"
population control more of thi
country' wealth than the re t of
the population combined.
He a ked why white are ilent
on thi di parity of income when
more of them are affected than
Black, he ay it because of
white incompetence and an un-
tated acceptance by whites that
they will take disparities as long
a they come before Blacks in
status.
HE AID '0 white to
chan th ir attitude, they
would have to que tion e tab­
Ii hed norm in race relation, r -
cial teriotype, and theorie of
racial uperiority. "A challenge
to thi would have to upport...
equality, changing their tatus."
duca or promo
curricula for cl y'
by FLODEAN . RlGG
Michigan Citizen
Second of two part
Putting a Detroit Public
School child in the center of
his or her studies i what an
Afrocentric curricula i all
about aid Mo lef i Asante,
Temple University Department
of African American studies
chairperson.
AS8Ilu; was one of about five
eynote pe tt <l)y
etroit Public School board
ember and M nagement
Academy to address a Black
Child Placed in Crisis Annual
Conference last week at Cobo
Hall.
"The (educational) ystem
does not adequately prepare us
to live in a multicultural
society," he said. "We don't
need jus t a tune up, but we need
an over haul. Most educational
systems fail poor Black
children. "
Saying that most Blacks are
still on "mental plantations"
and unw i II i ng to try di fferent
approaches, to improve the
quality of education, Asante
said,
"Many critics think we are
selling self esteem as a cure
ail," he commented. "It's not an
i sue only of self esteem. It i
n u or­
onl h ve
rd mo t white p t
ociety t r c mz th If proper­
ty right of whitene ,and that
race play a role in eeping
ociety tabilized. He quot a
ource aying, "God gave white
racism to keep white working at
Blckwge."
Bell aid white need health
care, nutri tious food, good
schools, and housing al 0, but
. white will choose to suffer from
lack of social programs to tay
uperior over Black .
Afroc n ric
chool
tices in .Octroi t and Dearborn.
TO KE 'P DOCTORS in
Michigan, Adelman said, the
MSMS is trying several things.
One is a holding, action on
Me dicaid'to stop the decrea e in
the percentage that Medicaid
pays 'phy ician. The sec�nd
te i l e g i +at i o n to l l m it
profes ional liability. Adelman
'aid legi lation i in the work
that would create a worker -
compensation type of board and
would place a cap on liability
award.
Other altc r nauve to reduce
liability ost include a varia­
tion of the Mi ouri Defen e
Fund. With the defen e fund, a
person bring a malpractice uit
again t the fun not a
pecific doctor.' hat wou ut
the tate on alert to the cost do
t r face, Adelman aid.
Adelman aid the problem
e i t be au e "people want
everything, think they de erve
it and don't want to pay for it."
She aid- it could come to a
.uuauon of "rati ning" medical
service, uch a in Oregon. A
rationing 'program would pro­
vide for a minimum-b nefit
package, and people then would
have to pay for add-on
problema tic a the y presentl y
are?, A ante a ked the crowd of
about 300.
"We had help," he said. "We
had a lot of help."
Black children are not made
to be active participants in their
education, he noted.
. As someone who frequently
travel the African continent,
Asante said he sees tribal char­
acteristic in the faces of Black
children in United States'
schools. However he is di ap­
p nte. 0 , e
condren ne lther know ab6u'�
wh t A c �rtte tean rJct h ... 1
tributed in history let alone an­
cient and contemporary
Africans, he said.
"Our (current cducational
sy tern) has separated u from
our cultures," he said. "If our
children had to read the slave
narratives or the ship captai n 's
words (from the African Slave
Trade Middle Passage) our
children would be different; our
white children would be dif­
ferent, ... OUR NATION
would be different."
'Board member Frank Hayden
said Asante was the god father
of Afrocentrism who came to
Detroit to deliver a message of
African Centered Curricula
Theory and Practice.
'In ance cost behind
medical exodus
elf confidence and self con­
fidence come with knowledge
of ·elf."
COMMENDING conferee
for their attendance A ante said.
"You have a belief that the shat­
tered pieces of our children's
lives can be put back togeter."
Detailing the differences be­
tween a Eurocentric curricula
which i implemented in
today's school throughout the
U ni ted State • Asante said, an
t c . a How
Black children to relate to the
ubjec u -bc in introduced to.
them.
"A Eurccentric curricula i a
white self e teem curricula," �
said. "It damages the African
American child. It makes u
seem like debtor 'instead of
con tri buto rs to the world.
"It imposes itself as a univer­
sal framework. (The belief is) it
is not only good for Europe, but
it is good, for the world and by
implications superior. But 'an
Afrocentric curricula is simply
treating the child as a subject in
history instead of an Object in
history. (It tells the Black child)
you are a part of history, you are
centered in it. Your people have
played a significant role in it."
o HOW DID mo t public
chool y tern end up as
,THE PROGRAM IN Oregon
is getting a bad name for it elf
becau e it is forcing people to
make value judgments, she aid.
With the tate government
facing more than $1 billion in
budget cuts, a rationing pro­
gram may be u ed ·not only to
fight liability. but b ud g e t
problems a we l l, she said.
The Oregon rationing y tern
is one way Michigan could cut
back on Med ica id o t. Adc 1-
man aid a MIchigan vcr ion of
rationing could not be 'done im­
mediately becau e it i 'a very
complex proce and would not
be part of "thi generation of
budget cuts."
Although not able to peak
on the number of doctor leav­
ing the tate, high liability co t
i omething everyone i look­
ing at, aid' Beverly Wackerle,
the executi ve ecre tary of th
Midland County Medical
Society.
"I think almo t every r-
ganization and corporation in
the tate ire-evaluating it
medical benefit becau c of
rising in ura n ce premiums,"·
Wackerle . aid.
nize t ble
on r ci m,
oci tion for the Adv ncement
of Colored People ( AACP) nd
the American Civil Libertie
Union (ACLU) hould try to in­
tegr te chool by bu in ,unle
two-third of th p rent give
their approval. He y fter
tributed by special intere ts
while we deliberate on impor­
tant i sue ."
• I \ ,
beg.i i J wo i ll1edi a tel�
Willi pu )IC tieanngs thro'ughout
the state. Grand Rapids will
host the second of three public
hearings Friday, Feb. 15 at 300
Monroe St. NW from 11 a.m. to
1 p.m.
At lea t one citizen group
agree that special-interest
group may be playing too large
a rol in election funding.
Karen Holcol m-Merrill, execu­
tive director of Michigan Com­
mon Cau c, aid the percentage
of campaign fund provided by
inter�t group ha jumped from
40 to 70 percent of all campaign
funds.between the 1978 and
1988 elections.
At the arne time, she said
campaign donations from the
public have dipped from 5S per­
cent of all funds in 1978, to only
25 percent in 19 8. Common
Cau e i a national government
w a tc hd o g group. Repre­
sentatives of Common Cause
said they are till busy gather
ing data from the 1990 elec­
tions, but they expect past
funding trend to continue.
Holcolm-Merrill said this
financing trend set a dangerous
precedent. "There' a percep-
•
PAG
on minority
unpopul r
concluded.
MUHAMMED ALI (3rd from left) wa among the dlgnltarle who turned out to honor for er
Pi ton great and current teel m gnate D vid Bin (econd from left) on eb. 11. The event wa
a benefit for the International Afro-American Sport Hall of Fame nd G lIery. mpng the any
well-wisher were l-rt, Ameritech Publl hing executive; Bing; All; M yor Colem n Youn and
Federal Appeal ourt Judge Damon Keith. (Photo by Robbi )
GOP targets campaign reform
tion that there is a connection
between the money given to
legi lator and expectations of
how agenda wi 1 be et."
. (..
WHILE'MANY A OUND
the Capitol agree tha 'illleres I
group fundi ng po e a possible
ethical problem for legi lators
who depend upon the e. groups
for financial backing, specific
plans for how to rebuild the
financing program are scarce.
Holcolm-Merrill said Com­
mon Cause plans to work close­
ly with the task force and offer
several options. Those option
could include limiting the fund­
raising season to only a few
months preceding the election,
or pos ibly limiting the amount
of .money to be spent on cam­
paigns.
While Hillegonds said he
thinks the re orms are a good
idea, he admits winning ap­
proval for reforms may be an
uphill battle. Hille.gonds aid
under the existing funding sys-
• tern, incumbents are re-elected
in about 95 percent of all elec­
tions. With such a success rate,
-, there seems to be little incen­
tive to change.
"It ' probably the toughest
issue yo-u face," Hillegonds
said. "The most I can say is'
when you show some leadership
with the appropriate ideas,
amazing things can happen."
Kilpatrick gets Young blessing_
ayor oleman YOUD aDd
candid te Kilpatrick applaud
ODe of her upporter.
Shari the dI tb KIlpatrick
re Art BI II, OIe.etI ••
Barfteld, Rev. WeddeD ADtb
ate Shapero, a10 with MaJ
Martha colt nd Col
You •
Members of the Blac Slate
kept the rally at a fever pitch with
their chants "there's a thang om
By Dennis Mansfield
Capital News Service
LANSING-About 61 percent
of medical residents are leaving
Michigan, many because of the
state's high I iabil i ty insurance
cos t and the fear of law suits,
says the president of the
Mi higan State Medical Society
(MSMS).
One ev c n t u a l response in
Michigan to such soaring medi­
cal costs may be to adopt a
"rationing" plan to judge who
gets services, said Dr. Susan
Hershberg Adelman.
"We have some of the highe t
(liability) rate in the cou try,"
Adelman said. .
Michigan ha the third-
highest premiums, with Florida
and New York being fir t and
second, re pectively. In
MiChigan, obstetrician and
gynecologi t pay almo t
0,000 per year for insurance,
a co ,t that i pa ed on to health
care con umer .
The high In urance co t coin- .
cide with doctor' belief that
Medicaid patient are more
Ilke ly-to ue for an un ati fac­
tory outcome. While that may
be true, Adelman aid he ha
not see n it in her pediatric prac-
by KELLI AAM
Capital New Service
LAN lNG-if it ain't broke, '
cS n', fix h� th t· usua ly the
r ill m �fhaJ1' oqi.c -
partlcufarTf (or egisfatofs who
have had repeated election uc­
ce e.
. Yc t that rul may oon be
br ken at the Capitol, by legi -
lator who think there may be
better way to finance their
campaign .
The re cc nt move by Hou e
Republican to form a campaign
finance rc o r rn Ta k force to
evaluate how campaign are
financed. follow Gov. John
Englcr ' targcting or' the cam­
paign reform i ue in his in-
augural addre Jan. 1.
Repuhlican eem to have
taken Engler" lead in their
qui k formation of the lO-mem­
her group to . t ud y campaign
fina nc i n g p t i o ns , The all­
Rep uhlican task force include
hairman Rep. Frank Fitzgerald
f Grand Lc d g c , Ho u s e
Min r i t y c a d e r Paul Hi l-
lcgonds of Holland and Rep.
Rick Band tra f Grand Rapid.
"Incumbent o If i ce ho l de r
mu l foreg orne of their re­
election au aruage to reduce
the ethical dilemma po ed by
the current y tern," Hillegond .
"Too much money i being con-
Michigan tate ongresswomen
Carolyn' Cheeks-Kllpatrick
announced her candidacy for
Detroit City Council at the New
Beth I B pti t Church
Wednesd y, F bruary 20, 1991.
Th crowd of over four hundred
enjoyed the mu leal reDderings of
Ortheia Barnes, aleng with
rallying call from some or
Detroit's mov rand hakers.
r