,,� .. , . .,.
o E WILL RGUE,
what' in name?' This is just
for fun, an outlet, others may
chime in. Why do ome
people have to be 0 erious or
political?
"Even the air that we
breathe i political," the inger
and activist Miriam Makeba
was once quoted as aying.
I often refer to her com­
ment whenever I hear of
young (and old) people seek-:
ing excuses for not taking
po itions on important issues.
That is not to imply that I
don't believe in "just having
fun and forgetting about my
worries." On the contrary,
there are many times when 1
t have to shut down to re-
nergize.
I believe that the late Presi­
CSent Dwight Eisehower was
, iven credit for the following
pbrased comment:
: "THERE ARE times
hen I sit in my rocking chair
� rock and think. Some­
mes, I just sit in my rocking
�ir and rock."
., No, I am very much in
vor or R&.R. But I am al­
ays cognizant of the fact that
the very air that I breathe is
political."
, Taking a stand in support of
uman rights issue is not a
easonal thing, To be effec­
tive, it has to be daily.
It is not impres ive to
protest the Kansas Ci ty Chiefs
in the fall and the Golden State
)Harriors in the winter because
,'it is the seasonal or liberal
,thing to do.
',' Insensitivity is insen­
sitivity, 365 days a year.
AND HOSE Africans on
those teams should be
ashamed of themselves for
sheepishly not stepping to tbe
front of his and other similar
issues.
. I have said on more than
one occasion that the reason
(here are 0 few African
coaches and mangers in the
rofe lonalranks is because
most athletes and their so­
called players associations
have not stood tall.
I have also s�id that many
Native American (and you
notice that I haven't aid IN­
DIAN) issues are intertwined
with Latino issues.
MANY lATINOS are of
African, Native American
and/or European descent.
Until more Latino organiza­
tions publicly and rcefully
make Native American issues
a higher priority, one can con­
fidentl y say that nei ther move­
ment will fly as high a it
should.
. Hilton: Higher Education
i in favor of any and all posi­
tive movement flying high.
Hilton: Higher Education
is designed to dialogue with
college and world readers.
Education is ongoing and cer­
tainly not limited to classroom
study. 'Let's talk: (Z 4) 899-
0650.
VIEWS OPINIONS
orinevll.8o
ith
politi .
, d ri
<1 choi ut ho
produ . And ov r th
th d i io
de th of th erican economy.
They Id out our future d the fu­
ture of our children. But the
politici , d t very ealthy
people for whom m t of th m wor ,
got thel .
That i why the "m jors" don't
h ve nything to y bout the
economy - their party i up to its
ugly ck in th plannin and the
e ecution of i Ination. And
th e front men for that organization
are unindicted co-conspirators,
And that i why what it will take
to ve America' economy is aving
America' democracy. You ee,
w hen they re tructured the economy
- what e produce, and how - in
the late 1 and early 195 they
simultaneou ly re tructured our
democracy in ways that make it al­
mo t impo ible for di ident and in­
dependent voice to be heard; they
We fought for freedom
Aren' we Am rican
o th American
ir dirty wor Ion
n b If-w y hone t
e norm t will t 11 you, wh t got us
out of th Great Dep ion of ar
II. And what kept it artificially
pum d up or 0 years afterwards
- and t the ame time destroyed
our manuf turing base - w a
m ive e onomic restructuring of
the Unit d State and the world ac­
compli h d with bipartisan upport.
T UCTURI
w d on two things:
One wa the conversion of the
economy to a permanent wartime
footing. U i ng the bogus threat of
the Soviet Union (everyone knew it
BY KENNETH SNODGRASS
first to give his life doing the Boston
Massacre in 1770 for the American
Revolution? Haven't we paid as
Africans. during the Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade, and countl year of
Colonialism? '
Haven't African Americans con­
tributed to American development as
must as any one else! Haven't the
Martin Luther Kinp who died trying
to improve the civil right for
African people in America, the Duke
Ellingto�, Count Basies, Louis
Armstrongs, Dizzy Gillespies, Miles
Davis , etc. who contributed to the
cultural revolution of America, paid
their dues?
Haven't our writers like Ralph El­
lison, James Baldwin, the Gwen­
dolyn Brooks, Ammie Atten paid
their dues? Haven't the Adam
Clayton Powells worked hard to be­
come part of our government.
We've paid our dues more than
enough!
AS WE MOVE to the 21st cen­
tury, a large part of American still
sees Africans as not being CEO
material for any major American
corporation or ever becoming presi­
dent of these United States.
Yes, we have all paid our dues
and America has prospered from the
sweat off of our backs, but yet we
still have a high level of unemploy-
As we celebrate African History
mo th, there � till people out there
t ill ay you haven't paid your
dues, that you should go k to
Africa, etc. I just want to take a
minute to et things straight. We
have paid out as much as anyone
else.
We as Africans have survive 246
years of Slavery, which was the basis
for early capital accumulation and
laid the bases fro America industrial
exp ansi oa,
We've fought and died for
freedom i.e. the Emmet Till's murder
for talking to a white women, the
� Medgar Evers assassinated because
he fought for freedom, the Addie
Collins, bombing of their Baptist'
Church. Haven't the Mary
Bethunes, Huey Newtons, the Mar­
tin Luther Kings an the Malcolm Xs
who died for freedom, paid their
dues?
We've suffered over one hundred
years of lynching since the Civil
War, in which over 5000 African
were killed! Haven't we've paid
more than our dues? Aren't we
American Yet?
DID WE NOT pay our dues
when Crispus Attucks became the
et?
0- monopoly
of the poli tical process became com­
pletly institutionalized. And with
both tho e parties .fundamentally
committed to Big Busine and i
ongoing rape and murder of the
American economy, there has been
no way to bring the killers to j tice.
Th t' why I am i uing call for
the degregulation of democracy.
There is no more monopolized and
regulated industry in the United
States of America than politics.
By deregulating democracy, I'm
political
It's only through the deregulation
of democracy that the people can
hope to bring the American economy
bac to life. Tho e who killed ,
America won't do it for .
Dr. Lenora Fulani is 1M chair-
•
peTsonoflheNewAUitmcePartyand f
a practicing socitJl therapist in H ar­
km. SM can be C01lll:JCted at 1M
New Alliance Party, 2032 Fifth
Avenu.eNewtorlc,NY 10035 and at
(212) 996-4700.
5. BROKEN PROMISES -
When the Civil Wit ended in 1865,
the freedmen were promised help in
relocating. "Forty acres and a mule"
was the popular notion of what
Uncle Sam would provide. Some
freedmen received somehelp, but
thousands of European immigrants
were reaching American bores and
receiving thousands of �cres of
choice farmland in the ertile plains
of the midwest. White land agents
representing the U.S. government
and having wide discretion were in
charge of land apportionment and
generally gave preference to the
white newcomers from Europe.
The Freedmen's Bureau, esta�
lished in 1865 to supervise the tran­
sition ofBlacb from land-working
slave to educated, land-owning
citizens, was allowed to operate for
only even years, di solving in
1872 Penniless, homeles Blacks
then were left at the mercy of
greedy politicians, grafters, Ku
Kluxers and the horrible Black
ment, crime, poor health care, a high
death rate etc. America has notloo
out for Africans American as
Africans American have look out for
American.
African Americans today make
over $200 billion a year, and have
elected many poll tical bodies to of­
fice, but yet this has changed little
our social, political, and economic
caste system Africans find themsel­
ves locked in! It's time to do some­
thing different.
It's time for us to use our intel­
ligence and our economic power to .
do for ourselves what we did for
America. It is important that we
realize that if we've made America
rich, then we can do the same for
ourselves. Let's make the year 2000
be the decade of the Second
Reconstruction, of self-empower­
ment and self-autonomy.
Send your
comments to:
Michigan Cittzen,
P.O. Box 03560�
Highland Park. MI
48203.
. ,
plantation owner could have mort
people to sell or enslave. Slaves
were ABUSED and FORCED, so
they and their offspring became
babituallyand culturally antisocial.
They were taught to distrust each
other and developed the negative
behavior that some brought to the
big cities and practice in the ghet­
toes with prison-term consequen­
ces.
. 4. LIB AND SlANDER-
Gross explicit and implicit lies
about Africa and African­
Americans written in history books
have perpetuated degrading myths
that misled Blacks and whites. One
explicit lie is that Africa was only a
jungle of beasts and naked savages
with no significant culture or
civilization before the whites ar­
rived. Another is the "happy lave"
fiction popular in antebellum
Dixie. Recent textbook change
have partially corrected these lies,
but severe damage remains.
Whil al ing abo big apolo
what about apologizing
,
?
•
,.,
By JAMES E. ALSBROOK
With American and Japanese
politicians arguing about apologies
for the Pearl Harbor sneak attack in
1941, and the atomic bomb blasts
on Japan in 1945, how about
apologies owed Black Americans?
Notice first that America al­
ready has apologized to the Indians
and paid compensation for some of
the land Uncle Sam too by force.
Notice second that America al­
ready has apologized to Japanese­
Americans and paid them about
$20 thousand each for confinement
at internment camps during World
WarD.
Notice third that during and after .
World War D, Uncle Sam gave bil­
lions of dollars In Europe to help the
war-ravaged nations recover,
meanwhile giving billions more
along with technical know-how to
help Japan.
Now, what about American
Black people who were eized,
dragged to America and enslaved
form 1619 until 1865? Uncle Sam
has neither apologized nor sug­
gested any form of restitution or
compensation for them.
Should Uncle Sam make right
the following wrongs by apolgoy
and restitution?
1. SlAVERY - The sheer
deprivation of physical freedom by
force resulted in depravity, loss of
dignity, self-respect, integrity and
personhood to millions of Blacks.
2. PHYSICALDAMAGE­
The torture, rape and murder of
Blacks on plantations and aboard
ships carrying slave remain
beyond description.
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL
DAMAGE - The slaves and
today's descendants of laves con­
tinue to suffer because of behavior
the laves were forced to adopt, in­
ternalize and tradi tionalize. '
Teenage girls were foICed to have
babies soon as po sible so the
, 1
Codes, which enabled former
slaveholders to have local police
arrest Blacks on trumped-up char­
ges and force them to "work off'
fines on the same old plantations.
6. SECOND CLASS
CITIZENSHIP Since
"freedom" came in 1865, Blacks
have been good citizens by obeying
laws, paying taxes and serving in
the armed forces despite flagrant
discrimination in education, ex­
ployment and otherwise. Reagan
and Bush people continue attempts
to keep Bl CD a econd-cla s
citizens.
These six items show why
Blacks - many of whom fought
and died for AmeriC4 - are due at
least a incere apology for wrongs
suffered and compensation ena­
bling them 10 heal their ounds and
make even more ignificant con­
tributions to this nation.
• I
111
'11
,\,
