ov, 30 - DEC. 6,1986 THE MICHIGAN CITIZEN
3
ew war on drugs - does it ignore Black sltuatl on?
By Eidrid Lewi
The har irony of Reagan's
new war on drug i that tho
Black communities mo t in need
of help, the ghetto nd regions
of poverty, may ultim tely be
the mo neglected.
F rom Harlem to
in the streets is chee
ith drug - the buying the
lling and getting high for a
'good time.' It i often not
possible to walk more than a
few block in some areas before
someone mumble an offer to
deal a you pas. Everything
from marijuana and cocaine to
heroin i more than available
for the right price. And efforts
of law enforcement officers have
never dried up upplie for
longer than a brief pau in the
multi-billion dollar busine s of
temporary e ape, mi ry and
metimes death.
A key stratagem of the
government's new campaign will
be dru te ing on the job,
already a common practice with­
in a large number of Fortune
500 companies and mething
Ragan appears to have taken
from bi business. The problem
i that those Blac ommunities
where a fresh strategie are mo t
ne-eded are the one mo t
ravaged with unemployment.
Today clo to half of the 8.8
million working e Black men
lac j b say a report from
the enter for the Study of
cial Poli y. 'They are either
un mployed, out of the labor
force in correction facilitie
or una ounted for.'
Ou t of wor, and often
ith preciou fe pro pect for
a y ind of job without leav­
in their home , young Blac
male frequently turn to the
h stl of th street econ my
t m e end meet peddling
drugs mu in the few pa rs­
by and even 'cat tIe ru tlin '
NEWS BRIEFS
an­
will
143 million and
to
PROTEST TRE E T
Charle ton, S.C. - everal
hundred prote ter marched I st
week in front of South Caro­
lina' military hool - The
Citadel J- to prote t the treat­
ment of african-American
.c det. C det evin esmith
resigned la t mon th after
hazin incident in which hite
c det dre d a u Klux
KI n member inv ded hi room,
thre tened him nd burn a small
cro . The prote ters - led by
the Southern Chri tian leader­
ship Conferen e - demanded
that th five hite cadet be
expelled and that esmith be
allowed to return t the h 01.
FIGURE G ED
flamb yant Bl c drug ingpins
wa unned d n la t we on
Chi a 0' uth ide. Willie
"Flukey" Stoke and his b dy­
guard ere shot they stepped
from Cadillac limo ine parked
near the home of an a ciate.
The 49-year-old Stoke gained
national attention in 19 4 when
he buried hi slain son in a
coffin shaped like a Cadillac
and stuffed with $50 and
100 bill. Stoke had reported­
ly built an illegal drug empire
bringing in hundred of thou­
sands of dollar a year. Police
believe a rival gang arranged
the illing.
F CE CHALLE GE
Philadelphia, Pa. The
frican- merican mayors of
Chic go and Philadelphia both
appear he ded for major elect­
i n challen e nex t year. White
politician in both cities are
mounting campaigns to oust
Harold ashington and Wil n
G de in election heduled
for ne t year. hington in
Chi a 0 appear to face the mo t
riou challenge. F rmer
mayor Jane Byrne and city
ouncil rival Edward Vrdolyak
are both mounting campaigns
to un at him.
- tealing meat from a gro ery
store. While Black form 1 .1
percent of the p pulati n 6
percent of the occupant of
tate and federal pri ns are
Blac. Thi statistic highlights
the prevalence of a crime
oriented life-style in some Black
communitie .
Falling prey to dru s i all
too easy hen life on the treet
is rarely planned beyond tomor­
row and where hope for change
lies in the dream of the big
ore. And in this environment
the threat of drug testing on the
job become a ludicrou jo e.
hat job?
If there i any part of the
stepped-up campaign that offer
me hope for uccess in ghetto
areas, it will be the expanded
drug education program. But
again the Black communitie
rno t in need may be the one
least influenced by uch pro­
gram. "The point is to con­
vin e people that drugs like
cocaine are harmful" y
Robert Stutman special agent in
charge of the Drug Enforce­
ment Administration's ew
Yor field divi ion, 'It's more a
que tion of frightening people
than givin medical fact .'
Yet in ghetto where drug
are part of the fabric of treet
life where illegal drugs are
en day in and day out uch
are ta tics have in the past
proved virtually' meaningle .
John Duff co-author of the
bo "The Tru th A bou t Drugs II
ho ha lectured on drug
misuse in hools and c llege
aero the c un try as part of
the "Drug d" program, ay
drug ducati n ha dra tically
mis d the mar. ot only
is the inf rmati n inadequ te,
but are tactic tended t
di redit the programs. "Books
ere rit ten with the most
horrifying of fact" he ys.
"They told grue m tal of
someone getting caught in drug'
evil grip. •
Duff ys they have impact
,
ac
so
at first. But then a kid meet
drug. u rs and e that they are
not all drug crazed and degen­
erate the dru education be­
comes spe t. Kid tart to
think that the drug education
has lied. 'The main urce
of drug data for all the kid s
namely the hool, have 10 t
all credibility" say Duff.
Duff u e ts that a m re
effective approach lie in factual
examination of "a better way
than drug.' Perhap the big-
e t mi t e i t 10 k upon
drug educati n a divor ed from
general educational goal.
As Je Jack n aid re-
cently: 'The call to our chil­
dren- to prepare themselves to go
thr ugh the door that are now
opening i critical. .: We can­
not reach maturity if e watch
five hour of T at night and
choo entertainment over edu-
cation r if we put caine in
our membrane and our b die
are too eak and our mind
too destroyed to make a con­
tribution."
'The functi n of education
. . i to teach one t think
inten ively and to think riti-
cally," said th late Martin
Luther King J r. "The most
d angerou criminal may be the
man gifted with rea n bu t
with no moral . .. e mu t
rem mber that intelli en e i n t
enough. Intelligen e plu
chara ter - this i the g al of
true education.'
uch word of isdom pr -
vide a ey t how m re effe tive
drug educati n pr ram must
be developed ne hi h h v
a rea nable chance of cur-
tailin drug in the ghet t
d elsewhere thr ugh u t
BLAC VOTE EY TO
SE TE T KEOVER
ashington, DC - Per­
haps the mo t si nifi ant
news comin out of last
eek off-year election wa
the fact that Democrats t
control of the .S. enate
from the Republicans. H
ever a revie of the votin
results sho that the De­
mocratic vi tory w uld n t
have been po sible if it had
n t been for the Bl c
vote. In all eight tate
where a Dem rat to
at from a Republi an
Blacks voted overwhelmingly
for the Democrat. The
Blac vote was
that in f ur 0 th
the Demo rat simpl
not h ve on i it h d n t
been f r the Bl
Th � ur tate
0, Ill. - One 0 the
n tion's best kn wn and most
Continued from Page 1
Jack n said, the ational
Rainbo Coalition repre nted
the ne direction the Demo-
cratic Party should travel. He
listed the South fri an and
Central American risi' a
major focu s and aid to the
family farmer, war on p verty
and drug , comprehensive health
care plan and education a
main prioritie of the Ameri­
can public that should be treat­
ed as such by legislative
officials.
DID YOU KNO ... that
if you submit an interesting
fact which we use in DID YO
OW you can be paid. You
receive 5 for every three
intere ting facts used. end them
to Robert Taylor, 911 Barnaby
Street, S. Washington, DC
20032.
in
retained his enate t b
apturing only 470/£ of the
white vote. Bla ga e ,
him % f their vote and
that provided the margin of
vi try. imilar pattern
emerged in rth r liria.
uisiana and bam her
Demo rat