OPINION
The Chronicle
itmsr H. Put
tiAim Pitt
T. Kirn Waikii
Kat Stuiti
Publisher/Co- Founder
Business Manager
Managing Editor
Production Supervisor
Johnnie Cochran at a book signing in the late '90s,
Who will
replace
Cochran?
Ralph C.
Watkins
Guest
Columnist
Who will replace the giant
of a man who is best known to
the world for defending O. J.
Simpson but when you look at
-V his record he was much bigger
than OJ.
Johnnie Cochran gave his
life to doing what was right.
He represented the best in
the African-American commu
nity.
He began his career as a
deputy city attorney in Los
Angeles after finishing his
education at UCLA and Loyola
Marymount University. He
then moved on to find his pur
pose and to serve his people.
His purpose was to secure our
civil rights and to fight to make
the justice system more just.
Many of the names we
don't know will remember Mip
Cochran for his sacrifice an/r
willingness to give back. C)hnl
the celebrity cases he had he
also had twice as many cases
from those we would consider
no-name people. People^ who
were down and out but needed
someone on their side Mr.
Cochran was that man. His
reputation in the Los Angeles
area was not about his celebri
ty status but rather it was about
his service status.
Mr. Cochran was from the
old school - the school that
taught that you didn't get yours
and forget about us. The old
school believed that you got
yours because of us and we
need you to come back, help
us, be with us. work with us,
serve us and develop the next
you. This is what Mr. Cochran
did.
As a faithful Christian he
served his God by serving
God's people. His greatest
contributions were in the areas
of civil rights for African -
Americans.
Legend has it that Mr.
Cochran gave advice to
lawyers on civil rights cases
throughout the nation. He was
n't a big shot who couldn't be
touched but rather he was the
big shot with the common
touch.
He never forgot his South
ern roots. He never forgot
racism of Louisiana as he and
his family moved west looking
for a better life. His life was
lived by working to change a
world while changing himself.
He was a father; a husband; a
race man; a community man; a
giver, not a taker; a servant,
not a saint; a fighter; and a
lover.
Who will replace the men
and women like Mr. Cochran?
As members of our greatest
generation go into their twi
light years will (tie next gener
ation wake up? We live in a
society that is increasingly suc
cumbing to the pressures of
consumerism.
When I talk to my students
about serving the community I
i get a blank stare. So many of
s^my students think they have
made it by themselves and they
are quick to say, "I don't owe
nobody nothing."
Oh, how wrong and mis
guided they are. I do my best,
like so many parents, profes
sors, teachers and preachers, to
tell them otherwise. We would
n't be where we ar?5 today if
were not for men and women
like Mr. Cochran. We have to
work to develop the next gen
eration of community servant
leaders.
As the likes of Mr. Cochran
go home to be with the Lord
these questions come to mind:
Who will serve the Lord in this
age? Who will lead the fight to
secure our civil rights? Who
will emerge from generation
next?
Dr. Ralph Walkins is a soci
ology Vrofessor at Augusta
State University and the presi
dent of Unity Council Inc. He
can he reached via his Web
site: www.ralphwatkins .org
Letter to the Editor
Bond meeting
To the Editor:
On April 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Dellabrook Presbyterian Church,
CHANGE and the Ministers
Conference of Winston-Salem
will hold an education house
meeting at Dellabrook, IIS
Dellabrook Road. The purpose
of this house meeting is twofold.
First, we want to hear what
parents, students, teachers,
administrators and other con
cerned citizens think about edu
cation in Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County Schools. Second, we
want to share with all who come
the Ministers Conference posi
tion paper of opposition to any
bond referendum for this coun
ty's schools in 2005.
When The Chronicle made
our position public a couple of
weeks ago, one school board
member was quoted as essential
ly stating that anyone who
opposes this bond is anti-child
and anti-education. We find this
position to be absurd because no
one supports children and educa
tion more than the church. The
bulk of the school fund-raising,
scholarship offers and school
volunteering in (he black com
munity is led by Christiaff mem
bers and ministers.
The Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County school system is around
53 percent black and brown (40
percent African-American and
13 percent Hispanic/Latino). Yet
the school board (seven of its
nine members are white Republi
cans) has nearly completely
resegregated the distnct, and the
board is asking for $80 million to
go to Walkertown.
In 1995, the school board
created an Eqiiity Committee to
see that the newly resegregated
schools got the same access to
quality education as the predom
inantly white affluent schools.
The Equity Committee said Win
ston-Salem/Forsyth County
Schools should assign students
like Wake County, where the
African-American superintend
ent, Bill McNeal, says he wants
no school with more than 45 per
cent poor children or 40 percent
of children below grade level.
This has led to a desegregated
Wake County School system and
would also desegregate Winston
Salem/Forsyth.
The Ministers Conference
doesn't see giving $80 million
more to a system consistently
under-serving, ill serving and
miseducating black and brown
children, thereby compounding
and exacerbating the inequities
that already exist.
Come to Dellabrook Church
April 6 at 7:30 p.m. and let us
reason together.
Dr. Carlton A.G. Eversley
Preying on the poor
Ernie Pitt
This &
That
It should be no wonder that
most of the payday lending com
panies operate mostly within the
African-American community.
Someone once asked a bank rob
ber why he robbed the bank. He
answered, quite matter-of-factly.
"That's where the money is."
Payday lenders take that same
attitCde when it comes to our
community. As 1 mentioned in my
last column, African- Americans
in this state alone spent $325 bil
lion on goods and services last
year. That1 Is a lot of frijoles. I
can't understand why that simple
fact is so hard for us to grasp.
Since we have all of this money,
why are we so impoverished?
I think a big part of the prob
lem is that we find it difficult to
do business with each other. And,
when we do happen to do busi
ness with one of our own and get
a raw deal, we tend to condemn
every black business in the world
instead of just the one who did us
in.
Funny thing, too, we don't do
that when someone who doesn't
look like us rips us off. We simply
go and find another one to spend
our money with.
We really need to check that.
We shouldn't -condemn every
body for something one business
may have done. We deserve better
treatment from each other. We
have to learn how to forgive
rather than condemn. Really,
that's what it amounts to. I know
it's a hard thing to do, but we
must commit ourselves to doing
it.
Interestingly, part of the rea
son that payday lenders are flour
ishing in our communities is
because banks have been, and
many still are, skeptical about
making loans in ojir communities.
It was called "redlining" some
time ago. That's when banks
would take the census tracts and
draw a red line around predomi
nantly black neighborhoods and
absolutely would not make a loan
to anyone who lived within those
tracts.
I suppose it still must be going
on. especially since some banks
are trying their very best to do
away with the Community Rein
vestment Act, which mandates a
certain amount of business that
banks do be done in black com
munities.
Lord have mercy! It seems
like everybody's preying on us. 1
wish they were praying for us
instead of preying on us.
But it's not as if we don't have
the ability to put a stop to it. You
can determine where and with
whom you spend your money.
You don't really have to be so
eager to get something that you
can't search out responsible peo
ple who care about your commu
nity to do business with.
I really don't mean to be try
ing to tell anybody what to do, but
what one of us does impacts us
all. There are even some banks
that won't put a branch in our
community, yet they take advan
tage of those billions we spend
each year.
Anyway, just think about it,
and as always, God bless you.
Amen!
Ernie Pitt is the publisher of
The Chronicle. E-mail him at
erpitt@wschmnicle jcom .
Jackson playing race card
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Guest
Columnist
The instant that Santa Barbara
sheriff's deputies slapped the
cuffs on the ex-pop king, Michael
Jackson screamed that he was the
victim of a conspiracy. In an inter
view Sunday with his newfound
spiritual mentor. Jesse Jackson,
Mike got even more explicit and
said that he's an easy target
because he's a rich, famous black
man.
Jackson cast himself in the
mold of Muhammad Ali, Nelson
Mandela, and Jack Johnson, all
high-profile blacks who allegedly
wound up on the legal hot seat
because they were black.
Jackson first gingerly flipped
the race card on the table when he
charged that Santa Barbara CoulV
ty sheriff's deputies roughed him
up when he was being searched.
He implied that black men, even a
black man named Michael Jack
son, could be the victim of police
abuse. Thosq are instant and iden
tifiable words thafare guaranteed
to stir racial passions, anger, and
protest among mShy blacks.
Many blacks reflexively play
the race card because of their past
brutal treatment at the hands of
white police, judges, prosecutors,
and juries. Jackson's staggering
$3 million bail, the slapping of
handcuffs on him, the small army
of lawmen that ransacked his
ranch, and the seemingly relent
less Jackson-is-guilty racial tilt in
some of the media further con
vinced blacks that Jackson was
tried, judged, and convicted
before he ever set foot in a court
room.
When Jackson's home was
raided on the day his greatest hits
album "Numter Ones" was
released, some blacks immediate
ly pounced on that and saw sinis
ter conspiracy doings.
KRT Photo
Michael Jackson waves to fans outside a courthouse.
Others even claimed that
Jackson sealed his doom when he
bought the rights to the Beatles
song catalog and then added insult
to injury by buying ATV publish
ing in 1985. This was the firm that
controlled the Lennon-McCarthy
music copyrights. In gobbling up
their catalog, he supposedly had
stepped beyond accepted racial
parameters for a black. This sup
posedly made him a marked man.
If the mainstream media could
relentlessly assault the character
of prominent black men. and pros
ecutors could orchestrate a dam
aging campaign to convince the
public of their guilt even before a
trial, then, many blacks rational
ized, every black was fair game.
Jackson was not just any
black. His fabulous wealth
allowed him to do what he
pleased, and when he pleased.
There were no constraints on what
he could or couldn't do, other than
those he put on himself. For mftst
of his professional career, the
media treated him as celebrity
royalty and did not engage in
character assassination, and other
than the usual celebrity lawsuits,
there were no legal vendettas
against him.
When some writers and com
mentators seemed to toss the pre
sumption of his innocence out the
window, many blacks were con
vinced that he was already fitted
for a. prison cell before the trial
had begun. Jesse Jackson certain
ly believed that. His racial.tsuspi
cion aroused. Jackson rushed to
the ex-pop king's defense. The
arrest, he claimed, "seemed aimed
to destroy this media mogul ." For
tunately Jackson had the presence
of mind to at least veil his hint that
there was a dark plot to get Jack
son with the qualifying word
"seemed."
The willingness of so many
blacks to see hidden plots and
conspiracies by whites to nail
wealthy and famous ones such as
Jackson is often confused and
misinterpreted. The assumption is
that racial loyalty trumps common
sense and that blacks are willing
to excuse and even condone bad.
even criminal behavior by other
blacks as long as their persecutors
are white. It's a bad assumption.
In a careful reading of opinion
in the OJ. Simpson case, most
blacks did not say that that he was
incapable of committing murder,
but that the system was incapable
of giving him a fair trial.
This proved to be a terribly
wrong-headed fear when Simp
son was acquitted. The blacks
who cheered the verdict were not
cheering Simpson as a murderer
who beat the rap. They were
cheering a victory over what they
regarded as a system hopelessly
riddled with racial bias against
them.
From the start of the Jackson
case, there was little evidence that
black suspicion that the criminal
justice system is abusive toward
them translated ipso facto into
blind faith in Jackson's innocence.
Aside from scattered, infre
quent quips and a handful of racial
photo-op visits to black areas and
churches during his adult profes
sional career, Jackson never visi
bly paraded his racial identity. It
appeared that he did the exact
apposite: He ran from it. Though
he did take a private interest in
black causes, he did not make a
public point of it. .
This did not mean that under
his surgically altered face, garish
outfits, and odd lifestyle that he
didn't care about blacks. The per
ception simply was that he didn't,
and that made it all the more pecu
liar for blacks to see Jackson as a
racial target. Prosecutors and law
enforcement treated him as a spe
cial case. It had nothing to do with
race and everything to do with his
fame, name, and celebrity notori
ety.
Still, Jackson and Jackson
have dumped race and conspiracy
back on the public table. Now that
they have, expect it to lurk even
closer to the surface in Santa
Maria.
Etirl Ofari Hutchinson is a
columnist for BlackNewsjcom, an
author, and a political analyst.