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5A OPINIONS/ The Charlotte Post Thursday, July 3, 1997 4 Black economics key to social liberation Letters to The Post By Conrad W. Worrill NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION In this era of economic and educational onslaught against the African community in America, it is important to understand that the rise of the African Centered Education movement should be linked to our quest for economic independence. We must free the “African mind” through African-centered educational activities so that we might better understand the importance of economic self- reliance. One model that we draw strength from is that established by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association in the 1920s. The more I read and study about Marcus Garvey, the more I am amazed at the great contributions he made to African people becoming a self-reliant and self-sufficient people. At the core of Garvey’s program was his urging of African people to acquire educational and economic power. As he always stated, “A race without power is a race without respect.” When we examine the economic condition of Africans in America and throughout the world, we find one glaring problem - African people do not control economic resources at the level that we should. This is primarily due to our miseducation as a people. In a disproportionate maimer, African people depend on the European and Asian world for food, clothing and shelter. More often than not, the European and Asian worlds are the produc ers, processors, distributors and wholesalers. African peo ple are mainly consumers. This was one of the mqjor problems that Garvey addressed during his lifetime and that Minister Louis Farrakhan is addressing today. As Dr. 'Ibny Martin writes in his book “Race First,” that is one of the best books written on Garvey’s works, “Marcus Garvey, unlike his major rivals in the United States, built a mass organization that went beyond civil- rights agitation and protest and based itself upon a defi nite, well thought out program that he believed would lead to the total emancipation of the race from white dominion.” lb implement his program, Garvey set up the Negro Factories Corporation. Its objective was to build and oper ate factories in the big industrial centers of the United States, Central America, the Caribbean and Africa. 'The NFC set up a chain of cooperative grocery stores, a restau rant, a steam laundry, a tailor and dressmaking shop, a millinery store and a publishing house. Garvey also established a steamship company, the Black Star Line. He envisioned a fleet of steamers for pas senger transport and establishing trade among African people of the United States, Central America, the Caribbean and Africa. In the summer of 1920, Garvey launched his full-blown program at the first convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, of which he was the founder and first President General. Dr. Martin explains that “Central to the ideological basis underpinning Garvey’s program was the question of race. For Garvey, the Black man was universally oppressed on racial grounds, and no matter how much people tiy to shy away from this issue, the fact is, this is still true today.” As Malcolm X used to say, it was our blackness “which caused us so much hell, not our identity as Elks, Masons, Baptists or Methodists.” If we are ever to become a bber- ated people this idea must be deeply rooted in the day-to- day organizing and mobilizing of our people as we seek economic emd educational liberation. Far too many Africans in America have abandoned this idea in their organizing projects. CONRAD W. WORRILL is a syndicated columnist. Why have-nots aren’t in some neighborhoods By James S. Miller SPECIAL TO THE POST There comes a time when events unfold from time to time that effects the lives of few, when this happens, someone must step forward and speak out against what he feels is unfair,, unjust, and insulting toward them and in some cases an entire neighbor hood. I realize that doing so may upset some and offend others, but strike joy in the hearts of the have-nots. If such happens, the writer offer no apologies to the former, for he realizes, that his opinion wont amount to a hiU of beams when it comes to develop ing consensus among the haves. I was deeply shocked and offended when I read an article about a petition protesting busi ness along Franklin Square from expanding on the other side of Highway 29-74. You can expand, but not any closer to our neigh borhood. If I had not been bom and raised in the ghetto of Gastonia, if I had not been educated in its segregated schools, if I had not been branded a second class citi zen, if I had not put my life on the line to defend my country during World War II, and if I had not spent nearly 40 years as a school principal in Gaston County, then maybe the hurt would not have been so bad. When elected officials must decide on the location for jail- houses, courthouses, police sta tions, federal housing, low income apartments, bus stations, train stations, water and sewage filtering plants, the results are always the same. Uproot the Negroes, their homes, their churches, their businesses, close their schools and shops. If they protest, promise them a pie in the sky but you build and tear down their neighborhood any way, but not ours. If you need more space, move further on the west side of town but not in our neighborhood. I want to make it perfectly clear that this practice does not only apply to Gastonia but in over 90 percent of eveiy hamlet, town or city in this nation, including All American cities. During my tenure as a school principal, if I had not rebelled when I told why worry about the future of children at Arlington or Myrtle, or the mass trailer camp kids, or the Spring Valley hood lums, or the masses who dwell in Camelot Apartments off Davis Peirk Road or the Willie M’s, the 'Title Fs, free lunch kids, or the LD & EMH students. If I had not protested against kids being placed in remedial classes because of their residence or skin color and told that they would never amount to anything because they are mill village whites and poor Negroes; if I did not have dedicated teachers who cared and parents who kept hope alive, then the future of those on this side of the tracks would have been in vain. A story is told of a group of peo ple in a certain city who tried to build a perfect community. They built their own church, schools, shopping center, country club, amusement park, and golf course. You couldn’t build a house under $500,000, or own a car under $75,000. Your income had to be in the neighborhood of $300,000 a year and you had to be a white Anglo American citi zen to live there. During the first church service their minister resigned. He told them that Jesus Christ would not qualify to live in their community. I wonder if this will be Saint Peter’s answer when the haves request first class treatment in his kingdom, or will he say “I’m sorry, you’re not welcome in my neighborhood.” JAMES S. MILLER of Belmont is a retired school principal. Could Thomas be right about integration? By Clarence Page CHICAGO TRIBUNE News that the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organiza tion is considering a shift away from school desegregation sig nals a moral victory for Clarence 'Thomas. iFor years the black conserva tive Supreme Court justice has drgued that public school deseg- liegation is vastly overrated as a ^oal for dvil rights law. Now a rising chorus in the nation’s lead- ifrg integrationist organization, tjhe National Association for the ^vancement of Colored People, appears to be agreeing with him. For the first time in more than a decade, NAACP leaders plan to tiave a formal debate on its long- held school integration policy when it holds its annual conven tion next month in Pittsburg. 'The NAACP continues to believe in integration. Chairman MyrUe Evers-Williams says. But °a debate has been raging as to whether that’s still the position we should take,” she told 'The New York 'Hmes, which broke the story. This re-examination of the strategies to achieve integration is long overdue. Black impa tience with white resistance to school desegregation has bubbled up from the streets into the orga nization itseff. Last year the NAACP board dismissed Robert H. Robinson as president of its Bergen County branch in New Jersey after he said seeking quality schools was more important than seeking racial integration. A year earlier, the organization bounced Kenneth W. Jenkins, president of the Yonkers, N.Y., branch, out of office for questioning the wisdom of continued busing for school integration. In other cities, including Chicago, local NAACP leaders have questioned the virtue of fed erally sanctioned “’integration maintenance” plans that discour age more blacks or whites from moving into particular nei^bor- hoods or apartment develop ments that already have a cer tain quota of residents of the same race. 'That’s a big swing finm the day when 'Thurgood Marshall, then the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to declare in its landmark 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education school desegregation decision that separate facilities m'e inherently unequal and even damaging to black children. 'The Brown decision overturned the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision that affirmed the consti tutionality of separate-but-equal facilities. 'Thomas, who replaced Marshall on the Supreme Court, thinks the Brown decision did the right thing in abolishing legal segregation but for the wrong legal reasons. “Tt never ceases to amaze me that the courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominately black must be inferior,” wrote 'Thomas, when he voted to scale back a Kansas City judge’s school desegregation plan. For views like that, angry inte- grationists have called 'Thomas an “Unde 'Ibm,” a “Tiandkerchief head” and worse. 'Thomas now appears to be on the verge of vin dication, for several reasons. For one, a lot of black folks are tired of chasing white folks. More Americans than ever before say they want integration, but the reality is more segregation. Busing has worked in some com munities, but not in others. It is reflection of how we Americans live. Overall, public schools are more segregated than they have been since 1967, according to Harvard University’s Gary Orfield. His 1994 study found the most integration in fringe neigh borhoods on the outer edges of our dties and the inner rings of our suburbs, wedged in between vast oceans of radal segregation. Black parents also are tired of the deteriorated conditions in which many black students are left behind. 'They are tired of see ing their children, in most cases, being the only ones who get bused. 'They are tired of Brown’s implication that black children need to sit next to white children in order to be properly educated.. Small wonder that some of the loudest voices in favor of shifting funds from busing to the class rooms are black mayors. As a black parent, I feel fortu nate to have my child in a radal- ly integrated public school sys tem. I believe children learn how to be better dtizens when they grow up in a radally and ethni cally diverse student body. Most of my neighbors say they feel the same way. But too many less-fortunate children find themselves locked in ghetto schools, separated not only from whites but idso from better-off blacks. Economic isola tion on top of racial segregation denies resources, tax dollars, role models and smaller classrooms to students who need them the most. 'The NAACP need not turn away from its dream of a racially integrated society in order to re examine the tactics it uses to reach it. It is no shame to say that, in the great struggle for black liberation, it has lost the busing battle. CLARENCE PAGE is a Chicago Tribune columnist. Cooking collards and budget compromises “It’s like cooking collard greens.” “You can’t just toss ‘em in the pot, come back five minutes later, throw ‘em on the plate and eat ‘em. 'They wouldn’t be worth nuthin like that.” My friend was explaining why the North Carolina General Assembly has not reached an agreement on the state’s budget for the year that began July 1. What do collards and budget- malting have to do with each other? Keep on listening to my friend. “You’ve got to understand. Collards start out stiff. “They ain’t no good to eat when they are that way. It takes time to cook. You’ve got to put ‘em in a potfuU of bod ing water. But that is just the beginning. 'Then you have to turn the heat down a little bit, but you’ve got to keep ‘em simmer ing. “Fhey won’t be ready until they’ve been cooked all day. “And it’s just the same way with this legislature. 'Them boys got different ideas of what they want to do with aU that money. “Ask them when they start off whether or not they are willing to give up anything or compromise. Heck, they stand up and say, “This is non-negotiable.’ “They are just as stiff as fresh collards before you cook ‘em. “ Actually, each house of the General Assembly has passed a budget. The Senate finished months ago and the House of Representatives passed its ver sion of the budget several weeks ago. “The problem is that the two versions of the budget are very different. It is easy enou^ for you or me to say that “the legis lature should go ahead, settle their differences, pass a budget, and go home.” “They should. 'There is no ques tion about it. But when you have two different budgets competing against each other, the leaders of each house are going to be grad ed by how well they do in holding on to the important features of their version of the budget. 'The amount of time it takes to get the good result doesn’t mat ter. It is only the result that counts in their minds. Sometime down the road, the two sides wiU have to come to a compromise agreement. It always happens. Before that compromise budget can be agreed upon, everyone wiU have to give up something. It is necessary and expected - in time. But nothing important can be given up during the first days of the negotiation - or in the first weeks. Some time has to pass before anything valuable is given up. Not only time has to pass. 'There has to be a fight - or some other strong showing of commit ment. Every provision of the bud get of each house is important to someone or some group. 'The someone or the group that sup ports a particular budget provi sion would be very upset if it were sacrificed without a good strong fight. Even after a good fight, there is disappointment when something is lost in a compromise. But with out a good fight, there is more than disappointment. 'There is anger and a loss of respect and confidence. Leaders who don’t stand up for their followers lose the fundamental underpinning of their power - trust. So there has to be a struggle about every difference between the two budgets. 'There must be a show of strength and purpose. 'Ib be credible, that show has to go on for a little while. If the Senate and House leaders sat down and settled all the differ ences in a day or two, who would believe that anybody fought hard for the budget provisions that were sacrificed? So the budget leaders - and everybody with an interest in the budget - start out stiff and imyielding - just like collards. 'Then, over a few weeks of cook ing in the steaming pot, they loosen up and become flexible enough to bend towards an agreement. How long will it take? When will the House and the Senate reach an agreement on the bud get? I don’t know. Nobody knows for sure. All I can say is this: 'The col lards are cooking, but they sure ain’t ready to eat yet. D.G. MARTIN is vice president of public affairs for the University of North Carolina system. You can contact via e-mail at dgmartin@ga.unc.edu. Apology needed “Is slavery apology needed?” in the June 19 Post prompted a few of my thoughts. I recall stiU with pain, according to my mother how her grandmother was forced to submit sexually to her owner and how her grandfather on one occasion took a hammer and broke her legs in frustration and anger. My own mother, though she prepared herself well as a certi fied school teacher, registered nurse and beautician, experi enced blatant racism. I have in my possession a poem in her handwriting and composed by her 55 years ago that expressed her feelings, “A Small Quest For Democracy”: I wonder what my God will say when I get up to Glory About my heart which hates this way Because it’s crushed and held at bay? I wonder if He knows I’m tied Been tied all down the years And if I lift my head to cry Am scoffed because of tears! How long my God, how long Will the iron heel never cease to grind? Shall I ever ever justice find? So back to the apology. Frankly, I’ve often thought that it would never happen. It is, however, one step forward and will be relevant if it results in admission of the horrors of slaver, correcting the injustices that have and are still occurring and most importantly causing my sisters and brothers to reflect on the past not too long but commit themselves to live up to the expectations that our ancestors suffered and died for. Pass the word on, please. Daisy Spears Stroud Charlotte Change welfare The writer is Speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives. As this year’s session of the North Carolina General Assembly is winding down, the battle over the future of our state’s welfare system is begin ning to heat up. Last yeiu' the Congress passed reforms that, for the first time, offer the chance to fundamentally change the welfare system. Our House majority has taken advantage of this opportunity and approved a plan that would totally change the concept of welfare in North Carolina. Our plan offers oppor tunity, not entitlements. It focus es on work, not handouts. But most importantly, the House plan takes welfare policy out of the hands of the entrenched bureaucrats in Raleigh and gives control to local officials. 'The House plan is based on the basic principle that the problems of unemployment and poverty can best be solved by local lead ers and local communities-not by government officials hundreds of miles away. Local leaders are in the best position to address the social problems unique to their area. Our plan encourages iimo- vation and community participa tion in finding solutions to wel fare while requiring counties to continue their “maintenance of effort”. Local control also forces officials to put faces with the names of our citizens facing poverty. This “personal touch” is a far cry from the dehumanizing bureaucracy of our current sys tem. Our House welfare reform plan offers the best chance to change welfare one and for all. Only by reducing the wasteful bimeaucra- cy and by moving decision-mak ing closer to the people can we hope to break the cycle of welfare dependency. I encourage every one to write their legislators and county commissioners and urge them to support the House plan. Harold J. Brubaker Raleigh What’s on your mind? Let us know. Write Letters to The Post, P.O. Box 30144, Charlotte, N.C., 28230. You can also fax us at (704) 342-2160 or e-mail char- post@clt.mindspring. com
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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July 3, 1997, edition 1
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