NOVEMBER - Louis Far
rakhan diagrosed with Prosae
�r.
Magic Johnson tes� positive
with AIDS Virus. Mobutu Sese
Sckn rereging on Government
Promses in Zaire. David Duke
defeml in Louisana,
DECEMBER - sam An
niversary of Pearl Hmtx>r. Haitian
Repatriation I sues. Tony
Brown's Article on "AIDS aIXl
Magic JohrmI?-" Kwarrzaa.
JANU Y - � Fe 'an
Gulf War El'O. Qui Rowan's
Boo on Dr. King. C\Jl
tlnlMlnth.
MARCH Harry
Sclafon 's Criticism of J
1 1k BlSVH . Oln_'
spink.)'. Tbe lAPD Beating of
Rodrx:y King.
African American Pre
MlIUh.
APRIL- Virgina'sGoveroor
Wilder BegiM Testing Presidential
Wa
MA Y - Winnie M.aOOela
tcnced '> six years in prison.
United Bank ofPhi1adelphia to
open in Fall.
JUNE - Journalist Ethel
Paym eli • l..akets am Bulls in
NBAF'uU.
, JULy - Rep. Bill Gmy '>
head UNCP. Dr. Bill �totmt
Game SOOw (You Bet Your Ufe).
li1lq of US. Saoctio� on South
At;rica (AzaIU). Thurgood Mar
shall resigns. Carerc 100mas
Nominated. � BCCI Scanial.
UGusr - Gavin Cato
killed in Brooklyn. Clarence
1lnnas fIeari¥. The Coup in
tlI: USSR
SEPrEMBER - Oarenre
100mas Hearings continue. Mike
Tyson IIx1ictcd on Rape Omges.
Black College Day.
OCTOBER - Clarence
, 1lnnas oonfiJm:d to the SupreID!
Cowt.
Rcdd foxx dies. Miles Davis
dies. Marion Bany star1s six
rmnlh erm in Virginia Prison,
HILTON: HlGHEREDUCA
nON is designed to � with
ColJegeardKOrldret:Jdtrs. &ka
tiaa is ongoing and cmoinJy na
limited to classroom study. La's
toile. (l14)IN.UJ650,
TIll t
m jority of people who bad low
Whi
By MIKE MCBRYDE
Because of the Middle Page,
Slavery, dehumanization,
European-imposed values, and
self-hatred, it is safe to say that the
African in AmeriCa has made a much
greaiersacrifioe for� good of America
than anyone else.
Africans in America have not
divided the nation; they have been the
most thoroughly oppressed group in the
nation on a continual basi . And their
fight against oppression has challenged
America to live up to the true meaning
of its creed and to its responsibilities to
all Americans.
Today there is a new chalJenge to the
conscience of America. African
scholar with Afrocentric and
multicultural perspectives are
challenging America to cease its
suppression of historical truths, to stop
lying about i1S crimes, and to end its
condescending attitude toward the
darker peoples of the globe.
But it is difficult for mainstream
America to acknowledge its arrogance.
AND BECAUSE OF the
intellectual militancy of thi new
movement, maimtream academicians
are lashing out at Afrocentric scholars
in a mean-spiritcd way.
During the Middle Ages, the Arab
traveller-historian Ibn Battuta said that
VIEWS/OPINIONS
bed federal
billion in
P t d de, the Fed ral
government h extended housing
upport to an avera of 78 new
t 0 I poor
re p ying 70 percent their
income for I r . Thi I
j t percent fa family' food,
clo' health care, electricity and
t, bool . fo � children,
po tion.
ot wprisingly, the number of
American homel doubled in the
1 . Tbo of poor children die
prematurely from prcventable<1l:'�:s..
because their paren cannot afford
decent health care fo them.
Thousands of poor children go to
bed hungry every night, while their
govemmentd oothingto istthem.
TIlE nou G RI I for
African- Am nears is intensified d to.
of African American youth to learn.
Eurocentrists view Africa a haven
for killers and barbarians. And
historically, mainstream educators have
sought to socialize children of color into
thinking of tbemselves Europeam.
But ironically, the victims, i.e. the
children rather than the system, are
blamed for their identity crisis.
Afrocentric scholars, unlike tbose in
the main tream. have studied the
psychology of the Black child The
Schlesingers, Diane Ravitches, and
Charles Krauthammers, on the other
hand, have been insensitive to the
needs, culture, and ethnicity of children
of color.
SCHLE INGER, ,FOR
EXAMPLE, in the July 8, 1991 issue
of TIME magazine, says: "If a KleagJe
of the Ku Klux Klan wanted to \SC the
schools to .. .handicap Black Americans,
he could hardly come up with anything
more effective than the 'Afrocentric'
curriculum," But if Schlesinger feaIS
that through Afrocentrism the races will
become separated, be can relax-tbe
l"3C.eS, for the most part, are already'
separated.
Control over the minds of people of
color is what the U.S. educational
system is all about
The sentiments of today's
Eurocentrists are the same as those of
the phil<BOpber Friodricll Ikgel, who in
1824 said: " .. .Africa i the land wlwc
mm arc dilldren .. .a land laying beyond
the daylight of self-con ciou
histoty . .Jct forget Africa .. .for Afrlca
, no his ric part of the world. "
Similarly, during the
Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858,
Abraham Unooln adeqUately summed
up what would become the prevailing
attitude of today's Eurocentic scholm
when he stated: "1 am not, nor even
have been, in favor of bringing about the
social am political equality ofthc whi
and Blae races.
"And inasmuch they canmt so
live, while they remain together, there
must be the position of �or and
inferior, and I mucb � any othcrman
am in favor of baving the �rior
position . gned to the white race. "
THIS PASSAGE is routinely
omiUcd from sdx>oJ textbooks, yet the
Euroc.entrisls accuse Afiocentris of
00DC0ding "fantmy" history!
African Americans must place
greaier emphasis on the need for aitical
thinking in combatting this kind of
igoorance. Free and strong minds are
imperative in setting the record straight
To lose sight of this fact would prove to
be a very costly mistake.
Mike McBryde is a freelance artist
and writer, 8JXl a member of African
Ameri
upr
macy and curricula of inclu
ion
people and organizations like ours
who are trying against tremendous
odds to get that we tside Detroit area
cleaned up.
, When Governor Blanchard was
still in office - The West Warren
Avenue Merchants Association
urged him to send in the National
Guard to tear down, haul away the
debris and level the sites of all aban
doned and burned-out structures like
that one on Scotten and 1-94 - con
tained within West Warren's boun-
,daries.
(There was) no response.
Since 1982, various members of
our Board have met with repre
sentatives from the Environmental
Protection Agency, our State
Senators office well as respon
sible heads of 'big businesses' still
contained in that West Warren area
- urging them to join with in our
continuing fight to 'get rid of the
blight. '
ALL 0 THOSE efforts went
ignored.
Contrary to popular belief, not all
debris and chun of bricks can be
traced back to Detroiters or half-tom
down apartment tructurcs -:- no,
not at all.
(\meri fa Humanism. He' a
leader 0 the Immtep Sodety study
gro� in Pittsburgh, m1 an on
the anthropologist JA Roge which
appears in tbe boo
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
HUMANISM AN ANlHOLOGY.
READER'S WRITE:
of all the peoples of the world, the
Africans "seem to abbor inj�tice the
most. .. "
Indeed, most of the social
movements in 20th century America
seem to have been greaily impircd by
African Americans. But collectively,
mains tream Am ricans have been
unwilling to give African Americam
credit where credit is due.
The American historian Arthur
Schlesin er was once qooted as saying,
ttl regard Blac as part of American
culture, not African culture."
But many realize that mainstream
academicians have never seriously
considered introducing Blacks to their
ancestral roots in a positive way. On the
contrary, they have tended 10 do just the
opposite.
, THERE HAS been much
anti-Black sentiment emanating from
whites. But this hostility bas been
largely checked because many African
Americans have fought against it.
Collectively, mainstream academicians
have never chosen to correct historical
errors out of the goodness of their beam.
They have only responded to pressure
from those demanding change.
. The current educational curricula
are designed to maintain white
supremacy. Thus, mo t schools have
been unable to motivate large numbers
Cia s
appreCiates
Newspaper
Lett to the editor:
� Rep McKenzie FouOOation
would like to thank you for your .
donation of rewspepers to the Satwday .
morning tutorial propt.
1k (Michigan Qtizen) is
the 7th 8JX1 8th gmde English c
� find that the dJildren are eager to
read � paper and information
because they are not ovelW�lmod with
the length of the artides and the size bf
the paper:
Again, we think you for your .
donation.
, SiD:erely,
Mary o. AI�nder
Director
Brick in 1-94 death is problem for all of us
First off let us say that our hearts
go out in sympathy to the family of
Suzanne Iott who was killed recently
by a cinder block tossed from the
1-94 overpass on the westside of
Detroit.
And to those who suggest that
others "keep their distance from
Detroit" let us say that there are
West WarreD and 28tb - Th mere 8 or 10 feet West of the
Edsel Ford Freeway wblch not fenced. (photo by P.A. Moore)
Last June 23, we personally wit
nessed a white gentlemen driving a
bright red truck with lettering on the
door that read, "Always Green
Landscape Co., Northville, Mi." He
dumped 5 loads of tree stumps,
bricks, old shrubbery and other nasty
stuff on a vacant lot about a half
block from where that cinder block
was thrown. We notified the
authorities. Nothing was ever done,
not even a ticket issued to the of
fender.
A "Busines Watch" study of our
area that was conducted a few years
back with the assistance of the
Detroit Police Dept. pointed clearly
to the fact that a real 'Bermuda Tri
angle" situation exists within our
boundaries, inasmuch as there are
three expressway located beneath
us, namely the Jeffries, Edsel Ford
and 1-94.
Needless to say, not anyone of
tho e mentioned are completely
fenced. We believe this bas some
thing to do with "rich neighborOOod"
versus "poor neighborhood" or how '
or where our highway tax dollars arc
pent.
BE THAT A it may,onewould
have to conclude that with so many
West Warren Associ tlon had complained to authoritl about building
before tragic happenln. Pictured the burned-out abandoned '
penment buUdln th t a cinder block w taken from nd t' on :
the 1·94 freeway kUlin uzanne Ion, The bulldln w tom do D aD :
December 12, 1�1.
'big businesses' still housed here,
namely, the Coca Cola Co., Detroit
Edison Co., Restokraft Mattres Co.,
Comerica Bank, Thyssen Metal Co.
nd others, someone would want to
network with us in our efforts to top
the blight from spreading ... unless its
part of some ugly plan to 'keep it as
is' for tax breaks for 'big busine '
ake' (doiog busine in a dirty and
unsafe area).
It remains hameful.
P ggy A Moore, Pr .Id nt, WHt
Warr n Av M rchant. A .. oc
Thoma. E Pettigrew.
Vic Pr .Id nt
Pat.y Dougla.,
cretary.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH IS COMING.
SUBMIT YOUR RECOLLECTIONS FOR PUBLICATION. SEND TO: P.O. BOX 03560, HIGHLAND PARK, MI 48203