LETTER: Dangerous Stereotypes

Guest Column Kwame Ture ("Power to the People," DP 2/28/95 p.3) furthers a stereotype as harmful to African-Americans as any of those created by capitalism's most creative exploiters. This stereotype reeks as bad as those old, conservative, broken record stereotypes that align blacks with theft, poverty, promiscuousness, violence and low IQs. This stereotype, like the others, aligns African-Americans with failure, but much more effectively, because, unlike poverty, crime, illegitimacy and violence, Ture's stereotype comes from Ture, an African-American spokesman. Fortunately, Ture does not speak for all African-Americans. Some think for themselves and do not buy the stereotype. In his interview, Ture blames the major social ills African-Americans face on capitalists, cops and multi-national corporations. He strips African-Americans of accountability, urging them to feel hostility towards groups that would better be seen as role models. How does this help African-Americans? "The goals are the same," Ture says, "destruction of an exploitative society." Ture refers to America's capitalist society, the one that allows him and me to earn, speak and spend freely. "The violence is created by the police," Ture argues. "The guns themselves are imported into the community by the police." Let's picture one of Ture's cops calling his wife at home: "Honey, I'll be late tonight, I've got to give the blacks a lot of guns." "But why can't you let the night shift de-stabilize the community and be the force of the enemy for once? I've got a roast in." "Because we need the hazard pay to further our exploitative capitalist goals." Ridiculous? So is blaming crime fighters for crime, especially at a time when whites are beginning to realize that not all African Americans commit crimes habitually. And if it's true that cops filter guns into the African-American communities in which they fight crime, why doesn't Ture place any accountability on the African Americans who take guns and then use them. Why doesn't Ture urge African Americans to refuse to take the guns? Maybe because it's just not true. And tell me that refusing to participate in crime does less to reduce crime than blaming cops for it. Tell me this idea isn't better. And tell me Ture wouldn't have given evidence of cop gun-filtering if evidence existed. And concerning capitalism: By blaming capitalism and enterprise zones for some African Americans' lower income levels, Ture implies that African Americans don't want to work, that they want socialism, that they'd be better off in one of the many socialist countries this planet suffers under. We know this isn't true. It's misplaced. And if Ture instead urged African-Americans to take advantage of low interest loans and the capitalist principles that afforded others the opportunity to acquire wealth, then African-Americans would feel more impelled to exploit those same opportunities. This would create businesses, jobs and a concrete sense of pride in the community. Tell me this idea isn't better than waiting for the white power bloc to go nuts on a socialist wealth-smearing spree, which won't happen. Why doesn't Ture promote this? It is how, he says, whites got power. Blacks can do it too. Ture's villains are imaginary. Cops, FBI, capitalists -- all those cream-colored bad guys Ture condemns -- would love to see African-American communities prosper. Everyone benefits from it, except leaders who make political careers urging warriors to war. So Ture, make your next battle cry this: "Say no to guns and yes to capitalism." Make your next battle cry, "Help African Americans," even if it seems white, because it's not the system that sucks, it's how some fools play it.