Newspaper Page Text
BUCK LEADERSHIP AND AMERICAN GOALS
ST Adjustments to Change
It is ironic - tragically so that a
society, whose success has always seemed
rooted in its adaptability, should seek to
freeze its social arrangements just at those
moments when the need for adaptability
presses most heavily upon it, when pres
sure for social change has become a global
force. White Americans have tended to
close ranks or to concede only minimal,
token adjustments at a time when agres
sive action to secure equity for black
Americans should be their most pressing
commitment. And on those occasions
when the weight of world opinion and
violent discord at home forced us to
EDITORIAL
NOTES:
(Continued from page 2.)
country may become increasingly effective
in getting their viewpoint heard...and
acted upon.
For more information about the work
shops and the dinner check in your local
black-owned newspaper carrying the
MONITOR which will have recently car
ried an article called, “Come To The Cau
cus Dinner.” If you cannot find the article,
write for information to:
Congressional Black Caucus Dinner
Committee
Congressional Annex
Washington, D.C. 20515
If it is easier for you to call, the number
is (202) 225-1691.
BUT be sure to write or call. The profits
from the dinner go directly for the coopera
tive work of the Congressional Black Cau
cus, a thoroughly underfunded group
whose work while in the interests of all
Americans, is especially, “on behalf of
black folks.”
Thank you for your letters. Please con
tinue to send us your comments, they help
us and encourage us.
confront the needs of black Americans
with sincere purpose, our best efforts
historically have fallen short of the needs
of the hour.
Not long ago, a black leader was de
layed at the airport of one of our great
cities. As he waited, he saw evidence of a
condition in the airline industry that is
typical of the American economy as a
whole: a highly disproportionate num
ber of white employees at upper levels
and relatively few black employees, prac
tically all of them in lower-eschelon
jobs. Despite the availability of qualified
applicants, there still are very few black
pilots working in the United States. The
higher-paid clerical, supervisory, and
managerial categories in the aviation
industry also reflect a serious failure
to achieve equitable employment for
black people.
The airport was situated far from
1) In what four major ways has the
apartheid Republic of South Africa sought
to divert world opinion from its internal
injustices?
2) What efforts should the United
Nations be undertaking to advance human
rights in South Africa?
3) How can black Americans assist in the
South African black struggle for black
majority rule? Specifically could you sug
gest a three or four stage plan by which
black American support might be brought
to bear for the benefit of black South
Africans?
4) Since Cuba bills itself as a largely
MONITOR MEMORABLES-
“Quotes, past and present, overheard and read, for Black America s serious consideration.
ON THE BLACK PRESS
“Through all the Negro press, there flows
an undercurrent of feeling that the race
considers itself a part of America and yet
has no voice in the American newspaper.
Members of this group want to learn about
each other, they want the stories of their
success, conflicts, and issues told, and they
want to express themselves in public.”
—Charles S. Johnson
the center of the city, and new houses
were springing up all around it, despite
the growing nuisance of airport noise.
He asked himself what kind of people
were coming to live there, and the ans
wer, of course, was white people seek
ing to escape from city problems and
from the black people with whose arrival
they associate those problems. Both in
dustry and the white population have
been moving out of the cities just as
those black people who are best quali
fied for industrial and service jobs are
moving from regions of low economic
opportunity into the cities. Yet the
black people cannot follow the industrial
and service jobs into the suburbs, for
most surburban communities exclude
them both overtly and covertly. That
more and more black Americans cannot
live where work is available has caused
continuing desperation among them and a
dangerous situation for the nation as a
whole.
MONITOR MICROSCOPE
CURRENT EVENTS QUIZ
black nation, is there any helpful role you
feel that black Americans might play in
opening up Cuban-U.S. relations?
5) Are there any major shifts going on, in
your opinion, in the mood of black Ameri
cans? What are the ingredients of the
present black mood in America, as you see
it?
6) How would you define or describe the
differences between racial prejudice, on the
one hand, and racism, on the other hand?
Do you feel the difference is helpful? If so,
how?
7) How would you interpret the quota
tion of Jean Genet to the effect that there is
ON CIVIL RIGHTS AS
A GOOD FOR AMERICA:—
“We claim for ourselves every right that
belongs to a free-born American; and until
we get these rights, we will never cease to
protest and assail the ears of America. The
battle we wage is not for ourselves, but for
all true Americans.”
WEB. Dußois, in The Crisis Writings
Are JW tithing to • hloct relit ma instimiion
New Ntniomit BLACK MONITOR - September, 1977
There has been much talk of polari
zation between white and black Ameri
cans. The assumption is that black .
people have retreated from a cooperative
spirit and an integrated approach to bet
terment of their condition. The opposite
is nearer the truth. For it is the white
Americans who have been reluctant to
cooperate with black men on equal
terms, who refuse to relinquish their
direct power over black men’s lives. This _
attitude is not surprising, for history
offers few instances of power freely
shared. Nor can power, in fact, be given
freely. Implicit in the free grant of power
by one group to another is the ability
to take it away as freely, and therefore
what is being transmitted is not power
but a more subtle form of dependence. .
Only through striving for and seizing
power is the muscle necessary to use and
maintain it developed.
a white psyche in All Americans, by dent of
a pro-white culture?
8) Does racism pose any threat to world
peace? To American domestic tranquility?
9) What suggestions do you have for
overcoming possible racial polarization? Is
ignoring it helpful? Is open discussion of it
helpful?
(These questions are designed for class
room and group discussions. Answers are
always more sharply or clearly defined if
they are written. It is suggested that, where
feasible, answers be made first in some
written form and then discussed.)
FROM SOUTH AFRICA
“Our position has so worsened that today
white South Africa has put in office a
government which has closed all constitu
tional channels between itself and my
people, and whose barbarous and godless
policies have shocked enlightened people
all over the world.”
—Walter Sisulu, before the Court,
July 1952
Paeett