Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Jan. 19, 1984, edition 1 / Page 2
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editorials -CHuEsaai Black People Are Invisible From time to time the actions of omissions of white Americans have reminded us of the truism in Ralph Ellison’s best seller novel of yesteryear, “The Invisi ble Man,” which says black people are invisible as if non existent because whites have largely ignored them and their contributions. Now, in the 1980’s, blacks have been given a new dimension of invisibility in that once seen in - certain presumed situations, then any and all blacks are one and the same and all look alike. This new invisibility parallels the story of the arrival of a Chinese student at Columbia University. When asked what was his first impression of America, he said, “I find it strange that all white Americans have slanted eyes.” Undoubted ly, the Chinese student was ob sessed with a need to be around his own countrymen. Therefore, in the absence of large num bers of Chinese people, the student created an illusion that fKIn his mind Columbia Univer sity was populated'with Chinese people. Black Americans, as the “invisible man” of whites, have traditionally been insulted, ignored, buried $& mere foot notes in history if recognized at all, and have often seen ethers . assume credit fof'their cultural contributions. However, the new invisible black man is seeing his freedom, and indeed fate life threatened, by an almost reverse invisiblity. Three contemporary historic facts clearly illustrate | our'point Alleged Robbery First, is the now well known case of Lennell Geter, 26, of ^JPeg|aart^,S^CjL, Mri^a S.C. State pMson for an alleged $615 hold up of a restaurant in a small Texan town near Greenville,' Texas, where he worked. In spite of testimony -by his supervisor and eight other co workers that he, Geter, was at work at the time of the al leged robbery, and with the Bamberg, S.C. sheriff hotly denying that he told a ?Green ville, Texas, police lieutenant that Geter was wanted for 30 robberies in South Carolina, the all-white jury found Geter guilty and a judge sentenced him to life in prison. Geter’s co-workers and friends say be is 9 victim of mistaken identity. Yet, Sgt Donald Kuha, the arresting officer, said, “First of all, it’s real hard when you*tt dealing with the black race to get an identification made. Most people say they all look alike.” Four white witnesses to the robbery identified Geter from among pictures of five other blacks. Clamor Of Racism • • • - f 1 V'-jk - »« After serving 477 days in jail, Geter is now free on bond awaiting a possible new trial amid the clamor of racism, shoddy police work and the questioning of a Geter look alike. Secondly, Ted Alexander, a 25 year-old black man with no police record, was convicted in Statesville, N.C. by an all-white jury and sent to prison for 14 years for the alleged robbery of a second hand radio and $18. During the two-hour trial' Alexander denied the charge and his court-appointed attorney, who admitted to having limited criminal work experience, called no other witnesses and made no effort to have the trial postponed to find*alibi witnesses. While being identified as one of four black men involved in the May 20 robbery, two of the ac tual robbers testified that they did not know Alexander and he was hot involved in the rob bery. Furthermore, a woman who did not have an opportunity to testify claims that Alexander - was with her at the time of the robbery. Thirdly, after a few denials, the U.S. Supreme Court has begun to review the jury selec tion process that allows attorn eys for the plaintiffs and de fendants to reject prospective jurors without cause. This has led to the exclusion of hlactij from jury duty where the jflaip tiffs are white and the defen dants are black; thus, the new invisible man conviction as in the cases cited here. The Supreme Court’s earlier refusal to impose relevant “jury of your peers” standards may have led to other blacks, being convicted on the new invisible man mentality. Fortunately, due to the re-thinking by the high . court as result of encouragement by Justice Thurgood Marshall, we may see a chance in the jury selection process. This would be a major step toward correcting one of the unjust aspects of our criminal justice system. Crime b A Pressing Problem In The Mack Community * •** VF;*. Letters To: Til® Stand Up For Rights Of Others To Hie Editor: There was a time when America represented an “Alliance for Progress,” not one of despair; when America was a beacon of hope for the downtrodden and oppressed anuses; when tin-homed dictators, reactionary goons and gangsters dkfo’t have a friend in theT” " “ An Amerh was truly fair, jj ately, tars, and seem to: The cans of stead of comb , £ garbage cans, and sleep in flop houses instead of on street cornero. Even the misers used to pretend to believe in equality, and the selfish anti-Judo-Christian philosophies which are now taking charge, such as EST, were unknown or were considered gtrange cults. We need to return to the willingness to stand up for the rights and needs of others, for the irar on poverty, and even for the work campe and teach-ins. American has faced many ana varied chal lenges throughout the years. Some of the great est have been indirect and subtle. McCarthyism, with its anti-communist myths and hysteria, had been aimed far. more pointedly at our own revolutionary' traditions than at the Rus sians. A' one-third century of expenditures have eaten away at oqr democratic, egalitarian and revolution ary traditions. The ideological bull about the solidarity of the working class, and the il lusions that the greatest leadership comes from the most oppressed victims, hasn’t helped matters. We must take back our flag from the foreign con artists like Rev! Moon, and the domestic reaction aries who try to use the flag to opposf the equality and justice far which it stands. We" need to become in sulted when the flag is : printed on inferior mer chandise, and to become incensed when compan ies, like American Express abuse the Statue of Li berty, and other symbols with crass commercialism -incensed enough to write indignant letters in«i«Hng that one can still love tbe Satue pf Liberty without using- American Express charge cards. Let us try to return to Ca meiot. Let’s try to bo proud of our American symbols, add make them agaia stand for something that is worthy of respect, not tear. itMffiSfSr slow, balanced march to ward equality that our forebearers steered us toward. __ Jim Roberson SOMETHING ON YOUR MIND? Do you have some thing to say? Then do so fbr everyone to read. The Charlotte Post, the only other voice in town, wel comes all letters on various subjects. Write: Editor, P. O. Box 30144, Charlotte, N.C. 28230. THE CHARLOTTE POST “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. Subscription Rate $17.88 Per Year Second Class Postage No. 985500 Postmaster Send 3579s to: 1531 Camden Rd., Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Telephone: 704-378-0496 Circulation: 11,023 108 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson Editor, Publisher Bernard Reeves General Manager Fran Farrar Advertising Director Dannette Gaither Office Manager Second Class Postage No. M550S Paid at Charlotte, North Carolina 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 Sp.m., Monday. All photos and copy '" submitted become the property of The Post and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. MSS 8. Michigan Are. 45 W. 45th 84.. Mtc 14S3 Otic ago. ID. Uhl New York, New York ISSN Cota met S-S2SS 712-480-1220 —______.'Uii from Capitol Hul Problems Confronting Black F amers a a a* a a a - - -___ uit: rate uiucks arc losing farmland it is pre dicted that by 1990, there will be only about 10,000 black farms in this coun try. While all farms are declining, Mack fanners are losing land more than twice as fast as the na tional average. Between 1909 and 1978, the total number of farms declined by 23.8 percent, but the number of black farms for that same period declined by 97.2 percent. The vast majority of Mack farms, 89.6 percent, were under SO acres In size. Problems confronting black fanners are: racial discrimination, lack of in stitutional economic sup port and tax structure geared to benefit large farm operations. The Civil Rights Com mission issued an alarm ing report on discrimina tion in the United States Department of Agriculture (ISDA) in dispersing fed eral funds to formers. The Farmers Home Ad ministration (FmHA) is the principal lending insti tution for rural farmers. These programs have the capability to provide im mediate direct assistance to Mack farmers to pre vent their loss. It was found that in 1878 the average Mack farm income was 87,964, compared to ■ 817,998 for whites. USDA and FmHA hove failed to integrate civil rights goals in program objectives and V Alfred* I.. Madison to use enforcement mech anisms to ensure black farmers equal opportun ities in farm credit pro grams. The proportion of FmHA loans made to black-farmers has declined annually since 1980. In cluded in the loans assist ance is a requirement that minority farmers would re ceive low interest loons. The Commission found that the majority of minority farmers were not provided low interest, but instead received their loans at re gular interest rates and in some states, black borrow ers received proportion ately fewer limited re sources than whiten. - •/ fPL. Cl ^ * —■— 1 — — 1A ^ — A* ine commission invesii gation revealed thatVmHA contributes to the Mack farmers' problem. Hear ings before the Corner vation Credit and Rural Development on H.R. 1190, ‘'UDDorted I ha fliMiii id sion’s findings. Exncuttv* Director oi Hnt SKllonai Sharecroppers Fund, Katherine Waller, de scribed discrimination In handling FmHA funds in North Carolina. She ex plained the discriminatory lending policies in predo minantly black counties. Secretary of Agriculture Block, after several ft months, responded to .the Commission's report,* He stated that FmHA rdakes only a sihall contribution to farmers and that no dif ference should be made for black fanners; given the small number of Mack farmers, FmHA does not serve them well USDA has not Men en forcing dvil rigbfts laws. Isidore Rodriquez, Direc t groups which benefit from the dvil rights policy have nd beenjxy Ucal wipport Discrimination none In CM2 and the com pliance of field reviews from 98 to none. Rodriquez was later cfcs fhissed and Secretary Block promised dvil rights enforcement improve ment. Yd, in a letter to Mr. Block in March, 1988, the Civ^ Rights Commission The FmHA black farm Ki loans had declined steadily since I960 an&that FmHA black employment had fall en, despite overall agency employment increase. • Jl *rSf&ji +- ' - 'JT * . )\t> . The number of loans made to blacks declined by 20 percent between 1980 and 1962. Only one out of four black loans was re ceived at the low interest rate. In many states, blacks have a very shm chance of receiving the low interest loans. In US loans made to blacks in Arkansas and 99 in Virginia, only one in each stated received a low interest loan, and out Of tbe 92 in Georgia, three re ceived low interest loam. FmHA employment rose between March, 1962, and October, 1962, by 440 or five percent, while minority employment far the same period fell from 11.2 to 16.7 percent. The Office of Minority Affairs <OMA) has the r* civil rights enforcement. IPPM r; SaktM 3K Church Versus State? . Traditionally, the church has .beau a motivating force in the black community. The community looked and looks .to . the church for religious guidance, education, help during needy times and a place to build social and political opinions. A great majority of known black leaders and in novators gained their strength, support and popularity through the church. They achieved this bv incorporating the teacbfc. ings of the Bible and God, and seeing the need far social reform and civil rights gained.,/ ’ ,v» Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one such leader. Dr. King began Ms campaign for civil rights in his neighborhood church. As the need to achieve equality and civil rights became more important, the power and substance of Dr. King’s speeches spread throughout the community into the state, thus leading to national recognition. The power source for Dr. King was the church. The struggle and philosophy of Dr. King were commonly referred to in sermons and church meetings. Dr. King worked through the building church and not the religion of the church. Wien Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on the bus to a white person, the nation’s media began to focus directly on the developing civil rights movement. Dr. King called upon the church people to protest and boycott against the bus com panies nationwide for making black people sit at the rear of the bus. The people answered and peacefully began to take action. democratic ^residential candidate Kev. Jesse Jackson is using the tool of the chon to launch his campaign for (he PresidsfifiL Rev. Jackson has appeared in churches delivering his campaign speeches and partaking in brief queatietr sndansJB sessions. He speaks in the church buildfijg •and not of religion. Many of these church people are endorsing the Jackson candi daqy. Critics of Jackson claim that he is net of church churches. What the critics fail to explain is the exact meaning of church. If they ares referring to the building, Jackson has every right to campaign there as he does to campaign in the civic center - v a Diace of lathering. If the critics are referring to the religious aspect of church, Jackson seems to have successfully man poses. and even political ami economic purposes for the last Set and IS gaminj for hU campaign AsDr- _ackson must begin to move out of the church building and on to places where larger numbers of people can gather to listen to his speeches. The few times the nation has seen Jackson was during his humanitarian mission to Stria for the release of Lt. Robert Goodman. Jackson achieved his goal and was briefly heard during and shortly after the release and has almost but all disappeared from national television and newspaper™
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 19, 1984, edition 1
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