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Portland Observer
Thursday. December 18, 1975
The Price off Being Equal
by Congressman Augustus Hawkins
We see the world
through Black eyes
years of progress; a pledge renewed
On this, o u r fifth a n n ive rsa ry o f p u b lic a tio n , the
sta ff o f the P o rtla n d O bserver give s special thanks to
a ll o f those w h o h ave supported our e n d e a v o r to
serve the p e o p le o f O reg on — our subscribers,
a dve rtise rs a n d friends.
The O bserver w as fo u n d e d w ith one g o a l in m in d
-- to serve as an a d vo ca te fo r the Black co m m u n ity ,
to m ake kn o w n the g oals a spira tio ns a nd the
s u ffe rin g s o f Black p e o p le
To this end w e have
a tte m p te d to present our local a nd n a tio n a l leaders
the true p ictu re o f life as it is live d to da y by m in o rity
p e o p le across the natio n. For this reason w e have
a tte m p te d to in flu e n c e the decision m a k in g a nd the
h irin g practices o f b oth the p u b lic a nd the p riv a te
sectors.
W e q u o te fro m Frederick Douglass, w h o in 1847
o ffe re d his p a p e r the ' N orth S ta r" to his p e o p le , a n d
w e ta ke his p le d g e as our ow n.
"W e so le m n ly d e d ica te the N orth Star to the cause
o f our lo n g oppressed and p lu n d e re d co un trym e n.
M ay G od bless the o ffe rin g to yo ur g oo d! It sh all
fe a rle ssly assert yo u r rights, fa ith fu lly p ro c la im yo u r
w rongs, a nd e a rn e stly d em a n d fo r you instant a nd
e v e n -h a n d e d justice.
Every e ffo rt to in ju re or
d e g ra d e you or yo ur cause — o rig in a tin g w h e re s o
e ve r, or w ith w ho m so e ver - shall fin d in it a
constant, u n a n s w e rin g and in fle x ib le fo e
"A m o n g the m u ltitu d e o f plans pro po sed a nd
o p in io n s h eld, w ith re fe ren ce to our cause a nd
c o n d itio n , w e sh all try to have a m in d o f o u r o w n ,
h a rm o n iz in g w ith a ll as far as w e can, a n d d iffe rin g
fro m a n y and a ll w h e re w e m ust, b u t a lw a y s
d is c rim in a tin g b e tw e e n m en a n d m easures.
We
sh all c o rd ia lly a p p ro v e e ve ry m easure a n d e ffo rt
c a lc u la te d to a d v a n c e y o u r sacred cause, and
stren uo u sly oppose a n y w h ic h in o u r o p in io n in a y
te nd to re ta rd its progress In re g a rd to o u r p o s itio n ,
on q ue stion s th a t h a v e u n h a p p ily d iv id e d th e frie n d s
o f fre e d o m in this co un try, w e s h a ll stand in our
p ap er w h e re w e h a v e e ver stood on the p la tfo rm .
O ur v ie w s w ritte n s h a ll accord w ith our v ie w s spoken
e a rn e stly se e kin g p e a ce w ith a ll m en, w h e n it can
be secured w ith o u t in ju rin g the in te g rity o f our
m o v e m e n t, a nd n e v e r s h rin k in g fro m c o n flic t or
d iv is io n w h e n s u m m o n e d to v in d ic a te tru th a n d
ju s tic e ."
"W h ile a d v o c a tin g y o u r rights, th e N orth Star w ill
strive to th ro w lig h t o n y o u r d u tie s : w h ile it w ill not
fa il to m a ke kn o w n y o u r virtues, it sh all n o w shun to
d isco ver yo ur fa ults. To be fa ith fu l to our foes it m ust
be fa ith fu l to ourselves, in a ll th in g s ."
"R e m e m b e r th a t w e a re o ne , th a t our cause is
one, a n d th a t w e m ust h e lp each o th e r, if w e w o u ld
succeed. W e have d ru n k to th e d re gs the b itte r cup
o f sla v e ry ; w e h ave w o rn the h e a v y y o k e ; w e have
sigh ed b en e a th our bonds, a n d w rith e d b en e a th the
b lo o d y lash; — crue l m e m e n to e s o f our oneness a re
in d e lib ly m arked in o u r liv in g fle s h , w e are one w ith
yo u u n d e r the ban o f p re ju d ic e a n d p ro scrip tion —
o ne w ith you under the sla n d e r o f in fe rio rity - one
w ith you in social a n d p o litic a l d isfra n ch ise m e n t.
W h a t you su ffe r, w e s u ffe r; w h a t you e n d ure, w e
e nd ure. W e are in d is s o lu b ly u n ite d , and must fa ll or
flo u ris h to g e th e r."
On the way to the mountain top top:
1970 ■1975
In those five years, the “Portland Observer" has
become an important and influential element in the
metropolitan press. -
G O VER N O R BOB S T R A l'B
Speaking for the needs and rights and
aspirations of Portland's minority community, it
promotes those same needs and rights and
aspirations for all of us. -
CO M M ISSIO N C H A IR M A N D O N A L D E. CLAR K
The 'Observer' has taken an active role in the
life of our community and through its editorial
policy has been an important force for promoting
human rights. -
M A Y O R N E IL G O L D S C H M ID T
Henderson
E d ito r/P u b lis h e r
P o rtlan d O b s e rv e r
Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 2201
North Killingsworth, Portland, Oregon 97217.
Mailing
address: P.O. Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208. Telephone:
283 2486.
Subscriptions: $5.25 per year in the T ri County area. $6.00 per
year outside Portland.
1st Place
Community Service
O NPA 1973
1st Place
Best Ad Results
O NPA 1973
5th Place
Best Editorial
N N P A 1973
Second Class Postage Paid at Portland, Oregon
A* F R E D L. H E N D ER SO N
Editor/Publisher
Honorable Mention
The Portland Observer's official position is expressed only in Herrick Editorial Award
N N A 1973
its Publisher's column (We See The World Through Black •
Eyes). Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion
2nd Place
of the individual w riter or submitter and does not rmeessarily
Best Editorial
reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer.
3rd Place
Community leadership
O NPA 1975
member
MEMBER
Oregon
Newspaper
Publishers
Association
I
N O
Atsocittion ■ Foundtd 1895
Most altitudinal polls today indicate
that a majority of white Americans agree
that non whites should have equal access
to opportunities for the good things in
American life. Some of the evidences of
this thinking has resulted in relatively
better jobs, better housing, better
education, and better health care
for
some non whites.
A significant number of non white,
however, i.e., Blacks, Spanish speaking,
Asians and Native Americans
are still
the recipients of appalling discriminatory
treatment in seeking their share of the
American promise. They are still less
equal (in opportunity) than their white
counterparts, who are in essence more
equal in all relevant areas of achieving
the good life. And this is the hub of the
problem: the stumbling blocks; the
obstacle to resolving dicrimination and
prejudice in this society.
But being more equal is no easy
accomplishment to retain. Having the
edge, as a member of the more equal
group, means that non whites, (with less
equal opportunities and seeking to be in
the more equal class.) will forever be on
the horizon trying to get their just due.
Certainly the current busing crisis in
I,ouisville and Boston is a prime example
of the tenacity of non whites in aggres
sively demanding equal opportunities for
quality education. The demand won't go
away until the demand is satisfactorily
resolved. In fart, segregated education
may even temporarily win out in these
cities. Rut certain questions will remain:
A t what point will a new demand be
raised? To what degree will these
demands immobilize all important com
munity activities? And what will be the
nature of the eventual resolution?
On another front, one ran hardly deny
that in this horrible Nixon-Ford depres
sion, non whites have suffered eeonomi
rally, way out of proportion to their
numbers. That the old maxim
last
hired, first fired -- is working, and
working well!
Non whites have not had the luxury of
job permanency, or job seniority since
opportunities for such security have
historically been denied them. Thus in
very hard times, being more equal
continues to pay off. especially when one
has to feed, house and clothe one’s family.
In the case of equal employment
opportunity, non whites are told that
present employers, and present prefee
sional associations, and present unions,
can't be held responsible for past
discriminations. Well, non whites are just
not buying these rationalisations - and
lir a number of landmark court decisions
(pressed by the "less equal folk”) the
courts are saying past discriminations
must be redressed
no matter who is to
blame.
No one in this society should be
provided an advantage of being more
equal than anyone else. Every opportun
ity for growth and achievement should be
based on the concept that we all start at
the beginning on an equal footing.
Most of our human problems usually
stem from someone wanting to have an
unequal advantage over the other guy.
Well, this just can't work, because it
causes more havoc than it's worth. And it
is more ironically treacherous when the
disadvantaged person turns out to be as
smart as the advantaged person!
Advantages should be gained in
honest, fair struggle.
Anything less than this is shame -- and
will hurt and haunt us all, until we learn
that equal really means equal.
W h a t happened to in teg ratio n?
(Continued from p. 1 col. 3)
psychiatric sense of the term. LaRouche
says, "racism is an exhibition of paranoid
shizophrenic tendencies that comes from
an infantile form of hostility to 'out
siders*.
Likewise the zero growth or
community control notions are imposed...
to a subject population." In effect, you
produce thia: 'don't bother me about long
range solutions to problems, I'm worried
about getting (burglarized, raped, era
ployed, etc., etc.) R IG H T NO W
In
effect, such hysterical reductionism leads
rather immediately to rape, burglary,
and continued unemployment R IG H T
NOW.
Paranoid ideologies in family relation
ships. IaiRouche says, “typified by J ia
Crow racism spill over, out of the family
environment. The notion that one ‘learns
racial prejudice' is naive...a child becomes
a racist when he learns to attach his
paranoid (infantile) fears to the idea of
certain kinds of people.”
In contrast to the paranoid shizophre
nic tendency exemplified by racism ~
whether white or Black -• "the mature
identity requires an intellectually deter
mined practical power over the outside
world." To deal with any 'local' problem
demands a rapid examination of the
whole.
"Industrial urban infrastructure has
undercut the objective basis for Jim
Crow" within the white and Black
working class, more so than the integra
tionist movement it is the development of
creative mental activity in a socially
useful way which enables the individual
‘to grow' the quality of character he
previously larked and in that way to
positively overcome the cathexized in
fantile refuse (racism)..."
“The left, in particular the SW P and
C P U S A 's . preoccupation w ith racism
exhibits the same paranoid schizophrenic
tendencies as the racist himself. 'Rooting
out' racism is identical in form to the
racism...and is comparable to 'expelling
demonds.' "
By 1963, I-a Roue he writes, Rand. Ford
and the other Rockefeller allied founda
tions found they had few indigenous
takers for starting the segregationist
movement in the north. One of the main
targets of the segregationist scenario was
the lowering of education standards.
Coinciding with the recognition that the
integrationist movement was now useless
to the Rockefeller group, they expressed
their programatic awareness that there
was no pressing need for a skilled
working class - hence certain sectors of
the population could be 'phased out'.
Actual education can be replaced by
animal control; teachers wages could be
slashed, volunteers and aides with less
training for half or even less the salary
could be brought in.
California, for
example, has recently passed legislation
dumping thousands of high school child
ren out of school (of course, with a ruse).
The Rockefeller group no longer recog
nizes the need for a skilled work force
there is your measure of the real govern
mental recognition of depression. And if
you can organize the Black land Hispanic
et al) population into demanding animal
control' as evidenced in the Emamu
Baraka variety, what a victory for local
control. Ultim ately both integrationist
and segregationist remnants were to
coalesce’ in community control with the
red herring busing to become the issue,
rather than adequate education for
children.
Initially, LaRouche states, radical
white youth were diverted by the (OEO,
etc.) to become the vehicles for targeting
the municipal unions and construction
trades - as well as urban political
machines that interfered or would
potentially interfere with L E A A , etc.
programs. Quickly Blacks were brought
into this operation, via Ford, H EW ,
AFSC, etc. monies. The target was again
diversionary, based on the psychological
profiles of the victim population. Rather
than adequate employment
which
would have brought non governmental
controlled organizations fare to face with
Rockefell r and his allies
their target
was the white racist unions' and the
‘white racist power structure'. Groups
like the SWP, laiRourhe develops, were
w ittingly coopted into this. The press
was to play its part in developing the
necessary anti heron for the union
busting operations, while "Goebbels like
manuevers were used to convince seep
tics that the anti tommunity control
forces" were racist, etc. Be practical
jobs are needed now.' “But the practical
outcome of the busting of the labor
movement is simply a significant contri
bution to the development of a fascist
economy.”
Recognizing the terrifying unemployed
and underemployed state of minority
populations, LaRouche insists that the
only real alternative is the development
of an immediate framework within which
'to grow': "it is the process of progress
itself which compells the individual to
resort to his mental creative potentialiti
ties in a sustained and directed way
which results in a recognizably significant
diminution of paranoid tendencies. The
main obstacle (stemming "from the
capitalist form of wage labor which
alienates labor power from active per
ception of the fundamental proper
location of personal social identity in the
active exercize of those creative mental
powers) is a psychological problem, which
is essentially solved if a programatic
overview of the world wide network of
productive relationships is actively en
tertained."
Thia is elaborated on in
LaRouche's development of socialist
morality being an adherence to the
development of the quality of labor
power. Briefly stated he defines it this
way^propose no course of action, commit
no act which is not in the objective
interest of the successful progress of the
condition of the human race as a whole...”
Ideas ran perfst, he states, as active
determinants as practiced behavior “only
roughtly to the same extent that such
ideas are appropriate in some practical
sense to the objective social setting in
which they persist."
I^iRouche details Malcolm X as a
particularly unique individual, who was
able to escape the conditions of home and
neighborhood life which “almost prohi
bited the development of an essential
cognitive attention span but Malcolm X
found no socialist organization within
which he could develop his qualities of
leadership”
he was incapable of by
himself replicating his intellectual moral
qualities to develop an organization that
had more than a fleeting existence. The
SW P attempted to orient him into is 60s
community control program, while the
CPUSA treated him as a fascist.
IjiRouche concludes his analysis: "..the
assumption that racial problems repre
sent a continued priority issue, having
priority over the I jb o r Party’s progra
matir commitment, is necessarily a
presumption that Rockefeller's hege
mony will continue for a significant
period, a presumption which, if acted on,
means the rapid obliteration of the U.8.
racial minorities in either thermonuclear
or Schactian (slave labor) holocausts...
there are no cheap tactical shortcuts for
eradicating racism."
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