European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes it in twp wednesday december 19, 1990anthony Lewis Minori race is Llic most daunting problem facing american society. A Black underclass lives in appalling conditions poorer and sicker than the rest of us dying younger ghetto crime and violence preying especially on Blacks degrade the life of our cities. No one can have fan instant cure for a problem so profound hut one thing we do know America h society has to do All it can As soon As it can to give Young Black men and women other dreams and other chances a give them the education and the motivation to go up and traditional american path of upward mobility remains crucial higher education a College degree is the surest Way to get on the Middle class ladder. Understanding this universities and foundations and private donors have for decades used their resources to give College scholarships to Black students. Suddenly last week the . Government moved to destroy this Long established and productive tradition a it declared that scholarships designated for minority students were illegal. An obscure assistant Secretary of education Michael l. Williams made the decision. He said the department of education would Cut off Federal funds to universities that offer such scholarships. If his ruling Sticks thousands of Black students across the country May have to leave College or give aft their Hopes of going. As a matter of common sense the decision is a disaster no rational government in any country would ordinarily act to destroy a privately financed system of uplifting Young people from an underprivileged group and bringing them into the mainstream of society. Was there Ihen an outcry against these scholarships to which Williams was responding no. Were universities dissatisfied with them no was there a study of any kind criticizing thenas Uri fair no. A. A a a. / a a. It was an utterly gratuitous decision William Raspberry wrote in the Washington Post one that a came out of the Blu a in answer to a question that nobody seemed to he asking Quot exactly. So what was it All about what moved Williams Williams said he was just applying the Law. Regulations dating Back to the civil rights act of 1964 made no objection to scholarships for minority students a. What Law then did he mean i Williams said he acted because of the supreme courts decision last year in the Croson Case striking Down a Richmond va., plan that reserved 30 percent of construction contracts for minorities. Contract set asides have been a controversial form of affirmative action and the Richmond plan was Especial William is afire by notable because of the High percentage set aside. That would have a direct Adverse Impact on White contractors. But there has been no showing that funds raised especially for minority scholarships Hurt White students and no great protest. So again the Puzzle is what moved Williams who incidentally happens to be Black. The apparent answer is that Williams is a movement conservative with the zealous commitment to abstract logic that sometimes appears in the movement. Here the abstraction is the idea that everything must be Colo Blind in America. It is a Fine Ideal As an abstract Hon but it has nothing to do with the reality of our lives. Arthur Fletcher president Bush a appointee As chairman of the . Civil rights commission made the Point succinctly in commenting on the Williams order. It is unrealistic he said a to talk about a Colo Blind society when we know it is not Colo Blind has not been is not now and is not Likely to the millions of americans who watched the Superb Public broadcasting service programs on the civil War know More acutely now How far from Colo Blind our history has been. They know that Black americans have to overcome a devastating legacy of slavery and discrimination. But White americans should be concerned about the attack on minority scholarships not out of sympathy for Blacks but for reasons of self interest. We All live in the same society. Williams decision is being reviewed now in the White House. A v some there will want to stick with it for political reasons a to use the Issue of race As Jesse Helms used to do that with the inoffensive helpful tradition of minority scholarships would not be just inappropriately partisan. It would be indecent. A. A c new York times a. A. A m London a France and Germany that the Best Way to create a regional european superpower is to launch and undeclared Trade War on the United states. V. A that puts in Plain Stark and under Sla Dahle terms the meaning of. A git. Gatt Gittle that glazes the eyes when Cal Letl a the collapse of the Uruguay round of general agreement on tariffs and Trade Quot. A a a a show the War broke out. At last july a economic Summit in Houston Frances Francois Mitterrand and Germany a Helmut Kohl assured president Blish that the talks to ease world Trade going on for four years would succeed that meant a phase out of the Protection of French Farmers that raised food prices and walled off our sex. Ports. ,. A. A ,. Ever the Good schnook in dealing with our supposed allies Bush embraced German unification and spoke glowingly of the new Europe As a trading partner. But Frances farm lobby leaned on Mitterrand who promptly caved. Kohl his own election secure put proximity Over principle and rallied to the French Side against the americans. When our Nego to dior Carla Hills refused to sell out americans. Interests to the euro protectionists the free Trade talks fell apart. This break coincided not by coincidence with the up Sterol the Foremost holdout against a political economic fes Tung Europe a a fortress Europe a Brit ainu a Margaret Thatcher the Iron lady s fierce stand against a common european currency with her country a economic Fate to be determined by German Bankers led to the resignation of her finance minister and the Levolt of the conservative a Why did this Thatcher tory rape Delight Kohl and Mitterrand because Quot Europe is Germany and France a a Kohler Rand Quot a followed by nine other Guys and by the English speaking islands across the Channel that form a Bridge to the United states to the extent this Franco German Alliance needs a Bridge across the Atlantic Britain is that Bridge. The new prime minister of the United kingdom John major 47, presents himself As Thatcher ism with a human face. At the latest Kok errand conference in Rome the new prime minister acted like Bush espousing Reagan ism a mostly hanging Tough in a Kinder gentler Way. Major proposed a voluntary common european currency first essentially living together before marriage which Kohler Rand will consider. / but on the new Many a Way out France s european super rat Jacques Clors hit him in the Back of the neck with a Brick warning a if we need to provoke a political crisis we will do the arrogance was galling any of this British sovereignty stuff and Well get you thrown out As we did Thatcher. / this week prime minister major will travel to Washington to meet president Bush. He will Gam deservedly Admir ing headlines by being the firm ally in the persian Gulf even British labor mindful of the political disaster that followed its sloppiness on the falklands has turned hawkish. But out of sound bite Range the engaging briton will do his Bridge duty Lor Der entente persuading the americans to save Gatt by offering help to subsidized French Farmers. Bush is expected to accommodate him to undercut the hard line Hills and to dispatch a Cabinet Deal Cutter to a save Gatty a before a March 1 deadline brings on the dreaded . Congressional oversight. The american president is too preoccupied with his eyeball to eyeball confrontation with Saddam Hussein and his Mouth to Mouth resuscitation of Mikhail Gorbachev at a Moscow Summit to entertain a Trade War at this but we have been brought to that Brink by the Koh errand regional isolationism. The Cement that has held Europe together for the past generation has been fear of an expansionist soviet Union the Cement binding it now is envy of a prosperous America and Japan. Not every War is hell. We need not respond to Europe a shortsighted economic Region obd by wringing Pur hands and predicting dire consequences in a world Given Over to the Nir Iff Robn Goring Helmut Smoot and Francois realistic americans should counterbalance Europe a penchant for Protection by promoting free Trade and food production within the Western hemisphere and by offering the incipient third grouping the asians the Choice of open Intercourse or risky retaliation. Europe a threatened goodbye to Gatt need not mean a Farewell to free Trade. We can make it mean that the new world marketing order will find an efficient competitor in what used to be called the new world. B. C new York times %
