Daily News columnist E.
R. Shipp yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. A selection from her winning entries:
On Clarence Thomas: “. . . Rather than being ‘an Uncle Tom,’ as so many are so quick to say, at times he sounds to me like W.
E.
B. Du Bois, the scholar, founding member of the NAACP and Pan-Africanist whose bona fides has not been called into question as far as I know.
”
On O.
J. Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran: ” ‘Smooth operator’ doesn’t begin to describe Cochran, who works on behalf of his main client ‘Mr. O.
J. Simpson,’ as he always calls him in public even when he is ostensibly taking the weekend off.
“Cochran, a maestro in the courtroom, demonstrated his skill outside that forum when he played a Philadelphia gathering of black journalists like a keyboard tuned only to racial chords, major and minor.
”
On community leaders’ reaction to the fatal fire at Freddy’s Fashion Mart in Harlem: “Contrary to myth, blacks own at least half the businesses on 125th St. This is not the 1930s, when blacks boycotted 125th St. businesses, all white-owned, because they refused to hire blacks.
“But [Morris] Powell’s group encourages the myth, while responsible leaders remain quiet.
”
On affirmative action: “If I were anybody else, many people let me be clear here, many white people would say that I’ve realized the American Dream. I’ve made something of myself, they might say. But no. Because I am black, they will always say that I am where I am solely because of affirmative action.
”
On black attitudes toward Colin Powell: “Many blacks say that if whites say he’s right, then he must not be. They don’t see this as a victory we’ve sought in race relations all these years: that someone can indeed be judged by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.
”
On the Million Man March: “Those who really care about race relations and rebuilding American cities must acknowledge that the Million Man March was not just a pep rally for black men. It was a wakeup call and a symposium at the same time.
”
On welfare reform: “When I was a youngster, we slipped far enough down the economic ladder to qualify for public housing. In fact, that apartment on Griggs St. in Conyers, Ga., was the first place we lived that had indoor plumbing. But we weren’t on Griggs St. long. After a few years in the projects two-family brick dwellings nothing like the high-rise monstrosities in New York we were deemed capable of making it on our own. And we did, though not without a struggle.
“The notion of taking a little government help to tide oneself over one of life’s rough spots, and then moving on and hopefully up, seems lost on many aid recipients today. . . .
”
On Susan Smith, accused of drowning her young sons in South Carolina: “Susan Smith may be the most reviled mother in the United States. But if I were on that jury that must determine her fate, I know what I would say: She does not deserve to die.
“Capital punishment is a barbaric vestige of an earlier time. We profess to be a civilized society that values life. But even those who disagree whether in Union, S.
C., or New York City must see how pointless capital punishment is in a situation like Smith’s. Her case is further evidence of how arbitrary prosecutors can be in seeking it and juries in imposing it.
“
