Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 10, 1991 TAG: 9102100162
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Seven black political, religious and education leaders, including Gov. Douglas Wilder, said in recent interviews that they are concerned that their sentiments could be misinterpreted as unpatriotic. Although each said Bush should have allowed more time for economic sanctions to work against Iraq, each voiced support for the troops now that combat is under way.
Their complaint, they said, is not with the military, which traditionally has been a source of employment and upward mobility for blacks. Instead, it is against discrimination in American society that they said has forced many blacks to turn to the armed services as a job of last resort.
Although blacks comprise 13 percent of the nation's population, they represent 25 percent of the all-volunteer U.S. force in the Middle East - and 25 percent of the armed services overall.
"It's a horrible predicament for blacks," said Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk. "The ones in the military are the productive ones; they're not the crack dealers and the high school dropouts. What we fear is that many black men are going to come home as casualties of war. That's a frightening crisis because we have so many problems in our community that require the presence of good black male role models."
Vietnam veteran Jack W. Gravely said, "I am not one who feels it is wrong for black males to serve in the military." Gravely, president of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said, "The military has saved many blacks from a life of drugs and poverty. Unfortunately, society is not doing as good a job as the military."
The Rev. Curtis Harris, president of the state chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said, "Black people do not feel comfortable going into another country to save someone from injustice only to come back to this country and suffer injustice.
"This is our country," Harris said. "When the country engages in war, we engage. But we also want to engage in our country during times of peace."
Polls in Virginia and across the nation indicate that blacks are more skeptical about the war than whites. While nearly 85 percent of whites agreed with Bush's decision to begin combat, according to several national polls, only slightly more than half of blacks concurred. A recent Virginia survey found that 85 percent of the white voters believed in January that it was necessary to wage war, compared with 64 percent of blacks.
National black leaders opposing the war include Jesse Jackson, who calls it "the president's war" and describes Bush as "the commander-in-chief who vetoed the [1990] Civil Rights Bill"; Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's congressional delegate, who said that if her son signed up for service in the Persian Gulf she'd take him to a psychiatrist; and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who has called for a cease-fire.
Many blacks have expressed outrage that Bush's Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait fell on the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. His wife, daughter and son have spoken against the war. Martin Luther King III has urged black soldiers to say, "This is not my war," and to refuse to fight.
Criticism among black Virginians is less pronounced.
"While I would have preferred to see more time elapse before war, I do believe it is in our interest to stop the naked and brutal progression of Saddam Hussein," said Charles Jones, director of the Institute for the Study of Minority Issues at Old Dominion University.
Wilder, who won a Bronze Star for bravery in the Korean War, said the ambivalence of blacks is not surprising. Wilder, who many say is contemplating a presidential bid in 1992, blames Bush.
"When you hear the president say that we're there for freedom - the same president who vetoed the Civil Rights Bill, which was a bill for freedom at home - that gives many people hesitancy," he said. "There's a perception that if the president had the same degree of passion and combativeness at home towards racism, prejudice and enemies of human rights, that people could really get behind him."
Wilder's record on the Persian Gulf war underscores the ambivalence he sees in others. Last fall, he said he did not believe combat was justified and that it was not in the national interest to wage a war to reinstate the undemocratic government of Kuwait. Wilder called for continued sanctions.
Last week, Wilder said there is an "obvious" national interest and added: "I never thought that we did not have to go [to war]. I just wanted to see the enemy weakened [by sanctions] a little bit more."
Other explanations for black skepticism included:
That Bush has not been candid in explaining the real reason for war. "This is not a war about freedom, it is a geopolitical fight about oil," said Del. Jones. "I have a real question whether oil is worth dying for."
That during a recession, with social programs being slashed, the government is pumping an estimated $1 billion a day into the war effort. "There has never been a Marshall Plan for black Americans," said Gravely of the NAACP.
That those who profit economically from the war are white.
That some blacks may feel kinship with Arabs, many of whom are also ambivalent about the war. "I know some blacks who identify with non-white Arabs, particularly in the Muslim community," Jones said.
Balancing the skepticism is a sense of patriotic pride in the estimated 125,000 black troops in and around the gulf and, for some, the fact that Army Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is black.
"Since the Revolutionary War, black Americans have always supported the country in war efforts," said Chesapeake Mayor William Ward, a history professor at Norfolk State University. "They have done so because they thought it would enhance their chances for freedom at home."
Indeed, many of those interviewed said their families are rooted in the military. Charles Jones' father served 26 years in the Army. Ward and Harris both have brothers who spent 30 years in the Army. Jerrauld Jones' late sister-in-law went to medical school on an Army scholarship. Gravely has a cousin and a nephew in the gulf.
by CNB