Forum U.S. hypocrisy toward Haitians Lord, have mercy on the hypo critical and racially discriminatory policies of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services and the entire Bush Administration. No one in good conscience should tolerate yet another blatant example of the and foreign policies toward the peo ple of Haiti, especially the thou tics. Countless numbers of Haitians, some say over a thousand, have drowned at sea while attempting to flee the misery of the military dicta torship which overthrew the duly elected Haitian government of Pres ident Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In one? 30-day period between October 29 and November 29, 1991, the Coast CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS JR. * " '? ' "? sands of Haitians who have attempted to come by boat to the shores of Florida seeking refuge from the violent political state inside of Haiti. This is supposed to be the sea son of "peace on earth and goodwill toward all," yet President Bush and others in the Administration have shown contempt and utter disregard for the human rights of Haitian refugees. Even after a federal judge in Miami ruled that it was illegal for the U.S. Coast Guard to forcibly return these refugees back to Haiti, the U.S. Justice Department togeth er with the U.S;^imiiigration offi^ cials sought to have the judge's rule reversed. Once again rather than "goodwill" or an equitable and humane policy toward a crisis situa tion in our geographical region, the White House is playing racial poli Guard reportedly picked up nearly 6,000 Haitians. But do date, only less than 200 Haitians have been allowed to even "apply" for political asylum in the United States. The Bush Adminis tration takes the position that these refugees "are not victims of politi cal persecution but of economic persecution." This is the bogus line of offi cial U.S. policy toward Haitian refugees in the face of the whole world knowing that political oppression does exist in the extreme at the moment in Haiti. . Many Haitians that are now Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are women and children. The sight of seeing Haitian children lined up behind razor-sharp barbed wire barricades at the naval base resembles a con centration camp rather than a relief center. The Inter-American Commis sion on Human Rights of the Orga nization of American States has confirmed reports of political deten tion, torture, and killings in Haiti. . One report cited the discovery, on November 12* 1991, of largo human burial pits in Haiti, some with over 60 bodies, including those of mur dered children. In reality, the crisis of Haitian refugees is not a new problem. Dur ing the last 10 years, the U.S. has stood relatively silent and reluctant to lend a helping hand to Haitian refugees. Why? It is racism in its most contemptible form. It is a policy based on race and disrespect for the value of a Haitian life. But it is also a case of too much tolerance of this hypocrisy by the African-American community across the nation. Ray Fauntroy of the Miami SCLC, Jesse Jackson, and others are right to mobilize the African-American community and all communities of conscience on this issue. Our Haitian sisters and brothers deserve and need our help. But * most of all, we need an effective Hemispheric justice movement that has the capacity to mobilize mil lions of people to change the unjust power relationships between the peoples of this region. Rescuing the Haituuis from the decades of exploitation is an histori cal necessity and a step toward the rescue of all of humanity from the sins of greed and injustice through out the world. Washington ignores recession It's remarkable how the ram pant recession seems to be gather ing steam for another downward dive while the policymakers in seven American children is on wel fare? The mounting numbers of new claims for unemployment benefits TO BE EQUAL I By JOHN E. JACOB Washington treat it as a public rela tions problem. The Administration acts as if the bad news about the economy will just go away if it's ignored. And Congress is pai^alyzed by the budget agreement that restricts its ability to authorize new spending without cutting existing programs or raising revenue. Meanwhile, the suffering gets worse. About a tenth of the popula tion has to resort to food stamps ? a record. And welfare rolls are mounting. How can Washington be indif ferent when an incredible one out of Dealing with What attitude toward white people should be held by a black person reared in an interracial fami ly in a Northern state with mild racial discrimination? That person has trouble inter acting pleasantly with those whites who he thinks look at blacks conde scendingly and trouble with blacks who act stereotypically. I am that person and, like some others, I was reared in a world of contradictions. One interracial factor of my rearing was Uncle Billy, the Scottish-Irish owner of a small plumbing shop in Kansas City. His wife, my grandmother's half sister, died when I was about five-years-old and he came to live with us until I was about 18. He was one of the nicest men I ever knew, giving us three brothers ice cream, baseball equipment, atten tion, and self-confidence. We loved him. But also, there was "Aunt Del phia," a very old ex-slave and friend of my grandmother. She had been head servant in a household of wealthy people who lived in Vir ginia but moved to suburban Kansas City. She came to visit our family in a chauffeur-driven Cadil lac or Pierce-Arrow and the driver is another indicator that the reces sion is dumping many working families into hardship. Today's poor include people who held decent jobs just a few months ago. They include white collar workers who are among the victims of corporate layoffs and payroll cuts, along with millions of others who never had a fair shot at a good job. That's a big reason why health care has surf^ped as a critical issue. America has a two-tier health sys^ tem. People who work for large companies of the government have insurance that covers their needs; those South treated her as if she were a member of the McGee Family. One day when she visited us, she told my older brother and me how cruel slavery was. Although freedom came when she was a teenager, she recounted beatings and deprivations suffered by slaves in her household. Soon she asked my mother to the rest of us don't. Some 37 million Americans have no health insurance, and those numbers are growing as the victims or corporate layoffs lose their health benefits and can't afford to pay for them privately. So the cries of the new poor and the newly unemployed are driv ing political concerns about the affordability of health care. But the depth of this recession is still largely hidden. The unem ployment rate is artificially low since it excludes people who have become discouraged and stopped searching for jobs and those who work part-time when they want and need full-time work. The hidden employment rate ? the official rate plus the above categories ? is over twenty percent for African-Americans, who, as always, are the prime victims of recession. Washington needs to focus on job creation to help move the coun try out of the downward economic spiral. And it needs to look ahead to Please see page A6 ern accents tears, Til kill them ... I'll kill them...." Uncle Billy was not there and did not know about the incident. But I believe Aunt Delphia, who knew and liked Uncle Billy, was trying to give us the message that white people could be either good or bad. Uncle Billy was good, but those who whipped black people MINORITY REPORT By JAMES E. ALSBROOK, Ph.D. unbutton the back of her dress. Then she showed us her bare back with big welts, scars and whip marks from her neck down to her waist. With my mother trying to hold back tears. Aunt Delphia said she was beaten on orders of "the white man" who demanded that she have sex with him but she refused. Then she began so sob and my older brother, about 12 or 14, ran through the kitchen, grabbed a butcher knife, ran outside and plunged the knife into the ground repeatedly, screaming through his were bad, and she was a living example of a beaten slave woman. Later, when I was about 11,1 began to sell the Kansas City Call and the Afro-American, black news papers. I read about lynchings in the South and became sensitive to Southern accents, particularly those of white people. 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