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4A EDITORIALS/ The Charlotte Post Thursday, August 7, 19977 -4.- CIjarlottE ^osit The Voice of the Black Community A subsidiary of 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 Welfare-to-work isn’t working Lenora Fulani Charity isn’t too popular at home By Keith Orlando Hilton NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES ASSOCIATION Long before the creation of Black Studies courses at hundreds of colleges and universities in this country, students in the U.S.’s predominantly African American colleges were attempting to take care of business at home and on their local campuses. Much of the credit for the successes of at least 41 black schools can be directly attributed to the United Negro College Fund. Even today, the UNCF remains a high visibility entity on several fronts. 'The UNCF, the NAACP and the National Urban League are without question still three of the most widely-acclaimed organi zations within African American communities. 'The historical roles that these organizations have played are well documented and the past and present heads of these bodies rep resent the who’s who of the communities’ contemporary civil rights leadership circle. Many have received their fair share of praise and criticism, however, throughout this time, these groups and their leaders have consistently pushed forward agendas that could be consid ered moderate and assimilationist in nature. However, if this is the case, why are they still put on trial by so many philanthropists of all races? In a recent issue of the Chronicle of Philamthropy, “the news paper of the non-profit world,” these African-American groups were included with others which are considered very unpopular with many American philanthropists. Among the top 20 charities that were most opposed, the NAACP ranked fourth and the UNCF ranked 11th. The most opposed charity was the National Rifle Association. Among the top 20 charities considered the least credible, the NAACP ranked fifth and the UNCF ranked 10th. The least cred ible was the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Among the top 20 charities that Americans never donated to, the NAACP was ranked first, the UNCF ranked fifth and the National Urban League ranked 17th. To the credit of the UNCF and NAACP, the survey also sup ported our introductory comments about their tremendous acclaim. Whereas 13 percent of the respondents were opposed to the UNCF, 40.3 percent were also supportive. This is also consistent with the fact that many people have very strong views about advocacy organizations. 'The survey also indi cated that many of the groups that Americans commonly opposed were Christian, Jewish and African organizations. KEITH O. HILTON can be reached via e-mail: kohilton@high- ereducwin.net Since President Clinton’s sign ing of the welfare reform act - the one his policy advisors told him to veto while his “score- points-at-all-costs” poUtical advi sors told him to sign - moving welfare recipients from public assistance to jobs has become a government focus. In his State of the Union address in Februaiy, Clinton called on corporate America to join in creating new partnerships with government to evolve welfare-to-work pro grams. 'Things don’t appear to be going so well. Recently, a fi"ont page Wall Street Journal article reported on what it called tile “mixed results?’ of one such program undertaken by Sprint and AT&T in Kansas City, Mo. These efforts - loudly trumpeted by the White House at the beginning - have succeeded in placing a total of seven workers at Sprint, one of whom was let go after the first week. AT&T hired one person whom they fired in two weeks. These statistics do not bode well. And as you might expect, various explanations have begun surfacing. One corporate insider stated that the programs were ineffective because corporate America wasn’t “ready.” A super visor at Sprint said, “There are welfare recipients who choose to succeed and those who choose not to.” Can the same be said of presidents? With the success rate so low, a debate has arisen as to which is the best method to effect welfare. One camp argues that you must train people before placing them in private sector jobs. The other presents the “job first” argument, where welfare recipients receive a one week crash comse oriented toward employment basics, like getting to work on time? and not on job skills. This is tile approach that is gaining popularity with policy makers because it is cheaper and because “quick fix” statistics can be used to demon strate how effectively the pro gram is working. However, there is no quick fix here. The U.S. economy has been structured over the long haul to be an economy without full employment. While the range of unemployment fluctuates between 3 percent and 7 percent, depending on various factors, there has always been - by design - a sector of Americans relegated to being unemployed. This economic phenomenon has historically helped among other things, to keep wages down and, therefore, profits up. The welfare and unemploy ment programs adopted dming and after the Great Depression which institutionalized unem ployment were based on pohcy makers’ acceptance of this macro-economic feature of the U.S. economy. Not surprisingly an entire culture of being both unemployed and unemployable has evolved. Schools educate - but not everyone - because unemployability is desirable. Welfare must discourage self- reliance so that the demand for jobs and job training from within the permanent underclass will be muted. This institutionalized cul ture cannot and will not be over come by “job-first” or even by “training-first” approaches. You cannot take a society business and the poor alike - socialized over lifetimes for intractable unemployment and then, because the political cli-. mate now opposes Big govern ment spending. Tb create a few programs that will suddenly transform the long-term imein- ployed into rehable workers. , Political expediency is one thing. ReaUty is quite another Politicians of both major parties may hope to pick up votes off of a quick-fix approach to welfare reform. But imtil there is a seri ous, long-term and developmen tal approach that repudiates political considerations and undertakes to readjust at eveiy level - from the macro-economic to the job training and placement modahty - there will be no effec tive means of moving people from welfare to work. LENORA FULANI is a former independent presidential candi-. date. Celebrating legacy of Marcus Garvey Reparations, not apologies for slavery By Ron Daniels SPECIAL TO THE POST That’s the best way for U.S. to say ‘we’re sorry’ By Conrad W. Worrill SPECIAL TO THE POST August is an important month in the worldwide African Liberation Movement, we are paying tribute to the legacy of one of our greatest organizers and leaders in the African world community - Marcus Mosiah Garvey. One of the major objectives of this year’s celebration should be the continued study of the works of this great black hero who died in London on June 10,1940. Garvey left a rich legacy for us to study and utilize in our continued quest for independence and liberation as a people. Marcus Garvey was bom Aug. 17, 1887 in St. Aim’s Bay, Jamaica to Marcus and Sarah Garvey. Marcus’ father, was a descendent of the Maroons. They were Africans who managed to escape slavery by jumping from slave ships, or by fleeing slave plantations and estab- Ushing well-fortified communities in the mountains deep in Jamaica’s interior. Garvey’s mother was said to have been extraordinarily beau tiful and gentle. She was also a deeply rehgious person. Garvey left school at 14 and became an apprentice printer in Kingston. He worked for a private printing company and eventually became a foreman. In 1907, at 20, Garvey, though part of manage ment, led a newly-formed printer’s union strike. The company promised Garvey big rewards and benefits if he would discontinue his union organizing, however, he refused and was fired and “blackhsted” in Kingston. This experience intensified Garvey’s political curiosity concerning the condition of black people. It was at tbis point, in 1909, that he formed the National Club and its publication “Our Own.” From this point on, Garvey decided to devote his life to the uplift- ment of the race. He pubfished his first newspaper, “The Watchman,” which gave him an opportunity to express his emerging political views on the plight of black people. While unable to gain support for bis orga nization, Garvey began to travel, spending time in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Columbia and Venezuela. These trips gave Garvey an opportunity to observe that whenever black people and whites were in close proximity, black people were on the bottom. He continued to travel and in 1911 he went to London. While there, Garvey met Duse Mohummed Ah, editor of the “African Times” and “Orient Review.” Ah, an Egyptian scholar, introduced Garvey to many ideas which played an important role in Garvey’s future thinking. As we celebrate the birthday of one of the 20th century’s greatest freedom fighters, we need to revitalize the spirit of Marcus Mosiah Garvey. It is needed now more than ever before. CONRAD WORRILL is the national chairman of the National Black United Front in Chicago. Suddenly and inexphcably the concerns of Africans in America seem to be at least superficially front and center on the stage of national discourse. Not only has President Clinton’s initiative on racism provoked a great deal of attention and discussion. Congressman Tbny Hall, D-Ohio has introduced a bill in the Congress caUing for a national apology to African Americans for slavery. Indeed, apologies to Black people seem to be in vogue of late. President Clinton recent ly issued an apology to the African Americans who were used as guinea pigs in the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. A South Carolina church group also made headlines by apologiz ing for its compficity with slavery and segregation. A couple of years ago the Southern Baptist Convention offered an apology to black people for supporting slav ery. Ostensibly these apologies are intended as gestures to pave the way for racial reconciliation. Unfortunately apologies alone are inadequate as a prerequisite for racial reconciUation. In fact left alone without more substan tive acts on the part of the offend ing majority and the govern ment, apologies may simply seiwe to relieve White America of its sense of guilt without dealing vrith the deep and longstanding damages of racism and white supremacy on African people in this country — the holocaust of enslavement, segregation and ongoing patterns and systems of institutional racism, political oppression and economic degra dation. African Americans must not be too quick to accept sym bols without substance. When this nation finally resolved to make amends for the intermnent of Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps during World War H, not only was an apology issued, the Congress of the United States voted to pay reparations to the Japanese for this injustice. The late Rev. Mac Charles, who served as Associate General Secretary of the National Council of Churches and a leading racial justice advocate, passionately articulated a formula for racial reconcifiation in America which should be useful in the current debate: Confession, repentance, restitution, reconciliation. Rev. Jones argued persuasively that the oppressor, victimizer, offend ing party must acknowledge the crime, act of transgression or wrong as the first step in the process of reconciliation. An apol ogy would be an appropriate part of this initial step. But confession must be coupled with a genuine pledge/commitment to change the behavior, the policies and practices which harmed or afflicted the victim. Finally, and of most importance, the oppres sor must make restitution to the oppressed to heal the wounds and repair the damages caused by the violation of the person or people. Only when there has been restitution is the ground work laid for genuine reconcilia tion. If this formula for reconcilia tion apphes to any people in America certainly it is relevant to the sons and daughters of Africa who were captured, enslaved and brought to this hemisphere to toil under unspeakable conditions to emich people and a nation with our free lalx)r. TTie cost in human lives was horrendous counting in the millions those who were lost in the dread middle passage and other stages of the enslavement process. But human cost is far greater than the loss of life. The holocaust of enslavement also wrought an awesome toll in terms of the cultural and spiritu al destruction of African peoples and nations. Free African labor helped to build America and pave the way for other immigrants to come to the “land of opportunity” even as our own cidtures, families and communities were decimated. ’Then we were emancipated and made citizens in this nation, a capitalist coimtry, without the promised “forty acres and a mule,” no property, no repara tions to repair/heal our broken communities, no endowment to develop an economic infrastruc ture for the survival and develop ment of a battered people. The damages of slavery have been passed on inter-generationaUy, aggravated by segregation, sys tematic discrimination and per sistent individual and institu tional racism. Africcm people have survived and developed in spite of these circumstances, but only under great duress and enormous handicaps. No, an apology is not enough to compensate for the legacy of slavery and white supremacy. Reparations are required to repair the damages done to our people. There can be no discus sion of reconciliation without racial justice and racial justice is impossible vrithout reparations. African people must be made whole again. It is oru duty to compel this nation to repent and make restitution for its involve ment in and benefit from one of the greatest crimes against humanity in history, the African holocaust. Hence, we must forcefully inject ourselves into the debate that has been provoked by President Clinton’s initiative on racism and the proposal that there be an apology for slavery, we must vigorously press the demand for reparations and sub stantive life sustaining pubhc policies to rehabilitate ^d restore our damaged communi ties. At a minimum Africa Americans must demand that Clinton issue an Executive Order appointing a Presideiitial Commission to study the dam ages of slavery consistent with H.R. 40, the Reparations .Bill which congressman John Conyers has introduced, - in Congress for the past several years. Apologies without restitu tion/reparations are an insult to the humanity of African pebple. America must pay for its crimes against African people or facfe the destructive rage and wrath of those whom it has oppressed and continues to exploit in her nlidst. No reconciliation without repara tions! RON DANIELS is a syndicat ed columnist from Elmsford,‘N.Y.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Aug. 7, 1997, edition 1
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