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mm 4A EDITORIALS/ The Charlotte Post May 15, 1997 Cljarlotte ^osit The Voice of the Black Community A subsidiary of the Consolidated Media Group 1531 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Gerald O. Johnson CEO/PUBLISHER Robert Johnson CO-PUBLISHER/ GENERAL MANAGER Herbert L. White EDITOR IN CHIEF Apology deserved Tuskegee syphillis study put people at risk By William Turner THE (WINSTON-SALEM) CHRONICLE Black churches are stiU under attack Bernice P. Jackson Public health professionals and those who find it heu-d to understand why most poor black people are suspicious of the profession should watch President Clinton Friday when he issues formal apologies to the living survivors of the Tuskegee syphilis study. In the ceremony planned for the Rose Garden at the White House, the president wfil attempt to make apology and offer an excuse for the 40 years of wrongdoing com mitted by the U.S. Public Health Service. Between 1932 and 1972, the Public Health Service with held treatment from 400 black men infected with syphilis. In order to study how this venereal disease spread and how it affected and killed its victims, a group of guinea pigs was needed. Black churches in rural Macon Coimty, Ala. - an hour east of Montgomery - became the target area, where some of the area’s population had earUer attracted Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute’s organizer and first principal. Washington’s leadership, credibility, and influ ence among poor blacks has never been equaled, some say not'evbnby Martift'5juther‘King Jr. By the time the syphilis study was laimched, the locals had developed an almost unquestioning faith in Tuskegee, one of the first and finest independent colleges. Tuskegee’s School of Nursing was hteraUy an outpost of the Public Health Sendee. Tuskegee’s trusted staff was used to recruit the men under the guise of free medical service. The study group was not told that they had the disease and were denied penicillin, which became standard treat ment for syqihQis in 1947. Another 200 men who did not have the disease were the study’s control group. By 1972, when the study became public, 28 men had died of syphifis, four times that many had syphilis-related com plications, three dozen wives had been infected and near ly two dozen black children had contracted the disease at birth. Most of the TYiskegee staff, by aU accoimts, were unwit ting accomphees to this unethical power play and atrocity against the powerless. When Tuskegee officials did protest the study, officials in Washington did not listen — for four decades. Washington officials stiff are not listening, according to Fred Gray, attorney for the victims and their families. “The President should come to Tuskegee to make the apology,” says Gray. “It would mean more if it were done in Alabama, in person, where the injury occurred, where the people live.” According to White House officiads, Clinton’s schedule can’t accommodate a trip to Alabama. It is not even cer tain how many of the study’s survivors wffl attend. The few smvivors of the study - ranging in age from 87 to 109 - are weak and frail and cannot spend the two hours in flight to Washington. Most live that far in round trips to their airport of departure. In an ironic concession, the Atlainta-based Centers for Disease Control is picking up the tab for the survivors’ travel. TTie government has paid out nearly $10 million to victims and their survivors. Tbday - as a direct result of the public outrage caused by the infamous Tuskegee study - medical research practices have changed a lot. But black people are much less ffkely to sign up as organ and blood donors. The debate about “AIDS as a genocidal conspiracy’ is no longer confined to free-floating radicals. Is there a silver fining in this dark cloud? Yes, some suf fered and died so that we all might five healthy fives. Ethics is now taught in most medical schools. Public health officials are much more sensitive to the wariness of blacks that are served by teaching hospitals. Finally, the health profession might learn from the Tuskegee study something about those deep and underly ing cultural dynamics which might explain why many poor blacks don’t always take their prescribed medicines. Finally, President Clinton will have to swallow a bitter pill for the health profession. I believe it was the artist Andy Warhol who was credited with the comment that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame. Many of us working on social justice issues have been keenly aware for years that the American public has a short attention span and will only deal with an issue for a brief period. Sadly, that seems to be the case for the burning of African American and multiracial churches. A recent report released by the Center for Democratic Renewal, a nearly 20-year-old organiza tion dedicated to researching, monitoring and analyzing hate groups, showed that churches are still burning, albeit at a much reduced rate, and that there is evidence of conspiracy on the part of some white supremacist groups, particular ly in the South. But while 1996 was the year of headlines for the burning of black churches, 1997 seems to be year of media silence about this ongoing problem. Entitled,“The Fourth Wave: A Continuing Conspiracy to Burn Black Churches,” the report shares CDR’s deep con cern about South Carolina, where there is evidence uncov ered by the Justice Department of a conspiracy to burn black churches and where public promotion of such acts takes place, together with encouragement of other acts of violence by white supremacists for the purpose of starting a race war. CDR also points out that church burnings in South and North Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama and Georgia are of more concern to them in 1997 than they were in 1996. One of the most startling facts relayed in the CDR report is the death of a 23- year-old black man, who “may be the only human during this period to have died in a burned black church.” Peter Adams, a vagrant, may have fallen asleep in the South Richland Bibleway Church in Richland County, S.C. when it was destroyed by arson. CDR points out that what is most troubling about his death is the fact that his body was not found by firefighters on the night of the fire, but by church members who went the day afterward. To date the church family has no knowledge that there was ever an arson investigation into the church fire or a criminal investi gation into the death of Peter Adams. CDR has filed a formal complaint with the Justice Department concerning both the fire and the death. In addition, the CDR report traces the history of the white supremacist movements in the South and Pacific Northwest and shows how white males, ages 14-45, who generally travel in small groups and strike under cover of darkness, have been overwhelmingly responsi ble for the fires. It also points out its concern about the recur ring involvement of white volun teer firefighters in the burning of black churches. The Center for Democratic Renewal now includes some 200 African American and multira cial churches on its list of biuned churches. Three African American and one multiracial church, all in Georgia, were burned in March, 1997. Property damage is estimated to be somewhere around $25 mil- ~ Hon. There is nb estimate of the , human damage - of churches lost which have been the his- toric and cultural centers of their communities or of the fear aroused m thousands of African Americans who live in these communities. There is no esti- -d mate of the sin incurred when a “ house of God is burned . i-; The Center for Democratic Renewal has sent this report to u President Clinton and his administration, with strong rec- J ommendations for strict moni- -■) toring and training of local law. j and fire department officials ,(j and more federal personnel and ,j resources for the monitoring of white supremacist groups across this nation. We may not 7 read about these burnings or ^ this report in the headlines, but' unless we address them as a', nation, we will never be free from racism or racial violence. (For copies of the report, write to the Center for Democratic , Renewal, P.O. Box 50469, i Atlanta GA 30302.) ! BERNICE P. JACKSON is executive director of the ~~ Commission for Racial Justice in Cleveland, Ohio. An efficient affirmative action program By Cltirk Ross SPECIAL TO THE POST AU too often the debate about affirmative-action employment has contrasted unattractive polar positions. On one side are those who prefer a color- (or gender-) blind hiring process that inevitably perpetuates occupational segregation. The other side seems to advocate hiring minorities and women who are apt to be less qualified than whites or males. The passage of Proposition 209 in CaUfomia shows that the public has been persuaded by the second argument, that affir- mative action programs are both inefficient and unfair. I would argue that a properly designed government subsidy to encourage firms to participate voluntarily in affirmative action hiring could both increase the efficiency and fairness of the labor market. This proposal presumes that increased diversity within cur rently segregated occupations has a social benefit. Showing young African Americans and women that they can become college professors or hospital administrators would clearly encourage them to pursue stud ies that qualify them for these positions. Proportional repre sentation of all demographic groups in different occupations would also provide more hope for members of the underclass es, reducing social tension and resentment, and possibly reduc ing crime, drug abuse, and wel fare payments. Even though these benefits are apparent, employers don’t It can be fair for everyone consider them in hiring deci sions because they apply to the whole of society, rather than yielding inunediate and tangible benefit to individual firms. Economists argue that a poten tial remedy for a “positive exter nality” such as this is to offer a subsidy to encourage an increase in the “transactions,” which are in this case the num ber of blacks and women hired for professional positions. To illustrate this process, assume the following: 1. There are two groups of individuals who can be divided according to some criterion (e.g., race, gender, height). Call them group A (white and/or male) and group B. 2. Within each group there is a known variance in the expected performance index for each indi vidual. Assume that the effec tiveness indices of the five indi viduals in group A are 3,4,4,5,5. The effectiveness indicators of the five individuals within group B are 2,3,3,4,5. 3. It is costly to individual employers to determine the actual effective ness of any applicant from either group. Consider a firm that needs to hire one additional employee, and attracts one applicant from group A and one fi-om group B. In this example an unbiased employer would find it profit- maximizing, when knowing lit tle about an individual appli cant, to employ an “A” over a “B. “That’s because mathematically there are 25 pairs of A-B appli cants who could apply. Among those pairs, 15 of the 25 pairs (or 60 percent) will have a stronger applicant from group A; 6 pairs will be of equal strength (24 percent); and only 4 pairs (16 percent) will have a stronger applicant from group B. In other words, it is rational to discriminate under this set of circumstances. Individuals fium group A will be consistently hired, and individuals from group B consistently rejected. This behavior will be reinforced if those making the hiring deci sions (e.g., whites or males) are more comfortable with members of their ovra demographic group (group A). But group B has an appheant who is just as well-qualified as the two best appheants in group A, and more strongly qualified than the other three members of group A. It is neither efficient nor fair for that individual to be summarily rejected. Additionally, the closer the qualifications of those in group B to those in group A, the greater the inefficiency and unfairness of this hiring bias. Now consider an affirmative action program that requires the employer to seek new hires from group B. If the firm could afford to spend the funds neces sary to determine the actual effectiveness level of each appli cant, it could hire the “level 5” individual from group B, have no reduction in its efficiency, and contribute to greater soci etal diversity. But most employ ers would oppose this tjqie of ^ affirmative action labor market _ initiative because of its cost. In jj fact, socially conscious firms ij that pursue costly affirmative , \ action strategies are at a com- g petitive disadvantage compared ,r, to firms that continue to dis- h criminate. But what if the government a subsidized the extra search , costs of firms that voluntarily u participate in affirmative-action - hiring? Then firms committed to d increased diversity wouldn’t •' find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, and they might ^ even receive consimier support " from individuals who applaud ' their efforts at employment ? diversification. Firms that " oppose affirmative action could simply refrain from participat ing in the pro-. gram. These govern- fj ment subsi dies would establish a ; voluntary | affirmative j action pro- | gram to i encourage the | employment of Ross certain groups that are other- vrise under represented in cer tain occupations. Such a subsidy is justified by the positive exter nalities for society in general s that were outlined above. Rather than force firms to par- ticipate in an effort they do not support, let’s give the firms that are committed to affirmative action hiring the financial sup- r. port that they justifiably merit, ft CLARK ROSS is professor of ^'- ecorwmics at Davidson College. *1
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 15, 1997, edition 1
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