Area Weddings McCullers-Hedrick Diana Patricia McCullers and Mark Andre Hedrick were married Saturday, September 12, 1992, in a 4:00 p.m. ceremony at First Waughtown Baptist Church in Win ston-Salem. The Rev. Dennis Bishop offici ated. The bride was given in mar riage by Kevin L. Thompson, her cousin. Serving as maid of honor was Sharron McCullers, sister of the bride, of Winston-Salem. Matron of honor was Mrs. Anthony Greely. Bridesmaids wete Lashawn Pearson, Shay Hedrick, and DeAn dria Hairston, all of Winston-Salem. Best man was Tyrone Anthony, of Winston-Salem. Ushers were Anthony Greely, Dewayne Howie, Lamont Thomp son, all of Winston-Salem. The bride is a graduate of John Mrs. Diana Patricia Hadrlck son C. Smith University and works for Wachovia The groom is a graduate of North Forsyth High School and is a commercial truck driver. The couple will live in Win ston-Salem. - Writing workshops Registration is now opeh for Teens will learn the elements of the following classes for adults feature writing: finding story and children, offered by the Writ- ideas, developing writing style ers' Workshop. All classes meet at and editing skills, and interview the Sawtooth Building. Financial ing. Instructor Miles Tbger is a assistance is available to low- free-lance writer for numerous income students, made possible publications including The by the Winston-Salem Aits Coun- Raleigh News and Observer, ch. To register please call 1-800- Free 627-0142; or write to: Work shops, PO Box 696, Asheville, Writing Proposals for Maga- j NC 28802. zine Articles, Sept 19, Saturday, 10-4. This workshop will focus . Children's Creative Journal on the process of marketing the Writing, Sept. 19 Saturday, 10-4. proposal. Participants should The personal value of writing a bring an article idea or a draft of a journal will be explored, as stu- proposal. Writing, revising, and a dents are guided in making their reviewing session will also take own journal entries. Beth Brittain, place. Rick Mashburn, instructor, instructor, holds a teaching cer- has had many years' editorial tificate and a B A degree in experience, and has had his wotics English from ASU. Free publishedin the New York Times, Washington Post , and Travel and Investigative Journalism for Leisure. $45 members; $60 non Teens, Sept 19, Saturday, 10-4. members. Black workers still face color barriers By SHARON COHEN Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) ? When steel worker Sheldon Gray began looking for a j<3b after his mill closed this spring, he worried that the sluggish economy and low wages wouldn't be his only obsta cles. He saw another hurcHe _ big otry. A 20-year mill veteran, Gray believes blacks have a tougher time finding jobs, regardless of their record, experience or skills. "If there's one job open and you have two people," he says, "they'd still rather take the white person because maybe he doesn't scare them as bad." In blue-collar America, where manufacturing has declined and unemployment has risen, black workers have, by most measures, fared the worst. They have trouble getting hired, trouble overcoming stereotypes and trouble maintaining their fragile foothold in the middle class. "Corporate America doesn't believe in the black male," said Dan Lacey, editor of Workplace Trends, an Ohio-based newsletter. "The black male is left out of the middle class, then we point the finger at him, and say, 'Why doesn't he do something with himself?' It's the old blaming the victim.'" "Most of us are hard workers," declares Gray, who helped mold 30 ton beams in the scorching pits at the now-defunct USX Corp.'s South Works. "We have families to feed. We have homes to take care of." After a four-month search, Gray, 45, landed a post office job in late August. Hell probably earn less than half his $5Q,000-a-year mill wages, but hopes to move up. "Sometimes," he says, "you have to gamble on something that's worthwhile." As for salary, Gray didn't expect to match his steelworker's pay. "Those days when you can make that type of money are pretty much over," he notes. That's true for all blue-collar workers, but blacks suffer more than whites, according to govern ment statistics. Consider ? Black unemployment in the second quarter of 1992 was 14.5 percent, compared with 6.5 percent for whites. ? The median earnings of black men were 72.5 percent of that of white men at the end of 1991 . Black women's median earnings were 86.3 percent that of white women. ? Nationwide, the 1989 median household income was $31,435 for whites and $19,758 for blacks. A middle-class family, according to Lacey, needs an annual income of about $32,000. Blacks' biggest problems appear to be in the industrial heart land. Six of the eight states in which the disparity in household incomes between blacks and whites grew fastest in the 1980s were in the Midwest, according to a 1990 Ceifc sus Bureau report. And Michigan's black male unemployment rate of 22.1 percent ranked first in the nation in 1990. It was the promise of work in the auto plants of Detroit, steel mills of Chicago and factories throughout the Midwest that first lured blacks from the South after World War II. "It helped black men get rea sonably well-paying jobs, better - than ones available in the rural South," said William Frey, demog rapher at the University of Michi gan's Population Studies Center. "It helped them raise families and pre serve stable city communities." "This was a stepping-stone into the urban lifestyle and, though it was a segregated one," he said, "it got them closer to a middle-class income." Two decades ago, Sheldon Gray came from Kansas to follow his two brothers in the mills after serving in Vietnam and attending college for a year. It was an era of opportunity, when high school dropouts could earn enough money in a factory to buy a house, take a vacation, send a child to college. "You can't do that anymore," said William Haskins, programs director for the National Urban League in New York. "We have a whole category of people who are unemployable. We have people in their 30s who've never had a job." Compounding this problem is the shrinking military, a traditional route for black upward mobility. Those who moved into the middle class, either in uniform or on an assembly line, now risk slid ing down ? with little chance of climbing back up. "For many blacks in the last 40 years, H was the first time their fam ily participated in the American dream," Lacey said. "Now they face being left out . . . They've been in the wrong place at the wrong time iiLiiistorv and that's happening again." Gregory Smith knows all too well. An 18-year veteran of the South Works, he scours the want ads with scant hope of finding any thing to replace his $21.60 an hour in wages ami benefits. It has been discouraging: $7.50-an-hour jobs, few interviews and one steel firm that talked of starting him at the bottom of the pay ladder despite more than a decade as a millwright. Smith and his former co-work ers are doing better than others: They receive benefits and could be called to fill vacancies at USX's Gary, Ind., plant But Smith also notes that his benefits last only a year. His wife's railroad management job, he said, is "the only thing that's saving us." He is frustrated and fearful that stereotypes are standing in his way. "They always say a black man runs off and leaves his wife," he said. "I've raised two sons. I've been here since the day they were bom. There are good black men out there. They shouldn't throw a blanket over all black men." Edward Brown, a former co worker, also feels stigmatized. The attitude, he said, is "You're all on drugs, you're not going to come to work, you're not depend able." He contends former white col leagues have found $14-an-hour jobs and, though he'd take a pay cut, "I can't see myself working for $7, $8 an hour." "It wouldn't be worth it after I pay a baby sitter," said the father of two. "If my wife wasn't working, I wouldn't be able to live." "Most places that are hiring blacks are doing it because the gov ernment is making them do it;" Brown said. "It's not because they want to do it." Not everyone agrees that big otry is the obstacle. "A lot of black men say, *1 can't get a job because I'm black,' " said Marion Smith, a former South Works electrician. "I'm not saying it's not out there . . . (But) I think it's an excuse that's overblown . . . It's not a black or white thing. It's the economy, period." Still, researchers say workplace racism does exist. A 1992 study of public and pri vate sector employers in Los Ange les and Detroit found that about 20 percent stereotyped black men as lazy and violent, said Chris Tilly, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Those findings echoed a 1991 Cook County study that found "employers view inner-city work ers, especially black men, as unsta ble, uncooperative, dishonest and uneducated." Black women were considered more reliable, but employers expressed concern that they brought family problems to the workplace. When asked if there are racial differences in work ethics, more than a third of the employers rated blacks last. "It's up to black men to prove that they're different and those neg ative stereotypes don't apply to them," said Joleen Kirschenman, co-author and research director for the Center for the Study of Urban Inequality at the University of Chicago. In other instances, simple geog raphy makes jobs off-limits to blacks. Increasingly, businesses are moving to suburban or rural areas ? and, though corporations argue these are economic^ decisions, "it seems odd . . . you find consistent locating in areas that are just beyond the access of black employ ees," said Donald Deskins, a Uni versity of Michigan sociology pro fessor. "I still think race is a vari able in these considerations." Still, the future isn't all nega tive. More blacks are attending col lege, becoming self-employed and finding state and local government jobs. And Kirschenman s study also found that employers do hire blacks a good work history helps ? though they may be scrutinized more closely. But workers say they still face great odds. "Ten to one, the white person is hired before the black person," said Mac Daniel Adams, a South Works employee. "People tend to gravitate toward their own." Sheldon Gray isn't deterred. "When I was growing up, I had to be three times as good as my counterpart, who was white," he said. "At U.S. Steel, I had to prove myself to be five times better. Even though they say we're equal, we're not. It hurts, you can't let it stop you, I don't like the color barrier, but I'm not going to give up trying to make a living." ..... r Give Another Chance. Give Blood. ?T 4* American Red Cross m After flours. I I K" \\ J l\C I' ulYSt ^ 1 1 > \ I*. \VM 1 11^ I I ? .ill) i >1 ! v i > c kisses alter husiik'ss h< nirs l< ?r iikhi.i^ i s ,nul professionals. Vlvanee y< >n? 1 1 u Iiiiu is > 1 14 1) I 1 < > 1 Ilk' \\ . 1 ke I' < ? I'eSl .M I > \ I A\ 1 1 1 1 1 ; ' I'll', t villi !?: Y 1: N I \ C, I'KOC.KAM WAKE FOREST Evening Program Wake Forest MBA 919-761-0707 MBA 7368 Reynotda Station Winston-Salem North Carolina 27109 2 1 12 to 5 yr. program / Once a wk. classes t For professionals with 3+ yrs. experience The time it takes to connect these dots could keg> you tram hitting yourchikL ,rP nJvvi i Next time you feel like hitting your child, try another approach . Do something like playing this game together. Or any game that gives you both the time you need to cool off. Try it out. You'll both be glad you did. For a free booklet, Write "Parenting," RO. Box2866P Chicago, Illinois 60690. Take time out. Don't take it out on your child A S#