PEP, April 2010: The deep roots of Black culture

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Locals celebrated Black History Month at DC 37 in February, visiting African-American cultural roots and riffing on the proverb “Each One, Teach One,” this year’s theme.

“The problem in America is not racism but racial inequality and the education and wealth gaps it produces,” said SSEU Local 371 guest speaker Dr. Boyce Watson, a financial guru at MSNBC. He was on a program that included 12-year-old poet Nene Ali and trumpeter Tom Browne and honored city Homemakers for their role in winning the local’s 28-day strike for collective bargaining rights 45 years ago.

Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983 celebrated with a program, “Let the Good Times Roll — Speakeasies, Cotton Club and Jammin’ at the Savoy.”

“It wasn’t long ago that people who looked like you and I were kept out of jobs,” said Local 1407 guest speaker Helen Foster, a Bronx City Council member. She said unions played a key role in helping Blacks advance economically.

Local 375 focused on Haiti and the onerous “reparations” it paid to France, which left the Caribbean nation the poorest in the Western hemisphere. The local showed a video on the tragic earthquake that decimated Port au Prince Jan. 12.

Local 299 presented readings by actress Dee Dixon and the Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson-Cook, and the Masters of Mime Ministry and Frederick Douglass Academy’s Harlem Samba drum troupe.

Progess and parity

African-American war veterans John Robert Crosby and Ralph Hubbard related their military experiences to the Retirees Association.

“To end spousal abuse we need to teach young men the importance of showing respect to young women,” said President Carmen Charles at Local 420’s Black Love celebration that featured jazz saxophonist Steve Carrington, a Patient Care Associate at Jacobi Medical Center, and the R&B band Caribbean N’Sync.

The Rev. Dr. J.G. McCann Sr. of St. Luke Baptist Church pointed to high achievers President Barack Obama, media mogul Oprah Winfrey and former New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, the first African-American elected to statewide office, as symbols of what’s possible, at Local 372’s event. “Carl McCall was raised by a single mother on welfare,” he said, “and went from receiving welfare checks to signing them.”

The DC 37 Political Action Committee had guest speaker Comptroller John Liu, the energetic Ballet International Africans and the classical duo of pianist Lynda Peralti and violinist Tadia Lynch.

“Our matriarchs and partiarchs have seen many things, they know the effects — that it’s not okay to say the N-word,” said Local 957 guest speaker Jonathan McCoy, 11, who launched a campaign to abolish the N-word and promote positivity.

“We’re facing a crisis,” said Executive Director Lillian Roberts, who reminded members that the struggle for economic parity continues. “It’s a class war — we against thee — they’re trying to take from those who have nothing.” While a snowstorm canceled the traditional

Finale Night program, the Black History Month Committee sold the food to raise funds for relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti and Chile.

This article includes reporting by Alfredo Alvarado, Gregory N. Heires and Jane LaTour.