| OCR Text |
Show Education, Not Riots Brings Equality by Stan Smith This summer a surging tide of violence swept through many of the big cities. The final toll of life and property cannot be taken until the flood has totally subsided, but it has been one of the most destructive de-structive man-made waves to hit the U.S. since the Civil War. Even those who had no closer experience with it than reading about it in the newspaper experienced experi-enced a real scare. America has been shocked into action, but what the nature of this action is to be is yet to be determined. deter-mined. At least two alternatives are currently being debated. One view of the riots is that they were motivated by nothing more complicated than criminal, mad-dog instincts. One radio commentator observed that more than 60 per cent of the rioters arrested had prior police records. J. Edgar Hoover has films of riot organizers directing the attack at-tack by walkie-talkie from rooftops. A TV station editorialized that since more than 85 per cent of the rioters were gainfully employed, criminality, not economics, sparked the looting. Rep. Burton said, "The rioter may be unemployed, he may live in a slum, he may be illiterate, but he is a criminal nonetheless." This diagnoses suggests an obvious ob-vious prescription: more money spent on law enforcement agencies, anti-riot bills, improved police techniques, tech-niques, and a stiffer legal crackdown crack-down on law-breakers. Other observers see things in a different light. They see the riots to be only the symptoms of the Negro's feeling of alienation caused by his low standard of living. The frustrated Negro turns on the TV and sees the world of the white man, a world into which he will never be able to buy his way. Vice-President Humphrey maintains main-tains that even visja-vis the law de jure and de facto equality are two different things. The right to choose to attend Columbia or Yale is meaningless without the financial wherewithal to pay tuition. This view believes that the Negro is held to the ghetto by the size of his paycheck, pay-check, if he has one. The remedy for this ailment is a bit more complicated. ThP nnr is that the best way 0 kill !" quitoes is to drain he S-Hence, S-Hence, it favors povert mZTP' ' anti-discriminatio law" ,P an' teed annual income, urban renewai to eliminate slums and a host 2 other welfare programs. f p,W1TJS .he better solution' Plainly, the ideal answer must J." elude a treatment of both Z causes and the symptoms of Z disease. To emphasize one at Z expense of the other is to court disaster. 1 It may be, however, that we must go even further than this The basic difficulty seems to be that the Negro is demanding equality at a time when he is not equal. True, he is, ideally, equal before law, has equal mental potential and has an equal right to life's benefits. But, without an equal education, ed-ucation, the only means through which these ends can be permanent-ly permanent-ly obtained, the Negro's is impotent to seize what he wants. A bigger check alone will not solve his problems. The dole is like a back brace, it may temporarily (Continued on page 5) Education Is Key to Equality (Continued from page 2) be needed in times of stress to preserve pre-serve the body, but if kept always in effect it will weaken the structure struc-ture it is meant to support. The Negro needs a back-bone, not a wish-bone. This analysis could suggest at least three possible steps. First, Negro schools must be upgraded. up-graded. This takes money and getting get-ting money for this purpose could be a real problem. Federal aid to Negro schools only would be unconstitutional, un-constitutional, and large scale fed-! fed-! eral aid programs have not better chance of passage now than they have had in the past. If states have the financial ability to improve Negro schools a change of their present attitude is needed. Perhaps the summer riots will prove to be the neded spur to action. ac-tion. But on the other hand, they may produce a backlash severe enough to close the few remaining open minds in some areas of the country. Second, no Negro will want to go to school, especially college, if he does not believe that he can get a job commensurate with his ed-uca ed-uca after graduation. Many private firms have kept a man in the back office because his skin is black and paid him half the wage a white laborer would receive for the same work. Dr. J. D. Williams of the University Univer-sity of Utah Political Science Department De-partment argues that companies must be willing to hire even unqualified un-qualified Negroes now to convince the next generation that there will be a job waiting for them if they go to school. He says that the Negro has been suppressed for so long that it might not hurt to swing the pendulum back a little too far in the other direction so that it can reach a balance more quickly. Third, pre-job and on-the-job training by private industry may help to fill the gap left by public education. At present ,it is cheaper to hire a white man who is already al-ready schooled than it is to start training programs for minority groups. Perhaps the Federal Government could encourage such programs by offering some kind of tax rebate to companies who are willing to institute in-stitute such programs. Nothing short of. massive federal spending could match the results which private pri-vate enterprise is capable of producing. pro-ducing. As is so often the case, the means to prevent government expansion is in the hands of the private sector. It may be that these are but the first steps on a journey of a thousand miles, but a start must be made. Despite the obscurity of the solution solu-tion to the problem, one thing is clear: Whatever the answer, it will take a great deal of time, patience and determination to see it through. At times, this summer for example, the Negro is his own worst enemy. He hides behind his color and calls anyone who stands in his way a racist. He insults public leaders instead in-stead of working with them. Even the leaders of the movement can more often be found in the Bahamas Ba-hamas than around the negotiatiing table. |
