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Editorials & Comments ~Prejudice k — - An Expensive Luxury I Much has been written, said Snd is well known about discrim ination and prejudice against blacks in jobs, housing and edu cational opportunity. Yes, even today with equal opportunity laws and affirmative action pro grams the war against prejudice must continue to be fought. The evidence of the continuing struggle is abound. The nearly 40 percent unemployment rate among black youth and the widening gap in income between black and white families - in 1970 blacks earned 61 percent of that of whites; by 1980 this had dropped to 57 percent. Obviously, prejudice in the marketplace is not limited to • . blacks. Hispanics, women and other so-called minorities are continuing victims of prejudice. For example, women in all areas of the business world too often are confronted with sexual harassment, and the problem is not confined to the United States. Dr. Henher Ertel of Munich, West Germany, recently inter viewed 847 women, married and unmarried, bn sexual harass ,ment. According to Dr. Ertel, l nearly 75 percent of these women confessed to having had sexual relations wllh their male bosses. Assuming the accuracy of Dr. Ertel’s'conclusions, job security and the sexual permissiveness that characterized contempo J rary society probably account ►: for that high percentage in West f: Germany. The percentage in America, hopefully, is much ji lower -- but probably not the rate j‘ of sexual harassment. • ' It is well known, too, that as minorities begin to advance the corporate ladder the pressures toward prejudice and discrim ination begin to increase even when the people who make these opportunities available die sin— fcijere in their hiring and promo tion practices v '■ This was well illustrated in the • experience of Mary Cimning • ham. At the tender age of 27 Ms. Cunningham was hired by the ^ Bendix Corporation as an execu tive assistant to the board chair man. After a year on the job she was promoted to vice president for corporate and public affairs. Three months later she received a second promotion to vice presi dent for strategic planning. “The —question that aroused so much passionate discussion,’’ she wrote in a recent article, was “did 1 merit those promotions?” She added that “...the argu ment became so distorted...and the environment so counter pro ductive that 1 decided to spare the organization any further dis traction.” Thus, in October of 1980 Ms. Cunningham resigned her position amid rumors and gossip that she was having a corporate romance with her boss William Agee, Bendix's board chairman. Fuel for this alleged romance was added by the sepa ration and eventual divorce of Agee from his wife following Ms. Cunningham’s separation and eventual divorce from her hus band who happened to be a black man. Now comfortably situated as a vice president with Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Tnc., and aware of the character assassin ation she faced at Bendix, Ms. Cunningham wrote, "Tt would seem there are' no norms' for people’s minds to rest on when they see a woman set a record in business - so they turn to the very shop-worn explanation that she used her sexual charms to get there.” In the final analysis, Ms. Cun ningham demonstrated her true character by retaining her per spective on corporate ethics when she refused to engage in a Ralph Nader type verbal war on the white male corporate inner circle. In the fashion of one mature beyond her age, and reflecting the true character or a corporate leader, she said, ”... joining an organization is like being born -into a family nr taking on citi zenship. With that joining, you take on new responsibilities, the most serious of which is work for the good of the organization.” Ms. Cunningham did just that, “worked for the good of the organization,” and when the or ganization became too petty, too immature, to accept and appre ciate her talents, dedication and hard work, she simply moved oh to bigger and better things. / Chargers Are Men Of Courage? \ It appears ironic that in the midst of a mid-season baseball strike we have heard the echos of frustration cried out by our semi-pro football team, the Carolina Chargers. They said before their game with the San Antonio club last Saturday night that if 8,000 paying customers didn’t show up they would all quit the t^ran. Influenced by collapse of the World Football League where some of its teams lost out in a dollar bidding war with the obviously more established NFL, the American Football Association (AFA) instituted a rule saying players would be paid one percent of each home game gate receipts after ex penses. The objective, of course, is to insure the survival of each team’s need to have operating expenses and to avoid bidding wars for players. THE FLIGHTOF BLACK CAPITAL FROM BLACK .COMMUNITIES...BY BLACKS Li A View From Capitol Hill Reapportionment: A Political Reality By<»us Savage Member of Congress Reapportionment is a po litical reality that con fronts members of the House of Representatives and Ihelr constltutents every 10 years. Because of the length of time involved, we tend to forget how im portant redistricting is and what it means not only during th 10-year period at hand but often for decades to come. The U.S .Constitution re quires each State's legis lature to redraw its con gessional district boun uaries every 10 years. This is to keep all districts equal, according to growth and shifts of population revealed by the latest de cennial census. When the population fi gures and the number of Representatives to which th state is entitled are transmitted to the state's executive, the state has the - Hilly to rwtistrir-l |n most states this duty is carried out by the Stafe legisla ture. However, regardless of the procedure used, the federal courts step in if the process becomes dead locked With this mandatory re quirement to redistrict often arises various schemes to draw arbitrary boundary lines to deter mine the configuration of the congressional districts. This monster that rears its ugly head is called gerry mandering. In practice gerrymandering is an ex cessive manipulation of a legislative district to bene fit particular persons or parties. Gerrymandering gets its name from former Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry and re ferred to an oddly-shaped district carved out in Essex County in 1812. In my own state of Il linois. maps have been de veloped by two groups, the Independent Voters of Il linois and the Political Ac tion Conference of Illinois, which smack of gerry Hon. Gus Savage mandering in its most bla tant form. They violate life following principles that should be uppermost in the minds of all blacks con cerned about fairness in the political process. -No map should be ger rymandered or designed to lessen the likelihood of three blacks being elected to Congress from Chicago again, for this would be undemocratic and a step backward -No map should put resi dences of any two Chica go s inree black members of Congress into the same district. This would un necessarily divide the black community. Divide and conquer is a tactic we should all recognize at this juncture in our political history. - No map should extend any of Chicago’s predomin antly black districts into the suburbs. This, too, is unnecessary and elsewhere has been the illegal though traditional means of curb ing natural and fair in creases in black political representation. Since the passage of the Voting Rights Bill, this has been a common practice in the South. While circumstances might cause the above principles to alter some what. generally they are applicable to every large urban area in the nation in which there is a large concentration of black citizens. Based on the 1980 census. Sunbelt and Western states win the redistricting sweepstakes: Florida stands to gain four seats while Texas will pick up three, and there is a pos sibility for blacks to. gain seats in both states; Ari - zona. California. Oregon. Tennessee and Utah will gain one seat each. The major losers will be from the snowbelt and Eastern states: New York will pro bably lose five seats; Il linois. Ohio, and Pennsyl vania, two; Indiana. Mary land. Massachusetts. Michigan. Missouri, and New Jersey, each one Black members could be affected in at least three of these states: Illinois. Mi chigan and Missouri. If the potential for black political power was not diluted through gerry mandering and other tricks, there is no question that we would have black members from Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and other states based on population. Therefore, reapportion ment is a matter of grave concern for blacks if we are to hold on to the gains we have made in congression al seats. Moreover, if we are to make further gains, we must guard against efforts to pit one black against another - whether such efforts come from within or from outside. We must be diligent and stand together in this im portant struggle Scholarship Leslie Elizabeth Michael of P. 0. Box 23056, Mint Hill has been named winner of the Jeld-Wen-Wenco scho larship at the University of North Carolina at Char lotte. She recently graduated from Independence High School where she was a marshal, a member of the National Honor Society, winner of history and French awards and active in Republican political campaigns. • By Gerald C. Horne. ESQ.; Affwtm otive Action Blatrfc BaHet§ , 1981 is not an election year but events are taking place now that could affeet for years to come the political landscape. Quite correctly, much attention has been focused on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, scheduled to expire next year. The act is widely viewed as one of the most effective civil rights laws and gives federal protection to minority voters in all or parts of those slates that have histories of discrimination. Most of the Southern states are included but so is New York - which has the largest black population in the country, T Senator Strom Thurmond of South Caro lina now heads the Senate' Judiciary Com mittee. He favors repeal or alteration of the act to remove federal control over local affairs on “states’ rights” grounds. One would think that the Civil War decided for an time the “right’’ of states to treat their citizens as they pleased within their borders but like a perennial weed it sprouts in every political season. Still, the battle over the Voting Rights Act may be the most important struggle this year. But that’s not all. “When it rains, it pours,” and 1980 was a census year. Thus reapportiohments of city councils, state legislatures, congressional districts, etc., are all the rage Uiis year. Already, "gerry-. mandering” has caught on like a virus; oblong sized districts, salamander sized districts, shaping any sized districts as long as they dilute or deprive black voting power is the rule. New York State has over 2.4 million blacks, a million or more than second place California,' and a hefty per centage of those are in New York City. Some estimate that there is a black and Hispanic majority there but you’d never know it from looking at the City Council. The proposed * ‘reapportionment ’ ’ based on the 1980 census would severely worsen" the situation. Not only states with substantial black populations like Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, etc., can be reapportioned. Take Oregon, for example, a state hot known for a large number of black citizens. As Calvin Henry, head of the "Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs (OABA), put it: "In 1970, many people felt that the community was divided up. so that there was almost no chance for a black to be nominated or elected,” to a state legisla tive seat. This year they’re not taking any chances: "We are urging the black community come forth on this. Write to represent atives... Once the die is cast, we don’t have any right to complain.” The NAACP has not been derelict here. The Southeast Regional Office of the NAACP has established a regional legis lative reapportionment monitoring com mittee that will watch-dog the process in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Miss issippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. NAACP field staff in these states will coordinate this monitoring effort. NAACP state conferences are establishing special political action task forces to insure that the NAACP point of view is made known during the public hearings and debates that are a part of the reapportiori ment process in the various states. ' Those in other states should emulatf the NAACP effort. THE CHARLOTTE POST Second Class Postage No. 965500 THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 .. Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co.. Inc. 1524 West Blvd.. Charlotte. N*C 28208 Telephone 1704 ) 376-0496 Circulation 9,200 63 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson Editor. Publisher Bernard Reeves General Manager Fran Farrer Advertising Director Dannette Gaither Office Manager Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte, N.C. under the Act of March 3, 1878 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 become the property of the POST and will not he returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. 2100 S. Michigan \vr. " ,5*h s*-. •»*» Chicago. Ill WKil« Vork. VV.inou; Calumet 3-0280_<2I2> IK!M22II_ brom Capitol Hill Government Fails To Use Its Power Against Racism Mfreria I.. Madison Special To The Post . Because of criminal vio lence directed against minorities throughout the nation. Representative John Conyers. Chairman of the House Judiciary Sub committee on Criminal Justice, held a hearing which focused on federal criminal civil rights laws and their enforcement in order to determine the ade quacy of legal protection afforded minorities from racially motivated vio lence All witnesses at this hearing emphasized very strongly that racial vio lence caused by increased racial: and ethnic hatred and prejudice rears its ugly head, in various ways. These take the form of murder, cross burnings, paramilitary training camps, racial epithets and slurs, mailing of hate li terature. rise of racist or ganizations. rallies, re cruitment of students and just about every imagin able tactic are being used The present economic condition gives impetus to racist leaders, who advo cate that equality and so Alfreda I.. Madison rial justice lor blacks are contributing causes to rising inflation and unem ployment The lack of com munication between minor ities and local and state of ficials give rise to racial violence f)r Mary Berry of the Civil Rights Commission testified that the commis sion had urged both Pre sidents Carter and Reagan to issue an Executive Or der designating a cabinet member to lead a strong t'nited Federal response to activities of hate groups A report was sent to Presi dent Carter and then Pre sidenl-Elect Reagan in January. 1981. stressing the need for the President, congress and Justice De partment to strengthen the government's ability to counter acts of racial vio lence. stating that it is of critical importance and that national leadership and the Justice Depart ment speak out forcefully against these acts of vio lence. Dr. Berry commented on the adequacies and inade quacies of section 241. 242 and 245 of U.S.C. 18 Sec lion 241 requires proof of a mmspiracy. The Federal Courts have required spe cific intent of a conspiracy to deprive citizens of rights in order to sustain a vio lation Since this statute applies only to conspiracies and a conspiracy requires more than one person, it precludes persecution of an act committed by a private person Section 242 must show that a person acted wilfully to deprive any U.S. inhabitant of rights gua ranteed under the constitu lion Proving willful action is difficult Then. too. ii a guilty veri':ct is found pun ishment under 242 is limit ed to $1,000 fine and a year in prison unless death occurs. Section 245. which contains many 1965 civil rights measures, specifies a list of activities afforded ff>r Federal protection. However, some of these activities must show proof of race, color or religious origin The Civil Rights Commission recommends eliminating restrictions that victims must be U.S. citizens, removing the showing nf intent require ments and that more wide spread use be made of Section 245 Dr Denise Carty-Bennia, who teaches Constitutional and Civil Rights l^w at Northeastern University, staled that the Federal government has the juris diction to address prevent ively and punitively the increasing numbers of vio lent incident, directed against blacks and other minorities, under the Thir teenth Amendment She slated that it is tragic that 160 years after the amend menl's adoption, its hi storic significant has never lived up to its promise. The amendment declares the freedom of all the human race within the govern ment's jurisdiction; it is a universal cnarter of free dom which had the effect not only of abolishing slav ery but of rejecting all of its badges and incidents. Dr Carty-Bennia said that the failure of the Thirteenth Amendment's promise and consequently the failure of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are at the heart of the racial maelstrom which has developed the United States since its beginning In discussing the legisla tive history surrounding the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment both Dr. Carty-Bennia and Victor Goode, President of toe National Bar Assoc , strongly emphasized that the Thirteenth Amendment mandates federal enforce ment power to ensure the rights of blacks and other minorities. It requires fe deral authorities to investi gate incidents of racial vio lence. The hearing strongly re vealed that this country is facing a racial crisis of unknown proportions The Ford Foundation report de termined that blacks are already resorting to re taliatory measures -esult inn from the failure of local and state officials to stem the tide of racial violence against blacks. Witnesses emphasize very strongly the federal govenment's failure to use measures at its disposal to curve racial violence. Sickle Cell Receives Merit Certificate The Center for Sickle Cell ^ Disease at Howard Uni versity has received a cer tificate of appreciation for participation in the 1961 Health Fair entitled "feel ing Fine” which was held April 3-11, 1961 in the Washington-Metropolitan area In addition to the certificate for the Center, an individual certificate of appreciation was awarded to Philip Panned who is a community program developer at the Center
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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