VIEWS
yo
I?
M t h 1 di tri
Mond y and nd r h w m ny p ren hav
child' teach r nd cl ro m?
ny Am ri watching Expo e or th Today Show thi pa t wee
w th film taken with hidden vid 0 cam ra by a Milwaukee high
chool nior 1 t ay. Vi wers were hocked to e teach rs itting at
their de ding whil th fe idle tuden rem ining in cl
laugh d, jo ed, pi yed dice even to while away the hour.
Th dropout rat at thi chool match that of many in Michig n'
inn r cities, or tt r. Yet no t cher from that Milwauke chool
h d ever en fired. That i also a fact for mo t Michigan inner city
hool with th am h rrendous dropout rat .
Droppin out i h r urvival. The mental violenc committed
a ainst th e tud nt i a crim . Yet all the the Milwaukee di trict did
wa t usp nd thr e of th teachers thi wee . Th Y h u1d b charged
with fraud - taking a pay he k under fal e pref nse .
Any parent who p n any amount of tim in ny inn r city chool
can tell their own horror torie . If they don't go up to chool them elves,
th y can hear th imilar tale from th tudents.
Just la t week at Renai ance High School -considered by many to
be 0 troit' "premiere" chool-?n Engli h teacher told th tudents to
it down b cause he "didn't teach when it got over 85 degree ."
Graduate 0 Benton Harbor High tell torie of art clas es which were
one eme ter long card game.
Interestlyen ugh, the new Detroit Superintendant Deborah McGriff
com from Milwaukee where she was the Assistant Superintendant. It
helps explain to us her "goal" for the new chool year: two to three
percent improvement in just about any category. That low expectation
i identical to the motivation that prompts teache t it at their de k
while tudent playdice.
The only way to tum around the situation i for parents to walk the
hall . Take a ick day if you have to. Take your lunch hour, but get up
to that chool and walk the halls. Make the y tern work for you.
Everyone el e has worked itfortheir own personal gain. It's time to make
the chools work for the students. All of the other violence we ee young
people involved in might lessen if we taught them orne thing el e in
chool.
No jobs, no Zone
BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY
We would urge the re ident of Benton Harbor to launch an all-out
effort to make the Enterpri se Zone work for them. With only 51 of 650
new job going to city re ident • the Zone benefits amount to welfare
fraud by qualifying businesse .
The ch 01 district gets no tax money from Zone busines es. The
school areexpected to make up the 10 s from the state formula for per
pupil spending.
The tax breaks provide benefit only to the companies. Everyone of
the 60 job at the new Dunlop plant should go to city residents. We can
ee no honest reason to take any other view. There have got to be 60
people in Benton Harbor who possess 10th grade reading and math kills
who have some experience in manufacturing and who are now out of
work. We can probably find 60 in a one-block walk.
Re idents must do whatever it take to shake up the city commission,
th Enterpri e zone board and Lake Michigan College which is doing the
job training to force those three governmental bodie to find 60 city
resident for those j b . March, picket, holler, be di ruptive, by any
means nece ary tho e job must go to city re idents.
"
ME.N \N�-\O A{<E "E�RNEST
�RE 0\ A-t= �\ D
OF CO SEQUENCES. /I
-(, t Cl)S GA /E(
n
co olid tion 0 on oin Bl c
indepedent political voice within th
African American community,
for Political Power 0 ew Yor ,
Denni S rrette, long time labor ae­
tivi t from Oxon Hill Maryl nd,
Damu Smith, Co-Facilitator of th
Nation African American Networ
Ag inst Intervention in the Gul
from VI; hington D.C. and Jemadari
Kamara, D an of the Center for
Communi ty nd Public Service
Universi ty of M . in Bo ton.
The pon oring committee i
being expanded to include ey politi­
cal activi 1. and organize from
every region of the Country.
gency conferen i "crucial beca
of th depths of the crisi in th BI c
community and th failure of th
D mocratic and Republican parti
and traditional Bl c leadership to
respond in an effective manner.
"No one eem to be taking the
plight 0 th BI c m es erio -
ly," h said. "The two major parties
must know without doubt that our
vote are not for sale in '92.
It' time for a new Blac le der­
hip to emerge which will not ell out
-
I have said in previo artiel ,
too many of our traditional Black
leaders and politicians have forgot­
ten the vision and valu of the
movement in the 60' and 70' .
They have become detached from
the masses of the BI ck poor and
working people.
Ron Daniels serves as President
of the lnstitut for Community Or­
ganization and Development in
Youngstown, Ohio. He may be con­
tacted at (216) 746-5747.
Rae;
When will'
m:
�enJamln F.
Chavl Jr.
riea.·chang
Am
?
•
By BENJAMIN . eHA VI ,JR.
Ai the beginning of this year, we
issued a warning about the continued
escalation in violent and institution­
alized form of racism in nearly
every section of the United States.
American racism is a hideous assault
on human dignity, yet in America
there continues to be a reluctance
toward a national r olve to chal­
lenge the increase in dome tic racial
injustice.
The racial turmoil that once again
i engulfing the nation' large t city
hould not be viewed in. i olation.
The problems of the multiple stand­
ards of justice based on race, the
murder and violent death of
African Americans and others as a
result of racially motivated violence,
and the increasing ocioeconomic
racial di pari ties are all part of one of
the most critical problems facing this
ociety, It is American apartheid.
It i American racism.
While the public at large has its
undivided attention on the ituation
in the Soviet Union, in ide the
United State th social and racial
situation i getting. worse.
The racial nsion in the Crown
Heigh section of Brooklyn, New
York in the wake of the tragic death
of 7-year-old Guyanese American
Gavin Cato who wa hit 'by a car
driven by a H idic Jew and the ub­
sequent violence between the
African American community and
the Hasidic Jewish community is not
an isolated ca e. ew Yor City has
witnes ed numerous incidents of ra­
cial bigotry and violence during the
I t decade and more.
peace and there will be no healing.
On the night before the funeral for
Gavin Cato, another African.
American teenager, Anthony Amo ,
was killed in Brooklyn by New York
police officers under questionable
circumstances,
When people who live outside'
New York hear about the racial
problems in the City, ome mistaken­
ly think "That is how things are in
New York City." When Rodney
King was beaten brutally, there were
ome who considered that case as
being ymptomatic only of the city
of Los Angeles. Yet, the reality i
that problem of racial injustice is
conditioned by all institutions
throughout this ociety, both urban
and rural.
The point here is that this nation
cannot afford to keep its attention
focused primarily on unfolding
situations in the Soviet Unio.n and
other parts of the world while render-
ing insufficient attention to the grow­
ing internal problems here in the
United States. Yes, we welcome the
changes for greater democracy and
justice in the Soviet Union. Hope­
fully, the billions of dolJars that were
unwisely being spent by the United
States on mili tary weapons can now
be transferred to "heal" some of the
domestic ills. .
The questions are when will
America change? When will there
be a SUbstantive national effort by all
levels of this ociety to eradicate
racism and racial injustice? How
. many more perso will be vie-
timized before racism in the United
States is really challenged?
There are many in the African
American community who rightfully
say "our cup runneth over and we
demand a change now."
EWYO 'MAYOR David
Dinkim is appealing earnestly for
"healing" and "peace." But until
there is racial justice and equal jus­
tice for alJ in New York and
throughout America, there will be no