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CfliMl.i tCOMU ■ Racism Contributes To Oil Crunch by Hoyle H. Martin Sr. Post Editorial Writer The traumatic five month Arab oil embargo in 1973-74 was characteriz ed by higher prices for gasoline and other petroleum products, short ages, long lines at the gas pump, shorter vacation plans, reduced driving speed limits, the closing of thousands of gas station, and of course more imflatipn^. _ Today, with the ousting of the Shah and the emergency of Ayatollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran, the United States is caught in the grips of yet another oil crisis - a world loss of two million barrels of oil per day tor over six weeks. What may be even more significant is that “The true dimensions of the poten - tial crisis,” Newsweek says, “has yet to sink in on Congress or a public grown openly skeptical after years of energy false alarms.” • Furthermore, our southern neigh borhood, Mexico, found a vast sea of proven oil reserves estimated to be 26 billion barrels; yet the United States is able to import only 500,000 barrels daily. One result of these recent developments in our own with the United States’ economic reveals, is that gasoline prices have risen by an average of two cents per gallon since December and some local gas stations have started dos ing on weekends because of gas A primary cause of the oil crunch, past and present, had been the long •standing racist policy and attitude of the United States toward the developing nations. For example, the deposing of the Shah in Iran, and more importantly the loss of a vital oil supply even if only temporarily, was caused by an "Ugly American" approach to the Iranian people. Since the Shah’s modernization plan was compatible with the United Stated economic i and geopolitical interests, hi-wail given full support even when be denied the human rights of many. Secondly, until November 1978, the U.S. Embassy hi Iran did not have even one staff specialist in Iranian religious affairs nor any contact with the Shah's major political opponent, Ayatollah R. Khomeini. And some imposed Middle East experts who knew the. Shah well have admitted little knowledge of, nor interest in the Iranian people and cuttMre,. Our difficulties in getting import- * *ed oil from Mexico’s new-founcT oil deposits stem from a similar kind of contempt and disrespect of our southern neighbor. This was evident _in a statement by a_ high-ranking Mexican diplomat. He said, "We want the Americans to stop thinking ...that we are just a dumb, poor little country to the south.” Paternalistic Attitude While our paternalistic attitude as a nation toward Mexico goes back many yean, we don’t have to look very far to find examples. Fint, President Carter’s election vear__ commitment to a “new era’’ of neighborly cooperation was never implemented. Instead, paternalism continued. Angered too over the U.S. failure to sell Mexico natural gas has led Mexican officials to declare that in addition to a fair price for their oil, they want to re-open negotiations on their pur chase of natural gas and some help with their massive social and econo mic problems. Undoubtedly, Mexico was listen ing when Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, told the U.N. delegates from the world’s poorest nations in 1975 that a new interna tional economic order was neces sary. Specifically, he said, “I suggest that OPEC .. changed the fundamental equations of economic power as decisively as did the Industrial Revolution.” This very brief account represents hist two examples of how our behavior and attitude as a nation .toward the developing nations is a major factor in our inability to buy crude oil at a fair market proce and thus not compound our already exiatinginflation problem. Ironically, many black-owned businesses such as gas stations, and ynmny industries • plastics for example - that employ blacks and . use petroleum in their products may be facing a serious crisis with the oil shortage. Thus, the racism that helped create the oil shortage in the U.S. also hurts black Americans as small business people and as in certain industries. . Therefore, it's imperative that America begin to practice the huihan' rights; the brotherhood o? man and the equality of all that it so often preaches to others if it hopes to gain the confidence of many other nations. In so doing we can serve our own self interest by finding more oil available to us at a fair market price”' We must however realize that brotherhood means sharing our jechQpjpglcaj know-how not Just ex ploit the resources of other nations' for our own benefit but also'fobe for the benefit of the cooperating . nation. In effect, the sooner America begins to show the dignity and respect that is due to any and all national states, the sooner our domestic oil crisis will begin to reso|yeJtself. America,let’sbrv to do this, first because it’s morally 1 • ir • .. .. the right uung to oo and secondly its necessary that we do it. Self Help The Sure Way Jobs Plentiful Or Scarce? by Dr. Maggie Nicholson Special To The Post Are Jobe plentiful or scarce? The answer lies with the person who wants the job. Will you wait for a certain job or will you accept the first one that comes your way if the need is great or is it necessary to keep one’s pride? I’m thinking about a young man right after World War II, jobs were scarce and he was fresh out of college, nothing in his field to do , but he was determined to have a job, so he bought a second hand washing machine and put it on his parents’ back porcn. everytime he’d hear of a new baby he would go by to get the job washing the baby diapers. The news spread fast and soon he was able to rent an old store front and he put three machines in. After a while be was able to buy the building nnH than hp HypH it ID filled it with machines. By this time his job came after he had finished college. His business was a thriving one so he hired someone to take care of his business while be took his professional job. It was easy for everyone to give him the best of references because he was ambitious and productive as well as a person who knew how to work with people in a job that not even the mothers of the babies wanted. ' I am also thinking of a young lady before World War II who was out of work in another city. She had only enough money to pay one month’s rent, put the lights on and turn the water on. She bought one case of coca cola and fifty pounds of ice, she and fifty pounds of ice and used a wash tub for a refrige rator. She gave up her room she was living in and moved in the back of the store, so one rent could do for both. If the business did not succeed she would have the building Dr. Nicholson for a later date. Well every one saw she had guts to have made this undertaking, so they bought all of the sodas that first day. The next moroipg she increased h#.. and was an outstanding busi ness woman. I ask you, are jobs scarce or plentiful? May be it’s a state of mind. Do you want to work? Do you want a' job? If some one got the job, that you think vou should have had, get another one. Most times it turns out better you and also makes you become ambitious. A person said once that he never hired a person who did not follow up the Job with a second call or try. That made him know that the person wanted the job. When I was a little girl a peddler would come out in the country with his store an his back. A few years later a five and ten cent store was opened in the city. He had proof that the ladles nee&xrthd woldd / buy these gadgets. You could see stores of the people with most any thing that was used. Most of them owned their homes, be they small or large, but when the old heeds passed the children wouldn’t keep the property up. Some sold it for little or nothing and Mew it to the wind while others kept theirs improved and profited. Are Jobe scarce or plentiful? Depends on what your state of mind is. Listen, the United States is receiving fifty thou sand people from Cuba. There are the Boat people and all of the other people who are coming to our shores and are getting Jobs. Are they all getting white collar Jobs? Well, a news broadcast said that professional people like Drs. and others were accept ing such Jobs as Janitors. I wager in a few years they will hang out their shingles and hire their kin. What about the people who helped to till the soil, build the skyscrapers and railroads? There are those who instead of making Jobs, they take two or three of the better paying Jobs to keep tjhem on top of their kin. they try to keep up with the Char les and the Joneses, with no thought or care how those who look up to them fare, they will gladly tell them what the welfare will do for them. Not caring that it takes their pride away. Yes I applies for food stamps. They were not worth the time it took to stand in line; I sent them back finally, the last time was a test case to see if thgy do what they said. About the 'Boat people of Desmolnes, Iowa, the Gover nor said there were almoet no refugees on welfare, almoet every one has a Job and over one third own their homes. How did this happen I ask, when we bear so many say they can’t get a Job? Williams, a black community leader urged Iowans to open their hearts in the super markets to donate food, found shelter for about ten and ran a one man taxi (so states a local paper), for Iowa’s newest minority. He called it “poor helping the poor.” Now the Governor is asking the people of Iowa to take fifteen hundred more, so now Williams is resentful and Is quitting. ——a By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. ———^ I TO 11 BE EQUAL , .1 Race Relations-How Much Progress? Is the glass half-full or is it half-empty? That’s the age-old dilemma of social analysts. Do you stress the amount of progress made, or do you stress the limited nature of that progress? These musings are inspired by a public opinion poll conducted by Louis Harris and Associated on behalf of the National Conference of Christ ians and Jews. The brunt of the survey results* are that there has been a change for the better in the attitudes of the white majority toward black people. The study found that a majority of whites don’t believe blacks are “moving too fast.” A majority of whites whose children are being bused to integrated schools are pleased with the result. The majority of whites say they don’t mind having black neighbors. And a majority of whites back affirmative action - without, however, “rigid quotas.” Some of the results regarding white attitudes should be suggestive to policy-makers. For example, corporations holding back on promot ing blacks to supervisory positions should know that only one out of ten of the whites surveyed objected to having a black supervisor. Congressmen trying to sabotage court deseg regation decisions should take notice of the considerable white support for school integra tion, at least as revealed in the Harris survey. A handful of extremists in a handful of cities have garnered the headlines with resistance to desegregation, but the Poll suggests that the white majority has accepted integrated schools as beinc here to stav. So the positive aspect of this survey lies in the fact that it reveals significant changes in white opinion, changes that policy-makers in both the public and private sectors must take into account. The Poll provides evidence for the proposition that more strenuous efforts to bring equality to black people will be accepted by the white majority, and thus there is no excuse for not pressing ahead with such measures. But I can’t go Overboard on stressing that this Poll’s glasses halfrfuU|rfor^i|pianly taa aware of "the iact that the glass of racial progress is also half-empty. Despite the NCCJ’s optimistic conclusion that the country is not in a regressive^ period of race relations and that “a period of real progress is now imminent,” I have my doubts. For one thing, the gap between white opinions and white actions is still enormous. Overt racism is out of fashion, so people may be more likely to tell poll-takers they don’t mind having black neighbors. But when it comes to housing discrimination, racism is demonstrably still . rampant. Good thoughts do not automatically result in good actions. Some of the people who responded positively to the questions in the poll may act In a discriminatory manner or may tolerate discrim ination by others. The survey may depict a progressive majority, but the facts indicate it is at best a silent majority indifferent to backing opinions with action. The survey also shows a yawning gap between the way whites and blacks perceive issues of concern to blacks. For example, three out of four blacks say that without quotas, affirmative action won’t be implemented. Only a fourth of whites agreed. Whites tend more than blacks to credit major institutions like government and business with concern for black advancement. THE CHARLOTTE POST ‘ ‘THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER ’’ Established 1918 Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Poet Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte. N.C. 28206 Telephones (704)376-0496-3764)497 Circulation, 9,915 60 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE BILL JOHNSON...Editor Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager , SHIRLEY HARVEY...Advertising Director ^ffiNR^LAKS/^Buaineei^lanaijr^^ Second Class Postage No. 966500 Paid At Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3, i»78 Member National Newspaper Publishers Association • North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m. Monday. All photos and copy submitted becomes the property of the POST, and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 45 W. 5th Suite 1403 2400 S. Michigan Ave. i New York, N.Y. 10036 Chicago, 111. 60616 (212 ) 489-1220 Calumet 5-0200 t ' .. 1 8 | Reading The Polls On Racial Issues by Bayard Rustin I Special To The Post For quite e number of yean I have preferred personal observation to supposedly scientific polls. When I parti cipated in the early Freedom Rides and other civil rights demonstrations in the South 1 ' did not need e computer print out sheet to inform me that a i majority of whites hated black people. My own “unscientific" experience taught me that America suffered from a kind of ingrown racism, that mani fotted itself ip the widespread discrimination and repreasior of blacks. And I assdefl no ! sophistics tad economic studies to prove te ma that the ' majority of blacks.attended wretched schools, lived In sub ; standard bousing, end earned considerably lass than their white counterparts. Polls, even with their record of unreUaotmy, iM1re a political impact in our society, an impact that connot be Ignored A recant study on racial issues commissioned by th» National Conference of Christ iana end Jaws serves as a perfect example of the power and controversial nature of polls According to the sur vey, a majority of whites - 71 percent to be precise-believes that “after years of dlscrimi nation, it Is only fair to sat up~ Bayard Rust In . spacuu programs to make sure that women and minori ties are given every opportuni ty to have equal opportunities In employment and educa tion.” Based on this and other findings, the Gomans*;* *vt>- 1 eluded that "a period of real progress is now imminent." All this provoked an out nnurlng nf criticism Irpm several highly respected black leaders. On* important black' community spokesman claimed that the survey results "do not square with actual behavior." Another civil rights leader noted that the study’s conclusions are "not true and totally inconsis tent with what we find in our day-to-day lives as blacks and professionals.” And still . another suggested that the study might be used to Justify “going along with the status quo of racism.” In my view, the controver sial study - like so many other pseudo-scientific polls - is a mixed bag. Critics who point out that the poll may be used to paint an overly rosy picture of race relations seem to have a nnlnt Allow me toAtYC you an illustration: The headline on the New York Times story reporting the survey results' read “White Majority Found to Favor Affirmative Action for Blacks if Quotas Are Not Rigid ’" Titan tA&7# casual reader might conclude that ail' Is well, that the last vestiges of racism have finally disap peared. But the survey con tained other results, many of which I found shocking. Among the most disturbing features of the study ware the following results: « percent of whites still believe that blacks have considersbty lass ambition than whites; M per cent agree that blacks simply want a free rids, a welfare hand-out; and M percent tenaciously cling to the idea that blacks ate inherently less intelligent than whites. To conclude that racism in America has largely vanished and that new breaktlwtx«hs are on the horlaca strikes me as a bit premature although, the National Conference of Christian and Jews certaiply. makes no such claim, the survey results, if surgically dtoected and reassembled, can be used to Justify com placency and unwarranted euphoria about the condition of people. As a mixed beg, the survey also contains tome good news, newt which should not be Ignored. Like numerous other &&M-.J MnJhink of lest year's CBS Newt-New York limes poll, and several surveys competed by 4he National Opinion Research Centar, Oeoaral Social Surveys, and the University of Michigan's TiwHtut* for Soda! Research - the Con/arepce study documents a alow nut ratbar oeneietant shift In whita attitudes toward blacks. Every poll I have seen In the last few yean shows that a significantly largar number of Tthltse now accept the idea of open housing, equal employ ment opportunity, continued welfare oniatance to the poor, and even various forms of meaningful affirmative action. Again, I hasten to restate my akaptism about polls, but I think I can reasonable assort that my own limited experi ence confirms the findings of tha pollsters. There has been e change In racial attitudes. and the change haa been more than merely cosmetic. Racism, of course, has not died, but It has taken a beat ing. To deny the existence of positive change is to deny hope. And to deny hope is to risk lulling black'Amerlca info a state at desperation, and apathy. A demoralised move ment Is the weakest move ment of all. Ambassador Young To Rqroent Pteadent Grtr President Jimmy Carter has named Ambassador Andrew Young to be Us Special Representative at the Australian-American Week celebrations In Australia In early May. Ambassador Young vii Invited to bo the guest of honor at those annual j celebrations by the Australian 1 -American Association. While > there Ambassador Young will Tutorial Program 1 The Dalton Village Tutorial Program is sashing to recruit additional tutors skilled In math and reading to assist students from J-5 p.m. Mon days thru Thursdays. If you are a retired person, college student, housewife or anyone who would like to lend a helping hand , contact Nor man Adams at the Drug Ed ucation Center at 374-3311. consult with tns uoraroment of Australis on lnternatflnal issues of importance to / ustralla and tha United SUtas Ambassador Young will ba aeeompaiaed by Mrs. Young. During Ms trip ba will visit Canberra, Sydnay, Melbourne and Perth. After these annual celebrations by tha Austra llan-American Association, ha will ba a joint guest of tha Association and of the Austra lien Government. _ ■■■■
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 8, 1979, edition 1
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