4A
EDITORIALS/The Charlotte Post
March 28,1996
®I)e Cljarlotte ^0£(t
Published weekly by the Charlotte Post Publishing Co.
1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson
Publisher
Robert Johnson
Co-publisher/
General Manager
Herbert L. White
Editor-In-Chief
Now that Dole’s won, what will we do for fun?
D.G. Martin
Coalitions out
the window in
presidential race
Sherman Miller
The 1996 presidential campaign is shaping up as a contest of
candidates ignoring the old rule of coalition building amongst
diverse groups to one where they are now deciding what groups
are safe to write off.
Pat Buchanan grabbed media attention as the pied piper of the
anti-establishment. He demonizes the establishment in hopes of
enchanting the downtrodden white American masses into ignor
ing his racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-immigrant (legal or -
not), and anti-feminist symbolism. Clearly, Buchananism sug
gests that his style Repubhcan Party wrote off these unaccept
able groups as truly un-American subversives.
The folly here is that these groups taken collectively will decide
who becomes the next president of the United States. Thus, you
could feel the Republican Party leadership breathing somewhat
easier when Sen. Bob Dole started to win primary campaigns.
But Buchanan's racial and ethnic coimterbalancing strategy is
not dead; it has merely mutated to a higher form that is now
palatable in the mainstream. Sen. Jesse Helms seized upon the
opportunity the Cuban government afforded the Repubhcan
Party in shooting down two American planes that were purport
edly looking for people at sea. Helms knew that tightening the
screws on Castro's Cuba placated the highly Republican commu
nity in Florida and at the same time offered a significant counter
weight to the overwhelming Democratic black vote thereby leav-
. ing the White community to decide the outcome of the presiden
tial race.
The most intriguing aspect of the 1996 presidential campaign
so far is that Pat Buchanan is juxtaposed to Louis Farrakhan, a
well-known racist and anti-Semite. Just think about it: each
man maintains his public stature by demonizing other groups;
however, both chaps symbolize great disdain for Jews, homosexu
als and feminists.
Another interesting caveat in this election is that the first
Catholic President, John F, Kennedy, became a patron saint of
Black America. President Kennedy radiated an aura of accep
tance of other people which is the traditional teaching of the
Catholic Church. But Pat Buchanan, another Catholic, sounds
like the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Surely the CathoUc
Church must be quietly embarrassed that Buchanan demon
strates that their universal idea of inclusion are merely tomfool
ery for clerics to discuss in their academic debates.
Will divisiveness continue to underpin the battle for the White
House? Will Buchaninism evolve into the modem day version of
McCarthyism where now minorities, immigrants, and feminists
are shuimed as un-American?
SHERMAN MILLER is a columnist living in Wilmington, Del.
Now that Bob Dole is the
Republican presidential nomi
nee what will we do for fun
the next few months between
now and the convention?
Here are a few suggestions:
1. Stop pretending that the
North (Carolina presidential
primary will mean much.
I made that mistake a few
weeks ago in this column. And
I still think that we could
have had a good contest if
Forbes and Alexander had
stuck it out. But they let me
down, and my prediction
about the importance of our
primary goes into the scrap
heap of columnists' specula
tions. All that is left for us to
do when we vote in May is to
quantify the Republican dis
content factor - measured by
the amount of the Buchanan
vote. My prediction - 28 per
cent.
2. Take turns saying how
bad a candidate Bob Dole is.
Too old. Too dull. Too much
the Washington insider. Too
much talk from him about
"Bob Dole." The experts are
already writing him off in a
race against Bill Clinton. Not
so fast. Remember this time
four years ago when BiU
Clinton emerged as the likely
Democratic candidate. "He
will never win," the insiders
said. "Too much baggage. Too
high negatives. And George
Bush is so strong."
The negative primary cam
paigning took its toll on
Clinton in 1992 - like it did on
Dole in 1996. But by the time
of the 1992 convention, with
out the daily negative focus
from the intra-party pri
maries, Clinton had begim to
look pretty good.
The same thing will begin to
happen to Dole. Without the
barrage of negative ads and
statements from Gramm,
Alexander, and Forbes - and
with less and less attention
paid to Buchanan, Dole will
start to gain strength with
Republican loyalists. Most of
them want one thing more
than anything - Bill Clinton's
defeat. Watch them. They will
stop talking about Dole's
weaknesses and soon be
telling us what a great
American hero he is. By the
time fall comes, BiU Clinton
will find himself in a very
close race. In fact he wUl be
lucky if it is close.
3. Try to guess who Dole will
choose as his running mate.
CoUn Powell? I don't think so.
Here is why:
• Picking a vice president is
tricky business. Dole wants to
pick somebody strong — but
not better or more attractive
than himself. Ultimately, peo
ple vote for or against the
presidential candidate. So, the
vice presidential candidate
should be a complement and
not a competitor for attention.
If he is too attractive, he takes
away from the strength of the
presidential candidate.
Remember how strong Lloyd
Bentson came across as
Michael Dukakis's running
mate? He trounced Dan
Quayle in the vice presidential
debates. But he made Dukakis
look weak in comparison.
Powell might look too good,
too.
• A moderate hke PoweU on
the Republican ticket would
lose the enthusiasm of the
"ultra conservative" wing of
the party. That group provides
essential voters and workers.
They cannot be abandoned if
Dole wants a strong unified
party effort. On the other
hand, someone like Jack
Kemp could play the vice pres
idential role, look good and
smart and progressive - and
still keep most "ultras" on
board. I bet that he will be
Dole's running mate.
4. Watch out for Ross Perot.
Is he past his moment in his
tory? Are you tired of him? Do
his magic cures have the same
appeal they did four years
ago? Or has he become almost
a Washington insider - just
another politician not to trust?
And we can always argue
about whether Dole or Clinton
would be hurt the most if
Perot should jump into the
race again.
5. Think how much fun it
will be to have a North
Carolinian in the White
House. If Dole wins, would his
wife, Salisbury native
Elizabeth Dole, be the first
North Carolinian to be the
nation's First Lady ? Answer
according to historian William
Powell: No. The first was
Dolly Madison, wife of
President James Madison.
D.G. MARTIN is vice presi
dent for public affairs of the
University of North Carolina
system and can be reached via
e-mail at:
dgmartin@ga. unc.edu
ttikVO^
VIHAT
In memory of Cynthia: when ignorance costs a life
Bernice P.
Jackson
I never met Cynthia
Wiggins. She was a single,
teenaged mother who lived
in inner-city Buffalo. But
unlike the stereotypes, she
was not an irresponsible,
welfare mother. She wanted
to work to support her son,
who was bom last fall. So
she went to work at a subur
ban shopping mall, the
Walden Galleria Mall.
Just before Christmas
Cynthia Wiggins was
crushed to death by a dump
tmck as she tried to cross
the seven lane highway sepa
rating her bus stop from the
mall. It seems the Walden
Galleria Mall had refused
permission for the No. 6 bus
from iimer-city Buffalo to
stop on the maU property,
forcing iimer city residents
to cross the dangerous high
way with no walkway or stop
light and then walk’across
the large parking lot to reach
the stores.
In the aftermath of Cynthia
Wiggins' untimely and
unnecessary death, a public
outcry forced the mall own
ers to grant permission for
the No. 6 bus to stop on the
mall property. After all, they
had always Allowed buses
filled with Canadian tourists
to stop in the mall, as did
buses fi'om nearby suburban
Amherst and from other sub
urban malls. Indeed, accord
ing to the Niagara Frontier
Transit Authority, they had
applied for permission for the
No. 6 bus to stop in the mall
when the mall was opened in
1989. But the Transit
Authority was told no; while
the mall would consider sub-
irrban buses, they didn't want
the No. 6 coming into the
mall.
In the aftermath of the
Rodney King and O.J.
Simpson cases, there has been
much discussion about the dif
fering perceptions of white
Americans and people of color
concerning the existence of
racism in contemporary
America. Most whites believe
that racism is a phenomenon
of the past and that bigotry is
confined to only a few, unedu
cated extremists. Most African
Americans and other people of
color see racism in their lives
each and every day. For some,
racism provides the defini
tions of their lives.
The story of Cynthia
Wiggins and the No. 6 bus
raises several issues. It belies
the mistaken notion that
racism is no longer alive and
well in America. For it not
only shows how poor blacks
are not wanted in many
stores, but how they are pre
vented from even going into
them.
The story of Cynthia
Wiggins and the No. f bus
shows that racism does impact
business decisions in this
nation. The mall owners
allowed their racism to keep
black and poor shoppers from
coming to their mall, even at
the expense of losing the busi
ness of these shoppers. Even
wealthy and middle class
Afiacan Americans have expe
rienced the racism of store
owners who have followed
them around the store, assum
ing they will steal something.
But this mail, and others, like
the Georgia mall that prohib
ited young African American
men from shopping there, took
it one step further. They did
n't want the people from the
inner city even to enter their
mall.
Their racism had another
impact as well. It also made it
difficult, if not impossible, for
blapk and poor workers to get
and keep jobs at the mall.
Cynthia Wiggins had wanted
to work in a neighborhood
McDonald's, according to her
friends. When they weren't
hiring, she was forced to leave
her neighborhood to look for
work. Upon obtaining a job,
she was then forced to cross
that highway to get to work.
The story of Cynthia
Wiggins reminds us that
racism not only discriminates
against people, but that
racism kills. What about your
suburban malls? Do they
allow inner-city buses to stop
on their premises? Are they
making decisions about poor
people of color that are racist?
Why don't you ask them and
find out?
BERNICE P. JACKSON is
executive director of the
Commission for Racial Justice
in Cleveland.
The trap of voting for
the lesser of two evils
By Kea Morgan
NAUfW.tf. NaWPPAPFll
K!ei.tSnE«S ASSOCIAltOK
At recent session of the
Seventh National Policy
Institute Conference.
"Strategies tor 1996 and
Beyond,' paneiistn included
Congressional Black Caucus
Chow Donold Paynu. NAACP
President Kwaisi Mfumo,
SCLC's Josoi^ Lowery,
Bishop John Hurst, Dorothy
Height and other black lead-
Ifhe immediate eejntral strat
egy for dealing with black
issues was electoral politics by
thorn and others like Jesse
Jtwkson throughout the throe-
day conference. The sublimi-
ual nu-s-.(»( was We niu-t
vote for President Clinton anr)
i.'.luT 11, iiiiiirpth tins
November to combat the
Ucpiib! 11.(1, Cuntrscl in.
America," even though they
haven't done right fay us. The
M llion Man Marrh organi/cr.
have the same toeibiage - tag-
ister S rniHiun.jpeople, but fttr
whom? We coufd have startoil
our own party hni Del. 16.
|■'hItlorl and Uie if.^t i,f flu
-tdbli ft ilonkcvs h.iv pi r
their stamp of m^ovnl on the
"Contraci* in* this l%arti.!aa
aseaWt m blmik and waridng
■ le V.'h.il nro tl.o mi'-'-ni,'
Rep-jblicaii ant! Ds>ni,icr.il
parties, as Instildttkms, pn-
in-inlv I, pnwf lit II e mTer> st
of Stmie Btw eiSiiittpj^hkg most
of the economic wealth. Yo
know them, the ones who
laying us off and squeesj
thir.l wur.d cuiiiirici- dry
doesn't make any difforenC
how well-meaning'black p '
cians are or how many t
Bill v'«.i‘ ( .1 lil:irk cliure
Both parties are doing the
share to try to stabilise and 1
r. Vi r*-,' ilii' fl' ■■pciiiiig e
Bomic crisis For yon-kno
who, by slashing social
and encitlements throt
budget bahincing schemes
protect bund interest
and io decrease social ci
buttons f'vr the Fortune
corporations and the ■
They have attempted to
rect peoples' anger by \
■M.itiiig bI.jJ.s wfllfi.-f
ents, and immigrants
smne of b. have swuliowod 1
bait We ilon'l nr t d t,> .jlciie i
Our real power is fan i
III)! iiiiliqvjidi'nl puliuci
organize and start our i
party. And don't let
tell you about wasting
vote. Are you any hette'r i
after helping to put black
white Democrats
figpubticanain ofiiee?
To luv wi-ll-mi-aniri' bi
■iii-.i'-iiid,-,! li ader^, don I t '
to me about the lesser of t
iiila Ih-a.i vimi tiisliuy
Malcolm.
KE.\ VOIiOAN IS
Natianui Nettepu
AtORteiatUsn i''