THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512160261
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Instead of buying toys for the tykes this Christmas, how about buying them Toys R Us?
One, two or three shares.
Stock or mutual funds are a great gift and a better buy this holiday season, says the Rev. Curtis Gatewood of Durham.
Why spend all your money on $100 dolls whose heads may be torn off, teethmarked or twisted backward by New Year's Eve?
Gatewood, president of the Durham NAACP, has urged blacks to boycott Santa this holiday season. The preacher reasons: There is too much debt and too little savings.
Families buy extravagant presents, while their kids' college accounts go wanting. Families stuff stockings while children go without health insurance.
It's a significant coincidence that 40 years to the month after Rosa Parks started the Montgomery bus boycott seeking civil rights, Gatewood is calling for a black boycott seeking silver rights. Economic inequity is the major threat to African-American survival.
The Rev. Geoffrey V. Guns of Second Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk took to the investment idea like wrapping paper and ribbon to a gift. As president of the Tidewater Metro Baptist Ministers Conference, Guns is spreading the good news to his brethren.
At Calvary, Guns works on the spirit with Sunday sermons and song. And he works on wallets with wise investment lessons.
``Our church has two investment clubs,'' says Guns. ``This year we gave away 27 shares of McDonald's stock to kids from the first grade on up to high school.''
Amen.
If you must spend big this Christmas, says Gatewood, spend at black retailers. Or at least make sure that businesses that get your dollars employ a fair share of minorities. Money can be a most effective affirmative action enforcer.
Amen.
The North Carolina Retail Merchants Association has taken the boycott seriously. It is a powerful way to show businesses just how much they benefit from black consumer spending.
Restrained Christmas shopping shouldn't be considered a black thing, though. It's a smart thing. The typical American family faces $4,000 in credit card debt. And we're not saving enough for retirement.
In addition to Santa, I can think of a few dozen other things that we all ought to boycott, year round:
Dope, liquor, cigarettes, fatty foods, gangsta rap and ``wearing everything we own on our backs'' as Essence magazine put it.
We'll live a lot longer and more morally. Now, that's the best gift we could give our kids.
Funny thing. Gatewood's call for a boycott and Christmas gifts that yield dividends rather than worthless wrapping has angered some.
On his syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh chastised Gatewood. Newspaper editorials excoriated ``Scrooge Gatewood.''
Such criticism from Rush and others who've practically made a living by attacking ``those welfare-dependent, needy blacks'' reeks of racist hypocrisy.
``When we start saving, investing and talking self-sufficiency, we're still attacked,'' says Guns.
Nevertheless, this merry season, Guns will stuff stockings with mutual funds - and ultimately dividends - for his tykes. Amen. by CNB