Say Brother; Julian Bond Interview / Black Unemployment in the 80's; 1507

Thing. Good evening. I'm Beth Deare and welcome to Say Brother. Tonight, we have two stories, both of regional and national significance. First, Eileen Jones reports on the unemployment rate of black Americans since the beginning of the Reagan Administration and gives us an employment forecast for the next four years. Then, in our next story you will meet new Say Brother reporter

Elliot Francis, who in October had the opportunity to interview Georgia state senator Julian Bond when he came to Boston on the Mondale campaign trail. Now here's Say Brother reporter Eileen Jones with her report on black unemployment and the 80s. For some, the daily habit of rushing to and from work is often taken for granted. The job that many consider a chore or burden, others view is a privilege simply because they don't have and seemingly can't get one [music]. I've worked there, 11 1/2 years. And then I was terminated. [music] [Backgound conversation]

All I want to do is get a check everyday. Sort of lonely, scared for my family and myself. You know, wondering what to do. The people here in Massachusetts are among the luckiest in the nation. That's because most of them have jobs. In fact, the October unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. However not everybody is so fortunate, Black unemployment is often two-three times as high as that of Whites. And Black youth unemployment is even worse. Sometimes as high as four-times that of Whites. What's the reason for these inequities? One of the problems has to do with skills. and training. It is generally believed that poor neighborhoods mean bad schools, in turn bad schools result in inferior training, and inferior training often translates into unemployment for Blacks.

And what about the problem of prejudice and discrimination? That too is a major cause of high unemployment to keep a check on it is the duty of the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Our staff intake officers here has had a list of 150 companies in the city of Boston that employ less than 5 percent minority workers. When the labor force is about 30 percent minority. I have been waiting for individuals to come in and file complaints against this company saying 'I applied, I was qualified, they didn't give me a job. I think it was because of my race." We haven't had one complaint against one of those 150 companies since January. What is usually the penalty when a person is found guilty of discrimination? Certainly he's entitled to back-pay from the date they would have been hired, absent discrimination. All seniority and benefits they would have accrued during that period and Front Pay until such time as the employer can offer them a job. Unless they've gone and gotten a job somewhere else which will mitigate their damages.

Have you ever been to a job interview? Have you ever applied for a job, and you felt turned down because you're black. No, no, I never feel that. No? Never. Never entered your mind. Have you ever been to a job interview and you were turned down and you walked away feeling as though you... Numerous times, yes. Did it ever happen because you thought you were black? Sure! Did you do anything about it? Well, I didn't feel, in Boston, to be frank, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Did you ever think that you could file a complaint with the EEOC? Um, no, I never tried to do this because I figured it'd be just a waste of time. Have you ever been to a job interview, and were turned down Turn down, and you felt as though you were turned down because you were black. Yeah I did. Did you do anything about it? No I didn't. Why not? I don't know, I just went on. Until I reached my goal of finding another job. I think that people get discouraged, and they get pessimistic, and they get tired of

fighting what they perceive to be a system that they can't beat. We're here to try to help people like that and to investigate impartially the allegation, and professionally, the allegations they make and if we find discrimination. We tend to hang pretty tough and and fight for them all the way. With the problems of racism, There are a number of programs that have popped up all over the city, in order to help those who don't have the skills or the money to find work for themselves. There's Boston Contact, an agreement between businesses and the schools, that would run better trains. The other will enforce [unclear]. And there are adult literacy programs to teach the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. And there are also programs to teach job skills. Like Training, Inc. This is a tour of just one of the many job training centers around Boston that tries to give the unemployed new hope and knowledge, so that they can work again. This is

what we do in the whole 14 weeks. OK the first few weeks we learn the basic skills... [Fades out] Here at Training, Inc., students spend 8 weeks learning basic office skills like typing, office machines, even time management. Then they turn their knowledge into use for two weeks their classrooms become assimilated business. The fictitious Lester Hill Company. Hi, this is Lester Hill. Welcome to the General Manager's office. Here you'll find most offices & departments that are in an actual company. There are also students here who say they enrolled in the program because they don't want handouts anymore. Were you, before you came here, having trouble a lot of trouble finding work. Yeah. Why is that? Well, because I dropped out of school. And you couldn't find a job anyplace? No. How did you hear about this program? A friend. And you just came here knocked on door one day? Yeah I got him here... Boston Housing,

they helped me. It's the Boston Housing Authority and the welfare office that help fund this program. It takes a seventh grade ability in reading and math to get in, and after that most find success. When they get the job, they come back here and they put the job, the name of the job, and we celebrate it with them. I like this at the bottom, the hardest job you'll ever have is looking for a job. That's so true. And it's even harder looking for a job when a person has dropped out of school. Approximately 32 percent of the youngsters in Boston public schools leave before graduating. In most cases they depart unable and unprepared to handle the world of work. This dilemma can sometimes lead a few of the unemployed to drastic actions whether they're young or old. Things like this pushes, you know, crime, to the nation, you know, the world. Hey, who knows what its going to come to. How do you feel about that? Well I fight hard to keep myself away from that, you know, I wouldn't, I would't want to... Do have some doubts that

you could do something like that? No because... It has entered your mind though? Well, the possibility you know, but I think before I do, I run back home to mom, you know. Does that scare you? At the possibility......... Yeah, you know, it's hard. It really is, it's hard. But with in the newspapers every day and help wanted signs posted all looking for employees. It seems difficult to understand why anyone who wants work can't find it. However one problem most blacks live in Boston and most of the needs for general help are seemingly out in the suburbs, like Brookline, for instance. Urban League president Don Polk. If, number one, the people in Boston who are unemployed and who been unemployed for a long time begin to believe that once they went out to Brookline they'd get the job. OK. So that has to do with Brookline and whether it wants to diversify its workforce. Because if

Brookline wanted to diversify its workforce, or the people wanted to do that they can send signals. Brookline is one case, Burlington and and and all the other towns 30, 35, 40 miles different. There you can't even get the transportation. There are jobs in some cases that they're qualified for. And I think those jobs I think you have to think about why the company moved out there. I really do. I don't think it's all scenery. Polk also feels that even in the black community blacks are often overlooked. You can drive up and down Blue Hill Avenue and see very few black people working. I think that's a lot of nerve. I think it's a lot of nerve to set up projects in the black community and not hire people from that community. and there's no other community in this city that that could be done in. Without a

major uproar. What do you think black people can do to help with this black unemployment problem? That I really think we're going to have to get back to it. And black organizations.. the kind of field testing that used to go on in housing where you send out a black.... apply for a house and they were turned down and then you sent a white right behind them and they were accepted. OK. I think some of that kind of field testing needs to happen around employment because I think a great deal of discrimination goes on here. One thing is certain the Reagan administration will control much of the unemployment situation in America until December 1988. However the employment of black Americans as we've heard in Eileen Jones' story can be controlled to a great extent by those of us who fight this system and insist on getting what is ours. Now for a look at an upcoming show and our community calendar. I. Wish I had a picture to show you..... photograph but.

....... Daughter looks exactly like Alex Haley. I mean it was it was amazing. So they made me an official member of the family and they let me keep the name of Kunta, there was one young boy named Kunta who died at the age of 2 about a year and a half ago so now I am the only male Kunta in the Kinte family and it was it was just it was wild, it was wonderful. I mean we took a big family portrait. You know it was it was terrific. Watch LeVar Burton, a personal story when he visits with Say Brother, two weeks from tonight. During the past presidential election more than 80 percent of the black voting

population voted against the Reagan administration. Voting instead for the Democratic or Independent tickets. In an attempt to inform voters, Georgia State Senator Julian Bond came to Boston, encouraging their support for the Democratic Party. Here's a Say Brother report on his press conference, after which he shared some of his views on contemporary politics with Say Brother reporter. Elliott Francis States.....Julian Bond Thank you a great deal for that kind introduction let me just say a couple of things very quickly and then I'd be very glad to answer any questions that you may have. First let me thank our hostess for allowing us to bring this partisan effort into into, to this center. We appreciate it very much you're giving us the opportunity to have this forum here today. I'm here and have been in five other states over the last four days

campaigning for the Mondale Ferraro ticket [fades out, voiceover in] Fourth Term Georgia State Senator Julian Bond came to Boston this past October to pitch the Mondale Ferraro ticket to the city's people of color. There's a sentiment in the country, I'm convinced that will insist that the administration be defeated and retired and that a new team be elected and I'm happy to be a part of it and that's about all I have to say. Senator Bond's optimism for a Mondale victory on November the six was short lived. Mondale's stunning defeat made the history books. However many of the issues raised by Julian Bond on his campaign trip will remain relevant for the next four years.

President Reagan talks a great deal about the economic recovery and one can only imagine that it must have come to many parts of the country. I'd hazard a guess that you could travel for several blocks in any direction from this building and wouldn't find many people who are enjoying the fruits of that recovery. In fact for children of all races, for women of all races but particularly minority women and for black Americans particularly these last four years have been an absolute disaster. One audience member asked Senator Bond what he thought Mondale could do for us. For us, I take it you're meaning black Americans, or minority Americans generally. Well consider this man's public career. In 1964 when Ronald Reagan was opposing the Civil Rights Act whose 20th anniversary we celebrate this year. Walter Mondale was its co-sponsor in the United States Senate. While in 1983 Ronald Reagan tried to defeat extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 Walter Mondale was its sponsor. So the records of these two men are starkly different what they've been doing up to now on the vital

question of civil rights and support for minorities is as radically different as night is from day. Senator Bond's pre-election concern for the president's priorities most certainly reflects his many years spent battling for the rights of our nation's minorities and poor. Responding to audience questions he addressed the issue of President Reagan's position on taxes. I think thinking people are going to have to insist that he raise taxes because you can't go on spending more money than you take in and that's what he's done you know it's ironic that the man who grew in his own public life as a chief critic of that kind of deficit financing is now in 1984 the largest architect of an economic scheme which spends out much more money than it takes in. The Supreme Court: Just look at the caliber of some of the people President Reagan has already nominated to the lower federal bench they tend to be radical conservatives. They tend to be people who don't believe the government ought to help those people who

cannot help themselves and they tend to be people who insist on the narrowest interpretation of the civil rights laws of the land so if the president is reelected and if he is able to name four or five new people to the United States Supreme Court then the civil rights of minorities and women and the elderly and the handicapped are going to be further eroded. The remedies they can employ to seek some redress of violations of their rights will be further narrowed and limited. The country will be in an awful shape. Along with Reagan's Star Wars comments which have Bond worried. I was also interested in President Reagan's statement that he wanted to have a test of the system first. I hope he has it in California where he lives and not in Georgia where I live. And I'd be interested in what kind of test is going to be, is he going to say to the Soviet Union shoot a few missiles over here and we'll see if we can stop them. And if we don't what then? Are we just going to say our system doesn't work well and we've got to go back to the drawing board or what. Julian Bond not only has a sense of humor, he's willing to admit his

mistakes and his position on Jesse Jackson's candidacy was one. He shared his personal reflections on that matter in an interview with Say Brother reporter Elliott Francis after the press conference. I was a person who thought it shouldn't have been done. But now that it's over I'm glad it was done and I was wrong not to have wanted it to be done. I think a great many of us don't realize really how successful Reverend Jackson was. He had four aims when he began, he's accomplished all but the last and that was the defeat of Ronald Reagan. He registered additional black voters. He raised issues the other candidates would raise. He got South Africa put in the Democratic platform. He got a fairness commission to review the rules of the 1984 delegate selection process. He conducted himself in an admirable and respectful way with one or two small mistakes but overall I think it was a splendid race that he's to be congratulated and that his supporters ought to be encouraged to carry on the struggle that he began a year ago.

This generation of black Americans. You must not only register. And vote. You must..... break out like a plague running for Governor, for Senate and the President of the United States. In contrast, Senator Bond predicted that Dennis Serrette's campaign might cost the Democrats critical votes. I know Mr. Serrett he's an excellent person, but a vote for Dennis Serrette is a vote for Ronald Reagan. But Dennis Sarratt saw it this way. This is the year of the black candidate, he has created history in our primaries and I'm creating histories in our general elections. And not only that I'm mandating this entire effort that I have toward building a independent movement, Black led and multiracial all the way to 1988. We want to build a movement in this country, that not just takes on Ronald Reagan cause it's clear that he's going to win this race at this moment, but to take on the right wing that

supports Ronald Reagan. This country seems to be having a very big impact or will have a very big impact on this upcoming election. Compare the youth of today specifically the black youth of course with say the youth of the days of the civil rights movement. I think black young people today are probably a little less militant than they were then but maybe a little more involved in the political process and I think Reverend Jackson is to be thanked for that he's taken this group of young people who otherwise might have sat this one out entirely and made most of them see how important it is for them to be involved. What's disturbing is to see white young people of college age who found getting an education more difficult because Ronald Reagan has been president, line up and say

over and over again that they support him for reelection if there was ever a case of a people voting against their own interest it's to be found right there. Give me a scenario if you can of the..... ascension of the first black president, who do you think could fit that bill. It's got to take a person who can do two things that Reverend Jackson was not able to do. First who can raise relatively substantial sums of money. And I'm talking in the millions and millions of dollars. And secondly someone who can appeal across racial lines who can not only get an enthusiastic turn out of black voters as Reverend Jackson did but who can get more than the nine percent of white votes that Reverend Jackson got someone who's competitive for votes in both black and white America. The person who does that is the person who's going to be seriously considered a candidate for president or vice president and who's going to be approved or rejected by the people on the basis of what they stand for and less on the basis of their race. For sometime now black America has been looking for the

definitive black leader. Of course your name has been thrown around a number of times. Why haven't you been more visible say going for that position. It's not something you can volunteer for but something you've got to be chosen for. [Brief MLK Jr. overlay {One day...}] They did it with Martin King who didn't say 'Here I am, let me be your leader.' But who accepted a small position in Montgomery Alabama and who from that was propelled into a national leadership position. The same thing has happened more recently with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. [Rev. Jesse Jackson overlay {Twenty years ago we fight for freedom, today we fight for equality. Then we marched for welfare and now we march for our share.}] Both because of his past activities and because of this race for the White House has seen himself propelled into a leadership position. So I'm not really sure of people want a leader although it's more comforting to have a single figure that you can look to for some direction. I think it's a mistake for us to have such a person and I don't think that anyone

including myself can volunteer for such a position. [MLK Jr Overlay {I've looked over And I've seen the promised land. I may not there with you. But I want you to know tonight we as a people will get to the promised land.}] Too many of us put all our hopes and dreams into Martin Luther King. As beloved a figure as he was, and as much respect as I had for him. But when he died so many of us were so devastated we haven't recovered from it yet. If that person dies through natural or unnatural causes or that person changes their point of view or their political orientation then where are you. It's better I think to place your hopes and dreams in larger groups and in what you take to be the hopes and dreams and aspirations of the large group rather than a single individual. State Senator Bond gave a very candid interview which left us much to think about and we thank him.

Say Brother has begun to invite independent candidates from the last election to join us on a future show to take a look at the options of the two party system as well as the validity of having a third party. We'll keep you posted on the broadcast date. Next week Say Brother will be preempted during our regularly scheduled time. However you can see us on Friday December 7th on Channel 44 at 8 p.m. and on December 9th on Channel 44 at 5:00 p.m. We'll resume our regular broadcast schedule on December 13 with a profile on actor Lavar Burton. Remember we need to hear from you so please send your cards and letters to Say Brother WGBH TV Boston, 02134. Thanks for watching. For the entire say brothers. I'm Beth Dear. Have a good night.