Black Conservative Talks to YAF On Political And Economic Action

Black conservative Jay Parker urged blacks to become actively involved in polities and economics at a meeting last night sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe chapter of Young Americans for Freedom.

Parker is chairman of the state YAF organization in Pennsylvania. He belongs to YAF, he said, because "it's the only organization that is really involved with, and putting emphasis on, the individual,"

Shades of Lincoln

Parker's speech concerned the "role of the government as a unit "created by "we the people and existing for the convenience of us." "Our national purpose should be a freedom consistent with law, order, and justice," he said.

"Blacks must get involved in polities and economies. These are the appropriate channels to bring about the changes and improvement necessary." Parker explained. He warned, however, that approaches currently taken to the black community as a whole are opposed to giving back identity to individuals.

Parker said that the future improvement of the black people in the United States depends on "black capitalism and programs of self-help." Blacks should work through the American system and become entrepreneurs, he said.

Welfare assistance should be given only temporarily and on a minimal level, Parker stated. "It is only common sense to realize that there is a limit to what I can do for another." he said, "regardless of my good intentions."

Individual Initiative

"Individual initiative imagination, and ingenuity can bring about necessary improvement through the economic process," he concluded.

Parker spoke before a group of about 25 people, including three black students who heckled him during the question period.

After the lecture, black student Yancy Miles '73 said, "It's disgusting to hear a black man say that." Black student Harold Cottman '73 said that Parker was "pitiful," and argued that "an individual black is only as strong as the group he belongs to."