Mic I L. Frazier r, 38,
of Benton Harbor il the only
African American candidate
for the position of Sheriff of
Berrien
County.
The cur­
rent Sheriff
Nick Jewell
is retiring,
and it is ex­
pected that
whoever is
appointed by
FRAZIER a special
commi nee to
the job will have the edge in
tbe next election.
. The Sh riff' Dept. I the
largest in Berrien County
government. The county has
a ,22% African American
population.
Ftazier worked in
security at Benton Harbor
Area &thools from 1 rn9 to
1991. He was a Berrien
sheriff' deputy and sergeant
from 1974 to 1977 and
worked, a youth peclallst
• ,. . . Home from
1972 to 1974.
He has an assoicate's de­
gree in law enforcement and
extensive additional train­
( .
• mg.
I
; Ha te on wa te?
In Detroit s rush to build
: glitzy riverfront developments
: aimed at luring folks back out
� of the suburbs, did it fail to
'.c1ean up toxic wastes on
• former industrial sites?
As many as 10 projects
: along the Detroit River were.
: built on or are targeted for land
i possibly tai nted by toxic
• chemicals and industrial was­
t tes, the Detroit News reported
: last week
! Contaminants include lead,
: arsenic, cyanide, mercury,
I PCBs, cadmium, barium 'and
: chromium.
I Michigan Department Ofj
: Natural Resources officials
I say the toxic chemicals most
! likely. came from unregulated-
. I dumping decades ago by now­
: defunct industries. Some also
; remains because hazardous
� waste was used as landfill to
� stabilize waterfront property
i and expand its use.
; On the suspect sites are
: condominiums, apartment
I complexes, office buildings,
! retail outlets, restaurants,
. parks and marinas.
Bilked clle.nt
collect $2 million
Clients bilked by crooked
I lawyers have collected more
I than $2 million in payments
from a special futld set up by
the State Bar of Michigan.
Payments ofS157,451 over
· the last 14 month to 25
cheated claimants have
pushed the Client Protection
Fund payments past the $2
million mark.
Future payouts might grow
with higher limit for in­
dividual claims that will take
efect this fall.
. The program, established
voluntarily by the bar 25 years
ago, is financed from dues
I charged thestate's 28,000
I lawyers. It covers theft,
forgery, fraud and embezz.le-
ment but not legal malpractice
or incompetence.
170,000-
THE CHOO ere
scheduled to open Au . r1, but the
rl and 599 boys already
ere admitted to the cademi ,
hic d tnct pent $1 mil­
lion to develop. On Tuesday the
chool board voted 0 open all­
female academic al early a
January.
....
NEIGHBORHOOD
PERSONALITY
WSU English professor/co-edit
book on Black, Creole English
Walter F. Edwards of Oak Park,
professor of English and assistant
dean of the Graduate School at
Wayne State University, is co-editor
of the first book that presents an in­
depth examination and cOmparison
of grammatical phenomena of both
Black Englisb and Creole English.
Donald Winford, assistant
professor of linguistics at Ohio State
University, is the other co-editor.
The book, Verb Phase Patterns in \
Creole and Black English, encom­
passes studieS of several American
.Black English varietie and the
Creole English of Jamaica, Guy�,
Barbados and Trinidad, says Ed­
wards.
"It also provides insight into the
areas of Bl ck English and Creole
grammar and establishes a basis for
further research on the4e varieties,"
says Edwards.
"TIlE LINKS between research
on American Black English and, the
English and the English-lexicon
Creoles of the Caribbean have ex­
isted from the very inception of
scholarly investigation of these lan­
guages," eXplains Edwards.
"These links have been
strengthened over the last few
• decades as a result of our growing
understanding of the nature of
Creole grammar and the Black
English grammar and the processes
of development and change that ap­
pear common to both."
One of the book's major con­
tributors Edwards says the idea for
the text originated from one theory
on how Black Engli h evolved.
"Since linguiSts claim that the
varieties of Black Engli hand
Creole Engli h are related evolution­
ally, I thought it would be intere ting
to have a book that sludie both
varieties. "
For clarity and depth, Edwards
says, the book limi most of its con­
tent to the verb phase and does not
address nou� or adjective phases,
, . Walter F. Edwards
sentence patterns or other linguistic
phenomena.
BECAUSE OF its techniCal na­
ture, Edwards says the book is more
appropriate f9r college classes and
not for the causal reader .
"The book i unique because it is
one of the few texts that seriously
studies the linguistics of Black
English and Creole English," says
Edwards, who teaches linguistics
and socialinguistics at WSU.
Edwards es ihe sentence "The
train done gone" as an example to
compare Creole and Black English.
In Creole English, he says, the
emphasis is on the word "done." In
Black English, the emphasis is on the
word "gone."
"The difference is that in Creole
English the word 'done' is a main
verb and in Black English the word
'done' resembles an auxiliary verb,"
says Edwards. "The grammatical
analYSis is different but the meaning
is the same for both varieties."
'EDWARDS, A NATIVE of
Guyana, ays social prejudice
against Bl ck Engli h exist because
tandard English is the privileged
language spoken by the people in
economic power.
"The behavior of the mo t
privileged group becomes the norm
to which other people want to
aspire," he says. "People are willing
to accept differences in standa,rd
English but are not always willina to
accord legitimacy to non ... tandanl
varietie lpoken by sociO-ecoDOmi­
cally disadvantaged groups.
"In our ethnically and linguisti­
cally diverse society, pcople.ibould
be interested in the linguiltlc proper­
.nes of noO-ltandard BngIilh just II
tbey are interested in the varietiel of
standard Englilh acroll the
country."
Edwatda came to WSU in 1980
a visitina profeuor. He became ao
associate profe sor in 1981 and
professor in 1989. From 1984 to
1987, Bdwardl directed the
university'llinguiltics program.
He earned his Ph.D degree in lin­
guistics from the Univcl'lityofYork,
England, and is the author of
Legends and Folktale of Guyana
Amerindians and Foe on Amerin­
dians. He publi heel ynllCtic,
morphological and sociolinguistic
studies of Guyanese creotes, Black
English and Amerindian Ian
inOuyana.
The book, which published by
the Wayne State University P ,
can be ordered by calling 577-6120.
TH
XP RIM NTAL
Int gr
U .. urv
Ion unll
yrv
ANN ARBOR-While it may be
unlikely that tbe United State will
face a "cataclysmic racial explosion"
In the foreseeable future, a Univer-
Ily of Michigan social scient t
little hope for enuine racial in p­
tion, de pile lurveys lhowing in­
creased support for equal
employment, desegregated scbocls
and intermarriage.
"It'. not that survey respondents
lIy one thing and ecretly believe
another," ayl Howard Schuman,
professor of ociology and research
scientist at the U-M Survey Reacarch
Center. "But when white Americans
IIY they favor integrated chools or
neighborhood , what they really
mean i a few Black studen or
families in a predominantly white
environment.
"n1c endorsement of integration
by white American really means the
rejection of complete segregation,"
Schuman says.
Schuman' analy is of current
Black/while race relations, based on
natlonallurvey data collected since
World War II, appears in the ummer
laue of tbe Michigan Quarterly
Review (MOR), an intenUscfpUnary
cultural and literary journal pubU h­
ed by the U-M .
FROM 1972-", Schuman notes,
the number of Americana supporting
integrated schools has remained un­
changed, with fully 98 percent not
objecting to their own children at­
tending school with "a few Black
children. It But the figure drop down
to 75 percent agreement when half
the children arc said to be Black and
further down to around 40 percent
when more than half. the children are
said to be Black.
"When white Americans say they
favor the same schools for whi te and
Black children, many are really
thinkin of it tions where white
remain dominant in terma of num­
bers and no doubt in terms of encral
influence well," he says.
The ame holds true, Schuman •
ys, with regard to integrated ho
ing. He cites a lrn6 study by U-M
sociologist Reynolds Farley in •
metropolit n Detroit in which
respondents were hown diagrams of
neighborhoods with different num­
bers of Black families.
"White respondents tended to
prefer neighborhoods that were in­
tearated in the sense of one Black
house out of a total of 15 (about 6
percent), while Black responden
were much more likely to prefer in- ·
tegratlon in the sense of SOISO white
and Bl ck," he explains. Blacks cur­
rently constitute about 12 percent of
the U.S. population.
Although urveys ha e shown .
that college students respond mo t
liberall y of all age groups today on
race i ues, and more liberally than •
college tudents of any previo
generation, they are not yet liberal
enough, Schuman believes, to be a
.trong force in eradicating racial ten­
sfons. In particular, he argues, col-.
lege student' support for
affirmative action in admissions
policies is not strong enough to .
guarantee campus harmony.
·
•
IN A RECENT urvey of 500
U-M . undergraduates, Schuman
notes, about 70 percent of white tu­
dents indicated "strong" or "some"
support for the University. Thirty ,
percent, however, indicated "some" I­
or "strong" opposition.
"In the University undergraduate ..
body there is probably enough sup­
port to sustain affirmative action
policies, but enough opposition to
create tensions result of uch
policies," Schuman concludes.
t
,
,
·
Right- To-Die Warning
The Michigan Handicapper
Caucus, representing the rights of in­
dividuals with handicaps within the
state Democratic Party, warns that
slogans like "right to die" and "as­
listed suicide" often become "code
words" for 4eStroying certain people
- seniors, tbose with handicaps, the
poor - and possibly will be used in
the end against Black people 'and
other racial minorities.
MHC is urging individuals, chur­
ches, block clubs, civil rights and
senior citizens to write State House
Judiciary Chairman Perry Bullard
and their own state representatives,
urging the immediate pas age of
H.B. 4038, a bill bannlng assisted
suicide.
MHC criticize Bullard for
"using his committee chairmanship
to block H.B. 4038 from going to a
vote of the full house."
The organization charges that
there is a "Death Lobby," working to
e .. ble third parties to kill or neglect
patients, on the pretext of giving
them a "right to die" when it i un­
clear that patien wish to end their
livcs ....
IN SOME cases, MHC charg ,
patient wishes are not even an issue,
because the patients are children too
young to express ideas about life and
death.
Behind "much of this rhetoric
about the right to die, MHC warns, is
tbe de ire of prominent medical or­
ganizations and members of the
media to use patients' death, to solve
health care problems people face be­
cause of conservative cutb cks.
MHC Chair Tommy Meadow
says, "Having pauents die is easier
and Ie thrca&ening to profits than
demanding changes in the health
care sy tern, working to restore .
health services, and supporting more
severe punishment for doctors guilty •
of Medicaid and health insurance
fraud." .
MHC Corre ponding Secretary
Ron Seigel adds that the "Death
Lobby" is appealing to deep inner •
prejudices against seniors, those .
with handicap, the poor and posslb- •
ly racial minorities.
"They encourage the idea that •
orne groups represent 'lower
quality lives,' who are 'a burden to
society' and 'better off dead.'" he
added.
SEIGEL WARNS IF the courts
uphold efforts of Dr. Jack Kevorkian
to legalize "assisted suicide" it would
"legalize active killing well
patient neglect." Without "greater
afeguards for those who wish to .
live," this could lead to "widespread :
cover up of patient abuse but an un- .
official form of genocide."
He warns of growing climate of
racism, citing statistics from the •
Klanwatch arm of the Southern •
Poverty Law Center that crimes of
racial bi were up 20%' last year
from the year before and five times
higher than 1986. Klanwatch cites
291 race-related incidents in 41
states I t year, ranging form true.
to arson, bombing, and murder.
Bullard claims he wants passage
of H.B. 4038 delayed, for two yC8rs. '
- well after the current session i
over, so that a pecial committee
could have time to tudy the i ue.
However, Meadows ,"What.
will happen to those who die in the •
meantime? Once a life is gone, yo
cannot bring it back."