NAACP Boycott of TV ShowsShould Extend to All MediaTelevision is neither black and white-nor is it in living color~ anymore, It has degenerated into a drab shade of gray. .Thankfully, the National Association for the Advancement ofColored People (NAACP) is attacking the shading out of people of colorin the fall lineup of sitcoms and dramatic programming. And, itis backingup the rhetoric with threats to call on blacks to turn off the tube and toboycott the advertisers that are fueling the oblack and brown-out. ?While the NAACP is urgently needed, it is not going far enoughbecause virtually everything being said about network programming canalso be said about television news, radio and the print media.At the NAACP convention in New York a few weeks ago, KweisiMfume showed hoy the ongoing erasure of black faces in the media areaffecting the fall lineup. Not one of the 26 new shows set to air on ABC,CBS, NBC or Fox star an African American. Blacks, as well as Hispanics,aren Tt playing many secondary roleseither. oWhen the TV viewing pub-lic sits down to watch new prime-time shows scheduled for this fall,they will see a virtual whitewash. ?Mfume said. oThis glaringomission is an outrage and a shame-ful display by network executives,who are either clueless, careless orboth. ? Unfortunately, the trend oferasing blacks has been gainingmomentum for several years as ad-vertisers both in the print and broad-cast media as well as news officialschase the so-called upscale demo-graphics. For example, last season'stop five entertainment shows: oER, ? oFriends, ? oFraiser, ? oVeronica'sCloset and oJesse ? were principallywhite shows with a sprinkling ofprominent minority characters.Advertisers generally regard oup-scale ? white males aged 18 to 49 asthe most desirable "and for some crazy reason "disregard the $650 _billion that blacks gross annually.KWEIS!I MFUMENAACP PresidentIn recent years, sitcoms with a positive message such as oAmen, ? oA Different World, ? o227, ? oFresh Prince, ? and oThe Jeffersons ? havebeen canceled. In fact, one of the ways I knew a show didn Tt have muchof a chance was if I liked it. For a long-time I viewed the changes aspersonal. I live in fear that network devils at CBS pull the cord when theyfigure out that oTouched by An Angel's ? high-ratings are partly becauseof the superb acting of Della Reese.Mfume is calling on blacks "who are becoming the vanishingspecies on television "to turn off the tube. Actually they are alreadyturning off network sitcoms anyway and going to cable. Only six of lastseason Ts networks shows ranked in the Top 20 among black households.Conversely, the top rated show in black households, oThe Steve HarveyShow ? on WB, ranked No. 154 in white householdg, according to BBDO,a New York ad agency that studies viewing habits.In attempting to break the colorline, the NAACP shouldn't stopwith network programming. It should forcefully call on the networks Tnews departments, public TV shows and cable stations to drop their banon black talking- heads, the punditocracy. On major talk shows likeCNN Ts oCapital Gang ? and public television Ts oWashington's Week InReview, ? black faces are also scarce. Public affairs or news shows havebeen ethnically cleansed of black and brown viewpoints. Unless there is -a black-oriented issue or an issue whites want to associate with blackssuch as crime, black experts are rarely used. Monitor oNightline, ? forexample, to see how that rule 1s enforced. Moreover, when there is aWhite House news conference look to sec how white the news gatherersare.TV news-talk is a matter of whites talking about white-lolks affairswith blacks only able to listen over the back fence. In the workplace, theracial situation is just as bad. A recent American Society of NewspaperEditors (ASNE) showed that 48 percent of newspapers hire no people ofcolor. Many of the major newspapers employ no black or Hispaniceditorial writers, and those they do hire are pressured to pen conservativeopinions.If Mfume T s rhetoric is notempty, he willinclude broadcasters in histhreats to go to the source- "the advertisers. who are allowed to disrespectthe $650 billion blacks spend annually on consumer goods. The FederalCommunications Commission recently released a study showing thatadvertisers are discriminating against broadcasters and stations that serveminority advertisers. Data for 3,745 radio stations across the countryconcluded that those who program for minority audiences earn about 29percent less revenue per listener than stations that air general marketprogramming.People of color should back away from advertisers who won't playfair and who sponsor shows that exclude them. Maybe only the time-honored tactics used in the nearly yearlong Montgomery bus boycott cansave blacks from becoming invisible in the nation Ts media.(Dr. Barbara Reynolds newest book, No, 1 Won't Shut Up: 30 Yearsof Telling it Like It Is, can be purchased by sending a check for $17.95plus $4 postage to 4806 St. Barnabas Rd., Suite 598, Temple Hills, Md.20757.)few folk around today who willremember Dan Anderson. Dan wasthe foreman at the woodshop oper-ated by Watts Manufacturing Com-pany, out of El Segundo, a little T more than 30 years ago.Anderson was a man of inordi-nate talent. He had presence,strength, intelligence (this is an is-sue which may be argued later.)And the ability to command men.His career at Watts Manufactur-ing began with him working as a laborer. In less than a year, JimWoods, the founder and chairmanof the board at Watts, moved himsteadily up the ladder. Both Jim andRoy Bingham, who had been theforeman, recognized Dan Ts abilityand promoted him accordingly.There was a problem,however.Despite all of these good things,Dan Anderson had bent towards thefast lane. He had come to Wattsshortly after being released fromprison. This seemed to have been akind of pattern with him.Regardless, he worked his wayup. He was a sight to behald. Ap-proaching six feet in height, he wasbuilt proportionately. Musclesripped beneath his shirt sleeves andthe girls in the office all tried to findan excuse to go Out into the woodyard, just to see Dan Anderson.During his tenure at Watts Manu-facturing, there were initially twowomen with whom he became in-volved. One of them was a regis-tered nurse, who recognized the in-herent problems with the man andchanged the relationship into oneof amore platonic nature. The otherwas arelatively young woman, whois now a social worker. She too hadthe courage and the wisdom to ulti-mately pull away.Both women paid an emotionalprice for their precarious flings withDan Anderson. In the meantime,however, they both maintained afriendship as well as an admirationfor him.After a couple of years or maybealittle less. Dan decided that he was .not making enough money there -and decided to strike out on hisown. Somehow, he managed to findenough cash to buy a truck andstarted hauling produce, I think,from Northern California.This was the beginning of theend for Dan Anderson.Along the way, he met andteamed up with a young womanfrom Appalachia. She became hisconstant companion. As Dan Ts busi-ness began to dwindle, and it hasnever been clear why, he appar-ently became desperate. He and hiswhite female companion begancommitting robberies. Gas stations,convenience stores, the whole nineyards, or so we are told.Then, one dark and chilly nightin the Nevada Desert, according topolice reports and other sources,they robbed a couple near or at theCalifornia border. They took all oftheir cash, their car and forced themto totally disrobe.They left them at the scene anddrove back to Los Angeles in thestolen vehicle. It was here that themost tragic aspect of his life tookplace.The couple who had been robbedreported it to the police and thehot sheet. On the day after the rob-.bery, Dan and his girlfriend came tonear the Eastside._ Vigilant police officers recog-nized the plates as those reportedon the hot sheet and pulled the carover. According to records, Dangot out of his car and walked backto the police car. Both officers wereout of the patrol car, standing on thestreet and on the sidewalk respec-tively.Dan Ts companion was still at thestolen car. When it became appar-ent that the officers were going totake Dan into custody, the womanproduced a handgun, (we are told itwas a .357 magnum) and began fir-ing at the officers..One officer immediately returnedfire, but as he did so, Dan attempted towrestle his gun from him. The secondofficer joined the fray and Dan wasmortally wounded. The woman wasshot in the head. Anderson was takento the morgue and woman was takento County-USC Medical Center,where she was listed in grave condi-tion.A day later, the woman Ts mothercame from Kentucky, or Tennessee,or wherever she was from. No rela-tive claimed Dan Anderson Ts body.This reporter, a former girlfriend andhandful of people who had workedwithhim at Watts Manufacturing werethe only people who cared about him.He had an uncle who lived in the LosAngeles area. He refused to offer anyassistance. It became fairly clear thatDan had been somewhat of the obadseed ? and had burned all of his bridgesbehind him.We all pooled what money wecar's license number went on thePace 5Se gn eoHarrison of Harrison and RogsMortuary and explained the prtlem. Leon donated the embalmingservices and acasket. We were ableto finagle a burial plot at a local : Tcemetery. : ;There was a graveside serviteand I delivered the eulogy, such asit was, and we sent him on to meethis maker. He was in his early 30sThetae2ee *,. ©,a eeae et easand he had already spent nearly -two-thirds of his life in one peni-tentiary or another. - 7We never learned if Dan Ts girl-friend lived or died. We took hermother to the hospital to see her andthe girl was little more than a veg-etable at that point.One of the things that stands outmost in my memory was the Satur-day when the mother arrived. With-out going into any detail, we tookher to the old oMurray Ts on Broad-way, where oGeorgia Boy ? was thechef. She ate like food was goinout of style. :When she finished, she leanedback in her chair, wiped her mouth,crossed her hands across her amplestomach and said, oBy God, thatsho was some good eatin T I can Ttthank y all enough. ?The bottom line, of course, T isthat Dan Anderson was dead, andher daughter was seriouslywounded. There is no way to knowif anything could have saved Dan.But he had the ability to do greatthings. Each time I see a youngsterheaded down that same path, and Isee too many of them, J think aboutDan Anderson and wish he could behere to tell them the folly of theirroURBAN PERSPECTIVE *Examining Community-BuiInitiativesactions.OS SOROS AE feThere is much talk about thepresent and future conditionof urban America. Most of this is aeuphemismfor the country Ts dilemma about what to doabout the inner cities, which are virtually en-tirely African American and Latino. A thought-provoking report, albeit from the RockefellerFoundation, examines community building asan important component of urban renewal.Community building does not have a tightdefinition, but is currently viewed as continu-ous, self-renewing efforts by residents andprofessionals to engage in collective actionaimed at problem solving and enrichment thatcreates new or strengthened social networks,new capacities for group action and support,and new standards and expectations for life inthe community.The term, community building, may in-clude capacity-building, which involves as-sisting local residents to improve social con-ditions or political effectiveness, often throughorganizing. Joan Walsh, writer of the report,believes that one's point of view is criticallyimportant, and that community-building ini-tiatives link a wide range of people acrosslines Americans rarely cross "racc, class,ethnicity, geography, profession "and theyrequire partners to be honest about what moti-vates their work.Frustration with government poverty pro-grams found vivid expression in the dramatic1996 welfare reform, which abolished the 60-.year-old federal entitlement to aid for poorfamilies. Community-building is at least inpart, a response to new urban poverty that hasemerged in the last decade. Its goal is over-hauling the nation Ts anti-poverty approachand creating communities that work for low-income families.What's different about community build-ing? It rejects a programmatic approach topoverty in favor of efforts that catalyze per-sonal relationships and social networks to im-prove community life. Community-buildinginitiatives are diverse and locally tailored.The report highlights five community-build-ing programs: Chatham-Savannah Youth Fu-tures Authority; The Comprehensive Commu-nity Revitalization Project in the South Bronx;the Atlantic Project; Baltimore Ts Community-Building and Partnership; Oakland Ts UrbanStrategies Council. Despite the newness ofcommunity-building efforts, the report findsthat the new urban reform initiatives are hav-ing an impact in many cities. Some describecommunity-building efforts as a oseedlingpushing up through the cracks in widespreadpublic cynicism about whether we can. saveour inner cities. ?Community building is complicated intheory and practice. It analyzes urban povertynot simply as a lack of jobs or income, but asa web of interwoven problems "poor school-ing, poor health, family troubles, racism, crimeand unemployment "that can lock familiesout of opportunity permanently. Thus, onewatchword in community-building is ocomprehensives. ? The urban agenda is obvi-ously very complex. Supporters of communitybuilding, however, believe that the insight oftheir effort is simple and powerful: persistenturban poverty is not just about money, but alsoabout relationships. Community builders rec-ognize that the chronically poor today lack notjust jobs or incomes, but positive relationshipswith people and institutions who can help_them improve their lives.While community building is more an artthan a science, research shows that relation-ships are key to turning lives around. Mentoringprograms that link at-risk youths with caringadults, for instance, have been proven to helpyoung people avoid drugs and pregnancy andcomplete school. Community builders knowinner city neighborhoods cannot rebuild them-selves alone when race and class discrimina-tion and generations of disinvestment havedone so much to fray the social fabric of urbancommunities. Thus, these new initiatives seekto build relationships between the poor andthe powerful, to develop a sense of mutualobligation and reciprocity, a new social cqn-tract that keeps the urban poor from simplybeing the discards of a volatile, changing anduncaring economy. Community builders recognize there is nomagic bullet to win the war on poverty. Infact, they reject the war metaphor. Where waris about destruction, they say building 1s aboutcreation. Its partisans have committed them-'!selves to the very difficult, long-term work ofcreating vital communities based on strong,reciprocal relationships and thriving local in-'stitutions.Community builders conceded that the waron poverty failed to eradicate poverty, but notfor the reasons articulated by Ronald Reaganand his crew. They saw three factors "eco-nomic, social and political "as key to whypoverty resisted the 1960s-era approach. First,deindustrialization consigned a larger portion 'of the workforce to low-wage jobs or unem-ployment. At the same time, the end of legalsegregation meant the black middle-class couldleave core urban neighborhoods and they didso in significant numbers. The third reason isthat very few people care about the poor. And,the poor themselves, for many historical rea-sons, have rarely been able to marshal theresources to demand effective programs thatprovide opportunities for self-sufficiency.Community building initiatives thus try toaddress the economic, social and politicalmarginalization that locks the urban poor intopoverty. Hopefully, these initiatives will besustained and constitute a significant alterna-tive to the historically ineffective efforts as-sist the urban poor.I read a couple ofarticles recently, that ran within aweek of each other. Each articlewas about remembering sufferingas a basis for advancing culturalesteem and unity. One asked thequestion, oIs it time to interject suf-fering as part of a osanitized ? his-torical period? ? The responses wereas conflicted as the questions.The Jewish community, preparingfor a day of fasting in remembranceof the Holocaust (and other histori-cal calamities), reacted to claims ofthe Jewish people pushing too muchsuffering on society through its re-ligious observances. oMaking apoint of remembering utter evil hasalways been a part of Jewish his-tory and experience ... to be blindlyoptimistic is to be foolhardy, ? theLos Angeles Times quoted SimonWiesenthal Center founder RabbiMarvin Hier.On the other hand, ColonialWilliamsburg. a 70-year-old his-BETWEEN THE LINES o*Holocaust, Slavery: Conflict on Htorical theme park (a living replica-tion of the state of Virginia Ts origi-nal capital) finally got around toincorporating the social, moral andpolitical realities of slavery intotheir recreation of 1775 Virginiasociety even though records showhalf the city Ts population of 1,800people were free and enslavedblacks. oIt Ts important in history toexplore the racial interactions be-tween whites and slaves and freeblacks and slaves ... And until now,we haven't taken a hard look atwhat happened in the slave commu-nity itself, ? USA Today quotesChristy Mathews, director ofinterceptive planning and develop-ment for Colonial Williamsburg.So, the otheme ? for this year is otheslave experience ? whereby the pub-lic gets to see some re-enactmentsof the behaviors acted out uponblack families including slave whip-ping (39 lashes. the maximum al-lowed under Virginia law), familyseparations (wuctions) and the in-4Bs hs cha 845terfamily/community conflict thatresulted from having to live a sub-ordinated lifestyle, whether blackswere slave or free. Not quite thestuff we choose to remember (andin fact, are discouraged to remem-. ber) on a regular basis.How is it that two cultures in thesame society can be so conflictedabout how it recognizes sufferingas part of its healing and advance-ment? Part of the reason is that this(American) society has two differ-ent modes of engagement in thesuffering of black and Jewish cul-tures.There is little resistance to theconstant bombardment of Jewishsuffering, from the Museum of Tol-erance to educational dialogues inmulti-cultural forums, becauseAmerica had little hand.in the directimposition of the suffering. Par-ticularly with respect to the Holo-caust, the degree of American cul-pability is limited to othe world notacting quick enough ? in Germany'saidesire to eliminate non-Aryan cul-tures. So, there is an indifference toremembering Jewish suffering be-* cause it is removed from Americansociety directly and the burden ofguilt for it occurring is not directlyat the feet of Americans.On the other hand, there is (still)a great resistance to any public dis-cussion of African American suf-fering because it is seen as odiggingup ? a very evil, immoral and wickedperiod of America Ts past "part ofwhich has many circumstantial rem-nants associated with it are in exist-ence even today and it is perceivedas counter-productive to omovingon. ?This resistance can be directlyattributed to Americans T level ofguilt in having a direct hand in themanifestations of slavery and theinhumane practices associated withit. The cause and effects of slaveryare directly at the feet of Ameri-cans, most of whom chose to ignorethat it ever happened. That way itow Society Acknowledges Cultural Snever has to be reported, as theJewish nation (at home and abroad)continues to be. So the remember-ing of black suffering, that occurredtwice as long as black Americanshave been free (270 years to 135years), is discouraged and, in mostcases, forsaken for the sake of im-proved race relations and societalhealing.Remembering and acknowledg-ing is healing. Forgetting and ig-noring (particularly wrong deeds)is scarring. That is why AfricanAmericans and whites are soscarred. Neither has really healedfrom this |8th-century experience,the remnants of which carried overinto most of this century.Now you have more blacks thanwhites trying to forget about sla-very, and many have been con-vinced that slavery has no bearingon the race disparities that existtoday in American society nor onthe status of race relations inAmerica as it presently exists.Clearly the events of the day showa much different perspective.Blacks have been convinced thatthe past is irrelevant when Jéwsknow better. But what is so remark-able is how this society chooses tobe so diametrically conflicted overremembering cultural suffering. Butthen societies (and people) are T al-ways quicker to remember thewrong that others do, and choose toforget the wrong that they thém-selves do. The difference is not inthe suffering; the difference is inwho and what one chooses to re-member. In American society, the suffer-ing of slavery will always be a for-gotten footnote in early Americanhistory. And as conflicted as it is,America will also be first in linewith Jews observing and remind-ing the rest of the world, oNéveragain. ? We can Tt say the same. Ifwe don Tt remember slavery, no oneelse will. And no matter how ofool-hardy ? many blacks think, it canhappen again. .a ATARI. er RENEE OP CLT Das ETE NEI mF SE BME