OITO
o
L-
olony
Highland P r city official re pu hing a plan for new
municipal comple and re encountering oppo ition. The
rgument of the opponent boil down to ome very b ics:
high cost in time of deficits nd downsizing.
one of the numbers presented thus far h ve convinced us
that the project i ctu lly do-able. But our objection is more
basic.
The whole proce city taff h invoked to get the city hall
don only p rp tuates the colonialism under which the city
now truggle . There is no long term benefit to any per on in
the city, only more burden.
At the public meeting called by the city to inform the
community about the project, who stood to gain was evident.
Lined up against the wall in expensive suits, impeccably coif­
fured, well-manicured were the non-resident vultures
anxiously measuring community reaction.
For these men, a personal fortune hung in the balance. For
the community, more or less debt was the only issue.
According to the way the project is organized, one com­
pany will walk off with a big chunk of wealth while city
employes are unpacking moving boxes in a sea of debt.
The plan call for one contractor to build two new. build­
ings for the Department of Social Services (DSS) as well as
putting up the new city building and renovating the former
union hall, also a part of the new city complex. .
To pay for their buildings, the city will collect rent from
the DSS and turn around and give that rent money to the men
lined up against the wall at the community forum. For 30
year , the city of Highland Park will be writing check to
developer in Livonia and Ann Arbor. For 30 years Highland
Par t xpayer will watch orne other community enriched.
Afri n A erican politician have a burden 0 heavy, few
c uld u ive the pre ure. They h ve inherited the immedi­
'ate probl m of ing communitie :I buildin s n infra tru -
ture in the wake f the flight to the suburbs over the la t 40
year of disinve tment. But Black mayor also have to battle
400 year f lavery and colonialism.
From day one in America, Blacks have been denied a
return on their investment; no pay for work in slave days, no
share in city jobs and contracts today. To reverse the tide of
history, Black politicians have to break the molds, find new
ways of doing things to beat backthe poverty that envelops
inner cities. Handing non-resident developers and builders
the contract to build, and then a check every month for 30
years will not do it. It is colonialism at its worst.
The acid test leaders in the Black community must apply
to any project put before them: does this enrich residents in
my community with jobs, profits and ownership? Therein lies
the answer to whether or not we need the new city hall.
go to the bathroom as men.· "To
build a powerful Black interna­
tional culture of counter ra­
cism," African Americans must
follow a "Behavior Code,·
Welsing said.
The 17 -point code she helped
to develop includes:
o Stop name-calling one an­
other.
Stop gossiping about one
another.
WEL I G DECLARED Stop snitching (informing
war on racism in economics, on one another) for personal
which she holds directly respon- gain.
sible for the break up of the Af- 0 Stop throwing trash where
rican American family and teen Black people live, work and
pregnancy. Any man who is play.
pushed out of the work force can- 0 Stop Black children from
not maintain his family. African thinking that as children they
American men are oonstantly can be adequate mothers and
faced with that situation, she fathers.
said. Welsing questioned the Stop pretending that ra-
white American standard for cism does not exist.
family values and its place in the "We are going to have to put
African American household. If , a goal in front of us, and that
a white male is not capable of goal is justice," she said.
maintaining his family or family
values, you cannot expect a
Black man to do it, she said.
"So why are people coming at
Blacks with 'family values?"
As more African American
women are forced to work two or
more jobs in order to maintain
basic necessities, Welsing said
children, who practically are
forced to rai them lves, lack
the emotional s rity they need
to grow up properly. She pin­
pointed the need for African
American men to become role
models for their children.
"When you end up with
neighborhoods whe all the fa­
thers are unemployed and all
he fathers were gone, what do
you get?" hid. "There are
m Ii tle boys who cannot even
c
continued from page A1
"buffoons." Analytical charts
and diagrams were used 'to de­
scribe racism as a system that
encompasses all facets of life
from law, labor, economics, poli­
ties and education to entertain­
ment, religion and sex.
TUDENT WHO heard
Welsing speak Said he is an in­
spiration to those who are fed up
with existing raci m. "She just
broke things down and made
you think," said Lori Mabry, an
MSU pre-dentistry sophomore.
·We need to do so much more
than what we are doing. She's
right, it's p ychological war­
fare."
"Racism and Black Mental
Health," sponsored by the MSU
Black Student Alliance, was the
second in a serious of lectures
and talks for Black Hi tory
Month that will be h ld at MSU.
Other peakers will include
author Terry McMillian and
members of the 1960s former
Black Panther Party.
h 0
I Sub-
top oft nda
I of 0 nizatiODlt
nei nd oci tion in
Am ri .
ected offici t all
lave m t be in the frontli
of the ruggl to win repara­
tio .
No politician
. B
iDg an aftirmati
theCo� Bill
The reps tions i ould
also be inoorporatecl into every
major African American Holiday
or commemorative 0 rvance.
Martin Luther King Day, Mal­
colm X Day, African Liberation
Day, Juneteenth, K anzaa,
every time e meet/gather for
significant occasions repara­
tions should be on the agenda.
And, in my opinion "Columbus .
Day," which Native People have
renamed Indigenous People's
Day, should be the focal point of
some form of mass cultural-po­
litical-information mass action
every year in support of our de­
mand for reparations.
Columbus' voyages/intra­
sions into this hemisphere
marked the beginning of a holo­
caust for the indigenous people
of this h misphere and the pe0-
ples of the Africa.
Revealing the truth about
Christopher Columbus and the
invaders who followed him can
help to create the climate for
America to atone for and pay for
its sins.
y
THE STRUGGLE FOR
reparations will not be easy.
"Power concedes nothing with­
out a demand." We must mobi­
lize/organize to demand with a
passion and fury so ferocious
that no bastion of power can re­
sist our righteous claim for jus­
tice through reparations.
Our battle cry must be, Repa­
rations or Else ... America Must
Fall!
Persons interested in the
reparations movement should
contact: N'COBRA, P. O. Box
62622, Washington, D.C. 20029,
202-635-6272.
Ron Daniels TVe3a& President of the
IMtitute for CommUAily Organ,ization
and Development in Youngstown, Obia.
·What
Lo g
ea Iy ca sed the
a d tra en as acre?
heads in police departments far.
and wide and in other public
agencies. Don't forget police kill­
ings, jailhouse so-called "sui­
cides" by hanging and the
gasoline dousing and burnings
of Black men in Florida and
Ohio.
The intelligence and success
Black people have shown on na­
tionally televised game shows,
. as television anchors and in cer­
tain heroic movies have com­
pelled many whites to abandon
comfortable stereotypes and re­
linquish the feelings of smug ex­
clusively they formerly enjoyed
by simply having white skin.
People having special advan­
tages do not relinquish them
promptly or willingly. Changes
affect their self-p rceptions,
their self-d finitions, their roles
in life and their statuses in soci­
ety. Reality sometimes deals
crushing blows to th fragile ego.
The inability and unwilling­
ness to adjust to a loss of special
privilege and unearned status
today annoying so many white
Am ricans m I 0 0 have
overw helmed and destroyed
Colin Ferguson.
G THE HISTORY of
slaveey and genocide suffered by
Africans in America, however,
the • check' must also include
reparations to repair the dam­
a of the holocaust of enslave-
ica.
The objective of this Bill is to
force America to reoognize the
damages done to Africans
Americans through the slavery
and to secure suitable compen-
i roo
duc tion c mp ign p r­
h ded by COBRA to mobilize
millio of African America
behind the drive to win repara­
tio .
Local or 0 and confer-
enc mu t be organized in
core of communi tie aero
thi country. Blac people
should be rmed with a defini­
tion of reparations, a rationale
for why Mrican Americans are
entitled to reparation, hat
forms reparations can take and
examples 0 other people, like
the Japanese Americans and
Native Americans, ho have re­
ceived some kind of repamtions
or compensation.
Reparations m t be on the
mind of millions of African
Americans and reparations
Lester's World
'YOU IDIOTI I JUST FIRED A GUY THIS TJME LAST YEAR FOR THE SAME THING!"
What really caused Colin Fer­
guson, 35-year-old immigrant
from Jamaica, to shoot 23 pe0-
ple, killing five, on December 7,
on a New York commuter train?
Ferguson was quoted as voic­
ing long and loud complaints
against American racism and
friends said, he finally exploded
into a murderous rampage.
, Ferguson was born into a
well-to-do family in Jamaica.
His father being a pharmacist
and officer with a pharmacutal
firm. The family lived in an up­
per middle class neighborhood
with beautiful homes, servants,
well-manicured lawns and palm
t . Colin attended a well- re­
spected private preparatory
school and had four broth rs.
Colin's world changed wh n
his father died in a car crash in
1978, and his moth r di th
following year.
By -James E. Alsbrook
status symbol, the currency of
first class citizenship unless vio­
lated by an unpardonable sin.
The white face guaranteed tradi­
tionally implicit and often le­
gally explicit superiority over
Black and non-white people in
America. .
But white America's world -
like that of Colin Ferguson, be- '
gan to chan . One aspect was
shown in the popular television
series, "I'll Fly A way," in which
white southerners fought all
. civil rights laws because their
former sla and present C90ks,
maids and laborers, would be­
come legally equal to whites and
destroy the "special relation­
ship" of "white" privilege and
"Black" subordination.
and- night hustle and bustle in a
dog-eat-dog cacophony of per­
sonal greed and blatant oppor­
tunism.
He att nded Nassau Commu- .
nity College and was on the
Dean's list in 1990. He trans­
f�rred to Ad lphi Universi yand
majored in Business Admini­
stration. eeding more money,
he got a job as a clerical worker
for the Ademic Security Group.
While there, he fell and hurt his
head, n k and back. He filed for
Worker's Compensation and re­
ceived $26,200, but claimed that
w not enough to pay for his
ipjuri . Th n began his heated
battles with th New York Com­
pensation Commission.
Fergu on h d problems with
c:i m v r since he arri ved in
ew York and h seemed unable
to co wi h the made-in-Amer­
v ri y of race bigotry. But
r ci mw n t hi only problem.
HE IGRA TED TO the H simply could not adapt to his
United States with a visitor' changed financial light and his
visa in 1982. Colin found things ,lowered' oci I status.
different in America. The pI cid His troubI was similar to
aura and cultural gentility of the J t of many white people today
Caribbean Islands were not in Am ri . Time was hen a
here. Instead, he found day- whi face was a dominating
URT ,THER CE T
equal employm nt opportunity
and ffirmative action provi­
sions elevated many Blacks to
legal and financial equality with
many whites. Of course whites
boomed - and exploded in a
backlash of verbal hostility.
Reports show that today this
nation has a bumper crop of un­
dercover Ku Kluxers and Skin-