Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 13, 1976, edition 1 / Page 2
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REPORT FROM J^^WoshingtonJ Court Halts “Ethnic Purity” Flap tsy noyie n. iviarun, ar. Post Editorial Editor While Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter was at tempting to explain and apologize for his “ethnic purity” statement, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 that federal courts can order the government to build low-income housing in predominantly white su burbs. The ruling by the Court, the first significant integration decision in two years, emerged from a Chicago housing case in which black resident charged that federal officials from the Department of Housing and Ur ban Development (HUD) were prac ticing discrimination in the place ment of low-income housing. Specifi cally, HUD was charged with parti cipating in efforts to keep all low-in .come housing within the city, and with creating housing patterns of white occupancy of low-income units in white neighborhoods and black occupany in black neighborhoods. The City of Charlotte already has a policy on ‘‘scattered site” housing that is consistent with the aims and principles of the High Court’s deci sion. In fact, the Charlotte Housing ' Authority is currently developing four small low-income housing pro jects for location in predominantly white neighborhoods on the east and south sides of the city. This policy or action by the City of Charlotte did not occur out of any commitment to what is morally righ or honest, it grew out of a threatened law suit by blacks who argued cor rectly that public housing was con sistently being built on the north and west sides of the city in a manner that was perpetuating racial segre gation. Nevertheless, The Post wish es to commend Mayor John Belk and the Charlotte City Council for its actions in the face of considerable community opposition and three years before a decision by the Su preme Court. Black Behind In Job Opportunities Barbara Walters decision to leave the NBC-TV “Today” show to accept a co-anchor position on the ABC-TV evening news program, at a salary of $l-million per year, has cause some interesting reactions and, more significantly, has overshadow ed a far more basic concern. Women applauded and shouted “right on” for women’s lib and equality in the market place. White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) men, particularly news men, have reacted with envy vailed in charges that it (the $l-million salary) is an attempt to transfer news reporting into show business. The ballyhoo over Mrs. Walters’ salary, which is after all a private matter between her and ABC, has pushed further into the background the important question of income inequality and related job opportuni ties for women as well as for blacks. Mrs. Walters is truely one-in-a million, as is boxing champ Muham mad Ali; however, the vast majority of women and blacks get propor tionately less income than white men. Census Bureau statistics, for example, point out that in 1974 women employed full-time had a medium income of $6,957, or only 57 percent of the $12,152 received by men. Herbert Hill, labor director for the NAACP, notes that in the same year black family income was only 56 percent of that of white families. Furthermore, the census data shows that in 1974 also, women who are 4-year college graduates earned an average of $9,800 a year while men (white) with only an eighth grade education earned $9,400, just $400 less. By comparison, the black male college graduate can expect to earn less in his life-time than the I-- 1 1 white male high school graduate. Therefore, the income gap bet ween men and women and white families and black families is ap proximately the same, 57 and 56 per cent, respectively. In addition, black men and white women earn sub stantially less from an educational standpoint than do white men. The Post feels that those who would envy a Walters or an Ali would appreciate their own lofty positions and salaries if they would take a look at the millions of blacks and women left behind in the jobs income opportunity game simply because they are black or female. As to whether Ms. Walters% or anyone else, is worth a million dollars a year is a matter of what the economist call “supply and de mand.” Demand (for service) has allowed Ms. Walters to be worth a million dollars on the talent market because she may be able to lift the news ratings of ABC by one or two points. “The gain,” as The N.Y. Times has recently said, ”of a single rating point puts the newscast into 710,000 additional homes, where it may be watched by approximately 1.2 million extra people. At the rates paid for commercials on the network newscasts in today’s market, the gain of a single rating point should mean a gain of at least $1 million in revenues. “Thus, if by her presence Barbara Waiters should improve the rating for the ABC Evening News by a single point, she pays back her spectacular salary. If by two points, its a bonanza,” Yes, Ms. Walters is truly worth every penny of the million she will get in the big dollar game of commercial television. “" ’I THE CHAKLUTTE 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 Rex Hovey •'.Circulation Manager Second Class Postage Paid at Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878 Member National Newpaper Publishers , Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m Monday. The Post is not responsible for any photos or news copies submitted for publication. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. 45 W. 5th, Suite 1403 2400 S. Michigan Ave. New York, N Y. 10036 Chicago, 111. 60616 (212 ) 489-1220 Calumet 5-0200 ■A New Name For Beatties Ford Road? By Gerald O. Johnson. Post Staff Writer Thursday morning May 6, 1976 I was quoted on WSOC Radio as saying that I was opposed to having Beatties Ford Road renamed to Martin Luther King Boulevard. The quote was 100 percent accu rate. There is absolutely no gain in commemorating Martin Lu ther King 8 years in retrospect by changing the name of Beat ties Ford Road. I believe Dr. King has been over commemorated in petty manners. If we were sincere in our push for giving a great man his deserved recognition, we would do all within legal limitations to see that Dr._ King's birthday became a le gal holiday This would mean a lot more universally than naming a street in this town or that town after Dr King. For a man that has done so much for the world, it is only fitting that he be commemora ted urbanely. ONE MAN FOR ONE WOMAN, UNNATURAL One of the quirks of society i is the moralistic viewpoint that once a man takes a wife hat is it. Fooling around, as it is called, is unchristian. After seriously pondering this point, I have come to the conclusion that men have been had The reason is simply that it defies nature. Since man is from the ani mal kingdom one need only look into the behavorism of other animals for the answer. First of all, man is the only creature in the animal king dom that is stupid enough to try such a thing. There are five or so lioness' to every male lion Ten or so cows to every male walrus. I could go on but I think you've gotten the point. Since the objective of all species is to perpetuate the species, then it is natural for many females to every one male. During a female pregnancy, she is incapable of conceiving However, a male is still capa ble of impregnating. This natural occurrence is justified because the male should have the freedom to impregnate another female. This is precisely why in all animal species there are more females than males. It is not a coincidence. The chances of having a male offspring to a female offspring are one to four. There exist four chromo somes, two in a male and two in the female. The two in the female are only capable of producting females. The two in the male are capable of producing a male or a female. Hence, in order to come up with a male, the X chromo sone of the male (X is the symbol for male chromosone) has to match with one of the Y chromosones of the female (Y is the symbol for female chro mosones). If you still don't understand, get out your high school biology book. The point it nature has set up a fool proof method of guaranteeing that there will always be more women than men. This would also explain why the male's sex drive is much greater than the females Na ture has provided men with the sex drive to be able to meet the requirements of many females When one fe male is unwilling, then you move on. The menstrual cycle women go through is another time when pregnancy is impossible for the female Now, it only stands to reason that if the man upstairs wanted one wo man to one man, then he would have caused the males sex drive to die down a little during the menstrual cycle Or he could have had all women go through the men strual cycle at the same time each month But obviously this wasn't the intention. Thus due to puritanical movements, man has defied the faultlessness of nature and has made his society into a guilt feeling mad house. The family institution, that is fast becoming extinct, is failing because it is based on morals and not realism. Since morals become extinct with time, those things based on morals necessarily become extinct. Though the overtones in this article might appear chauven istic, believe me they are not. Any liberated woman would be furious about now My only reply is I don’t make the facts, I simply re port them as I see it. Subject matter in this col umn, as you have probably noticed, ranges far and wide. Kor that reason, we at the Post urge you to challenge us If you have thoughts you think are different and unique, write us. • • • BLACK COMMUNITY SELF HELP -MUTUAL JIP SELF IMPROVEMENT - COOPERATION Blacks’ Destiny In Own Hands...... amii <l com!) I I Commission On Federal Paperwork ex JIM MAK1LN, 9Ul District Congressman A recent newspaper article stated “Every time Congress passes a law that is the least bit vague, federal agencies pounce into action to try to add precision through rules and regulations. That correctly em phasizes the way bure aucratic empires in Washington have been able to proliferate over the past few years. It should be added, though, that these agen cies don’t just leap in as though to fill a vacuum. They are expressly di rected to do so, and it is not a good way to serve the public. What hap pens is that the Con gress, anxious to “do something” about envi ronmental concerns, a bout occupational ha zards, about unsafe con sumer goods, etc, but uncertain as to what specifically should be done, just passes a gen eral authorization for someone else to decide what to do. Instead of writing pro tective laws for the ap propriate agency to ad minister and enforce, Congress for the last two decades has in creasingly taken the ea sier route to creating a new agency with autho rity to wirte and en force its own regula tions. In this way, the laws setting up such a gencies direct the Secre tary of the agency to promulgate such laws as he or his administra tors deem necessary for the operation of the a gency. In other words, Congress abdicated its responsibility to an a gency head not elected by the people. Left to promulgate (to issue laws), the agencies have obliged Congress to the ooint that an ava lanche of paper flows forth form Washington each year, generally re quiring a larger flow of paper to convey your complaint response back to Washington. Attempts are now be ing made to rectify the paperwork burden which costs consumers and taxpayers billions of dollars. The Commis sion on Federal Paper work, which is charged with designing a plan to reduce paperwork, will itself go out of business in 1977. In other words, it will not have had time to be absorbed into bu reaucracy. In the inte rim though, the Com mission will be trying to weed out the unnecessa ry paperwork which has begun to choke Ameri can business as the self employed, from doctors and lawyers to farmers. The small business operator has been at the mercy of mountains of forms he is required to fill out which consume time and give an added expense that is eventu ally passed on to the rest of us as taxpapers and consumers. In setting up the Com litiuuivii, ▼» 1 lllvOOvO IU1U members of Congress that in 1972 the Nation's small businesses spent $18 billion, to process an estimated ten million sheets of paper required in federal reports. With staggering figures such as these. I shudder to think what the govern ment spends to process the small business pa perwork, not to mention the paperwork filed by the major corporate giants. This assumes, of course, that someone actually reads all the reports - which assump tion may not be valid. In summary, regula tory excess can be and must be dealt with di rectly. Proposals to dis mantle the agencies are not going to succeed, because the original reason for their exis tence will still be there. What we can do is regu late the regulators. — ^ a it BE EQUAL \ KK\U\ K. .1 OK I > \\ .IK. Food Stamps Fate On The Line The fate of one of the most important federal programs-and one of the most often attacked will be decided soon. me senate nas passed a measure revising me food stamp program and the House is consider ing a version of its own. No one knows what the final changes in the program will be, but the struggle to preserve the food stamp program as an essential weapon in the arsenal against hunger faces an uphill fight. • Congressional reconsideration of the program comes after many months of abuse hurled on the - program, ranging from outright misstatements of facts to name-calling by people who should know better. Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, for example, made a big splash a while ago with his now-famous statement that food stamp recipients are “Chiselers.” A good part of the hostility toward the program is due to the simple fact that it’s effective. Some 19 million people receive stamps, making it one of the really successful federal programs that relieves some of the burdens of poverty. Big as the program is, it still reaches less people than it should; a recent Congressional study found that up to a fourth of the population could become eligible for food stamps at some time during the year. So long as the program was relatively small and ineffective it was tolerated but as soon as it began to accomplish its aims of supplementing the incomes of low-income families it became a target for the budget-cutters. There is in our society a reluctance to subsi dize people who are poor and in need of assistance that’s balanced by an enthusiasm for subsidizing the better-off and politically-power ful blocs. The food stamp program for example, started out as a subsidy for farmers, helping to distribute surplus crops. With the big rise in food prices in recent years, the program has become transformed into, one that helps low-income families afford. $ buy food for the dinner table.And that's whenthenowls about chiselers and the high cost of the program started. The numbers of rpoinipnts tn much. room when the economy went into its down-spin and people were thrown out of work. The high cost of the program is part of the high cost of keeping our economy on a high unemployment basis, and it will decline when people get back to work at decent wages. Every time unemploy ment rates go up just one percent, another 750,000 people get the stamps. Recipients are all poor or near-poor. Nearly half are on welfare, a fifth are “working poor”, a tenth are elderly people who qualify for supple mental social security aid. Nine out of ten households in the program earned less than $6,000 last year. So there’s not much room for chiseling there, regardless of the ill-tempered remarks of the program’s wealthy critics. Such cheating as occurs comes from that part of the program its critics most want to keep untouched-the pur chase provision. instead of giving stamps to qualified familes the government distributes them through 6 700 vendors who sell the stamps to eligible parikd pants for cash. One report suggests that millions have been embezzled by some of the vendors, so cheating in the food stamp program is largely a matter of white collar crime, not recipient fraud.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 13, 1976, edition 1
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