Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 1, 1994 TAG: 9408010020
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: William Raspberry
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hugh B. Price is a believer. The new president of the National Urban League used his keynote address, at the league's annual convention in Indianapolis last month, to take on some of the toughest problems facing black America - not to distribute blame but to talk, in plain language, about possible solutions.
``We must not let ourselves - and especially our children - fall into the paranoid trap of thinking that racism accounts for all that plagues us,'' he warned, noting that the culprits include economic trends that transcend race, even though inner-city blacks may be disproportionately victimized by them.
It was an extraordinary speech, with food for virtually every mainstream philosophy: a little demand and a little self-blame, a little long-term development and a little here-and-now realism, a little integration and a little racial self-sufficiency, a little capitalism and a little economic planning.
But for me, the heart of his remarks was his call upon black Americans to get busy on the problems nearest at hand: the rescue of our children, the restoration of our families, and an end to our economic and social marginalization.
``Politicians talk incessantly these days about taking back the streets from criminals,'' he said. ``I say we take back our children from the streets, and the streets will take care of themselves.''
How might that be done? First with an all-out effort to educate our children for the difficult years ahead, not merely by demanding more from schools but also by insisting on more from parents. Price called for the league's affiliates to mount a ``house-by-house, living room-by-living room'' drive to ``help parents understand, in laymen's terms, exactly what their children must know and be able to do in order to meet 21st century standards of competency.''
And after school? ``I propose that each affiliate establish a Youth Development Fund and formulate, in conjunction with others in the community, a master plan for delivering youth services after school and over the summers in churches, schools, settlement houses, community centers, safe homes, museums, even National Guard armories.''
Price, 52, is hardly the first to call for improved schools, better after-school facilities or economic reform. But he is one of the few civil-rights leaders who has put the onus of solution (not to say the blame) on blacks themselves.
The money for some of those programs, for instance, would come ``from our young, well-heeled professionals who don't yet have family obligations, from older folk like me whose children are out of college ... from the Elks, the frats and so on.''
His recommendation: $500 to $1,000 a year - and from people of all races who can afford to give, or who cannot give, but are willing to stage fund-raisers instead. People at all income levels might ``tithe their time'' in direct service, he suggested.
If you haven't been paying close attention, much of what Hugh Price said in that speech will sound fairly routine. It isn't.
The current civil-rights emphasis on racism has the ring of militancy, but it offers no solutions to the deadly problems infecting black communities. In many cases it is just another way of saying, ``It's not my fault.''
Worse, the near-exclusive focus on racism has another consequence that no one seems to talk about. It produces what appears to be indifference on the part of whites. One of the earmarks of the 1960s civil rights movement was the massive involvement of whites working alongside blacks. Relatively few whites are intimately involved today, though the problems are at least as severe.
The difference: In the 1960s, the blacks who led the movement made sure that whites had a role in it, whether as fund-raisers, as activists or as lobbyists. Today's leaders often offer whites a single role: that of villain. Not surprisingly, very few are applying.
Hugh Price, who understands the futility of scapegoating, is giving white people something to do. That's smart.
He's also giving me - a decently paid, seriously concerned but only marginally involved member of the black middle class - something to do. That's genius.
Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB