01 mylem
By Dr. W. F'auutDel"
WheD someone disagrees F'mally, do you realize that
with you, do you completely lose you have an emerional
control of yourself and begin to problem? Do you know that you
scream, rant, rave and threaten are a compulsive highly-sug­
the other person? gestible person who is allowing
WheD you walk pass the your compulsion to control you?
bakery, do you lose control of Or, do yo continually say to
yoUrself and forget about your yourself, "nothing is wrong with
diet? And then begin to eat me," even though you know that
cake, pie and ice cream as if it you are lying to yourself and that
were going out of style? you h ve an acute problem that
WheD you go shopping, are desperately needs professional
you Dot able to resist buying the treatment?
candy that is OD the shelf at the If you answered yes to two or
checkout stand? Though you mor ... e of these questions, you
really don't want it? _ hav . an acme co�pulsive-sug-
WheD you get nervous, do gestive personality that has
you automatically grab a probably caused you a great
cigarette eveD though the doc- �eal of torment, There are a lot
tor told you that cigarettes.could of pie wh�m you "despise."
cause you to have a heart at- ere ar� qwte a few �ple
tack? , who despise you, too. And it's all
When you are invited to a the r�su�t of your �pulsive­
friend's house for dinner, do you sugg�st1�le personaht� th3:t
find that it is impossible to resist causes you to become furi�us if
two or three helpings of every- so.meone e�en looks oas if he
thing? Even thoug6 you are sup- might not like you. You can't
posed to be OD a diet? contr�1 your tem�r. You can't
_ When\a panhandler begs you con 01 your appetite. You can't
for a quarter, do you find it im- co�ltrol your need to have some­
possible to refuse him money thmg. Anyone who .ans�red
even though you promised your- y� to two 0 the �ue�tlons m th.e
self many times that you would quiz; at the beginning of this
. never again give money to column could probably answer
people who beg for it on the � to many more of the ques-
street tons.
. When you first tried crack, I'll" tel.1 you more �bo�t the
did you tell yourself tha you compulsive personahty 10 my
could stop using it whenever you next column.
wanted to? And do you still tell
yourself the same thing. yet, do Dr: Faulkner may be reached at
you almost go crazy when you p.e Box 50016, Washington,
can't get crack? _D_C_2_0004 __ • _
.raclsm in
Continu d fro Pag 2
the worst- housing, they should
have been the group receiving
the most aid, McAdoo pointed
out. The capitalists on the Poor
Commission did n fmd it in
their interests to do so.
The state laws from as early
as the 1820's which made Black
poverty a crime were extended
to the Detroit House of Correc­
tions, McAdoo said
This public agency was also
run by the very same in­
. dustrialists who excluded
Blacks from employment
Calling it a "Police reign of
terror," McAdoo cited statistics
he culled in his research from
the Police Court Journals from
1881 to 1900.
According to those docu­
ments, Blacks were arrested at a
450% higher rate than native
born whites, and a rate 220%
greater than foreign born
whites.
Most of those imprisoned
were jailed for poverty related
incidents, McAdoo said the
records show.
Black youth were a special
target
Blacks were arrested for
"crimes" whites wouldn't have
been arrested for,and were sen­
tenced for longer �.
Many of the fines imposed by .
the Police Court were beyond
the ability of Blacks to pay, and
so they ended up in jail, Mc-l
Adoo pointed out.
He read a list of some of the
jailed as an example. He cited a
16 year-old servant arrested for
vagrancy. Fo r persons, all
lack, ages 19 20, 33· and 19
ere arrested (I using indecent
and immoral language. Their
fine of S8 or six months in jail
meant six months in jail.
McAdoo said 90% of all
Blacks charged with these "50-
called crimes" .were sent to
prison at Detroit House of Cor­
reftions; they couldn't pay their
fines.
Here, they were an easy prey
to disease and insanity.
"It was genocide against
African Americans and Native
,Indians," said McAdoo.
The' DeHoCo, as it was
called, manufactured furniture
because the belief in those days
was that prisoners should pay
for their keep.
As a result, they worked "10
hours a day under the lash," as
profits were more important to
the Board that ran the DeHoCo
than people. The same in­
dustrjalists who refused to hire
B lac s in the wor place,
Facln t e ha d
tru ab A-D
By Marian Wrig Edelm
. Like many in the Black com­
munity, Audrey Muhammad of
Tampa, Florida, once thought
that AIDS was a prob that
would happen to someone else.
"I never thought it would hit
anybody in my family. I really·
didn't" she says.
But then her son, who haa
-left home, was diagnosed with
AIDS-Related Complex
(ARC), a condition caused by
the AIDS virus. He was a user of
intravenous drugs. "He had DO
energy," Audrey remembers of
her son's last days. After his
return home, he died of
pheumonia, a death fre ently
associated with this terr le ?is­
ease.
Today, Audrey is helping
others in Tampa's Bla com­
munity to face the truth about
AIDS: it is a major problem for
us, and we have to fight it As a
staff member of the local Urban
ague chapter, she is doing
just that - participating in the
organization's direct, no-non­
sense AIDS preventipn effort
Along with other staff members,
Audrey goes out on the street
and distributes condoms to both
men and women and talks to
ichigan:
worked them to death at Dcf-lo­
Co, McAdoo said.
The figures are all a matter of
public record, the historian
said. 50% of all deaths at DeHo­
Co were African Americans or
Indians although Blacks never
exceed nine percent of" the
times of peril and difficulty.
Yearly conferences followed,
and one is now being planned
for 1989. I
The Tempa Urban League's
approach is based on If-help:
giving people in our co unity
the infqrmation and e means
to prevent the further spread of
AIDS. They are using people
within the community to spread
this message - ot messengers
them frankly about [OS. fr()m some outside world
"I as them 'how uch do you They have plans to continue
think you know abo t AIDS?''', �d expand their AlPS preven­
Audrey says. She a asks them bon work. As a part of their
if they want to help revent the street outreach efforts, they
further spread of e disease. have collected questionnaires
Differnt people r pond dif- that will give them a better sense
ferently, but Audrey _ a warm, of what the people in the com­
communicative pe D _ has munity know and need to mow.
found that many ready to But they have already. sue­
discuss this sensi ive issue. reeded in one crucial objective:
"They're glad som dy's trying getting people thinking and
to do something a ut it," she talking about AIDS prevention.
reports. They're not only facing e
The Tampa Urb League' , truth - they're fighting the
involvement ith fi ting AI�� pr��lem. We need efforts. �e
regan in 1 , with e forma- m e�ery Black commurutym
tion of a AIDS k force, ou nation,
accordi g to chapte president
Joan a Tokley. The city's first
conference. aimed at the Black
community was held in a local
church ""7 always our ulwar in
Marian Wright Edelman is
President of the Children's
Defense Fund, a national voice
for children. \,....I' •
genocide·
prison population and Indians
never exceeded two percent.
W ole families died, Me­
Adoo said and read again from
the records some examples (0
prove his point. He named an
Alexander Carr, 12 and his
brqther Tom, 14, who died six
mooths later both from
tuberculosis. Four Lowery
brothers, ages 20 through 25 all
died in the DeCoHo despite
their medical records listing
them as in "good condition"
when they entered.
To be continued next week.
House of
Showing t verage number or persons jailed t the
population, per year in the aty or Detroit among BI
bites, 1881-1900-
�i
a.'
c
.2
.!
t
�
..
.,
0.
1 •
. g
•
k
0.
.§.
..
., .
.0
E
::J
Z
, ..... " ..
• N .. 45,152 Total prl • reul .. d at�he Detroit Hou •• 01 Oorr ctl on , I 11-
1900. (4133 bl cu, 4 lnd1a ,'\I o.I"ue, 10 M lrlca and 40,513. It •• ) •
,lfr-tl.,
""-/� ..
Source: Prepared from data extracted from General Register 0 Priso
Dr. WiUiam McAdoo.
t Vol. 3-7, 1878-1904. By
.-
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I ..
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