Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Dec. 7, 1989, edition 1 / Page 4
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Page4A - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, December 7,1989 Wi)t Cjjarlotte Gerald O. Johnson, Publisher Robert L. Johnson, Co-Publisher Herb White, Editor EDITORIALS Emotion Clouds Issue The outcry over the development of two all-black classes at Eastover Elementary school Is first and foremost a matter for the School Board and the responsible educa tors to deal with in their quest to respond to the educational needs of each child in our school system. Secondly, It Is possibly an other example of the sometimes Insensitiv ity of a race related issue in our communi ty. Undoubtedly, the failure of the Eastover's administration to adequately inform and advise all directly involved parties, particularly the parents, led to some confusion and misunderstanding about the reasons for establishing the two special classes. On the other hand, the larger adult com munity outside of the schools needs to rec ognize the paradoxical nature of their reac tion to racial Issues and questions. For example, if the two classes of presumed dis ruptive 6th graders had been racially Inte grated, few people beyond the Immediate families of the children would have ex pressed any concern. Even If the classes had been all white little would have been heard or said about them. Admittedly, some Insensitivity to the racial segregation of the black students by Eastover's princi pal, particularly In the area of communica tion, helped to heighten the outcry over the whole Issue. Nevertheless, the fanning of the flames of the issue by the black commu nity appears to have been for the wrong rea son. With the emphasis on the racially seg regated class, it appears that little attention was given to the presumed real reason for the establishment of the two spe cial classes, that Is, to meet the special and Individual needs of the Involved students. In a somewhat similar fashion. If two school children of different races happen to get into a childhood fight, the news media, some school personnel and some parents would view it as a racial conflict or the be ginning of a race riot. Few would view the incident for what it really is, merely two kids in momentary conflict. Similarly, those who have suggested that the segregation of the Eastover students would only heighten feelings of alienation among the black students may also be a sign of adult racial Insensltl'dty. Whether we want to admit it or not, some of those black students may have been "disruptive" as a result of the integrated educational en vironment they are in, if they were disrup tive at all. Disruption by young children in some situations may be their way of com municating a need for loving attention, something they might not be getting at home. Let's be realistic, we as adults, both black and white, have placed the heavy burden of creating an integrated society on the backs of children and school systems. No other group of people and no other institution in society has shown the courage to assume this responsibility. In this regard, let us not forget that Sunday mornings at 11a.m. (church time) begins the most segregated hour In our nation every week. If we as adults do not choose to integrate ourselves - both black and white - in the worship of our mutual Creator, can we truthfully expect as much from children, the products of our adult environment, and Inadequately re warded educators. We all need to get the emotion out of racial issues so that collectively blacks and whites can overcome the challenges that racial dif ference often confront us with. Politics Vs. The Unborn In a reaction to election defeats in Virgin ia and New Jersey, Lee Atwater told a group of Republican governors meeting recently in Hilton Head, South Carolina, that they might need to rethink their views on abor tion. Atwater was saying that the political reality of these two elections is that the vot ers are not as committed to having the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade as they the Republican Party had thought. In this landmark case the high court ruled that the word person in the Constitution did not in clude an unborn child. Therefore, the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing all persons " life, liberty and property," did not protect the life of a fetus. In other words. Roe v. Wade protected a woman's right to have an abortion. The Republican Party's platform says In part, "The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be In fringed (upon)...And we reaffirm our sup port for the appointment of judges...who re spect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life." However, Mr. Atwater seems to be imply ing that it may not be politically expedient for us to oppose the right of abortion be cause we can't win elections with it. If our assumption is correct, Atwater Is saying that for political reasons the Republican Party may need to think seriously about abandoning its so-called concern about the right to life of a fetus. With that kind of leadership in a major political party - play ing politics with a potential human life - we don't have to wonder why Republicans are the nation's minority party. Goal To Run Toward "...Herein lies the legacy of slavery. The self-worth of many blacks remains contin gent upon the approval of whites; and the approval of other blacks continues to be comparatively insignificant to the self- worth of many blacks. Now, a people whose members cannot af firm the worth of one another have little hope of flourishing as a people..Blacks can not hope to be the exception here." Laurence Tfiomas, "Blacks and The Future", New York Carib News, March 14, 1989. Reduce Demand For Illegal Drugs And Alcohol Time To Start Fighting Back No one is surprised by the fact that drug and alcohol abuse is the number one threat to the se curity of this country. What's worse, no one really knows what to do about it. The problem has infiltrated eveiy segment of our lifestyles. It has us on a colli sion course with extinction. Until now, most talk about tackling this problem has been Just that...talk. But under the leadership of Carla DuPiay and Robert Albright, a new initiative is finding community-wide ac ceptance. The program, Fighting Back, has the potential of be coming a model solution to re ducing the demand for drugs. The beauty of the program is it has no answers. Just questions. It does have an energetic group of volunteers who are deter mined and committed to finding the answers. There is no march ing, no preaching, no politick ing, just a committed effort to have the community work to gether to solve this problem. Here is how the program will work. Dr. Albright is the Chair person of the Citizen's Advisory Group. This group of 25 to 30 in dividuals is responsible for co ordinating efforts to obtain in formation about the target area. Tils information will be used to develop the community's needs as it relates to drug and alcohol abuse. The community need as sessment will be used by the Consortium of Agencies (42 health and social agencies to date) to implement programs to address the needs. The county will act as admin istrators and coordinators of the entire program. Moreover, the county is prepared to fully fund the program. However, to speed up the process and fray some of the cost, the county has applied to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a $200,000 planning grant and a $3 million implementation grant. Out of over 360 proposals, the Mecklenburg county proposal is one of eighteen still being con sidered. Twelve proposal wUl be accepted. The grants made avail able by the foundation are to me dium-sized communities (100,000 to 250,000). To this end the Mecklenburg proposal was limited to District #2. According to county commis sioner Chairperson, Carla Du- Puy, "The urgency and the need for this effort can easily be justi fied when you consider that Charlotte had the nation's third highest percentage increase with drug-related arrest among major cities". Drug-related arrests were up 42% in 1988 over 1987 figures. Because Charlotte-Mecklenburg is at the heart of the drug pipe line between Miami and New York, the problem left unattend ed win surely exacerbate. District #2 is faced with the challenge of becoming a model community for combatting drugs. It will take a concerted ef fort by community leaders, min isters, school administrators, business leaders, and social or ganizations chipping in to help with this effort. Call Dr. Robert Albright at Johnson C. Smith University to see how you or your organization can help. The help should not be consid ered phllantroplcal, but rather necessitous. Whether you know it or not, drug abuse is taking a toll on us all. If you can look be yond those who are pushers, and beyond those who are addicts, beyond the countless senseless crimes that are directly drug re lated, beyond the innocent chil dren being bom to to dmg depen dency, beyond the related health hazards such as AIDS associat ed with drug abuse, beyond the lost moral code of ethics we are facing as a society, beyond the social ills reshaping oirr very ex istence, then you have not fully grasped the consequence of our dilemma. I doubt very seriously if there are any individuals in our com munity that have not been im pacted by a drug related incident of some kind. The degree may limited to knowing friends or relatives that have been directly impacted. But, save for the sake of God, there goes you. If you don't become a part of the solution, then you, inevita bly, increase your chances of be ing Impacted by the problem. This problem is indiscriminate with its victims. It crosses all ra cial, sexual, age, and religious boundaries. No one is Immune from its de struction. Consequently, every one is a stake-holder in its erad ication. Won't you please help. White Racism Never Sleeps By TJC. GREEN Special To The Post The other day, 1 had an oppor tunity to participate in an inter esting discussion with a brother whom I admire and respect very much. As might be expected, our conversation eventually focused on the plight of our people throughout the diaspora, and how Raclsm/Whlte Supremacy is alive and well. My position in this lively act of conversation, was that since white people (and White Supremacist/Racist in particular) control everything then it is they who are in charge. Furthermore, if those who are in charge, accept willingly these status of "being in charge", then it is my contention that they are responsible for practically everything that happens while they are calling the shots. Therefore, I took the position of blaming Raclsm/Whlte Supre macy for all of problems that face non-white people today, in cluding drug addition. Illiteracy, teen pregnancy, "black-on black" crime, AIDS, unemploy ment, etc. Now, my brother took the posi tion that "Black" folks: have got to stop blaming the white man for everything negative that happens in our lives. "We have to hold ourselves accountable. Nobody can make you do any thing that you don't want to do. We've seen the enemy, and the enemy is us!" As an example, he referred the drug addict who shoots up drugs, or snorts co- CEilne, on his on free will and ac cord. My brother stated, "you can't teU me that 'the white' man is making him do that!" He add ed, "Or the young homeboy who broke in my apartment last month - don't teU me that some white guy put a gun to these boy's head and told him to break into my apartment! No. We've got to stop blaming everything on Racism, White Supremacy, the white man etc., and start do ing for ourselves." My brother had a veiy convinc ing point of view and although we disagreed, we were not disa greeable. Nevertheless, it was apparent to me that he, did not understand the situation com pletely. In his Textbook for Vic tim's of Raclsm/Whlte Suprema cy, Neelv Fuller, Jr. states: IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND RACISM/'WHITE SUPREMACY, WHAT IT IS, AND HOW IT WORKS. EVERYTHING ELSE YOU UNDERSTAND, WILL ONLY CONFUSE YOU." My beloved brother is confused. He falls to realize that Raclsm/Whlte Su premacy is a global phenome non that operates 24 hours per day, 365 days per year through out the world. And that the dy namics of racism operates in nine areas of people activity in cluding Economics, Entertain ment, Education, Labor, Law, Politics, Religion, Sex, and War. So, the fact that a brother (or sister) may shoot up, or snort alone should raise the question, "what happened to make this 'original men' poison his body with drugs?" What makes one brother steal from the other? Why are babies having babies? Why does AIDS run rampant in the non-white communities? Hell, why can't little Leroy read? For so long, these very smart beings who practice Racism/ White Supremacy have esta blished a d}mamlc system that keeps non-white people con fused and oppressed. This is done by design. When will we ever realize that these who benefit from out being confused and oppressed, will never tell us nor show us what we need to do to truly free and liberate our selves. It would not be to their advantage to tell us, and to help us collectively, dead with "our" problems. My brother had difficulty in grasping my viewpoint, but that was alright with me. Denial and failure to correctly assess the situation is in itself a testament to the awesome power of Ra- clsm/White Supremacy. After all, who mis-educated us and "trained" us to think? But that's another article. But my brother was indeed correct, in that we must help ourselves as best we can. One thing we can do is support our locally owned and operated businesses and professionals. We must beg 1 n to pur chase more textbooks and per haps fewer C.D.s and LPs. We must codify ourselves to what's REALLY going on. North Carolina's Minority Goals Passes U.S. Court's Test When the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down the minority set- aside programs for government contracts, the black leadership was left preaching doom and gloom. Bashing former Presi dent Reagan for turning back the clock on civil rights gains became the order of the day. But were these black leadership's cries also a cover-up for their failure to develop a political in frastructure that guaranteed so cioeconomic parity regardless of who occupies the White House? My distress over black Ameri ca losing access to government contracts was not eased until I ■recently discussed this set- aside issue with Governor James Martin of the State of North Carolina. Our discussion was a follow-up to an earlier one we had at the 1988 Republi can Governors Association meeting. In 1988, Meirtln left a positive impression on his accomplish ments in opening opportunity to blacks versus his predecessor. I felt compelled to know whether Martin had softened his resolve, so 1 refreshed his memory on what he had said at the Republi can Governors meeting. I said that you were helping blacks get state contracts at a 6 percent rate compared to your predeces sor who had talked about 10 p>ercent but had not delivered. "He said he would get 5 (per cent) and he got 0.015 percent," said Governor James Martin. "I started off with a 2 percent com mitment for purchasing con tracts and reached 5 percent. So we have moved our goal up to 5 percent, now 6 percent." Governor Martin's tone re mained upbeat, yet I wondered how in spite of the Supreme court ruling against preferential programs. He read my concern. "We have also applied that same objective of encouraging minority busi nesses. This Includes black and Indian, and it also Includes businesses owned or managed by women or people who have a physical handicap to partici pate in real estate transactions and to participate in prison Miller Says By Sherman Miller construction. We are also bound by the federal law on highway construction." Martin had bypassed the Su preme Court ruling by redefin ing North Carolina's program within its guidelines. He hinted that the stake for minorities is a long-term commitment and they share in a multi-million dollar bounty. ' "In a bill that passed last year which establishes a $9 billion program for highway construc tion over the next 13 years, many of those projects would not be s'ubject to the federal set- aside," said Martin. I could no longer pussyfoot around the issue, so I asked Governor Martin, 'The Supreme Court ruling didn't hurt you on that set-aside?' "No!" he replied. "Because we don't use a set-aside." I was puzzled at his response because it appeared that "a rose by any other name is still a rose." Thus, I asked him to ex plain what North Carolina does differently. "We will include these high ways and road projects in what we call our 'Goals Program.'" said Martin. "We set a percent goal for participation. If it were man dated and enforced and required that nobody else could do any thing unless you meet these per centages, thep it would be in vio lation of what that court decision found." He continued, "Instead, what we do meets that court interpre tation because we set a goal for 6 percent or 10 percent or what ever is appropriate for that par ticular situation. Ask our people to do their best to meet that goal and report to us on how well they do. That will betaken in ac count as well as other factors of productivity in reviewing their work and their development as a state employee." This North Carolina approach is similar to what some indus tries are doing to open up op portunity for minority contrac tors. In making minority vendor participation an appraisal item in employees' annual appraisal ratings, it guarantees that they will give it high priority in their upward mobility quest. It will also reduce the high risk of ca reer damage in working with an unknown vendor whose goods or services may prove to be sub standard. Martin sees his approach as addressing the quality of goods and services issue directly. "By doing it (our) way you also avoid having to give part of your busi ness to a firm that really can't handle it," added Martin. "We avoid that by not having a set- aside -- by not having a man date. What we end up with is the same good result by setting a goal and getting agreement." Many blacks mqy feel that without a mandate North Caro lina is merely pussyfooting with the opportunity issue. But the program Martin offers is a prag matic effort to expand minority participation within the con fines of the law. Martin argues his case against mandates by highlighting their adverse im pact on people working in the economic mainstream. "A mandate would say, if you don't reach this goal, no matter how good you are in everything else, you are gone because you violate the law! The courts have said you can't do that." It is clear that North Caroli na's Goals Program is merely an effort to alter staid behavior traits in people, so that they no longer remain creatures of hab it. Martin corroborated my ob servation by saying that they need to open people's minds to new vendors, "or otherwise peo ple go back to the same busi ness they traded with last year." North Carolina's Goals Pro gram says that opportunity can be opened to everyone if main stream leaders have a mind to make it happen. Is the black leadership encouraging other states to develop pragmatic pro grams similar to North Caroli na's Goals Program?
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Dec. 7, 1989, edition 1
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