
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140404
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AFFLUENT BLACKS ALOOF/ DISADVANTAGED BLACKS

LAST YEAR'S consolidation debate would suggest that Jim Crow is alive and well in Roanoke County. County spokesmen as well as county school professionals indicated their opposition to consolidation because they wanted no part of the city schools with their 40 percent enrollment of blacks.

But another aspect of racism is more subtle. My association with blacks in several areas during the past 20 years suggests to me there is more attention given to disadvantaged blacks by whites than by their own black brethren.

The March 3 news article on black violence suggests that certain elements of the black community successfully disassociate themselves from those elements suffering from violence, drugs and poverty. It is not a revelation that motivated, successful and affluent blacks appear to avoid contact with blacks who do not exhibit those characteristics.

T.C. FISHER JR. ROANOKE

by CNB