"1
1
rnment to i nore tbe
rate pli ht of the e of
c people, other minoritie
oor nd or in people in
. country. Th ricb ettin
e r nd the poor
oorer.
It i
.nle ric n meric net,
,h government will continue it
policie of bl tant neglect of tbe
hum n need of th poor nd di -
dvanta ed. It i ti me '0 t ke to
the treet in m ive c mp ign
of civil di obedience to
'dre tize the plight of the h ve
o in thi n tion nd adv nee
the fight for new "new dome tic
order".
Such camp ign is·1) rticul r­
Iy cruel I in the aftermath of the
Pe i n Gulf War.
On the eve of the 23rd an­
niversary of tbe as a ination of
Dr. Martin Luther King in Mem­
phis, I h ve written letters to
Corett Scott King, Josepb
wery, John E. Jacobs, Ben­
j min Hooks, ·Wal ter Fauntroy.
Ben Chavis, C.T. Vivi n,
Romana Ede] in and Je se L.
" Jack on, urging the e civil­
: rights le ders to launch a direct
a condemning
mili t ri m c ncer on the
Americ n ch r cter,
One ye r Iter m de the
fateful journey into Memphi to
upport tri ing nit tion
wor er , King w in the mid t
of planning m ive Poor
People ' C mp ign to fight for
the re-orderin of America' na­
tion I priori tie .
King' bold initiative w c 1-
cul ted to force the United St te
to qu rely face the contradic­
tion of r ci m, poverty and
militari m.
Twenty-three year later the
ca er of militari m till afflic
m ric.
The w r profiteer re lining
up to "rebuild uwait", but th re
i no di cu ion and re olve to
rebuild the Bl c , Brown nd
d hettoe, b rrio nd re er-
v tion here thorne.
The government erie bro e,
but it can find the monie to
"bail-out" the S L bandi t nd
clean-up the H.U.D. scand 1.
ow monie are being "di -
covered" to b ii-out m [or com­
, mercial b n and to bail-out the
Federal Deposit Insuranc Cor­
poration (FDIC).
It i clear that th government
find the re ource to bail-out
the institution and people that it
care about the mo t - rich, the
Kids held
ack fail, study shows
.! ANN ARBOR-De pite two
: �ecades of warning from re­
archers and psychologists,
holding children back a grade
b addre s learning and bee.
havior problem remains a
Jwidespread practice, especial­
iy in inner-city school.
. A University of MiChigan
study, the largest nd mo t
detailed statistical analYSis of
'the impact oJ failing in grades
'K-8, further support the
'claim lhat holding children
�ack� doe not gi� .arudenrs
1 ny las tlftg oelat-o AlC demic
advantago and, inlt e oa e of
I rban tudents, may increa e
I their chances of dropping out.
� .. "Parent and teachers
aren't doing kid a favor by
making them repeat a grade,"
aid education Prof. Samuel J.
. Meisels, research scientist at
!fhe U-M Center for Human
Growth and Development.
"We found absolutely no
ev id e nce to s ugges t tpa t
repeating a grade enhances
their later success in school­
in fact, we found quite the op-
. - 0 ite."
',.U ing data on 16,412
,white, Black �nd Hispanic
tudents from the 1988 Na­
, tional Ed ucation Longi tudinar
,Study, Meisels a�d graduate
t student Fong-ruey Liaw
t analyzed not only who is
: failed (overwhelmingly male
: minority students from
f milie of lower
ocioeconomic tatu) but
also the effect of failure on
older-v .-younger tudent
and on tudents from different
race and ocial cIa back­
grounds.
OVERALL, eighth-graders
who had been made to repeat
a grade least once in elemen­
tary chool howed lower
academic achievement and
self-concept and less sen e of
centro] ove r event in their
live th n other tu.dent of
the arne age, race and
economic status. The odd· of
a held-back eighth-grader ob­
tai ni ng lowe r grade s, "lowe r
te t score, having le rning
problems and being assigned
to· special education classes
were on average three and a
half times higher than that of
a student who had never been
failed.
The greatest number of
retentions occurred in the K-4
grades (64.5 percent), reflect­
ing the common bias among
teachers and a ts that it's
better to hoI dren back
when they're young. Never­
theless, early retention wasn't
necessarily better than late
retention, Meisels found ..
"Holding kids back early
rather than late may enhance
their social and emotional
development and improve
their grade , but it eems to
tigmatize them early on a
poor le rner in the eye of
their teacher ," Mei e l ex­
plained.
"Since mo .. promotion
decisions in school are based
.on a teacher's ubjective per­
ceptions of a s udent's learn­
i n gab i I \ tie s - rat her t ba n
clear-cut low te t scores or
poor grade -children who
are retained early may be
labeled as having learning
problem and may be a Igned
to pectal educ tiQll clJl
unncce arily,." I",
White tudent who wore
retained,. Meisels found, were
more likely than minority stu­
dents to have lower grades
and achi vement scores. The
tive situation was
seen retained girls vs.
retained bOYS, which Mei els
attributes to peer-group ef­
fects.
"WH .. :N KIDS ARE failed,
they're separated from their
friend ," he explained. "For a
preadolescent girl. there is
nothing more tragic than
losing her peer group, which
is often p ri mari I y co posed
of scho'ol friends."
Minority students, Meisels
speculated, identify more
strongly with neighborhood
peers and out-of-school in­
fluence�, and thu are less af-
haine on the- Joint Center for-:­
:Political and Economic Studies
"-
by Keith O. Hilton
'. Por ure, m·ost Africans in
'-America co tinue to ay
'-'Black," h ver, a growing
. umber re correctly begin-
·n'l ng to use "Africa n
American". It take time.
No, not all "Black" people
. are African American. Some
are Carib African, Latino
-African and Continental
\ African, etc. "-and should be
'proud of both culture and
region.
The educational and cul­
tural evol ution of Afric�ns to
• move toward these terms are
- igns of trength and maturi ty
during a time when S'ome
would like to believe and
, report that we are complacent
and minor.
Lea than twenty five year
10, many people and or-
'anizations till used
,'-Ne ro." The evolutionary
move to "Black" did not occur
pvernight and yes, there was
"uch re i tance within the
frican community a well.
Sometime those. who
should be at the head, end up
being pulled along, but later
get too much credit for being
pioneers.
Re-read orne of th·ose
NAACP or Urban League
"misery reports" and ont! will
find Negro used as much if
not more than BI ck. Today,
to the credit of John Jacob of
the Nitional UTban League,
he use th� term African
American regularly.
When the Joint Center for
Political and Economic
Studies, upposedly a "Black·
think tank and re earch cen­
ter" b ed in the nation'
capital, released its findings
of a su{vey, it implied that
"African American" as a
designation, had been
rejected.
ACCORDING TO Dr. Mil­
ton Morri , the center's vice
president for re earch .. ".The
JOint Center has nQt embrace(i
the change. Frankly, we think
that among other practical
con ideration it is a bi t more
cumber ome than is con­
venient for mYch of our com­
munication. "
Plc:a e give u a break, Mil­
ton. That i the ame reason­
ing that some used to ju· tify
u ing "Negro," convenionce.
Well, .objectivity is culturally
grounded. The center Is mi s­
iog an opportunity to docu­
ment, advoca e AND lead.
U.�. Africans never
·stopped being African. lit
fact, "Black" was a tatemeni
that expre ed the. message
that "we are not les than you
nor are we copies of you. We
have our own path 'and rich
heritage. If you are white, we
are Black."
Also according to Milton
Mo rris, "It is in te resti ng to
note that the vast m-.jority of
newspapers and major· civil
rights organ�zations are refer-
po erful, the privileged nd tbe
milit ry - indu tri I complex.
BI c people, minoritie , poor
and wor ing people re very
low priori ty.
Afric n American mu t fight
c or the m e of the BI ck
poor, minoritie , poor nd work- .
ing people will continue to suffer
nd ,die bee use of tbe callous-
ne and neglect of the U.S.
government.
w
UST dem nd
50%
lion.
In 19 7, 71
pendin on
development ent to the
military. (Dat provided by the
Job ith eace c mp ign),
·This ob cene mi u e 0
federal t doll must come to
n end. A 50% reduction in
mili ry pendin ould provide
more than 1.5 trillion doll r
over the ne t dec de to begin the
proce of building ocially
re pon ible economy which ill
rna e hum n need the fir t
priority.
Nothing will cb nge, how­
ever, if we allow the government
to continue with "busine "
usu 1.
African Americ n mu
launch a human right offen ive,
utilizing agitation, education,
. demon trations nd mas ive
civil disobedience to force the
government to place hum n
need t the ery top of the
dom tic public policy a e da.
It' time to ta e to t treet.
I hope th t our civil ri ht
Ie der re prep red to put t Ir'
bodie on the line to Ie d in
tbe fight or a ne domestic
order.
Ron Daniels serves as Presi­
dent 0/ the Institute for Co -
munity Orgallization alld
Development in YOUllgstowlI,
Ohio. He may be col'itactetl at
(216) 746-5747.
UFE?
Federal Spending for Research and Development in 1987
MWtary
71"
Health
9"
7"
EDerv
Genenl ScIence
AtrkuIture
NatunI Raourcea
A Eavlronment
Other·
0%
10%
20% 30� 40�
50� 60
80�
·OlfIIfilldlMlftC--CS15).T,allJClOtl _CS15).lnlMMloonai Clt,). .... (3." .... "., .......
� .... Tt t.aIiot Jvtia H • and UrlNtl� ...... t.tSeNI
f�Soul: Th
A Poverty ..
Orig"ns of Violence
,Urban violence, an
American epidemic without
parallel in other industrial­
izes nation, is at the top of
many national and state agen­
da . However, �he contagiOUS
disease of violence� often ran­
dom and frequently out of
control, has resisted profes�
sion I cures and expert
remedies.
Why? Because expert and
professionals are too often
rt of the problem. A good
example i the quick, mas­
ive, and decisive war (A La
De ert Storm) on violence
that i suggested by some of
Michigan's· battle weary com­
-. mander from other w r . war
.. on ·crime. war on poverty, war
on i1lici t drugs, etc.
Competing for a fickle
African statewide attention pan, the
battle plans for the war on
vt-olence include: lowering
the age (pre enlly 15 year)
that children can be tried as
adult; hoi '.
countable (I i oning them
in lieu of their offspring);
tougher gun control laws;
·more j il ; stronger drug
coun eling program; and
midni-te ba ketb II league .
The false controversy over
whether violent aggre ion i
a d ri ve, ins ti nct, or learned
behavior got it bigge t boost
in MiChigan recently when
Wayne County admini trator
launched a video ad campaign
tre ing that violence i
cri i unto itself.
reduction in the military budget
in order to tran fer re ourccs to
meet the human needs of the
poor.
In the 1990 Budg t, 50 cents
of each federal tax dollar is ca r­
marked for the mili tary w hi 1 e
only .01 cent for housing, .03
fected by separation from
their school contemporarie .
Retention should only be
u ed in rare exceptions,
Meisel aid. "A policy that's
.b a ed on retention, which
adds another year and changes
the, relation between a student
and hi age cohort, is a
dangerous po+lcy."
Instead, Meisels advocates
restructuring elementary
s c h 0 0 1 s • f 0 c u sin g • Co rex­
ample, on multi-age group­
ing in which kindergartner
hd fi r t- nd eco.nd- r e
form one class, n�
dividualized programs for dif­
ferent students.
Even individual tutoring,
although labor-intensive, i a
less costly and more
psychologicallY's,ound alter­
nati ve to re ten tio n, Me isels
believes.
"The cost of Cai Ii ng is ex­
tremely high," he said. "If it
costs taxpayer $4,500 to put
a kid through third grade; it'll
co t that much or more to send
him through again.
It's far cheaper and probab­
ly more effective to· hire a
tutor for five hours a week
and keep the chi Id instep with
his pe�rs."
Meisels and Liaw will
present he result of .this
study at'the American Educa­
tional Research As ociation
conference in Chicago on
April 6.
ri ng to Blacks a
American ... "
The Pan African press and
many civil/human rights or­
ganizations should be ap­
plauded for being .with this
movement, a movement that
does not take away one bi t
from one being "Black nd
proud," it merely trengthen
our position.
HILTON: "HIGHER
EDUCATION is designed to
dialogue with college and
world readers. Education is
ongoing and certainly not
limited to classroom study.
Let's talk. (7i4) 899-0650.
IN A NATION where it'
easier to purcha e we pons of
ma de truction than obtain­
ing pre cription from a drug
tore, non-aggre ive
ocietie may ound unre 1.
However, they continue to
exi t.
Violence i learned be­
h viol. . In America, un:
provoked ggre ion agai n t
poor and minority people by
police and t.he court sy tern
teache violence i cceptable
beh vior, if we c n get aw y
with it.
In Michig n, Engler's
"
budgetary aggression against
the poor and minorities
teaches neither restraint
gain t its .citizens and
against other teaches
violence at the ame time.
That this nation must reap
what it ows shouldn't be COD-
idered odd nor newsworthy.
The development of bombs
that kill people whjle le.vina
buildings intact i ,�sed on a
value which elevates property
and material goods above
human life.
I This value teaches that
healthy relationships between
people are Iiabilitie .
The Anthony Riggs story­
if true-didn't invent the
transaction of selling one's
oul for a bit of gOld. The
tory mere.ly reflects the un­
der ide of violent, exploita-
tive American Dream.
THE SANCTITY of life
and digni ty of the human per.'
9nality are continually raped
by a lust for materialism and
crawling for unchallenged
power.
Both as ailant graduated
from the least expensive
public school .
In the absence of· total
satisfaction, the" perverted
example of American charac­
ter in action unite into an orgy
of violence, laying WI te to
thi country's brightest hopes
and mo t fertile promises.
Temper tantrums, threats,
and mean-spirited hostage­
holding of program nd
benefits by n tional and state
,fleade"rs merely add to a
climate of violence; they -do
not compel citizen to aban­
don a destructive aggreSSive­
ness they neither �nstigate nor
control .
Mo t violence originates In
the St te-hou e and the White
Hou e, cre ted by a poverty
of oul (a lack of connected­
nes with one' humanity).
Discarding thi human
deficit on the hores of the
inner cities, however, doeln�t
insulate the uburbs from
danger ince we're all in the
ame boat. Poverty of oul
makes A.I.D.S. appear af r
than a head cold.