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
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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".
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