Black 'elected official are
more numero than ever (6,681
in 1987), a 350 percent increase
sincc 1m). BI ck members of ·
Congress have amassed an im-, ,Growing u.p in a Black
pressive array of COIDDllttee and �-"""--------�!!!Ii
subcommittee chairma�ships A little Black girl is given a
(eight committee chairs and 18 white doll to play with, in Toni
subcommittee chairs in. the Morrison's novel The BIuut Eye
., HouseofR�). (W shington Square Press,
. Black individual have" 1970). .,
reached the heights orfame andl • I tead of making her happy,
influence, Bill Cosby is I thedoll makes the child d, be-
America's favorite D ddy and �use she feels that the secret of
Michael Jackson and Whitney bdin� lovable belongs only to
Houstondot the top ten charts. those who are "blu -eyed, yel-
Frank Thomas heads the Ford _ 0 -haired, pink- . ed."
Foundation, A Barry Rand is in. Things have not changed that
charge of mar�eting at Xerox; . much for, our children since
and Anita De Frantz is M rrison wrote her poignant
Ameri�'s reprc:sentative to the I I st rYe Despite a spfinkling of
Olympic Committee, � BI ck faces, mos) of the
W_e are rightf� �roud of � g zines, story b�o�s,
these and many slmtiar ac- De spapers, and television
complishments among us. . pr grams our children see still .
We've worked hardro get where send he unspoken message that
we are. . white is beautiful.
But there is another Black . d too many of our children
community that is not riding at till taking this message to
high today b is going down and heart.
under. They are millions of our In a recent study in e"
children and youths and families York City, two-thirds of Black
������---���������-�---�----�-�-� pr scho� children who were
shown two otherwise similar
Cabbage Patch dolls cbo the
white doll over the lac one.
_. Furt ermore, most of the
. children said they would rather
be a white doll than a' ck one
'I
, J
Opiniun Pagl'
,
� " ,
It's the bestand
I
:
By Wi t Edebia.D
'. Pruidml, OJiJdmJ"s Deferis�
Fund
For many fortunate Black'
-Americans, today is the best of . ====
'times. .
. Black' per capita income is
at an all-time high. Many Black
executives ha'Je moved up the
corporate ladder, even if they
frequently don't reach the pin-
nacle of corporate power. .
. Black purchasing po er, crngulfed by poverty,
DOW" S200 billio exceeds the ment, and hopelessness.
gross national' product of Unless we throw them a I
Australia and New Zealand _ lifeline, they � goiJig to drown,
combined. ' I and their neniDg pligbt will
undermine the Black future that
our forebears dr·· • strug-
. gIed, and died for.
.. (\ Today' the
r- for poor Black babica
.. lIWly inlier cities �
country, who have
chaDcc of IMag thro
. year of life thaD a
Costa Rica. B
" .
I
I
OWNCIJIffI( fIia'1t
� �
CRM.V�� IIDfAI€/II/S
( _"'"'
r. .. � I
. I I
These results echo � �
p riment de cribed in social
scie . Ken Clark's stUdy
was cited in the 1954 Brown .
Board of Education Supreme
Court decision.
. Growing up is a hard job for
any child. But it is even more dif
fi u for children who are cut off
from an important part of them
selves: their identity as Blacks.
Knowing who they are can help
. gr und our children in reality,
sir them pride and make them
t \-
,
r
1 •
still twice as likely to die in the
6rst ear of life than white
babies.
It' the rst of times for
Black YQ and young adults
trying to orm families without
decent skills or jobs and without
a strongvalue basco
Sixty percent of all Bla
babies today are born to single
mothers who never married;
90% of those born to BI ck
teens are born to unmarried
mothers. T 0 out of three
children in Black female
beaded houaeho are poor.
I am gr teful, therefore, that
the CoDgressional Black Caucus
focused ttcntion in 1987 on
EdJ,ctIting the BI«Jc 0tiId. J
Martin Luther King. Jr. and
othcri accepted the chlDenge
for their tm.e, we m ccept
ours: ed eating all of our
children in mind, in body, and in
soul if we are to preserve d I
strengthen the Black future.
feel they belong. ,
From the time that they first
open their eye to the world
around them, our children need
to feel good about being Black.
A healthy self-image is the most
important gift we parents can
help give our children. But we
cannot gJVC l� With bbws or nb-
boas or even designCfr clothes.
There are several things we
,can do that cost very little or
nothing at alI:
- We can re d r tell our
children torie a�out Blac
Americans. The st of H -
riett Tubman' un erground
ailway to free the YeS, for -
ample, fascinat s youn
children.
-We caD give the Black im
ages to look at by taking them. t
quality movies and p ys featur ..
ing Black ct and encour -
ing them �o watc Black
oriented television like
e Cosby Show.
- We c;an take our chil�
. th us n we g to social
eorevents· our com
that they can see COD-
Black leaders in action.
-We can be a role model of
· . de. Cbildre take their cue
om dults. If we are "comfort
ble in . • to quote Toni
orrison, they will be too.
(
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