J A N . 6, 1999
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Showing My Race: Politically
Incorrect Essays On Identity
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The title to this series is a
paraphrase of the title to a great
book by African America’s top
essayist; “ Showing My Color:
Impolite Essays On Race And
Identity”, Clarence Page, nation
ally syndicated newspaper col
umnist (Harper Collins, 1996).
Some members o f ‘our’ com
munity are waiting to examine
the format of the “ Y ear 2000 Cen
sus” questionnaire before they
decide on their ethnicity. There
is a definite madness-in-their-
method. Like a number of us, they
feel that the 1990 Census missed
whole segments of population,
largely members o f m inority
groups, there by throwing off de
cisions by government and busi
ness on everything from health
care to advertising.
Further, there has been some
ill ease among minorities (par
ticularly blacks) since the cat
egories of ancestry on Civil Ser
vice exams began to reflect the
cultural discontent of several
non-white groups with strong lob
bies in W ashington (circa
1970s). It was quite natural for
blacks to suppose that, if these
others were seeking ‘genetic
space’ by label, “they may know
something we don’t.”
It would be extremely unfor
tunate if Right Wing extremists
and other parties in support of
discrimination and racism should
find the minority house divided -
with some even buying that “color
blind” scam. And an even worse
case would be not to support the
administrations statistical ap
proach to the Year 2000 Census.
This sampling approach pro
poses to count 90 percent of the
house holds in each census tract
and then use mathematics to de
termine the number of people in
the tract who had not been physi
cally counted. The Census Bu
reau estimates it ‘under-counted’
the 1990 population by 1.8 per-
Letter to the Editor:
Hypertension or high blood
pressure is one of the leading
causes of heart disease in the
United States. However, this com
mon and potentially life threaten
ing disease that affects twenty-
five percent of the American Adult
population, is still not well con
trolled.
Among those at highest risk of
hypertension are African Ameri
cans who have an 80 percent higher
stroke mortality rate, a 50 percent
higher heart disease mortality rate
and a 320 percent greater rate of
hypertension related end-stage re
nal disease than seen in the gen
eral population. Despite their
greater hypertension risk, African
Americans often have less access
to health-care resources and are
usually not well represented in
clinical trials.
To this end the International So
ciety on Hypertension in Blacks
(IHSIB) with support from Bayer
Corporation, Pharmaceutical Di
vision has conducted a hyperten
sion study in African Americans
that compares the effectiveness
and safety of three commonly used
cent and, Hugh B. Price, Presi
dent-N ational Urban League,
notes that the ‘overcounted’ were
4.4 million college students and
affluent whites who owned more
than one home.
The greatest fear of the Right
Wing, “color blind” contingent -
embroiled in a nation-wide fight
against Affirmative Action - is
that the Year 2000 Census will
pick up those 8.4 million people
who were missed in 1990. Most
o f these were African Americans
in inner cities and Hispanic
Americans in California, Texas
and New Mexico. The Republi
can Party and camp followers
shake in their boots at the pros
pects of such a move - “helping
Democrats and shifting money
and political clout away from
wealthier, mostly white districts.
1 was delighted by the reader’s
response to my December ar
ticles highlighting black engi
neers and inventors who contrib
uted so much to the safety and
comfort of mankind. Several re
marked, “I thought you had said it
all last year during Black History
Month - the engine controls for
Howard Hughe’s Spruce Goose
(our own Don Rutherford, P.E.
from Benson High and the Uni
versity of Oregon).”
And there were those who
mailed and faxed copies all over
the United States - including the
story of David Crosthwaite whose
thermodynamics, plumbing and air
conditioning made skyscrapers
possible (I’ve heard from MIT, Cal
Tech, Purdue and the Smithsonian
on these - among others).
Strangely, no one has advo
cated a “color blind” approach to
the dissemination of this infor
mation about the “black” contri
butions to the world’s technol
ogy. All seem in concert with me
that it was the 300 year omission
of color that did indeed rob gen
erations of motivation and role
models. And, additionally, it was
the whites as well as blacks who
emphasized that the attitudes and
prejudice of the white race was
structured by omission of intel
lectual accomplishments - even
during the time of slavery - more
on this next week!
anti-hypertension drugs. Calcium
Antagonists in Blacks (CAB)
showed that once-daily calcium
channel antagonists Adalat CC
(nifedipine CC), Procardia XL
(Nifedipine XL) and Norvasc
(amlodipine) provide comparable
24-hour blood pressure control
and can be used safely for the treat
ment of hypertension in African
Americans.
These results are now published
in the Archives of Internal Medi
cine. Details of the study results
are enclosed. In addition, Dallas
Hall, MD, MACP, principal inves
tigator of CAB and co-founder of
ISH1B and Keith Ferdinand, MD,
CAB investigators are available for
interview.
I f you would like further infor
mation, or to schedule an inter
view, please call one of the fol
lowing people; Pamela Bourne
(212) 229-8449, Anne Dubois
(770) 516-7717 or Jucinda Fenn-
Hodson (203) 812-2160
Thank you.
T hank Y ou F or R eaping gy»fomRaxAM
A Call to Reason
Responsibility, and Action
44
S t a t e m e n t to R e v . J e s s e
J a c k s o n - “ T h e A m e r ic a n
p e o p le w i l l b e s h o c k e d to
le a r n th a t th is la m e - d u c k C o n
g r e s s , a lo n g p a r t y l i n e s , i n
te n d s to im p e a c h th e P r e s i
d e n t A f te r c o n tin u o u s p o llin g
t h i s f a l l , th e p e o p le c o n t i n
u e d to a p p e a l to th e n a tio n a l
le a d e rs h ip fo r p r o p o r tio n a l
ity a n d b a l a n c e d j u d g e m e n t
b e t w e e n th e e r r o r o f t h e
P r e s i d e n t ’s a c t o f p r i v a t e i n
d is c r e tio n a n d th e n a tio n a l i n
t e r e s t o r th e p e o p l e ’s a g e n d a .
N o v . 3 rd, th e p e o p l e s p o k e .
T he a ct o f in d is c re tio n w as
n o t a n i m p e a c h a b le o f f e n s e .
I t w a s n o t a h ig h c r im e . It w a s
n o t tr e a s o n . It d id n o t v i o l a t e
a n d r e s p o n s i b i l i t y fro m C o n
g re ss.
T h e 81 q u e s tio n s J u d ic ia r y
C h a ir m a n H e n r y H y d e s e n t to
th e P r e s i d e n t s e e m e d to b e a
m o v e to w a rd a m ic a b ly r e s o lv
in g th is m a tte r . H o w e v e r , it
b e c a m e a T r o ja n H o r s e th a t
r e o p e n e d th e w o u n d a n d th e
h u r t a n d th e n a t i o n a l d i v e r
s io n fro m is s u e s o f g r e a t s u b
s t a n c e t h a t m a t t e r to o u r
p e o p le .
T h e J u d ic ia r y C o m m i t t e e ’s
d e te r m in a tio n w a s to c o n d u c t
a f u l l - s c a l e h e a r in g . A s s u c h ,
it s h o u ld h a v e b e e n le a s t a s
f a ir as th e W a te r g a te h e a r in g s
- f u ll d e b a te w i t h o u t l i m i t s .
I n s te a d , c o n t r o l l e r s h a v e l i m
ite d d e b a te a n d l i m i t e d w i t
n e s s e s to a r t i f i c i a l l y s h a p e
th e p o lic y a n d p r o c e s s .
T h e y a r e t r y i n g to r a i l r o a d
i m p e a c h m e n t t h r o u g h th e
G in g r ic h la m e -d u c k C o n g re s s
b e c a u s e th e y k n o w w e , th e
p e o p le , h a v e s e n t n e w le a d e r
s h ip to th e n e x t C o n g r e s s to
p u t th e n a tio n b a c k on c o u rs e .
W e s e e a n g e r , p o s tu r in g a n d
o b s e s s io n b y C o n g re ssm e n
T o m D e L a y (R -T X ), B o b B a rr
( R - G A ) , a n d C h a r le s C a n a d y
( R - F L ) . T h e p r e s e n t la m e -
d u c k l e a d e r s h ip s e e m s n o t to
g e t it o r to c a r e . T h e p e o p le
s e n t n e w le a d e r s to th e C o n
g r e s s to s e n d a m e s s a g e - D o
n o t im p e a c h th e P r e s id e n t.
I f C o n g r e s s w ill p u t th is
m a tte r in p e r s p e c tiv e , th e n
th e y w ill d e a l w ith is s u e s f a c
in g A p p a la c h ia . Is s u e s f a c in g
u r b a n a n d r u r a l A m e r ic a . I s
s u e s o f p a in a n d o p p o r tu n ity
in a p e r io d o f s u c h p r o s p e r ity
f o r so m e . F o c u s on I s s u e s th a t
a f f e c t u s w h e r e w e liv e . 1500
A m e r ic a n s d y in g fro m c a n c e r
e v e r y d a y . A c o a l m in e r d ie s
fro m b la c k lu n g d is e a s e e v e r y
s ix h o u r s . M illio n s o f c h i l
d r e n a r e g o in g to a s b e s t o s
la d e n s c h o o ls . T h e re a re th o s e
w h o w a n t to r is k S o c ia l S e c u
rity b y p riv a tiz a tio n an d s u b
j e c t it to f l u c t u a t i n g m a r k e t
f o r c e s . T h is is a g lo r io u s an d
y e t a c r i t i c a l m o m e n t in o u r
h is to r y .
S p e a k e r-d e s ig n a te B ob
L iv i n g s t o n ( R - L A ) is ta lk in g
t o o l i t t l e I n c o n t r a s t to
S p e a k e r G in g ric h (R -G A ) w h o
t a l k e d t o o m u c h . In t h a t
v a c u u m , e x tr e m is t f o r c e s a re
m o v in g u s to n a tio n a l d is a s -
99
te r .
R e p . M ic h a e l P a p p a s (R -
N J ) , R e p . R ic k W h ite (R -
W A ), S e n . A1 D ’A m a to (R -
N Y ), an d S e n . L a u c h F a ir c lo th
( R - N C ) a ll lo s t t h e i r r e e l e c
tio n b id s in N o v e m b e r p r e
c is e ly b e c a u s e o f th e o b s e s
s io n w ith tr y in g to p o li t i c a l l y
d e s tr o y th e P r e s id e n t a n d s a c
r i f i c i n g th e is s u e s th a t a f f e c t
A m e r ic a n s e v e r y d a y .
I f y o u n e e d a n y p r o o f th a t
th e im p e a c h m e n t d e b a te is
p a r tis a n , lo o k a t th e G in g r ic h
p r e c e d e n t. S p e a k e r G in g r ic h
lie d to th e S p e c ia l C o u n s e l
I n v e s t i g a t i n g h is e th ic s 13
tim e s ! A n d th e u n d e r ly in g
c o n d u c t th a t w a s in v e s tig a te d
w a s a v i o l a t i o n o f ta x la w s ,
n o t m a r r ia g e v o w s . A n d y e t
th e C o n g r e s s d id n o t re m o v e
G in g r ic h o r e v e n c e n s u re h im .
T h e y g a v e h im r e p r im a n d , a
f in e a n d m o v e d o n .
L a m e - d u c k le a d e r s h ip an d
e x tr e m is ts a re tr y in g to h it the
P r e s id e n t, b u t th e y a re o n ly
h u rtin g
th e
c o u n try .
I h a v e ta lk e d w ith th e P r e s i
d e n t an d th e F irst F a m ily . T hey
a re e n title d to h e a l th e ir f a m
ily in p r iv a te . T h e P re s id e n t is
d e a lin g w ith th is b y s h o w in g
p u b lic s tr e n g th in th e fa c e o f
p r iv a te p a in . T h e s tr e n g th is
r e a l, b u t so a re th e p a in , th e
c o n t r i t i o n a n d th e r e s o lu te
c o m m itm e n t to b e c o m e s tr o n
g e r . T h e r e a l q u e s t i o n is
w h e th e r th e C o n g re ss w ill p u n
is h th e c o u n tr y in th e ir e f f o r t
to h a rm th e P r e s id e n t.
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