Greetings’ Black Demcrats
By Hoyle H. Marin Sr.
Post Edirorial Editor
The Charlotte Post wishes to ex
tend “Greetings” to the Caucus of
Black Democrats during its three
day conference in Charlotte this
weekend. We believe that the South
and the State of North Carolina in
general, and the City of Charlotte in
particular, should feel a sense of
pride that approximately 2,000 black
elected officials, civic, business, and
labor leaders and clergymen should
select our city for their issues confe
rence.
This decision bj' a majority of the
black leadership in America to hold
a confemece in a southern city, is in
part a recognition of the emergence
of what has been appropriately cal
led the “New South.” What “new”
means for blacks is growing equal
opportunities in housing, education,
- employment, business, and the poli
■ I tical process.
9
While this optimism does not
mean people believe that racism has
been eradicated in the South or
elsewhere, it does indicate that in
this, the Bicentennial Year, blacks
can look with renewed hope to a
better America.
If the Caucus of Black Democrats
can translate and transfer their
issues into the platforms of the
Democratic presidential candidates
and the eventual party candidate,
faith in the American political sys
tem will have once again been en
hanced.
Basil Patterson, chairman of the
CBD and vice-chairman of the Na
tional Democraic Party, put this in
perspective at a news conference in
Charlotte Friday when he said,
“These are not just black issues...
these issues affect everyone in this
country.”
Good luck CBD as you seek to
make a good America a better
America.
j Enough Of The “Ethnic Purity” Flap
more man enough has been said
about the Jimmy Carter remark on
a “Ethnic purity” in neighborhoods.
| Equally wasteful and useless has
been Carter’s attempt to apologize
* f°r the phrase and Congresswoman
: Yvonne B. Burke’s reported com
5k ment that “this statement about
j ethnic purity is the sort of thing that
■ going to turn blacks away.”
The fact is each of the presidential
j candidates in both parties have said
j: as much about not racailly mixing
j neighborhoods and more significant
| ly have generally ignored the special
j problems of blacks. The only differ
j ence between Carter’s comment and
■ the rhetoric of the other candidates
j is that Carter’s phrase tended to
i generate a greater emotional re
! sponse from blacks, some white
. liberals, and of course Carter’s poli
I tical opponents.
I
7 The really important issue that
should be of greater concern to
; blacks is in the charge, already
| noted, that the Democratic presiden
tial candidates have to a large
l extent been ignoring the special
problems of black people. Eddie
1 Williams, president of the Joint Cen
ter for Black Politicial Studies has
| said, “We’ve been hearing conf
; plaints from blacks throughout the
; country who feel isolated and ig
. nored in the presidential race.”
1 his feeling of isolation is reflect
ed in the complexity of social pro
blems like “busing” and the depres
sing economic problems that have
plagued blacks since the civil rights
days of the 1960’s. These have result
ed in a decline in voting participa
tion by blacks that is clearly recog
nized by the candidates.
What I am sure Congresswoman
Burke is aware of and black voters
must understand is that no (white)
candidate is going to make firm
public political commitments to
blacks if such commitments are
going to alienate large numbers of
white voters. Furthermore, blacks
cannot afford to express fellings of
apathy and indifference to the politi
cal process just because of economic
hard times.
As long as blacks continue to
equate economic prosperity to poli -
tical participation^ they can expect
presidential candidates and others
tomake statements like “ethnic pu
rity” or worse without any attempt
to apologize. Furthermore, since
blacks are a minority as a voting
group they must pool their political
muscle, then when Congresswoman
Burke says blacks will turn away, it
will result in immediate and more
positive responses from the candi
dates.
Black people let us register, vote,
and make our voices heard.
i Something On Your Mind?
aometmng on your mind is the
: name of a column devoted to you
1 young at heart readers of this
; newspaper—as long as it relates in
. ; some way to young people, regard
1 less of age.
It will be written by you and about
whatever is on your mind!
So, if you have something to say.,
i WRITE ON!
Some subject that may be of
i special interest to you are: Drugs
! i— -1
vjciicx duun vjap, wenare, uangs,
Schools, Going Steady, Police Revo
lution, Whites, Blacks, Integration,
Busing, Draft, God, Negro Chur
ches, etc.
Or any other subject you want to
write about. Remember it’s your
column. Your article should be at
least 250 words, type-written and
double spaced preferred. Include
your name, age, school and a clear
photo, and send it to the Editor,
Charlotte Post Newspaper.
BLACK AMERICA
ROLL UP VOUR SLEEVES
* BLACK FOLKS THEMSELVEgKrE GOING TO
HA?E TO MONK OUT MANY OP THEIR OWN
PROBLEMS, INSTEAP OP liEAVING IT UP TO THE
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AMO PROGRAMS?
k tfjs» *T!?
Blacks’ Destiny In Own Hands
REPORT FROM
Ji^Washingtofi
Government Created Jobs
oy uuu marun, yin
District Congressman
Another pie-in-the-skj
bill has been unloadec
on Congress. The mea
sure introduced by Sen
ator Humphrey and
Congressman Hawkins
has the goal of creating
new government jobs
giving them to the un
employed, if they can
not find a job in the
private sector.
Unemployed is cur
rently running 7.6 per
cent of the total labor
force. The Humphrey
Hawkins Bill would drop
the “adult” unemploy
ment rate to 3 percent
within 4 years and keep
it there legislatively.
Any difference in what
the private sector could
provide in the way of
jobs and the 3 percent
statutory figure would
be picked up by the fed
eral government. Sena
tor Humphrey has gues
sed at the cost of the
program and estimated
25 billion dollars. Of
course you only have to
look at past experience
with such programs to
find that such estimates
generally don’t come
close to the mark.
As regards the 3 per
cent unemployment tar
get, let me remind you
that the level of unem
ployment has gone that
low only twice during
the past 30 years, during
the Vietnam and Korean
Wars.
The legislation would
put an interesting new
twist on the term “Right
To Work.” In this case,
the bill is proposing a
“Right To A Job” as an
inalienable right. Where
the powerful labor or
ganizations are opposed
to “Right To Work”
laws (because they
grant a right to work
without having to join a
union) labor leaders
have thrown their
weight in favor of this
“Right To A Job” pro
posal.
We have seen from
recent history that
wage-price controls are
harmful to our econo
my. The artificial con
trols in a supply and
demand economy only
creates a false security
at the marketplace and
thus generates short
ages. Consequently, a
long with a free spend
ing Congress, wage
price controls led to spi
raling inflation coupled
with an economic reces
sion. The same forces
would apply to the labor
market if this bill were
to pass. False conditions
or impressions would be
created by legislating
jobs.
The subject of jobs
was the point of 2 ques
tions on my 1976 ques
tionnaire. Should go
vernment or private in
dustry be responsible
for creating the market
for jobs? Government
jobs funded through tax
monies received a
strong negative re
sponse. On the other
hand, the alternative i
dea of jobs created
through fax incentives
for business expansion
received a very favora
ble response.
I believe that a majo
rity of Americans are
like the people in Ire
dell, Lincoln and Meck
lenburg counties: they
do not want to see this
classic paternalistic re
sponse to unemploy
ment through public
service jobs. Such -
“jobs” would produce
nothing and would con
sume taxes. They would
have no productive pur
pose other than putting
more people on the go
vernment payroll. '
TO
BE
EQUAL
\ KR\«>\ K. JORO \\ .IR.
New Racial Code Words
Jimmy Carter’s remarks about “ethnic puri
ty’’ have distrubed a lot of people, including
myself, but the rush of politicians to denounce
the phrase isn’t very encouraging since their
basic positions on integrated housing are pretty
much the same as Carter’s.
Senator Henry Jackson leaped on the Carter
statement with a strong one of his own, but is the
same candidate who threw a cloud over his
historic support for civil rights measures by#
making busing a campaign issue.
And Representative Udall’s criticism of the
Carter statement didn’t include a positive stance
on what strategies to take to grant blacks and
Finally, President Ford told a press confer
ence he didn’t like the term “ethnic purity” and
then proceeded to laud America’s “Ethnic heri
tage,” saying that it is “a great treasure of this
country and I don’t think that federal action
should be used to destrov that ethnic treasure.”
So what else is new? The result of this flap over
words is that no one has really committed
•uiuscu nucgi aieu nousing ana everyone has
discovered a new racial code word.
Politicians can now talk about preserving
ethnic heritage and voters will know that this is a
veiled promise to keep neighborhoods white. It’s
a new addition to the vocabulary that produced
“neighborhood schools” and “law and order”,
terms that were unmistakably understood as
messages against school desegregation and as a
promise to “get tough” with minorities.
Jimmy Carter apologized handsomely for
what he wants understood as a slip of the tongue.
Even in his original statement that got him into
trouble he promised federal backing for black
families to live anywhere they wished, and
President Ford repeated his intention to honor
open-housing laws.
So there never was an issue in the first place. ’
Carter made a serious mistake in injecting this
phony issue but he’s been attacked for the words
he used and not for making an Issue out of whole
cloth. fI'
By promising he’d never use federal power to
break up ethnic enclaves or to construct high
rise public housing in wealthy suburbs Carter
merely repeated the obvious. The point is that
neither policy was ever considered by the
government, nor do blacks favor such policies.
If people want to live with people of their own
background in a specific neighborhood they can
and should do so, so long as thev don’t infrinep
upon the constitutional rights of others.
And high-rise public housing is a dead horse,
no one has proposed building a Pruitt-Igoe in the
suburbs. The real issues is whether blacks will
be ensured the right to move anywhere they
wish, and whether scattered site housing — not
high-rises - will be permitted in all-white, upper
income neighborhoods.
Since the alternative is to lock black and poor
people into inner city ghettos and inferior -
housing removed from new job opportunities in
the suburbs, it would be more comforting if
candidates addressed that important issue in
stead of getting involved in semantics.
Instead of worrying about the non-existent
threat to ethnic enclaves, the candidates might
do some worrying about exclusion of black
people from decent housing and by our slide int
an apartheid society in which races and classes
are kept rigidly apart.
THE CHARLOTTE POST
“THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER”
Established 1918
Published Every Thursday
By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc.
2606B West Blvd.-Charlotte, N.C. 28208
Telephones (704 ) 392-1306, 392-1307
Circulation 11,000
57 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE
Bill Johnson .Editor-Publisher
Gerald O. Johnson .Business Manager
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Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878
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Association
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Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m
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i—•* • — r • *o j
as i Cv.
Local Television Stations Bias In Airings?
By Gerald Johnson .
Tost Staff Writer
Being an individual who
feels that the television sei
stunts mental growth I watcl
the "Idiot Tube" seldomly. Il
is the one medium that hac
caused the ignorance this
country is beginning to face. Il
does this by not allowing ar
individual to use his head. Th«
TV does all the thinking anc
creating for you; all you have
to do is watch it unfold before
your eyes Consequently, peo
pie are not able to communi
cate ideas to others
However, there are timet
when the national network]
come up with a "biggie " thal
I would like to see But whe
Iher I'd like to see it or not, il
the TV show has any hint ol
controversy in it the Charlotte
stations will not show the pro
gram Especially if the contro
versy has racial overtones
Many of you probably re
member channel three's Blun
dering black-out of the movie
"The Great White Hope”.
The movie was about the
black boxing great, Jack
Johnson, which includes his
escapades with his white wife.
CBS aired the show on one of
its Thursday Night Movies.
Chanhel three, CBS' local affi
liate, aired the show the fol
lowing Sunday at 11 o'clock
pm. If this wasn't bad enough
at 11:10 the show was blacked
(Out because of transmitter
trouble in the mountains. Ima
gine that, the show has alrea
dy been moved to an ungodly
hour for watching TV and
even then something goes
wrong. Well, every since then
I’ve hated channel three with
a passion They eventually ran
the show, but the scar had
already been left by then.
Not to be out done, channel
nine, who trails channel three
in the local ratings, wanted to
show the people they to could
white wash the video waves.
Therefore, when NBC this
past Thursday night aired the
“Scottsboro Boys" channel
nine, NBC’s local affiliate^did
not air it Instead they aired
"Coogan’s Bluff ”, Because I
can get channel twelve in Win
ston Salem on my TV, 1 was
still able to see the show. For
you people who aren’t up on
your Black history, The
‘‘Scottsboro Boys” which
channel nine refused to show
centers around the trial of the
nine Blacks and how, with all
the evidence in their favor,
they were still sentenced.
So, there, channel three,...
channel nine in its quest not to
be out done has shown you that
they too can be unscrupulous
with their TV time. Meanwhile
it is the TV viewers who must
suffer.
While channel seven in
Spartanburg shows NBA bas
ketball on the weekends,
sports enthusiast in Charlotte
are watching 1919 Tarzan mo
vies. Or if we are "lucky” we
can see C. J. Underwood in the
back woods of North Carolina
interviewing a toe playing
banjo picker.
Television, because it is the
most widely used communica
tion media, has a responsibili
ty to the community. That
responsibility is to televise
shows that are entertaining,
documenting, factual, humo
rous, and versatile. In the
repertoire of programming a
local TV station shouldn't
have the right to censor shows
that have been approved for
national viewing.
In closing, I would like to
know the rationale used in
determining what shows a lo
cal station will air. It would
also be interesting to know
how much public Input is used
in determining what shows
will be aired. All the Black
folk I know have sworn that no
one has ever contacted them
About local showing on TV.
While on the subject of TV I
would like to say one more
thing. I find it thoroughly dis
gusting to be watching a TV
program to have some one
butt in and say ‘‘We hate to
interrupt this program, but
from the news room". Then a
news man comes on and say
"from our latest results we
predict President Ford will
win Massachusetts with 86
percent of the vote." Then
when your show convenes it is
at the end.
Who in the heaven cares
about primaries. The results
from all the primaires will be
shown on the news. You wake
up in the morning and it is
splattered all over the news
paper. Why in God's name is it
necessary to interrupt one of
the few programs I watch on
TV with this junk Primaries
like most things in this coun
try are a big rip off. It has
absolutely nothing to do with
picking who is right for a
political office. It is a way of
raising capital to cheat and to
connive people But that is
another story.
As for television.!