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VIEWS
he fal/acy 0 Bl c con
rveti m:
re ponsive government re both
nee ary to liberate the m of
BI c people from hunger, poverty,
di ease, and chronic unemployment
and underemployment
I am certainly vigorous
proponent of elf-help development
as a major priority for African
Americans.
THERE IS NO qu tion about
the urgent need for African
Americans to adopt a elf help/em­
powerment philosophy a the
cornerstone of the struggle for Black
survival and development. We must
think in terms of marshalJin our
human and material resource as a
means of becoming more self-reliant
andindependenl
It is equally clear to me, however,
that elf help alone cannot provide
all of the jobs, housing, education,
health care, and other economic and
ocial opportunities which the mas­
of African Americans need to
-------- -
P
frivo 0
Ine
(d ir hi counterp ) f
�- on If- lp i tantamount to apol­
ogy for the ci 1, pitali t Y min
U.S. Whi co rv tiv glorify
elf-help, but in f; t the government
in this country alw ys been help­
ful to the rich d the super-rich.
The phil ophy of white co er­
vative i and continu to be that
"the b i of governm nt is busi­
n . Big busin has never
. reluctant to help itself to government
resource a means of promoting
hum govemm nt.It hould be the - and pro cling it' interest. .
respo ibility of government to util-
iz the tax doll collected from the THE GREAT RAILROADS in
people to develop policies and thi country were not built through a
program to m et t human needs "elf-help" program. The U.S.
of all of the people. government gave the railro ds huge
�lac people are not ex�mpt. from tracts of land at virtually no cost in
p ymg taxe at any level in this na- order complement their private capi­
tion. It i ab olutely ludicrous for tal.
Black people to walk away from the Turning to more recent history,
public sector as if government the 600 billion dollar S&L bail-out
resource are the exclusive preserve
of white people.
Turning to more
recent history, the
600 billion dollar
S&L bail-out could
hardly be
characterized as a
self-help program.
RICAN AMERICANS re
entitled to e peer that a government
that ccepts our taxes will also func­
tion to meet the mas ive human
needs of our community. And there
i pecial obligation for the govern­
ment to provide remedies for the
crippling and debilitating effects of
past and present racism, di crimina­
tion and economic explOitation and
exclusion.
Affirmative action and govern­
ment policie and program
designed to uplift the di advantaged
,.
President Bush's 'refusal to sup­
port the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is
indicative of the Administration'
anti-labor attitude. All persons
should have the right to employment.
All wor eIS hould have the right to
maintain their jobs without employ­
ment discrimination or racial harass­
'ment,
THERE ARE PRESENTLY
key bills ing drafted in the con­
gress to re tore workers rights and to
ensure greater fairne s in the
workplace. The name of the legisla­
tion that we support is the
"Workplace Faimes Bill," H.R. 5 in
the House of Representatives and S.
55 in the Senate. William Clay of
Mi 000 and Senator Howard Met­
zenb um of Ohio introduced thi bill
inCongre .
During the la t ten years, wor ers
h ve been unjustly fired for engag­
ing in collective bargaining.
I· ar n r ar yin
rong prot i n
orne Detroit p rent re ngry with the Americ n Civil
Liberties Union nd the tion I Org niz tion for
Women. The two groups went to court and uccessfully
blocked the Detroit Board of Education bid to create
all-male academie . The judge reminded school official
. that in America, sex -like race - is recognized n
accident of birth and not a criteria for qu lity or qu ntity
of service. .
A group of angered parents m rched in front of the
School Center Building demanding they hould h ve con­
trol over the education system in Detroit nd if they dee
an all-male academy necessary, then they should h ve it.
While the parents were
caught up in this smoke
screen, the. new Superin­
tendent, Deborah Me­
Griff, announced her
"goals" for student
achievement. Saying that
her targets were all that
could realistically be ex­
pected based on past per­
formance, he set her
sights so low snakes will
feel lordly in Detr oit
public schools.
Parents ought to be DEBORAH MCGRIFF,
outraged over an ad- hould et With It or et olng.
ministration that expects
so little from teachers and students. Some of her "goals":
two percent better in the MEAP reading scores; one
percent better in CaMfornia Achi ement Te t score for
reading and math; one tenth of one-percent better grade
point averages; a decline of only one percent in the num ..
'ber of kids dropping out ... and so the list goes. Can any
taxpayer read that list and keep the rise in their blood
pressure at only two percent? .
McGriff can sign her name, Status Quo. That is what
she is basically promising, more of the same. At a speech
she delivered to school administrators, she is quoted as
urging them to "create contagious enthusiasm" to be
"fanatics" about doing their best.· If McGrifrs goals for the
system are an indication of her own enthusiasm and
fanaticism for education, we can expect more of the same
failure the system has dished out for the past generation.
, The board of' education must demand more. Tell Mc­
Griff she either comes back - immediately - with goals
that are goals or pack her bag and leave, We don't need
her. The system can achieve two percent improvement on
its own with no one at the helm. Take her $125,000 salary
and spread it around to the schools where it will do some
real good. .
If the board doesn't make McGriff perform, then those
parents hollering' about the all-male academy need to
change the message on those protest banners. March'
again for the right reason.'
You can segregate kids any way you want: by sex, size,
shape, color or creed; but if you don't expect anything of
them, you won't get anything from them. For too long, too
many teachers and administrators - Black and white -
have dealt with Detroit students as though nothing can be
expected from them. For too long the chool system has
merely tolerated the kids, endured them for 12 years and
then passed them on to society without the skills or
knowledge to compete. .
It is violence against the kids and the fall-out is on every
street corner, in the jails and Jackson pri on. Ad­
ministrators who perpetuate the low expectations and ac­
cept the resulting low achievement should be forced out
now.
McGriff needs to get with it or get going. Parents, we
need to send her and the board the message now.
VANTAG
POINT'
nonse . H the government can
b il-out and othe i e ub idize
bu corpo tio the rich and
the uper-rich (who y I 0 their
incomes/profi in than poo
and working people and the middle
cl ) then when '11 th govern­
ment bail-out BI c America and
other di dvantaged people in this
country?
could hardly be characterized as a
self-help program. Nor were the bail­
outs for Chrysler, Continental.Bank
or the Bank of New England.
The multi-billion dollar rip-off of
H.U.D: funds by wealthy developers
is yet another example of taxpayer
dollars going to aid and assist" the .
.wealthy.
What the conservative elf-help
philo ophy really means is self-help
for the masses of Black people, other
minorities and poor and working
people and massive subsidies (wel­
fare) Cor the rich and super-rich
needed.
Enough of thi Horatio Alger
THE URIOUS debate
generated around the Clarence
Thom nomination is not just a
nas ty Ii ttle argument among
colored people. It goes to the very
heart of the, qu tion of the role of
government in this ociety and it's
relationship to the long tanding
aspirations of Africans in America.
Will Black people fight to trans­
form the system which has op­
pressed us and force it to function in
the be t interest of the masses of the
people? Or will the more well off
"few" within the African Amerian
community join in and become
apologists for the present ystem of
oppre ion which continue promote
and protect the interests of the small
eli te 'of the weal thy and the
privileged in this country?
Ron Daniels serves as PresidDat
of 1M Institute for Community Or­
ganization 'and Developmen Ita
Youngstown, Ohio. He may be con­
tQC�d at (216) 746-5747.
BY LOCHER fOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUN
Justice for Worke,,: upport .
the 199·1 march on Wa hingtori
Workers today are routinely fired
when they strike to protest injustice
in the workplace. The Workplace
Fairness Bill would restore the basic
rights of collective bargaining.
Striking workers would be permitted
to return to their jobs "as originally
intended by the National Labor Rela­
tionsAct."
The statement signed by African
American leaders asserted, "The
rights of workers to form unions and
bargain contracts with their com­
panies are under attack across the
nation. As a result, the wellbeing of
millions of working Americans, par­
ticularly Black men and women, is at
risk."
The tatement emphasized, "As
leaders of the Blac community we
cannot afford to it idl Y by while the
b lc democratic rights of America's
workers are eaten away. In the in­
d trialized world, South Africa is
the only other country that tolerates
, 'I HIS DREIIS IRE
DUB HOPIS rOB THI rUTURI
DB rOB
BITTER
PUBLIC
SCHOOLS
By BENJAMIN F. CBA VIS, JR.
. On August 31, 1991, hundreds of
thousands of persons will be march­
ing on Washington, D.C. to demand
the rights of workers in the United
States. We support the "1991 Mlrch
on Washington" wbica isbeingspon­
sored by the Labor Movement
An African American Leadership
Commi ttee for Workplace Fairness
has been organized in Washington,
D.C. to support the efforts of African
American workers.
William Lucy, Secretary­
Treasurer of AFCSME; Norman
Hill, President of the A. Philip Ran­
dolph Institute; Benjamin L. Hooks,
Executive Director of the NAACP;
Joseph E. Lowery, President of
SCLC; and Congresswoman Eleanor
Home Norton have initiated an ef­
fort to get African American leaders
to sign and support a dOCument en­
titled, "Helping Bla<:ks Achieve the
American Dream: Justice at Work."
Benjamin F.
Chlvl. Jr.
reprisals against legal strikers. "
We recall the past unity between
the civil Rights Movement and the
Labor Movement Now is the time
to rebuild that unity and to stand
together for human rights, civil
righ and workers rights. Justice
delayed is justice denied. Justice
must be for all or justice will be for
none.