H R
Due 10
Keith O.
Hil on
of
I m firm belie er in
. net or in . Sometime I me t
one on one. Some ime I
. attend ey convention.
Sometime it i m tte 0
re din or corre pondin .
For the e re on, I m e it
a policy to re d m ny
public tion po ible. In
m ny c es, re din i the next
be t thing to being there.
One uch publication i the
AAJA ( i n Americ n
Journali t A oci tion)
New letter. According to the
AAJA New letter, there re
four major national
a soci tion that are compri ed
prim rily of journ Ii t of
color.
The a ociation re the
A ian American Journ Ii
(NABJ), the N tional
A ociation of Hi panic
Journalists (NAHJ) and the
Native American Journali t of
color.
THIS WEEK'S column'
ba ed on an article in the
AAJA' Spring New letter
highlighting a planned 1994
unity convention of these
a ociation.
The Atlanta '94 Unity
Convention, Inc., is the
.nonproftt organization
coordinating thi planned 1994
joint convention effort.
The Unity Convention
committee elected Lloyd
LaCuesta a Pre ident.
LaCuesta, South Bay bureau
chief for KTVU in Oakland,
CA, is the immediate past
president of AAJA.
THE UNITY Convention
also elected:
- Don Flores as vice
president, Flores is president
of NAHJ and publisher of The
Gazette Journal, in Reno,
Nevada.
- Thomas Morgan a
treasurer. Morgan is president
of the NABJ and a reporter for
The New York Times.
- Mark N. Trahant as
secretary. Trahant is president
of the NAJA and.publisher of
the Navajo Times, a daily
paper based in the Navajo
Nation in Arizona.
From my vantage point,
. mostly positive things can
come form such a convention.
, If the Lord is willing and the
creek don't rise, I will be there
with them.
ONE IRONIC, but
'unfortunately, not surprising
. term frequently appeared in
• the AAJA NCjJlslett.er -
MINORITY.
There is nothing
.: empowering about that term
and it behooves me that some
journalists of color continue to
use it, especially within
organizations and publications
that they/we run. .
At conventions such as the
one planned, the energy level
. is so high that negative terms
or subliminal stoppers such as
"minority" are usually
neutralize . .
But just because positive
energy or neutralizers are n
place, doesn't make "minority"
and other negatives correct.
When we leave high energy
conventions and return to
environments that daily
undermine our self esteem and
cultural validity, then at least
we need to develop workable
strategies that will empower
those coming behind us.
THERE AREN'T TOO
many organizations that are 0
well equipped to move our
respective communi ties and
this nation into the next
century. My hat is off to
Lloyd, David, Don, Thoma
and Mark. They head
organization that are
invaluable to our unity.
conflic
Bl
VIEWS
P t decade, the Latino
popul tion in ed by 40 percent,
ccountin for 25 percent of the
country' total growth ince 1
Mo t of thi growth occurred in
tat where Hispani already rep­
resented ignificant minorities. In
Te ,for e ample, Mexican­
Americans now ccount for 4.3 mil-
tions w
ndJo
via Bl ck bands in countri, it
i South Africa that we've given the
m t attention.
gress, there is DO poll sho that
the bulk of B So�th Afrl are,
or were, seetin to maintain saDO­
tioDS.
While Bl CD here ve lost
fight to get a Civil Righ Bill to
eliminate di crimination in U.S.
worksi , we tell the same mulli-na.
tiona! companie that they can',
operate in South Africa where Ford,
GM, mM, Mobil, and others have
bad affirmative action programs in
place that were v tly uperior k?
ours,
Should we keep sanctio . t
JoBerg?
lbe truth is that we could have
inv � in tbcre .,
any time in the past 5 yea1S, bue
didn't, DOW we ain't got DO Dickie Ur
that dime and jf we've only got cwo
cents. worth we should just .keep il
here.
OUR OWN DOMESTIC ffaira
arc at the base of our ttention to
South Africa. DIS. Carrington and
Dom state in their report, "it was no
coincidence that the Free sense a
relationship between the Reagan
dmi nis tration' civil rights
retrenchmen and its 'constructive
engagement' with the ap rtheid
regime in South Africa." When it
come to continuing sanctions
again t South Africa, African­
Americans again how their naivete
toward wealth-building and lnterna-
tional development •
While sanctions � something
African-Americans want to make
. ourselves happy here and prove that
we can get " omething" out of Con-
Forclnq reparation
on Iraq is a' bad idea
nctions i ue, directed to ba • as a group were not greatly involved
white, we've not hown any ad- in foreignafIairs. Blghty-seven per­
vocacy efforts to directly help Blacks cent of the total study mple agreed,
there. or strongly agreed, with the state-
In a forthcoming Joint Center for ment that "Black Americans don't
Political and Economic Studie pay nearly as much attention to
report, authored by Ambassador foreign affairs as they should."
Walter Carrington and Edwin Dorn, - In the case of South Africa, the
Black American leaders' attitude report showed thai, "Although'
respondents expressed keen interest
in Africa, it appears that they focused
on only one part of the continent.
When asked to identify specific con­
cerns, South Africa was mentioned
most fr eque ntly, followed by
Namibia, Angola, and Mozambique.
Very few interviewees mentioned
Elhiopi Sud '})eria or other
African nation that are now ex­
periencing civil war, human rights
problems and/or economic crises. "
There are over 40 countries in
Africa and most are in more need for
African-American economic, educa­
tional, human rights and technical
expertise assistance than is South
Africa. Most Blacks don't com­
prehend the huge size and diversity
of Africa, and therefore focus on
South Africa because it is a country
and easier to comprehend than the
entire continent
In addition, it has white people as
a point of convergence for our own
domestic anger over the issue of
racism.
In the past 5 years, African­
American interest in foreign affairs
has centered on elimination of apart­
heid in South Africa while ignoring
civil wars and social unrest in Black­
led governments in Liberia, Ethiopia
and Angola. Even though tens of
thousands more Black lives have
been lost in man's inhumanity to man
n
Emigr nt from Guatem I ,
i , El Salv doran man w
bot and ounded by police. For
them, th be vior of the police
paralleled that of an occupying army.
Hi panic youths hurled roc aDd
bottl , tt cking ymbol of inj -
tice, The f ct that an African­
American, Sh ron Pratt Dixon,
By WILLIAM REED
Blac Americans' interest in
Africa and our limited effectiveness
as Africa advocates can best be il­
lustrated through the current issue of
sanctions against the African country .
of South Africa.
The tru th rna y well be tha t
African-Americans, 'and our leader­
ship, are so preoccupied with our
own domestic affairs that we have
confused our problems with foreign
affairs. In the case of South Africa,
we illustrate little understanding of
the geo-economic-political process
• and how to use traditional and cog­
nitive technique to build wealth
pro r to etp Black South
AfriC8DS aDd even ourselve . In the
toward international affairs and
Africa were examined.
In the report, it was shown that 80
percent of prominent Black
Americans' were, "strongly inter­
- ested" in international affairs.
� \
IN SPITE of the' own high level
of personal or professional inter,­
est, the respondents felt that Blacles
Financially onerous terms backfired after world War I, and they are likely to do the same now
. .
Ther-e va
O� '··d
o ,,,' ...
c» buy
yourseLf'
� n"a(.To,� ..
, , .
.... " ..
.... ,.
the world permi tted Saddam
Hussein's naked aggression against
a recent ally, it would send a clear
signal throughout the earth that wars
of aggression
paid.
Today,
though, with the
war over, we
who supported it
might be able to
ding some com­
mon yound
with those who
opposed it.
For if there is
such a thing as a
just war, it cer­
tainly requires
just peace terms.
As Woodrow Wilson himself put
it in the days of hope after World War
I, "It is the conscience of the world,
which we re trying to put on the
tbrone, which otheIS ould Ulp."
If e are to chieve a "new orld
order" to repl ce the ge-old world
dJIorder, if e are to create a s)'Item
of law wbere moral value are
upheld among nations, we must es­
tablish an atmosphere where all na­
tions can live in security and
respect-even Iraq. .
President
George Bush
has repeatedly
aid our nation
has no quarrel
with _ the
people of Iraq.
Yet he has
refu ed
grant a per­
manent cease­
fire until Iraq
agreed to pay
reparations in
"puni hment"
for the Kuwait
invasion.
The money is not slated to come
from S ddam Hussein' busin s
holdings, but from the oil reven
of the country itself, in bort, from
the Iraqi people, from individuals
dev tated by war, hOle society
w t back dccad by the aW
aerial bombardment. P 'ldent b h
to
- .
sion in the German breast for thi;:
Kaiser's expansionist policies? en:
the contrary, it created a profoUDd:
resentment against the allies, him .
Adolph Hitler suocessfully capital-:
ized on in his bid for power. •
The haISh peace terms at Versail- :
les also had an effect on -our own
COUDtry. It lead to the cynica1 diIll- .
lusionment of the '20s and the
isolationism of , In
turn made it more difficult to respoDd
to the Nazi threat.
Today, imilar policies to arcS
Iraq could have unforeseen CODIO­
queooes for the entire Arab wOdd. It
might also destroy whatever moral
force we have over Sovlet acU in
the Saltia and strengthen thc baud
of the communist hardliners, wreck­
ing all hopes for a new wodd order.
All concerned citizens bould
write to President Bush, their COD­
gresamen aDd IeDItors, uraiDI
abandonment of rep.raUOD
dem bo .
By Ronald Seigel
The Persian Gulf War has divided
sensitive people of goodwill.
I remember two eloquent letters
printed in a local paper.
One woman, opposing the war
paraphrased the statement in Mt 25
of the New Testament, where Jesus
said, "As ye have done to -least of
these, ye have done to me."
A man responded by suggesting
she might include among these
"least" the people of Kuwait (facing
an invasion from Saddam Hussein),
the people of Sa,udi Arabia (in danger
of �ltack by Saddam) a® the people
of Israel (killed by chemical
weapons, because Saddam hoped he
could gain political points by killing
Jews).
"The coalition forces," he DOted,
"are fighting to protect the least of
our brothers from further harm by a
man who could be stopped in 00
, other way. .
I aped (Ud still do). 1 belio t
in the tradition of Woodrow Willon,
that war m t be prevented by col­
leeti adion ainlt • ion. It
was pushing for payment of one-half
of these oil revenues. The U.N.
Security· Council reduced thi to
nearly o�third.
According to the agreement, this
debt would be paid whether Saddam
is in power or not
Do the people oflraq share a "col­
lective guilt" for the, aggression in
Kuwait? They had no say in the ac­
tual deci ion to invade. Judging
from the wholesale desertion, it did
not seem they upported it
.. Yet this was the same army that
had borne mas ive casualties for
years in the war against Iran. They
were ready to fight to the end when
their hearts did not seem to support
Sadd am , aggre ion.
William F. Buckley has uggestcd
that reparations would discredit "the
name of Saddam Hussein," After
World War I, oUr European allies had
the ame viewpoint. Ignoring
Willon's objections, they pUl�
throuah demaDdl for repuatioDi to
"make Oennany pay in the Treaty 0
Venai1l .-
Did this aro a po11bl.Dent aver- 10.