Con· eel from e 6
which had benefited not only
Blac s but the entire country,
by making it more decent place.
They all of the things
10 hich the Jack on c n-
did cy might help redeem.
B ck ih the fall, when those
Blac began upporting the Jac -
son candidacy, they ere appalled
t the re ction of whites in th
ondale camp. The agenda as
t, said the powers that be. It
w to get rid of Ronald Reagan.
hatever Black wanted to y
through the Jackson candidacy
wa not important as th agen
da which h d been set by white
Democrats. . The Jack on effort
as regarded as frivolous at be t
and impertinent at wor t. The
clear me age was the Black
Democrats hould be pleased
with the benefits that would
trickle down to th m when the
principal goal of returning white
Democrats t power had occur­
red.
After listening to that, many
Blacks promptly signed up with
the Rev. Jack on. Despite the
urgin of Mayors Young, Brad­
ley, Goode and Arrington, three-.
quarter of the Blacks who
turned out to vote voted for
J c on. Black businessmen gave
money, time nd r ource they
had not done since the death
of Martin Luther King. BI ck
intellectuals and policy analysts
wrote papers and held private
min for the candidate. Oth-
er gave b ds in their hou s and
the armth of their hugs and their
AUGUST 22 - 28, 1984 l"HE CITIZEN PAGE ELEVE
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too much for granted - in hort,
not being treated a an individu I,
having my uniquene insufficient­
ly recognized, being cl d as a
member of me featurele
amalgam, a statistical unit with ut
identifiable, specifically human
features and purpose of my
own ....
• ". . . What oppre d ela s
or nationalitie. . . want, as
often as not, is simply recognition
(of their cl or nation, or color
or race) as an independent source
of human activity, as an entity
with a will of its own, intending
to act in accordance with it . . .
and not to be. ruled, educated,
guided, with however light a hand
as being not quite fully human,
and therefore not quite fully
free."
The human and political im­
pulses which guided Black people
a� they poured their force into
the Jackson effort is evident in
Black precinct in Washington
D.C. Wherever one turns, one is
struck hard - and hurt - by the
numbers of Black men of working
age who uffer no visible dis­
ability, other than the color of
their skin, yet are unemployed.
"Our community ha sbeen de­
vastated by the industrial decline
of the United State ," said James
Turner, director fo Corn 11 Uni­
versity's A ricana Studies and
Research Center, as h waited to
be served at a grill that purveys
of some of the city's finest soul
food. "Heavy industry was the
backbone of middleclass Black
America, and now it's being
... ------------ ... -- ...... ------- ... eroded and peopl are talking
about gilnmicks, but not about
the men out here who are
unempJoyed.
"Jesse was trying to get them
to look at things like that and at
voting rights at affirmative
action, at opp rtunities for Blacks
in higher cduc tion. But they're
not respecting his voice, and
symbolically we were trying to
· spea through him. White people
em incapable of giving us
respect.
· "The que tion in the election
is enthusiasm. The traditional,
old-line Black Democrats will v te
for the ticket, and obvi usJy
there are some people who will
go out and vote against Reagan.
But the question is whether you
get the new pe pie, the young
profe . onals, who were willing
to go out and beat the bushe
for Jesse.
"They've got to tell u orne­
thing better than 'You've ot n
place el to go ' for all that
enthu ia m to work and for all
the people who came out for
Je e to be willing to come out
for Mondale in ovember."
The r ult of the 1982 mid­
term ele tion seem to bear Turner
out. The anti-Reagan factor was
not enough to bring Blacks out
in I rge numbers. In election
ki s to J son. And the
reverend him If gave everything
he h d.
Although it i clear that no
other Black p rson in the country
could have chieved what Jackson
did, thi outpouring of love,
money, effort and votes was not
meant by Black people
tribute to an individual. It w
intended, rather, as tatement
by the American that they
meant to be taken seriously in
the political proce . The Reagan
yean and the rise of the ''Yup­
pies" taught that most compla­
cent Black that this goal had
eluded them despite all the gain
achieved in the 15 ears follow­
ing the 1954 school desgregation
victory in the Supreme Court.
any Blacks viewed the Yup­
pies (Democrats though they
might call themselves) as mem­
ber of a white, self-aborbed
c1 that w anxiou to depart
from the traditional human con­
cern of the Democratic P rty.
Thus, they made painful decis­
ion to help focu the eye of their
fellow mocrats on these im­
portant i ue.
Though few of them were
specifically aware of it, the
Jack on follower had endeavored
to deliver to their fellow Demo­
crats, and to other Americans
a well, a message defined by
Isaiah Berlin in hi book, "Two
concepts of Uberty.'
at I may seek to avoid is
simply being ignored, or patroni­
zed or despi ed, or being taken
e
•
I
h re white Democrats simply Mondale i trong enough to let
railed a ain t the president and hi decent implu s rule his
his policies, the Bla k turnout campaign - or wh ther, like
did not increa appreciably. Reagan, his men ill call the
But in pia e where Black were hot. If the latter is th c
motivated by mething beside Blacks would have to wonder
the Reagan factor - a in Miami whether Mondale' hite men
where a Blac was ru nin for" who claimed to b their friend
city coun il, or in Hartford where were really better than Rea n
a Black wa candidate for mayor. who never profes d to b .
or in Virginia wh re D m cr tic Enthusiasm holds the ey to
gubernatorial candidate Charles the Blac vote in ov m r.
Robb actively courted Blac But enthusiasm is an emotion
Black turnout were high and that cannot be su tained in th
made a difference. company of doubt and re r-
Black peopl clearly under- vat ion . That is why th D mo-
stand that ther is a real dif- crats will have to re their
ferenee between Ronald Reagan umptions between no and
and Walter ondale, and, a EI ction Day and come to term
the polls show, there i no quest- with the fact that giving r spe t
ion about which man they would to Jack on i ymbolical1y giving
rather have as president. But re p ct to all Black. That i the
though they see ondale's ey to the level of enthu ia m
decency, they are not ure of hi that Blacks bring to th Mondale-
heart. They rem mber Andy Ferraro effort.
Young ta ing his lump for
ondale with no apparent fai
return, and they wonder wheth­
er, if ondale's men can do this
to one of the best of u , what
must they think of the rest of
us?
They wonder whether Walter
Ro er Wilkins, a s ni r fellow
at the Institute for Policy Studie ,
is author of a memoir about
being Black in America, CIA
Man's Life. II
- EDITO IAL-
D
c
•
I
Benton Harbor city mayor
and commissioners are refusing
to face re ponsibility, reality or
even the truth. If they're not
already humped and hunch­
back from so much duckin'
and d dgin', they will b
shortly.
Take the ca of the plan to
payoff fire and police pen ion
fund arrears. Without a word
of what was brewing or what
options were available they
whispered directions to the
Attorney, "put it all on pro­
perty owners shoulders."
Having "solved" the prob­
lem, the easy way they at
smugly back and moaned and
groaned about the headaches
they "inherited". Wait a
minute! Loo at the facts. The
attorney said the city went t
court becau e annual paym nts
ordered by the court in 1974
had not been paid for the
PAST THREE Y ARS.
Who sat in the May r's seat
for the past three year? Yep.
Same me that's arming it up
now. Only two commi ioner
Hender on nd renshaw, hav
not been hiding d n h
seat for le than thre year.
ven Henderson and ren ha
have to as ume one-third of the
blame. They appr v d the
1984-85 budget which had no
provision for the pension ar-
T COM IS-
TAK TH
!
But that kind of duckin'
and dodgin' j n't the wor t
kind.
•
•
•
I
Dod
hy asn't there m con-
. deration taken to cutting
co ts, to rai e funds for the ar­
rear? For city with a $7 mil­
lion budget, a 33 000 annual
payment is no big deal .
We can think of vera] co t­
cutting measure immedi tely:
take bids to determine which
gas line provider to u . stop
the u of city vehicle on
weekends and evening for per-
nal use; eliminate th
15 OOO-a-year c n ultant in
Washington . trim me f the
employee in. finance - with
Ie "yackety -y " m re
work could be mpJi hed
with fe er p pi � cut ut th
lOO-a-month ar payment to
department head and witch
to a milea reimbur m nt
ystem .....
And then there is the
ab nc of any e n mi
devel pment plan. The care f
the hi h� outed but invi ible
"five-year plan"
S .. U, enterpri e
rth f . in.
preading th
m na ement on
only help to further depre
the S
One go d place t start an
ec nomic tum-ar und nd one
that c uld b ea ily ccom­
plished would be t requir
city employe t live in th
ity. The
the idea. e h p h b in
implementation th idea-
aero s th b rd. That's n
way to t rt standin up nd
facing reality.