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." hby, aose. kpfern, ITSRJCK MJHAT THB I GOT A HUL &VBS M6S5AG& UJITH THIS ouCALiep. PiectYOu - HUP LAST T / NIGHT? HBY, MAN, UJHY SO POUJN7 I JUST GOT f&mvour F0RP0/N6A PVFFPIBC3 ON CLINTON. R3AUY? YOU'VE FALUN 316 VM? / 1UTBU ? YOU ?KACTLY UJHB-RB IT HAP PZNBP-ATTHE ,N?w_ HAMPSHIRE ZKSiOPte' H&,MeN! TAKZ IN SUCK MUX'S SPBeCH THIS M0RN/N6* NO,HOU/ / UJAS HZ' " CAN Cl/NTQN CQHVNUC TOHOU? TOGETHER. THIS ASTONISH N6 COAUTUjs, Of BLACKS, UtOPKJNG POOR AM PlSAFF?CTBP WOOLS ClASSr... CD IV THE CltNTQN STORy* WHAT'S WRONG WTTH n'JC~ 0UHAVSURON6 MTHiT'*T}<E CAfiVWOH NOV PURRS LIKE A porsche 9/1 TURBO ? IT WAS RJGHT AF TEX ThEPRAFT U>\ TbK INUUtNl LI IN /UN IN TUB FIGHT OF HIS UFE. WHEN HE TOOK THE STAGE THAT NIGHT, WHAT THE STAKES HERB... THE USUAL. AIM THINGS TO AU MEN, WOMEN ANP CHILDREN, RE6ARPLE&S OF RACE, FAITH OR WRTY AFFILIATION. I'M THINK ING OF CO/N6 A TOUGH TAKE ON HIM TONIGHT! "WHY NOT? THE GOVERNOR'S mjTTAL StOllS ARE NON MWL, HIS MESSAt&iS POTENT ANP TRAVE0l<jeU-, ANP HIS PERSONAL APPEAL Bi itself wotxv seem T06UARANTBE VCZW IN THE FALL..." 0 YSAH, COFFEt. AS IN, A BREAK FROM I VORK * IT'S CLINTON, ISN'T IT 7 T10N THAT MAKES HIS ELECTION NEXT FALL A PEAP CINCH K/SSEP BY THE GOP5, THE CANPiPATZ SEEMZHEAPtP F0RGREATHE66. GET REAP/, MT. ^ f RUSHAiORE'" jjfl ^ pa: # .,v5i*vrr:/i? meam hv HAVE TO TRASH A CAN Pi PATE 7 UJH/XUFl OBJECTIVELY, EMPIR ICALLY CONCIUPE THAT THIS GOV ISPIFFERENT, JHAT HE'S SPEClAl 7 HE WAS MAGNIFICEN1 SPEAKJNG M1HUU1 NUJbt?, ANL'OJ/TH AIM05I ] NO tOCE, HE GAVE THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY POL UlCAl SPEECH IT WAS OVER , I SfGNEP UPAS A VOWWFER I MEAN, I PON T CARE HOW GOOPHIS ORGANIZATION IS, OR HOWUJEU HE SPEAKS, OR HOW MUCH HE INSPIRES PEOPLE, OR... OR... 1 HE'S BRINGING THE RACES 70 GEV?R. HE*> NOT ABOUT IUILUB MORTON OR "WELFARE QUEERS " OR * QUOTAS "! HE S BR'DGiNG THE PiVfSfONS, HEALING TH?tOOUNP5.\ MAWin RJCK, \ i vaj'tti rbe mtxp WROTE RtPORTIR I'VE THAT 7 UOSTTOCUNION Th!$ MONTH' )CU MEAN, IN fPlTFOFHiS FLAUUS? FLAWS? I QUIT THE ?, NBOMORNIN6, of course, but ?4 IT urn SCAR)/! in i OH, HELL, .. I tSrzJL&T WALr uj^peR COTOIOORK /Five fVRHtM HAV* 5H0ULP \ UNION - \ !ZE ?e "STILL, CHARACTER QUESTION* PeRStST..." O ATTA BO! 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