for the package. And, as has been the case with previous bond referendums, they all have egg on their face. Those of us who are familiar with the "Peanuts” cartoon strip are reminded of how Lucy manages every fall season to convince Charlie Brown to go for the football one more time. And every time she yanks it before he kicks it and he lands on his rear. When will we learn to demand specific commitments from public officials when they are spending our money and asking for our support in doing so? We seem to be unable to hold our public officials accoimtable to our com munity interests. Act of justice: Free the Robeson 3 NEW YORK - The absence of justice for the majority of people who live in Robeson County has become commonplace and life- threatening. It is as if this rural county in southeastern North Car olina were actually located in racist South Africa. The county of 105,000 is predominantly Native American and Afro-American, yet the power structure is totally in the hands of the white community. The case of the Robeson 3 - Eddie Hatcher, Timothy Jacobs and John Hunt - exemplifies the extent to which the powers-that-be in Robeson County will go to prevent, in particular, the empowerment of the Native American community. The county has one of the largest concentrations of Native Ameri cans in the United States who arc not on Indian reservations. It was here, on Feb. 1, 1988, that Hatcher, age 30, and Jacobs, age 19, decided to focus national attention on the oppression of their people by occupying the offices of the local newspaper. Their demands included the release of John Hunt, an American Indian who was then a prisoner in the count jail. Hunt's life was in serious danger because he is said to have detailed informa tion about the involvement of the local sheriffs office and the district attorney in drug trafficking. One of the things that has come to light across the nation is the revelation that some law enforcement officers have long been involved in the ille- bcen held hostage under the great hands of repression such as (District Attor ney) Joe Freeman Britt and (Sheriff) Hubert Stone who. through the auspices CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By BENJAMIN CHAVIS JR. iiA gal drug trade. After negotiating with the North Carolina Governor's Office for an end to the takeover of the newspaper office, the employees were released unharmed. Yet Hatcher and Jacobs were later charged under a federal anti-terrorism law which allows Lhe government to hold Lhe two defen dants without bond. The personal safety of Hatcher and Jacobs is in serious jeopardy because they are now under the custody of some of the same law enforcement officials whom they have accused of corruption. Given the long series of mysteri ous murders of Native Americans and Afro-Americans in Robeson County, Hatcher and Jacobs felt compelled to do something that would bring atten tion to their demands for justice and freedom. They said: "We American Indians of Robeson County and ail minorities of Robeson County have of fear, intimidation and unconstitution al tactics, have suppressed the pride and hope of a once proud people.” Hatcher and Jacobs arc both members of the Robeson Indian Movement and members of the Tuscarora Indian Nation. They have declared themselves to be "freedom fighters" for the cause of Indians. Jacobs said, after the incident,"! just hope people will understand why we did what we did." Both Eddie Hatcher's mother, Thelma Clark, and Timothy Jacobs' mother, Eleanor Jacobs, have raised their voices in defense of their sons, for they know what could happen to their sons if the case of the Robeson 3 does not gain nation al exposure and support. I participated in a recent com munity meeting with Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Jacobs where we held Please see page A5 Black failure to use megamarketing tools Our public officials seem to pay only lip service to our needs. In the midst of major discussions about redevelop ment in East Winston, we see instead efforts to remove the few facilities that are there. Just last week the mayor named a task force to coordi nate the economic development of East Winston. A good start would be to construct a new health department build ing in the vicinity of the Reynolds Health Center. At this point it is easy to rationalize a new site. It's easy to say that no promises were made. But it cannot be disput ed that the perception was definitely created that the new building would be in East Winston. If Afro-American voters allow county officials to get away with this direct slap-in-the-face, then we deserve all the slaps-in-the-face that will surely come our way in the future. NEW YORK - The Harvard Business Review recently reprinted "Megamarkeling," an article by Philip Koller, a professor of mar keting at Northwestern University. Kotler's most recent book, "The New Competition," deals with the strategies of "entering, penetrating and dominating global markets." The reason Kotler is so hot with the in-corporate crowd is that he has formalized and codified a strategy for the underdog, or the excluded marketer. His two innova tive "Ps” are public relations and power. When they are added to the traditional four Ps of marketing strategy - product, price, place and promotion -- you get what Kotler calls "megamarketing." and representatives of several Afro- American advertising agencies did not reflect an understanding of megamarkeling. Let's begin with the basics of marketing: "Marketing is the task tion of economic, psychological, political and public relations skills to gain the cooperation of a number of parlies in order to enter and/or operate in a given markeL” Therefore, when a market is TONY BROWN Syndicated Columnist And, if public officials persist with this charade, then they will deserve all the racial backlash that will surely develop as a result of it. After reading an article on March 23 in The Wall Street Jour nal by Laurie P. Cohen, I was sure that the remarks attributed to the president of the National Associa tion of Black Owned Broadcasters of arranging need-satisfying and profitable offers to target buyers." Koller has amended that traditional definition with this strategic think ing: "Sometimes, however, it is necessary to create additional incentives and pressures at the right times and in the right amounts ... inducements and sanctions to gain the desired responses from gate keepers." ”I define megamarkeling as the strategically coordinated applica- closed, you kick down the door with the marketing tools of power and public relations -- the power to pay off gatekeepers and to retaliate with trade barriers. "Public rela tions. Whereas power is a push strategy, public relations is a pull strategy. Public opinion takes longer to cultivate, but when ener gized, it can help pull the company into the market.” In other words, power is no Please see page A5 BSUs have changed rni, ALONG THE CQint.,! years ago, in the wake of u Lather King's assassinaiio,: sands of outraged Afto-A,, students protested white their college campuses. fished new militant o- called Black Student uj BSUs.Iwasmorethauanoig,;' this political process. Alt* College in Indiana, I *,su,* man of our BSU in 19® ' explore the factors behind i,jl' white colleges today, we sh,^, examine the changing role Mt lion of BSUs. " As originally conceit, BSUs wanted to create,j,, social and political awareness^ African-American studenisjj desire to confront and lodnj, white administrators o maiieni educational policy, They caliajj the creation of the Black Stii Departments, Minority Siudemii grams, Cultural Centers and^ institutions. The BSUs advauceii cause of affirmative aciioij demanding the recruiimem j appointment of Afro-Americanla ly members and adminisiratonj BSUs represented a vinij between the struggles being wapi urban streets and our comracj with the politics of higher edtci which existed at white acjda institutions. The politicized characiertl BSUs always depended upc*; basic factors: the relative sita or weakness of the national; local Afro-American protest™ meni at any given time, ani specific type of Afro-Ameha dents which were being reta by particular colleges in anji As the struggle markedly dccl in the mid-to-late 1970s, it bet increasingly difficult to ini many Afro-American siudea being personally involvei protests, demonstrations oii community-oriented progril Many colleges also ceased ie» ing Afro-American and Hi» students'from low-^icbme bothoods and'ioner-ciiy areas,i deliberately focused theireffoii minority youth at privaiel schools or mid- to upper-iira school districts. The Rw administration reinforced strategic shift in student rec: ment by drastically cutting sio loan and aid programs, wl meant that low-income AfroAi ican families could no longe/ai to accumulate modest amimi! money to send their sonsi daughters to college. It shooli be surprising, therefore, ibaiD BSUs became more conservaKki the 1980s. On some campiw BSU became the functional eip lent of a sorority or fratemiiy.R became heavily involved in m activities, and disengaged ijpl cal and academic institutions j many schools, the peared entirely; itsrecordstj archives were lost forever, other institutions, there renaissance of Afro-Ament®- j temities and sororities as iral agencies of student iniei®*'' collective activity. In this enviremmentof] retrenchment and reaction,» Please see The Braddy case: What manner of justice Is thisl " ^ 11^ U ^ ^ ^ ^ i - *1-. 11 I 1 r tlTX/lT *1__ T! 1 1._T1 . . ^ "Such laws do rightly resemble the spider's cob-webs because they take hold of little flies and gnats which fall into them, but the rich and mighty will break and run through them at will." " author unknown Thomas M. Braddy Jr., of 4210 Momingside Drive, has been in jail for several months now, charged with breaking and entering and larceny. However, several members of the Wake Forest University football team and some WFU coaches who allegedly bought the stolen goods from Braddy remain free. It has been reported that stolen items were recovered from the players and at least one coach. Yet, they have not been prosecuted. What manner of justice is this? Braddy has written the Chronicle , admitting to his crimes and alleging the complicity of the city's Police Department and the county's Sheriffs Depanment. He says that after he was caught buying and selling stolen goods, the police offered him a deal in return for his cooperation in an undercover operation. According to Braddy, once the operation was exposed by WXII, the police dropped the ball and hung him out to dry. Does this sound plausible? Of course it does. The Chronicle has been trying for several weeks now to talk with Braddy, but Sheriff Preston Oldham will not allow it. Several officers of the jail have called the Chronicle's manag ing editor on several different occasions to say she was cleared to talk with Braddy. Permission had been granted by Braddy’s attorney and by Braddy himself. Apparently those jail officers did not realize that the Sher iff had something to say about the Braddy case. Does Oldham have a vested interest in this matter? Why won’t he let us talk to Braddy? What does Oldham have to hide? Is it possible that Braddy is telling the truth - that they used him and then let him take the fall? And why won't District Attorney Warren Sparrow prose cute those involved from Wake Forest University? The last time we checked, receiving stolen goods was a crime. Perhaps the players and coaches did not know that the purchasing stolen goods? “ If you are buying a VCR (for,..let's say $50) andilis*? the manufacturer's box and you are not at Circuit Cilk“ chances are pretty good that you are buying stolen ptopti? ^ This is obviously a case of the privileged being over the underprivileged. ,gi What calibre of men are we dealing with — in the SttSiL Department, the Police Department and at WFU? this incident say about the character of the football who allegedly bought the goods from Braddy and langW'H mg his trial as if he were less than human and his U'* y, less than theirs? 2: What is at issue here is not whether Braddy is 8"* innocent. He has admitted his guilt. This issue is abo"'' - application of the law. It seems that for a privileged few the law looks il**' way We do not debate the fact that Braddy should sch'f or his crimes. But, his accomplices in those crimes , - - —ill uiu3^ VI*——- items they were purchasing (quite likely from the trunk of wni because they wear the Braddy’s car) were stolen. How does anyone not know they and because law enforcement officials are afraid irf ecute anyone so "protected.
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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April 14, 1988, edition 1
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