By STEVE LANG, USD MEDIA RELATIONS

VERMILLION -- As the world prepares to step into a new millennium, leadership will be determined by skills and humanity, not skin color, and diversity will play a prominent role, according to Betty Shabazz, the widow of famed civil/human rights leader Malcolm X.

Shabazz, director of communications and public relations at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, addressed a University of South Dakota audience of over 500 Tuesday night (March 25) in Lacotah Hall of the Coyote Student Center.

A new millennium signals new leadership, a leadership more diverse than most Americans are accustomed to, said Shabazz, the featured speaker during a celebration of cultural diversity at USD. Her visit was sponsored by the USD Program Council News and Views Committee.

"Change is coming and a lot of people don't recognize change until it is on their doorstep," said Shabazz. "Help control the change. Don't give up your places in South Dakota or in the world leadership arena. America needs to get involved in world leadership roles, not fight wars over [differences] between white and other ethnic groups."

"We must be comfortable with the planet earth and its inhabitants. Diversity is a challenge that is worth taking on and I encourage you to take it on," Shabazz said.

Shabazz, who raised six children alone after her husband's assassination in 1965, reflected on changes that were intended, both through the 13th-15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and through the document on human rights of the United Nations charter. While intentions of change were stated early, action has been slow.

"Most of what people are talking about today was entered in that [UN] charter [in 1945]. We sometimes know, but we don't act as quickly as we should," she said.

She referred to the necessity to promote and practice human rights, gender equity, and especially, the rights of unborn generations. Change begins with the individual.

"If this world is going to change, no one is going to change it miraculously. You've got to change it....You must stretch out your understanding, get acquainted with ethnic groupings, and realize they might not be so bad," she said. "We must break away from the way we have been tutored and realize the earth is worth saving."

Facing the changes the new millennium promises means using education, promoting leadership skills, and accepting and embracing the diversity of people and cultures, Shabazz emphasized. She noted that the world now has new "Iron Curtains," curtains built around nations who do not exercise the governmental stability necessary to operate without war, calamity and chaos. New "supermarkets" of financing have sprung up as well. Instead of struggling nations being supported financially by once-affluent "nation bankers," private monetary concerns have moved to the fore.

"America is low on cash. Moscow is broke," she said of the once-prominent players in the now-ended Cold War. "funding patterns will be different in the new millennium, but globalization will continue to exist."

To be a player in the global game, Americans need to recognize the need to ply their skills internationally, to be involved in world government, and to accept and participate in diversity.

"You can be broad-minded, open skilled, and tolerant to co-exist with people who don't look like you, or you can self-destruct trying to super-impose your whiteness on someone who doesn't care what color you are," she said. "If you are skilled in the third millennium, then you qualify. You can't go across the globe...sporting white supremacy.... America needs to get involved in world leadership roles and not fight wars over white and other ethnic groups."

Adequate money, land, and resources still exist for all the world's people to share, Shabazz said. Third millennium living requires cooperation and co-existence to ensure that equity is provided for all peoples.

"Claim the earth. Your leadership skills are important....You can take leadership and move forward or let another group take the leadership and leave you in the dust. It is extremely important that you keep what you have," Shabazz said.

"You have a great future, but at some point, you have to get yourself to decide what to do with your life and get to it."