(P rt On )
mo t of you n , 1-
though I m origin lly from
th E t Co t, lam currently
college dmini trator b d
in LA County. On week
after lA erupted, I w in­
vit to pea t college
orum which w de lgn d to
reflect on th ituation.
The followin were ome
of my thoughts and com-
ment. Some time ha
passed, but I offer thi two
part column another point
of reference for an important
period that COllege tudents
re entering.
What I have to say today
will take up more than my
allotted introductory five
minutes, neverthele , I will
try my be t not to use up all
of my "15 minute of fame
and glory" that everyone up­
po edly exp rience at least
once in life - at lea t I will
attempt not to today.
Just prior to the rendering
of the King verdict, a col­
league of mine said to me,
"Keith, you know, I have
worked with you for nearly
three years and I finally real­
ize that you seem to always
try to find a positive in any
situation. That you seem to
look for that silver lining."
I SAID TO her, "Yes, that
is true. I am very optimistic,
however, that is not unique in
the African community. In
fact, optimism has been an
important instrument that
Africans have used consis­
tently to navigate the U.S.
waters."
In fact there are many in­
struments, tools and rules that
we have used to maintain the
course in addition to op­
timism.
In fact one of the rules that
I will mention may initially
seem to run counter to that of
optimism, but nevertheless it
has been essential for us.
African Americans are"
very optimistic. Africans are
also very loving and forgiv­
ing people - collectively,
most of the time. Now I don't
claim to have the final word
on African Affairs, however,
I am basing these comments
on many personal experien­
ces and observations.
However, there is another
equally important rule that
· has been handed down from
generation to generation and
it does not matter if onelives
in the Caribbean, Africa, the
U.S. or anywhere else on the
planet and that is "that certain
people have declared war on
people of African descent.
And, that we unfortunately
need to be reminded of this in
order for some of us to get
busy."
IN FACT ONE of my
mentors, who is a college
president in the Midwest, has
continued to say that "to be
Black and paranoid in
America is in some ways
healthy. You see, just be-
, cause a person is paranoid,
that does not mean that some­
one is not following him."
Yes, we are at war. Some
of you may not like to hear
this and this statement is not
inte�ded to be blanket indict­
ment of all non Africans,
however ... And I know that in
the old days they used to
shoot the messenger. That is
okay because in my position
as dean, I am used to the shots
now.
I am also used to honesty.
(End of Part ODO).
- HIhTON: HIGHER
EDUCATION is designed to,
dialogue with college. an�
world readers. Educatwn IS
ongoing and certainly not
limited to classroom study.
Let's talk. (714) 899-0650., ,
nd
Did Bush m an the 1 Civil
Rights Act, which had outlawed
racial di crimination in public
accommod tion? Wa the
Pre ident blaming the ational
Housing Act of 1968, which
established the ational Housing
P rtner hip to promote the
construction of house for low to
middle income people? Or maybe
the reason Blacks rioted was due to
the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which
had established the principle of "one
person, one vote" a century after the
abolition of slavery.
VIEWS/OPINIONS
ide 0 the
color lin , th re ponse of mo t
middle nd upper cla white
Americans to the Lo Angeles unre t
w profoundly mi ed. Opinion
pol howed new ppreciation 0
the ghe tto' ocioeconomic
problems, nd great r ympathy for
th raci m e perienced by
African-Americans within the Ie 1
y t m.
But middle clas white in
outhern California also took
immedi te reps to protect
them lv , fearing that police
would b unable to chec th unrest.
In the first eleven days of May,
California residents purchased
20,578 guns, a 50 percent increase
over last year's rate.
Frightened corporate executives
and professionals who had never
owned firearms now stood in line,
demanding shotguns and
semiautomatic weapons. The
National Rifle Association, with 2.8
READERS WRITE
•
Quayle's crazy? Read on!
Did Vice President Quayle put his
foot in his mouth again last week?
Well, at first glance, it appeared
so.
But then I read excerpts from his
speech before the Commonweal th
Club of California.
"Right now the failure of our
families is hurting America deeply.
When families fail, society fails.",
says Quayle.
Sounds good to me. Besides, I
often heard Rev. Jesse Jackson and
Minister Louis Farrakhan make
those type of statements. In fact, you
can hear that every Sunday in most
of this city's churches. So why all the
hype!
In 1960, 73.6 percent of Black
families were married couples com­
pared to slightly more than 50 per­
cent in 1990. (Culture Against Men
by Jules Henry p.147) Ironically,
communities were safer, and cleaner
places to live.
Now let's deal with Mr. Quayle's
critical comment about the Murphy
Brown "television series and the
character's statement about SIngle
parenting beingjust another lifestyle
choice." Television reflects society
and we know the numbers of single­
parent headed households increase
every day. Therefore, Mr. Quayle is
barking up the wrong tree by going
after prime time T.V. The message
should have been: Children benefit
from a strong two-parent household,
and the poverty and despair that has
covered areas such as South Central
Los Angeles and Detroit can be
linked to the decline of the. family
and values that are missing from
some of these homes.
LET'S FACE IT, the people
who looted businesses in south
central Los Angeles and other com­
munities across the country were
lawbreakers at best (if not crooks).
And if some of those looters were
African American, then our leader­
ship should've scolded theirlawles -
ness and not shifted all the blame
solely on federal policies.
The Vice President also said, "the
lawless social anarchy which we saw
is directly related to the breakdown
of family structure, personal res n­
sibility and social order in too many
areas of our society."
He's right. But many politicians
and activists have blamed the
Reagan and Bush administration for
what happened in south central Los
Angeles.
Well I, too, can point out some
definitive problems with federal
policies of the last twelve years;
however, the biggest obstacle in my
neighborhood is disrespect, lack of
responsibility, and a cloudy focus.
It's short sighted to blame
Washington DC., Lansing, or even
Mayor.Young when the public park
in my neighborhood is sprinkled
with broken forty-ounce beet bottles
from the "hangin-out" of the pre­
vious night. I blame the disrespectful
folk who tossed the bottle. (Besides,
usually, the bottle is worth ten
cents!)
I'VE SAT THROUGH discus­
sions in which some of my friends
complain about the "bleak" job
market. "How am I doing to make it
on five dollars an hour'!", many of
them of say. And they go one better
and charge Governor Engler wi th
racism because they have a "low
See QUAYLE, A10
##
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• • •• ,.. .J
.: •••• ��.�?
.711£ ENGLER RECALL
/5 &01(,(1
UT am race/cl faul t
line which trembled and shook
cro s impoveri hed outhcentral
Lo Angeles also run directly
beneath the affluent white uburb
well.
This time, Blac and Latino
young rebels weren't content to
de troy the symbols of ghetto
economic exploitation. Violence
and arson unexpectedly truck
against white-owned property acro
Los Angles County. The Bloods and
Crip street gangs e tablished a
fragile peace pact, announcing to the
media that the current street violence
was "a slave rebellion, like other
youn
ri eized ir
o n treet nd neighborhood
could tr vel to the home nd
b ine e of the po erful nd
privileged. Thi violence is a
d pen wamin to tho ho
never no n unemployment,
poverty, hun er or police brutality.
Ei ther change will come from
bove, or it will be taken nd
demanded from belo . That' our
choice, and the time for ociety'
decision' hort. The next race/c1
eruption wai .
Dr. Manning Marable is
Professor of Political Science and
History, University of Colorado.
"Along the Color LiM" appt!lll's in
over 250 publications and SO radio
stations intotultioNJlly.
II
created under-cla
By JAMES E. ALSBROOK
lilt's their own fault ifsome Black
people are poor," cried an obviously
Northern white female voice on the
talk how telephone. "They had the
same chance I had." She received
wild applause.
Later, a orthern white man in
the audience repeated the same idea
and received a loud ovation.
Southern white people do not call
in and make such ridiculous claims.
They know better, for they have
witnessed and practiced habitual
racial discrimination for nearly 400
years.
Why would the Northern white
and the Southern white differ in
perception of the Black experience?
The answer lies in historical
'differences in basic philosophy of
the two regions: the South imposed
267 years of legal slavery and nearly
100 years of traditional racial
discrimination on Black people. The
North usually bad only mild racial
later were segregated into inferior
institutions, in the North children
were required to attend school. In
border states, schools attended by
Blacks were often inferior to
Northern school but much better
than Southern schools.
- Whereas in Dixie Black
familieS were broken up and its
members old individually as laves,
in the North limited slavery was
short-lived and families were free to
remain as Wlits and were expected to
do so.
- Whereas in Dixie the slaves
had no incentive to wolk, except the
whip, in the North Blacks were free
to work for employers who would
pay, thus benefiting from the Work
Ethic and incentives available to all
others.
In thi climate of individual
initiative the development of the
Black middle c w possible. A
Blac middle class developed in the
South also, mainly fier the 1900 and
in citie removed from the b cltwater
discrimination varying with distance
from Dixie.
THE NORTH through bistory
has been peopled and traditionalized
by a culture that admired the Work
Ethnic - the sacred rite and duty
requiring personal sweat and
hands-on physical labor. .
The South, on the other hand,
admired white idleness and white
privilege based on Black Slavery,
Black sweat and a cruel assortment
of forced labor techniques including
beatings, lynchings and demeaning
behavior rituals.
White people in the North need to
discuss several subjects history
books do not mention because
publishers want to ell books in Deep
Dixie:
- Slavery's general prohibition
and condemnation of Black '
marrying.
- Slavery' destruction of Black
families in order to sell men, women
and children eparately.
- Slavery'S provision that hard
work would not bring freedom or
personal reward.
- Slavery's law prohibiting
Blacks from learning to read or
write.
Slavery's demanding
pregnancy of teenage girls to
produce more babies for sale and to
enlarge the slave population and
replace dead laves.
PERHAPS WE can clarify better
the differences between the racial
practices of the North as contrasted
with those of the South:
- Whereas in Dixie the slaves
were generally prohibited to marry,
in the orth all people were expected
to meet community standards of
marriage or be " hunned" by
"re pectable people" and
c ndemned for "living in sin."
- Whereas in Dixie Blacks were
prohibited f!om going'to cbool and
trongholds of rampant bigotry and •
racial abuse.
JUST AS PRESENT
Appalachian descendants of
indentured servants have not
recovered from serfdom in Europe
and isolation in this nation, and just
as some white people have not
recovered from slavery as recent
100 years ago in Eastern Europe, so
the Black under-class in Alu(ica has
not recovered from its e lavement
and degradation in the South. ,
Black under-class people Deed
cooperation - not condemnation.
Their riot w a cry from attention
and help.
That help hould come ideally not
from the federal treasury but from
the source of the problem - the old
lave states of the Confederacy.
They exported very much of their
badly damaged human goods to Los
Angeles and elsewhere.
