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
•
I
c
cl
r 0