Newspaper Page Text
February, 1985
The Spelman Spotlight
Page 3
A Personal View
Remember We Are Black
Religious Emphasis Week
Theme: "Religion for our Time"
February 17-22
Highlights
February 19
Rosa Parks Day
February 20
Unity and Prayer Service
Sisters Chapel
"Religion, Sex and Politics"
Dr. Jonathan Jackson
February 21
Convocation
Dr. Joseph Roberts
"Black Women In Religion"
Intercollegiate Athletic Con
ference will host its Men and
By Jasmine Williams
A cross-burning in urban
Atlanta! This is 1985, 20 years
after the height of the Civil
Rights Movement. Were you
surprised? I wasn’t. Yes, black
people are affluent politicians,
lawyers, doctors and business-
persons. Yes, lessthan six months
ago, a black person did run a very
successful bid for the
Democratic Party nomination in
the presidential race. Yes, it’s
true, a good majority of black
people in America are living
below the poverty line but no
one can deny that on the whole,
blacks have made significant
gains in this country within the
past 20 years. But you were only
surprised if you forgot.
Some of us keep forgetting
who we are and where we are. It
is crazy and it is suicide to foi get
we are black and we are in a
country that has been anti-black
since its very beginning. I visibly
cringe when I hear black people
say, “I am a so and so first and
black second.” That entire frame
of mind is admirable in a country
that respects your heritage but in
this country, every time one of us
forgets about the significance
placed on the color of our skin,
there is some form of racism just
waiting around the corner to
ardently remind us.
The cross-burning at Georgia
Tech did not come as a surprise
to me. Ronald Reagan carrying
nearly the entire vote of white 18
to 24 year olds, did not surprise
me. Learning that the last three
out of four men executed in
Georgia were black, did not
surprise me. The only difference
between the United States and
South Africa, is South Africa is
bold and blatant in their racism.
The United States works more
subtle.
Racism is a tool that people in
power use to separate and
confuse. Whoever set the cross
on fire, has in some way, been
taught that black people are still
not to be respected because of
their skin color. The person (or
persons) responsible will
possibly one day be your co
worker or boss. The disrespect
he has for you now, he will
probably still have then. He will
teach it to his children like his
parents taught it to him and the
cycle will continue. Racism has
invaded every area of American
life and this fact is nothing new.
Sure, the methods have gotten a
little difficult to detect to those
who forgot but those who
remember see very clearly. Did
you really think the Reagan
Administration would denounce
South Africa. It can’t because the
cycle of racism in this country is
still growing.
By now you’re saying, “Okay
bigshot, you have all the
answers, so let’s hear them.” It is
very simple . . . wear your
blackness in pride and personali
ty. We can't afford to forget we
are black. Read our history as far
back as the Egyptian Dynasties
and as close up as yesterday. Find
a role model; someone not
afraid of his or her identity and
live what you learn. Wear it in
your head and not on your lips.
We have too many brothers and
sisters today talking black but
thinking, sleeping and praying
white. How many of you have a
picture of a white man hanging
in your home? How many of you
believe that a man who looks like
that is your savior? Study your
history. We should be making
life easier for those coming after
us. As future black leaders, our
obligation lies within ourselves
and our community. Be black
and be proud. Love your self,
your family and your extended
family. It is a struggle for sure but
there is a light at the end of our
tennel and we will reach it. But
only if we never forget that in the
beginning, there was nothing
but darkness. That means
(Continued, pg. 8)
Women’s Division II Basketball
Tournament March 1-2, in
Archer Gymnasium, at
Morehouse College.
Tickets are on sale at the
Atlanta U niversity Bookstore and
at each member institution.
Adult tickets will be sold at $15,
and students at $10.
Schools participating in the
tournament include: Alabama
A&M, Albany, Clark, Fort Valley,
Morehouse, Tuskegee, Savan
nah, State, Benedict, and Morris
Brown.
This will mark the 52nd annual
tournament for the men, and the
7th annual tournament for the
women.
For additional information
contact:
Unique Affairs Inc.
818 Washington Street
Atlanta, GA 30315
(404) 577-3938
Along the color line . . .
The Decline of the Democrats
by Dr. Manning Marable
Editor’s Note:
In this issue, we feature two
articles by Dr. Marable in his
column Along the color line ...
On the first weekend in
March, about 75 Democratic
Congressmen will spend three
days in a West Virginia resort
hotel to discuss the future direc
tions of their party. But even this
retreat, designed also to create a
consensus around legislative
strategies for the new Congress,
does nothing to obscure the
internal crisis which besets the
Democrats at a national level.
For the past three months,
party leaders have tried to
analyze the factors which led to
Walter Mondale’s repudiation
by two thirds of the white
electorate. The general trend of
interpretation has been a classic
case of “scapegoat politics.”
Congressman Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri, chair of
the House Democratic caucus
and a key figure in next month’s
retreat, has already written the
script. Democrats lost in 1984
because they are seen as “the
captive of special interest
groups," Gephardt argues. Mon
dale and other candidates seem
ed to “represent spending and
big government." Gephardt
adds that the West Virginia
discussions should "focus” on
ways to reverse those public
perceptions. Other Democrats
have been even more candid.
New York Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan summed up Mon
dale’s defeat as due to the image
of Democrats as "the minority
party,” because it has retained
the allegiance of Blacks and
Latinos. Congressman Jim Jones
of Oklahoma has urged
Democrats to "adopt the slogan
of passionate conservatism,” and
to break completely from the
legacy of the New Deal.
Southern Democratic leader
Bert Lance and Democratic
governors Robert Graham of
Florida and Bruce Babbit of
Arizona have advocated radical
changes in the party structure
from the top down, which could
effectively reduce Black leverage
inside the 1988 Presidential
primaries and in the leadership.
The Democrats’ current
doldrums are ironically a
product of their past successes.
Democratic legislative reforms
such as the G.l. Bill of Rights
greatly expanded the number of
college graduates trained for
white collar, technical and ad
ministrative employment. For
example, the number of
Americans aged 18 to 24 enrolled
in colleges soared from 1.7
million in 1950 to 6.8 million in
1975. The transformation of the
American political economy also
eroded the Democrats’ working
class constituency. In 1940, 57
percent of all Americans were
employed in agriculture,
manufacturing or other in
dustries, a figure which declined
to 33 percent by 1970. During the
same period, combined employ
ment in the professions and
public administration increased
from 11 percent to 22 pecent.
The growth of an affluent, white
upper middle class, located in
suburbia, and the decline in
organized labor’s constituency,
dramatically increased the
potential electoral base for the
Republicans.
Yet another factor was the
expansion of democratic rights
to Black Americans. During the
age of Jim Crow and urban
machine politics in the north,
white Southerners and ethnics
were firmly part of the New Deal
coalition. The Civil Rights Move
ment in the 1960s gave Blacks the
right to vote, but pushed millions
of segregationist Democrats into
the Republican party. Less
recognized but equally dramatic
was the development of Black
urban voting power and impact
upon whites of the election of
Black mayors in the 1970s and
1980s. Chicago provides an ex
cellent example. In the 1980
presidential race, only 42.5 per
cent of the voters in Chicago’s 11
wards with 90 percent or more
whites voted for Reagan. In the
1930 mayoral election, over 80
percent of the white electorate
abandoned the Black
Democratic candidate, Harold
Washington, and voted for a
little known white Republican
challenger. In 1984,88 percent of
Black Chicagoans voted for
Mondale, but nearly 60 percent
of the voters in white wards
supported Reagan. The local
struggle for Black power, in
effect, contributed to the racial
realignment of many white
ethnics toward the GOP.
The Democratic party is faced
with two fundamental alter
natives in the 1980s. It can move
further to the left, embracing
much of the public policy agen
da of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow
Coalition, and in essence
become a sort of social
democratic party similar to the
Labor Party in the United
Kingdom or Canada’s New
Democratic Party. Or it can
become Jim Jones’ party of
"passionate conservatism,”
competing for white, upper
middle class votes, and ignore its
most loyal constituents - Blacks,
Latinos, the unemployed and
union members. Gephardt and
company understand this, and
have opted for the latter. In their
haste to create a watered-down
IrtVitation of Reaganism, they
have ignored several essential
facts. It is true that those
Americans earning above $35,-
000 annual income voted 67.5
percent for Reagan, and that this
group comprises 31 percent of
the electorate. However, they
comprise only 16.3 percent of
the voting age population. They
are “overrepresented” in
national elections because they
are registered and ideologically
motivated to vote according to
their social class interests. It’s
extremely doubtful that any
conservative Democrat under
the best of conditions would be
able to obtain more than 40
percent from this affluent elec
torate.
Where are the potential votes
for a Democratic victory in 1988?
The unemployed, who comprise
3 percent of the electorate but
over 8 percent of the voting age
population, voted 68 percent for
Mondale. Workers earning un
der $12,500 annually compose 28
percent of the population, but
only 15 percent of the electorate.
These low income workers went
53-46 for Mondale. Jewish and
Latino voters supported Mon
dale by 66 to 68 percent; Blacks
cast 90 percent of their ballots for
the Democratic candidate. If the
Democrats had equaled the $10
million spent by Republicans on
(Continued, pg. 12)