JANUARY 16 - 22.1985 THE CITIZEN
PAGE ELEVEN
PAGE
lack progress is not a myth
Editor:
When nt the Citizen a
copy of an article from the
all St. Journal, I had no idea
it wa going to get a hatchet
job by Charle E. Belle. Truly,
I enjoyed hatchets long as
they are journalistic and also,
'not directed at me. Just for the
fun of it, let's see how Belle
handle the attached article
from the 16 Dec. Chicago
Tribune by Clarence Page.
Howard J. Schmitt
251 Cherokee Trail
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
ity who have remained e norni­
cally and cially stagnant -
or have been slipped a little.
Show him a few hundred
Black mayors and Pinkney will
show you the narrow defeat
of Tom Bradley in the Califor­
nia gubernatorial race. Show
him a multitude of Blac college
grads and Pinkney will show
you how most of them are in
community colleges, not big­
time universitie. Show him
record numbers of Yuppie
Blacks in the middle class and
Pinkney will show you a golden
coffin of socio-psychological
misery.
"As they become middle
class, they de perately emulate
the behavior of middle-cla
white, - frequently forgetting
their humble background ," he
writes of upwardly mobile
Blacks. "Their lifestyles tend
to b similar to those of com­
parably situated whites, but
they frequently exaggerate
these, especially in automobiles
and cloth s. And their black­
ne means that they will con­
tinue to live marginal lives
in a deeply racist society."
Oh, you poor Black bour­
geoi ie, Pinkney laments,
doomed to console your lves
with your B s, your Gior-
gio's and your houses in
Chatham while you still draw
strange stares from white folks
ho c 't believe you didn't
buy it all ith food stamps.
Blac conservatives can be
forgiven if they prefer to see
the glass as half-full white
Pinkney sees it as half-empty.
Pinkney labels all Black neo­
conservatives as quislings but
is most critical of il n for
saying in his 1978 book, "The
Declining Significance of Race,"
that "the life chances of
individual Blacks in recent
years) have more to do with
their economic class position
than with their day-to-day en­
counters with whites."
Zounds! That simple notion
touched off a firestorm among
academics who love to argue
with each other. The A socia-
tion 'Of Blac Sociologists pa sed
a resolution of 'outrage" that
"reactionary groups' might use
Wil on's research to halt reform
and "set in motion equally
objectionable trends in funding,
research and training."
On this one, I fall somewhere
in the radical middle. Black
social analysts should not be so
fearful for their research grants
that they ignore Wil on's u eful
revelations: Though the broad
gap between Black and white
incomes is well known if you
exclude households headed by
single mothers the verage in­
comes of whites and Blacks
are almost equal.
Teen pregnancie, the most
important cau of long-term
poverty, became epidemic after
welfare programs discouraged
stable family units for genera­
tions. When Daniel oynihan
warned of thi family break­
down in 1965, he was roundly
condemned by some of the
same voices now attacking Wil­
son.
What does Pinkney want?
He devotes little space to'
solutions, except more of the
same social programs that have
led' us to the point of dubious
progress he says we have reach­
ed. Before we throw more
money at the problems of the
poor, let's make sure we are
throwing it accurately. We
need cure, not a perp tu­
ation of the problem.
And Pinkney gives his game
awa on page 59: "The
eradication of capitalsim is . . .
a neces ary, if not sufficient,
condition for the elimination
of both prejudiced attitudes
and discriminatory behavior."
That's a 'laugh.
Black progress is no myth,
although orne folks make a
decent living out of saying it
is. Ours may be the only ethnic
group to have 0 many of its
brighte t minds so vigorously
engaged in the pr ding of
despair to our children - and
o little to the spreading of
hope.
Start Counting
With Number One
y (buies E. Belle .
WASHI GTO ,D NPA
- Opportunity will not com
knocking at your door. You
must run it down. Do not
expect the economy to produce
enough jobs for every person
who wants or need a job!
The job market is growing too
slowly to keep up with the
increa in the number of
available orkers. What is
worse is he type of jobs that
are available are different from
those of yesterday. Untrained
and poorly educated people will
find it increa ingly more dif­
ficult to discover a job opening.
Service and sales opportunities
are the olympics for those try­
ing to struggle out of poverty.
Programmers, and other com­
puter and high technology
related positions, are a tiny
part of the future jobs picture.
Automation often doesn't just
replace, but does irnulate other
industries, especially service
ones.
Speaking of service, one area
where we all can be served i
at the table. The ational
Restaurant Asso ation has pro­
jected that about 112 billion
will be spent this year in eating
and drinking establishments.
Millions of foodservice workers
, are in high-turnover low-paying
jobs as waiters and waitresse
dishwashers, cashiers, hefs and
food-counter employees. The
ational Institute for the F d-
ervice Industry say that there
are 85,000 openings a year
for chefs and cooks in re tau­
rants and other institutions.
And owing one s own restaurant
is less of a problem these day
than owning one's home.
Homeo ner and restaur n­
teurs both will rely on an
accountant. - A job wonh
learning. Accountants are in
increasing demand. 0 doubt
because the field is broadenin .
Accountants have a choice f
areas to work in includin
auditing management con ult­
ing as well as ax ork. Th
consirlting, contr lIer trea urer '
role keep the c n ienti u
worker in front of t p man
ment. Ther are g ing to be
1 ... milli n j bs f r ace unt­
ant and auditors by 19 5.
It p Y t be the one wh
ount the d ugh. While the y
is the salary limit, starting
salaries are 15 000 and up.
This occupation is project d t
have a fa ter growth rate than
the aver ge projected growth for
all occupation during the year
1982 to 1995.
An accountant by the way
is basi ally a b eeper. '
While a Certified Publi
Accountant PA is a b ok-
keeper who h gone through a
certification proce and i
licen ed by om stat al n
with the E s, education college
degree), examination
test and experience already
working). Since either occupa­
tion opens up numerous fields
like information system elec­
tronic date proce sing and c rn­
pensation plans their ed uca­
tional preparation is excellent
for anyone interested in a job
in major modern big business.
Being in busines does not
mean you need a college
education but it will help.
Especially if you want a j. b.
And going into busine has
been the biggest b om to the
economy. Already, labor
tatistics sho that ° p rcent
of II ne hiring are in rn-
pani ith 0 em pI yee or
less, hile tarting here is ri y
due to the current high failure of
mall busine es, it i better than
nothing. It may b dif 1 ult
for the American public to get
u ed to changing firms in e one
or two may fail at their feet but
it will no longer leave a ti rna
'for starting another job in the
future. Failure in the e onomy
for firms from the irst ational
Ban to the boo store at the
corn r i now comm npla e.
Pe pie with a colle e educ -
i n may uddenly find it dif­
fi ult t ind or drive a cab, but
non- ollege gradu tes can I
or ther job. Building ustod­
ian ashiers, cretarie general
offi e cler s, and ale cl rk
j bs are jsut the faste t gr in
e t rs in thi rvice riented
e nomy. very ne m r
iz building either r identi I
mmerci 1 ill require build­
hi r will
a t f d
A vigorous movement is
dedicated to the notion that
Black people are not getting
. anywhere.
One of its late t product
i a new book, "The yth of
Black Progre " (Cambridge Uni-
er ity Pre ), by Alphonso
Pinkney, a former University of
Chicago in tructor no at ew
York' Hunter ollege.
sits titl suggests, Pink­
ney' boo gives us nearly 200
pages of bad news about the
economic and ocial condition
of Blac Americans.
It' intended to be a sharp,
cynicaJ rebuttal to the ne
wav of Blac neo-con rvatives
- Thomas Sowell of Stanford
Univ rsity, alter illiarns of
George a n University and
illiam Julius won of the
University of Chicago to name
a fe ho write good news
bout the outlook for Black
American.
Ho ,you may ask, can Pin -
ney look at th dramatic
increa in Black mayors
members of Congre , college
gr duates, profes ionals and cor­
p rate exe utive over the la t
fe decades and y Blac s
have failed?
ell, okay. He begrudg-
ingly acknowledge that a fe
Blac may be better off. And
the icked 01 white folks are
maybe a little more tolerant
than they u d to b. But the
improved status of some Blac s,
he note bitterly has had littl
or no imp ct on the va. t maior-
7
all
p r rver nc
t all job in bu ine
ility to count.