READERS WRITE
By DR. CHARLES W. FAULK ER
I HAVE WORKED hard to give my childr 11 wha they
need. I had already bought my son everal nice J eke nd I
could not understand why he was wearing thi tolen jacke
instead of the one hat I had bought him. I told him that h
could not w r this stolen jacket and that he would h v to giv
it back to the boy who had tolen it. He id to me, "I'm not
giving nothing back to nobody. I like this jacket and I'm going
to keep it." I demanded that he take th stolen jack t off and
give it to me. He id, "Hell no. My hommi gav he j cket to
me and I'm going to keep it." Then h just went to his room.
After he left, I cried.
This is an 11 year old boy who ha n rai without a
father put whom I have given everything that he w nted. I had
never even had an arguement with him before the one about
the stolen jacket. What I discovered w that there is another,
ugly id b0him'that· hi . me for all of hi 11 y
It made my If tat qu . on : Wha i my on lly
like? Where did I go wrong in raising him? Wh r 1 he headed
in life? What should I do?
My son has secretly joined a neighborhood gang tha steals.
Maybe they use drugs. They m to have mor influence on
him than I do. I am not prepared to deal with hi kind of
problem and I am riously considering letting omeone el e
raise my son, What else can I do? PI s answer my letter.
Readers Write
M . W .• South Carolina'
Readers: What aduice do you have for Ms. W.? Please write
me at: P.D.Box 955, Washington, D.C. 20044-0955. (202) 736-
3761.11##
Now that we've paid homage
to Utah's mailman, been beamed
up by Chicago's Scotty and awed
by. New York's Ewing, we can
begin to think about the impact
of 40 percent of all Afrikan men
in U.S. cities being alcohoVdrug
abusers. The mor important
jumpers, jams, and slick assists
are behind us and we can now
deal with less important things;
like the oppressiv conditions
under which Afrikan people ex­
ists,
It's understandable that we
had to adquately nalyze th as­
cension of the Knicks before we
could waste time addr ing the
descension of Afrikan men.
Just we took pride in our
domination of the court, we can
now take tock of our being th
first jailed, killed in th str ,
last hired and firs fired; con­
fined in mental institutions, im­
prisoned, lynched, mis-educated,
denied medical t tm nt, ui­
cide and divorced. In other
words, the first victim .
Now that the pI y-off1 ar
, over all, we'r ready to ke car
of busy now. W had to know who
would reign as 1994 NBA ch m­
pions before we could deal wi h
the decaden ucatlOn of our
children or our WIth Ide
similating dog ti
THE PL
T
By OMOWALE LO GBEY
K
dverti er
C t
narassm nt and vio-
l DC i on the increa
throughout the U.S. Th Anti­
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith r po ov r 1800 anti-
mitic a in 1993, t nd
most in a fifteen year urvey.
But th qu ion which m
be ked is why hundreds of
th nds of African-Americans
upport Farrakhan, while hun­
d gather to ttend lectures
by Khalid Muhammad? De­
nouncing Farrakhan does not
explain the fact that he does
have "legitimacy" within a
tion of the African-American
community.
There are two b ic reasons
that African-Americans in large
numbers are listening to Far­
rakhan. First, traditional Black
middle clas leadership, both
within the civil rights estab­
lishment and inside electoral
politics, has failed to articulate
the rage and anger of the Hip
Hop Generation, the unem-
. PROfESSOR
Ja.I . ..... ."
LUll .' • " : .
#HARRIS�
....
ployed and marginalized Black
workers.
Second, some of Farrakhan's
primary arguments - Black
elf-sufficiency, vigorous oppo i­
tion to drugs and Black-against­
Black violence, and
Black-business ownership "':'_are
gen rally constructive and po i­
tive.
WE NEED TO make a criti-
• cal distinction between Black
"militancy" and "radicalism."
Farrakhan and the Nation of Is­
lam is indeed "militant" and
"anti-white", but it is hardly
"radical." In fact, Farrakhan is
entially a "militant conserva­
tive", a leader who strongly fa­
vors economic solutions within
the framewor of American capi­
talism,just like Booker T. Wash­
ington a century ago.
Farrakhan supports sexism
and hemophilia. Nothing in his
entire program would radically
transform the real power rela­
tionship between Blac a Q
who control the American .
corporate and political system.
And this is exactly why Far­
rakhan must be invited into dia­
logue with other
African-American leaders. If we
refuse to speak to Farrakhan, we
are .saying that we do not value
the opinions or perspectives of
those thousands of Black people
who support him, or the millions
who reject his anti-Semitism but
who do agree with part of his
program.
If Israelis can dialogue with
Yasser Arafat and the Palestine
Liberation Organization, cer­
tainly African-Americans can
dialogue with each other, de­
spite very real differences on ide­
ology and ethics which may
divide us. Farrakhan must be
allowed to speak, and Black pro­
gressives must be ready to cri­
tique his program and to reject
his anti-Semitism.
upport
Our
WHO DOES MORE TO RUI N \:-: '�::':.;' .• ...: : .• ". _ � ':,'.-:.' > .. "7:� � �.'::
,�.- AMER\CA'5 ECONOM'1 AND BURDEN :.-.� � -. >� , :. ' . .' .. : .... : ,\�. \': � ' .. ��',,:,:
.. T� PA,{ER.5 WiTH THEIR fRRE5PONSJf$fLJT'(( �::� WAAT SHOULD �'.-.,
............... ···:·��····BE· DONE WITH ,:;�.�
,,,,,�-.,�,,,,,,,,,iiJo.At. '. � , � • ,: ... aLk L£ADERs WHo'::
:.::.'\:: ARE'CONTROLlED fROM�
.� i: .OOTSIDE OOR (Q\\MUNITY (.
'. ,
PrlESl oe: Nt __ : :': '
. .: "':' ' ...
; "', '... , -\ "", "', '" .'
" ; ., .,. • ,,� ,. \ •• " .' t. • • :' ", '0·:'
• '" II!.... • " .,'.' , .", .'
' :: " "-,
\.. .. .' ..
'r ',,:' PTlDF£5�Jl.. .�. '
.r •• ,. "��S" • .. :: ..... AARRJS-tt-
". .,.... '. r.O ,&1,l( lf170 .r © Chi
, " •. ' (.IiGo, 1.L- . '. n
• � J,' • f ••
.. '.' . '. " (PDCPeD· ...
. '.
y
...... :
" .
\�
::�
t ...
.' -t-
�'.
?
•••
By MUDlia Abu-Jamal - From Death Row
"In all criminal prosecutions,
the accused shall enjoy the right
to a spe dy and public trial, by
an impartial jury of the state and
district wherein the crime shall
hau b en committed ... "
It i from the second juror
that a picture emerges of a trial
that was more a lynching than a
1 gal proc ding. This juror,
Pam la may, swore in a nota­
riz ffidavi that she heard an­
oth r white juror, a woman,
state, "The nigger admitted he
did it, he hould fry."
retarded-as w 11 as mentally ill.
There is reason to believe that
his trial and s nt ncing pro
in w r inti ed with racial
p judice. On of his enten
. has come forward to y tha sh
did not vot for he d h pen­
alty b use of his m nt I im­
pairm nts."
o
th Su­
tills r a-
and our homel
we'r ready to he i r Aneb
Kgositsile's 'Calling All Broth­
ers.' We're r ady to rid our neigh­
borhoods of the hoods who peddle
poison to our people. Yes, we'll
stop the killing now that the
play-offs ar ov r, after all -
first things first. .
The fact that a majority of our
ho u eholds ar headed by
women had to wait until we wit­
n ed haq's attack. We had to
look upon Oakl y he laid down
the 1 w b fore w uld deal with
hos who victimiz u . Now hat
we've en Clyd glide, w can
deal with mor rivial pursuits,
that is, putting top to the bru- - 6th Amendment; U.S. Constitution
talization of Afrikan people.
ow that the pl y-off ar
over, we can begin to put an end
to UR incar r tion rat of " "
ven to THEIR one. Now that r cy, uch .as fr �I
th pl y-offs ar ov r, w 'r go_' r pr � tl
mg to go, go, go, to The World nal by Jury.
. ri ! . Th following i
broad t
William H nry Han ,W
convi of killing a Georgia
p ti ut back in 1978, and s n­
ten cod a h. His trial, and
e n hi u qu n rial, t k
pI c b for pr domin ntly
whit juri
One of tho e juro ,th only
Bl ckjuror, til worn ffid -
vit that h n to h
d a h nt nc, cl 1m
ond d byanoth r, whit
... .. ,
.. 0.,
P,
U.S. Supre e Court or the Geor­
gia Board ofPardons and Pa­
roles?
Not. _
o APR 31, 1994, at 10
p.m., William Henry Hance, a
man both retarded and mentally
ill, was executed, that is, "legally
lynched" by the government of
Georgia - by lectrocution.
Georgia's state motto i "Wis­
dom, Justi and Mod ration!"
In the case of William Henry
Hance, th 3 elements med
orely lacking .
In nemergencyappeal to the
U.S. Supreme .court hours be­
fore hi 1 rocution, Justice
Harry B) ckmun, in � di enting
opinion in Hance' case wrote
that e n if he hadn't "reached
th conclusion that' the de th
penalty cannot be im fairly
within th con traints of our
oonstitution .. .I could not support
impo ition in this case."
uoth Blaclonun: "Ther is
ub tanti I evid n that Wil-
li ) E nry Hance is mentally
p
A
CR:oK£D
S(L
.'
. ..
....... ..
... :. � ; • .:� , .': ; " :'. • ' •• ," '. .. t. '\ ••
r ..... .. • .• ,-. , .'. t ...... � .-1. �'. ':'v .' . ' .... :.' ...•. : .� ... � .:
t:�: OM NO!!· A·"WHrrE. GUY ON THE
.� .>. ELEVATOR .... I BETTER HIDE MY
:.:....... \ I WALLET!!
.. .... .-
. -,"
", to,
......
• I'·
.... " ,.
...... '. I
:\.\,. .. "
ur ly no