Newspaper Page Text
April, 1985
Spelman Spotlight
Page 3
T I
A Personal View ...
Is Spelman’s Sisterhood Bond Deteriorating ?
by Angela R. Hubbard
Sisterhood — the state of
being sisters; a community or
society of sisters. Spelman and
the tradition of sisterhood go
hand in hand. It was that tradi
tion that brought you and I here.
It was the search for that special
bond between black women
who have been fortunate
enough to receive the benefits of
higher learning. It was our gift
and through this gift we will be
able to make our contributions
to the world.
Recently, I have noticed a slow
deterioration of our sisterhood.
A bond that is threatened by
insults, apathy, and general
discontent among our members.
What is happening? It was my
understanding that sisterhood
extended far beyond Freshman
Week. Why is there so much
discord?
These are questions I hear
voiced among many
Spelmanites. I have no answers,
only more questions. It distresses
me to hear "sisters” addressing
one of their own in derogatory
terms, without apparent reason.
True, if given proper cause, one
might suggest to another where
one might go and how. But, how
can you fault someone for being
pretty, for being rich, for being
intelligent, for being popular, for
being themselves?
It takes so much less energy to
praise someone or to give en
couragement than to belittle
someone or to dishearten. Mind
you, I do not profess to be Dr.
Joyce Brothers or speak piously. I
am just as guilty as the next guy. I
can sling mud with the best of
them. However, we.are living in a
non-perfect world; therefore, I
do not ask for perfection. I can
ask for accommodation.
Why? I will give you an exam
ple. Just the other day, I was
speaking with the Spotlight’s
News Editor, Jasmine Williams,
and we stopped on the subject of
sisterhood.
She told me something that
her mother told her and it really
struck home. She sard, "We are
all we have."
We are ail that we have. Sure,
we can gripe and moan about
the evils of black women, but
when it comes down to it, the
bond of sisterhood is prevalent.
With Reaganomics and the ever-
increasing conservative mood,
blacks are in for a huge fight. For
black women, the fight will be
the biggest of all.
Without the sisterly unity that
Spelman is so desperately trying
to teach us, not always in a
positive way, we are doomed to
fail as a race and as women.
So, it can’t hurt to give it a try.
Let’s try being nice to each other
for at least the remainder of the
semester. We can start to rebuild
the true Spelman sisterhood that
makes us special. Most impor
tantly, rebuild a sisterhood that
can be passed down to our
future Spelman sisters, a tradi
tion that we can and that they
can be proud of.
State of Black
Women ...
from page 5
women looking for that equal
opportunity should respect and
support people and policies that
support us in our struggle.”
. . . a priceless <.ommodit\
in todays marketplace.
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Apartheid: A Major Problem for South Africans
by Layli Dumbleton
Reprinted with permission from
the AUC Digest
Apartheid (pronounced “a
par-thide,” or more commonly
"apart-hate”) is South Africa’s
constitutionally imposed and
legally enforced system of racial
separation. Whites, Asians,
"coloureds” (people of mixed
racial parentage), and Blacks are
forbidden to intermingle with
another, except in certain oc
cupational situations in which
non-white persons are subser
vient to Whites. White people
are given preferential treatment
under all circumstances; there
are extreme disparities in the
wage of the various groups, and
the government even goes so far
as to remove non-wFiites from
their neighborhoods in order to
make the most desirable proper
ty available to White.
All non-whites ar denied
citizenship, but recently propos
ed changes in the South African
constitution are to give all
groups limited and nominal
"independence” within their
own groups. (The Afrikaner-or
White Parliament, whfch
regulates and maintains
apartheid, is still inaccessible,
physically and legislatively, to
non-whites.) The government
limits people of all four
classifications to their own living
areas, schools, churches,
businesses, public facilities and
the like. The Blacks, being lowest
on the government’s "totem
pole," receive the most of
everything.
The native Africans, about half
of whom have been forcibly
deported from their residential
areas, are removed to what are
ironically called "homelands,”
or Bantustans. In Afrikaans, the
official language of the South
African government, which was
imported into the country by
early Dutch settlers, the term
"Bantu,” which refers to a Black
person, or native African, has a
connotation similar to that of the
American word "nigger." The
word, African in origin, has been
adulterated by a racist regime,
and has taken a stab at the dignity
of those to whom it refers.
To get an idea of what life in
the "homeland” is like, or to
what extent the South African
ruling class has violated the
human rights of the majority of
its inhabitants, consider the
following statistics: Blacks out
number Whites four to one. (The
ratio of Blacks: Whites:
Coloureds: Asians is 18.6 million:
4.5 million: 2.4 million: 0.75
million.) The per capita state
expenditure for the education of
children is ten times as high for
Whites as it is for Blacks. The
average White mine worker
earns six times as much as his
Black counterpart. The Whites
claim 87% of the land; the
Africans "possess” the remain
ing 13% and the Asians and
Coloureds live in isolated zones
of the White areas.
Many of the people who live in
the "homelands" live in shelters
made of corrugated iron and
wood. At worst, they dwell in
tents; at best, they are crowded
into large, dormitory-like
quarters, in which the sexes are
separated from one another.
Sometimes the beds are made of
coment. The wealthiest class of
Africans live like the American
lower middle class in urban
centers.
Non-white families are broken
apart by both the residential and
the occupational policies of the
South African government.
Women and children usually
reside in the rural areas, which
are often sca.arely arable, making
food extremely hard to grow or
gather, and making malnutrition
a constant threat. In some areas,
nearly half of the Black children
die before the age of five, and
medical help is insufficient. Men
live in urban areas where they
labor, rarely seeing their wives
and children more than once per
year. They send as much money
as they can to their dependents.
Occasionally, Bantustan women
can get vending licenses, but
those who have anything to see
or any neighbors affluent
enough to purchase their wares
are exceptionally lucky. (Only
13% of an African income is
genrated here.) Many Africans
live and work on White-owned
farms in conditions which were,
on one National Public Radio All
Things Considered Report, com
pared to those of slavery.
Whereas public education is
free and mandatory for all White
children, it is neither for non
white children. Many drop out
before they reach the secondary
level, even though universities
exist for them. Most drop-outs
are forced by economic necessi
ty to work instead of going to
school.
The government issues
passbooks, which detail the vital
statistics and personal histories
of their carriers, to all native
Africans when they turn sixteen.
To be caught without this docu
ment is to face arrest, and arrest
often leads to brutality. Several
laws exist to protest the secrecy
of police actions, which conse
quently impede international
intercessory efforts. They in
clude the Terrorism Act, the
Internal Security Act, the Unlaw
ful Organizations Act, and the
Second Police Amendment Act,
all of which relieve a policeman
of having to charge, try, or
publish the name of an African
whom he bans or detains. Tor
ture and killing are sanctioned
by the government.
Those who protest, or even
resist - be they Black, Coloured,
Asian, or White - the conditions,
the policies, or the philosophies
of apartheid - be it verbally or in
writing, face harsh conse
quences.
Information and media that
relate to the inhumane aspects of
South African life are smuggled
out of the country illegally.
Whether innocently or not, the
South African Establishment tries
to protest its international image.
Ads inviting tourists to White
South Africa can be found in
popular U.S. magazines, and in
order to gain a passport out of
the country one must assure
certain representatives of the
government that one will^ not
denounce the country abroad.
Some lucky Africans escape their
borders, forsaking all future
opportunity to return and mak
ing themselves marked outlaws.
Others are subsidized to travel,
but the actions and utterances of
these people are limited and
under strict surveillance.
Most of the facts and figures in
this article were derived from a
portfolio of information entitled
Children Under Apartheid,
which was produced by the
International Defense and Aid
Fund for Southern Africa in
cooperation with the United
Nations Centre Against
Apartheid for the International
Year of the Child, or from the
"South Africa Fact Sheet,"
published by the Africa Fund.
Other information was drawn
from the films Six Women On
Apartheid and Generations of
Resistance and from personal
interviews.
Editor’s Note: Ms. Dumbleton
was a former student at Spelman.
★ FYI^
The following excerpt from a
report on education in South
Africa, illustrates the day to day
conditions for that country’s
blacks.
“In South Africa, the
educational system is segregated
and discriminatory at every level.
The government spends eight
times more per capita for whites
than it does for blacks. Some 40
percent of black South Africans
have had no formal education at
all, and another 30 percent have
not gotten past grammer
school.”
"In addition, a rapid increase
in black secondary school enroll
ment since the uprising of blacks
in 1976 has imposed almost
unmanageable strains on a
teaching force in which 77
percent of the black teachers
lack the teacher’s certificate or
secondary school diploma -
minimum qualifications for the
job.” by Kelly Edwards