FORUM
[ Oil fuels Bush's sudden interest in Africa [
George E.
Curry
Guest
Columnist
ABUJA, Nigeria - When he
| was running for president three
years ago, Geoige W. Bush said
! Africa was not on his list of prior
; ities. Now, fresh from an imitation
of the Bill Clinton-in-Africa tour,
! complete with a safari, the Bush
| man now wants Africans and
| African-Americans to believe he
' is their best friend.
! * Why the dramatic turn
| around?
The answer can be found in a
i three-letter word: oil. No. that's
! not all of it, but it's a major reason
for the trip that even his suppott
? ers never expected him to take.
~ In the presidential debate on
J Oct. 11, 2000, at Wake Forest
$ University in Winston-Salem,
j N.C., Bush expressed his feelings
4 about Africa. He said: "Africa's
,, important. And we've got to do a
? lot of work in Africa to promote
democracy and trade. It's an
^ important continent. But there's
got to be priorities. And the Mid
dle East is a priority for a lot of
reasons, as is Europe and the Far
East, and our own hemisphere.
Those are my top priorities should
>. ?????????????
I be the president."
Now that he is indeed presi
dent, Africa isn't such a low prior
ity for Bush anymore. There he
was last week on Goree Island, of
all places, declaring that slavery
was "one of the greatest crimes of
history."
The "compassionate conser
vative"-tumed-revolutionary said,
"Some rose up in violent revolu
tion, delivering the closest thing to
justice on a slave ship."
Bush talked about American
"hypocrisy" and "injustice" and
stated, "The very people traded
into slavery helped set America
free."
It's interesting that Bush
would make his strongest com
ments on slavery thousands of
miles from the United States -
where they would not have the
same impact or rile his conserva
tive base - rather than at home. If
he was serious about addressing
the issue of slavery, why didn't he
do it at a prominent site in the
United States? Can you imagine
the impact of Bush making those
remarks at Jamestown, Va.. where
many slaves arrived in 1619?
But he was reading a script
and this wasn't intended to be the
main event. It was a set-up for his
last and most important stop -
Nigeria.
Having left emotional senti
ments behind in Senegal, his
flight to Abuja, Nigeria, was a
business trip. It was the business
of oil. Nigeria supplies the United
States with 620 barrels of oil per
day. or 15 percent to 18 percent of
its total, according to the Energy
Information Administration. It is
the fifth largest supplier of oil to
the United States, ahead of Iraq,
which is ranked seventh. (Canada.
Saudi Arabia. Venezuela and
Mexico top the list.) The United
States wants to decrease its
dependence on oil from the Mid
dle East and hopes that Nigeria
can fill that void.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitu
tion recently ran a front-page
story under the headline "U.S. has
eye on African oil," in which ana
lysts state that the United States
has a new interest in Nigeria
because of the volatility of the
Middle East.
The article notes that Nigeria
already produces 2 million barrels
of crude oil a day. or about a third
of Africa's total output.
"...West Africa is a growing
factor in U.S. crude oil supplies,"*
the article says. "Over the past
five years, ChevronTexaco Corp.
has invested $5 billion in the
region. It plans to invest $20 bil
lion more over the next five years.
ExxonMobil Corp. (recently)
announced a $1.7 billion project
to increase oil production in the
waters oft Nigeria.
"Those companies, and a half
dozen other multinational oil con
glomerates. are attracted by the
region's vast stores of low-sulfur
oil and its location, which otters
the ability to load crude oil direct
ly onto tanker, for shipment to the
United States or Europe without
the need for costly pipelines."
It doesn't get any clearer than
that. And the Texas oilman in the
White House knowN that as well
as anyone.
Another factor in Bush's inter
est in Africa is a selfish and per
fectly rational one: to create an
increased presence on the conti
nent so that it does not become a
hotbed for terrorist training
camps.
In his speech to the delegates
of the Leon H. Sullivan Summit
here. Bush said: "Several African
governments face particular dan
gers from terrorists, and the Unit
ed States is working closely with
those nations to fight terror, and
we will do more. I proposed a
new SIOO million initiative to
help those governments in East"
Africa protect their people and to
fight terrorist networks." he said.
"The United States is also sup
porting the efforts of good friends
all across this continent, friends
such as Mauritania. We will not
allow terrorists to threaten African
peoples or to use Africa as a base
to threaten the world."
So much for Africa being a
low priority.
George E. Curry is editor-in
chief of the NNFH News Sen ice
and BUti kPressUSA.com.
The Latino color complex
Armstrong
Williams
Guest
Columnist
Latinos are segregating them
i selves in work and home, willing
P ly cutting off opportunities, and
generating feelings of inferiority
i as to their status in the communi
(? ty.
So indicates a recently
i released report by the Lewis
r Mumford Center for Comparative
? Urban and Regional Research at
r the State University of New York
r in Albany.
J< The study examines how Lati
' nos are enacting forms of racism
i on themselves. According to the
!? report, Latinos who consider
[* themselves white tend to make
more money and live in predomi
' nantly Caucasian neighborhoods,
while Latinos who consider them
selves black have lower incomes
1 and higher rales of unemployment
! and poverty.
At least one major implication
is that Latinos in this country are
i adapting American ideas about
; race and color. Along the way,
? they are ripping apart their own
culture, reinforcing racial stereo
| types and imbuing dark-skinned
children with self-hatred and
envy.
This is a desperate situation
; for a culture that has shown an
' amazing resilience to overcome
obstacles and push into the Amer
ican mainstream. According to a
j recent study released by the Span
" ish television network Telemun
do, Hispanic household income
and personal consumption spend
ing are growing at a rate that far
i exceeds the rest of the nation. The
i study reports that employment of
r Hispanics has increased by 3 per
cent since 2001, despite a slump
ing economy. Hispanic represen
I tation in Congress also has
increased from 11 members to 21
L since 1991, a 73 percent increase.
There are currently 197 Hispanics
ill state legislatures, a 46 percent
increase since 1991.
Indeed, there is a good argu
ment to be made that Latinos have
made more gains over the past
two decades than any other ethnic
or racial group in America - and
perhaps in the world. So. why are
so many Latinos hung up on
whether their skin color is fair
enough to pass for white?
The answer has to do with a
culture in flux, torn between their
heritage where dark-hued people
traditionally occupy the dominant
sphere of influence, and an Amer
ican culture that constantly bom
bards us with the notion that
lighter skin equals success.
Felipe Luciano, a reporter for
the New York affiliate of Fox 5. is
a black-skinned Latino. He said:
"I appear on black forums all the
time, but I've never been invited
on a Latino forum - on radio, but
not on TV. I've even had ad exec
utives say that I was too dark and
that wouldn't sell." Luciano fihds
this particularly galling since the
majority of Latinos - Ricans.
Dominicans and Cubans - are tra
ditionally black-skinned.
Despite the fact that Spanish
speaking channels have pushed
into mainstream television, there
are few opportunities for darker
skinned Latinos. There are no
breakthrough Latino pop stars,
movie stars or TV stars that are
black. All the soaps on Spanish
TV have protagonists with
straight hair, light skin and Euro
pean features - the exception
being the roles of maids or crooks,
who tend to be particularly dark
and menacing.
To some degree this fair
skinned fetish is a hangover from
slavery, when light-skinned
blacks and. in particular, mulatto
children were granted morp privi
leges than the other sla\W. Over
time, a hierarchy of sorts devel
oped around the idea that fair skin
was more socially palatable.
"1 just think that there is an
unspoken cultural attitude among
whites and blacks alike that if you
have a fair-skinned black in there,
they are probably more like white
people than are darker-skinned
blacks....! think white people feel
more comfortable around fairer
skinned black people." said Debo
rah Mathis, a syndicated colum
nist with Tribune Media.
A generation of young Latino
viewers bombarded with the
notion that lighter skin equals suc
cess has been conditioned to hate
their dark skin, their hair, their lips
and y earn to fit into the dominant
aesthetic - a sentiment that gained
expression in Maya Angelou's "I
Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings": "Wouldn't they he sur
prised when one day I woke out of
my black ugly dream, and my real
hair, which was long and blond, x
would take the place of the kinky
mass Momma wouldn't let me
straighten? My light-blue eyes
would hypnotize them...."
It is this desperate yearning to
assimilate, to be like the light
skinned Americans who occupy
the dominant sphere of influence,
that is causing many Latinos to
willingly practice racism against
one another, and to tear apart their
own culture.
tri
www.annstrongwilliams.com
File Pholo
This Florida family is among the millions of black Hispanics in this country.
* Nigel Alston is on vacation. His
Motivational Moments column
will return next month.
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