e people n convinc
ingly challen e the f ct tb t
the African American pre
i peerle when it come to
covering local or community
events.
We lso believe that the
Aftican American P d
an bove ver ge job of
coverin national d inter-
nation 1 even from an
African perspective.
By in 1 rge, the African
American p' fill n in
valuable void with regard to
new coverage, however, too
many of the rticles are pre
rele e - econd nd some
times even third hand.
Neverthele , we present
the following example of
national and international ar
ticle that we ad in
numerous African American
newspaper - from January
thru July. Some of these ar
ticle were also reported on
in the non African press as
well. Keep supporting the
African press.
WE BELIEVE that the
African American pre will
continue to lead the way
throughout the year.
JANUARY - Dr. King
Holiday Celebrations, the
Nation of Islam - Kemron
for AIDS virus, the Azania
Youth Organization
threatens to use violence
against Paul Simon and later
Whoopi Goldberg, the
Austrialian Olympic Basket
ball team threatens to boycott
if Magic Johnson plays. .
FEBRUARY Dr.
Leonard Jefferies vs. the City
University of New York
episode continues, Dr. Ben
Hooks of the NAACP an
nounces retirement, Mike
Tyson convicted of rape,
Alex Haley dies.
MARCH - The late Rev.
James Cleveland and AIDS,
Harvard, Law Professor Der
rick Bell pledges to stay
away from Harvard,
Katherine Dunham ends her
fast in protest of Haitians
mistreatment, Jamaican
Prime Ministq Michael
Manley announces retire
ment.
�RIL - Stanley S.
Scott dies of cancer, P J. Pat
terson chosen Jamaica Prime
Minister, Arthur Ashe and
AIDS, Virginia Union's bas
ketball team crowned Div. II
champions.
MAY - Los Angeles
erupts after Rodney
King/Police officers verdict,
Ramona African of MOVE
freed, Rickey Henderson
steals his 1000th base in
baseball, Iman marrie David
Bowie. .
JUNE - Rev. Jesse Jack
son to head NAACP?, A.O.
Gaston chosen Entrepreneur
of the Century, Bill Clin
ton/Sister Souljah controver
sy, Dr. Lenora Fulani defeats
Ron Daniels on Peace .and
Freedom Ticket in Califor
nia.
JULY - Coverage of
Democratic Convention in
New York, five African
Americans receive Mac
Arthur Fellowships, Abu
Bakr released in Trinidad,
African American ,gangs in
LA maintain truce, Minister
Farrakhan says "Beware of
Malcolm X Movie," UNCF's
Bill Gray proclaims that
"Education is the Key."
HILTON: HIGHER
EDUCATION is duigtiU to
dialogue with college and
world reaMrs. Education is
ongo�g and certainly not
limited to classroom study.
Let's talk: (714) 899-0650.
VIEWS/OPINIONS
...... .Lo.&� W no other bu
going to Wedowee that afternoon.
My father wandered from the tation
into the treet, feeling "really
disgusted." Although he eventually
obtained ride home by hi tchhiking ,
on the highway, my father never
forgot the hatred in the driver's
words.
Nearly a half century later, he still
keen! y feels his resentment and rage
of that winter afternoon in Anniston.
"When you go against the grain of
raci m," he states today, "you pay for
denied access to good paying jobs
and participation in the economic
process, while the UA W does noth
ing.
As the UA W' does not want to
attack the Japanese people, neither
do I want to nor do I attack the UA W
members.
It's important to me not to make
UA W workers scapegoats for their
leaders racist and anti-Black be
havior.
UAW WORKERS ARE be
coming victims too, as Blacks have
been.
The UA W members must under
stand that as Blacks watched
manufacturing jobs leave the inner
cities, it has negatively impacted our
standard of living, The export of jobs
from the uburbs to foreign countries
will have the arne impact on their
standard of living. ' ,
The negative economic forces
that impact Blacks, although not im
mediately, will eventually affect the
white UA W members standard of
living. An illustration is the an
nounced clo ing of the Ypsilanti GM
plant.
While the UAW structure i af
fected by plant clo ing and other
structural changes in the American
society, the Black leadership within
the UA W is being decimated by the
present white dominated structure.
The UAW managed to decrease
the number of Black regional direc
tors with no intent of cultivating
Blacks for present and future leader-
it, one yor not er."
Wh t m ny white Americ n
h ve n ver fully und tood i that
"r ci m" i not ju t the ocial
di rimin lion, poli tic I
di fr nchi ement nd ct 0
e traleg I violence which exi ted
und r Jim Crow egregation.
" ci m" i not imply the" ilent
di crimination" felt by my
generation of African-Am ricans,
wore frequently denied acces to
credit nd pital by unfair b nking
practice, or who encounter the
"gla ceiling" inside bu in es,
limiting their job dvan ment.
R cism is mo t painful in its
mall t manifestations: tb white
merchant who drop change on the
al counter, rather than to tou h th
hand of a Blac person; the white
teach r who d liberately avoids the
upraised hand of a Latino student in
class, giving whi te pupil an
unspo en advantage.
THI SO T 0 racism
generates a feeling of rage within the
very soul of the oppre sed, an anger
which was clearly seen in the streets
of South-Centeral Los Angele this
year.
My children, Malaika, Sojouner
and Joshua, have experienced thi
same sort of rage by the petty
di crimi tio of ily life. y
complain that their textboo don't
h ve enou h inform tion bout th
ontributio of Afri -Ameri
to our ociety. Wh n my on goe to
the hoppin m 11, he ha been
followed and h ed by ecurity
guar .
White children h ve moved items
aw y from th re ch of my on,
beca e they believe the tereotyp
that "all Blac teal." My daughter
Sojourner h d white te c e
who were h tile and unsympathetic
toward h r demic development.
As Malika, my fifteen-year-old
daughter explains: "White people
often mi [udge you j t by the w y
you look, without getting to know
you. Thi make me feel angry
inside."
A new generation of
African-Americans who never
p rsonally marched for civil rights,
and who never witn ed the crimes
of. egregation, feel the same rage
expre ed by my seventy-year-old
father. They c1earlycomprehend the
racial hypocrisy of the court system.
ONE RECENT EXAMPLE
from Southern California-in San
Fernado, postman shot and killed a
pesky German shepherd dog on his
mail route. The postman wa
Commission were filed against the
UAW,
AND AS OF this writing, the out
come is still pending.
Additional complaints have 'been
filed against the UA W with various
government agencies. At the ap
propriate time, a lawsuit against the
UAW regarding race, age and sex
discrimination will be filed.
Specifically, Mr. Stephen P.
Yokich, Vice President and Director
UA W General Motors Department
was directly in charge of the Detroit
Center Dislocated Worker Program.
The approval to clo e the Detroit
Center and abandon the Black UA W
laid off workers came from Mr.
Yokich, Without his permi ion and
approval, the Detroit Center would
have never closed-never.
Additionally, Black employees
wi th the UA W-GM Human
Resource Center-Detroit were rep
re ented by a weak union with a
weaker leader, former Pre ident,
Theresa Horner, Office and Profes-
ional Employee International
Union Local 42.
WITHIN OPEIU repre ented
bargaining unit, there were ap
proximately 148 employees. Thi in
cluded roughly 30 white male', 13
Black female, 103 white females,
and exactly 2 Black males as of April'
1,1991.
After the Detroit clo ing, only 1
Black male was left in the unit.
Based on these statistic, the
Michigan Civil Rights Department
t,
The ge whic boiled over into
violence in Lo An ele i
experienced by aIm t every pe on
of color in America. Unle whit
come to feel outra ed we ve
alway been bout prejudice, more
conflict and tra dy cro raci I
line . inevi ble.
Manning Marable' Professor of
Political Science and Hi tory,
University of Color do, Boulder.
"Along the Color Line" ppears in
over 250 public tion , and i
broadcast by more than SO radio
tatio intemationally.
"'vJ� A'?£ PolSj;:{) FoR- AN �oM/c.. �V02..'1." -G.�
READERS WRITE
of UAW raci
m
Your February 5-11,1992 article
by Ron Seigel entitled "UA W: Japan
guilty of racial bias" was startling
and a typical case of the pot calling
the kettle Black.
As Japan is guilty of racial dis
crimination, the UA W is equally
guil ty of the same act.
The UA W points out racist prac
tices against Blacks by the Japanese
on American soil, While the UA W
equally engages in racial discrimina
tion on American soil against
America's Black citizens.
As good paying union jobs left
the inner cities for the suburb, there
was no protest from the UA W
leadership. As the' inner cities lose
their manufacturing base for racial
reasons, the UA W leads no protests,
demands no changes but remains
silent.
Only now does the UA W demand
change, because the good paying
manufacturing jobs are being lost
from the suburbs to foreign
countries.
FROM BLACK Americans'
perspective, the export of jobs from
inner cities to the suburbs is the same
the export of job from United
States to Mexico and other foreign
countries.
Mr. Seigel would lead the readers
to believe that the Japanese racism is"
far more contemptuous than that of
the UA W leadership.
Whether that' true or not is be
sides the point. The consequences
are the arne: Blacks are being
ship roles.
I MET RECENTLY with the
UAW Black Caucus at the Trade
Union Leadership Council where
Black members complained vehe
mently and bitterly about being
denied opportunities for committee
assignments and appointee positions
within the UAW.
Many stated that they were asked
to prepare resumes for internal posi
tions within the UA Wand ubmit for
review and evaluation. However,
their white counterparts ere never
requested to prepare resum or any
other documents for available posi
tions. And by the time Blacks ub
mitted their resumes, the po itions
had been filled, by whites.
Moreover, a of April 1, 1991,
The Detroit UAW-GM Human
Resource Center wa clo ed by the
UA W with the concurrence of GM
management, which provided
employment and training services to
a predominately Blac population
laid off from GM due .to plant clos
ings.
The Detroit Center, which served
the largest population of dislocated
workers, was the only Center closed
by the UA W. The Center wa
managed and staffed by Blacks.
When the UA W clo ed the Detroit
Center, like the Japanese, ,it aban
doned Black GM laid off workers
and Detroit. .
In response to the clo ing of the
Detroit Center, race, age and sex di -
crimination complaints with the
Michigan Civil Righ Department
and Equal Opportunity Employment
representatives encouraged those at
feeted to investigate the prospects
for a class action lawsuit against the
UA W -OM Human Resource Center
Headquarters, which comes under
the direct jurisdiction of Mr. Yokich. '
A commi ttee of former Black
OPEIU has been established to in
vestigate and pursue the clas action
issue further. All present and former
employees-both white and Black-are '
welcome to join.
The clo ing of the Detroit Center
April 1, 1991 for racially motivated
rea ons was offensive enough. The
offensiveness was compounded
when the UA W sent a letter dated
March 14,1991 to various union of
ficials announcing the closing while
outsourcing professional' job per
formed by Black Counselors, Job
Developer, Employability
Specialist and other supportive staff.
IN OTHER WORDS, a the
UA W leadership announced the
closing of the Detroit Center, it was
soliciting community agencies to
provide the arne services Black
workers provided at the Detroit Cen
ter.
Thi i known as OUTSOURC
ING within the automotive industry
and the UA W h trongly fought it.
yet the jobs of Black workers were
olicited for OUTSOURCING.
As recent as two months ago, the
taff from UAW-GM Human
Resource Center-Pontiac, Detroit's
My (ath r w caring hi army
uniform, d proudly di playing his
med Is.
Quietly be pure d his tic et,
and tood p tiently in line to enter the
mallb
WH Y E fin lly
re ched the b driver, the whi te man
w tarting intensely t him. With
an ugly frown, the driver took tep
b ck. "Nigger," he pat at my father,
"you look Ii you're going to give
omebody ome trouble. You d
better wait here for the next bus."
My father was confu ed and
angry. "As a oldier, you alway felt
ort of proud," my dad recalls. This
bus driver's remar "bit me like a
ton of bricks. Here I am, going
home, and I' 'been way from the
South for fOVl yeatS. I w n't being
READER,A10
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