AFAM Newsbits

April 2004

JUST SAY “NO” TO LITTLE BLACK SAMBO!

Black folks need to let White folks know with vim and vigor that Little Black Sambo contains no saving grace that would justify a revival of this absolutely racist novel that for so many years was so callously used by White teachers to humiliate so many Black students who were forced to sit and listen to the tale being read out loud by White teachers and snickering fellow White students. I, personally, will never forget the humiliation of being forced to read the tale of Little Black Sambo so often out loud in class to mostly White students and am not inclined to entertain the intellectual gibberish being used by certain White people to justify its revival.

WHAT A RACIST LEAP!

A Black man killed two White police officers and two White men threw white paint on Detroit’s Joe Lewis sculpture, leaving a message that said, “Courtesy of Fighting Whities.” Of all the constructive things these racists could have done to show sympathy and solidarity with the slain policemen and their families, they chose a totally unrelated expression of raw racism. No wonder Black people are ever on the alert!

THE “OLD BOY” NETWORK IS INHERENTLY RACIST

The recent Federal Court ruling reversing the racially skewed redistricting in Boston’s 17 legislative districts points out the inherent danger of the “old boy” network to Black people. Speaker Finneran’s district was among many that were racially gerrymandered (a la old southern style politics) to leave Boston’s Black citizens with “…less opportunity than other members of the electorate….”. The disturbing fact is that many people, who might otherwise not condone racist acts, went along with Finneran. The other Reps, the mainstream press and others you might have expected to register vigorous protest remained silent rather than openly scrutinize the legislature’s racist gerrymandering. In this day and age, the “old boy” network remains inherently racist in its effect on Black equality.

MADAME C. J. WALKER, ROLL OVER!

Madame C. J. Walker, who made millions developing hair care products that liberated Black women, is probably rolling over in her grave at the fact that L’Oreal, a French hair, skin and cosmetics company that traditionally focused on White women, has launched a 594 million dollar research project to develop products for Black consumers. Since Madam Walker, Black beauty care in the U.S. has been dominated by Black-centered companies, but L’Oreal has opened the L’Oreal Institute for Ethnic Hair and Skin Research, purchased Black companies--SoftSheen and Carson--and established a marketing plan to dominate both the U. S. and world ethnic markets. Black beauty shops and barbershops have been important centers of employment and Black social intercourse, but don’t be surprised to see L’Oreal franchises challenging these valuable cultural centers around the country.

WHITES ONLY SCHOLARSHIP?

If you want an indication of how far this country has slipped, simply visit Roger Williams University where White Republican students started a “Whites only” scholarship to protest affirmative action. Public pressure forced them to discontinue it. These young, White conservatives have been conditioned by events of the last two decades to help America forget that it was generations of such White-only privileges and Black exclusion that ushered in the era of affirmative action in the first place. As many of us well know, “Jim Crow” never died, he just hid away for awhile and these young, White bigots merely reflect that fact.

THE CONSTITUTION APPLIES TO MICHAEL JACKSON, TOO!

Did you hear about Harry Belafonte’s spirited defense of Michael Jackson? Among other things, he said, “Michael Jackson is innocent until proven guilty by the court of law.” He called the media’s coverage of Jackson “…a travesty of journalism” while saying, “I cannot charge my colleague on the basis of media reports and television programs.” As I said in the last issue of POV, “Many of those who believe Michael Jackson is guilty might recognize the mainstream legal principle that Black people apply to his case, which is the principle that, in America, a person is innocent until proven guilty.”
THEIR HERO!

The New Republic magazine applauded Carol Mosely Braun for chastising Al Sharpton for chastising Howard Dean for not having any Blacks in his Vermont Governor’s cabinet. (The New Republic, January 2004). Braun said of Sharpton, “The fact of the matter is that you can always blow up a racial debate and make people mad at each other…” The TNR ebulliently praised Braun for “uttering one of the bravest and most sensible lines of the night and shaming her timid White male counterparts,” even while saying she “shouldn’t have been on the stage in the first place.” It is amazing how much credit a Black person, who otherwise has little claim to fame, receives from the mainstream press for “dissing” another Black person!

THE STOCK RIDE THAT HURTS

A majority of Americans are now invested in the stock markets, but few see the relationship between their investments and the wholesale loss of American jobs to India, China, Pakistan and many other third world countries. More than ever, we Americans expect our corporate leaders to make decisions that maximize profits and, therefore, the return on our investments. Corporations have discovered that the only way to remain competitive and, therefore, profitable in domestic and international markets is to send good American jobs overseas where labor is much cheaper. If one American company does it and other related American companies do not, the one company can price the other companies out of the market because of these cheaper foreign labor costs. Not only that, many foreign corporations can produce the same products using the same workers who are taking American jobs. They then ship the resulting cheaper products back to America to compete against the more expensive products that higher priced American workers produce. We willingly buy these cheaper foreign products at the Wal-Marts and Filenes and automobile dealerships, etc. Not only that, American corporations must also sell their goods to foreign countries. They compete with other countries on the international market. In order to maintain America’s status as the biggest supplier of goods and services to the world, we must produce goods and services that are cheap enough to sell to other countries. In order to compete with these cheaper foreign products, American corporations are shipping American jobs abroad. It is the way they have chosen to stay profitable and protect your stock investments.

BETTER THAN NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Have you heard about the “Down Low Barbershop Program” out of Seattle, Washington, in which Black barbers have been trained to educate their customers about AIDS prevention and cure? Recognizing that half of all new HIV infections in America are among Black males, who make up only 6% of the Seattle area population but 15% of all people living with AIDS, Seattle has trained over two dozen Black barbers in AIDS counseling. In turn, the barbers are counseling their customers in their barbers’ chairs about the dangers of and treatments for HIV and AIDS. n