February 22, 2O()6 <riu ^Jortlaixò ©bserucr BLACK HISTORY MONTH and the American Experience Page A5 Civil Rights Activists Urge Look Forward Worry about focus on past o f the y o u n g e r gen eratio n m ostly - the post-civil rights g e n e ra tio n .” A dv o cates note that it d o e sn ’t take m uch searching to find social ju stic e battles left to fight. H urricane K atrina unveiled stark racial disparities in N ew O rleans, and blacks still have m ore than d o uble the rates o f infant m ortal ity, u n em p lo y m en t and poverty as w hites, said G ordon, w ho took the leadership post at the N ational A sso ciatio n for the A dvancem ent o f C o l o red People last year. T hat K ing's death occurred on the sam e day that Sam uel A lito - whose nom ination many civil rights advocates bitterly opposed - w as co ntinued to the U.S. Suprem e C ourt illustrated that the work o f Coretta Scott King and her h u sb a n d is n o t o v e r, sa id W ad e H enderson, executive director o f the Leadership Council on Civi I Rights. (A P ) - C ivil rights ad v o cates say that the recent death o f C o retta Scott King u nderscores a g row ing concern: A s the m o v e m e n t's iconic leaders fade into history, m uch o f the focus is on honoring the past rather than p u sh ing fo re q u a lity today. "W e should be very respectful o f - and enco u rag ed by - the substantial progress that has been m ade. But in no w ay, shape or form should we conclude that the civil rights m ission is co m p lete,” said Bruce G ordon, p re si dent o f the N A A C P. T h e re ’s a sense am ong adv o cates that m odern activism is being o v er shadow ed by a n ear-constant string o f co m m em o ratio n s for bygone v icto The late Coretta S c o tt King, the wife o f Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.. with form er p re sid e n t Jim m y Carter. 4 s icons o f the ries: the 50th anniversary o f Brow n v. civil rights m o v e m e n t p a s s into history, activists worry about a lack o f progress for th e future. B oard o f E ducation in 2004 and, last "P art o f that over-focusing on his year, the 4 0 years since the historic tory' and not looking at current realities m arch from Selm a, A la., to M o n tg o m o f racial discrim ination is another form ery, A la., to w in voting rig h ts for A f of d e n ia l,” said B arbara A rnw ine, rican -A m ericans. ex ecu tiv e directo r o f the L aw y ers’ Inevitably, such rem em b ran ces in C om m ittee on Civil Rights U nder Law. tensify in the first m onths o f each year “ M any people find com fort in the no w ith the m id-January holiday for M ar tion that racial discrim ination in a m at tin L u th er K ing, Jr. that his w idow ter o f the past - it’s ‘O h, look at how fought to w in and w ith B lack H istory fa r w e have c o m e .’” M onth. In addition, each tim e an im R onald W alters, a professor o f po portant civil rights figure dies - be it litical science at the U niversity o f R o sa P ark s, O ssie D a v is o r now M ary land, said h e ’s also “suspicious C o retta Scott K ing - it renew s the o f co m m em o ratio n s.” focus on the m o v e m e n t's history. “ In som e quarters, th e re ’s a feeling S o m e a d v o c a te s a re c o n c e rn e d th at the m o v em en t has p a sse d its about that eagerness to look back. c o u rse ,” he said. “T h a t’s the reaction continued on page A9 O. SAFEW AY Ingredients for life. Pork Loin Rib Holt Bone-n Sliced SAVE up t o i l M l * lb CLUB PRICE Butcher's Cut Chicken Thighs Drumsticks or Ftesh GraOeA SAVE uple 40« 10. Black History M onth Raises Issues lb CLUB PRICE Rancher » Reserve Angus Seel Renne T* Reesi Realities of today lost in sanitized past Bone ess C apoff SAVI up la $2 3810 lb CLUB PRICE CaitJuT Mene Rew Shnme ■ u u m m S s K « l2 * • « Mi 'eri? Ha <■ - . save upiiu.M io lb CLUB PRICE Mark A nthony Neal The observance o f Black History Month is less edgy today than in the past, partly because A m ericans’ collec tive memory of racially charged histori cal events has become a sanitized, feel good version of the Civil Rights m ove ment. according to Duke University experts in black culture and American history. And, as Americans consider the sig nificance of Black History Month, they need to recognize that the simple d y namic ot black and white no longer re flects the com plicated racial makeup of American society, added a Duke soci ologist. Historian Tim Tyson said Americans remember the Civi I Rights era as a “self- congratulatory fable that is soothing, moving and politically acceptable,” but bears “no resem blance to what actually happen ed .” He said Martin Luther K ing's radical message o f econom ic and political ju s tice has been replaced in the popular memory with an image of Dr. King as "an innocuous black Santa Claus, genial and vacant, a man who w anted us to be nice to one another." T y so n , a v isitin g p ro fe sso r and scholar at Duke and a professor of Afro- American Studies at the University of W isconsin-M adison, is the author of "Blood Done Sign My Name,” a memoir about a 1970 lynching in T yson's hom e town of Oxford. N.C. Mark Anthony Neal, associate pro fessor of black popularculture at Duke, said that Black History Month has be come watered down over the years. Chain stores decorate with Black H istory M onth-themed posters, publishers put out books on African-A m erican sub jects and high-profile black speakers Jim Tyson are in high demand for a short space of time in February, he noted. “ Black History Month has become part of the marketing o f the idea of m ulticulturalism and pluralism in the United States,” Neal said. "It's a selling point, not necessarily a lived reality.” Duke sociology research professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva said Americans need to not only acknowledge the real struggles and conflict of the Civil Rights era, but face up to the racial realities of today. “First, we must acknow ledge that blacks, despite the advances made in the 1960s and 1970s, lag still well behind whites in almost all social indicators,” said Duke sociology research profes sor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, who special izes in the study of racial stratification in the United States. "Second, we must also realize that the face of the nation has become increas ingly more brown.” The bulk of this new Latino popula tion is fast joining the ranks of the working poor and. thus, socially, eco nom ically and sym bolically becoming “black-like," Bonilla-Silva said. But a small segment o f the Latino population — usually Latinos with lighter skin — are treated as "honorary w hites" by white America, and are more accepted and assim ilated, he said. “The historical black-w hite divide may remain, but it may become more complex and even add a little bit o f gray in the m iddle,” he said. “Thus, in this y e a r's Black History Month celebra tion. we may want to take account of both the new ‘black-like,' as well as the ‘hon o rary w h ite ,’ segm ents o f the Latino population, and exam ine the role they will play in the future o f A m erica." < LKf Red or Green Seedless Grapes Pin» ia s v D'Anjou Pears I . ¡iff I ■ iittL ,• R pen«! 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