amis t cornu |
by HOYLE H. MARTIN, SR.
Pott Editorial Writer
The ABC-TV dramatization of
Alex Haley's "Roots" two years ago
waa viewed by an estimated 130
million people - the largest audience
in the history of television viewing.
The true story of an American
family, “Roots” ’ portrayed how the
early ancestors of Haley struggled
to survive the white man’s attacks
on the spirits of black men and the
bodies of black women.
"The term ‘Roots,’” Afro
American writer Robert L. Harris
Jr. said, ‘‘because nestled In the
country’s language from corner
bars to corporate suites. It helped
bridge the generation gap, witn
youngsters seeking out and quizzing
older relatives about their family’s
past. (Furthermore), ... the
phenomenon of 'Roots’ endured in
the nation’s consciousness.”
It appears appropriate that this
week, during Negro or Afro
American History Month, the sequel
to “Roots,” “Roots: The Next
Generations," is depicting the
Haley’s ancestral story after the
Civil War and emancipation. The
telecast represents an opportunity to
present another chapter in the
neglected aspects of our nation’s
! history and offers some conscious
raising concerns as did the original
."Roots.”
Beyond the personal but unselfish
glories received by Alex Haley, and
some initial emotional conscious
raising, the value and impact of
.“Roots,” within the very industry
that has made the dramatizations
. available to so many Americans,
has not seen fit to change its
biasness. We are referring to what
has been the plight of the black
actors and actresses who so vividly
portrayed the roles of the Haley’s
historic family.
After commenting on the "Roots”
phenomenon, Gary Deeb of the
Chicago Tribune wrote, “this seems
an appropriate time to point out one
of the continuing atrocities of
American television: Good black
dramatic actors are begging for
respectable jobs on network TV.”
Deeb adds, “Except for the old ‘I
Spy’ and the ‘Roots’ phenomenon of
1977, the only black-oriented TV
programs to become hits have been
comedies or variety shows ... It may
be 1979, but TV still adheres to a
racial attitude more attuned to the
mld-1800s, with ’happy darkies’;
populating the video landscape on
such programs as 'What’s Hap
pening,’ ... Good Times’ and ‘The
Jeffersons.’”
The point is that television, the
media that so vividly portrayed the
cultural heritage of blacks and their
struggle for freedom in the
presentation of "RoQts,” is a media
caught up In the slave mentality.
Blacks In TV comedies as such are
fine, however, when there is no
balance depicting blacks in other
roles it tends to sterotype them to
look like smart aleck children or
adult clowns.
There certainly is a need for black
people to be able to laugh at
themselves. However, when
laughter in TV is not coupled with a
humanistic viewpoint, the media
become detrimental to the depiction
of black people.
Thus, it appears Ironic that the
televisfon industry can so vividly
portray some of the evils and
misdeeds of our society but it can’t
or won’t practice some of the good
qualities that are or should be a part
of our society.
Finally, blacks can and should use
their own resources to begin the
ending of this denial of acting op
portunity. This can be done by
pooling their financial resources as
producers of and investors in TV
programming. When we do these
things, and we can, blacks will be
able to command decent acting jobs
to enhance their careers and their
own sense of pride.
Government * Get Your
— —t - . ^ _ i • - ■* . m - . - i i. .r. V / •
* sears, noeoucK ana ^o. nas
/ launched one of the biggest attacks
c on federal employment policies and
procedures in the nation’s history
through a law suit against 10 fedcTral
agencies.
Basically, Sears is asking a
' federal court to order the U.S.
government to get its regulatory
house in order before enforcing
certain hiring practices among the
■ nation's retail stores.
- Specifically, the suit charges that
federal laws, ranging from ex
tension of the mandatory retirement
age, to GI veterans’ preference, to
failure to enforce school
desegregation, to eliminating
discrimination within its own ranks
are in conflict with other laws and
are creating barriers for employers
willing to comply with government
stsmdards for equal opportunity.
One of Sears’ main charges is that
the government has created an
.“unbalanced work force’’
dominated by white males, created
by a failure to properly coordinate
civil rights enforcement efforts.
Sears contends, for example, that
by being required to move their
retirement age from 63 to 70 years,
they are slowing down opportunities
in the firm for promotions, par
ticularly for minorities and women.
Thus, the governments push to get
more and better Jobs for minorities
and women is in conflict with their
push to extend the retirement age to
70 years.
These conflicting policies must be
resolved if the private sector is to be
expected to cooperate with the intent
of such laws. What makes the issue
even more important is the fact that
continued conflict over such laws
and policies could endanger the
existence of the whole pattern of
civil rights laws and progress.
The Post urges the federal
government to heed the advice of
Sears and get their house in order in
the best Interest of all Americans,
but particularly for those whom
such laws and regulations are
supposed to benefit.
IT/SUP TO USBLACKI
- WHO CAKE ABOUT
THE BLACK FUTURE,
TO IMPOSE ORDER
WHERE NONE EXISTS,
WtoODAY. (
The New Awareness^..
“The Day I Died”
Editor’s Note--Maggie
Lamb Nicholson has helped
people learn to read for M
years. At 72 she teaches
reading to adults at CPCC and
is a reading tutor in Charlotte
public schools.
Bom in Elizabeth City, the
12th of 13 children, Maggie
lived on a farm settlement.
Early experiences attending
schools a far distance from
home led her to oppose busing.
“A child should be at a
school nearest home, being
sick and lonely, bad roads
have their effect. I’ve seen
them hungry and too proud to
let anyone know. We need our
little children at schools
nearest home, so that the
parents can attend school
affairs and be involved with,
teachepaapfl principq*,”* £
Ms. Nicholson articles will
in the spot appear weekly.
You’ll want to watch out for it.
°y nuggie Nicholson
Special To The Post
One’s religious training has
a great effect on one’s dying
If one is taught there’s a place
of punishment for those who
disobey the teaching of the
Holy BibUe, and there’s a
Heaven with mansions, pearly
gates, the streets all paved
with gold and flowing with
milk and honey, then one can
die in peace knowing well they
will be welcomed into Heaven
with Joy and gladness forever.
This happened to me when I
was a little girl more than
sixty years ago. I became
very HI, so much so I died. It
was fortunate for me that we
lived in the country about
twelve miles from town.
Otherwise I would not been
hereto tell the story today..
You see there were no un
dertakers in the country. So
people had to be sure you were
dead before they called the
undertaker. They would feel
yter fprehead Jisten for heart
-^iet.pjaiamirrorloyournooe
and mourn, put their ear (o
your chest and anything else
to discover life. All these
things were done for me
before they will allow
themselves to believe that I
had gone to the great beyond.
I had been taught that
Heaven was a beautiful place
that the streets were more
beautiful than any thing on
this earth of which we live.
That God himself sat on a
Thome and to enter this
celestal city one had to cross
Jordan river all mingled with
glass, that it was chilly and
cold and it would chill your
body but not your soul. All this
made one feel that to leave
this old world would be a
pleasure. We meet St. Peter at
the gate and he would com
mand the Heavenly Angels to
show you around this beautiful
place, they would take you
where you wanted to go. so the
first one that I wanted to see
was my oldest sister who
passed when I was only six
year* old, so instead of getting
my wings I wanted to see her.
But to see Her I had to pass the
throne of the Almighty GOD.
While gazing on such beauty it
occured that I left my family
in tears, it was then that I felt
going back home meant more
than golden slippers and the
beauty of heaven. It was then
that the throne of GOD, the
celestal city, angels and
heaven in all of its beauty
ment very little to me any
more. So I returned with out
the privijege of seeing the
mystery of heaven.
For a moment I was puzzled
as to whether I'd* continue or
go back home, there I stood
frozen for a while, the love for
home was stronger than the
leva for--heaven, So I about
a——■ .a - - L...C n—
returning 1 sat on the window
sill peeked through the win
dow and saw my mother still
feeling my forehead, it
seemed that she saw some
sign of life, but the tears was
still streaming down her
cheeks, I could not stand that
any longer so l began to ease
back in the old partly cold
body and finally I opened my
eyes and smiled, that was a
greet day in the household of
the Lamb’s.
Since that day both parents,
grand-mother, my five
brothers, and two sisters who
lived at that time have all
gone and left me alone. The
dead llvss and those who lived
are dead. GOD has blessed me
with one daughter and two
grand children. I have often
thought of heaven since that
day so when my time really
comes I fed that I won’t dread
the sting of death, because of
its beauty and the loved ones
who has gone on and that they
•re hiDDv there.
Dr. Nicholson
" *• # J _ » -III' T I.
— By Vernon E.
TO 4
BE
EQUAL
Affirmative Action Challenged
Sears, Roebuck k Co., the nation's largest
retailer, has filed suit against ten government
agencies. It charges that past and present
federal actions have so shaped the nation’s work
force that the company should be relieved of
liability for compliance with various-and often
conflicting-affirmative action mandates.
Sears reaches back to World War II to
demonstrate that the government maintained
race and gender quotas on members of the ar-.
med forces.After the war legislation enabled*
veterans to get education and skills training
opportunities not available to non-veterans. And
it pressed employers to give veterans preference
In Jobs, an act that favored white males, to the
exclusion of women and minorities.
Most recently, Congressional action barred
•as* a.rUr
retirement and mandatory retirement rules In
provate Industry. Thus, corporate efforts to
recruit and to promote minority employees run
up against the brick wall of older white males
holding on to their jobs, Including managerial
positions to which they had been aided through
past veterans preference rules.
What it all adds up to says Sears, is that the
company cannot by itself reconcile various,
conflicting affirmative action mandates-for
minorities, for women, for the elderly, for the
handicapped, and for other groups deemed in
need of special efforts.
Not only that, says Sears, but the govern
ment’s own hiring record is bad. And until the
government acts to shape the nation’s workforce
in accordance with its priorities, industry should
be relieved of penalties for noncompliance with
affirmative action mandates.
Sears does have some justice in its complaint.
The concept of affirmative action for minorities
previously denied their rights and opportunities
has been seriously diluted through extension of
that mandate to Include all women, and others.
Veterans preferences and higher retirement
ages block progress for younger people and for
minorities.
But that’s hardly the whole story. There is
nothing in the Sears brief to indicate that the
private seciur vuiuntarny, inaeea en
thusiastically, engaged in blatant racial
discrimination. Sears has compiled one of the
country's better minority hiring gwpKd* hufeflhn
it MfiodSly suggeafc^iajt blacW applicant riWne
treated''equally vmH ’white applicants before
company policy changed in the 1960’s?
/' Sears’ suit is on behalf of all retail establish- d
menu with IS employees or more, but hiring
discrimination was endemic in the retail
business. Blacks were deemed not fit to serve
white customers even in stores outelde the South.
. Sears’s suit is on behalf of all retail establish
menu with IS employees or more, but hiring
discrimination was endemic in the retail
business. Blacks were deemed not fit to serve
white customers even in stores ouUide the South.
And federal veterans preferences had nothing to
do with that situation.
The fact is that federal discrimination against
minorities was not imposed on the private
sector. If anything, it reflected majority and
private sector attitudes.
I can appreciate the bind Sears finds iteelf in.
Government orders have been inconsistent and
contradictory. Given the employment picture
you can’t have affirmative action for everybody.
That's why it is necessary to have effective af
firmative action for those most in need of special
efforte-black workers struggling to overcome
the negative heritage of persistent exclusion
from jobs, trades and professions.
And that’s why both the government and the
private sector have to redirect their efforts. If
the Sears suit resulte in such a clarification it
Will sarua/1 a aaajI -
THE CHARLOTTE POST
“THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER”
Established 1918
Published Every Thursday
By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc.
1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte. N.C. 28208
Telephones (704)376-0496-376-0497
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Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3,1878
Member National Newspaper Publishers
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Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m.
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the property of the POST, and will not be returned.
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New York, \.Y. 10036 Chicago, III 60616
(212 ) 489-1220 Ca'ume* 5-0200
U. S. Senate Needs Fair Rules
i
by BAYARD RUSTIN
During the IMO's, many
young militants complained
that American democracy
was nothing more than a
sham, a mere facade to
conceal the real workings of
an oppressive system. In
Black Power, for example,
Stokely Carmichael and
Charles Hamilton pointed to
"the conflict between the so
called American Creed and
American Practice." As they
saw things, democracy’!
claims to equality and liberty
"are simply words."
While some black people
despaired of the democratic
political process, others - like
Dr. King, A. Philip Randolph.
Roy Wilkins and many more -
grappled with MV Im
perfections and transformed it
into a dynamic agent for
racial equality and con
structive social change.
This transformation, of
course, did not miraculously
happen overnight. On the
contrary, it was the
culmination of a long series of
painfully slow advances, some
of them almost imperceptible
and seemingly insignificant
We fought hard and long
sometimes against terrible
odds; but, by and large, we
DR. MAf^WwmeRKINa
succeeded in achieving many
of our moot important goals.
Without a doubt, then, the
old Carmlchael-Hamllton
crituque of American
democracy was proved
erroneous. Yet as we toppled
one obstacle after another, by
organizing a Congressional
majority, we never succeeded
in eliminating one par
ticularly frustrating road
block - the Senate filibuster.
Indeed, by establishing de
facto minority rule, the
filibuster serves as a perfect
example of . "a conflict/'
between the so-called
American Creed pnd
American practice," to use
the words of Carmichael and
Hamilton.
People with good memories
will surely recall the 83-day
talkathon aimed at defeating
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Although the bill had
President Johnson’s support,
and the backing of a clear
majority in the Senate, a
minority held it captive by
corralling it with a filibuster.
Eventually the filibuster
ended and the bill became
law, but many other key
pieces of civil rights
legislation were either
defeated or delayed by
minority veto in the Senate.
Passage of the Anti-Poll Tax
bill, for instance, was delayed
for 23 years because of
filibusters and threats of
filibusters. And the Pair
Employment Practices Act
was held hostage for 18 years.
Now, after fighting the
undemocratic filibuster for so
many years, we seem to be on
the verge of a major
breakthrough. Because of the
untiring work of Senate
Minority Leader Robert Byrd,
a man who himself once used
the filibuster in a truly
masterful way, the Senate will
soon consider a set of new
rules designed to curb the veto
power of the minority. Under
Senator Byrd’s plan, an ob
stinate minority will no longer
be able to defeat legislation by
entangling the Senate in a web
of frivolous amendments, as
Senator Orin Hatch and others
threatened to do on the
Humphrey-Hawklns and the
Labor Law Reform bills.
In almost every instance,
filibusters have been used to
kill legislation supported by.
blacks and working people.
Because of this, a broad
coalition of groups, Including
every major civil rights and
labor organisation, have
banded together in solid
support of Senator Byrd’s
proposals. While thssft groups
fully recognise that the
Majority Leader’s reforms
will not end filibusters or even
reduce the number of votea
necessary for cloture (the
number of votes required to
end a filibuster), they clearly
under*land that the reforms
go a long way In restoring
majority rule in the U.S.
Senate.
On the surface at least,
Senator Byrd’s suggested
changes might appear to be
Insignificant and over
compromised, but their
adoption could very well
signal the beginning of the and
for the filibuster, one of the
last, but most durable
manifestations of Inequality
and minority-rule In America.
Blacks Named To Staff Committee
ur. Jay • Robinson,
Superintendent of Schools, has
appointed a staff committee to
review proposals from various
community and youth
organizations for programs to
help students pass state
required competency tests.
Several proposals from the
community have already been
submitted to the Superin
tendent. The ataff committee
will review these proposals In
terms of the needs of students
and will determine which
proposals can best meet those
needs The committee w"!
then make its recom
mendations on which
proposals should he endorsed
oy me scnoot system to the
Superintendent's Council.
The committee, which plans
Its first meeting February 11,
Includes: Alexander Byers,
chairman. Independence area
superintendent; Mrs. Deane
Crowell, assistant supertn*
lendent for human resources;
Dr. Charles Hickman,
assistant superintendent for
SUPPORT
OUR
'VDVERTISERS!
curriculum; Mrs. Barbara
Davl*. Title I specialist;
Prank Roczelle, principal of
Myer. Parti HIthVttfllra.
Elisabeth Randolph, ex-officio
member, associate
superintendent for curriculum
and procram rtrratocnoiil