«Credo of the Black PressThe Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racialand natural antagonisms when it accords to every person, regardless of race,color or creed, full human rights. Hating no person, fearing no person in thefirm belief that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.No, | AinTt FergittinT!The burgeoning debate over affir-mative action and other aspects ofrelations between the races has leftsome African-Americans shell-shocked.There is the feeling that we as apeople have omissed a meeting?somewhere, or have been absent fora crucial lecture before the big test.It seems as though the main-stream attitude toward us in theSouth has gone from, oYou [insertepithet here] need to learn yourplace? and oWe donTt serve your kindhere? straight to, oWhy do you allstop dwelling on the past and learnto get along??The tenor of the discussion froman astonishing number of white opin-ion-makers has been that race rela-tions would be just fine if osome?black folks would just forgive andforget, and quit living in the past.The inference being that racism,like slavery, is a sin for which whitesociety has atoned and which hasbeen largely eradicated from bothprivate and public life, so now, recon-ciliation may well and truly proceed.The response of most black folks isbewilderment and confusion. Maybewe were not paying attention when ,racism ended and the apology was is-sued, but we donTt seem to remem-ber it.For that matter, the messagedoesnTt seem to have gotten acrossto quite a number of white folks, ei-ther, judging from their reactions toAfrican-Americans on a daily basis.But critics of black oracism? (asany suggestion that things are lessthan peachy-keen in America of theNifty Nineties is labeled) donTt dwellon that uncomfortable aspect.What really annoys them, theysay, is that black folks okeep harpingon slavery.? Slavery was over anddone with more than 100 years ago,they say. Time to get over it and geton with life.That is very wise and prudent ad-vice, and black folks would be happyto take it to heart, if not for the factof who it is coming from.It is hard to overlook, for instance,that many of the same folks who aredecrying blacksT silliness in endlesslydwelling on the history of slaveryare the very ones who have stickerson their cars with a cartoon Rebelwaving a battle flag and_ the legend,oHell, no, I ainTt fergittinT!?You know the ones we mean.Folks who grew up not knowing thatodamn Yankee? was two words, andwho will mutter, oThey may of wonthe war, but we got Tem atChickamaugy.?We have all known them. They re-live bitterly the atrocities the Unioncommitted on the virgin South dur-ing and after the War of NorthernAggression, and many will tell youthat in their history lessons growingup as late as the T60s, Abraham Lin-coln was barely mentioned.The Civil War ended in 1865. Thelast federal occupation troops werewithdrawn from Southern soil by1878, and soon thereafter, politicalcontrol was returned to white hands.So we are talking about a period ofooppression? that lasted, at the most,13 to 15 years.Also, for all their outrage, most ofthe horror stories they have aboutthe Union occupation didnTt involvewholesale murder, rape and theusual war atrocities. They weremainly economic.Land was stolen. Property seized.Outrageous taxes passed. Blackfolks given their land (for a while).But they have the nerve to tellblack folks they are sick and tired ofhearing them owhine? about slavery.Which lasted 450 years. And its af-termath, which only started ending40 years ago, and which arguably isstill with us today.You guys are too much!Go ahead. Talk about how ounrea-sonable? black folks are, and howthey oinsist on living in the past.?Speculate that maybe itTs genetic.But the fact is, we ainTt fergittinT,either.Watch Where You ClickA woman, doing research for a pa-per on child porn on the Internet, sether search engine to key on thosewords.What she got was mainly, as sheintended, a number of sites dealingwith treatises on the problem andhearings on porn on the Internet.She also got one site that prom-ised: oIllegal hardcore kiddie porn.Check it out.?Amazed, she clicked on it, to beconfronted by a screen that said,oDownloading child pornography isillegal in every state. Your accesshas been logged and the informationwill be forwarded to the proper au-thorities.?Now, of course, she knew from herresearch that it wasnTt an officialgovernment site and that she wasnTtabout to get a call in the middle of .the night from FBI agents wantingto confiscate her computer, but it didgive her pause.Another student, researching por-nography on the Internet, reportsthat, a couple of days after accessingseveral sites, she began receiving e-mail from people she had neverheard of, assuring her, oWe like thatkind of stuff, too,? and wanting tosend her dirty pictures.These two incidents point up a po-tential problem with the Internetthat few people realize. If you accessa site, it is not only possible, butfairly éasy, for a third party to traceyour Internet address back to you,for whatever purposes.The problem isnTt so much that BigBrother is watching you, but thatoeverybody and his brother? is.Internet security is a burgeoningissue, and one that has yet to be ad-equately addressed. It has even beenspeculated that it might be possiblefor political nuts or just plain socio-paths to use e-mail addresses to sendcomputer viruses to everybody ac-cessing, say, an abortion-rights siteor the NAACP page.African-Americans need to getused to using the Internet and all itsassociated technologies if they are tobe ready for the 21st century.But part of learning it is knowingits pitfalls and dangers. Beware.The Internet and e-mail arenTt likethe mail. They are more like a partyine.And everybody is listening.When the Krakatoa volcano erupted In Indonesia in 1683, thesound was heard 3,000 miles away.Other ViewpointsMARION BARRY: A PROFILE IN COURAGEBy Maurice A. DawkinsSpecial To The NNPAA black Leader with a black political base, Marion Barry,the mayor of Washington, D.C., the nationTs capital, is alogical target for the attacks of the white power structure.His rise through the political system from city council-man to finance committee chairman to mayor was based ona rise through the system of community-based organizationswhere he served as the head of PRIDE and a leader in theStudent Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Hisprogress as a leader of leaders continued as he became presi-dent of the National Black Mayors Conference.Now, he emerges as a key figure in the World Conferenceof Mayors and attends their conference in Abuja, Nigeriawhere they welcome him as a modern-day hero, a role modelof what a mayor can accomplish in public administrationand political power. They are 776 mayors of municipalitiesin Nigeria elected in March of 1997 as the first step in athree-part transition plan to change from a military to acivilian government.He appeared as a key figure at the African-AfricanAmerican Summit initiated by Reverend Leon Sullivan wholet. the international community know his high regard andgenuine appreciation for the man Marion Barry.Why then, with this track record of positive achievementand recognition from black America should he be vilified anddemonized by the white media because they are trying todestabilize black Nigeria with an elaborate disinformationprogram? Why does the Washington Post choose to put anegative spin on the story reporting his visit to Nigeria andhis visit to Harare, Zimbabwe?Is it possibly because the white power structure is deter-mined to destroy and demean authentic black Americanleadership ? Is it because white America fears a genuinealliance between-black Africans and African-Americans interms of economic empowerment"combining the strategicminerals, oil, diamonds and gold of Africa with the techno-logical and organizational knowhow of Black Americans?Perhaps what was done to Marcus Garvey, W.E.B.DuBois, Paul Robeson, Adam Clayton Powell, Martin LutherKing and Malcolm X must now be done to Marion Barry.How long will it take before they add Jesse Jackson to thelist?It canTt be because Nigeria is a military government.Chile is a military government in good standing with theUnited States. It canTt be because of NigeriaTs human rightsrecord. Communist China has a record many times worsethan capitalist Nigeria. The US de-links human rights fromtrade and investment when it comes to China. It canTt bebecause Nigeria has helped stabilize Liberia and is workingto restore democracy in Sierre Leone. It canTt be becauseNigeria has sent peacekeeping troops to Pakistan, Lebanon,Somalia, Bosnia and every United Nations Peace Keepingoperation in its history. No it must be because of racism!"Global Racism! Neocolonial Racism!There is no excuse for the odouble standard? of the U.S.State Department except the colonial offices of the Britishand their compatriots in the other ex-colonial powers have aconspiracy to control the wealth of the African continent andto do that they must not permit economically independentBlack Nations like Nigeria and Sudan, to make economicconnections with African-Americans.Yes, you get it! A Marion Barry connection might lead toconnection with the 400-plus black mayors in America. Thismight lead to a connection with black community-based or-ganizations, black churches and the black press. No, whiteAmerica cannot forgive Marion BarryTs shortcomings likethey forgive Bill ClintonTs shortcomings. Marion doesnTt havethe powerful damage control machinery that is at lovable,unsinkable BillTs disposal. He has the same womanizing anddrug use charges made against him He has the same recordof being a comeback kid and he had a lot to come back from.The difference is that though he talks like a brother, heTs notblack like Barry! ,oHis PR pene say his accomplishments as presidenteclipse his ethical and moral shortcomings . But no one saysBarryTs accomplishments eclipse his ethical or moral short-comings. ItTs a double standard"itTs racism and MayorMarion Barry is a profile in courage who faces this challengewithout fear"as his black community backs him up"thankGod!Rev. Dawkins is chairman of the National CoalitionFor Fairness In Africa Policy, a network of black ©clergy, black press and black community-based organi-zations,BACK TO AFRICA-NOT JUST WINING AND DININGBy William ReavesSpecial to the NNPAA recent article in the Washington Post, oOfficials DefendConference,? initially appeared to be a rebuttal of earliercriticisms against the delegation of Black U.S. mayors, otherelected officials and media representatives who attended theWorld Conference of MayorsT (WCM) annual meeting in Ni-geria. But it soon became clear that this was another at-tempt to vilify a group of black people who dared to definethemselves and their associations.The article specifically pointed out that not only did D.C.Mayor Marion Barry attend the conference, which wasolargely subsidized by NigeriaTs military government,? buttwo other Black mayors and three city council members fromsuburban D.C. municipalities, including myself, also got afree trip ohome.?The apparent intent of much of the article was to focus onhow the Nigerian government duped us, the ignorant andnaive sons and daughters of the African Diaspora, into a tripto the motherland in an effort to olend tacit support for thedictatorial regime.?But by hosting the WCM 1997 conference in Abuja, theNigerian government did afford us the opportunity to ridourselves of the ignorance and naivete many people from theU.S. have about Africa and more specifically Nigeria. Asidefrom the welcomed surprise of lavish resort hotels, fine res-taurants and superb African entertainment, it was indeedvery clear that others have discovered Nigeria. There weremany white and other non-white people, from all over theglobe, vacationing, exploring and most importantly, conduct-ing business in Nigeria.However, ignorance and naivete engenders knowledgeand understanding. And that is exactly what the majority ofthe conferenceTs nearly 500 participants from 12 African na- »tions, Asia, the Caribbean and the U.S. achieved. We got toknow and understand each other.Founded in 1984 by then Tuskegee, Ala. Mayor JohnnyFord, the WCM is primarily patronized by non-white mayors ©worldwide. The WCM has the objective of stimulating con-structive relationships between mayors internationally,based on the six Ts: Trust, Trade, Tourism, Twinning ofCities, Technology Transfer and Treasury.Several very insightful exchanges took place during thescheduled workshops, which covered such topics such as:Women in Government, Mayors and the Press and Mayor/Council Relations.Technology Transfer was one of the most interesting ses-sions. The committee was composed of representatives fromfour African countries and the U.S. After a very informativeexchange, we penned a resolution calling for the WCM tosolicit from each national government represented at theconference, support for a Technology Transfer Communica-tion Network (TTCN). The network will promote informationsharing between cities, towns and villages, via electronic me-dia facilitated by the respective mayors.The WCM Technology Transfer Communication Networkis a novel idea that caters to the technological needs of smallto medium-sized municipalities because it will provide quickturnaround on technology-related requests for information.These will presumably lead to the identification of, and con-tact with, foreign entities who can fulfill the needs of therequester, Larger or more industrialized municipalities cangain private/public investment opportunities, while smallercommunities may be its economic beneficiaries. All thatmany villages/towns/cities need is the injection of smallamounts of technology and/or capital to help develop theirnatural resources. rBlack people in the U.S. and abroad need to be aware ofbusiness opportunities in other parts of the world. Althoughforeign investment is often risky, it can be very profitableand allow us to penetrate the types of markets that aregenerally closed domestically.After the WCM Technology Committee meeting, a mayorfrom a rural Nigerian village and U.S. officials calculatedthat for less than the average cost of an automobile inAmerica, an investor could fund his villageTs 500-acre agri-cultural development project. Another proposal outlined ajoint venture for the development of a concrete and brickplant which would supply the regionTs construction industry.One creative business plan, proposed to develop a popcornproduction plant to exploit the regionTs maize and palm oilproduction capability. With the addition of small-scale ma-chinery the local village couldTdeliver packaged popcorn foran incredibly low cost. ,So you see; the conference was very productive, some ig-nies ealnt ah aiatea tere: reahutncd dadeAs for the government in Nigeria"the purpose of govern-e ments everywhere is to produce and facilitate justice.Ld