Forum
Color prejudice a hazard
? It gave us Thomas, can give women cancer
Two horrible examples of
the disappointments dark
skinned people in America face
have taken place recently.
The first example applies to
black women. They were told
last week on television and in
newspapers that skin lighteners
and color whiteners are danger
ous chemicals and can cause
permanent skin damage and
dominated America's cultural
landscape. Beauty products have
been aimed principally at white
women with money ? women
who could afford the various
cosmetics and clothes designed
to maximize female attractive
ness. Photographs of white
skinned, "glamorous beauties"
dominated the advertising
media. However, the name of
MINORITY REPORT
? ?
By JAMES E. ALSBROOK, Ph.D.
; sometimes cancers.
The second applies to those
' black men who sang praises for
- Clarence Thomas. Now they
learn that on the U.S. Supreme
Court he betrayed them by first
voting to approve the Louisiana
police beating of a subdued,
handcuffed and shackled man
" already in custody. Most of the
white justices said this was
- wrong, but Thomas approved
it.
Now back to the first exam
ple. Insofar as cosmetics are
concerned, the idea that light
; skinned women look better than
dark-skinned women has been
.drummed into the American
psyche for hundreds of years.
. Black women were victimized
by the cruel, old lie that "if
you're white, you're all right; if
you're yellow, you're mellow; if
you're brown, stick arbtmd; but
-if you're black, stand back."
This idea was reinforced for
years by blaclft who accepted
the traditional white Anglo
. Saxon Protestant values that
the game was money ? big
money.
If black women had been as
financially strong as white
women, the merchants certainly
would have found ways to get
some of that black money by
glamorizing "black beauties" in
order to sell expensive clothing,
jewelry and other female
enhancing gimmicks and trin
kets.
Today the new assortments
of beauty products for the sultry,
slinky, sexy, black Venus are
growing along with her ability to
plank down cash for glamoriz
ing products of whatever sort
The hard truth is that no
matter what the woman's skin
color is, the more money and
education she has, the more
classy and attractive she
becomes and her company is
sought by various educated men
of various races.
Regarding the Thomas
'example and those who
approved Thomas "because he
looks like me," I have heard dis
appointment and anger
expressed. But the anger is
aimed at President Bush for
nominating him instead of at
those blacks who approved
Thomas on the basis of his skin
color alone.
Now they realize the stupid
ity of thinking the same way the
prejudiced whites think about
Macks ? basing their evalua
tions and hopes on color of the
person's skin. Thomas' bad
record on civil rights was very
well known.
^Thurgood Marshall is light
skinned but he "thinks" as black
as the blackest. Clarence
Thomas has black skin but his
actions show he thinks more like
the "white power"- advocates
such as David Duke and the Ku
Kluxers."
The irony of the whole thing
is that blacks could have kept
Thomas off the court by
demanding that their Democrat
senators oppose him. This was
especially so in the South where
the Democrat senators were
uncertain about Thomas who
was approved by a narrow 52 to
48 vote.
Now, blacks have a "rotten
apple" in the so-called "black"
seat on the Supreme Court and
are stuck with it for the next 35
or 40 years.
Reagan gave us one Uncle
Tom, Clarence Pendleton. Now
Bush and some blacks give us
another Uncle Tom, Clarence
Thomas.
Black, like white, is not
always beautiful. .
In- the case ofjblack women*
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL- - ?
But in the case of Clarence
Thomas, BLACK IS UGLY.
Cruel, unusual : The Thomas standard
Given the astounding high
' rate of incarceration of African
' Americans in prisons across the
nation, one would at least
assume that Supreme Court Jus
? tice Clarence Thomas would
have an ounce of sensitivity to
the issue of cruel and unusual
work through the federal courts
once Hudson sued McMillian
and other prison officials for
"cruel and unusual punishment"
in violation of the Eighth
Amendment to the U.S. Consti
tution.
The majority opinion was
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS JR
. punishment toward prisoners in
state and federal penal institu
tions. But, unfortunately, Justice
.Thomas has acted and ruled
against the interest of those who
are most often victimized in this
society, that is those who are
imprisoned.
In fact, it was another
'""embarrassment" for all commu
nities who respect human digni
ty for Thomas to write such a
ruthless opinion, which could be
used to justify prison brutality.
- Fortunately though, the majority
? , of the Supreme Court rifled 7 to
.2 that excessive force^against
' prisoners is unconstitutional.
The case before the Court
was Hudson vs. McMillian
' which arose out of an incident in
Louisiana's infamous Angola
State Prison. Keith Hudson was
an inmate in Angola Prison and
was beaten badly by correctional
officer Jack McMillian. Hudson
was beaten while handcuffed
and shackled in leg irons and.
. suffered bruises in his mouth,
eyes, chest and stomach in addi
*. tion to having his dental plate
cracked as a result of a blow
'?from McMillian. This incident
happened back in 1983. It has
taken all this time for the case to
written by Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor. Even though Justice
O'Connor is a judicial conserva
tive, she voted to declare the
kind of treatment that Hudson
received in the Louisiana prison
to be wrong and unconstitution
al. O'Connor stated, "When
prison officials maliciously and
sadistically use force to cause
harm, contemporary standards
of decency always are violated.
This is true whether or not sig
nificant injury is evident."
We know that one of the
reasons why so many prisoners
become repeat offenders is
directly related to the manner in
which they are treated in the
prison system.
Brutalizing a defenseless
prisoner will do nothing toward
rehabilitation. Of course most
prison officials know this and
that is exactly why prison brutal
ity is so pervasive and permis
sive in our society. Prison
inmates sometimes are viewed
as being less than human and
thus arc the victims of inhuman
treatment
It is said that a prison is a
mirror image of the society that
maintains the prison. It is impor
tant, therefore, that the courts
require a standard of human
rights in regard to prisoner's
rights issues. A society that
allows the brutalization of its
prisoners is a society in need of
change.
Thomas appears to believe
that a prison inmate is not enti
tled to the standard of constitu
tional protection from brutality.
In his dissenting opinion,
Thomas wrote, "Today's expan
sion of the cruel and unusual
punishment clause beyond all
bounds of history and precedent
is, I suspect, yet, another mani
festation of the pervasive view
that the Federal Constitution
must address all ills in our soci
ety."
This goes counter to the sen
timents that Thomas testified to
under oath during his confirma
tion hearing before the U.S. Sen
ate. There Thomas had said that
he wanted to be on the Supreme
Court to "bring something dif
ferent to the Court" in terms of
an interest in helping the court
to deal with the underprivileged,
in particular the incarcerated.
Thomas had even said to the
Senate, "I say to myself almost
everyday, but for the grace of
God, there go I . . . referring to
groups of prisoners that he used
to see. Well, it is our hope that
brother Thomas does not have
the misfortune to be imprisoned
given his proclivity to support
the right of prison officials to
beat up inmates.
Justice O'Connor put it best
in her response to Thomas' dis
sent. She stated, "To deny, as the
dissent goes, the difference
between punching a prisoner in
the face and serving him unap
petizing food is to ignore the
concepts of dignity, civilized
standards, humanity and decen
cy."
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AU MEN, WOMEN ANP CHILDREN,
RE6ARPLE&S OF RACE, FAITH OR
WRTY AFFILIATION. I'M THINK
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ON HIM TONIGHT!
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