Non-Athlete Role Models Urged : Culture: Activists seek more attention for everyday African American heroes such as lawyers and doctors and less for sports stars.

Fourteen-year-old Tony Price cannot run like O.J. Simpson. “I don’t have the legs he has,” Price said on a Watts sidewalk this week. “I do not have the jump shot Michael Jordan has.”

So Price admires non-athletic talent in his role models. He believes other young blacks must do the same, and the press must give them the right examples.

“We need to stop glorifying the fantasy role models who have the big yachts,” Price said. “I probably won’t live in a yacht. . . . So many of our young African American males know about the NBA. But rarely do they know about the BA and the MBA.”

Price and more than a dozen black activists gathered for a news conference Wednesday to urge the media to focus on everyday African American heroes and bring balance to the coverage of charges that Simpson murdered his ex-wife and her friend.

Dr. James Mays, a Central City physician and community activist, said that while white children have many role models, black youths see “those persons you have designated, and who young people have accepted as role models topple like bowling balls. . . . And there’s no backup.”

Mays urged reporters to focus on true role models such as lawyers, doctors and the people enshrined on Watts’ Promenade of Prominence, where he spoke. The promenade features plaques and pictures of honorees in the sidewalk along Will Rogers Park.

The activists noted that on Friday, the day that 95 million Americans watched police pursue Simpson on freeways, two community activists--(Sweet) Alice Harris, who works with teen-age parents, and retired businessman John T. Stevens--were enshrined on the promenade.

“Let the children know that (Sweet) Alice Harris and John Stevens exist in our land,” Mays said.

Muhammad Nassardeen, founder of Recycling Black Dollars, a black business group, said the press assumed that Simpson was guilty before he was charged. “There was almost a joy in that someone that seemingly pristine was taken down,” he said.

He also admonished the police for leaking details of the investigation to the press, and said “the press deserves its own kick for being so quick to jump on this information without any corroboration whatsoever.”

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Nassardeen cited reports of a bloody ski mask being found in Simpson’s house, first reported last week by KCOP-TV, which cited unidentified law enforcement sources. On Wednesday, prosecutors said no such mask has been found.

Nassardeen also criticized Time magazine for touching up Simpson’s mug shot on this week’s cover to make it look more menacing. The purpose of techniques such as Time’s, Nassardeen said, “is to instill fear in America . . . that trickles down on all of us as people to be feared.”