why
hen
HOWE WHAT felt by
tuden and educators alike w bort lived for two ,
l)tbe humor, warmth nd openness that the twi exhibited nd
2)Compton College, afterall, w d to thi day, remai a
predominantly African American colleg , ith this com
a lot of old f hioncd family love nd African "values".
It was the right thing and the African thing to welcome them
in. Sometimes, however, I believe that we have a tendency to
down play too much of our cultural b .
'My own personal contact with Yvonne and Yvette w
primarily in my capacity bead of the college' Learning
Center/Academic Resources Center.
With some studen ,it is just plain (Ii cult to convince them
to come in for extra sista� when they are ving difficulty
in clas .
However, regular readers of this column are aware that I am
also an advocate of studcms taking adv mage of a college'
academic upport programs even if they are doing well in ct s.
For example, why settle for a B+ when an A is just arourd the
comer?
THE TWINS WERE regular visitors to the center, eager to
learn and also eager to chat. In fact, at the end of the 1986-87
academic year, we presented them with appreciation certificates
from the Learning Center taff.
I saw I of the twins during my second aM third years at
tbe college, however, whenever our paths cros ed, we alway
engaged in "lively" conversations.
When I learned that Yvonne and Yvette McCarther had died
at the ages 43, I toought back to some of too conversations. I
suppo e that will be one way to preserved their energetic spirits.
The purpose of this particular column is not to use overused
phrases about life and death, but rather to pause and say that
these were two tudents ho did more than j t i pire other
colle tu4en ;t"hey i DC s:QJI� �UFa­
tor.
, .
Hilton: Higher Education is designed to dialogue with col­
lege and world readers. Education is ongoing and certainly not '
. limited to classroom study. Let's taJJc. (909) 899-0650.
•
(J/JilliOIl\ \ i( u: !
- - --- -- ---------_____J
READERS WRITE
tate of mergency
tor Jack ma e in U.
By Ron Daniela about 55% of white income after all
A few weeks ago the National of the "progress" of the sixties and
Urban League released its annual seventies.
State of Black America Report. NUL Many inner-city areas look like
President John B. Jacobs charac- bombed out war zones with count-
terized the condition of Africans in less blocks of dilapidated houses, pot
America as, "bleak despair coun- holed marked streets and trash filled
tered by fresh hope." alley ways aoo vacant lots.
Again t the backdrop of the Tuberculosi ,AIDSandotherlife
changing of the guard at the White threatening diseas have reached
House, Mr. Jaco ' mild mannered epidemic proportions in many Black
pronouncements on the state of communities as health care centers
Black America generated very little' and hospitals have hut own in
public note or discussion. It is a Black neighborhoods.
mea ure of how far the Black Drugs, crime, violence and fratri­
Agenda has faded from the con- cide have become th scourge of the
lousnes of the American public urban ghettos. Devastation, death
and slipped off of the American ard despair i the state of the Black
genda that the desperate plight of poor. A state of emerg ncyexi ts for
the Black masses received so little the Black m under what can
attention. only be described as a callous, racist
Mr. Jaco 'sense of "hope" that y tern of brutal exploitation and op-
the Clinton Admini tration would pression.
respond to the plight of the Black
m i also symptomatic of the
current cri is of Black leadership.
While some African Americans
a-re comfortably n ted in the quie­
tude of suburbia, life i not j ust bleak
for the m e of Black poor and
working people in the inner-cities,
life is a dis ter.
Black unemployment is officially
listed as nearly 15%, but in reality it
is much higher because so many
Black people have 1 t hope of ever
. finding a job.
U MPLOY N among
Black youth is probably in the �ge
of 40-60%. And underemployment,
the confinement of part-time job
aoo job with pitifully low wag
coOdemns a di proportionat num­
ber of Bl ck folks to be among this
nation' workin poor.
) Black income remains tailed
I WA TRUCK by the fact that
Mr. Jacobs could be so matter of fact,
even professorial in detailing the dis­
aster that is the tate of the m es of
Africans in America.
For nearly three decades, under
Democratic aoo Republican adrnin­
istrtions, the NUL has correctly been
erring that the depth vf the crisis
in Black America demands a Do­
mestic Marshall Plan; a mas ive
commitment of resources for hous­
ing, infra- tructure, education and
health care.
The problem is that no on eerns
to be Ii tening to the quiet exhorta­
tions 0 Mr. Jacobs and the NUL, not
even th new President.
Mr. Jacob ay that there i hope
in Black America that Mr. Qinton
will do th right thing. He was forced
to �ncede, however, that Presid nt
Clinto'n' economic reoovery pro-
/.
gram i i nadeq uate to meet the needs
of the mo t desperately di advan­
taged in the Black community.
He notes that "the League' plan
is bolder: it would commit more re­
ource for a longer time frame and
would be structured in a more ac­
countable fashion."
LA T R IN THE report Mr. Ja­
cobs laments that, "in a straitened
economic environment, the annual
S50 billion price tag for the Domes­
tic Marshall Plan ... may eem too
much." Mr. Jacobs then reiterates his
hope that the new adrnini tration will
see the wisdom of investing in Black
America.
Well in my view, Africans in
America must move beyond moral
appeal and "hope" to the meaningful
exerci e of Black power in th i nter­
est of the Black mas e . Leaders like
John E. Jacob need to stop ing 0
timid and call for direct action to
dramatize the demand for a Dome -
tic Marshall Plan and much more
(Reparations).
Does Mr. Jaco
interests of the Bl k m
viewed by President Clinton b In
on the arne par as the interests 0
corporate America and wealthy elite
in this country? Th e forces are not
reduced to being hopeful, they will
flex their nsiderable muscle at all
lev I to promote -and prot t their
interest.
Uol we Black people are
educated to the need t unapologeti­
cally promote'and protect our inter­
es then we will alway e betrayed
by politicians, who may mean well,
but are beholden t th rich and th
uper-rich, the corporations and the
military-industrial comple .
. ofbru hi
remain on the city yroU
involved in 0 many inciden of
brutality nd murder g inst the
'den of the city?
Q no I into a
myriad of possible nal which
eek to uncover the n ture nd
character of dom tic neo-colonialism
in the United Stat at present.
Despite the P nee of increasing
numbers of African-American elected
representativ ,the overall opp ive
economic and political conditio of
African people remain in a tate of
perpetual crises.
In D troit for example, it was
reported in a recent newspaper article
that only 40% of the city' adult
population is gainfully employed. This
is taking pI in a time period when
we are hearing more discussion from
official eircl about th need to curtail
"crime and gang-rela d· activity" in
wbanareas.
During the presidential campaign
of Bill Clinton he oft n spoke about a
proposal that would place 100,000
newly trained and armed police
officers on the treets of urb n areas
throughout the country.
OOCH�!
7"
"*
UC of aff ir
involving African-American political
economy ould require a more
tringent co of cnon coming from
the roo level. H this becomes the
minant 0 emp . then it
WOuld in vitably pi ce the official
political eli in a m re precano
ition.
For example, if m Bl c
rebellion were erupt in Detroit, the
city dmini tration would request the
istance of the ational Guard aDd
the U.S. Armed Fo ; w doneby
yor Tom radJey in Los Angel in
April and y. Also in Atlanta, Mayor
M yn rd Jack on called out the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
to ist the police in preventin further
demon trations and rebellion b
Atlanta Unive ity tudents in the
aftermath of the Rodney King verdict,
which cquitted four white police
officers in his brutal beating in Los
Angeles.
Despite both the national repressive
and local neo-coloniali t tructures, the
will to prote t and rebel gainst
injustice is still prevalent among the
African-American people in Detroit
and throughout the country.
� mood was quite evident in the
re ponse of the community to the
murder of Green. 20,000 people Came
Gay rights
and the Black
Freedom
movement
, . �
The battle for human equality and
ocial j u tice know no color
boundari . Black Americans and
Latinos are of course all too familiar
with the stinging darts of prejudice
and bigotry. Yet aero this country,
the historic opponents of Black and
Latino equality are harpening their
rhetorical knive against another mi­
nority group-l bians and gay men.
For decade homosexual in th
United State have experienced
deeply-entrenched patterns and poli­
cies of di crimination, including: ex­
pulsion from the armcd ervices:
being fired from places of employ­
ment lely du to one' exual ori­
entation rather than job
performance; the denial of full legal
rights for gay couple ; beingrejected
from public ccommodations; and
., th 10 s of renting apartmen or
dwellings. States such as Georgia
pas ed -called anti- rodomv law
targeting hom exuals. Th rights
guaranteed to all Americans under
'the Constitution ere all to fre­
quently denied to gay and les ians,
However, beginning in the 19 Os,
le bian and gay liberati n group
came into being, calling for greater
civil ngh and political empower­
ment. In citi . uch as San Franci co
and ew York, gay created political
ociations, and quickly became a
growing influcnce in ide the liberal
WIng of the m rati Party.·
During the p t two decade,
ven tat and a out 110 commu-
throu ut the United States
RON
DANIELS
•
VANTAGE
POINT
IF THIS NATI N can quander
billions of dollars in unn c ary
military/war pending, then it can
and'rnust find the money to alleviate
the tate of emergency which afflicts
the Bla k mas es in thi ountry.
In tead of capitulating to the
"straitened economic environment,"
Mr. Jacobs hould have pi ced th
upport of the NUL b hind thc many
organizations who are demanding
that the military/War budget be ut
by at I t 50-75�. Then aD mestic
Marshall Plan for Black America
would be po ible.
The mas e of Bla k poor and
working people arc uffcring, and we
don't need to be polite a out ex­
pressing our determination that, "it
will either b fr d m for everyb dy
or freedom for nobody."
Our leaders must learn the I on
that Frederick Dougle conveyed
more than a ntury ago, "p wer
conced n thing with ut a demand.
it never has it never will."
Ron Daniel erv a! Pre ident
1 the Institute for Community Or­
ganization and Development in
Youngstown, Ohio. H may b con­
tacted at (216) 746- 747.
The Michigan
Citizen
welcome
letters from
it' re ders'
- --� ---.
Itaeoearsfrom lbestl1eJ:laents
by communi ty people t
tuation' not ed in
they feel' j t within the Ie m,
there will be ponse from the
roo .
o need to do t the
bility of African-Amen to initia
m rebellion in the 1 . The
ponse to the Rodney King verdict,
where rebellio occurred in 28 citi
the country, volumes
more on the condition nd
comcious 0 African-Ameri
than the sterile analyses offered by the
more mod rate andconservative BI
offici .
It is quite obvio that the peopl
themselve , m ning the poor and
working masse , are cl moring to
make their voice heard and re
utiuzing aU mean nece ary to
achieve uch ends.
TIle question then becomes: where
d the truggle of African people go
beyond the point of urban rebellion and
electoral politics? This' the question
that m t be am ered by the dvanced
elemen in the oommunity.lt would
eem that those within
the organizations and institutio
seeking to transform the daily lives of
Africans and to also change the ystem
of U.s. racism, national opp ion and
exploitation, would be grappling
in nsely with the issue of exlending
the African-American struggle' toward
greater heights aimed at total
liberation.
And within the process of seekicg
solutio ncwerfoonsof i tanceand
struggle will eme further enriching
the herita of Afri in the world
movemen for human rights and
natioDalliberation. -
Note: '11u! author is w editor of
Pambana joamal and the director of
the Pan-African Research and
Documenuuion Project at Wayne State
University.
DR.
MANNING
I MARABLE
ALONG THE
COLOR
LINE
THE REAGAN administration
rea ted a more repres ive environ­
ment for lesbian and gay right •
aero s the country, as aggressively ..
homophobic rhetoric was encour- ..
aged at the highest levels of govern- ..
ment. But it was only in the p t four
year, under former Pre ident
George Bush, that right-wing think
tank like the Heritage Foundation .
took active aim to target the rights of
homos xual .
In Ore on I t year, tatewide
Ballot Measure w propo ed the
amendment of the tate' constltu­
tion reel ifying homosexuality as
"abnormal, wrong, unnatural and
pervers ." The measure would have
forced all level of tate government
to actively discourag homosexual-
i ty. Thi propo al w 0 controver- -
ial and extreme that few believed at
first that it could be P sed. 'Never- .
theles ,43 percent of all Oregon vot­
ers Backed this hate-filled measure.
In Colorado, the conservativ
ursued a more clever strategy of
hate. Amendment 2, placed on the
Color do ballot last fall, prohibited
any community or city in th tate
from ping local civil rights ordi­
nanc to protect gay' aoo lesbi '
ri h .
Amendment 2 adv , ates claimed
that they didn't want to upp the
ri ht of homo exual , but only
wanted to prohibit th definition of
lesbians and gay as a protected c�
or minority group with " pecial
rights." The .language of Amend­
ment 2 eemed "reasonable" com­
par d to th Oregon initiativ . A
S Right ,A10_
