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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1976)
I Hag* 2 PorUaad Observer Thursday. March I I . 1976 Affirmative action in the Ivory Tower We see the world, through Black eyes Calendar ends confusion One of the serious problems inhibiting unity of purpose in the Block community is lock of coordina tion and cooperation. AAony social organizations. Churches, civic groups and others put in annual fund raising events for worthy causes — college scholarships, sickel cell onemia '■esearch, etc These are worthy programs and deserve community support. A major problem though is that after months of preparation, the organization will find that two fashion shows, a church supper, a recital, and an important politico! event have been set for the same time. With many groups and many activities some overlap is unavoidable and with eoch group having its own following, some of it does not matter. But it is unfortunate to have major events viemg for top billing. The Observer will provide the clearing bureau that can, in time, eliminate much of this confusion. Organizations are invited to report their activities for the vear, and a calendar will be maintained so others can check before they plan. A weekly calendar will be run in the Observer to let the community know what is happening. We expect that os the clearing bureau comes into use, we con all make those important events. Vote "Yes” # 3 An important item to appear in the May 25th ballot is Ballot Measure 43, Housing Bonds. This resolution was passed by the 1975 Legislature and referred to the voters. The resolution will authorize the state to under write up to $180 million in bonds, the sale of which would finance building and rehabilitation of rental housing for middle and low in to n e elderly people. The Housing Division will determine where hous ing for the elderly is most urgently needed and will see that every area receives a fair share. Housing sponsors will be public or private groups. This bill will not only provide much needed housing for the elderly — who are often living in unsafe and unsavory conditions — but will provide jobs in all areas effected by the construction industry. Ballot Measure 43 needs your "Yes” vote. S,°P Senate Bill On« Senate Bill 1, the controversial new crime bill, is expected out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with amendments designed to make it more palatable The compromise eliminates some of the more repressive measures but still if passed would still be a serious threat to the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. "Stomp Out Senate Bill One” and other opponents soy the bill is "not omendable". that no matter how many changes ore mode dangerous material could be overlooked. Both of Oregon's Senators have opposed the bill in its origial state but believe the bill is amend able. They would be willing to support a "suitable compromise” . It is imperative that this bill be stopped and the only way it will be stopped is for Senators to hear from the constituents. Another Point of V iew Still a cartel by Vi Long under attack for their supposed liberalism many colleges and universities are loudly protesting the awed to initiate affirm ative action programs to employ more women and more Blacks and other minorities. Large corporations have instituted affirmative action programs and some of the most rigid unions are showing some flexibility, but while some universities have given in. others are still screaming about the terrible things that will happen to them if they have to hire more Blacks and more women. From the way some of them carry on. one would think that Washington has placed an FB I man in every college administrator's office to force him to hire minorities. Actually though, the proper lion of Blacks and women faculty has barely changed over the last five years - it's still leas than three percent for Blacks and tw enty percent for women. A major segment of the college community recently spent a lot of Ume and effort to try to get the government to ease affirm ative action standards as they relate to higher education They failed, but their statements of good intentions would be more believable if that same time and energy were spent trying to recruit minorities for academic and administrative Jobs on campus. Don't W alk Out On The People from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Quarreling among member nations of the OPEC oil cartel and Iran's ten cent cut in the price of a barrel of oil should not cause American consumers to expect an eorly end to exorbitant petroleum prices. It's not going to happen. OPEC members have quarreled among themselves ever since they formed the cartel in the eorly 1960s. They have also engaged in minor price-cutting wars several times before. Iran's current ten cent cut, in response to earlier cuts by rival Persian Gulf producers, amounts to less than one percent of Iran's per barrel price of $11.40, f.o.b. the Gulf. It obviously dosen't offset last September's ten percent increase dictated by the cartel. Every cartel in history has broken apart sooner or later. OPEC will too. But it won't happen as long as OPEC controls 85 percent of the world's oil export market. OPEC countries will patch up the current dispute as they have earlier ones. Their cartel will collapse only after the consumer nations develop alternate energy sources. The hard fact is that those alternative sources are not being developed at anything like the rate necessary to reduce world dependency on OPEC oil. BLACH BUSINESS IS SUFFERING FROM THE EFFECTS O F CRIME ON AN UNPRECEDENTED SCALE.ITIS STRU66UNC TO MEET THE HIGH COST OF THEFT INSURANCE. VANDALISM, SHOP- U F T INC, ROBBERY AND BADCHECHS. THE PROBLEM CENTERS AROUND NARCOTICS, AND* DRUB RELATED CRIMES. Jr. exempt from legal requirements for fair hiring applicable to other major govern meat contractors. They get billions in federal grants and contracts and there's just no excuse for the failure to show progress ia minority employment after all these years. Universities often argue that there aren't enough "qualified" Blacks and that affirm ative action programs mean weak ening the so-called merit system One would expect stronger arguments from intellectuals As Stephen Horn. President of California State University has recently stated. "Universities cannot simply plead that the supply of qualified minorities and women ia not available when they have a major responsibility to provide the supply " "And he points out that while one out of every eight doctorates is held by a woman only one of every fifty full professorships is held by a woman The so-called m erit system is a scarecrow designed to frighten off serious attempts to correct diserimina tory practices. Hiring is still done through the old boy network of recoin mendations by high ranking professors, and while many schools say the minority pool is limited because of fewer PhDs, some forty percent of all faculty members don't have a PhD. When fair employment laws first were passed we heard the same story, the Colleges and universities are not Block history needed E. Mays by H erb L. Cawtbarae Just because you have reached a position your mind thinks to be important, don’t place yourself so high and mighty that you think you can walk out on the people, without care or concern, w ith o u t looking back, without bearing their call to you: Just because you have been set up another man with title, fee and free hand, don't walk out on the people, because they cannot increase your freedom, only lessen it with desires for your dedication and commitment and love and hard work: Just because the world made you to have powers of strength and sharp intellect, don't take what the world has given and walk out on the people, caring only to build your private empire on the tired sweat of human sacrifice, caring only to amplify your living in a sheltered personal world; Just because you cannot remember bow the world took care of you, nursed you. and listened for your cries, don't walk out on the people, for they are the reason for your work, and they are the source to which your soul returns - they, and only they, can appreciate the beauty of the gifts your spirit creates in gratitude for the opportunity of living. merit system would be weakened. Civil servants wouldn't be efficient. A fte r at least ten years' experience with fair employment laws we've found those excuses to be a myth, but some college administrators will cling to them. The ugly ghost of "quotas" is also raised, implying that svery American will bs c a te g o r is e d by hla e th n ic background when applying for a job. That too ia false. Affirm ative action encompasses numerical goals as a bench mark with which to measure an employ er a good faith effort to correct past discriminatory hiring practices. One major affirm ative action agree ment with a big university gives the school thirty years in which to reach very modest minority employment goals. So much for coercive quotas! It would he instructive for many colleges to further heed the words of President Horn. "Educational institu tions and unions have discriminated against minorities and women." he says. And he goes on to stale that changes must be made “if our institutions are to reflect the diversity and talents of the society of which we are a part." It's time for the academic community to come out of its self imposed ivory lower and into the real world, where tbs society that feeds it has claims for equal opportunities in higher education no leas strong than its claims on business and unions. W hy do we need Negro history and Negro education? To save the image of the Blacks in education. I f the Greeks need images, if the French need images, if the English need images. God knows the Black man needs images Who needs Negro history? The white students and Black students. But, the Black studenu need Black history more. The Black students must know as much about everything as the white students and more about Black history than whites. I l isn't either European history or Black history, it is both. If Shakespeare is good for Negroes. Dunbar is good for whites. If Tennyson is good for Negroes. James Weldon John son is good for whites. I f Longfellow is good for Negroes. Langston Hughes is good for whites. Both will be better men and women by studying both. Let me close with a quote that I used in a speech at Alabama State University. "Hear me well in the closing words Your image in education will not be gotten at Wofford. Furman. U n iver sity of South Carolina, the Citadel and Clemson, but at Benedict, South Carolina State. Voorhees, Denmark. Howard U n i versity and other Black schools. "As great as Chicago. Columbia. Yale and Harvard are. their curricula are geared to train their students to serve white America, not Black America. Even our able Black scholars teaching in these universities will not keep alive the Black man's image in education. "The curricula at white schools are made up for whites, not Blacks. And until we develop Black and white scholars to give justice to the Negroes' contributions to thia country, we must have Negro history. "In making this plea for Negro history and Negro education. I include whites as well. Whites can benefit by a study of Negro history and education just aa Blacks benefit from a knowledge of S hakespeare, Tennyson, L on g fe llo w , W hittier. Ramsey McDonald, Churchill. Lloyd George and Wellington. "They ought to know James Weldon Johnson. (Kingston Hughes, Claude Me Cay, Dunbar. Gwendolyn Brooks, Tren holm. Carter G. Woodson. M artin Luther King, Jr.. Harriet Tubman. Frederick Douglass. Toussant L. Overture. Colonel Young, our four star general, Thurgood Marshall and Secretary W illiam Colman. " It ia not enough to be conversant with white chemists, but with Black chemists, Huggin. MrBay and Meredith. “The Black student must know as much about American history aa any white studenu but he must know as much about John Hope Franklin. Clarance Barote and Carter G. Black scholars. Toinby snd Dodd, white scholars. "Both groups will be better educated and better men. But for the Negro, it must be both Black and white He must know as much about the white man's culture as the white man knows snd more about his own culture which he knows by being Black and living Black." WukuqlM, Ttyod The Federal Communications Commis sion ruled that radio and television stations may not refuse to sell a political candidate less than five minutes of air time. The ruling had been sought by President Ford's campaign committee, which had been turned down by Chicago television station W G N when it had tried to buy tim e for spot announce ments of 60 and 90 seconds. The FCC also ruled that Miam i T V station W C K T did not have to give Ronald Reagan equal time to match a series of five six-minute taped interviews with Ford. C* * << LETTER Keep in touch To the Editor: Portland Observer Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 2201 North Killingsworth. Portland. Oregon 97217. M ailing address: P.O. Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 97208. Telephone: 283 2486. Subscriptions: $7.50 per year in the Tri-County area, $8.00 per year outside Portland. 1st Place Community Service O N P A 1973 f The article about the Black Congress men and women ia a great help in helping us keep in touch with someone in the W hite House that might give us a second thought, or may need to hear from the people, to make things change for the good of us all. B. Campbell A L F R E D L. H E N D E R S O N Editor/Publisher MEMBER MEMBER Oregon Newspaper I Publishers Association e W p A per ■Aitûf i*gfiLgft • Founded fdW Birth defects are forever. Unless you help. March of Dimes »nie eeetg « oHTeieuTio s* » h « » u h h m is SUBSCRIBE NOW 5th Place Best Kditerial N N P A 1973 Herrick Editorial Award N N A 1973 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place (.— — ■ tty | O N P A 1975 Tri-County area Name Address SUAJUfNJkL N HEADS UR! 1st Place Best Ad Results O N P A 1973 Second Class Postage Paid at Portland. Oregon The Portland Observer’s official position is expressed only in its Publisher's column (W e See The World Through Black Eyes). Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual w riter or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer. The Puerto Rican Democratic Party certified that Senator Henry Jackson had won four of the island's 22 delegates. Five of the eight district caucuses that were to have selected most of the delegates were disrupted by violence. The local party also petitioned the Democratic National Committee in Washington for permission to reschedule the five caucuses. Representative W ilbur Mills t D A r k ) , whose power base in Congress has been eroded by alcoholism and friendship with Argentine stripper Fanne Foxe, shocked the nation by announcing that he will not seek reelect ion. Mills. 66. was first elected to Congress in 1939. His 19th term in Congress expires in January. Mills said his decision not to run has nothing to do with anything that has occurred in his personal life and the last two years. He added, "This decision was not based on any fear that I cannot do the job or that I cannot maintain my sobriety. I am convinced beyond any doubt that I could do both." Mills said he was not running away from a fight, he added. “I feel that I have won the greatest battle of my life in recognizing that I was assailed by the disease of alcoholism and in accepting the way of life that brought about my recovery from it". C ity $7.50 other areas $8.00 AAail to: Portland Observer P O. Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97208
