DATE: Thursday, August 7, 1997              TAG: 9708040405

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Guest Column 

SOURCE: BY JOHN L. HORTON 

                                            LENGTH:   86 lines

EDUCATION CAN SOLVE THE BLACK DILEMMA

One glance at today's media and one could become very distraught about the status of and projected future for Black Americans.

A quick look at statistics reveals that almost 40 percent of black kids may be functional illiterates. Also, there are almost as many young black males being processed in the criminal-justice system as there are in the post-high school educational system.

As one writer says, ``There appears to be an overabundance of Black American problems and a paucity of viable solutions.''

In my opinion, there are two basic grass roots solutions for this so-called black dilemma. Simply stated, these two solutions are the paths and means of education and entrepreneurship. Knowing it and owning it is what it is all about.

First, let us take a look at education. The labors and fruits of education allow you to dream the impossible and to be the impossible. Education is the path and the key for an individual and a people. It doesn't guarantee you first place in life, but it does allow you to enter the competition for first place.

We as black people have a problem among ourselves, and the only immediate and long-term solution is among ourselves.

Many may say: ``There we go again, blaming the victim for those things that he has no control over.'' I, for one black person, am tired of this unrelenting and unfulfilling slavery mentality. We, as black people and human beings, do have the capacity to overcome our circumstances and determine our future. We have to believe. Then we have to do.

We are a capable and competent people. We are not slaves emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, morally, physically, or spiritually. We are intelligent toward and perceptive of the trials and tribulations of life. It may not all be fair or right, but we can overcome the obstacles and barriers that have been put before us. We are a tried and proven people. All we need to do is put our minds and backs into the tasks at hand.

To accomplish this monumental task will require uncommon hard work and extraordinary smart work. Education and its cohort competence are the means to such an end. It can be done. And we must believe that it can be done for and by us.

We should do everything within our power to rid ourselves of these debilitating social and familial ailments: fratricide, fatherless homes, teenage pregnancy, criminal activity and trafficking in drugs, youth school dropout, unemployment and under-employment, and our failure to become savers, investors and producers.

Second, let us take a look at entrepreneurship. Ownership gives you a stake in life and an investment for the future. If you don't own anything, you don't feel you have anything to lose. In effect, a lack of ownership can cause a feeling of impotence and alienation in a person/people. If not corrected, it can erode your sense of self-worth and personhood.

Entrepreneurship is the ``Golden Rule of Economics'': ``He who had the gold gets to make the rules.'' This is a fact of life, like it or not - right or wrong. Economic might (entrepreneurship in its various forms) almost always ensures the collateral social and political mights. Moreover, economic might does not provide access to and authority in today's and tomorrow's real world.

Not knowing the rules of the entrepreneurial game, we must become an enterprising and cohesive people. We must become providers and producers as well as consumers and spenders. We can demand respect all day long; we can beg for our fair share; we can talk about what's owed us. None of that will get us any where in the real world of economics and politics.

To accomplish the laudable feats of education and entrepreneurship will not be easy. It never is. All of Earth's peoples have experienced the pain and persistence of this struggle. Notwithstanding our special uniqueness in American history, it is now time for us to transform ourselves from the pitiful to the powerful. Our manifest destiny is before us. It is time for us to proceed onward and upward to our rightful place in the economic and political future of mankind on this planet.

Most of us are capable of giving a lot more than we do to our common cause. All of us are needed in this pivotal battle for our survival. For those of us who know the difference and who give a damn, let us educate and encourage others to do the right thing(s). It is of paramount importance that the followers and lesser of us (educationally and economically) become proportionately empowered along with the leaders and the gatekeepers.

Finally, it must truly be(come) a movement (educationally and economically) of the people and for the people. It is time for us to learn from our past and present so that our future will be better for all our people. Let us remember that our task can be accomplished, and there is something in it for all of us. More importantly, let us learn to use education and entrepreneurship to realize our potential on this planet. MEMO: John L. Horton, a Norfolk resident, is a youth advocate and

activist.

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