EDITORAL
Thi m ho, tc -butt ttitu pittin uperpo er might
the people of color in Granad
Liby , P n m nd Ir q
manife i elf on th tree 0
Americ in the epid mic of
police bru lity.
Th jury in the Rodn y Kin
tri 1 echoed Rea an/B h: might
i right.
In e ch inva ion,
Reagan/Bush rgued the U.S.
had th moral right to t e tion,
that th m ller country had to
tand corrected. In e ch c e
military FORCE w j tified by
the bad behavior of the offend­
. ng, mailer nation.
Theyargued: Panama hould
have done exactly we aid,
they wouldn't have been invaded
and hundreds of lives would have been aved: Grenada hould have
stopped building th airstrip as we ordered, and we wouldn't have
invaded; Libya hould n ver have eized our air field, Kahdafi'
daughter and 41 oth r people would be alive; Iraq hould have
backed up wh n we told them, or we wouldn't have had to kill
hundreds of thousands with our mart bombs.
The jury in the Rodney King case made the arne arguments.
The use of brutal, exce ive FORCE w justified: Rodney King
was in cohtrol after all. Had Rodney King obeyed, none of the
violence captured on video would have happened.
. From Grenada to L.A. the new world order y the perpetrator
deserves whatever he gets -might is right, there is no other moral
question to consider. The Rodney King jury makes it clear to all
America, that under the guise of police authority, any force at all
can and will be used. The cops and jury learned well from
Reagan/Bush.
. � . and Hope?
There is one small glimmer of hope in the Rodney King tragedy.
It is ironic, that the fall-out from the Rodney King decision may
help African Americans fmally get control of the neighborhood.
The poor han inherit th earth, ys the good book. But it ha
yet to happen in America' inner cities.
Land remains vacant from the insurrections of the 60's. And
though city governments cry poor and struggle under declining tax
base, they refuse to tum over land or buildings to inner city
residents.
Every major Michigan city from Detroit on the east to Benton
Harbor on the west, Flint and Muskegon, Pontiac and Battle Creek
- any city with a major African American population - has
hundreds and hundreds of acres of land in city ownership.
These cities take the federal tax dollars that come from HUD,
earned by the poverty of their own citizens, and spend the money
on demolishing structures and then banking or assembling huge
tracts of land. These same cities sit and wait for the giant corpora­
tions to come in with proposals for developing the sites. Then the
cities tum the land over to the corporations along with a bushel of
tax breaks.
Meanwhile, some ordinary Joe who lives down the block, who
voted for the e mayors, cornmmissioners and council members
can't get a single lot, can't buy one raggedy building.
Historically ignored by banks, these citizens turn with hope to
their political leaders thinking they are at last going to get an
opportunity for a piece of property or a building at a minimal price.
Think again. Over the last two decades of Black control of the
inner cities, land has remained as elusive for African Americans as
it did in all the previous decades under white rule.
Spend a dollar in the cities of this state today and you are buying
from Koreans or Chaldeans, Arabs or Asians. There are fewer
Black-owned retail shops today than 30 years ago.
But ROdney King may change that. The conflagration of the
cities in the '60s prompted white fligbt.
The flames of Los Angeles are likely to send the others to hat
up and head out as well. It would be crazy to expect anyone but
Blacks to invest in the inner city.
If the burning means African Americans inherit the neighbor­
hoods, then there is some hope in all the madness.
VIEWS/OPINIONS
Today, however, only 16 percent
of the total U.S. wor orce i
unionized. With the decline of
organized labor h come a
deterioration in the tandard ofliving
for working people and th poor.
Wh n unions were strong in the
U.S. the tandard of living for the
working class w relatively high.
There appear to be a direct
correlation between the strength and
vitality of unions and the tandard of
living of working people in this
country.
THE EXAMPLE of Germany
and Japan, two of America's chief
economic rivals, would seem to
support this contention.
In Gemany, 40 percent of the
workforce is unionized and workers
enjoy one of the highest standards of
unio .
The ituation in the U.S. i
entirely different. Bi b ine s
eems bent on c bing unio
p rt of trategy to increa e
corporate competitivene nd
profitability.
The U.S. corporate elite eems
determined to force the working
cl to ecept a 10 er standard of
living the price for job curity.
In effect a COIpOr8C dictatorship'
telling American oIkers that they
m t ecept the wa and orking
conditions that the corporations are
willing to offer or not work at all.
Hence the Caterpillar settlement
wa not only a ictory for
Caterpillar, it was a victory for U.S.
corporate power over organized
labor.
If companies can permanently
replace their striking wor ers with
scabs with inpunity, the unions have
effectively been stripped of their
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mo t effective we pon in the
collective argaining process.
Wh t all wor ing people must
come to under t nd i th t the
Cat pillar ttlement i not only a
etb c for the UA and organized
labor, it is a t ba for the entire
workingcl
organized labor goes, 0 goes
tandard of living of the working
people. Hence it behooves all the
working cJas to retumto the battle
cry, "an injury to on i an injury to
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Thi i a traight lin between
Reagan' dismi al of PATCO and
the arrogant action of Caterpillar.
Reagan's bold move against
PATCO w the op ning shot in a
war against organized labor; a war
calculated to rescue an ailing
economic sy tem which was reeling
under the impact of fierce foreign
competition and an unprecedented
et of rece ionary forces
"stagflation. "
FACED WITH shrinking
markets and declining profits, a
consensus emerged among the
corporate elite and their political
co-partners that concessions had to
be extracted from the working class.
WIth the destruction of PATCO the
squeeze was on .
Throughout the 1980's big
bus iness, emboldened by the
example of PAT CO's demise, setout
to "put the working class through the
wringer." .
Taking advantage of an army of
unemployed in the midst. of an "era
of prosperity," businesses across the
board, large and small, demanded
concessions and givebacks from
unions in exchange for "job
security."
A growing pattern of plant
closings, capital flight and runaway
plants also rendered labor vulnerable
to the dictates of the corporations.
Cheap labor markets abroad and
an army of unemployed in this
country were the levers which gave
business the upper hand. A great deal
of the union establishment felt
compelled to adopt a strategy of go
along to get along as a means of
preserving job security and
protecting the survival of unions.
THERE IS ample evidence to
suggest, . however, that the
concessions and givebacks
Ron Daniels serves as President
of the Institute for Community
Orgnization and Development in
Youngstown, Ohio. He may be
contacted at (216) 746-5747.
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'1'OU CANT MAKE MONEY ......
I'M or HANGING AROUND
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...-ft-. HARRt�-*-
(91�2
or believe. One of the reasons that­
racism in this nation persists is
because of the denial of its existence
in the everyday affairs of the society.
We lift up the following
circumstances that occurred in the
state of North Carolina as only one
example of how race makes a
difference concerning judicial
punisbment.
On the front page of one of North
Carolina's leading newspapers, The
News and Observer, the were two
headlines in the April 1, 1992
edition. One read, "Boy's sentence
surprises Wentz." The other headline
read, "Teen in boulder death spared
harsh sentence." The headlines were
referring to two different cases, one
in Raleigh, NC involving an
.African-American teenager.
IN THERA.LEIGH ease, Willie
Barnes, an African-American
teenager, was sentenced to two.years
in prison for "shoving three chool
administrators" at: Enloe High
School last November. This type of
"simple assault" is a misdemeanor
charge. This was Willie's fir t
offense with the law.
We know that discipline is a
serious problem i; public schools
and we believe tudents who push or
"shove" administrators should be
disciplined. The issue here is that the
punishment should be in response to
the offen e. To sentence this
youngster to prison as a first offender
for this type of charge seems t?O
severe. Yet, we know that there are
countless numbers of young persons
of color who wind up inside of the
nation's prison system unjustly.
According to published accounts,
Willie's parents are appealing the
sentence and the charge. His parents
say that Willie became frightened
when "three Enloe assistant
principals confronted him and that
he tried to rush pass the three in a
doorway. The administrators said
the act was an assault."
IN THE DURHAM case, a
white teenage who confessed that
"he helped drop a boulder that fatally
crushed a woman as she drove on the
Durham Freeway," received a
one-year "suspended entence" and
was released into the custody of his
parents.
First, the white youngster's name
was not reported in the press under
court order. Yet, tbere was no court
order or hesitancy to print Willie
Barnes' name on the front p ge of the
newspaper. Second, although a
person was killed in the Durham
case, the fact that the white teenager
was a first offender and had the
backing of persons in the community
that spoke in his behalf, the court
showed "compassion" and released
they youth to the "custody" of his
parents.
Certainly we are in favor of
compassion and for diverting as
many young people from the
criminal justice ystem possible.
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Puni hm nt and- race in America
"Only in America" is a
nice-sounding refrain that is usually
spoken at a moment of national pride
about a special accomplishment or
event. But for millions of persons of
color, there are many instances of the
negative role that race plays in the
area of the justice system.
In both the civil and criminal
justice s ys tems there is a prevailing
recognition that the color of one's
skin can help determine the degree to
which justice is done.
In addi tion, the color of one's skin
can also help to' determine the
. judicial decisions regarding
punishment. We have reported
before the various statistics that
confirm the racial disproportionality
. of the incarceration rate on a national
basis.
Too often, though, when the
statistics are referred to, the social
impact on the human condition is not
always clearly transmitted. For
example, when we reported that the
National Sentencing Project in
WaShington, D.C. revealed in a
national study that one in every four
African-American males between
the ages of 22 and 28 are either in
prison or facing some type of
imprisonment, there was no national
outcry for equal or racial justice. ,
THE FACT IS that white males
in the United States are viewed'
differently from non-white males by
the courts. Yet, this fact is something
very difficult for some to understand
CIVIL
RIGHTS
JOURNA
BENJAMIN
CHAVIS
But we take strong exception to
judicial decisions concerning
persons who are brought before the
courts of the nation to be primarily
determined by racial factors.
One youth drops a 6O-pound rock
from a highway overpass down into
a care of a passing motorist, which
results in the death of the driver, and
receives only a one-year suspended
sentence. Another youth pushes
three persons and gets two years in
prison. Is this justice? No, it is not
justice.
UNFORTUNATELY, these two
cases in North Carolina are only
typical of the normative behavior of
the judicial system in this nation.
Until there is equal justice for all,
there will be rio real justice for \.
anyone. We must go to the
courtrooms and demand that fairness
and racial justice be done or we all
stand to one day become victims of
this type of injustice.