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The Augusta News-Review - June 2, 1977
Walking With Dignity
By AL IRBY
The inimitable Dr. J.
Julius Erving, better known as the fabulous “Docter J”, still
makes incredible flights to dunk the basketball with impossible
shots. His agility, speed, and expert savvy add up to give him a
cutting edge when the going gets tough. Some of the wise boys
said his far out capers would not work in the NBA. But to the
bad Dr. J, he can’t tell the difference that he is playing in the
supposed tougher league. If you have ever posted a letter in a
mailbox not nearly as tall as you are, then you have a pretty fab
idea of how Julius feels when he slam-dunks a basketball for the
Philadelphia 76ers.
When the Quakers stopped Bill Walton and his gang in the first
game of the National Basketball Association playoff finals, the
cool doctor literally glided his way to 33 points. The Wonderful
Doc. Julius soared to 14 points in the first half and 19 in the
second, including four baskets down the stretch that made high
school boys out of most of the Blazers. Erving is the type of cool
papa who is often referred to in professional circles as “The
Franchise”, meaning that his brand of showmanship th*t
guarantees box office success even against the league’s weak
teams. Although at 6’6” swinging Julius is no more than a
standard-size NBA cornerman, his extra-long arms and springy
legs allow him to play like a man seven foot tall.
Julius spends so much of his time in the air looking down upon
the the “Air Force” should send him air bom check
every Ist and 15th. He averaged more than 21 points a game this
season, merely 14th best in the NBA and low compared to his
figures in the now defunct American Basketball Association. But
it must be remarkable when one considers the host of
super-gunnery that wear 76ers on their uniforms. There are three
thing? rival teams try never to let the Doctor do: (1) get the ball
anywhere near the basket; (2, re-shoot one of his own offensive
rebounds; and (3) gain even a half step advantage against
whomever is guarding him.
Otherwise, two points go up on the scoreboard for
Philadelphia,before a cat can wink an eye. For most of his early
life, Julius lived in a low income housing development in
Hempstead, Long Island. Money was always tight and his mother
. orked as a domestic to help support her family. But situations
like that often create extra drive in a young person growing up,
and with Erving, it was reflected on the basketball court. Julius
was a man who built and polished his game on public
playgrounds, who learned to dribble on macadam t*.ar wasn t
TO BE EQUAL
By Vernon E. Jordon Jr.
Minimi n wage hike needed
If you are working full time at the national minimum wage of
$2.30 per hour, you’re making less than the government itself
says a family needs to earn to keep out of poverty.
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the idea is meeting plenty of resistance.
It’s been argued that a hike in the minimum wage would be
inflationary, would discourage hiring of new workers, would lead
to lay-offs, and would worsen the already serious problem of
youth joblessness.
Now these are very dire predictions, but furtunately, they’re
not likely outcomes.
Take inflation, first. While it is entirely possible hgher labor
costs in the form of a higher national minimum wage might be
inflationary, it is also possible that increased income will be
translated into higher spending and thus, into expanded
production. There’s enough slack in the economy to
accommodate increased demand.
Besides, why should low wage workers bear the brunt of
efforts to hold down inflation? Every time there’s a danger of
inflation the answer is to encourage lay-offs, cut wages, or
otherwise make the least favored in our society pay for price
stability for the most favored higher income groups.
The effect of a higher minimum wage on the job market is
more difficult to determine. Studies have been made attempting
to measure the effect of such raises, but those studies have been
inconclusive. They usually provide the sharp edge to whatever axe
is being sharpened, but they don’t really give us the kind of
objective guidance needed to frame social policy.
There’s little reason to assume that hikes in the minimum wage
will lead to fay-offs. Employers hire workers when they’re
needed, whatever the minimum wage. If the minimum wage was
actually the obstacle to hiring it’s supposed to be, then we should
expect to see expanded job opportunities in the labor sector not
covered by the minimum wage. About a quarter of all
non-supervisory jobs are in that category, but unemployment is
still high.
Duane Bobick typifies the myth of Rocky
A rather interesting feature chronicling the history of boxing
on film preceded the Ken Norton massacre of Duane Bobick. The
feature was entertaining but most of all it was revealing. The
earliest boxing films had white heroes who always managed to
defeat big muscular Blacks in their march towards glory. Blacks
had little other presence in the films.
Those other films were a strange lead in to ROCKY, the latest
and most celebrated of the white hero films on boxing. The
whole process revealed a startling fact. Whites have moved from
heroes in victory to heroes in defeat in their cinematic
adventures. They have actually moved to the necessity of wishful
thinking.
There was certainly more wishful thinking than fact to the
massive buildup of Duane Bobick The man had a successful,
though far from impressive career prior to the Norton slaughter.
Nothing in his career had indicated he was a worthy opponent for
Norton, but the deep psychological cravings that stalk in the
minds of many whites allowed them to play mental and
emotional games on themselves. Their inclinations and obsessions
allowed them to forge a new reality.
Bobick in essence became their Rocky with a positive
conjecture. He became the embodiment of their pride, lost and
beleagured since Rocky Marciano and only fleetingly aroused by
the ups and downs of Jerry Quarry.
Few people know and the media are loath to tell that Bobick
represented America in the Olympics after two talented Black
boxers were disqualified on technicalities. Both fighters, Larry
Holmes of Easton, Pa. and Leroy Jones of Denver, were rated
as good or better than Bobick. Both are undefeated as
professional boxers. Holmes is rated the number 4 contender in
the world. He has fought 24 professional fights.
Jones is 17-0 as a professional
Bobick has skillfully avoided both Holmes and Jones in the
professional ranks.
Few people realize the deep seeded psychological needs the
Page 4
by Walter Bremond
always smooth, and who often competed against talent that was
older and more experienced than himself, yet he scored and
scored and scored.
Today Dr. J is as slick as the glass backboards on which he
operates. He also lives on a six-acre estate with his wife and
children in Upper Brookville Long Island, whose grounds suggest
that here is the home of some young corporate executive. One
thing everybody should notice about Erving are his hands, which
are enormous. He wears a size 11 glove, a size 13 */i ring, and
when he reaches for a basketball it seems to become an extension
of his hand. Although Julius was an all-star high school player and
received nearly 100 scholarship offers from colleges across the
country, he was never pursued like a Wilt Chamberlain or a Jerry
Lucas. Possibly he matured a little later than most high school
players, or possibly too many recruiters saw him in action just
once. Whatever the reason, he reportedly accepted the advice of
his high school coach to be content with being a big car in a little
garage. He chose the University of Massachusetts, where he
majored in personnel management and basketball, although not
necessarily in that order. Three years later Julius was so ready for
the pros that he skipped his senior year at Massacusetts University
and signed a $125,000 contract with the Virginia Squires of the
ABA, where he dominated an entire league.
After that it was three years with the ABA New York Nets and
finally the multi-year contract that now binds him to Philadelphia
for die next five seasons. Although the beautiful Doctor’s
long-range plans include someday owning and running his own
business, his best pro years are probably still ahead of him, even if
he never is held up as a model on defense. He also makes frequent
visits back to the ghetto where he grew up and where he has
helped several kids get going in the right direction. “My family
survived at a very low poverty level,” he told People Magazine
earlier this year, “because we had determination and a positive
outlook. Lots of people 1 knew had the same opportunities we
did, only they didn't have the right attitude. I saw basketball as a
way out of the ghetto and I worked hard to make sure that it
was.” The Blazers knocked off the mean 76ers Sunday-129 to
107, but the Doc. scored 29 points. Maybe when my readers see
this report, the score maybe tied between Portland and
Philadelphia, whatever, you can bet your last dollar the viewers
will see Doctor J in some fancy maneuvering.
Some people think there ought to be a youth differential, a
wage lower than the legal minimum, for young people to help
spur youth jobs. But that’s a dubious concept too, since many
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exempted from the minimum wage law, or can apply for
exemption.
It’s not a happy prospect for the world’s richest country to say
that the minimum wage has to be held down to below-poverty
levels. A rise of about 50 cents per hour would just about make
up for the effects of inflation and restore the buying power lost
since 1974, when the minimum wage was fast raised.
Nationally, some 10 million workers would be immediately
affected by a rise in the minimum wage to $3 per hour, and about
two million of them are Blacks and other minorities.
Typically, their jobs are the hardest, dirtiest, and least
rewarding. The minimum wage has traditionally been a figure
representing our society's consensus about the least anyone
should be paid for his work. Raising the minimum to restore the
purchasing power of 1974 would continue that role.
And while we’re at it, enforcement should be strengthened. It’s
been estimated that about two out of five low wage workers are
being paid below the legal minimum as workers are forced to take
illegally low wages or lose their job to someone else who is willing
to do so.. Given the astronomical unemployment rates, that’s not
an example of free market job competition, it’s an example of the
widespread misery and joblessness in our society.
If raising the minimum will force some employers to cut their
work force, then let’s have a subsidy mechanism to help them pay
the fair costs of labor. We have subsidies for businesses hurt by
foreign imports, and we’ve got tax credits for employers hiring
new workers.
This suggests similar mechanisms to help out employers in
marginal industries and to save jobs without placing the total
burden on those workers who can least afford it.
movie Rocky has afforded white America. It was like a fairytale
that collectively and on a mass scale gave them a myth to
rationalize humilation and defeat in the ring. The outcome of the
Olympics and in amateur competition throughout the land would
indicate that there is little to cheer for in the near future.
The fact that Blacks are winning is perplexing but the type of
Blacks is cause for further alarm. Uncontrolled and uncontrolable
Blacks are winning. This new breed is very difficult to deal with.
They are fair and broadminded but they bring Blacks up the
ladder with them and run their own operations.
The presence of these Black boxers with the right frame of
mind has opened doors for Blacks to emerge as promoters,
matchmakers and in other positions in the boxing industry. For
the first time in history, Blacks are on the threshold of full
participation in the boxing industry.
Now we hear new cries of foul play and calls for investigations
and inquiries. The full impact of sensationalist rumor and
innuendo is being applied to cloud peoples minds and imply
wrong without specifics.
Blacks in boxing at all levels should beware. People who would
bar the Chinese because they can’t beat them and outlaw dunking
because the best dunkers are the wrong color, are steeped in the
selfish ways to use power to equalize things. Muhammad Ali is
fast moving from the scene after bringing to boxers a new era of
freedom and good business protection. All moves will be made to
take boxing back to the “good old days.”
We Blacks must remember that the good old days weren’t so
good for us.
We at National Black United Funds realize the strong economic
base our many good Black fighters can help establish. We caution
the many Blacks involved in the boxing game that wishful
thinking is eating holes in the psyche of many and well laid plans
are being calculated. Let us all keep our minds clear and our
heads up. The ability is ours and full and dignified participation
must be too.
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The truth
will rise again
Truth crushed to earth will rise again, (italy) This maxim by
the British writer, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881 has developed a
kind of charming, burnished patina over the years. But its cold
unswerving prophecy of retribution is unquestioned.
It comes to mind in respect our ambassador to the United
Nations Andrew Young, the handsome, unflappable, likeable
young warrior from Congress via the civil rights movement. His
head is on the public opinion chopping block with some white
liberals among the first in line, tight-lipped and sweaty-palmed,
itching for the privilege of swinging the axe.
Andy needs all of his friends now. And I count myself among
some of his closest and best. It is not likely that President Carter
will muzzle his outspoken emissary to the United Nations, thus
forcing him to quit the post with all the bitter repercussions that
would surely bring.
But the niu»i ominous thing that seems in the immediate offing
is that escalating criticism and carping rebuttals from State
Department “old African Hands” now cornered with their
bankrupt (often neo-colonialist) policies toward Africa, will
somehow blunt the effectiveness of what Young is saying.
I am not a foreign policy expert so I can not fly speck
statements on our African policy with any certainty of accuracy.
I am a humanist, however, which is essentially, what Young, a
Methodist preacher is also.
It does not take a foreign policy expert to know that our
posture historically towards Africa and especially toward
Southern Africa where Blacks are oppressed in the worst way, to
know our policy is wrong and foolhardy -- or at least it has been
until recently. Possession of common sense and a sensitivity to
the humanity common in all of us, are all one need possess.
Andy Young has been saying a lot of things that have needed
saying by men and women in high sensitive political positions.
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Hasn’t returned to
Augusta since 1914
Dear Editor
I am writing to see if I can
get a copy of your paper each
week and the cost.
You see, I was bom in
Augusta on Gwinnett Street,
but left there in 1914 and
haven’t been back since. I
always wanted to get the news
from home, but did not know
Questions future
of Black youth
Dear Editor:
As the close of another
school year approaches for
thousands of Black youth, we
can not help but wonder what
will they have to take with
them. What is to become of the
youth, many of whom are
leaving any formal educational
training perhaps for the last
time before beginning the path
of work, which their parents
before them have trodden?
We must ask ourselves, Have
these youth been prepared to
face the reality of high
unemployment among
teenagers? Was their education
the name of your newspaper. I
just happened to read the
graduation speech at Paine
College by Mr. Frank Yerby in
one of our local papers. That is
how I got the name of your
paper.
Benjamin Blocker
340 Thomas Blvd.
Orange, N.J.
adequate in providing them
with a basic foundation? In
short, we ask, will they be
ready?
In an attempt to answer
these questions we must look
at the system, instructional
materials, and educators which
as whole will ultimately bear
the responsibility for these
youth’s direction or lack of
direction.
At the outset we must
recognize that these educators
(image-shapers) have been the
forebearers of knowledge and
learning which in a real sense
has perpetuated the racism and
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most of whom have lacked the courage or do not possess the
burning rage to do so. .
I do not always agree with every word he says nor with his
presumed feeling of necessity to apologize for some of his
off-the-cuff remarks. But I believe in Andrew Young. 1 believe in
his honesty, probity, integregity. his hard common sense, his
strongly balanced, mature personality and judgment that helped
guide him and Dr. King and many of us who might have despaired
or acted rashly out of desperation to be heard, through the rough
dark days of our struggle for human and civil rights in the 60s and
early 19705. ■ r
Andrew Young has been forged in one of the most searing ot
crucibles - the unrelenting, protracted struggle for civil rights. He
is not apt to do rash things, or speak untruths damaging to the
country he loves so well. . . »
1 have sat many nights with Dr. King, with other strategists ot
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - sat and
sweate d and planned, and plotted strategies. These were all
crucial strategy sessions for the freedom, indeed the very lives of
a lot of Blacks and their supporters depended on the correctness
of the decisions.
In the middle of it all sat Young, pensive, cool, unflappable, his
always a voice of calm and reason above a cacaphony of angry
and explosive suggestions by young, hot-headed field staffers.
Andrew Young may not be the best thing since sliced bread.
But he is the best thing that has happened to our Mission to the
United Nations in some time and we ought to do our best to keep
him there. . .
For my part 1 would prefer our truth at that level to remain in
the here and now in the person of Andy Young. Knowledge of
Carlyle’s maximum, however, is a comfronting reassurance.
exploitation experienced by
Black people. It must also be
realized that the American
system assumes that learning is
most effective in an
environment which discourages
independence, creativity and
cooperation, while it
encourages complacency, false
competition and jealousy.
With this in mind we tum to
take a look at what we can and
must do to insure that our
children are not victimized by
a system characterized by a
lack of creativity. The number
one task which lies before us is
that of creating an atmosphere
in which our children can see
the necessity to strive for more
than just passing or getting by.
We must insist that they study
and that what they are
studying is solidly based in
truth and has some meaning
for Black people. When this has
been done, we can rest assured
that we will be well on the way
to providing the atmosphere
for creativity and growth.
Work for the Race !!!
Randy Gunter
P. O. Box 1408
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
JJ Mallory K. Millender Editor-Publisher
Frank Bowman General & Advertising Manager
Al Irby News Editor
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