Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / April 11, 1985, edition 1 / Page 26
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i Tony Brown's COMMENTS Solution To Economic Problems “The people who commit crimes in New York State are blacks and His panics. Hispanic kids, whether from Latin America, Puerto Rico or Cube, are the ones who are committing crimes. “They are the ones who are getting locked up, and as a result, you see the crime rates go down. If there is no father in the home, what role model does a 10 year old have. A boy in the street selling dope." Every part of that statement by New York State Department of Corrections Services Commissioner Thomas Cough lin is absolutely true. But the New York State Black and Puerto Rican Legis lative Caucus attacked this white man's' ideas and one member called them “injurious, prejudicial and racist re marks." Coughlin also said that the state's inmate population is 51 percent Mack and as percent Hispanic and 77 percent of the total prison population. He said that this condition is “caused by a tack of jobs, by poverty" and unstable family structures. With over half of blacks born to single females, bow Coughlin wondered, is a boy going to grpw up in a home with a wholesome “male role model?" ruiu imc many wiuua who warn iu imp, but are intimidated away from the truth, Coughlin apologized. He should now be forced to apologize for apologizing. If a five-star phoney like Ted Kennedy bad blamed Ronald Reagan for the identical situation, lazy-thinking black leaders would have been standing in line to award him another trophy. “What I was trying to do was to point out a problem which is so controver sial that no one will talk about it,” the embattled official admitted. In case Coughlin doesn’t know it, omission is the primary course of action of the black-leader demagogues. While they lam bast Bernhard Goetz Cor racist motives, they ignore or dismiss the highly questionable behavior of the four blacks (who "requested" IS) be shot on a New York subway train last December. Then they raise the threat of White vigilantism overrunning the black com munities of America, bid ignore the vigilantism of a black man, Andrew Frederick, who killed a black would-be holdup man In the same dangerous New York subway system in February. A grand jury correctly refused to indict Frederick on murder charges, based on evidence that showed him defending a candy store vendor and being attacked by the assailant. Frederick was judged to be acting in •eif-defenae, therefore, he was not in dieted. Goetz, based on new evidence • presented before a second grand Jury, was indicted. Evidence, not race, is the variable in these alleged acts of “vi gilantism,” an inappropriate term in these cases. Crime stems from poverty, not race. And a distaste for crime a«n« from decency and a set of values - not race. Because blacks, Hispanlcs, and poor whites are disproportionately living in poverty, they disproportionately try to change their economic status with non productive (in the long run) behavior. Because so many are raised without supervision and by mothers who are children themselves, values of decency, mutual responsibility and overcoming the system with hard work are non existent. But when a white person points out the fact that blacks over-populate prisons, have few decent role models and are locked away to protect society, the truth is called “injurious, prejudicial and racist.” The name calling does not serve the beat interests of society or of those who are injured for life by poverty and its consequences. Why not admit that the core problem of crime is poverty and the economic development of the group that causes most of it is the solution. An assault on poverty is an assault on racism, because racism’s objective is and has always been to give whites an economic advantage. Destroy the reality ' of the advantage and you destroy the premise of white supremacy. Even when the problem of poverty is identified by thelary thinkers as the core problem of crime, the solution is con voluted. Jobs, they will say, will elimin ate crime. But their solution is that a racist society should provide them. If the society is racist enough to cause the conditions of systematic black poverty, how it is at the same time non-racist enough to stop it? The same blacks who are attacking Coughlin for telling the truth are saying nothing about blacks taking their mas sive $200 billion (equal to the GNP of the ninth largest nation jn the free world) in consumer power and sharing it with other blacks. The cause of crime and unstable families and female-headed households and poor schools and low IQs and il literacy and, probably, bad breath, is economic. We should apply ap economic solution to an economic problem “Tony Brown’s Journal’’ TV series can be seen an public television Sunday on Channel 4$, at S p m. It can also be seen on Channel S8, Sunday at $:$0 p.m. Please consult listings. v The Morehouse College Glee Club will be in con cert Sunday, April 14, be ginning at 7 p.m. at First Baptist-West, 1801 Oaklawn Ave. Presented by the Metro lina Morehouse Alumni As sociation, the choir fea tures about 45 gentlemen, .all attending a college which leads all predomi nantly black colleges in the percentage of Ph.D.s on faculty. Morehouse also leads all predominantly black four-year colleges in the number of alumni who ■ have earned Ph.D., M.D., D.D.S., J.D., and M.B.S. degrees. This is the fourth time members of the college alumni ha ve decided to fea ture the ^hoir. It’s one of the members’ principal re cruitment drives. Mem bers like alumni associa tion president Dr. Eugene Alexander are proud of the institute and would like to see more stu dents from this area Flute Forum The Flute Society of the Carolines will sponsor the Third Carolina .Flute Forum on April 20 from 9 a.ra. until 5 p.m. In the Music Building on the CPCC campus. This day-long sympo sium will include per formances by the Charlotte Flute Choir, winners of the recent international com petition in Belfast, Vene zuelan flute music, and the award-winning duo of Irene Maddox and Mark Adder sen. Other events include clinics on Suzuki flute, baroque performance practice and North Caroli na flutists. A solo compe tition for students through the college level will be judged by flute instructors from both Carolinas. Admission is free to Flute Society members. Pre-registration is 18; 96 at the door. Registration open at 8:30 a.m. For more information, contact Claire Goodman at 704-537-7083. attend. j Bringing the Morehouse College Glee Club to Char lotte will give high school students the opportunity to meet students of More house. Other officers of the Me trolina Morehouse Alumni Association include secre tary David Ferguson and treasuruer, Dr. Robert Vaughn. . • Admission is $8. Morel-J Medkal (center licensed OB-GYN Specialist Worried About Being Pregnant ? !. '. - We Core. • Krrr IV«^naiK> IVMinn Oailv c««.r... , ■ nrrrssary I • Abortion • Birth < 'ontrol • Sexuality Counseling 334 *132 All t ails Strictly I3SI D«rwo«d PrivyMow.-Fri. *-*: Sat. H -»j f lllt JACKSONl sErVICE I ^Tservin7charlotte For 36Vear^B
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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April 11, 1985, edition 1
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