Page 2
Portland Ola
U th . 1978
We see the world
through Black eyes
Radsm in Oregon
Racism seems to be on the rise in Oregon - though
sometimes cloaked in innocence. Students who
burned a cross in front of the Black Cultural Affairs
Office at Oregon State University claimed it was only
a prank — that they did not understand the racist
implications. It is strange that they found their way to
that office with their cross if they did not understand.
Is it just a coincidence that it was not burned on
someone else's lawn?
Students at Portland State University accepted an
advertisement for a "White Student Alliance" for
their newspaper. The words "white student alliance"
did not touch off any suspicion that this might be a
racist organization.
Freedom, net communism
It is interesting to read in our daily paper that the
new nations of Africa will turn to the USSR and
communism if left to their own bidding. They foretell
that if the Black majority gains control of the
government of Rhodesia, this will nationally become
a communist state controlled by the USSR.
The African people hove never given any indica
tion that they want to be controlled by the USSR any
more than they want to be controlled by the United
States or Britain. It is a fact of life that the U.S. has not
supported the liberation movements in Africa but
have aided the colonial governments. Our recent
interest is not a response to the quest for freedom but
to a fear that we will be outflanked by the Russians.
The people of Africa have demonstrated that they
will seek help where it is available, that they will
accept assistance from the USSR and Cuba. This does
not mean they are interested in communism, it only
means that they need help. They certainly have not
received it from the capitalist democracies.
If the United States would stand for freedom and
equality, and put own democratic ideals into
practice, we would not have to worry about the
communists so much. If we could understand that the
people of Africa are concerned about freedom and
not about political idiology, we could be free to
assist them without political and the economic
strings. We could see the development of free and
irjfclependhnt nations in Afrieo that poeid build their
political and economic in*t»tuiieM.to fit their own
needs.
Black p o w er a t the palls
Guest Editorial
Christian Science Monitor
Jimmy Carter's victory is politically significant for
many reasons. But perhaps none more significant
than the fact that it is America's Black community
that put him over the top. Clearly Blacks now have
new strength. They will look to the President-Elect to
give them fair representation in the high reaches of
the administration, and most important, to live up to
his promises to strive for economic and social justice
for all minorities.
Throughout the campaign AAr. Carter was more
deliberately attuned than President Ford to the
Blacks' struggle for equal rights. His active wooing of
them, combined with a vigorous drive to register tens
of thousands more Block voters, paid off royally. It is
estimated that Blacks provided the margin of victory
for the former Georgia governor not only in the
South, where M r. Ford won a majority of the white
vote, but in such crucial states as Pennsylvania, Ohio,
and Missouri. In Ohio, for instance, AAr. Carter won
by just over 7,500 votes, with 285,000 Black votes.
The Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington
also reports that ho captured more than 90 |oer cent
of the Black vote in AAaryland, 90 per cent in
Missouri, 96 per cent in Texas, and over 91 per cent in
Louisiana and Mississippi.
These huge Democratic majorities are not surpris
ing in the light of Black frustrations over the slowed
pace of progress since the advances of the 1960s.
Although Blacks are better off politically today, Black
economic power has not kept pace with political
progress. Problems of high unemployment, poor
education, and discrimination linger. According to
the U.S. Census Bureau, the median Black family still
earns only 60 per cent as much as a typical white
family.
It is such disparities which it is hoped AAr. Carter
will seek to redress - not through government
handouts but through policies that remove road
blocks to self-help and individual achievement. The
President-Elect would please his Black constituency
by appointing Blacks to such posts as Secretary of
Health, Education, and Welfare and of Housing and
Urban Development. It goes without saying, how
ever, that the Black community as a whole will
benefit most by the selection of the most qualified
individuals for the right job. There are indeed many
of them, among the most prominent being such
name: as Barbara Jordan, Andrew Young, and
Vernon Jordan. The President-Elect might even
consider retaining William Coleman in the Cabinet;
he has been an excellent Secretary of Transporta
tion.
In any case, AAr. Carter now has an opportunity to
bring Blacks more fairly into the executive branch of
government so that decisions affecting all Americans
can be worked on cooperatively. We welcome this
opportunity. With a sympathetic ear in the White
House — and with a reinvigoration of such institu
tions as the National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, which has named a new
executive director - Blacks should be able to look
forward to a new era of economic and political
progress. That will spell a healthier society for all
Americans.
Urban Renewal on the horizon
Remember those urban renewal pro
grams of the 1950s that plowed up central
cities, destroying homes and neighbor
hoods of poor people to make way for
speculative projects that benefited the
better-off?
Well, hold on to your hats because
those days are on the way back - at least
if numerous housing experts, city plan
ners, and urban theorists have their way.
Typical of the new thrust in city
planning is the recent testimony, before a
Congressional committee, of a man des
cribed in news accounts as “a theorist on
the recovery of American cities."
He urged that the urban poor be moved
away from center-cities so that the areas
could be redeveloped to attract middle
income suburbanites back to the cities.
That sounds to me like a theory for the
destruction of American cities.
.* <1
a
I
But it’s typical of the mounting support
far that kind of thinking that his testi
mony was taken so seriously. I t fits into
what is becoming known as the "triage"
theory.
That's a battlefield term far medics
faced with a situation in which they’ve
got to provide fast medical aid to casual
ties under battlefield conditions. Let the
dying die, the theory goes, and eoncen
trate your scarce resources on those who
might pull through.
Translated into the urban environment
by planners, the theory says, in effect,
that poor neighborhoods can't be saved so
just let them deteriorate while providing
services to neighborhoods in better con
dition. Ultimately property values will
fall and the areas will be ripe for
developments like shops, offices and
middle and upper income housing.
As for the poor who live in those
neighborhoods - tough luck. Help them
relocate to the outskirts of town. Out of
sight, out of mind.
The adject failure of the urban renewal
programs of two decades ago ought to be
a warning against this approach to d ty
officials, but they're blinded by arhat they
see as the attractions of increasing the
city’s tax base. Run-down slums are full
of non-taxpaying properties and aban
doned buildings. Redevelopment means
increased property taxes and wealthier
residents who can spend more.
The joker in the deck is that supporters
of this approach think it can be effected
smoothly. Large scale emigration to the
suburbs somewhat eased the urban hous
ing crunch in the sixties, and they think
redevelopment can be accomplished
without too much pressures on the
housing market.
But suburbanization has slowed and
housing prices have sky-rocketed The
slack in the housing market isn't there
Transkei is bom
The «0 visitors from South America
wore Osar
expenses paid by 8outh
Africa, to tbs midnight ceremony that
marked the birth of the nation of Tran
skat I t was lucky they came, no one else
did.
A t the stroke of midnight a 101-gun
salute marked the moment. Tribal danc
ing, fireworks. feasting and bonfires
continued the celebration. New construc
tion marked the landscape. $12 million
worth of asw paved highways, a $14
million airport and a $2 4 million Holiday
Inn. Yet the only distinguished visitor
who came was South Africa's President
Nieolaas Diederiehs.
More than 40 African nations have
become independent in the last two
decades. Yet, for Tranakei, the diplomatic
boycott of its independence ceremony
was almost complete. For good reason.
Tranakei is the first of nine historical
tribal homelands, called bantustana, that
the Republic of South Africa to grooming
lor independence in an effort to perpetu
ate the rule of its own white minority.
Tranakei to about the aixe of Massa
ehueetta and New Hampshire eoobined
and inhabited by 1-8 million members of
the Xhosa tribe. Included also in the
dtiaenship of Tranakei are 1.8 million
Xhoeas who live permanently in South
Africa. They live In places like Johannes
burg’s Soweto township which has been
the scene of rebellion and violence.
By this act of political sleight-of-hand.
the Xhoaas who live in South Africa
become foreigners and are stripped of
their dtiaenship and political rights. By
continuing thia pattern in the other eight
bantustana, the South African govern
ment hopes to give 70 per cent of its
population political power in only 18 per
cent of its land area. The whites will then
claim control over the rest of the country.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General
K urt Waldheim said, "The world com
munity will never accept the establish
ment of the Tranakei or of any other
so-called bantustana as separate political
entities. They only viable solution In to
turn rw *7 from the policy of apartheid
and allow all the people of South Africa to
exercise fully their basic human rights.”
Tranakei is surrounded by South A fri
ca on three sides. Though the Indian
Ocean to the fourth boundary, Transkei
has no p o rt As a matter of fact, until
now, it had no phone book. Tranakei was
included in that of East London, the
nearest South African dty.
Don't look for Tranakei in your travel
book. The only mention to under “bantus
tans, segregated housing quarters of
Africans. who are not allowed to live
within the d ty and must commute great
distances to work." The travel book goes
on to say that non-Africans may not visit
bantustana without special government
permit. However, with independence and
a new Holiday Inn. I suspect outsiders
will be more welcome.
Furthermore, though the reported
gross national product ($120 million) and
the per capita income ($180) exceeds
those of a dosen independent African
states, the figures are misleading.
Three-quarters of Tranakei's annual
operating budget to contributed by South
Africa. Added to that, 70 per cent of its
national income consists of remittances
from Xhosa« who work in the mines,
factorial, and farms of white South Africa.
Independence to making some welcome
changes on the local scene in the sleepy
capital of Umtata Blacks and whites will
be allowed to mix socially and compete
for jobs. The whites only municipal
swimming pool will be open to all. A t the
town movie house, films will be viewed
by mixed audiences. I t to expected that
3,000 whites will remain in Tranakei.
Chief Minister Kaiser D. Matanzima.
who heads the Tranakei government is
one person willing to accept indepen
donee.
His National Independence Party
swept the territory's parliamentary elec
tiona last month, partly because the
entire leadership of the opposition party
had been jailed. Now Matanzima, a
lawyer-farmer, to looking forward to
moving into a new $345,000 mansion
under construction.
What to the conclusion of this sorry
tale? The future to truly troubled. South
Africa must be stopped from proceeding
with its plan for independence of the
homelands. The independence of Bophu
that-Swanna to scheduled next.
This travasty must stop. The question
to how and by whom.
Affirmativ« action
(Continued from p. 1 col. 6)
with regional hearings.
The National Coalition to Defend A f
firmative Action feels that effective af
firmative action regulations must provide
for:
1. Strict and expedient enforcement
mechanisms, "not Department of Labor
proposals lor endless hearings, adminis
trative procedures and acceptance of
mere ‘good faith* statements by employ
ere."
2. Cutting red tape by providing
employers with specific criteria for
achieving affirmative action which are
uniformly enforced, “not Department of
Labor proposals which delete essential
employment guidelines and programs
effective in achieving affirmative action.”
3. Development and monitoring of
goals and timetables, not as quotas but as
benchmarks in a plan of action, "not
Department of Labor proposals (or un
monitored programs which rely on 'good
faith' efforts by employers.”
4. Government accountability and
public disclosure of all aspects of the
contract compliance program, “not the
Department of Labor proposals which
limit public access to enforcement pro-
ceedings and departmental operations.”
The National Coalition to Defend A f
firmative Action asks that concerned
persons and organizations contact their
Senators and Representatives and Law
rence Z Lorber. U.S. Department of
Labor. 200 Constitution Avenue. Wash
ington. D.C. 20210.
The Federal government spends over
$50 billion a year in non-construction
projects and at least one-third of the
labor force is dependent on federal
expenditures for their jobs.
Political power
(Continued from p. 1 col. 6)
VEP for fifteen years. Now, in a larger
sense, we also have to take stock of the
health of our democracy, which has the
lowest rate of voter participation of any
democracy in the world."
" It may be that the Voter Education
Project can play a larger, more vital role
to the entire country by spearheading a
national effort to eliminate restrictive,
bureaucratic barriers and make of our-
any more so that if poor neighborhoods
are destroyed for redevelopment, the
poor who live in them will have no place
to go.
That means the developers and the
speculators will run into a stone wall of
anger, frustration and bitterness from
the people they're trying to dispossess.
Anyone who seriously believes that
poor people, Black people and brown
people locked into ghetto areas can be
shovelled out of their neighborhoods to
make way far white middle does people
whenever speculators think the market to
right, to dead wrong.
And anyone who thinks that urban and
social problems, whose causes are moot
often found in exploitation and discrimin
ation, can be solved by even more
extreme exploitation and discrimination,
to as a disaster course.
Thio oo called "triage" approach has
bean encouraged by the abandonment of
federal attempts to formulate a compre
hensive urban strategy and the vacuum
that withdrawal left, a vacuum filled by
local interests hootile to the poor.
The way to eave the cities isn't to
abandon them to the mercies of specula
tors. The cities will be revitalized
through programs that help the poor,
preserve and improve their neighbor
hoods, and ensure their participation in
decisions that affect their lives.
Spare us the solutions of self-styled
urban “experts” and other social quacks
who prescribe policies that will only lead
to tragic confrontations and strife that
to further deterioration of our
Portlond O b server
eratic idea.”
The Voter Education Project, based in
selves a nation of voters with a participa
tion rate equal to or higher than any
other democracy.” said Lewis. "It should
be America's goal to achieve this demo
Atlanta. Georgia, has traditionally oper
ated its programs in the I I southern
states from Virginia to Texas. It is
supported by the tax -deductible contri
bution of foundations, corporations,
unions, refigwi» o rg a n iz a tiM ^ n d
v,duals.
. .
If ws don’t who will?
$2.50 of yosr bow sobscriptbH to
The Portlmd Observer w ill go to
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r's official position is expressed only in
The Portias
'e I See The World Through Black Eyes).
its Publisher's column (We
Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the
individual writer or submitter and does not necessarily reflect
Herrick Editorial Award
NNA197S
the opinion of the
A L F R E D L. HENDERSON
Editor/Publisher
Nam«
New York
ONPA 1975
MEMMR
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