HE RELAXED tha important
principle once when he accepted
admission through an affirmative
. n program to Y e cbooL
But, from his earli t Y , 43-
Y old Cl ence Tho been
a c ader t being pigeon­
holed ideologically or prof ion-
ally b he is Black.
When le 1 cbool, Tho-
ccepted a position on the taff
o Missouri Attorney General John
Danforth with the stipulation that
he would not be igned to civil
righ ork..
He accepted a brief tay in the
law department of a large corpora­
tion ith ame demand - no civil
rights work for Clarence Thorn .
"If I ever went to work for the
EEOC or did anything connected
with Blacks,· Thomas told an in­
terviewer, "my career would be ir­
reparably ruined. The monk"ey
would be on my back again to prove
that I didn't have the job because I
B People m.ccting me for
the first auto tically
dismiss my thinking secood-mte."
IT WAS SURPRISING then
when, after successfully avoiding
the suggestion that his race should
dictate his professional interests, ,
and ith no previous experience in
civil rights, ThOmM took a job as
civil rights enforcer in the Depart-
'ment of Education in the first Re­
agan Administration. A year later
he became chairman of the EEOC.
But even Assistant Secretary
for Civil Rights, Thomas' actions
4emonstrated that fighting racial
discrimination w the least of his
concerns.
Ina federal district court case in
1982, Thomas testified that he de­
liberately disobeyed a court order
requirina the Department of Edu-
al
THE LE OTH of time to proc­
individ bad iDcnaed
from five months to nine months­
almo t twice long the year
before.
A tOOy �y the General Ac­
counting 0 ce found t under
Tho 'direction large percent-
geofthe c osedbytheEEOC
not been fully inv tigatecl.
A Congressionalinv ti tion
fouod that the Agency e eel 1
method of operations to make it
more difficult for the victims of
discrimination to 'win relief.
Finally, while TboIJlM
EEOC Chair, the Agency failed to
process 13,873 age discrimination
complaints filed by older orkers
within the legal time period. & a
result, the claims were dismissed, ,
leaving the workers powerless to
pursue their complain . Congress
had to pass legislation reinstating
their claims.
Throughout his career, Thomas
has tried to avoid being labeled be­
cause of his race. He bas ked the
orld to judge him, like Martin
Luther King, Jr., not on the basis of
the color of his skin, but on the
content of his character.
TIlE NAACP GAVE Thomm
what he wanted. On the basis ofhis
record., the nation's oldest an<1larg­
est civil rights organization voted
to oppose Qarence Thomas' nomi­
nation to the Supreme Court.
Thomas' supporters had argued
that he represented Black Amer­
ica's only chance to keep a Black
judge in Thurgood Marsball' eat.
"That's not ourjob," an NAACP
member said. "George B h can
nominate another Black candidate
if C1arenoe Thomas loses. He oomi­
nated another white man after the
Senate rejected. Robert Bork. He
can nominate another Black to take
Thomas' place."
VIEWS OPINIONS
EVEN IN tho cities where in­
tegration too root, the evidence that
B children actuIlly beldted from
the experience w questionable.
Foraample, aneduca ooal task
force in Mil otcc reviewing the
t scores of fifteen high schools,
fourteen of blch ere intcgrated,
found African-American tudcnb
average a score of 24 on a reading
examjnation, to the hite studen '
average of fifty-eight.
This impli that factOIS other
than racial identity, uch income
and parental involvement in the
educational process, are more deci­
sive in predicting tudent petform­
ance.
"mentors" to children,
crs to talk bout opportunities
in th fields.
Otta- projects of tim type through­
out the country have added hu­
maniti component, ually includ­
ing an are of African-Ameri­
can hist0tY and culture, a dis ion
ofpersooal ethi and moral val ,
and dialogues on ocial ponsibil­
tty.
Pe� the beat example of this
trend is -Project Spirit," initiated by
the Congress of National Blac'
Churches and funded in part by the
Ully Endowment and the Carnegie
Foundation.
PROJECT SPIRIT IS a nine-city
network of churcbcs which � after­
school programs to Blac children,
featuring Afrlcan-American his tory,
moral teachings and spirituality, as
well science and mathematics.
The Community Foundation of
Southeastern Michigan bas provided
financial upport to a similar project
in Michigan involving more than
forty African-Ametican churc
Some educators have begun to
argue that the high rate of failure for
African-American youth in the pub­
lic schools is attributable more to the
IN 1987, THE NATIONAL Sci- structure of the curriculum and to the
ence Foundation agreed to fund an absence of program instilling rigid
The crisis in the publlc schools
for Black innercity children has fi­
nally reached such proportions that
many innovative programs have been
started to address 'these problems.
One creative approacb been
to launch upplemental educational
projects ithin African-American
churches.
In recent years, everal boo
in Baitimore,Miami, Yor d
other citi have experimented ith
all-Bl male c1 rooms in co­
educational public schoo • M t of
these attemp have included alter­
native teaching methods, the direc­
tion of Blac male � er erving
tern disciplinarian and role
propo for all-male school on
Afrocentric curriculum eel
hentheU.S.Dep entofEduca-
'on amed t tthe hool ould
in clear violation of Title IX.
Dr. MtlIIIIing Marable is Prop­
sor o/Political Science and History,
U1live� ity 0/ Colorado, Boulder.
"i\long the Color Line" pears in
-All cop don't up­
port gun control
I am writing with the hope of
dispelling the far-flung myth that
law enforcement officas support gun
control. The police administration
on Capitol Hill, most ofwhichhasn'!
been on the street for decades, does
not speak for the majority of rank
and file police.
Take it from som� woo knows.
Gun bans and other harsh anti-gun
law directed at lawful gun owners
ultimately do nothing to reduce vio­
lent crime. Semi-automalic gun bam
in some states put law-abiding gun
owners at risk of arrest and prosecu­
tion for refusing to register, surren­
der or otherwise dispose of their guns.
Now a imilar nationwide ban is
proposed. I want to arrest criminals,
not lawful citizens made into com­
mon criminals by meam of IUguidcd
laws, That's why I oppose semi-auto
gun ban proposals and other worth­
less anti-gun law masquerading
crime control.
My job would be a lot easier if
our elected offioials would dedicate
more time, money and effort toward
developing anti-crime tools. which
legislate against the criminal, not
law-abiding citizens. Let's cut out
the easy parole and courtroom injus­
tice and' start enforcing the tough
laws already on the boo
Joely tberly
So AIDS I beh vlor I
So AIDS is a behavioral dJsease
huh? In other words, the Ryan boy
should have know better than to
behave a hemophiliac needing a
blood transfusion. And bame on
that young woman for behaving in
uch a manner ttempting to take
Care of her teeth, thereby being in­
fected by her dentist. Or what about
the behavior of actor Paul Michael
Glaser's wife? How dare he a much
needed urgery, forcing unsuspect­
ing doctors to use "tainted" blood
�'Grondson: Don1 Look . Back, Because What You're Trying
To fret. IS rn Ront, OfYou!"
�
.�
�
SEPARATE . • IT
. WAS INHERENTLY
UNEQUAL
i READERS WRITE
Solution to chool
crl I not all-male
The horrendous crisis of African
American young men in Detroit and
other urban schools is not rooted in
co-educatioQ.
The olutions to this Problem,
therefore, are not to be found in all
male schools. This educational eri-.
sis is part of the all-aroUDd crisis of
the Black community which results
from resurgent IDititutiooal racism,
unemployment, poverty, homel
ness aDd the wbole bitter fruit of
Reaganism. It is th� culmination of
the Amc:rican powtz slr\JCtUre's twcoly
year thrust to reverse the gains of the
civil rights movement.
Bush, the power structure's lead
foreman in continuing Reapnism,
and his follower' lit the Detroit area,
of course, of not openly pouse
racism. In fact, they pr�teDd 10 sup­
port education. Thus, they have
developed pseudo olutio uch es
vouchers, privatization, corporations ..
adopting schools, et al., to divert the
attention of the Blae community
from real solutiom.
The real solutions would include
keeping trillions of dollars in the
hands of people ho create it and not
allowing the class which Bush repre­
sents - the rich, giant banks and
corporations, Wall street, the mili­
tary industrial complex, the S and L
scandteis - to extract it form the
, people in profits and taxes.
OF COURSE TO cbange this is a
huge job, but there is no other way to
really solve the problem, and events
in Eastern Europe hould sure us
that huge social change is not impos-
ible today. To formulate the task
any maller is a dill ion.
Unfortunately, fighting among
ourselves over the relatively uperfi­
cial problem of tccnage sexuality
a diversion form tudies drians us of
the energy needed for mounting the
giant struggle for the only path to
freedom outlined above.
M is often tbe case, people avoid
a difficult task by exaggerating a
minor Issue. The notion that Black
boy's problems are rooted in their
relationship to Black women and
girls smacks of warmed over, racist
matriarchy of the Black family the­
ory as espoused by Daniel Patrick
Moynihan for Nixon in the 60's.
Black male teachers can model
for Black boys better in co-ed set­
tings because they can teach proper
respect for Black girb, a ctiticallesson
in this male supremacist society.
Let us unite to fight the real roots
of our problems.
JoIuaHenry
Athletes hould sup­
port playground
The Black ATHLETES of Michi­
gan hould come togehter and up­
port the playground in the city and
state that they make a living in.
Schools can tart buying athletic
shoes by the car load, and getting
balls and things from Voit and com­
panies like that for the kids of De­
troit, so they can play instead of
fighting.
There are all kinds of compa­
nics--like Wllson ball, bat and glow­
that could. help, Then we would
have no problem in getting people
together. that way by we can pull
ourselves up by the bootstraps.
I think they could get a tax de­
duction. I would think that even
though some of you are already doing
so now, but it is not geting down
here.
The kids will be having fun, and
be educated at the same time.
We would save them all, but what
they get now will come out later in
life. They would have success at
1 t once in their young lives.
. Browalee
Hlahlaod Park
.,
during her operation?
In . society enlightened
ours, you woul4 think that it would
be obvious by now, due to the rapid
spread of this disease, that no one
segment of the human population
will suffer.
Decent People everywhere will
at some point or other be touched by
this devatating disease that knows
no color, age, creed" religion, life­
style, nor walt of life. And for the
President of "These Here United
States" to m.akc such a weeping and
uncompassionate generalization of
[all] those tbatsutferwithAIDS; for
bim'or anyone elae to assume at this
stage, that something as minute 8
"change in behavior" is enough to
top the spread of this deadly dis­
ease, thereby leaving more research
money available for finding a cure to
mare reputable disea5es (cancer, etc.),
is positively LUDICROUS r
Yet, there is ome truth to, the
behavior theory. For wasn't it due to
the behaVior of an uncaring govern­
ment and medical community that
the disease was allowed to spread for
so long in the first place? Afterall,
the only ones infected were gay men
and drug addicts, i.e. "The Dregs of
Society." And isn't it an unspoken
law that gay men and drug addicts
are of a different species and are,
thereby, FORBIDDEN to mix with
Decent People?
So far the sake of those elf­
righteous, decent and ups tanding
citizens who choose to continually
p judgement (and so eloquently I
might add), froiD one christian to
another: I can Q11ly hoe that you will
not be judged harsbly by the God
we serve. Because it' just too bad
that the children who, bom with the
AIDS virus, are cursed to suffer for
the ins of their plml. (and rightly
so according to ome of those De­
cent People.)
Unfortunately, they will proba­
bly die before having had the chance
to change their behavior.
Cheryl