)
A 0 -There m y be
le oci I ti m tt ched to
un ed teen- mother th n
lev r befo . Bu the economic
:punishment for en- e ho
become pre nant out-of-wed­
Ioc or bo drop out of hi h
cbool i b nber t n ever- nd
e pecially for Black, accordin
to a Univer ity of ichi
• tudy.
e tudy 0 1,223 white and
861 BI c omen ho turned
age 25 durin 1967-1972, 1973-
,1979 and 1980-85 was con­
.duc ted by Gre J. Duncan,
,profe or of economic nd pro­
gram director in the U-M's In­
, titute for Soci 1 Re e arch
(ISR), and' Saul D. Hoffman,
profe or of economics, Univer-
ity of Delaware.
Hoffman nd Duncan found
that 48 percent of Black women
R TO THE
DITO
T
Can I voice disapproval of the
city government and still be con­
sidered an African-Americ n
and not an "Oreo," " ubur­
banite," or "naysayer?"
While you consider that que -
lion, dig this:
Coleman Alexander Young
ha been mayor of this town for
the I t eve nteen years.
January 1974, which was when
.be was inaugurated, I was a
first-grader at WiDJhip Elemen­
tary chool. Si 1 Mil1i�en' wa '
the tate's gov mor .Iid Gerald .
Ford was pre ident of thi
country. It was nearly genera­
tion ago.
During his tenure he has done
good things for his people and
Detrolters in general. He was
malnly re ponsible for the
rebuilding of 12th Street and
Clairmount area that was
ravaged by the 1967 riot.
He eliminated the Stop the
Robberies Enjoy Safe Street
(STRESS) division of the potlce
department. STRESS was a
thorn in the side of the city's
Black residents.
But more eminent he gave
African-American pride in
themselves. Just like in other
cities with a significant number
of Blacks citizens, the first
brother or sister to win' major
public office gave their people a
symbolic "Black face in a high
place" that inspired many to
achieve goals. He is the bes t
mayor the city has ever had.
HOWEVER, MAYOR
Young has made poU.tical mi -
takes. He misread the thoughts
of the people with t�e ca ino
aambling i sue in 1988, and in
April the majority of the voters
U.. 0 ern ent
ited y t e re-
or enin economic
ed te
rin the tim� inter­
venin bet een the t 0 urvey ,
the typic I f mily income of
uch omen dropped from
$14, to $ , 00 (me ured in
198 doll r ).
There i no indic tion the
i tu lion h improved for
unwed teen- e mother n lor
dropouts turning ge 2 in the
la t i ye r , the re earchers
believe.
teen
in the
1960
T eenag rs from famili 'th
relatively high earned
incomes, who had the most to
lose, were 'teee likely to
become pregnant or drop out
than those from poorer
families on AFDC, •
researchers say.
v i n
'folIo ed
f mil y in­
come of
$26,100, while her counterp rt
in the 1 0 could e peer an in­
come only two-third high­
$17,700 (in 1985 dollar).
F mily income for white
women who followed oci I
norm a teen al 0 declined, but
not nearly a much," they ddt
Contrary to conventional wi -
dom, between 1970 and 1986
out-of-wedloc teen birth ac­
tually declined lightly among
Blacks (from 97 to 90 percent
thousand birth), lthough it
doubled among white (from 11
to 22 per thou nd births), ac-
I 0 rc LLY, T
economic pro peer for teen-
gers ho followed oct I con-,
vention, completing their teen
years with a high school diploma
and without giving birth out of
wedlock, al 0 h ve "become
much worse," Duncan and Hof­
fman s y.
"CTeen rule-bre ker ' who
drop out of cbool and have
children out of wedlock are
puni hed economicall y as never
before," the lese rcher ay.
T
unwed teen- ge mothe ad/or
dropou who h d m rried t age
25 dropped from 50 percent in
1967-72 to 23 percent in 1980-
85. The rate for imilarly
ituated hite women dropped
from 91 percent to 58 percent
during the me period.
At age 25, women ho ere
unwed teen-age mothers and
dropouts have never m de much
money, and make even les
people ro e and fronted the government ponsored sub idy.
mayor over the land that Ford We need leader hip that is
Auditorium sits on. willing to Ii ten to new idea.
I did not support Mayor Defiance makes r n intere t­
Young in the 1989 election. The ing plot in a soap opera but life
last three years have been criti- in Detroit is the real deal. The
cal for Detroit. He seems to be mayor should have a monthly
out of ideas, and is too frustrated town hall meeting with neigh­
with federal and state policy. borhood and civic groups from
Coleman Young hould pass the the entire city not just Citizen's
baton to someone who i willing District Councils or Neighbor­
to accept new idea regardle s hood City Hall. Everybody ha
of who they come from. We to help.
nted someone who is less cofn ... f'
batlve, and more cooperative.
The fact is that African­
Americans in Detroit are suffer­
ing from a dwindling tax base
among other things. Major cor­
porations have either left or
have taken jobs out of the ci ty.
Is this Mayor Young's fault?
Not entirely. ' M ny businesses
planned to leave before 1973 or
even 1963 for that matter, J.L.
Hudson realized that a housing
boom that would make Oakland
and Macomb counties pri me
areas for business when he
helped to build Northland Shop­
ping Center in 1954.
We need leadership that will
personally meet with the nine
elected official on the 13th'
floor of the City-County Build­
ing. Council member have
publicly spoke of the lack of ac­
cess to the mayor. Defiance
again.
BUT MORE importantly, the
mayor should have a healthy
S LETTER, Pag 5
teen-ager' "deci ion" to have
child out of edloc or drop q "
"Rather e found th t teen
agers from families ith rel •
tivel y high earned income, bQ:
had the mo t to 10 e, were le
Ii ely to become pregnant pr,
drop out th n those from poor
familie on AFDC," the re-
searche say. .
Duncan and Hoffman' tu�¥.
is based on the Panel Study of
Income Dynamics, an ISR-base.�
longitudinal tudy of 38,000 rep-,
re entative individuals spanning
BUT NOW, THE re earchers as many as 22 years of tho�r.
say, unwed mother are getting lives. The urvey is the only one
less istance than ever. AI-' in the country that has foltowed
though the combined value of so many individual for uch i1
benefi ts from the AFDC and time period. ' ..
food-stamp program rose from The re earche rs ' artie et
$7,500 in 1968 to $9,100 in "Teen-age Undercla s Behav,o.r
1976, it then declined through and SUbsequent Poverty: Have
most of the 1980s, returning to the Rules Changed?" is a chapl
the 1968 level of $7,500 in 1986, ter in "The Urban Underctass.t'.a
they note. series of essays recently released
"These finding of rising by the Brooking Institution .....
poverty stand in sharp contrast to , 'J
ho were un ed tee mothers
and/or dropouts and ho were
recel ving AFDC at age 25 in­
ere ed from 10 percent to 22
percent during the ame period,
while the percentage working
h If-time increa ed from 30 per­
cent to 45 percent.
-. ,.:
, .' ,
THE MASSIVE WHITE ex­
odus from the city since the
early sixties has been critical to
prosperity. Detroit population
was nearly two million in 1960.
The 1967 riot nly helped to
quicken the process. It's hard to
maintain quality city services
without a strong tax base that
taxpaying citizens provide.
But not only has exodus been,
white, there een a middle
class depar re that has crossed
all ethnic meso In fact, a local
newspaper pointed out recently
tha� nearly half the city's adult
re idents are on some form of
�Le. 'TKOSe !>\JTTOC\(5 ...
_ 1'\Jd{ �\ 1utf\l4\Y •••
'floR\( \T! WoRK \T!
THE MIC,HIGAN CITIZEN
Up
and
o di g Sancti .
,I, ".... I r 'I I, .J , .,
reeing -Winnie � "
As the nation joined the
world in receiving tire news that
Winnie Mandela was sentenced
to six years in prison in apart­
heid South Africa, it sent a c ar
signal that nothing ha changed
in South Africa but the public
relations gimmickry of the il­
legal raci t government that still
maintains power.
Winnie Mandela being sen­
tenced by kidnapper .for kid­
napping is certainly the irony of
world history. It is for that
reason that we immediately
went to the street to let the
world know that a white judge
with no jury will not be the one
to offer the legacy or epitaph of
Winnie Mandela �s poltttcat
career. That will be written by
the ma ses of the people
worldwide who yearn to be free.
The dis turbi ng thi ng tha t
developed in the wake of Mrs.
Mandela' sentencing is that
powers and force around the
world seek to behave as if South
Africa has changed, ana there
for� use that to justify a change
in their policy toward sanctions
and towards other kinds of
refusals to endor e any type of
relationship with these barbaric,
in ensitive people.
The International Boxing
Federation-headed, ironically,
by a man born Black named
Robert Lee-has now tried t-o
lead the boxtng world into a
blatant s,eHout by ending sanc­
tion against South Africa. Mr.
Lee announced a bogu agree­
ment with the African Nation
Coogre s, permitting the IBF to
stage prizefight in South Africa
e r the fir t time since about 10
years ago, when every major
boxina council was forced to ob­
serve anctions by an unusual
and hi toric coalition of Black
promoters, including Don King,
Butch Lewis and others.
NOW THIS SPINELES
Negro i attempting to lead tbe
IBF to in turn lead boxing to in
turn lead tbe entire sport world
to bu ine s as u ual in South
Africa, sendina a signal that all
Is ell, even a the mother of
South African liberation is 'being
scheduled for a South African
jan cell.
We head this memorial D�y
weekend to New Orleans, to the
Publl.hed .aoh
Sunday by
NEW DAY
PUBLISHI�G ENTERPRISE
12541 Second St
P.O. 'Box, 03560
Highland Park, MI 48203
Phone: (313) 869·0033 / Fax II: (313) 889·0430,
Western Michigan Bureau: 175 W. Main St
P.O. Box 218, Benton Harbor, MI 49022
, (616)827-1527
Publisher: Charle. D. K lIy
Editor: Tere.a K lIy
Western Michigan Editor: Bernice Brown
City Editor: Derrick Lewl.
Copy Editor: Leah Samuel
Entertainment Editor: Ka.cene Bark.
Correspo dents:
Bernice Brown· ary Ciolllday • Derrick Lewl.
Carla Huaton • WIlliam Lee· Deborah Culp
Leah Samuel • Nathaniel Scott
Vera Whit • Carolyn Warfield
Production Manager: Dewayne Buchana
Production Staff: Ka.�ene Bark •• Idella Carter
Advertl Ing Representatives: WIlliam Le. •
. Terry B roy Ie.
THE'
PEOPLES'
PREACHER
Rev. AI
Sharpton
executive committee meeting it
the international Boxing Feder.
lion, to stand up for Winnie, the'
people of Azania, and freedci
fighter worldwide. We muU
not allow those who would cas!?
in the chips of liberation fo�
some blood dollars in their pet­
sonal bank account to turn bac't
the clock and allow business r�
go on as usual while oppreSSi9It:
remains the tatus quo., 1.,1.
Some would ay that I'm
friendly with Don King or Butcl
Lewis, and therefore am nbi'
looking at this objectively. The:
fact of the matter is, in the 1& t
several years we have not rais�<t
any issue -and there have bee
many-in the boxing arena. ':
But to tolerate the breakdown
of sanctions, to tolerate re-ope'n­
ing the doors of South Africa, is
both unacceptable and moral)Y
reprehensible. It is incumbent'
upon u who fight for freedom tt»
be consistent and vigilant, evt'n'
if we mu t chastise tho e who
were born our color but remato
not our kind. .
We mu t fight no',
worldwide, from the IBF to the'
United State government to the'
United Kingdom and other, to'
keep sanctions in effect, to eep:
the war again t apartheid in,
South Africa vital and strong.
To free Winnie is to free ourael:'·
ve. There i no compromi e,J
there i no innovation when·it
comes down to freedom. . i
Either you"re free or you're'
not, and there. is no level dr
promotion, double-talkin or'
hyperbole that can repl ce op .. �
pres ion with freedom. It caft'
only bappen when an indeatruc-'
table force meet an immovable'
object and one, give.. I lay
South Africa has an appointm n
ith destiny. and those 1ft'
boxlna and in aovernment better
,et it on their schedule book .• :