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Dennis Rivera, Chairman
Rev. Jesse Jackson, President & Founder
Jesse Jackson Jr., Field Director/Editor
VIOLE MERICA
Part II
L GL 'TOR AGAI.· T CRI�1E'?
See CRIME, AS
" ... more than th ee -fourt
of all boarder babies tested
positive for drugs ... "
FOR RICAN AMERI·
CANS, the two-parent house-
the Federal go rnment' pov­
erty level, about 65 percent of
them have children, double the
rate for poor hi
Th most tragic pect of the
growth of out-of- edlock births
are the o-ailled "boarder ba­
bi ". About 22,000 newbom in­
fanta are abandoned in hospi
each yr. Approximately 74
percent are Black, with another
eight percent Latino. According
to a 1991 study by the Depart­
ment of Health and Human
Services, more than three­
fourths of all boarder babi
tested positive for drugs and
.nearly half are born prema-
reb by Prof r BruCe Link
of Columbia University, about
three percent of all Americans
ha been homel during th
past five yea ,and a surprising
seven percent had n home­
I at some point of their lives.
This translat into two million
Americans who are homeless in
any given year.
IN NEW YORK CITY, the
overall figures for homel n
and their racial dimensions are
even more devastating. Nearly
one-quarter million New York­
ers have lived in public shelters
over the five year period be-
Lester's World
Va' know ... us gays are Just
like you Blacks .... we·ve both
been the victims of prejudrce
and unfair drscnrrunatron.
THAT'S A
BUNCH OF
Ion
Color
In
t n 1988 and 1992.
African-Ameri n
ntim mo Ii lytob
homel th n hit And
BI c children are th mo t
likely candidat for hom 1
ne , with one out of t elv
pending som tim in public
helter. Overall, about 8 rcent
of all BI ck r iden of Ne
Yor City, n rly 150,000 peo­
ple, used the public hel dur­
ing the five year period.
Teenage pregnanci , "board­
er babi • nd homel n all
combine to create a social con­
text for ra , fear and social dis­
ruption. But to comprehend why
uch problems' exist, we m
not indulge in the conservative
illusion ofb]amjngthe victims of
oppre sion. N eoliberal and
even ome Black intellectuals
blame the social crisis on an ab­
sence of "valu ", or the problem
of "Black nihilism". Actually, the
fundamental factors behind the
chaos are inequality and cl
exploitation.
DO MOST PEOPLE delib­
erately choose to become home­
less? Or are they homeless
because the value of the monthly
rental subsidy to New York
City's 300,000 families on we]­
fare has declined 42 percent
since 1972, hile 10aU housing
costs have skyrocketed? By
1989, nearly half of all low-in­
come families in the U.S. were
spending 70 percent of their in­
rome on shelter alone.
Insteatf 0 00 <imnning teen­
age mothers, we need construe­
tive and innovative programs for
teen parents, . both male and fe­
male. They need training in pa­
rental skills, child care, health,
employment counseling. We
need to focu on pregnancy pre­
vention measures for teens, in­
cluding sexual education in the
schools. By elevating the confi­
dence, self-esteem and career
objectives of young women, we
will see teen pregnancies begin
. to d=cline numerically.
Instead of blaming victims,
we need progressive measures
by government and community­
based organizations to save
those in what is becoming a lost
generation.
Dr. Mannmg Marable is Prof. or of
im��m� History and Political Science, and DireC­
tor of the Afriron American Studies Insti­
tute qt Columbia Uniuer 'ty, New Yorlt
City. "Along th Color Line" appears in
over 250 publications and is broadcast by
Copvrlght 11.3 Lu'.r J. K.r" All Rlgh'. R ... rv.d 75 radio lations intemationally.
•
By Mumia Abu-J amal
Here is a brief quiz of sorts;
between the amount of property
stolen by burglars in the U.S.,
and the amount taken (called
"confiscated" in legal jargon) by
the U.S., federal government
from the American people,
which would you think is the
largest amount?
With news reports blaring
hourly of the wave of crimes
washing over the nation,
wouldn't one think there would
be an outcry against whichever
on was the greater?
Consider this: In 1992, an es­
timated $3.8 billion was stolen
by burglars in th U.S.; private
. - property and monies amounting
to $4.1 billion was "confiscated"
from U.S. citizens by the federal
government as part of their drug
forfeiture program.
People from all walks of life
have had the misfortune of hav­
ing their goods ized by their
government, only to never see
their stuff again.
CO SIDER T
E real-
These 3 cases could be multi­
plied by the tens of thousands, _
where the property and profits of
the people are plundered by
"th ir" government, in the name
of a "War on Drugs."
As the government has failed
to even make a dent inAmerica's
humongous drug intake, it has,
in frustration, embarked on an
insidious, dirty war on th peo­
ple's few remaining civil liber­
ti , feeding and fueling its lfon
th people' wealth, via a "tax"
that takes all, once they la­
beled "suspe "
OR SO LONG, average,
everyday, law-abiding Ameri­
cans have either silently sat by
or quietly ignored the bogus
"War on Drugs" that was a War
on Blacks in actuality, while p0-
lice rod roughshod over people's
rights, and while courts too,
100 ed th other way.
NOW, people of m ns a
tasting th bit rn of injus­
tice, where th state trips th m
of th ir righ to pro rty, of
From
Death
Row
life cases: •
u.s. Army Col. Melvin
Hanberg (Ret.) owned and
rented houses in California. One
of his tenants was a drug dealer,
so the government seized his
rental properties.
• Cbarterpilot Billy Munner­
lyn had his Learjet seized by the
government wh n it was learned
one of his passengers was a con­
victed cocaine dealer (unbe­
knownst to him) with 3 million
cash in his luggage.
N ashville landscaper Willie
Jones, on a trip to Houston to
. purchase new stock, vio-.
lated the state's unwritten rules
by paying for his round-trip
ticket in cash. This act, coupled
with his Blackn , placed him
in perfect fit for the so-called
"drug carrier profile."
Once tagged, he was stopped,
searched, and 9,600-money
he was going to use to re-stock
his iness-was seized, con­
fiscated, ta en- tolen. No
drugs, of any kind, were found.
sociation, of the m ns to con­
du lawful comm r , of the
fund m ntal right to b free
from unl wful reh or ' izur
otth ir persons nd property, all
with th bI sings of a right­
wing, Tory judiciary, who grant
the stat any lie n e, in the
nam of th "War on Drugs."
Each of th 3 peopl nam
here are among th "Ia w-abiding
Americ ns," who e liv and
busine s s ar for ver trans­
formed, because of "policy" of
forfeiture that i but a hair'
b dth away from robbery.
Now, the v rnment is hun-
gry, nd lik ajunki , n your
money to f its fix.
Your gov rnrn nt work.
