THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY
-
Who was the first American to perform a title role in a
Scandinavian language?
DECE:MBER 23, 1955 - Montgomery, Al bama bus boycott
began in December of this year. 1869-MadameC.J. Walker,
first African-American woman millionaire, was born.
How many Black delegates attended the 1972 Republican
National Convention? .
DECE:MBER 24, CHRISTMAS EVE. 1920's - Under the
leedershipofCharle Spaulding, TheN.C. Mutual and Provi­
dent Association became the largest Black-owned business in
the U.S. 1896 - The National Association of Colored Women
(NACW) was founded. 1832 - Charter granted to the Georgia
Infirmary, the first Black hospital. .
What was the name of the first hospital established for Blacks
west of the Mississippi River? _
DECE:MBER 25, CHRISTMAS DAY. 1760 - Jupiter
Hammon became first published Black poet with his poem, An
Evening Thought. 1900 - The first meeting of of the National
Negro Business League was attended by over 400 delegates
from 84 states.
Who is LaDonna Gaines?
Answers
19th - Duke Ellington. 20th - Larry Nance.
21 - Har e . �d·- Ie Hyman.
23rd - Fifty Six. 24th - Douglass Hospital.
25th - Donna Summer.
c : () A I� I tlf J () N
Dennis Rivera, Chairman
R·ev. Jesse Jackson, President & Founder
Jesse Jackson Jr., Field Director/Editor
HEALTH CARE I
Part II
'."Health Care Reform & The Insurance Companies"
THE CLINTO HEALTH PROPOSAL
WDC- The health in urance industry has b n highly profitable.
contributing to sk: rocketing health car co ts. whil coverage and
rvice for p ople are bing .ut ba k. "We are tired of insurance
companie running our health car syst m" d clar d Hillary Rodham
linton as she d nounced the industry to strong popular upport. Yet.
the 1m lementation of Clinton' . 'mana ed com etition" \V II ut the
w:n..UlSllDWllQID.RaJ�unlS�rla.'II� r .. 9°:J;0tl • Paul
Starr and Walter Zelman, major architects of Clinton 's proposal, describe
the core of the propo al a the in urance takeover or the health care
y tem, They r cently wrote that "th plan is d signed to encourage th
integration of health insurance and health care provision into the same
orgenization. The more integrated the plans th better able [the insurance
companies] will be to control costs." .
The insurance companies op rate in the health sector with one
objective: to incree their profits. Making the insurance companies the
managers of health car is to put the' arch for quality health care and
cost avings in the hands of the profit seekers. Thus, the Clinton
proposal, and even more 0 the ooper, hatee and Gramm
proposal, will trengthen one or the major reasons for our present
predicament or high co t and limited covera e - the Insurance
companl . The profitability of the insuranc industry is be d not only
on I cting and creening patients, but on favoring tho providers who
consume the fewe t r ource. fr qu ntly interf ring with the quality of
care.
( ) J1 i II ill 1/ \ "i ( , " . ,\
Few 0 ervers, ho r, be-
lieve that the sanctions will have
any effect in th near term and
hence a protracted talemate
seems to be in p1"08�.
, FRO Y VANT GE
point the Governors Island Ac­
cord flawed from the incep­
tion. From the beginning of the
crisis tb goal of the U.S., rk­
ing under the cloak of the U.N.,
has been to structure a formula
Aristide i loved and revered
by the Haitian ma e and
f red and hated by much of th
Haitian elite beca he has pro­
claimed that the elite has too
much oft land, money, power,
privilege and wealth.
The Haitian m revere
Aristide because they see in him
and the political party/move.
ment hich he is building the
promis of the redistribution of
land, wealth, power and privi­
lege and the creation of a better
life for the common woman and
man in Haiti.
Aristide is not just another
Black faoe committed to occupy­
ing the p idency to p ide
,
,
,
•
By J ames E. Alshrook
o
When I was' about 12 years
old, a white insurance salesman
came to our front door, smirked
and asked my mother, "How'ze
yawl dooin', Auntie? Ain't yawl
needin' insurance?" Mother
slammed the door in his faoe.
Later, when! operated a busi­
ness, I went to Holton, Kan., to
buy poultry. The dealer looked
at me and asked, "How's yawl,
Amos? Ain't yawl feelin' good?" I
told him who I was and canceled
my purchase. He quickly apolo­
gized, said he needed money,
that he spoke as he did because
no Black people lived anywhere
near Holton and that he got his
imp ion of Blacks by listen­
ing to '�s 'n' Andy" on radio
and television
I told him his false dialect was
insulting and that th ; verb Ain't
i used by white bigots as a de­
liberately degrading code word
implying the noun, "nigger."
Many similar experiences
have happened to me and other
Blacks, but in early October it
happened to Michael Jordon
when he retired."
" AY IT 'T 0, Mike,"
the Chicago Sun-Times
screamed in a fron page bold
face headline treamer. I lis­
tened to Jordan's 45-minute
p conferen. Never once did
population of the nation.
When Morley Safer featured
Arthur Ashe on "60 Minutes"
several y rs ago, he said Ashe
had the manners, values and
speech of a white man. The im­
plication was that Black people
by nature are inferior to whites.
AFER LATER apologized,
but his original "slip" revealed
(1) his hidden belief in double
standards on racial matters and
(2) his wid ly shared craving to
gain fe ling of racial upe­
riority by d nigrating Black peo-
pl . ,
Rush Limbauagh and oth r
talk show cons rvati mirk or
gesture and us the racist ain't
cod word to d nigrate Bl ck
poopl .
af r is th 1 t
of holocaust-co ious
who re t ly have w
"cultural holocaust" on Blacks,
Sixty y ago BI cks uf-
f red through "Amos 'n' Andy,"
the obnoxiou , BI c -d nigrat­
ingtra tybyF man
and Charles Corr 11. Th
men's financial su in ra
exploitation must have encour­
aged George Gershwin to pro­
duce his rae -degr ding and
ain't-riddled "Porgy and •
teleca t Octob r 6 on Public
'onofthe
over a more benign
tat quo.
PO R P GE
even in Bl c face concede
nothing ithout a truggle.
Th ho have benefited from
their privileged positio ill
not relinquish their po r and
privil without a fierce trug­
gle.
They ould prefer to kill Aria­
tide and laughter his upport­
e rather than face a future
wh re they can no longer live the
good life parasitically exploiting
the Haitian masses. Therefore,
it is naive to think that Ced
and Francois and their thu
will urrender power fully.
Even if Cedras and Franoois
tep do n, they will always
posed threat as long they are "
in the country. The xile of Ce-
d and Francois and all of the
principal leade of the coup
hould be seen as a pre-oondition
to the return of President Aria­
tide. This would clear the way
for the reorganization of the
army and the police in order to
insure that they will function on
behalf of those duly selected to
exercise po er.
Any formula other than one
that contains th e elements is a
sham.
Under current conditions the
partial sanctions which have
been imposed' are not Ii ly to
ha much effect and there is the
possibility that comprehensive'
sanctions could indeed take a
much higher toll on the Haitian
masses than on the elite without
forcing Cedras and Francois
from power.
u .S. MILITARY interven­
tion to restore Aristide to power
is not all acceptable option and
it is highly questionable
whether or not the Organization
of American States could assem­
ble a force which could effec­
tively achieve that goal.
Ron Daniels rues as Pr identoftM
Institute for Community Organization.
and Development, in Youngstown, Ohio:
He may be ron tad at (216) 746-5747
he say "ain't." Would ain't have
been used if Jordan were white?
In the new book about Gen,
,Colin Powell, the white author,
Howard Means, on page one
boldly headlines an alleged
quote of Powell, "1 ain't done
bad." I have heard Powell speak
jn person and on television. 1
never heard the now-racist word
ain't pass hisIips, Would ain't
have been' used if Powell were
white?
A Black journalist used ain't
repeatedly when talking about a
book she was selling. When I
questioned her us of ain't, sh
said her white publisher had in­
sisted that she us ain't because
lowering h rself made whit
feel superior nd would h Ip II
the book,
The word ain't is not a Black­
invented term, It originated sev­
eral hundred years ago in th
lower-class areas of London,
England and wa brought to
America and used by illi rate
white indentured rvan who
were semi-slaves in England
and almost everywh re else in
Europe.
Today, ain't is used regularly'
by whites in Appalachia, the
Southeastern state and in
working-cl and rural are
generally. The group compri
more than tripl th entire Black
Broadcasting.
"Porgy" was modified some­
what in th recent telecast, a few
changes being made in its dice
shooting, profanity, vulgarity
and oth r off ns . But "Porgy"
retains i poison and nnot
cap the justified condemn -
tions of Duk Ellington, Lena
Horn, Billy Ec t in, Harry Be­
lafonte and other , including
Sidney Poiti r who rfonned it
only und r th threat of ca r
stoppage by Sam Goldwyn and
others king to achi ve a his­
torical "first" and validate the
qu tionabl work of th ir th-
nic as ciate, hwin.