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Clyde DeBerry-Second in a Series
Racial Crisis in Cleveland—A Diagnosis
Killtor’s Note: The following Ik a
column submitted by Clyde DeBerry
analyzing Cleveland's racial crisis.
It I* the second Installment of a
series on the Congress of Racial
equality's Target City Project in
Cleveland. The remaining Install
ments will appear intermittently
within the next two weeks.
DeBerry is director of the School
Desegregation Training and Re
search Center at the University. He
Is also chairman of the Kugene
chapter of CORK and is the Western
regional director of CORK.
Cleveland’s racial crisis can bo analyzed
along two dimensions. First, there is the
basic crisis in the functioning of the city,
the malfunctioning of community insti
tutions, and the* deeper-rooted crisis in
political-social relations Secondly, there
is the crisis in finding a way out of the
situation.
The short-run problem here can best
be described as ineffective tension man
agement The long ranged problem, the
one that needs to be a focus point for
change is the absence of crisis resolv
ing processes.
Due to the inadequate organization of
reform elements in both the white and
black communities, and the lack of insti
(uionalized processes for creating local
resources necessary to change, Cleveland
has thus far been unable to deal with
the underlying conditions that threaten
the security of the whole community.
Malfunctioning Institutions
First of all. as presently organized, the
institutions which have been set up for
dealing with community issues that di
rectly Involve Black people interests have
been totally ineffective.
report in mi? v-irvriaii'i rress on ,-sai
urday, June 17, for example, stated that
among out-of school Black youth, the
unemployment rate was 58 per cent. This
condition of high youth unemployment
has continued to persist and worsen over
the past few years despite frequent
warnings from various commissions that
immediate remedial action was needed
if the, tinderbox of frustration among
young Blacks was not to explode into
violertrc.
Yet, even after major violent con
frontations occurred in the Hough area
of Cleveland during the last year, an
effective program remains to be devel
oped that will reach the most alienated,
hard-core ghetto youth with jobs and
opportunities or convince them that there
is a future for them in American society.
Urban renewal is another immediately
pressing problem area in which an ade
quate program still needs to be devel
oped. Boor Blacks in particular are beset
by considerable insecurity regarding the
program since it is they who will lie dis
placed by Urban Renewal, and it is they
who have the least power at present to
alfect the decisions which are made con
cerning the direction of the program.
Moreover, underlying the ineffective
ness and mismanagement of the program,
and the general unresponsiveness of the
city administration to Black fears and
concerns seems to be a calculated policy
of "containment” of the Black popula
lion within a defined geographical po
litieal houndary. Despite intensive pres
sure from the federal government for re
forms in the local program, and despite
widespread criticism of the program
among both Blacks and responsible white
civic leaders, efforts at change have thus
far been ineffective.
A third critical area where an effec
tive program has yet to be developed
is police-community relations.
The tragedy of the Black’s experience
with Cleveland's political institutions is
most clearly attested to by the fact that
although the city has 11 elected “r.egro”
members on the City Council, four
"negro" judges, and five “negro” rep
resentatives in the state legislature, the
“negro” community, to date, has been
powerless in affecting changes in dis
criminatory police practices.
These practices involve a blatant exer
cise of dual standards for whites and
Blacks in which, for example. Black youth
get incarcerated for minor offenses for
which white youth only get mild repri
mands.
Such dual standards are highly visible
and are common knowledge among all
elements of the community. They are a
wide-spread source of bitterness toward
police and a cause of tensions between
Black and white youth.
i uinmunuy iw-iaiions i risis
To date, however, the city administra
tioti has only demonstrated what can most
kindly be called insensitivity to this, the
most sensitive of community issues.
Underlying this crisis in the commu
nity at the institutional level is the far
deeper crisis in social relations both
within the Black community and he
tween Blacks and other ethnic and so
cial groups within the city.
The old arrangements which placed
Blacks on the lowest rung of the status,
economic, and political ladders within
the total community is no longer ac
cepted by Blacks. Particularly among
the younger generation of Blacks, who
have grown up during the period of civil
rights ferment, the norms, values, and
institutions within the Black community
which were constructed on the implicit
or explicit assumption of the Black in
feriority are being totally discarded
These youth are coming to adulthood
at a time when the old standards for be
havior are no longer viable, but where
a new community order based on com
mon pride, responsibilities, and a deep
rooted “we-feeling” is still in an embry
onic stage.
This lack of a well-developed “sense
of community” among Blacks is parallel
ed by a lack of solidarity between Blacks
and whites.
The uncertainties and disorder that
have gone with the creative changes in
the Black community have produced vio
lent defensive reaction in the members
of other ethnic groups in Cleveland who
have interpreted the upsurge in Black
militance as a threat to their positions
in the "ethnic hierarchy."
Suspicion and fear has (sic) been the
response of many of these groups to the
social changes in which they have not
participated but which they have felt as
a threat to their security.
In the absence of large scale coopera
tive activities between Blacks and other
ethnic groups that would create an order
based on the concept of racial equality
rather than ethnic hierarchy, tensions
will continue. The solution to the insti
tutional crisis of the city requires as
well the implementation of steps design
ed to reconstruct social relations both
within the Black community and be
tween Blacks and whites.
Movement Disorganization
These steps, however, are not being
taken in part to a crisis in the internal
organization of the civil rights move
ment. The local movement today is high
ly fragmented—common programs and
supporting activities are virtually non
existent.
This situation is due to the difficult
problems encountered in developing al
ternative solutions for issues that could
not be resolved through simple non-vio
lent protest and moral fervor.
It should be noted here that the rise
in frustration among young Blacks lo
cally has closely followed the blocking
and frustrations of the once effective
local movement in creating appropriate
strategies, methods, and structures of in
volvement for bringing social change in
the ghetto.
With the indicated investment of ma
jor resources in Cleveland by CORE,
SCLC, other national civil rights organi
zations, and supporting foundations, the
possibility of creating a city-wide move
ment, a new coalition of urban forces,
which will be as effective in solving the
basic dilemmas of the ghetto as non-vio
lent protest was effective in breaking
the color line, looms as a distinct possi
bility.
So far, however, no steps have been
taken to link up the activities of various
groups into a coordinated system.
tension uanagcmeni i risis
The second dimension of Cleveland's
crises concerns the handling of "crisis
situations" produced by the conjunc
tion of the malfunctioning of city in
stitution, increased militancy among
Blacks, the growing polarization between
Blacks and whites, and the certainty of
prolonged periods of tension as a new
coalition of community forces directs it
self to overcoming the political and eco
nomic powerlcssness of the ghetto and
solving Cleveland’s basic urban prob
lems.
Situations involving a potential for vio
lence by either Blacks and whites will
continue to be endemic to the city until
the urban crisis is solved and a new set
of arrangements established between
Blacks and whites.
Indeed, at this point in history, virtu
ally any heated controversy that involves
Black-white relations, or any incident in
volving the police and the community
can be the match that lights the flames
of chaos. Yet, the city administration
seems to have learned very little from
either its past experience or that of other
cities that will prepare it to deal with
persistent community tensions in the fu
ture.
The previous mayor, for example, per
sisted in labeling the racial outbreaks
that have already occurred as the results
of “outside agitators” and "communists.”
This attitude has served as an obstacle
between the city administration and re
sponsible Black leadership, preventing
the development of meaningful dialogue
on deep-rooted problems that require ex
tensive cooperation from all parts of the
community for their solution.
The most recent example of the pre
vious mayor's attitude was his publicly
declared belligerence toward Martin
Luther King, whom the mayor had re
fused to meet with and had labeled an
"extremist.”
A serious educational program must
be directed at the mayor and the top
leadership of the Cleveland Police De
partment in the art of tension-manage
ment if his intransigent belligerence is
not to produce more fuel for violent con
frontation.
The problems of effectively handling
crisis situations, how'ever, is not simply
confined- to the city administration. Local
community leadership, out of fear and
lack of training in the dynamics of com
munity crisis, have demonstrated
throughout the country a lack of under
standing of the dynamics of the dilem
mas they have faced. In their conclusion,
blunders typically are made which only
exacerbate tensions.
Yet, nothing has thus far been done in
Cleveland to educate responsible commu
nity leadership, both black and white, in
“tension management” as a matter of
daily routine. The only program dealing
with this problem in the entire city is
that conducted by the police department
which stresses exclusively the weaponry
and organization of police activity in riot
control.
There is virtually no recognition of
the basic fact that violence control in
community conflicts can best be secured
through effective leadership arrange
ments, rather than through the techni
cal organization of the police department
to control an outburst after it has oc
curred. The definition of intergroup ten
sion control as primarily a military prob
lem is. at best, only a stop-gap measure
in resolving disputes, and at worst, a
positive agent for a future conflagration.
Lack of Processes for Change
Finally, and most important, there is a
lack of institutionalized processes for
creating resources ncessary to change.
The leadership, the knowledge, the stall',
the motivational and financial resources
necessary to change arc not being gen
erated on a regular basis within the city.
While individuals at the local uni
versities and institutions of higher learn
ing, and among the professions, have
been actively involved at a personal lev
el in the civil rights movement, there
has been little demonstrated effort by
those institutions responsible for the
training of skilled personnel to orient
programs directly toward the solution of
Cleveland’s pressing racial dilemmas.
While the people of ghetto and civic
leadership desperately need skills and in
formation on a regular basis, this is not
being provided. Thus .in the absence of
the formulation of non-violent alterna
lives for change, a social pattern oscil
lating between violent outbursts and
apathy becomes more probable.
Emerald Editor:
•Facts’ Corrected
Kmerald Editor:
I would like lo correct some
of Jerry Norton's "facts” about
the war in Vietnam.
First of all. Dr. Howard Rusk
found no napalm victims in the
hospitals because it is American
policy to "escort” such visitors
on their tours. This means Dr.
Rusk only saw the things the
U S. Army wanted him to see,
things to make him think we
aren’t burning babies and that
we’re winning the war.
Another reason Dr. Rusk
found so few war casualties is
that moat of them, who live in
small hamlets, never get to the
pitifully small number of hos
pitals in the cities.
Mr. Norton’s next “fact” is
that we fly over hamlets warn
ing the inhabitants lo get out
before we bomb. How humane
of us! These people will not
leave their homes because their
religion ties them to their fam
ily gravesites, but as long as we
tell them first, we don’t mind
bombing the hell out of them
with napalm. And if they aren’t
killed, we “pacify” their vil
lages by burning everything to
the ground and then sending
them to "relocation camps” no
better than concentration camps.
No one can deny this.
The United States is so un
ashamed that anyone can see
it on Hunt ley Brinkley any
night of the week. And we
don’t call off bombing raids
when civilians are involved.
Barbara Demming. who spoke
here Inst year alter spending
time in Vietnam, saw the
Americans bomb a leper colony,
chase the prisoners into caves
and then bomb the caves.
About our allies, Mr. Norton.
When Saigon was attacked sev
eral days ago, why didn’t the
ARVN soldiers help tight when
called by the American forces?
Why did the South Vietnamese
Army have a 21 -year-old draft
limit until a few weeks ago?
And why are so many young
South Vietnamese between the
ages of 18 and 21 fleeing to
Cambodia now that they’re
drafting 18 year-olds? Could it
be they don’t really want us
there?
If everyone forgot the so-call
ed 'facts'' and tried to he a hu
man being, this war would soon
be over.
How would you like being
bombed every day by an
“enemy" you couldn't under
stand, Mr. Norton? How would
you like having to leave your
home in order to stay alive?
How would you like being maim
ed by napalm or killed by bul
lets that shatter the capillary
system little by little? If every
one turned this “abstract” war
into a personal conviction
against the slaughter, maybe
the United States could be a
decent country.
Dianne Fallon,
Graduate, English
Defiance
Emerald Editor:
v With reference to the ad
vertisement submitted in Mon
day’s Emerald by Mr. I). V.
Clark on behalf of the creation
ists I should like to point out
that God defies the law of
gravity simply by being up
there.
David I’olieansky
Graduate, Biology
'if "-■fc
The Officers and Crew of the fc.S.S. Pueblo