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5A OPINIONS tttt Clarlotte $a(t Thursday, March 2, 2006 Maulana Karenga Solutions to inter ethnic conflicts Hie current clashes in the L.A county jails between African-Americans and Latinos are both tragic and trou bling. not only because of the deaths and harm they have caused, also because of the damage they do to our sense of shared interests in life and struggle as peoples of color seeking a just society and a good world. Indeed, it is com mon consensus among sodally-conscious activists, intellec tuals and others, that people of color are natural allies, given our common condition of race and class oppression and our common interests in ending and transcending it. Although these clashes don’t challenge this fundamental under standing, it does raise questions about the causes and conditions of the conflict and our role in solving the probltoi and pursu ing the common good, Tb correctly understand and effectively address this urgent issue, we must have a clear conception of the basis and nature of these conflicts. First, we must avoid the easy path of posing them as simply a racial problem. Although they contain a radal element, the issue is much more complex and rooted in a series of interrelated insti tutional and social conditions. It is ironic that we tend to and are taught to explain every conflict between people of color by raising the issue of race. But in our negative rela tions with Whites, we are discouraged from doing so and told to look elsewhere for sources and solutions, especially within ourselves and our communities. Secondly, we must not simply worry about what inmates will bring out of jail and prison, but also what they take in there from the society and communities from which they come. They do not enter naked and empty of mind and emotion, but fully-clothed in the ideas and attitudes of soci ety Among these are racism, ethnic chauvinism, domina tion, aggression, alienation, hostility and objectification of others that denies their humanity and justifies any act against them deemed necessary Thus, there is also an urgent need for societal and community self-reflection and self-transformation. Also, we must always deal with the conditions of the institution itself that by its very structure and function produces a degenerative and tension-filled environment. Thus, treatment of inmates, living conditions, opportuni ties for meaningful activities, i.e., education, recreation, - skill improvements; relations with guards and in-place policies to avoid, intervene in and solve conflicts in effective and non-abusive ways, all mxist be considered. The county jail deariy has problems in all the above areas. It is oppres sively over-crowded and woefully understaffed, by the sheriff‘s own admission. Consequently, the living conditions are breeding grounds for t^ision and hostility, and the cultivation and manipu lation of ethnic or racial hatred by gangs, guards-gone-wild or others. Moreover, the tension intensifies in the absence of programs that would allow learning, recreation, skills acquisition, gold other self-improvement opportunities. Certainly, another important element that helps create and aggravate the situation is a^ressive ethnic chauvin ism which evolves when a positive appreciation of one’s own ethnic identity and commonality turns into a perverse need to deny the equal worth and rights of others. This aggressiveness is emboldened by a numerical advantage. Hius, the Latinos who incite the attacks on Afiican- Americans exploit their numerical vulneralnlity As report ed, many Latinos don’t share this a^ressiveness or wish to participate in the attacks, but fear consequences if they don’t cooperate. It is important to note that many, if not most, fi^ts start out as personal conflicts and confiontations over such issues as food, phone and sex access, bunk position, paper towels and toilet paper, or that perennial quest of men of color for recognition and respect so often denied by the larger society But these incidents and issues are quickly taken up by racial provocateurs as insults and challenges to the group that must be avenged or answered in some macho-demanding way Key also to understanding and effectively dealing with this problem is recc^nizing the role some guards play in provoking groups, pitting them against each other, or let ting than savage eadi other as a form of discipline, pun ishment, ethnic preference or self-saving in a violent and dangerous situation. MAULANA KARENGA is pwfessor of Black Studies at California State University-Long Beach and creator of Kwanzaa. He can be reached through his Web sites, www.Us-Organizationorg and www.OfficialKwanzaa Website jorg. Connect with ®t)e $oit Send letters to The Charlotte Post, P.O. Box 30144 Chariotte, NC 28230 or e-mail editorial(((thecharlot- tepost.com. We edit for grammar, clarity and space. Include your name and daytime phone number. Letters and photos will not be returned by mail unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. James Clingman Frankenstein’s monster returns They conceived him, they created him, they sustained him, they supported him, and now he has tiuned on them. Just likp the old Frankenstein monster movies we used to see, once again we can break out our popcorn and Mary Jane candy and watch the latest version of Frankenstein, known as Frankenbush, as the dreaded monster turns on his creators. That’s right; those metal things that protrude from Frankenbush’s neck have been charged by hundreds of lightening strikes and now, because he has so much powei; he doesn’t have to obey his masters any more. The Frankenbush monster thumbed his nose at his conservative creators by thieatening to cast his first veto ever on the shipping ports deal. Dr. Frankenstein himself, Bill Frist, is leading his clones — House Speaker Hastert and the others — in an attempt to stop Frankenbush, but the mon ster is defiant and refuses to capitulate to their ccHimiands Yes, the puppet is turning on the pup pet masters; Chuckie is on the attack Can any one stop him before it’s too late? As I have said many times, it’s always about the money and you would think, listening to the moaning and wailing of‘the people,” that wejust discovered this stark reality Treasury Secretary John Snow, and the rest of those corporate crooks who have been steal ing every dollar they can get their hands on, have pulled off anoth er monetary coup with this port deal. Everywhere you look there is a connection fix)m Frankenbush to his corporate cronies. And you thought he was accountable to the Congress, Silly you. It was the Congress, at least the mjyority of Congress that cre ated Frankenbush, giving him all the nourishment he required to get stronger and stronger. Now, he has turned on them and is exposing them as the weaklings they are. All they can do, now that the monster has been unleashed, is try to destroy him. If they don’t come up with the silver bullet Frankenbush will destroy them in November 2006. Can’t you hear Vmcent Price’s spoolQ'^ laugh in the background as you slide down in your seat, afraid to watch the scary climax of this B-movie? The minor plots abound. The bride of Frankenbush, “Condi,” as he calls her, is threatening folks all over the world. After all, she has the monster on her side. Again, I think about our prophet, Gil Scott-Heron, when he called Henry Kissinger, the “International Godfather of Peace.” Just like Richard Nixon and his boys want ed “a piece of Laos, a piece of Angola, a piece of \fiet Nam, a piece of Cuba.” Condi also says she and Frankenbush want peace, a piece of Iraq, a piece of Iran, a piece of Syria, a piece of Afghanistan. Apparently the Frankenbush peace process calls for Condi to threaten leaders of these countries, as well as the duly elected leader of Venezuela, Caesar Chavez. Can anyone stop this monster? Frankenbush, firesh fix)m a re- chai^e in 2004, hackneyed, skewed, discombobulated, and con fused, is on the loose, running rampant and destroying everything in his path. He and his bride are bent on taking over the earth. It’s Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester reincarnated. Keep your chil dren in the house. I have to believe that any person with an ounce of gray matter knows Frankenbush is an abject failure, at least as it relates to governing this country But, as for filling his pockets and those of his cronies, he has been a rousing success. He has done what he was told; they trotted him out on the stage, after wiring him with an earpiece, and he stood there and delivered — exactly what they told him to say Of course, thoe are always receptions every time Frankenbush makes his feeble attempts to speak without assis tance. His inarticulate ramblings and mechanical movements and ges tures are striking indications that Frankenbush is unsure of his balance, insecure, and unstable, at least that’s the way it used to be. Now, the monster is walking on his own, still not making very much sense when he speaks, but he doesn’t need to, considering the raw power he possesses. Soon we will see how powerful Frankenbush is as he has thrown down the gauntlet before his creators. Now they must find a way to destroy him before he destroys them - and the rest of us. Can they do it? Surely there is much awry in this, the latest Republican labora tory experiment. The monster is running wild, not obeying the orders fiom those who thought they were his masters; they didn’t know he had other masters; they thought they had him under con trol, but the corporate hidden hands are giving Frankenbush his orders. We are in deep trouble if he is not neutralized soon. Doesn’t all of this make sense now? Frankenbush said he didn’t know the levies would Ineak; he didn’t know Osama had plans to fly planes into buildings; and he didn’t know about the Dubai deal; he didn’t know Hamas would be elected. Isn’t it obvious that he doesn’t know about a lot of things? After all, he is the most ignorant, uninformed, and disconnected presi dent in the history of this country That’s because he was created in a laboratory by devious, greedy, mad scientists like Rove, Cheney, Wolfbwitz, Abramlioff, Ken Lay, and the rest of their dia bolical surgical team. Yes, they created a monster and now, after turning on the people, the monster has turned on Congress, a collective body that assumed it had control of the monster. Wow! I can’t wait to see the end of this horror movie. JAMLS E. CUNGMAN. a professor at the University of Cincinnati, is for mer editor of the Cincinnati Herald newspaper and founder of the Greater Ciminnati African American Chamber of Commerce. OUR VOICES One woman’s sacrifice made impact on me If I had to say who made tlie mc^t prefoiuid impact on my life I would say Eiiunitt TUI’s mother. Enunitt Till was a black teenager who was killed in Mississippi in 1955 aftei* he whistled at a wliite woman. Enunitt was fiom Chicago, Illinois and may not have luiderstood tlie way things were done in tlie South. He didn’t set out to get killed or make liistory but he did. When Enunitt was killed, his motli- er didn’t hide. She told their stoiy and she had an open casket at his fimei’al. A lot of people wei'e luicom- fortable seeing a dead cluld one that was so beaten up that you couldn’t even recegnize him. A lot of people wouldn’t want you to see theii* son or daughter beaten up but Enunitt’s mother made you look. No one wanted to admit tliat something like that could happen in America. Some people were mad and some people were sad and some people were even glad. The people that were mad and sad began to rally and hold meetings and plan what they could do to change things, I never met Enunitt’s mothei’ but she had a positive impact on my life. When you saw Enunitt’s face in the casket you saw hati-ed and racism. Enmiitt’s mother helped the dvil rights movement and the civil rights movement made it okay to be black in America. Kianna Montgomery. II. lives in Sanford. N.C. She wrote this winning essay to the question of which African American’s contribution has had the most pn)found impact on your life and why. The essay contest was .sponsored by the North Carolina/Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. The BUu'k History Month Short Essay Contest was open to all North Carolina vouths ages 11-13. Nuclear hypocrisy in Iran’s treatment As I look at the frantic gyrations in the attempt by the U.S. and Israel to keep Iran from obtaining the ability to process' nuclear fitel, I keep thinking about my first book, “South Afiica and the Bomb” (1987) that described the white-minority regime’s attempt to acquire nuclear capability Experts then i-ejected the notion that South Afiica would manufacture nuclear weapons, or could do so, or that it wouldn’t have to use them to control the black population, either inside the country or in the siurounding countries. After several years of work with the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid on South Afiica’s mili tary and nuclear capability, 1 had come to another conclusion. South Afiica’s military strategy of a “total solution” conceived on the possibility of being over whelmed by blacks, heightened its xenophobia. Thus, its ability to reprocess uranium fuel gave it the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons, if needed. Imagine my lack of surprise when on March 24, 1993, President De Klerk admitted in a speech they had manufactured nuclear weapons and vowed to dismantle them before the black m^ority government came into power. No one has yet come forward to say that my work or that of others was rig^it, but that is not real ly the most important point. The point is that while South Afiica, a country known to have slaughtered thousands of blacks, moved millions into concentration camp-like condi tions, passed the most racist laws, maintained terror ist squads to control dissidents, eind invaded their neighbors to foster intimidation, was busy manufac turing nuclear weapons, no coimtry came forward to respond to the warnings that I and others gave to the UN, It’s hard to argue that any country that wants to should have the capability to make nuclear weapons and therefore make the international system more dangerous, and so I won’t argue that principle. But what we see in the frantic attempt by the West to keep Iran fiom achieving nuclear capatality is a club- biness about who can own and develop nuclear capa bility One of the objectives of the West has been, by all means, to prevent a so-called "Arab bomb” fiom coming into existence. RON WAITERS is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland College Park. Ron Walters
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 2, 2006, edition 1
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