OPINIONS/ The Charlotte Post
Black liberation: where do we go from here?
As we enter the 1996 presi
dential election campaign,
African Americans are con
fronted with a series of candi
dates who cannot or will not
address our interests.
More than ever before, we
need to evaluate what has
happened to the black commu
nity - politically, economically
and socially over the past few
years, and map a strategy
which will lead to greater
empowerment. Black libera
tion will not be achieved by
some pleasant-sounding
phrases of white politicians,
either Democrats or
Republicans.
Black liberation must
instead be based on a critical
analysis of the social forces
which have divided our peo
ple, and what political steps
can bring us together.
Many of our current political
dilemmas can be traced back
to the collapse of Jesse
Jackson's Rainbow Coalition
as a national, mass political
force after the 1988 presiden
tial election. As extreme con
servatives seized power in the
Xf
Manning
Marable
'Democratic transformation'
must reach the grassroots level
1994 elections, millions of
African-Americans felt that
their interests were unrepre
sented and unheard.
Conditions in U.S. central
cities, and particularly for
blacks and Latinos, reached a
critical state. As corporations
relocated jobs and capital
investment from urban cen
ters, unemployment became
widespread. Social services,
health delivery systems, pub
lic housing and public trans
portation all experienced
sharp cutbacks. The quality of
urban education seriously
declined. Increasingly,, the
criminal justice system and
prisons became the chief
means for warehousing unem
ployed black and Latino young
people. By 1995, 30 percent of
all black males in their 20s
nationwide were eithe^ in
prison or jail, on probation.
parole or awaiting trial.
The Los Angeles social
uprising of April-May 1992,
symbolized black collective
outrage against the brutality
of the police and racism of the
legal system, with the fester
ing grievances of inferior
schools, poor housing, second
class health care, and wide
spread unemployment. As
racial polarization and reac
tion increased throughout
white political society, African
Americans were forced to
reevaluate sharply their
strategies for political and
social change.
In 1993 the position of
NAACP national secretary
was narrowly won by
Benjamin Chavis over Jesse
Jackson. Chavis pursued a
complex agenda: advocating
liberal and progressive public
policies and social programs;
building strong black institu
tions and coalitions, establish
ing cooperative dialogues
between all representatives of
the black community, includ
ing Louis Farrakhan and the
Nation of Islam; encouraging
productive contacts with the
alienated hip-hop generation,
urban black gangs and young
people inside the criminal jus
tice system. Chavis' approach
briefly won the remarkable
support from a broad spec
trum of black activists, from
nationalists like Maulana
Karenga and Haki
Madhubuti, to black socialists
such as Angela Davis, Cornel
West and Charlene Mitchell.
Within one year, a campaign
to oust Chavis was orchestrat
ed in the media, supported
quietly by more moderate, old-
style civil rights leaders and
many "post-black" elected offi
cials. The political space
which remained was quickly
Championing U.S. workers’ cause
Sherman
Miller
The 1996 general election is
now upon us and the national
leadership is merely offering
the American people dema
goguery over balancing the
national budget. Yes, a bal
anced budget is
a significant
objective, but
these politicians
are closing their
eyes to the real
issue in the gen
eral election
which is job
security. In the
last four years,
the political
leadership has
allowed the
dehumanization
of the American
worker so that many people
feel they are now de facto
chattel in the economic main
stream.
During the tenure of former
President Ronald Reagan, the
national psyche started its
shift to dehumanizing the
worker. President Reagan
showed the word that
America’s labor movement
was impotent when he fired
the striking air traffic con
trollers. Globalization was
legitimated and many
American people found their
jobs being exported to foreign
nations under the guise of
improved productivity (a
euphemism for cheap labor). I
also got the impression that
the American worker was
inferior to the Japanese work
er, who was elevated to the
status of a god.
A legacy of Reagan-era
actions is that high paying
manufacturing jobs requiring
low skill levels have just about
faded away. It is now com-
momplace to hear major cor
porations ballyhoo expansions
in foreign nations in one
breath and hand out pink
slips in the next breath.
This demise of U.S. corporate
paternalism is occurring in
four distinct phases. In the
1960 and '70s, some people
complained that Americans
were living too high and we
were using up too many of the
world’s resources. These com-
plainers suggested that
Americans are “fat, dumb, and
happy.”
In the 1980s, globalization
forced American industry to
alter its wasteful
ways to be competi
tive in the global
marketplace. This
meant to stop the
financial bleeding
that pass practices
such as featherbed
ding were now obso
lete. Productivity
gains became a
must to prevent
many businesses
from being forced
into bankruptcy
court and this flirt
with financial ruin drove the
push to eliminate redundant
and non-essential work.
In the early 1990s, corporate
downsizing evolved from a tool
to foster corporate competitive
ness in the global marketplace
into a weapon to control inflat
ed salaries by merely lowering
worker expectations through
employment insecurity. Many
major corporations embarked
on downsizing programs
which severely limited
employment options for
would-be job seekers. Thus,
downsizing became a charged
word and it made holding onto
one’s job tantamount to a pay
raise and it legitimated low
pay increases as the norm.
Today, people shudder at the
thought of accepting that
“Lean and Mean” are the per
vasive mind-set for many cor
porations.
America’s downtrodden
work-force must expect the
1996 presidential hopefuls to
show leadership in the eman
cipation of the American
worker from the ravishes of
corporate downsizing.
Presidential hopefuls must
offer their visions on how
America’s workers can share
in the bounty of productivity
and go to sleep at night feel
ing reasonably certain that
they will have a job tomorrow.
It is now very disquieting
that the general election
degenerated into a tug-of-war
over merely giving the
American people gobbledy-
gook on the potential horrible
fallout from unbalanced feder
al budget to quell our nerves.
Columnist SHERMAN
MILLER writes from
Wilmington, Del.
Should color-blind society be goal?
By Sidney Morse
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
In recent weeks we have wit
nessed the O.J. Simpson ver
dict and the onslaught of
media attention given to its
general undesirability.
Shortly following was the
largest political rally ever to
be held in the nation’s capital,
the Million Man March, and
now America is left in a
whirlpool over the question of
race and what its meaning
will be in the context of our
daily lives and in the lives of
our children.
In an effort to reduce the ris
ing temperature of racial rea
soning that has been an obvi
ous by product of these recent
events, some participants in
the debate have uttered a
question, echoed by many:
"Why can't we have a 'color
blind' society where people are
viewed by their individual
merit and nothing else?" Some
of those same people, prior to
the current controversy, used
to say that the reason O.J.
was successful was because he
"transcended color." That
when they looked at him they
did not see a "black" man. The
people that utter those state
ments have also attached the
same kind of illustration when
describing the enormous pop
ularity of Gen. Colin Powell.
And now the argument emerg
ing as the most frequently
used to justify the dismantling
of affirmative action is the
need to "build a 'color-blind'
society.” It seems that the
principal motivation to move
toward this laudable goal is
often spawned by
two separate and
unique desires. One
emanates from those
that legitimately
want to create a
world where racial
and ethnic catego
rization have little to
do with the outcome
of one's life. A world
where "equality of
opportunity" is a
reality and not a
myth. Others, less
genuine in their stated goal,
either consciously or sub-con-
sciously, see the path to elimi
nating racial and ethnic divi
sion resulting from the
absorption of all other cul
tures into one - and, not coin
cidentally, that one happens
to be their own. Examination
of these two motivating princi
ples raises the questions, "Is
color-blindness an essential
component of achieving either
of these goals?" and "Is it real
ly possible to create a "color
blind" society or is this just
another unattainable myth?"
Let us look just a little more
closely at this concept. To
establish a color-blind society
will require arrival to a point
where its members are viewed
as colorless. This concept,
examined in the context of
American society
today, is an oxy
moron, a contradic
tion in terms, when
you consider that the
combination of all
people of color consti
tute nearly 27 per
cent of the total pop
ulation, more than a
quarter of the entire
country.
To ask an African
American, particular
ly one that is identifi-
ably of African heritage, to
believe that he or she is
viewed as being the same as
their fellow White American is
unnatural and a rejection of
whom they really are.
Immediate difficulty is found
in asking someone to be some
thing that they clearly are
not.
America has made two
"strategic" errors that now
haunt us. She has failed to
recognize racial differences on
a conscious level, pretending
that they don't exist, while
subconsciously discriminating
in the most fundamental ways
because of those same differ
ences. In a "perceived" inter
est of fostering the process of
assimilation, mainstream soci
ety continues to insist that
African-Americans relinquish
their ethnic identity and yet
at the same time consistently
sends codes of communication
to remind them that their
existence is anchored in an
ethnic context.
This dichotomy of reason has
caused America to be less
than compelling in its motiva
tion to cultivate and develop
its racial minorities so that
they might fully participate in
the bounty that this great
nation offers and, at the same
time, strengthen the country
as a whole. Instead, it has
established that the ticket for
entry into the arena of oppor
tunity is that racial identity
be given up while offering no
great reward for that aban
donment.
SIDNEY MORSE, a resident
of Los Angeles, is author of
"Strategic Progressivism: A
Solution For African-
Americans. "
seized by Farrakhan and the
Nation of Islam, advocating a
socially conservative agenda
markedly to the right of both
Jackson and Chavis.
As Martin Luther King, Jr.,
once asked, "Where do we go
from here?” We must recog
nize that there, is an alterna
tive to Farrakhan's black
nationalism. It is the politics
of "democratic transforma
tion:" challenging the real
structures of inequality and
power, restricting the power of
corporate capital, expanding
social programs to ensure
greater opportunities for
human development, and
building multicultural, multi
class resistance movements.
The politics of "democratic
transformation" must be
grounded in the real struggles
for empowerment by African-
Americans around day-to-day
issues. A political culture of
resistance must be construct
ed around practical concerns:
health care, the environment,
reproductive rights, housing,
and education. As the practice
of coalition building occurs in
communities, different groups
of people may learn to over
come their stereotypes and
fears of each other. Part of
this process must certainly
occur within electoral politics,
both through the support of
progressive Democrats who
are committed to this agenda,
and more decisively, by the
development of independent
politics represented by the
New Party, Labor Party
Advocates, the Green parties,
the Campaign for a New
Tomorrow led by activist Ron
Daniels, and other organiza
tions.
The next decisive struggles
will be waged at the communi
ty level, in thousands of
neighborhoods, through
efforts to transform the con
sciousness and political prac
tices of those who are most
oppressed by the system.
MANNING MARABLE is
professor of history and
Director of the Institute for
Research in African-American
Studies, Columbia University,
New York City.
Letters to the Editor
Farrakhan
King
King towers over Farrakhan
William Reed of the National Newspaper Publishers
Association writes that in an informal poll of the staff of the
NNPA Louis Farrakhan has been named the Black Press "Man of
the Year," for 1995 (The Post, Jan. 18).
Given the criteria by which Men of the Year are picked.
Minister Farrakhan clearly deserves the title.
But in writing his article, Reed says that,
"...some believe (Farrakhan) has eclipsed even
the stature of Martin Luther King at his apex."
That is a conclusion which calls for much exami
nation.
It will take history to adequately decide that
through comparisons of the respective effects of
Louis Farrakhan and Martin Luther King.
Nevertheless, some outcomes of their individual
activities are available, and those of King
arguably tower above not just those of
Farrakhan, but of most leaders
of the world, throughout histo-
ry-
Martin Luther King led a civil rights move
ment that has resulted in revolutionary changes
in the state of African Americans equaling the
changes in the state of blacks that followed the
Civil War which freed the slaves. But beyond
that, the movement King led has resulted in the
"freeing" of all Americans, and indeed multi
tudes all over the planet, who have used King's
philosophies and leadership example to extract
themselves from long repression. King's years of
leadership have resulted in notable changes in governmental and
corporate approaches to the inclusion of black Americans in all
aspects of the society.
The numbers and positions of blacks in economic, political, and
educational positions of leadership have increased several times
over, in the aftermath of King's leadership. Blacks who have had
to cope with the repression and subordination of themselves in
the years before the civil rights movement, recognize the great
changes that have occurred (changes which are not dismissed by
"know-nothing" rhetorical attempts to do so). The King-led civil
rights victories have resulted in a changing of the face of the
entire national political scene. White men, in backlash against
the effectiveness of the civil rights movement, have moved over to
the Republican Party after decades of voting for Democrats. And
whites have refused to give the Democratic candidate for
President the majority of their votes for more than 30 years.
In comparison, though the Million Man March gained the atten
tion of the media for a few days, but since then it has been barely
discernible as a national force having any notable effect on the
way society functions. Perhaps the future will see such effects,
but they are not seen now.
- William Simpson
Park Forest, III.
Muslims seek peace on earth
As this ‘Holiday’ season passed and the report from “Christmas
in Bosnia” overwhelmed us through the media, one could easily
forget that most of the people of Bosnia are Muslim.
The Christmas rituals that showered Bosnia were just another
form of “ethnic cleansing” by NATO-led troops. Kinder and gen
tler as it may have seemed, this holiday is steeped in ancient
paganism namely those who worship the son and not observed by
Muslims who worship Allah (the one and only true God).
The Muslims of Bosnia did not need the distraction of
Christmas, especially with the influence it may have had on the
children. Giving Christmas toys to a child whose father has been
murdered and mother and sister have been raped by Christian
Serbs provided no healing. But give the child a gun and perhaps
justice could start being served.
The UN and NATO alliance along with the Christian Serbs and
Zionist counterparts does not want Islam in Europe, so this “cru
sade” continues on many levels. What the Muslims of Bosnia do
need is the practice of their religion, Al-Islam (pure and uncut).
This is the only thing that will give them “Peace on Earth.”
- Jabril H. Hough
Charlotte
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