cylFRO AMERICAN AFFAIRS "A Critical Voice Of The Black Community" ATHENS, OHIO 45701 VOL. 8 NO. 5 MARCH 1978 11 i iiasa—sass——— Who Killed Malcolm X? by Lon G. Walb The use of assasination has long been of both John F. Kennedy and Martin Shabazz (islamic name)--better known almost meteoric rise within the ranks of known as the most expedient method Luther King,Jr. to the world as Malcolm X. the Black separatist organization. used, by organizations (and govern­ In the same spirit, the murderous Malcolm X, in a sense, knowingly set The former dope pusher, pimp, ments) to permanently exile potentially exile of another valuable leader should the stage for his own execution. A fiery, numbers runner and con man became a dangerous leaders. In an effort to retard be equally re-examined for its con- charismatic orator, Malcolm was Muslim convert while serving time in the growth of this violent modus spiritorial nature. The demise in second-in-command of the powerful operandi, Congress has instituted a re­ question is that of one Malcolm Little Black Muslim sect during the early continued on page 5 - investigation of the ambiguous killings (slave name) alias El-Hajj Malik El 1960's. His position was preceded by an Page I Contents News Briefs Negative Images it Death Probe* The House Assassinations Committe has asked Congress for another $2.5 million to continue the probe of the murders of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The investigation so far has cost $2.5 million, but it has reportedly been unable to Richard Abrams uncover any new evidence to contradict the official findings on the deaths. +Segregated Music it Letters A new $53 million opera house to built in Pretoria, South Africa, will be for whites only, because, according to a South African provincial official, Blacks don't appreciate opera music. 'They (Blacks) don't believe in the same sort of entertainment as we do," said Sybrand van Nirkerk, administrator of the Transvaal Province. "They do war Freedom dances, et cetera." • The Junior KKK* Malcolm X 6 An Oklahoma City newspaper reports that more than 100 teenage white boys have organized Klu Klux Klan chapters at two local high schools and are waging a campaign of terror against homosexuals. The Oklahoma City Times said that an estimated 112 to 132 students, mostly 15- Trouble —The economy and-16-year-olds had joined the group and quoted one youth as saying, 'We are not just against Blacks like the old Klan. We are against gays and the clubs that support them...because this activity is morally and socially wrong." One youth told the paper that the recruiting is done "very quietly" in the schools. 'The only people we don't let in," he said, "are girls, Blacks, Jews or dope Restrictive Law smokers. - *The Ratings Game* 8 Samuel Yette Recent Nielsen ratings questionably indicate that King, the controversial dramatization of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life was a ratings flop. The first segment of the film was purported to have finished last (64) among prime time shows for the week. 8 In response to these figures,' Black activist, Dick Gregory said the ratings were New FBI Head "manipulated; if the American people are simple enough to believe that the show finished dead last, then they're ready to believe anything." Gregory called the ratings "game" an "attempt by the industry to see to it that nobody else would ever touch one of those kind of shows." Added Gregory, in commenting to Jet magazine, "as long as Redd Foxx was Panthers willing to put on a knappy wig and limp and have a boy talk to him the way no boy talks to his father, he had the number one show on T.V. But when he takes off the wig, walks up straight and puts on a tuxedo like Bob Hope, you can't find him in the ratings. That's manipulation." Sweet Honey 10 continued on page 7 Roscoe Lee Browne 10 Staff EDITOR - Lon Walls MANAGING EDITOR - Jeffrey Richardson INTERNATIONAL EDITOR • Zachary HiO FEATURES EDITOR - Kathleen Drake SPORTS EDITOR - Willie Brown PHOTO EDITOR - Vlra Jones GRAPHICS EDITOR - Debbie Hardin STAFF WRITERS ARTISTS Leonard Garden Chris Nolan Jane Lockhart Doug James Pamela Tyler ADVERTISING STAFF Geneva Rushing John Chappeli Pat Glenn Cynthia Hooks PHOTOGRAPHERS Leonard Garden Thomas Polk (LNSr-Liberation News Service (PNShPacific News Service AfrcrAinerican "Affairs is published free each month by Black students at Ohio linvendty, Athens, Ohio, Address all letters and poetry toe The Editor, Afro- COPYRIGHT 1978 AFRO-AMERICAN AFFAIRS a Affairs, 321 LiadkyHaB,Clik)Umi«nity, Athens, Ohio45701. MBMR f <m Television—A Negative Black Image seers predicted a flood of new work for Baby I'm Back is about a charming, Black entertainment craftspeople. A hustling wastrel (played by Demond year later, the only beneficiaries of the Wilson of the late NBC hit Sanford and "Roots" success are LeVar Burton, SON, another racist stereotype) who Leslie Uggams, Louis Gossett, Jr. and returns to his wife and two children Ben Vereen. Sadly, many of these seven years after deserting them to play talented people now spend their the horses. His wife has become professional lives constantly re-living engaged to another man in the interim the "Roots" saga. Ben Vereen's recent and has had the Wilson character ABC entertainment special was sub­ declared legally dead. titled, "His Roots," and LeVar Burton Obviously, the writers and producers reports he's more or less become the continued on page 11 Kunte Kinte. "Black" TV programs that are successful are almost without ex­ ception, horribly distorted stereotypes, Dr. Leslie Hicks produced and written by white men and by Zsdury HOI women. 'Brain and Behavior' was the topic CBS' Good Times, the home of discussed by Dr. Leslie H. Hicks, one of Jimmy "J.J." Walker (Mr. Dy-No-Mite), themost eminent scholars in the field of suffered the loss of its female lead last Psychology, on February 18. Noting fall when Esther Rolle quit the show, that the topic was to broad to speak on charging the producers (Norman Lear's in general, Dr. Hicks concentrated on Tandem Productions) were insulting the interaction between the cerebral Black Americans by playing up a cortex (the most developed part of the character who is 18-years-old, doesn't brain where thinking and problem San Francisco(PNS)-The broadcast Aside from considerations of work or go to school and seems to solving are done) and the sub-cordical on Feb. 12, 13 and 14 of NBC's six-hour competing shows on other networks, survive on street hustling. Black leaders structures which link it with other parts "King," a TV biography of the civil the TV communi ty generally had earlier complained about Good of the brain. rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., acknowledged that "King's"failure was Times when the father character (John 'The interaction of these two came al most exactly a year after ABC's unexpected. Its rejection by the viewing Amos) was written out of the show, thus structures of the brain have a lot to do triumphant presentation of "Roots," public has been attributed to reasons leaving a mother-headed household. with the transmitting of thought and based on the best-selling book by Alex ranging from racism to public revulsion "Are all Blacks living in fractured behavior,' stated Hicks. Dr. Hicks Haley. for the national divisions of the 1960s. families," the leaders asked? Must all explained how th e study of the brain's The year between "Roots," and Whatever the cause, it's clear from Black Women be depicted as maids? particular structures could shed light on "King" was supposed to be a year of empirical observation that something- The most successful "Black" show the origins or causes of certain mental great progress for Black actors, ac­ the production community, the net­ now on TV is ABC's What's Happening! illnesses. Certain cases of schizophrenia tresses and writers of intelligent Black- works and-or the public-is stopping which is basically a white version of and depression were citied as having oriented stories. A glance at the facts, reasonable, realistic Black projects what life is like in a funky ghetto. In this possible physiological bases in the however, show that the Black TV from succeeding on TV. series the main character is a hippo-like brain. The currently increased research renaissance still hasn't happened. The "Roots" phenomenon was teenager named Rerun, a living Dennis in the physiological basis of mental Perhaps the most glaring example of unique. The soap-opera bastardization the Menace gone to fat. The adult illness is timely according to Dr. Hicks. the TV's public's disinclination to of Haley's book removed color from all characters in What's Happening! strive However, it has shortcomings being that accept serious Black topics was the characters, Black and white, and coated to impose order and civilization on the it is a one-sided approach, said Dr.Hicks alleged ratings failure of NBC's "King," the whole story in the distorting gilt of a bumptious younsters, but the jungle in summary. drums of ghetto rock music and the call a project the network spent almost $4 typical Hollywood TV tale. The series Dr. Hicks has served on almost every of the streets always triumph. In What's million to produce. The mini-series' was a costume drama, buffered by 200 major psychological committee in the Happening!, the bad guys always win.