NNA Breaking News Update 11/27/1998
Nationalist News Agency
The Nationalist News Agency offers news and
information for people of European descent
around the world.
Visit the NNA homepage at http://nna.stormfront.org
Is there breaking news in your area that is not in NNA?
Submit news stories for international distribution. Send
all articles to: nna-...@stormfront.org.
---------------------------------------------------------------
American News
NNA Breaking News Update 11/27/98
1. Instructor rebuts reports that Civil War course taught slaves
2. Black groups question antisemitism poll results
3. Under every rock lurks a pollster
4. Catholics Told To Improve Relations
5. St. Thomas Hate Scrawler Confesses
---------------------------------------------------------------
Instructor rebuts reports that Civil War course taught slaves
ARCHDALE, N.C. (AP) - The lead instructor of a Civil War history
course denied teaching students that slaves were happy in captivity
and satisfied with their lives, as has been reported.
Jack Perdue, one of the lead instructors for the course taught at
Randolph Community College's campus in Archdale, said videotapes
of class sessions back up his position.
``I reviewed the tapes. That statement was not made. The statement
that they were happy was not made. The statement that they were
satisfied was not made,'' Perdue said at a news conference Wednesday.
He refused to release the tapes, saying they were in the possession
of his attorney.
The nine-week course was taught by local members of Sons of
Confederate Veterans, including Perdue. It was titled ``North
Carolina's Role in the War for Southern Independence.''
The News & Record of Greensboro reported Nov. 15 that while
instructors condemned slavery, they concluded from a 1930s series
of interviews with ex-slaves that 70 percent of slaves were
satisfied with their lives in captivity.
College President Larry Linker canceled the final session of the
course last week, saying the school's reputation was being damaged.
Linker questioned the accuracy of news reports about the class,
while Cathy Hefferin, a college spokeswoman, said it's possible
the college will offer the class again.
The newspaper's city editor, Ed Williams, said it stands by the
accuracy of the article.
Confederate heritage groups have defended the course, saying civil
rights groups intimidated the college into dropping the course and
have enforced a single, ``politically correct'' view of history.
--
Black groups question antisemitism poll results
The Bergen Record
The release of a national survey this week identifying blacks as
nearly four times more likely than whites to be antisemitic has
drawn skepticism from leaders of North Jersey's African-American
community.
Several black leaders said Tuesday that the survey, commissioned
by the Anti-Defamation League, seems to misinterpret or overstate
the sentiments of blacks.
"I'm not saying all of us are saints by any means; I just don't
think it's four to one," said the Rev. Gregory Jackson, vice
president of the Fellowship of Black Churches in Hackensack. "And
I would hate that such a statement may lead some people to take
that as fact."
Some Jewish leaders said they were saddened by the survey results
and not overly surprised, given the antisemitic rhetoric of such
black activists as Louis Farrakhan and Khalid Abdul Muhammad.
"If all you hear is a drumbeat of Minister Farrakhan's message --
which is Jews control the media, Jews control industry, Jews control
the black community -- what you're doing is reinforcing classical
antisemitic stereotypes," said Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national
director.
Overall, the survey found antisemitism in the United States is on
the decline.
The results showed that 12 percent of the population harbors negative
feelings toward Jews, including notions that they have too much power
or care more about Israel than the United States. A similar survey in
1992 placed that figure at 20 percent, and one in 1964 had it at 29
percent.
Among blacks, the figure also has fallen, but to a much smaller
degree. Just over a third of African-Americans are strongly
antisemitic, the survey found, down three percentage points from
1992, but almost four times higher than the corresponding percentage
of whites.
The survey, by a Boston-based research firm, consisted of national
telephone polling of 999 adults Oct. 12-21. Interviews were done
with an additional 331 blacks, beyond those included in the original
sample, to increase the reliability of the results. The margin of
error is plus or minus 3 percent.
Foxman, a Bergen County resident, said he was especially troubled
by the apparent schism between blacks and Jews because both groups
share a history of persecution and worked side-by-side to fight
racial segregation in the 1960s.
"We have walked and marched together to change Jim Crowism and to
gain civil rights progress," Foxman said. "So it's painful that
these two communities now find themselves in a position where one
has such an almost-chronic element of antisemitism."
But Ernest Dunn, chairman of the Africana Studies Department at
Rutgers University, said there is a belief among blacks that Jews
participated in the civil rights movement not so much to support
blacks as to draw attention to all minorities, including Jews
themselves.
Dunn said that although Jews and blacks have long been targets of
discrimination, some Jews fail to recognize that, unlike blacks,
they have not had to confront a color line. Many blacks, he said,
bristle at the notion that they should be able to climb the economic
ladder as well as other groups have, such as immigrant Jews and
Asian-Americans.
"We're not talking about redneck racism," Dunn said. "We're talking
about subtle kinds of racism" that may impede relations between
Jews and blacks.
Jackson said it is wrong to assume most blacks subscribe to the
antisemitism of Farrakhan, even if they attended the Million Man
March, an event Farrakhan organized.
"I went," Jackson said, "and at least I don't consider myself
antisemitic."
Some African-American leaders questioned whether the survey's
findings on blacks would do more harm than good. "All that does
to me," said Calvin L. Merritt, president of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People's chapter in the city of
Passaic, "is lead to more separatism, more segregation."
Foxman disagreed. "I think we've outgrown the times that we hide the
truth," he said. "To hide it, I think, is to do a disservice to the
community and to the issue."
Like several black leaders interviewed, Rabbi Sylvan Kamens of
Temple Emanuel in Paterson said he has seen much cooperation between
blacks and Jews. The survey results, although troubling, may lead
to greater awareness of problems between the two communities, he
said.
"I think if people of goodwill work at it, maybe these figures in
a year or two will be different," Kamens said.
--
[David Leibowitz, a solidly Marxist Utopian type of Jews, can't
stand the was polls use racial distinctions. After all, are we all
not equal? Do we not all bleed red? He just can't understand why
the ADL cares about race when the real problem is caring about it
at all. Do you think David will get a phone call from the ADL this
week explaining that Marxism was meant for the Goy, not for the Jew?]
Under every rock lurks a pollster
The Arizona Republic
The story ran small, seven paragraphs on Page A10, but my disgust was
anything but. I read it three times, not for its content, but for the
directive that story positively shouted.
It's a simple mandate, a twist on Shakespeare.
Let's kill all the pollsters!
They slaughtered politics first, see, then barraged us with useless
trivia. Now they've turned dangerous, as this nasty little story
shows.
Its headline, in bold: "Poll: Third of Blacks anti-Semitic."
This was a phone poll, paid for by the pro-Jewish zealots at the
Anti-Defamation League. Their pollster queried 999 adults nationwide,
asking them to agree or disagree with the usual stereotypes:
"Jews have too much power in the U.S. today."
"Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the
Holocaust."
"Jews have too much influence over the American news media."
The findings were supposed to be heartening: Only 12 percent of
Americans now hold "strong anti-Semitic opinions," said the pollsters,
down 8 percent from 1992. Unfortunately, the ADL and its hired hands
couldn't resist getting ugly.
In a poll allegedly concerned with prejudice, they divided up
respondents by skin color -- highlighting race on a subject where
it needs no highlighting.
Only 21 percent of Blacks got the ADL "not anti-Semitic" stamp of
approval. While 45 percent were in the middle, another 34 percent
were branded "most anti-Semitic." Only 9 percent of Whites were so
labeled.
Polling as a weapon
Said ADL national director Abraham Foxman: "We do not pretend to fully
understand why the discrepancy between White and Black attitudes
exists."
Thanks, Abe. Then why bring it up?
Allow me to answer: Using a poll to reinforce a tired stereotype --
Blacks hate Jews -- gives the ADL reams of publicity and, better yet,
the bogeyman they so badly need to survive.
The trouble is, the resultant seven-paragraph story, multiplied by
newspapers and newscasts nationwide, acts as a wedge, one more way
to fracture America the Divided. It's not polling as a tool, but
polling as a weapon.
You see it often in politics, under the alias "push poll" -- asking
loaded questions about a foe in hopes of influencing the respondent.
You say you support Candidate Arpaio for King of the World; the
pollster has a follow-up question.
"Would it make any difference," he asks, "if I told you Candidate
Arpaio is an egomaniacal media hound who, in his spare time, calls
press conferences to highlight his obsession with satanical teenagers
who allegedly eat the hearts of defenseless kitty cats?"
It probably wouldn't, but that's a story for another day.
The push poll has an equally evil cousin -- "poll-testing," the
specialty of our president, who's never met a principle worth standing
on until a pollster unfurls the "Welcome" mat. The V-chip, gun safety
locks, school uniforms, education tax credits -- all pandering, all
poll-born.
Polls for every issue
It's a national rage, this taking of the population's temperature.
When not used for evil, it's mostly used for garbage.
According to PollNET, the Internet's leading pollster, 16 percent
of us still "sometimes get sad or angry" at the death of Princess
Diana. Two percent are "not sure" if Saving Private Ryan was too
violent. And 41 percent said "Yes, immediately" to the question of
the U.S. abiding by the Kyoto agreement.
There's a poll for every issue. Beneath every rock lurks a pollster.
Drop it on their heads. Or, at the very least, lie to them. Lie
like a rug.
"Totally approve" of Ken Starr. "Seriously worry" about global
warming. "Definitely" label Bill Clinton honest.
Lie enough, and our ideas may again become our own. Get caught, and
there's an easy excuse: You were told to lie by some Jew who controls
a newspaper column.
***
David Leibowitz can be reached at 444-8515, or at
david.l...@pni.com. Watch Channel 12 (KPNX) for
his commentary Monday and Wednesday at 4:35 p.m. Catch
his show on KTAR-AM (620) Saturday and Sunday from 7 to 10 p.m.
--
Catholics Told To Improve Relations
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Catholic church will expand Holocaust studies
in its schools and religious education programs as part of an effort
to improve relations with Jews, Cardinal Roger Mahony told Jewish
leaders.
Acknowledging the Roman Catholic Church has erred in its relations
with Jews in the past 2,000 years, particularly during World War II,
Mahony urged Jews and Catholics to work together to heal old wounds.
In turn, he asked Jews to try to develop a deeper understanding of
Christianity and Catholicism.
``There needs to be a mutual respect of all religions, traditions
and faiths,'' said Mahony, head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,
which has 4 million members and is the nation's largest.
Catholics will do their part by teaching future generations about
the Holocaust and continue trying to ``eliminate vestiges of
anti-Judaism'' from their preaching, Mahony said Tuesday in an
address to the Jewish Federation's Board of Rabbis. The board
represents 650,000 Jews in Southern California.
``I like everything I heard,'' said Rabbi Harold Schulweis, who
organized the event as part of an effort by Catholics and Jews in
Los Angeles to find ways to improve relations.
Some Jews say the Vatican has not shed full light on the role of
the World War II pope, Pius XII, who they say could have done more
to save European Jews from the Nazis. The Vatican forcefully defended
Pius in a document this year and did not apologize for any failures
by church leaders.
When asked whether the church would condemn Catholics - by name -
who stood by in silence while millions of Jews died at the hands of
the Nazis, Mahony said it was doubtful.
But he said the Pope will expand on the Vatican report on the church
and the Holocaust during the 1999 Lenten period leading up to Easter.
``Rather than naming names, you will see the Pope asking forgiveness
for the actions of people in a variety of religious roles at a
variety of times,'' said Mahony, a key adviser to the Pope.
--
St. Thomas Hate Scrawler Confesses
Student Suspended For Messages Left In Dorm Restroom, Faces Expulsion;
Hearing After Thanksgiving
ST. PAUL, A University of St. Thomas student has admitted to scribing
anti-Semitic messages and a death threat in restrooms of his dormitory
on the school's campus here last month.
The student has been suspended, but has requested a hearing before
and administrative panel of the school. The hearing is expected to
be held after Thanksgiving.
He faces expulsion, reports The Associated Press.
A search for a suspect began after a series of swastikas and threats
were scrawled on bathroom walls and on mirrors in Brady Residence
Hall between Oct. 10 and Oct. 22. The words and images brought
students, faculty and administrators together to deplore the crime
and message in an all-night vigil prayer and a series of campus
meetings, reports the wire service.
The school's public safety investigators received the key break in
the case after comparing handwriting samples of the graffiti
statements to samples from students staying in the dorm.
The suspected student admitted to authoring the graffiti, which
is considered a crime in Minnesota, during an interview, a school
spokesman said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, St. Paul police continue to investigate the case
independent of the school's action.
Take a look at the Fighting Hate Across America Web site.
--
Ex-Gang Member Now Edits Law Review
NEW YORK (AP) -- It's only a half-hour subway ride from gritty,
crowded Chinatown to the upper Manhattan campus of Columbia
University, where earnest law students hustle purposefully from
classroom to library.
But Lawrence Wu, editor in chief of the Columbia Law Review, has come
a lot farther than that since he wore his hair spiked and bleached
and quit high school to join a Chinese gang.
As a teen-ager, he patrolled his gang's turf on East Broadway and
shook down shopkeepers for protection money. Today, at 23, he screens
scholars' briefs for publication and writes essays on the legalities
of human cloning.
``It's like I've lived really different lives,'' says Wu, leaning
back in his chair at the Law Review's well-outfitted modern office.
``What's important to me has changed so dramatically. When I think
back to that time, it's like I'm trying to think of someone I used
to know.''
As a gang member, Wu narrowly escaped a drive-by shooting and then
an attempted murder charge that scared him out of gangland for good.
``Things really could have been so different for me,'' he says.
``I could be sitting in jail now, or I could have been dead.''
Instead, he is in his third and final year at one of the nation's
toughest law schools, preparing for a career as a corporate tax
attorney. As law review editor, he has reached the top of the
academic heap.
Wu, neatly dressed in a button-down shirt and khaki pants, says it
was ordinary teen-age rebellion that drew him to the gang.
He was born in Queens to Taiwanese immigrants, and raised by his
mother, a librarian. She moved the family to the wealthier Forest
Hills neighborhood when Lawrence was in junior high. He then won
admission to Stuyvesant High School, one of the city's most
competitive public schools.
But during his first year, he began skipping classes, picking fights
and hanging out with gang wannabes who dressed in black and spiked
their hair. Wu, who was 6 when his father left the family, says he
felt drawn to the rule-breakers by a desire to lash out against his
disciplinarian mother.
``I was just looking to rebel, like a bomb waiting to explode,'' he
says. ``It seemed perfect at the time.''
What began as a desire to look cool soon escalated into something
more serious. At 14, Wu joined a Chinatown gang called Tung On, or
T.O.
He dropped out of Stuyvesant, began sleeping at gang apartments in
Chinatown and Flushing, Queens, and cut off contact with his family
for more than 18 months.
The high school's ``gangsters'' were ``all very cosmetic, but in
Chinatown ... things are very different,'' Wu says. ``When I was
there the big thing was controlling heroin and running guns.''
T.O.'s leaders also had their hands in prostitution and extorted
money from small Chinatown businesses, Wu recalled. His own role
was low-level -- he never rose beyond street thug, he said, because
he didn't prove his loyalty by committing murder.
``There were times when I came very close, when I was on runs to do
killing missions but the person wasn't there,'' Wu says. ``I proved
myself because I got into a lot of fights, but I hadn't done the
ultimate yet.''
He recalls strolling along a street in the heart of a rival gang's
territory with a gun stuck up a jacket sleeve, hoping for an excuse
to use it.
``I would have gotten caught for sure,'' he laughs now. ``It would
have been the end of me.''
At least seven friends and acquaintances were killed in gang violence,
one while getting a haircut, Wu said. ``It could have been me,'' he
added.
T.O. was the enforcement arm of a larger tong, or Chinese fraternal
organization, said Peter Kwong, director of Asian-American studies
at Hunter College and an expert on Chinatown gangs.
Such groups sometimes serve as mutual assistance associations for
Chinatown business owners but often engage in extortion, gambling
and immigrant-smuggling, Kwong said. ``The community is very much
dominated by these powerful organizations,'' he said.
Tung On was active in the late 1980s and early '90s, but Chinatown's
gang activity has since subsided, Kwong said.
By age 16, Wu was growing dissatisfied with gang life and began to
think about doing something more positive. He saw high school friends
making plans for college, and it made him anxious to move on too.
``It was really a gradual realization,'' he said. ``It just became
more and more obvious that I didn't want to stay (in a gang). ...
Maybe I started feeling I was getting old.''
His life, he recalls, ``was really going nowhere. If I stayed involved
in gangs, I was going to either die or go to jail or become some
grocery worker.''
His frustration turned to fear when police charged him with attempted
murder for a fight in which a fellow gang member allegedly beat a man
with a metal lock. The case never went to trial, and charges against
Wu were eventually dropped, he says.
He was frightened by the close call, though, and decided to leave T.O.
and move back home with his family.
``It was a harrowing experience,'' he said. ``It kind of woke me up.''
He said he was brought up with no religion, and became a religious
Christian after leaving the gang. He began hanging out again with
high school friends, although he never re-enrolled at Stuyvesant.
While his old gang pals were arrested, Wu was planning for college.
He studied for the high-school equivalency exam and was accepted at
Queens College, where he struggled to make up for more than 2 1/2
years of missed school.
``It was so hard for me in the very beginning,'' he recalls. ``It
took me so long to read things. It was frustrating.''
Before long, though, he was earning A's and dreaming of becoming a
lawyer.
At Columbia, he works 40 to 100 hours a week at the law review and
recently won more than $30,000 from the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships
for New Americans.
Many of Wu's classmates at Columbia are shocked to discover he didn't
finish high school, said one friend, Banu Ramachandran, writing and
research editor at the review.
``Most of all when I think of Lawrence, I think of somebody who is
just really friendly and reasonable and down to earth and respectful
of other people,'' she said. ``You don't meet very many people who
get to go to Columbia law school who've really had rough lives.''
Wu's big brother James, 29, says he worried about Lawrence during his
gang days but never really doubted he'd turn himself around.
``He got lost,'' James Wu said. ``He simply rejected authority and
went the way of the wild ... but he found himself again.''
--
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research
and educational purposes only.