PAGE 4
THE TRIBUNAL AID
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1973
'You^re A Part Of The Solution^ Or You^re A Part Of The Problem ’
PIEDMONT
PROFILE
BY CECIL BUTLER
VVflo Cares?
Teenagers, with no wholesome
place to go and nothing construc
tive to do, are roaming around
Liberty Street and getting caught
up in a troubled situation. The
residents around 16th and 17th and
Liberty Strees have been com
plaining for some time about
crowds and heroin activity. Young
toughs are going around the area
pressing merchants for protection
money. Ninety percent of the
places with exciting, paid enter
tainment with atmosphere open tc
young people are places where
drugs are readily available and
alcoholic beverages are sold to
teen-agers. It is too bad that the
Golden Stag seems to be a victim
of the area.
This restlessness of the young
people has been building. A year
ago I went to the aldermen with a
proposal for using the Union Train
Station, which had been vacant for
four years, to provide a place of
wholesome activity and career
training for the young people, but
the proposal was turned down
without consideration. I also asked
for funds for a drug abuse
program. This request for funds
also was turned down and the City
spent its revenue sharing funds on
tennis courts and other captial
improvements. As we can all see,
here is part of the practical reason
that the needs of the poor should be
taken care of before luxuries are
planned. Also the Mayor's Task
■ Force for Youth Opportunity
which has been in operation a year
and a half has had an employment
program of fair quality but
aldermen and/ or their advisors,
following true to form, cut the
funds tor this. There has been
opportunity after opportunity to
avoid the kind of incident that
occurred in the Liberty Street area
last week. With no more
opportunity than has been given to
our young people, it is almost
inevitable that civil disturbances
such as these occurred.
As I drove around town Sunday,
July 29, and saw quite a few young
people endlessly roaming the
streets with nothing much to do,
both blacks and white, I could not
envy the police. While some police
may abuse authority, many don't
and these policemen are put into a
difficult situation — they reap the
reaction to unsolved social Ills but
must put a lid on the frustration. It
is not their duty to solve social
problems but to hold things
together and stop violence. They
have been put in a bind and the
endless circle of frustration for all
continues.
Trying to break this endless
cycle of frustration in a poor
community should be the concern
of all. These young people, as I
have written before, need to find
themselves as individuals, dis
cover their talents, and feel a
valuable and needed part of the
community and the City. It would
be to the advantage of all for them
to become involved in innovative
programs that are interesting to
them and helpful to the
community. Along with discover
ing their talents, jobs must be
provided for these young people to
have a practical outlet for their
talents. Financial gain or apathy
to their condition should not
govern the actions of the citizens of
the community nor of the City.
THE ROY WILKINS
COLUMN
The Truth Is...
So, Negro leaders of organiza
tions seeking a better lot for the
: black minority are not, after all
the figures are in, pretenders and
; liars.
They are not crying "Wolf!"
with a loaf of bread under each
; arm. They are not painting a bleak
; picture of the plight of Negroes
’just to arouse the sympathy of
! whites and shake a few more
■’ dollars out of white pockets and out
• of the bank accounts of corportions
;and foundations.
Whenever white Americans
; become weary, or exasperated or
angry at the constant wails that
i arise wherever there are blacks
■ (and the wails should never waver
;in their volume or intensity) they
:dig up some' heavy thinker,
; preferably black, but most often
: white, who assures the white
population that things are really
not so bad for black people.
One is reminded of the testimony
of a white deputy sheriff in a case
in a Southern state in 1936. The
deputy freely admitted that the
black prisoners were tortured, but
added, "not too much for a Negro,
not as much as I would have done if
it had been left to me."
However, the statistics in the
Census Bureau shows that the gap
between whites and blacks has
widened, not narrowed, in the past
five-year period. The median
income for a black family of four
was $6,864 as against a median
income of $11,549 for a white
family of the same size. Even
though a median income is only
half above and half below and thus
is not an average, the whole story
is told In this $4,685 difference.
This is about $90 a week and
could account for better rent or
mortgage payments, health care,
recreation, savings for college and
tor other family expenses. A
disparity of this size disposes
effectively of the argument made
earlier this year that "most blacks
are now in the middle class." The
Census figures show that 52 per
cent of black families earn under
$7,000 a year. This is not blue
collar, much less middle class. The
figures show that 33 per cent of the
total black population was below
the poverty level of $4,275 for a
family of four, whereas only 9 per
cent of the white population was
below that level.
Negroes, in these crucial
categories and in others, remain
far behind whites in the general
picture. The figures indicate, just
as the black leaders declared, that
the unemployment rate between
the races is more than twice as
great for blacks and that the
black teen-age rate of unemploy
ment is 33.5 per cent. Census
officials admit that these percent
ages are inaccurate. In some
Continued on Page 8
THE
POINTER
by Albert A. Campbell
Vflo Will You Help?
in last week's column, I tried to show some
of the importance of supporting advertising
merchants who support this newspaper. In
striving to present some of the reasons for the
support, I also attempted to explain why if
should be done as well as what it
accomplishes.
Just to refresh your memory, I said, "If you
show the merchant that you are in his store
because of his ad, then he will continue
advertising in this paper". 1 further stated,
"By doing this, it also helps provide this paper
for the public, most especially the Black
community. When a merchant advertises in
this paper, he is in fact supporting the
existance of this paper. This is his way of
saying, 'Yes, the paper is needed and I'll be
happy to support it'. In return, he then expects
your support and deserves it. After all, he
could ignor your paper and only support the
one that ignors you".
Now, with these thoughts in mind. I'd like to
go even further. But first let me clarify any
biased thoughts you might have in mind. Up to
this point, I have not named any particular
merchant or group in my argument. I have
only generalized those who do or do not
support your efforts. At this point I still do not
feel the need to become more specific, but I do
want to say that the supporters or
non-supporters are not restricted to any one
group. Some supporters are those who you
would expect and others who you would not
expect. On the other hand, there are those who
you would certainly expect to advertise in this
paper who refuse to do so and stated that they
will not at any time in the future.
Now these merchants who refuse to
advertise in this paper choose to disregard
your clientele. In most cases, he is only
concerned with excepting your money but not
'returning any to your community or causes.
His intentions are never to spend money with
you, but to receive money from you. He is
neither concerned with your welfare nor your
community efforts. As a matter of fact, in
most cases, he is satisfied with the way
conditions are and wishes no gains for you.
The same merchant is sometimes located
deep into your community. And so often his
business is located right on the edge of the
Black community. Other times his is away and
resembles the normal merchant, but he is
different. In other words, he could care less
about your conditions or causes. He has no
intentions of helping to better your conditions
or to support your efforts. And advertising in
this paper is no exception.
These conclusions I have come to because of
my exposure to so many of them. 1 have
received many different answers why they
cannot advertise in your paper, yet they are
unable to explain why they will advertise in
other papers. I have even had merchants to
tell me that they never advertise in
newspapers, but their ads appear in the daily
paper...! wonder who paid for it. Obviously
they think Black folk don't read other papers,
so why then can't they advertise in papers that
Blacks do read? Some reasoning I am
sometimes given is completely foolish, yet, I
am expected to believe it.
In conclusion, let me say that no ethnic
group or race holds a monopoly on ignoring
Black newspapers. There are Blacks as well
as whites who refuse to advertise in Black
media. They too are only concerned with
taking from you, but never returning or
sharing with you. The color of their skin is only
a shield, but the shape of the eyes is $$.
Who are these merchants who refuse to
supportyou? Read THE TRIBUNAL AID, and
if you don't see their ad at some time, but you
do see their ad in other papers then you have
located them yourself. Their absence is not
because of not knowing, but it is of their own
volition. They know, but they refuse.
THE TRIBUNAL AID
1228 Montlieu Avenue
(919) 885-6519
P. O. Box 921 High Point, N. C. 27261
Published Every Wednesday
By Tri-Ad Publications, Inc.
Mail Subscription Ratp $6.00 per year,
Payable In Advance (Add 4% N. C. Sales Tax)
Albert A. Campbell, Managing Editor
TO BE EQUAL
by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Aid To Starving Africans
Starvation has come to Africa,
and unless a major international
effort is successful, millions of
people may die before this fall.
The affected area is at the lower
end of the Sahara, taking in parts
of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali,
Upper Volta, Niger, and Chad.
Unfamiliar place-names, most of
them, and ttiat may be part of the
slowness of the world to respond.
The first warning signs went up
more than three years ago, when
drought hit the region. It has
continued, and is likely to go on for
some years yet. Last fall, word
was spread by the UN Food and
Agricultural Organization that
crop failures in the area were due.
So the world knew about it, but
little was done until tribesmen
started streaming into towns and
villages, pleading for food. Where
were the members of the vast army
of international experts then? Why
didn't our State Department start
things moving sooner? Was
information about the impending
disaster filed in neat folders while
people died?
Now relief supplies are coming
in, too little and too late. The UN
and individual countries, including
our own, are sending food, but it is
one thing to get them to the ports
and airfields of the region and
another to get them into the hands
of the people off in the hinterlands.
Lack of roads and local transpor
tation has been a stumbling block
and the improvised nature of the
operation results in waste and
confusion.
While Africans are starving and
a small amount of food is seeping
in, American grain is filling the
holds of ships bound for Russia,
and this cargo bottleneck hampers
relief efforts.
Right now, the biggest dangers
facing some twenty million
Africans in the drought region is
not starvation — that's still a few
months off. It is disease, for their
weakened condition leaves them
prey to otherwise controllable
illnesses. There have been reports
ofhundreds ofchildren dying in a
measles epidemic, and the very
old and very young are dying of
other sicknesses.
The whole fabric of many tribal
societies has already died.
Nomadic cattle-breeders have
moved to the cities, abandoning a
way of life that goes back over a
thousand years. An estimated
forty percent of their livestock
have died. Farming peoples are
eating their seeds, meaning that
future crops will not be sown. And
the drought-driven desert is
pushing relentlessly southward,
threatening future progress in the
region and upsetting the delicate
balance of life and ecology in the
northwest Africa.
The world has become hardened
to pictures ofhungry people, even
of children with distended sto
machs and matchstick limbs. But
this current catastrophe in Africa
can't depend solely on the goodwill
of individuals moved by tragic
photos. It requires large-scale
international and governmental
action.
The United States should take
the lead by establishing an African
relief "czar" empowered to cut the
red tape and deliver the goods. The
UN ought to act boldly, for since
most people have doubts about its
effectiveness as a peacekeeper, its
total credibility now lies on its
ability to stave off disasters such
as that which threatens six African
nations.
Beyond the immediate emer
gency relief that is required,
American and international policy
ought to be retooled to provide
massive aid to rebuild the stricken
areas and to launch plants to help
develop the region's economy. The
inadequate ports and transporta
tion network now proving to be a
major stumbling block to relief
efforts ought to have been
improved long ago. Colonialism's
heritage, which now includes
starvation, can be erased by an
international Marshall Plan that
funnels aid to impoverished
nationsof the Third World. Instead
of competing in development of
destructive weapons, the super
powers should now start compet
ing in humanitarian works.
“WHITE HOUSE HORROWS"
HE ADVOCATED AS ATTORNEY GENERAL
PRKV^NTiVB DKT£NTION
INOISCWMfNATB ARREST
TAPP/NO AND BUOO/NO,
WITHOUT COURT ORPER
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