H.M;
Jr.,
lew state Rep.
“Micke. ’ Michaux,
Df Durham, predicted following
Soper Tuesday’s returns that the
fdilore of the Democratic Party’s
leadership to support the black
community’s presidential; can
ite ‘'will be smoothed over
own the lines*” he accurately
sribed how blades hie to be
?ated politically. $
iSmoothe them, over and get
their votes.
‘Or get their votes and then
sihoothe them over.
f There is little need for blacks to
be upset over Sen. Terry Sanford
and former Gov. James B. Hunt’s
recruitment of a candidate with
whom “conservative Democrats
would be comfortable.” Bring
upset will not change how San
ford, Hunt and the Democratic
leadership views and uses the
black vote.
Tradition, habit, affection and
allegiance to the Democratic Par
ty is so strong among blacks in
North Carolina that,they will con
tinue to tolerate any land of insult
thrown their way.
Sanford, Hunt and hundreds of
other liberal, moderate and con
servative Democrats have
continuously been elected in re
cent decades across America just
by wrappihg themselves in the
mantle of the Democratic Party.
The general understanding id
many areas has been that if a can
didate wants to be electable, he or
she must be a Democrat. Balcks
have interpreted this to mean that
if the candidate is a Democrat, he
or she is acceptable.
Knowing this, all that the
Democratic Party needs to do is
select a candidate that its majori
ty is ‘‘comfortable with,” and
imoothe tfce Macks over. The
JesSe Jackson campaign pays a
price at the bargaining table for
such insults because the party
establishment knows the black
votes are not going anywhere
-else*-■ : if?. ■
'Black candidates are continu
ously categorized and ignored
becmtse theyare seen as short
termers with no real or lasting in
fluence. '
Anger is often temporary.
Being upset is for today and pro
bably gone tomorrow.
The Jacksop candidacy and its
movement may be viewed as the
phenomenon of 1984 and 1988. But
the Democratic Party wants the
conservative non-black support in
1988,1992, *96, etc.
The party has the black vote
and is seeking more of the non
black conservative vote. That’s
the party’s winning strategy.
Sanford and Hunt are seeking to
play a winning hand for the power
that can come with it.
The blade political establish
ment seeks power also.
The Albert Gore, Jr. promoters
in North Carolina will probably
not pay a .price for their insult.
One of their spokespersons has
said that their disinterest in
JaCkson was ‘‘nothing personal.”
With a Jackson supporter hav
ing predicted the matter can be
‘‘smoothed over,” we’re essen
tially back to politics as
usual’—blacks voting and others
progressing.
Oh well, what else is new?
Checking The School Sue System
Bureaucracies respond very
slowly to needs unless prompted
bycrisis.
; The school bus problems of the
Wake School System have been
the subject of attention on several
occasions in recent years. Now
these problems are commanding
front page
j First, it must be understood
{hit any system operating
thousands of buses operated by
7,000 employees will include* real
possibility for errant behavior or
negligence.
Second, under such conditions,
here is a need for checks and
nonitoring for any and all types
>f problems.
Third, the first occurrence or
avoided occurrence of any type of
aroblem should set into motion a
system to prevent future pro
)lems.
Fourth, in a highly politicized
and socially conscious environ
ment, one would best be on guard
for any embarrassing problems.
] Fifth, understand that all such
problems will be presented in
light of the Robert Bridges ad
ministration and the accompany
ing usual innuendos.
School bus problems—faulty
equipment, old buses, poor
drivers, accidents, unruly student
riders—all combine for an ex
plosive system waiting lor
another explosion.
We doubt that all these pro
blems can be erased. We would
urge, however, that measures be
implemented within the school
system to ferret out problems
before they reach the crisis level.
We must understand that many
in the community expect a perfect
system and anything short of such
is grounds for serious .corrective
measures. ;•
If perfection cannot be attained,
we do hope an exhaustive effort
would be made to prevent pro
blems.
This will cost. But so does
handling a crisis following an inci
dent and the resulting corrective
measures.
Raising the driving age to 18
might help some, and randomly
checking the driving records of
the drivers would help additional
ly. School administrators may
also undertake other preventive
measures to avoid the next crisis.
We might need almost as many
ehe&ers to check on the checkers
as there are being checked.
As We Shape The Future
Two news stories this week
point to the return of student
in America to
national
«~t averts
tot of the na
for toe deaf
in her
resignation was an
student ability ton*
tional, community
institu
na tional
•r
Student activists are described
as short on responsibility and long
on idealism. They are seen as the
quick-tempered and impatient
sons and daughters of the well-to
do with nothing to do.
Blade students do not fit this
pattern. They are usually the
bright, concerned, dissatisfied,
hungry—and impatient—sons and
daughters of all groups and sec
tors of die black community.
The students who partidfsttid
in Tuesday’s election also sought
toplayaroletotheshaptoj
nation's and 1
They saw the opportunity c_
tog a direct contribution to diang>
ine a political system and inflow*
rTnltn»
In ^dd^^the impact ef
Tu»<iSiV« these
students receivea an imprest! oe
^yig which will if>
toe cornerstone for efforts and
*tass^B(ifte!*fs t^* ooitic.
(ftwKlMTOKIAI t» m
V
i
ifv
MILLER SAYS
BY SHERMAN N. MILLER
AMERICA’S BRAIN TRUST EMPIRES
“Black Power,” the once brash battle cry of black
America, has been relegated to a mere charged connota
tion, which signalled mainstream America that the black
community lost sight of its economic empowerment objec
tives. Furthermore, black America’s leadership has
become skewed toward high-visibility political office
»c- holders
Counter to black American
leaders’ high-visibility modus
operandi, mainstream leaders
often shun fanfare. Mainstream
leaders move quietly to achieve
their objectives. This dichotomy
may explain why some key main
stream power positions remain
unscathed by black upward
mobility rhetoric.
Let me highlight the impor
tance of one of these power positions. Many national black
leaders may consider the appointment of judges in the
State of Delaware to have minimal national civil rights
significance. This parochial view would have credence if
Delaware were not the Corporate Capital of the United
States.
Furthermore, Delaware has a Chancery Court which
*ettfes disputes between multinational corporations. Thus,
Delaware Chancery Court judgeships are international ap
pointments. Yet there are no black Chancery Court judges
in the State of Delaware.
I discussed the black Chancery Court judgeship issue
with two Delaware black attorneys and a layman who is
well recognized as a civil rights attorney -ithout portfolio,
me : <u iirrey is a long tenured employee in the legal
department of a major corporation. The other attorney’s
I- k mound includes practice in the public sector.
The corporate attorney recognized the international
significance of the Delaware Chancery Court. This person
sees the far-reaching impact of this Court and would
welcome the opportunity to serve on it.
On the other hand, the public sector attorney responded
that a Chancery Court judgeship is not a priority item for
him. Nevertheless, he felt my premises on the significance
of Chancery Court are correct and admitted tht he had
never considered the civil rights significance of a Chancery
Court judgeship.
My layman readily recognized that Delaware Chancery
Court judgeships will send subtle messages to corporate
America on the value of black American judgement. That
is, black judges' decisions will affect billions of dollars in
American and international business transactions.
Since this is a gubernatorial election year, Delaware's
black leadership must take the initiative to challenge
Republican Gov. Michael Castle to appoint a black person,
at the first hearing, to the Chancery Court. Delaware has a
host of black private and public sector attorneys, so the •
dated response, “We cannot find anyone,” is balderdash.
It would be foolhardy for Delaware’s black leadership
not to cover all of the bases. They must, therefore, also
gain a commitment from the Democratic gubernatorial
candidate once this person emerges.
There is no doubt that the final stage in the black
American equal opportunity struggle is to change
mainstream America’s ill perception of black Americans'
mental capability. This will only be accomplished when
black Americans are afforded the opportunity to
demonstrate their competency in America’s brain trust
empires.
ERNIE’S
WORLD
BY ERNIE JOHNSTON. JR.
GREENSBORO—in this city where so many cnaiutu,
are born, from “presidents to astronauts,” every year
about this time there is a big event that is perhaps the best
kept secret in town.
For a couple of years now Greensboro has been the
scene of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference basketball
tournament after the event had been held unsuccessfully in
Philadelphia.
Throughout the years the CIAA tournament had been
the powerhouse event of black college basketball. The
teams that now make up the MEAC had been an integral
part of the CIAA.
But there was a break of teams from the CIAA and those
schools went into another conference thereby framing their
own tournament.
And Just like anything else that is new, the MEAC had to
go through a building process.
Since the CIAA is such a well-known tournament,
tickets to the games are hard to come by and getting ade
quate lodging is even more difficult.
The CIAA attracts people from near and far, profes
sional athletes, basketball fans as well as the non
basketball fans and it’s understandably so since it’s the
"granddaddy” of black college basketball!
The mere mention of the CIAA brings an immediate
response because it’s a known commodity.
So on this March weekend, some 6,000 to 8,000 people
(mostly AltT State University alumni, students, friends
and supporters of the institution) crowded into the
Greensboro Coliseum for the two-day tournament.
Up until this year there had been three days of the event
with the final game being pjayed on Saturday, but there
had been elimination contests in various regions, thereby
cutting down on the numbers of teams to come to
Every year AAT comes out the winner, not because the
is held on its own home turf but because the
i able to field a good team for the past
is a good local attraction. There
' ils but not enough to overflow
a hark loo of hotel rooms,
the City of
con man Bennett'
By Chock Stone
All of us hav< grown up, safe and
secured t certain eternal verities.
Among them is the arrival of
spring, announced by the first robin
hopping across our lawns, squirrels
nibbling tender sprouts at the end of
tree branches, and a young man’s fan
cy lightly turning to thoughts of
aroused passion.
No more.
The arrival of spring is now pro
claimed by the unveiling of Secretary
of Education William J. Bennett’s an
nual ’’wall chart,” which purports to
be a report card on U.S. schools. It is
the biggest con job since Attorney
General Edwin Meese promised to
uphold the law. If Bennett’s “wall
chart* belongs on any wall, it is the
wall of a latrine.
Bennett’s chart doesn’t tell us what
causes educational deficiencies, how
they can be remedied, or why schools
in some states perform better than
schools in others. Instead, he uses IS
indexes to rank the schools. You —
the parent, the consumer, the voter —
don’t have the slightest idea how Ben
nett’s IS indexes interrelate. You sim
ply hear fulminations by Bennett,
who resembles, on these occasions, a
chimnanzee in heat
uennett’s report card fails to earn a
passing mark because its starting
point is the annual state-by-state
scores of the Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT) and the American College Test
ing program (ACT).
SAT scores tell us five things:
Wealthy kids are smarter than poor
kids; New England kids are smarter
than Southern kids; white kids are
smarter than black and Hispanic kids;
Asian kids are smarter than all other
dds in math; and male students are
smarter than female students.
According to the SAT scores, the sis
New England states whoee SAT
scone are in the top 12 have smarter
students (on the average) than the six
southern states of Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina
and Texas whose SAT (and ACT)
scores are in the bottom 12.
ture on its students. And because
blacks are disproportionately poorer
than whites, they also (on the average)
perform poorer in school.
After that, though, you’d be bard
put to find any correlation between
standardized test scores and Ben
nett’s other indexes.
New Hampshire, for example, had
the nation’s highest SAT scores, bat
New Hampshire teachers rank 42nd
in average salary, and the state
ranked 26th in spending per pupil.
Alaska, on the other hand, pays its
teachers the highest average salary in
the nation (943,970) and ranks No. 1 in
per capita student spending, yet Ms
statewide ACT scores rank in the bot
tom third!
I repeat what I wrote last year
when the annual P.T. Barnum psycho
metric circus was held. Standardised
tests should be abolished. Like IQ
tests, SATs are misleading, misused
and misinterpreted. And they unfairly
punish minorities.
The only thing a standardized or
norm-referenced test tells you is how
your child is doing in comparison to
children in other cities, states or
schools. But if you want to know
whether or not your child is master
ing what he or she is supposed to
know, a criterion-referenced test will
tell you that. You don’t need to lay oat
large sums of hard-earned money to
support the psychometric moguls at
the Educational Testing Service.
Economics exposes the futility of
using SATs to rank states. Sines stu
dents have to pay to take the exam,
wealthy students are more likely to
take the exams In the first place, and
they also can afford prep courses de
signed to raise their scores. This seif
selection process determines what
percentage of students take the exam
and widens the gap between rich and
poor.
Twenty year* ago, the Kerner Com
mission Report lamented that we
were moving toward two societies —
separate and unequal. The SAT Is a
drum major in that movement
< }• f $
® tm, NnNMFSR BNiuanuai u
CHILD WATCH
BY MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
A MAN WHO LIVES IN THE FUTURE
Within About five seconds of meeting Edward Roberto, you forget that he
cannot move his arms or legs, that he sits in a wheelchair and breaths*
through a respirator. You are simply enjoying the company of a warm and
truthful man, a humorist, a savvy politician, and a terrific teacher. Robert*
dares to live in the future, when our society, we hope, will have Anally figured
out how much people who happen to be disabled have to give us all. ' *
“I was told, ‘forget about life,’” Roberto remembers.He grew up bearing
a consistent drumbeat of negativism, a litany of all the things he could not
possibly do because he is disabled. Not surprisingly, he went through times ol
hating and doubting himself.
But a crucial change happened when he decided to leave the protective
shelter of his home to attend high school for the first time. When he arrived at
school in a wheelchair, “every head in that place turned.” But instead of feel
ing embarrassed, be recalls, he felt “like a star.”
This knack for converting problems into opportunities has taken Roberts
a long way. When the school balked at awarding his diploma because he had
not satisfied arbitrary requirements for physical education and driver educa
tion, he took the issue to the school board, and won his first political victory
He attended the University of California at Berkeley and went on to become a
teacher and political activist and commissioner of rehabilitative servciee for
the state of California.
- Roberts is now a forceful and effective spokesman for disatiiec
Americans in California, the United States and around tbe world. On behalf ol
the World Institute on Disability, be is urging Congress to fund programs that
will help disabled people function independently, not those that put them in in
stitutional settings that only make them feel helpless and ny*Ws He points
out that changing our approach to helping the disabled does not necessarily
meah spending a lot moreemoney—Just thinking harder about how we spend*
Roberto reminds us that disability will strike all of us, for many of us
wheij we growold and begin to lose our hearing, sight, and freedom of mover
m?*; Hfoaaysthis is a challenge to all of us to stop distancing ourselves from
individuals who happen to have a disability. As a positive example of a more
healthy approach, Roberto proudly mentions his own nine-year-old son: “To
him, I’m not crippled. I’m Daddy.”
."'"
•"%»%.i
THteoMsamnm
gADVOCMB^^
^ WtHiam A. Rusher_
wi
£
And now: the service society
e, the campaign
presidential nom
roving a rich source of new
tioas for the old Democratic
taw* as M8J, Gary Hart rec
that his party desperately
to come up with some ‘new
ft •*« went so far at, to
kat ho had a couple - al
constituencies tost could be <
on to vote right
For rhetorical purposes the 1
get was always referred to w .
rich,* though in practice it was 1
variably the middle class and quite (
ten, In various subtle ways, the f
The lucky recipients of the “
crats’ largesse tended to b
to of shouting loud
and willing, or course, to Join til
Democrats7 bulging coalition.
And that is still the bask ploy. Wh*
A couple of years ago the uproar du
Jour was over'huger in America.’ A
ES5K"4J!r‘rrg2£S£
amount of attention in the madia for
his assertion that hunger was ram
(Bee ADVOCATE. P,B> *