Muskegon Welfare
Mo hers organize
aI
persons how to re d the DSS
manuals . planned. Smith
stre ed the need for all el
fare recipient to know their
rights pertaining to grant , food
stamps, and edicaid. Re ding
the DSS manuals i the first
tep to learning hat your
right are, Smith said.
Two officers from the Lans
ing rea elfare right organi
zat n, Julie Harri and Mary
Heed, were pre nt t the
kegon won to help get
the ne group going, Smith
id.
"We n ed more elfare
recipients to p rticipate," Smith
said. "As I've always ld,
united we tand, divided we
fall. "
first
"succe ' by those in atten
d nee,
Theodora Smith, 2623 Hoyt
. (739-4477)· th ne ly elected
chairper n of the egon
elfare Right group. Other
officers elected at the July 21
meeting are: co-chair, Johnnie
Totten 972 Ughten Dr. (722-
33 2; tre urer Earlene J c -
n 1730 Fifth St. (733-4351);
nd cretary Ro lind Burton,
2437 Leahy (733-6589).
A ording to Smith, aU inter-
ted persons ar el orne to
join nd can con ct any of the
offi er for more inform ti n.
training program to te h
25t
VOL. VII NO. 35 JUL V
29 - AUGUST 4, 1985
EW - "It's us - not them."
With those word TV journali t
Tony Brown explains why he i
organizing Buy Freedom onth
in October.
oting the growing number
of Asians pro pering with busi
ne es in the Black communit
ies coast to coast, Brown is
urging a "spend-in" with Black
businesse to "create jobs for
ourselves. "
Brown . a television jour
nalist whose weekly show "Tony
Brown's Journal" is aired each
Sunday afternoon on public
television stations aero the
nation.
In his syndicated column,
''Tony Brown's Comments"
Brown explains his Buy F ree
dom onth. The text of that
column follows:
Time magazine did Black
America a great rvice. It told
the truth.
And the truth, you've heard
• will set you free. In this ca ,
it will literally free Blacks
from the excess baggage of self
denial and self-inflicted abuse.
You've also heard that the
truth is often not pretty. In a
special issue on immigrant
Time surveyed the landscape
of newcomers and as d their
Am ricanization.
Asians, for example, "are
excelling in chool, achieving on
the job and otherwise making
it in America." Hispanic ,
Time aid, "are having an
imp ct from the Southwest to
the ortheast."
, ith mixture of animosity
and admiration, a long
impoverished minority watches
as ne ve leaves them
behind," is the description Time
reserved for African-Americans.
Since "the first ve ships"
360 years ago, Blacks have
watched wave after w ve of
new immigrant urpa them,
the article continued. First,
it was the Germans, Irish,
Jews and Italian .
Racism h been used to
explain that phenomenon. 0
We Indian Black nd Africans,
10 percent of th ne
migrants, 'ha urp
living tand rd of n tive Ameri
can Blacks. n
Raci rn will not expl in that,
but a unified culture will. est
Indians and Afric n help est
Indians and African _ BJack
School
ability group
promot
gr gation
-Turn to P e 2
Americans have been acculturat
ed to help white and' mistrust
one another.
The pattern is conspicuous
in Harlem where, according to
Time, "tidy Korean shops . . .
now dominate the thorough
fare." Cubans in iarni ha
taken "over what were once
bastions of Black busine ."
And, of course African
Americans aero the country
have adopted a favored non
Black ethnic group to make
rich. In Detroit, the Ar bs
supply Blacks' food and liquor
need with a chain of super
market and convenience stores.
In Harlem, the Koreans now
own a third of the stores of
125th Street. At one time it
was called 'Soul' Street; now
it can be referred to as 'Seoul"
Street.
"In 1960 Blacks owned 25
percent of the gas stations in
Dade County (Miami). By
1979 they had only 9 percent,
while the percentage of His
panic-owned stations grew from
12 percent to 48 percent.
The average income of a Hi -
panic business in Dade County
is now 84,000, almost twice
that of a Black business."
How are some Blacks reach
ing to this humiliating cour
of events? In Harlem, they
w nt to run Koreans out; in
Miami, they blam the Cubans
and Haitians for orking for
the leg I minimum wage; and
in Houston, where the Indochi
nese run rna and pa stores in
Black neighborhood. African
Americans buy in wonderment
at the efficiency of the Asians.
These new immigrants learn-
ed 5,000 mile way that the
Black Americans are a rich
cultural market that s be n
trained to behave "po [
minority. "
While all other groups pire
to equality, Blacks cling to an
un table politic genda th t
rvices the few at the top.
Equality comes to other groups
that hare group. And, c n
ver ly evades tho who don t.
Succe comes to Asian-
Am ricans, European- mericans
and to African-Am ricans from
the We t Indie and Afric.
But not to native Americans
who are de ended from Afri
cans.
any of us have or anized
a ain t this If -defeatin p t
tern. e are organizing Buy
Freed month in Oct ber
when we will "sp nd-in ' with
Black busine: es and create job
for our elve .
Bl c businesse will advertis
discounts and courtesy. To
gether, and only to ether can
we rever this 360-year pat
tern of econ mic Javery. Send
me 88 cents in tamp 1501
Broadway, Suite 2014
York, Y 10036) nd I II
you tire details on how you
can help.
Blaming the Koreans In
dochine e, Arab and Cubans
won't help. either will calling
Asiatics "chinks" and 'gooks"
or beating up the Laotians
in Philadelphia.
It's u - not them. Get a
copy of this Time is ue and take
your medicin .
1t'11 make you feel b tter.
And remember, Buy Freedom
onth is coming.
50
y12 ar
•
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