Apartheid. USA 1988

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August 17, 1987:

For New York City's many black newspapers, times are hard. For most of them, advertising is scarce, and most owners say that profits, if any, are small. But there is still power and prestige attached to the city's black papers, even though they no longer hold the overwhelming importance to the city's black population that they had in the days of segregation. In recent years, black-orientated radio and television programs have stolen much of the spotlight - and importance - of black newspapers as forums for news from a black perspective and the thunderous discussion of race-related issues.

‘The black press has a constituency that is fearful,’ said Wilbert A Tatum, Chairman and Editor-in-chief of the Amsterdam News. ‘Our readers fear for their jobs, and, indeed, for their lives.’ He continued, ‘If blacks are going to make any progress, the media has to reflect who black people are, even with warts. The white press treats blacks as one dimensional: sports, crime and entertainment.’

The essential philosophical difference between the black papers of New York is how they think blacks can achieve empowerment, the word that has come to mean blacks controlling their own political, social and economic destiny. For the City Sun and the Big Red, the words integrationist and accommodationist are epithets, and the future lies in a kind of economic and political black separatism. To the more middle-of-the road papers, such as the Amsterdam News and especially the New York Voice, genuine integration remains a cherished goal and true power comes from aggressive political advocacy within the system. Though all of the black newspapers see the world through the prism of black experience, the differences are great and each is perceived to have its niche.

The City Sun, an upstart maverick founded in 1984 and based in Brooklyn has become the voice of the new, angrier black leadership that is challenging the black establishment. For example, the Sun which has a circulation of about

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18 500, against the Amsterdam News with 40 000 circulation, dramatically broke a code of silence to avoid criticism of black elected officials and leaders. This taboo, sometimes in the face of fierce battles among black political factions, was based on the conviction that blacks attacking blacks in print was too destructive to tolerate. At the City Sun this code of silence is starting to crack in a move toward a more mature, if more critical, journalistic mission than that of the past. Ulrice C Leid, the Managing Editor of the paper described the policy as being ‘stridently independent.’ This new, tough black journalism reflects impatience and frustration with some black elected officials and other leaders, and is born of the conviction that hard public scrutiny of blacks by black newspapers was overdue. The Sun has come out, for instance, with a detailed account of how the Coalition for a Just New York, which included most of the city's top black political leaders, decided to endorse the candidacy of Herman D Farrel Jr, a Harlem Assemblyman for mayor instead of forming a coalition with Hispanic voters in support of Herman Badillo, a former deputy-mayor. If the Amsterdam News stands for blacks succeeding within the existing system, the City Sun stands for the rejection of what it sees as a white-dominated system that will never allow real power to blacks. ‘What I am saying is that blacks are not part of the American family, and never will be,’ said Andrew W Cooper, publisher of the City Sun. ‘Untill blacks learn that lesson, blacks will for ever be in bondage.’ Mr Cooper (59) added, ‘We're supposed to be the watchdogs of government and that doesn't mean white people. It's never happened before, and some black leaders are not happy and very nervous, but my attitude is, that's too bad.’^136.

136. The New York Times, from a report by Alex S Jones