Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 June 1970 — Page 9

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Editorials “Keep the cool” Today, after 111 years or neglect that followed 200 years of bitter slavery, we find 75 percent or more of our black youth bitter and frustrated, poorly educated, if at all, militant, defiant and full of hatred. We dare not let our memory be so short to condemn this as something new and terrible. Listen to these words spoken one day in the late 1930s: "Here in our great land of idealistic verbiage we covet allegiance to far-off mystic ideals with an assidous neglect of problems near at hand. As a people we suffer the most systematic exclusion from normal freedom of movement in the history of civilization. No sooner do we buy a home than a mass exodus of the whites in the neighborhood takes place and another black ghetto is created. "Thus shunned like rattlesnakes, we black people suffer a public defamation visited upon us by white people who have more churches and synagogues than can be found anywhere on earth. We are virtually defenseless against this vicious system of public defamation. We are branded unfit to spend our money for lodging, food or drink in public places along with other Americans. We are branded unfit to travel in public conveyances along with other Americans. "We are branded unfit to serve our country on the battlefield alongside other Americans; branded unfit to attend schools of our choice; insulted and often lynched on the least provocation. We live daily with fear as Jobe did with his ever-recurring woes, indeed getting used to the fear of insult and physical violence as one used to the hot sun. "We are practically completely excluded from participation in the great free enterprise system of American conomy. We are purchasers of American goods, but often denied employment by the same people who sold them to us. We somehow make the best of as miserable a life as any people have faced in modern times. We are victims of real poverty. We are victims of murder of the mind and murder of the heart and spirit—victims of a public defamation unparalleled. We are truly this nation's 'Untouchables.' And this is the so-called 'Cradle of Liberty.' " Yes, we are severely troubled by our domestic scene. We have become involved in a blight of racism that is infecting the entire American community like the worst plague of viruses, a plague that endangers more seriously than ever before in our history, the novel concept of "one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Black youngsters are openly refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the flag because they say it is a mockery. Charles Siberman, in his book, "Crisis in Black and White" rightly says that "as long as Negroes feel excluded from American society they are not going to feel bound by its constraints." To be sure, he continues, "the bahavior of a good many Negroes does help perpetuate white prejudice; to many Negroes make it too easy for too many whites to rationalize their discrimination with a 'They're all alike attitude. Thus white prejudice evokes Negro lawlessness, irresponsibility and dependency—and these traits in turn nuture white prejudice. This is the real American Dilema' and de Tocqueville pointed it out two decades before the Civil War. "To induce whites to abandon the opinion that they have conceived of moral and intellectual inferiority of their former slaves," he wrote, "the Negro must change; but, as long as this opinion persists, they cannot change.' " On the nation's campuses, black students, almost to a man, are echoing the rallying cry for unity: "I want to be Me, and I shall fight for the right and freedom to be ME!!" Sammy Davis, recently chosen Spingarn laureate, passionately conveys it in song: "I just gotta be me!" There is nothing negative in this attitude. Seldom do they say, "I don't want to be like the white man," instead they are obsessed with the ideal of being themselves, and not being ashamed of it. Hatred in return for hatred is no solution. We cannot solve our crisis with illogical panaceas even if to please whites who want peace and who say "If this is what they want, let them have it!" This is racism in reverse. And even if it pleases black militants whose emotions might becloud rational analysis. Allowing black students to graduate without grades, or not to aim for excellence in a disservice. Too much concentration on black studies is a disservice. Black students have too much catching up to do to waste their time only on seeking racial pride. Racial pride will come in the honest pursuit of Excellence What is a way out? Full integration of black Americans in all phases of the American economy and education as fast as talent can be trained or acquired. ^ Reaffirmation and assuring the right to work, even with distinct curbs on labor unions in their discriminatory practices. "Keep the cool" and shun all incitement to emotional outbursts. When Sen. Eastland of Mississippi made the pronouncement that the Supreme Court's recent decision demanding immediate desegregation of public schools in Mississippi, spells death for public education in Mississippi and most of the South, sane judgement would ask him for retraction or impeachment. Patience is the key word!

Remember! "Crime has its heroes. ERROR HAS ITS MARTYRS: Of true zeal ana false, what VAIN JUDGES WE ARE! FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET (Voltaire) 1604-177.8

I he columns of The Recorder (voice of the people) ore open to oil readers of the Community, state or on the national level to present their cpinions on the total of human interests or activities. Please confine your comment to 500 words or less. Afe reserve the right to edit copy, particularly in regard? to 'academic fact (Encyclopedia Brifannica, etc.)" All copy must positively include* the name and. address of person or persons submitting-the same. However, these *ill not necessarily be published

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER pAGE g SATURDAY. JUNE 13. 1970

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Exit Mr. Finch, enter Mr. Wallace

A MAJOR FORCE IN THE FIGHT FOR CONTINUING SOCIAL REFORM, AND FOR A RATIONAL EQUITABLE i ORDER.

WALTER R REUTHER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS UNION

1 o Be Equal

by WHITNET H IfOUNG. JK.

Mrs.

DuBois barred from U.S. unjustly

The ways of the government bureaucracy are strange. Sometimes it acts with unbelievable stupidity. One such recent case is the wierd action of the State Department in refusing the widow of the late, great black leader, W. E. B. DuBois, entry into the county. This act is more than an instance of bureaucratic high-handedness. It is an in-

sult to all black people. Mrs. DuBois renounced her citizenship and, with her husband, emigrated to Ghana in 1963. W. E. B. DuBois, was over 90 then, and after a lifetime of doing battle with American racism, and harassed by government witch-hunters, he made the decision to become aGhanian. His widow wanted to return here to attend to some person-

s Health M in Action By Dr. Paul Comely lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

One of the things you hear about Medicaid is that it is an easy way for a selected number of doctors to get rich quickly while not nearly enough health care goes to the poor people the program is supposed to help. the HEW Task Force on Medicaid headed by Walter J. McNerney, president of the Blue Cross Association, hit tne nail on the head when it reported Medicaid must be judged on how well it meets the health needs of the people it is designed to serve. What Medicaid must avoid is dumping new money into the old health care systems that have failed to take care of the people's needs. When the task force looked at what had taken place after Medicaid spent millions of dollars, it decided these checks must be made to assure increased effectiveness: regular review, better organization and delivery of health services, higher standards and quality of care, and better education and information programs. They point to a need for closer links on claims review, cost control, cost effectiveness, program planning, and professional input. Lest you think that Medicaid is in trouble just because a few doctors are trying to squeeze all the juice out of a good thing, remember that a lot of new money has come from Uncle Sam to buy health care services for millions of low-income families but that there has not been much effort to correct some of the chronic complaints about the industry. It's the same olc^story— more demand (for services) than supply (doctors, etc.) and the price goes up. Here again the reports gets to the heart of the issue by asking that at least 5 percent of the new money for health c are go to improving the health care delivery system. These extra funds should go into areas with many lowincome persons, such as in the inner city. What the report finds needed is the development of medical programs which will emphasize prevention rather than care, such as coverage for treatment of the patient before he has to be admitted to a hospital or nursing home. The task force report suggests more use of units

such as group practice, neighborhood health centers, and reorganized out-patient departments. It would like an additional 5 to 10 percent above the normal matching federal fund formula, go to the states emphasizing these improved services. Federal agencies are urged to give special support to demonstrations of model health care delivery. These experiments should include efforts to improve transportation and communications in getting people served. Those of us who have worked for years with low-income families are particularly pleased to see the suggestion that some sort of federal minimun standards be set for all the states, the aim being to improve the quality of care. under the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The federal government must coordinate this phase more closely with the states. Two groups of professionals' probably not too happy with the report are chiropractors and naturopaths. It suggests they not be eligible to receive Medicaid payments. The task force believes that better education and information about Medicaid would cut down on misuse and overuse of the program by patients, and even win greater cooperation from professionals. HEW, itself, was criticized in the report for having some good programs seriously impaired by overlapping, duplication, and management inefficiencies. The report insists that HEW will have to set a better example. All of this may sound like far-away mumbo-jumbo that only politicians understand, but it is your business. How it's handled could add years to your life, or subtract a few. In my opinion, this report should not be pushed aside to gather dust.

Sepia-hued Americans and liberals received some hard blows in the past few days. First came the news that in many senatorial contests in various primaries, conservatives and reactionaries were generally sucessful and at the very end of the week, President Nixon removed Secretary Finch from the embattled Department of Health Education and Welfare. While blacks and liberals were discomforted to learn that George Wallace, the racist former governor of Alabamaandformer Woodhat candidate for President of the United Staes won nomination and in effect a second term as Governor of the State of Alabama, Mr. Nixon received very little joy from that bit of news. It has beeen apparent for a long time that the NixonThurman - Agnew agenda called for the corralling of the white supre mists votes which the Alabama governor captured during the 1968 election. The election of race-baiting George as governor gives him a spring board to launch his candidacy for the presidency in 1972. This would put him and Richard Milhous Nixon in the awkward position of working the same side of the racist street with the advantage possibly going to Georgia, who not only walks the racist walk as does his Republican adversary, but who also talks the plain racist talk. Mr. Nixon can be expected to take the highroad while Mr. Wallace will takes the low one. In other words, Mr. Nixon will

appeal to the segment of the white racists who understand two and three syllable words while “Shorty George" will garner the votes of the more ignorant racists. Under the electorial system which we now "enjoy", Mr. Wallace's entrance into the contest could have the 1972 election being decided by horse trading in the electorial college or by the House of Representatives. In either case it could be uncomfortable for the American people and democracy. “Nixon's silent majority" and “benign neglect" are too sophisticated for the simple minds which Wallace woos with “Segregation now and forever" although they all mean the same thing. The giving of the walking papers to Secretary Finch means that Mr. Nixon is going to try to bring the HEW in line with his policy to go easy on integration and benefits to the nation’s poor and needy. Mr. Finch has been naive enough to question some of of the staff members of the huge department left of their own volition or, by request, after they disagreed with the Nixon slow down program. Mr. Finch did not quite fit into the Strom Thurman tactic of “Southern Strategy" although he was no crusading liberal. His removal will probably make it easier for the administration to pursue its “Southern Strategy" with more vigor than formerly and to further polarize the American people into two societies

one white the other black mutually antagonistic. The recent moves on the political front gave the racist and the reactionary forces in the country a great deal of comfort, but the virtual election of a Negro to the state legislature of Alabama gives notice that there has been no surrender on the part of Negroes to the upsurge of racial venom. But all in all the signs of the times indicate that theKerner Report, which called attention of the progressive division of the nation into racial enclaves, was even more prophetic than most observers had believed a couple of years ago. It means that the friends of a democratic America are going to have to become more active politically. This means going to the polls not only in general elections but also during primary elections. It means the stepping up of registration drives among black people and poor people not only in the South but in the North. The implementation of the recent Supreme Court decision that mulimember districts for any elected offices ar i illegal gives the nation's polIHcally impotent a weapon to break the back of the political monster that has held them in subjection. It is what happens in this ar^a >hat will determine the effect>/eness of the white backlash movements up to and includ? ig the election year of 1972 Now is the tim? to start mov-i to save America from non-Hi*] oris m?

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al matters and to accept a lecture invitation. The St ate Department, reportedly on the recommendation of the Justice Depatment, refused he an entry visa. The purported reason for this blunder is that she would constitute a menace to national security because of some of her political affiliations. How absurd can you get: How can an elderly lady possibly be a menace to the security of the world's most powerful nation? When Svetlana Stalin, daughter of Josef Stalin, wanted to come here, she got the red carpet treatment. That her father was the ruler of the Communist world didn’t matter. That he engaged our government in a deadly cold war for years suddenly didn't matter. That his daughter lived in the Kremlin and was friendly with all the Communist leaders of Russia suddenly didn't matter. So we have a situation in which the widow of one of the great figures in American history is barred from visiting the land of her birth, while the daughter of one of the world's most brutal dictators is welcomed with open arms. Such an act makes this country look foolish before the rest of the world. Every year there is a new case that makes American a laughing stock. A famous Mexican author or a Beligian professor is refused admittance, as if his very presence here could really endanger us. But this latest fiasco is especially strange in the light of the State Department's official policy of seeking better relations with Black Africa. How are our diplomats going to explain to African statesmen the strang policy that bars Mrs. DuBois while allowing South African racists to come and go as they please? Secretary of State Rogers made a well-publicized tour of African countries earlier this year. From all reports, he made a good impression. With this on act, the State Department is really sincere about building better relations with Black Africa, it ought to issue a visa to Mrs. DuBois. I'd hate to have to be an ambassador explaining to an African president that the Justice Department has a veto over State Department policies. Does the Secretary of State have veto power over what cases the Justice Department brings to court? I'd recommend a crash course in black history for Washington officials. It's obvious they have no Idea who Mrs. DuBois is, or what her husband meant to black people all over the world. W. E. B. DuBois was a giant. From the turn of the century until his death he was a profound thinker, distinguished scholar, protest leader, and activist. He was one of the first people to fight for a free Africa, and, as one of the founders of the NAACP, he was one of the first leaders of the contemporary struggle for civil rights. The government should immediately issue an entry visa to his widow, out of common decency, and as a symbol of respect for the memory of one of the great

Our Readers Write Stepin Fetchit, “comedian in spirit and fact,” assailed herein

Concerning the recent interview on WTLC Radio of “Stepin Fetchit"; even though I was much amazed by his wittiness; I was literally shocked by his ignorace. Indubitably, Stepin Fetchit was amongst the first vanguard that pentrated the motion pictures industries; this allowed other Blacks participation earlier than would have been if it had not been for Fetchit's initiation. However, let us weigh its significance. Mr. Fetchit proclaims to have removed the image of the raping Negro and to have replaced it with a title of respect and dignity. This is a fallacy! Instead of replacing it with an image of respect and dignity, he, in its place portrayed an image of a headscratching, soft shoeing, watermelon eating, chicken stealing negro. Which is worse? The former was manfactured by the white society; the latter by Mr. Fetchit. They are both myths. During this interview Mr. Fetchit consistently insisted upon comparing the American situation with a card game. Even if this were to be the case—I think the deal should rotate. Mr. Fetchit and his monomaniacal myopic views are living examples of the detrimental effects of brainwashing. He has the audacity to contend that the current black power movement received its impetus from alien influence, namely Communism. I must say here that Communism did not create roach laden rat infested ghettos; it does not compel black men to fight die in Vietnam for the freedom they are denied at home; it has not burned and hanged thousands of bl&ck people because of the pigmentation of their skin; it did not create disciminatory job practices, segregated educational and transportation facilities. Those who have suffered brutality have not suffered from communist brutality but rather American police brutality. Communism did not coin the term “nigger", it did not murder those at Kent State and Jackson College. The oppressed, exploited and dehumanized in America are not done so by Communism, but rather Americanism. Ifthey are, then America is the creator of Communism. Above all, it is applied in this country in an attempt to impede what little progress the black man has made. On several occasions durmen of this century. FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: Layhmond Robinson or Della Mitchell 55 East 52nd Street New York, N. Y. 10022 (212) 751-0302

ing this interview some few whites called in commending Mr. Fetchit on his philosophy. This should be noted for it goes to illustrate that white America does not lock upon the black mens rights as such, but as privileges to be granted only when the Negro can debase himself enough to thrill them, as in Mr. Fetchit’s case. It also shows that to strive for black man and womanhood in this society is to be rejected, deplored and persecuted by ‘it; e.g., Muhammad Ali who Fetchit made an allusion to when he stated that “Cassius Clay could have been a much greater personality had he appealed to white America." This is partially true. No doubt he wouldhave been a much wealthier personality, but I am in serious doubt whether he would have been a greater “man". I must take time out here to compliment Miss BeaMoten (hostess) on being able to have maintained her composure during this one hour ordeal. Mr. Fetchit was incessantly rude; yet he mouthed the term “politness" enumerable times. What diobolic hypocrisy! It is not for me to say whether Mr. Fetchit^ approach and the method he employs now. The pony express and the stage coach would be toally inappropriate for use as transportation and communication in our jet-age, technological society; as with them his method of solving social ills should be housed on the shelves amongst antiques. People are continuously undergoing constant evolution and if you permit yovu* intellect to become stagnate on a retrogressive track you will be left completly out of the scheme of things. Although this letter is referring to Mr. Fetchit it is by no means directed solely at him. It is a pathetic unrelenting reality that we have many Mr. Fetchits. If it were not for that one reality I could laugh and laugh and laugh for Mr. Fetchit is an able comedian—nothing more...Laugh? I cannot for we have too many who take him seriously. Bobby Woodard 48031 Indiana State Reformatory RECORDER READER NAME "ATTUCKS" SUGGEST KEEPING There should always be a Crispus Attucks High School. For Negro Hoosiers to lose the title of their school they would be stripped of a cultural and historic institution of learning that many generations of suffering and sacrifice have built. Because school integration here has in my view lacked farsightedness good public relations and good planning that should have taken

into consideration the undertanding of both races, conditions have come to what we have now, and Indiana Negros are in a real danger of having to give up the whole idea Crispus Attucks survival. Educators on the near northwest side are as much to blame as anyone. For where some of them have had difficult white students and even difficult parents of these^ame students they have used the threat that “you had better behave, make trouble for me and I will see that you are sent to Crispus Attucks". It is my understanding that this has been done over a long period of time by certain white teachers for the most part. This is really a terible thing for these teachers were responsible to protect and built the image of all Indianapolis Schools and not to pull it down in the minds of the students. Crispus Attucks was the first man to fall in the opening shot of the American Revolution. He died more for white people at that time then for black. I can think of no more glamorous Negro hero unless it would be Dr. Martin Luther King. The name Crisups Attucks reminds one of the ages of American Negro suffering for our great democratic, independent republic cause. Make no mistake about it, it is not integration that most of these white parents fear, it is blind ignorant fear of having the name Crispus Attucks on their childs diploma. Many great American historic socities continue to praise Crispus Attucks and the sacrifice that he made, which include the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution. And their point is well made, that is, that American history has been sadly neglected which I believe is much of the root of the problem over fear of the name 1 Crispus Attucks. Shame upon the heads of educators who have negelected teaching their students real American history all these years and have allowed and taken part in abuse to fine old Crispus Attucks highschool. Yes there should always beaCrispus Attucks high for that insitiution of learning has over all this time always made an excellent contribution to education and thereby to the common good.

W

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