Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 July 1994 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

SATURDAY, JVLV2rt»94*

EDITORIALS

The Tyson War The hearing regarding Mike Tyson’s early release had less to do with justice than it did with a battle of wills, in this case it was Tyson v.s. Gifford. The details of the alleged crime have long been forgotten and the conviction of Tyson on circumstantial evidence will forever be debated since their were no witnesses to the act. Because of this fact, the Tyson case will always be controversial. People who were not there, which includes everyone except the two principals, will never know for certain what happened and though the trial’s outcome was not a mystery, the truth will always be a mystery and ideas about that night can only be based upon whether you believe Tyson or Washington. Apparently Tyson was asked to admit his guilt and apologize. Me apologized but refused to admit he raped Desiree Washington. So Tyson stays put. An important shift occurred in this most recent hearing. The stage was changed for questions of guilt or innocence to one of bowing down to a system w hich uses the idea of rehabilitation as comic relief. It is a system that at its best has little to do with rehabilitation but a lot to do with control and vengeance. The important thing about this change of purpose, is it makes it appear the idea is to control an AfricanAmerican male who in many ways evokes all of the ancient fears and hatreds developed carefully over time in Europe and America. Writers have referred to Tyson as primeval and he practices a brutal art. So we have the system seemingly trying to bring this force under control. Whether it should have or not this case has become symbolic of the relationship of AfricanAmerican males with what continues to be for them in particular, a hostile system. So whatever the truth of the Tyson case, it has now become a symbol of something else. And that is, in fact, the perception and reality that the criminal justice system holds African-American males to a harsher standard than it does all others. Tyson’s G.E.D. has nothing to do with this decision. It goes much deeper than that. Like it or not Indiana has a racist past and every once in a while despite the civility of the present we slip back into old habits. Tyson is not a threat to society, but he is a threat to the old quietly held racist notions about having to control African-American males. A young man made a rhyme that says it all... “Lawrence white, rapist goes free but Tyson’s got to get the G.E.D.” We teach our young by what we do and not by what we say. The Chickens Have Come Home In perhaps what was one of his most controversial statements which was made when asked to comment on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the late Malcolm X spoke of “chickens coming home to roost.” The seemingly cold statement was in reference to what Malcolm X perceived as the violent nature of American life and he made specific reference to the terrible treatment received by AfricanAmericans. Since the death of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr., numerous other public figures have been gunned down. In addition, Americans from all walks of life have killed strangers, co-workers, ex-spouses, current spouses, and children. When one takes into account domestic violence, child abuse, drug and alcohol related violence, and workplace violence you might say America is the most violent country in the world that is not engaged in civil war. Malcolm X was right to warn us against our quick reliance on violence to settle disputes. For far too many Americans from all walks of life feel violence has become the only means in which to settle a dispute. The only means necessary. One by one and step by step we must begin a create a movement away from violence as a norm. In our schools, churches and homes* we must show and tell children that violence is the American exception rather than the American rule. Our cultural value system as most often interpreted by the media has all but abandoned notions of tolerance and mediation and has replaced these ideals with vengeance and retribution. In the popular media, justice and vengeance have become culturally synonymous. All of the most popular heros, the most righteous heros, the real heroes routinely kill people who wrong them. Child by child we must begin to help our youth to reclaim true and positive values, values which won’t lead down the never ending blood soaked road of an eye for an eye and a death for a death.

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It is painful to watch, pearly 80 Black leaders gather in Baltimore to develop new ways to deal with Black joblessness, poverty, divorce and desertion, Black children having babies (many out of wedlock), and a host of other problems faced by Black families. But the media focuses on the presence of a few Jewish pickets who protest the presence of Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. Those protesting the NAACP’s invitation to Farrakhan to attend this Black leadership summit make.the absurd argument that it shows NAACP endorsement andapproval of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. The Blacks at that meeting hold such diverse and often contradictory views that the NAACP could not possibly be endorsing them all. The already-deep rift between Blacks and Jews has widened recently because of some outrageously bigoted remarks by a

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By CARL ROWAN

former Farrakhan aide, Khallid Muhammad, and because many Jews were further angered by the words Farrakhan used in half-distancing himself from Muhammad. But Blacks who think Muhammad is a hatemongering clown note that Jewish protests, especially in the media, have made Muhammad a national figure. They have made Farrakhan towerover the other important, thoughtful people at the Baltimore summit, which is a disservice to both Blacks and Jews. Many Blacks, I among them, resent the repeated suggestions that to avoid being considered anti-

Semitic they have to give a speech who might give a platform to anyone or write a column disavowing every likely to say anything anti-Jewish. anti-Jewish tirade by every Black Now we hear talk of cutting off demagogue. I have never asked a Jewish financial support for the Jew to apologize for anything said NAACP because Farrakhan was by Howard Stem, or to disassociate invited to this NAACP-sponsored himselffrom Israel in the days when meeting of Black leaders. Israel was giving aid and comfort to A Black-Jewish coalition for the apartheid regime in South Africa, justice was formed generations ago It is racism itself to blame every (and has endured)' because both Black person forevery stupid speech groups were and are the targets of made by someone who is Black. the hatersof America. That coalition Khallid Muhammad made is being poisoned, tragically hateful remarks not just about Jews undermined, by the gross but also about Catholics, the Pope, overreactions of a few Jews who Black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, want to decree who can speak on a Koreans and more when he spoke at Black college campus, or who can Howard University. But it was only attend a meeting of Black leaders, or afewJewssuchasRabbiAvi Weiss, how much affirmative action Black national president of the Coalition job-seekers can enjoy, for Jewish Concerns, who raised the It is time for Black and Jewish threat of punishing Howard by leaders to have some frank cutting off its federal appropriation, discussions about what diminishes Some Jews went so far as to Black anti-Semitism and what feeds suggest cutting off giftsto the United and increases this odious form of Negro College Fund - this clearly to bigotry, intimidate any black college officials

Are we answering the call of our Black youth?

Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns once said he should not he considered a role model just because he made a lot of money putting a ball through a hoop. He felt that parents should take responsibility for their children and lead the kind of lives to make them strong, healthy young people. A recent Children’s Defense Fund/Black Community Crusade For Children poll of the AfricanAmerican community suggests that many parents agree with him. African-American youth report finding their heroes not among famous athletes or entertainers, but in their own homes. An overwhelming 83 percent of the 11-to 17-year-olds surveyed named their parents when asked which two or three people they admire as role models. For these youngsters, it’s the people they spend every day with, including their grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins, whom they admire. These powerful family forces win their greatest respect. “Just to raise five kids by herself, I think that’s wonderful right there. My mom d(x;s volunteer work. She’s a community person. A people person. A lot of people in the neighborhood talk to her like she is their mother,” said one young lady of her mother. Parents themselves also feel they are the biggest part of the solution to the problems our children face. Fiftyeight percent of all Black adults and 63 percent of adults who care for children, feel that it is parents who could do the most to really make a positive difference with the problems associated with Black youth. While accounts like these give us hope, there is another part of this equation that is very disturbing. Fifty-five percent of all Black youths say they have friends with difficult family situations. Moreover, in “grading” the parenting job done by Black adults, young people gave their elders only a “C+.” Can parents really make a difference? A 17-ycar-old from Washington, D.C. thinks so. “I know people on the streets, and when they go home, they don’t have anybody to go home to — no one to sit down and talk to, no one to tell them right from wrong. Role models and attention from parents make a difference.” To start the healing process, parents must not only take responsibility for making sure children have material possessions, but they must also provide for their emotional well-being. One-third of Black adults feel that to help Black children, we must teach them moral and religious values, including teaching children right from wrong, emphasizing spiritual development, and teaching respect. “Train them and teach them. Parents should give them a good spiritual background,” said one grandmother from Michigan. Ministers and church leaders are second only to families in being the most positive role-models for young

Blacks, according to the poll. Three in four Black adults say church helps them, recognizing that religion is the root and foundation of our community. Seventy-three percent of Black adults feel that efforts to encourage a return to traditional moral and religious values should be at the top of the list of ways to help Black children. While national Black leaders also arc well regarded in the community, there are groups that don’t live up to our expectations of their responsibility to children. Next to parents, 25 percent of adults see government as the entity that has most let Black children down. And 38 percent feel that elected officials in general have no effect on Black children one way or the other. We have to work together to change this. As national and local community leaders, teachers, counselors, mentors, store managers, business executives,

hairdressers and bus drivers, we have a personal responsibility to the AfricanAmerican community and our youth. They have demonstrated their faith in us and our ability to represent them in issues concerning all aspects of their lives. Are we measuring up? Thousands of your neighbors or members of your congregation may not trust the government to helpchildren, but they do trust local leaders,clergy, teachers, and parents to make a difference. The future of our children and the preservation of their future depends on our work on their behalf. Arc we answering the call? Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me: but whoever causes one of those little ones which believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea...Matthew 18:5-6. Are we answering the call? Marian Wright EJelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund, a national voice for children and a leader of the Black Community Crusade for Children.

Blacks still in slavery despite Emancipation Proclamation

Thirteen years before the Emancipation Proclamation Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist and orator, delivered a Fourth of July speech in which he stressed the hypocrisy of this country’s celebration of Independence Day while it still held millions in bondage. This year, as the entire world has celebrated the freedom of South Africa, AfricanAmericans have had a bittersweet feeling of joy for our brothers and sisters in South Africa and sadness that 131 years afterthe Emancipation Proclamation, we still are not free in America. Some would argue that AfricanAmericans are free — that the Emancipation Proclamation provided that. But for nearly a century after that document, AfricanAmericans in many southern states were prevented from the most basic tenet of any democracy — the right to vote. Some would argue that African-Americans were free with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which ensured the right of African-Americanstovote. But until the passage of a strengthened Voting Rights Act in 1990, only two AfricanAmericans from the South were elected to Congress in 71 years and few were able to be elected to county and state legislatures or to be judges. Some would argue that AfricanAmericans were free with the Supreme Court’s Brown vs Board of Education decision which ended

school segregation and began the integration process for other areas as well. But the fact is that although integration has worked for a few, it has meant that those left behind in the innercitieshave few positive role models, few businesses and services, poor education and a declining housing stock. The reality, as we celebrate yet another Fourth of July, is that many African-Americans are still slaves in America. We arc slaves to violence. Homicide is now the third leading cause of death for elementary and middle school children and since 1979 more children have been killed by firearms than soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. Black children are planning their funerals instead of their proms and 75 percent of Black adults worry that their children will not live to become adults. We are slaves to poor education. Many city school systemsare almost completely attended by children of color. Meanwhile, one of the

dilemmas corporate America faces is that increasing numbers of high school graduates can barely read or write or compute and thus, the quality of our work force is declining. In many of our larger cities 50 percent, 60 percent and even 70 percent of young people dropout of high school before graduation. Too many of our young people are discouraged from succeeding in school ostracized by their peers for having “white” values and not expected to do well by teachers and school systems which toooften have low expectations for AfricanAmerican youth. We are slaves to poor health care or no health care at all. AfricanAmerican children die at the same rate as children in some third world countries. Our people face higher incidences of cancer, hypertension, heart disease and diabetes and often have feweroptions for medical care. AIDS has increased by 185 percent among heterosexual AfricanAmerican women over the past year alone and in New York City 90 percent of all children with AIDS are African American or Latino. Yet African Americans, even those with the best insurance, are less likely to receive the best or most up-to-date treatments, whether it be for heart conditions or AIDS. We are slaves to an economy in which thereare millions of unskilled, untrained African- American workers whose strong backs and

ability to pick cotton or assemble cars are no longer needed by society. Unemployment rates in the AfricanAmerican community are nearly double that of whites and many African-Americans have simply stopped looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed. While a small percentage of AfricanAmericans have prospered over the past two decades, millions have been put into the so-called underclass, where they feel abandoned by society and hopeless about the future. Generations of African-Americans are living on welfare and children being reared not knowing anyone with a job. Frederick Douglass reminded himself of the mournful wail and the bleeding children of his recent ancestors in that Fourth of July speech nearly a century and a half

ago.

Let us remember those chains and our children as this country celebrates Independence Day once again. And let usalso hear Douglass’ words once more as well: For it is not light that is needed, but Fire; it is not the gentle shower but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind and the earthquake. The

feeling of the nation must be quickened; the consfiMMMf the nation must be rous££333£wriety of the nation mv*”^ **aj*j*^ the exposed; and its Wmm •gahwEGod and man must be denounced.

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