Will Arabs Back Ties To Blacks With Cash

What about those rumored billions of dollars the oil rich Arab nations are supposed to unload on American black leaders and minority institutions? “It’s not just a rumor. Aid will come from some of the Arab states,” predicted a black San Francisco lawyer who has close ties to officials of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).“

The first indications of Arab help to American blacks may be announced in December.” said Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour, formerly known as Donald Warden, of the Holmes and Warden law firm.

Al-Mansour is the lawyer who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of OPEC last winter when the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) filed an antitrust suit against the 13 OPEC countries in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The OPEC countries did not answer the price-fixing charges on the grounds that a U.S. court did not have jurisdiction over a foreign country. However, Al-Mansour argued for OPEC as chairman of the Concerned Black Americans in Suppport of Africa and the Middle East. The suit was dismissed on Aug. 22.

Al-Mansour, 39, for several years has urged the rich Arab kingdoms to cultivate stronger ties to America’s blacks by supporting black businesses and black colleges and giving financial help to disadvantaged students.

In September, Al-Mansour said, he presented a proposed special aid program to OPEC Secretary-General Rene Ortiz when he visited OPEC headquarters in Vienna. Al-Mansour urged the establishment of a fund that would provide $20-million per year for 10 years to aid 10,000 minority students each year, including blacks, Arabs, Hispanics, Asians, and native Americans.

“The idea was fully endorsed by Ortiz and other OPEC administrators,” Al-Mansour said by telephone from San Francisco last week. He said the decision on his educational fund will be made by the OPEC ministers when they meet in Caracas, Venezuela, in December.

I also spoke with a representative of the information center for the League of Arab Nations in Chicago concerning rumors of “heavy Arab contributions and investments” in black communities in the wake of Andrew Young’s resignation as United Nations ambassador this summer.

“It is quite possible,” an Arab spokesman said. “However, I don’t think any money will be given to individuals.” But he said he had also heard that Moammar Khadafy, the leader of Libya, is planning to support black organizations “or institutions.” The spokesman did not name any individuals or institutions.

The question of financial aid from the Arabs could raise a few extremely interesting questions both inside and outside the black community. If such contributions are large and sustained, the money angle may become secondary to the sociology and politics of such an occurrence.

What will be the response in white America to the recognition that American blacks have influential supporters in foreign lands?

Several of my media colleagues argue that such massive support will not come from the Arabs. But suppose it does? How many black colleges could afford to announce they are rejecting several million dollars annually in aid not only to their students but to the tottering colleges themselves?

And what will happen if those college boards that do accept Arab aid are threatened with a loss of domestic support?

Of course, there is another question that focuses on how the black citizen is viewed by the American majority. Can the average American live with the thought of blacks being anything other than helpless — a people without any other resources than domestic “tolerance” and charity and their own bootstraps?

I’m not about to hazzard a guess as to what the Arabs are going to do now that they have discovered that blacks do have an interest in the Middle East. But I strongly suspect their advisors have made it clear that they must do something to support those rumors.

The new black advocacy of a homeland for the Palestinians and recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has put the Arabs as well as certain black leaders on the spot. Suppose those black leaders who openly embraced Yasser Arafat suffer extreme shortages in financial contributions because of their pro-Arab stands. And suppose the Arabs do not come to their rescue.

Such a failure could cause American blacks to adopt a slogan made famous by the Jews: “Never Again.”

Vernon Jarrett Tuesday November 6, 1979

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