Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 31, 1984, edition 2 / Page 2
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Tomy Brown's COMMENTS How Negro Mis-Education Works I first became angry, then stunned and finally tearful wnd hurt. Mostly hurt. How can we continue to psycholo gically abuse ourselves? b it possible that oa»sace can possibly hate itself this much? Searching for an excuse, I desperately latched on to The New York Times report that she was from Jamai ca. That didn’t work as an excuse either. Too many great black Ieaders-proud of their blackness and heritage-came to the United States from Jamaica. No. Marcus Garvey and the impeccably historian J. A. Rogers gave African-Americans too much to be confused with this Negro lady from Great Neck, N.Y. The photograph of Mrs. Mavis Ste phenson accompanying The New York Times story was the epitome of a well heeled, educated, classy, very attractive black woman. Looking at her, you felt pride and fantasized that somehow ma gically the entire race could present such an image. out ner words in one ot America s most * influential journals, if you had any pride in yourself as a black person, cut deeply. The wound was deeper than the ones inflicted by racism; after a point, they just roll off. But from a member of your own tribe? There is no defense. The Mack community in the ghettos all across America supported the NAACP’s fight against restrictive covenants that prevented blacks' such as Mrs. Ste phenson from moving from New York City to the Great Neck, Long Islands of the country. The sons and daughters of Afro American slaves fought and died in every American war, rebuilt the South after the devastation of the Civil War. Even Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers gave their lives, and Ida B. Wells Bumett started the subsequently suc cessful movement against lynching in 1896 (at a that time one Mack was lynched every day in this country) to pave the way for other blacks to work, go - to school or live anywhere in America they choose. Mrs Stephenson did not like the idea of a Mack college. She had been pleased mkny years ago when they moved from New York City to an apartment in Great Neek because it meant that Shoney would attend integrated schools. sne nas grown up in mis environ ment, she has a mixture of values... I’m from Jamaica. I do not fed angry about racial tension, as many American blacks feds. You grow up in a white community, you won’t have as much bias and pre judice against whites.” Shoney, the daughter, was subjected to a process of being “worn down and tamed” when she insisted on going to Howard University in Washington, D.C., to become a doctor. Said her mother, “I just kept ignoring Shoney. She’d bring it up and I’d ignore it.” She also told her daughter, according to the story, that “there would be a better chance for medical school” at a "state (white) school.” Mrs. Stephenson’s engineer-brother added more racist myths to her argu ment. “He’s not impressed with all black schools.... He says it’s a white 'world and you never know what employ ' ers will think.” You can really tell what white em ployers think of black engineering schools each year when they deckle to recruit the very best trained Afro Americans in the field. Where do they go? They make an average of 17 job offers to each engineering graduate at Prairie View A&M University, a black school near Houston, TX. No black engineering graduate at a white school can expect that kind of reception into the professional world. Neither is the world a “white world.” It is a world dominated by people who are well-trained and who fiaJsli (not attend) college. But Mrs. Stephenson’s daughter has a better grasp on reality than her mother and uncle. “At these other schools they try to get you to fail. They weed out the weak people, while at Howard they want you to succeed." wver<m, omy ai percent oi an DiacK college students attend a predominantly black college, but more than 50 percent of today’s black graduates are produced by them.Conversely, while80percent goto white colleges, less than 50 percent of the black college, graduates come from them. About seven out of 10 blacks at white colleges never graduate. Neither does this mean that Mack colleges sacrifice academic achieve- 1 ment. A recent study comparing the ] graduate school performance of 210 { blacks with degrees from Mack colleges ■ with 140 Mack graduates of white col leges found that “Mack colleges turned out students whose grades in advanced degree programs matched those of Macks who were- grads of white uni versities.” But more importantly, 80 percent of all Macks with advanced degrees from white universities received their under graduate degrees from a black college, dispelling the notion that black colleges are inferior. They are simply specializ ing and do the best job of educating black students. The 114 black colleges are Afro America’s biggest bridge to success. More than 80 percent of all black college graduates finished one of these institu tions. That includes 85 percent of black lawyers; 85 percent of all black phy sicians; 75 percent of all black Ph.D.s; 75 percent of all Mack officers in the American armed services; over 50 per cent of the country’s black executive*; and 80 percent of all black judges, ” including Supreme Court Justice Thur good Marshall. Somehow Shooey Stephenson got the message, probably by living in a com munity of 8,188 where only 5.7 percent is black. The Times said that Sboney felt "a little worn oat living around people with such different tastes from hen.” The struggle to preserve black colleges is not aimed at either preservii* se gregation or farcing all black students to attend one, an obvious impossibility. Panel To Discuss Parallel Paths A panel of women and black leaders will discuss the parellel directions taken by the civil rights and women’s movements at the 7:30 PM Wednesday June 8 meeting of the Charlotte Women’s Politi cal Caucus. Members of the Black Women’s Caucus have been invited to join the discussion at the Up town YWCA, 418 E. Trade St. Kelly Alexander Jir., president of the Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP, and . former.. Charlotte = Mayor Pro-Tem Betty Chafin Rash will discuss similar ities in the two movements. Lewis Myers and doris Cromartie, directors of N.C. Department of Com merce departments over seeing the development of minority and women’s businesses, will discuss services their departments provide. Attorney Yvonne Mims Evans will introduce and moderate the panel. A question-and-answer period and social time will follow the discussion. A Year of the ★ BEST NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT 7 Anywhere . 'W' Can Be Yours. *yt v - Call_3760496 - - . 7' LUTHER VANDROSS . * AT THE CAROWINDS PALADIUM Saturday, June 9 9 p.m. with THE DOE
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May 31, 1984, edition 2
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