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VOL. XVI NO. 18 An/nfolfned Pc optc Is A f ft't' People MARCH 20 - 26. 1994
tablishment of guaranteed
annual income for all Ameri­
cans at the poverty level. This
would ensure that every Ameri­
can had t m to get food
and pay rent.
A guaranteed annual incom
S. JOBS,B5
Grassroots G-7 qffers jobs solution:
By RON SEIGEL
DETROIT - Sunday, March
1 while U.S. Pr 'dent Bill
Clinton was holding a G-7 ron­
ferenoe of government and busi­
ness leaders from North
American and European na­
tio on jobs, 200 grass roots
or and jobl people held
their own conference, ponsored
by the National Organizing
Committee (NOC), uggesting
their own solutions 'to massive
unemployment.
Mau n Taylor, a NOC p­
re entative, aid that their
counter event also an inter­
national oonference, notingthat
it included people from Eng­
land, French Canadi from
Montreal, individual from
Toronto, Canada, Native
Am ri from a tri in Up­
per Michigan and fu from
Iran, who ed in Canada.
Taylor id the grassroot
oonference stated that the only
way to deal with the tremen­
dous devastation caused by un­
employment was the
Detroit native Donnie Simpson, (right) C�h08t of Black Enter- 'port wear line. Here, Simpson v It. with G briel Hall (I it)
talnment Televl Ion'. (BEl) music video program, ·Vldeo Rayderrlk Lyon. and Venne a Lyo,., all of Detroit, at North­
Soul,· returned home on a promotional tour to I roduce BET I nd Huc:laons. (Tom Sherry photo)
ct
o
t,
I
Americ
By CA ntERINE KEU. y
WHEN AMERICA WAS ex­
periencing inflation on almost all
other goods, drugs were more
easily available,' cheaper and
providing economic prospects
that were unavailable other
places. Also, teenage Blac and
Latino youth became active in
the drug economy because of
h�11'8h "Rockefeller laws" man­
dating a prison term for anyone
over eighteen in possession of an
illegal drug. .
These factors created an un­
derground drug economy for
Black and Latino youth that cen­
tered itself in the innercities of
America. .
The typical crack user is a
white male, middle-to-upper­
class from the suburbs. Although
eighty percent of crack users are
white, media depictions have
most of us believing that major­
ity of 'crackheads' live next door
in our Black community,
This mind state create a
breeding ground for unnecessary
'police terror in our neighbor­
hoods. For, of all drug-related
crimes only nine percent of the
conviction's are white offenders,
a figure disproportionate to the
number of white drug users,
while upwards of eighty percent
of the offenders are Black and
Latinos.
MICHAEL LEVINE, former
S PRISONS, A8
BY JACKIE HALLIFAX
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP}-;-_
Black women in Florida who give
birth are nearly 11 times more
likely than white women to be
infected with the AIDS virus, the
state's social services agency
reported Tuesday.
"There's no doubt that mv
has hit Florida's black
o
oommunity a lot harder than it
has the white community," said
state health officer Dr. Charles
Mahan
Seven of every 10 new
moth rs who test positive for the '
virus that causes AIDS are
black, even though only 20-
percen t of those tested were
black, the Department of Health
and RehabilitativeServioossaid.
Elorida ranks second behind
ew York in the number of
children with AIDS, reporting
815 pediatric cases. Overall, th
state has 35,831 AIDS cases.
Some 20,000 people have died of
the disease. ..
.,
with the virus that causes
acquired immune deficiency
syndrome. Most of the babies
who do develop AIDS die before
their fifth birthday.
I In the last six-month survey
period, 75,773 women were
�fur� �rgivi�b�h
The reasons so many of the
pregnant women with mv are
black was because of poverty,
The drug and imprisonment
problems have ched disas-
tot B
community. In Hart�, unday,
.2'7, p' um
Coalition presented.a forum for
dialogue on this crisis facing the
oommunity.
The forum, "Why the US Gov­
ernment's War A.gains� Drugs
Hasn't Worked" featured ex­
perts on the drug world and the
effects it has specifically had on
mostly Black and Latino urban
centers.
Terry Williams, a panel
speaker and Profe or at the
New School for Social Research,
author of "The Cocaine Kids" and
"Crackhouse", poke on the lack
of urban job opportunities in eon­
junction with lower cocaine
IV
c
RE EARCHERS estimate
30 percent of babies born to InV­
infected women are infected
Should felons
with three
strikes against. -
them be
locked up
forever?
drug use and unsafe ex, the
report said.
"Sexually active men and
women need to take a more
realistic look at what they're
doing to put themselves at risk
of infection," Mahan said.
Overall, there's a 22 percent
increase in InV-infection rates
of all Florida pregnant women.
S AIDS, Pa 8-A
arquita John on - "No.
Why shou'd I be a potential
second or third strike 10r a
repeat offender to receive the
maximum sentence. This is not
a ballgame."
Ron Id R d - ·1 don't think
it'll completely solve the
problem but it'll help until
people get back into church
and want to do what's right.·
Davita H rrero - "Yes.
Because he's giving you three
chances to get yourself
together and if you can't do that
on the fourth try then you
should be locked up.·
