Portland observer., March 17, 1977, Page 3, Image 3

»
Portland Observer
behind the wall
„ P ? . D E P A R T M E N T OF CORREC
TIO N , for U m State of Oregon, »«♦■Mt-h
•¿ •■ < 1 supported by the tax-paying
P*upls of Oregon, has the unique honor
and privilege of having the third largest
Black population in the State. Portland
has the largest Black population, Eugene
is second, than third comes the “D of C ’.
earning them the “C ^ I M TO F A M E
A W AR D", in housing Black folks
OREGON S TA T E P E N IT E N T IA R Y is
the largest of the three prisons that are
under the direct control of the “D of C".
Oregon Correctional Institution and the
Oregon Women's Correctional Center are
the Mher two. AU are located in Marion
County near the city of Salem and
squeesed in between a clump of buildings
known as the State Mental Hospital and
the House of Representatives (that
sounds reasonable)....The fourth largest
population of Black folks can be found in
Corvallis and the fifth in the capital itself,
Salem.
Oregon's total SO theuannd Black pop
ulation out of a total 1% B itten residents
in Oregon compared to 300 Black inmates
out of a total 1500 housed here in the
Oregon State Penitentiary represents an
astonishingly disproportionate percent
age that not only our state, county, and
city officials m ed to take a does look at;
it's something our courts and taxpayers
should also begin to question. How is this
for a sUtisitical thought? Between 80
and 88 percent of the Black prisoners at
O.S.P. are paraded through the halls of
justice and before the judges of our
criminal courts in Muknemah County
Courthouse and that they are helping to
overcrowd our penal institutions to cry
for the death penalty again.
T H E STA TE OF OREGON prides
itself on the dynamic achievements it has
made in the past ten years, in the field of
Equal Opportunities and Racial Equality;
but after roaming around this institution
(O.S.P.) and talking to a few of the Black
convicts behind the walls, this Reporter
found their general feelings of the sit­
uation in this state has silent undertones
The primary purpose for this Reporter
and his volunteer staff writing this bi­
weekly column, B E H IN D T H E W ALLS,
is not to criticise, slander or destroy our
Criminal Justice System in Oregon, but
to search for methods to open all avenues
of communication that will prove bene­
ficial to all priaoners and citizens at large.
Oregon tax-paying citixens have the right
to be fully informed of our incarcerated
convicted felon's adjustment, treatment,
habilitation, and needs before he returns
to our respective communities.
B E H IN D T H E W A LLS hopes to ex­
plore the talents of each individual
interviewed, everything from poetry to
answering questions on topics of interest
directly trom prisoners. We also hope to
interview many public service employees
and administrators, who work within the
Criminal Justice field.
We urge the public to submit all their
questions to tbe Observer. This Reporter
and staff are very grateful and wish to
thank Alfred L. Henderson, Editor/Pub-
Usher of the Portland Observer (Recip­
ient of the 1976 Russ Payton Award) and
his staff for this much needed opportun­
ity to bring closer ties with our Black
Leaders and community, so that in our
future we may have a greater opportun­
ity to cease being a liability and instead
become an asset to our fellow man.
UHURU
U HU RU is celebrating its 9th Anniver­
sary on Friday, March 18th. Uhuru is a
Black Cultural Organisation.
It was
conceived and has been committed since
it's inception to the goal of redirecting
and refining the energies, morals and
skills of the Black prisoner. The premise
that real change in an individual's con­
duct, attitude and motivation must come
from within is one of Uhuru's guiding
precepts. As Black prisoners members of
Uhuru need a more defined conept of
Freedom. Freedom that includes respon­
sibility and a constructive role that each
individual member can accept and share
with his brothers and society.
Uhuru recognizes that the responsibil­
ity to improve one’s self lies with the
individual and further recognizes as an
extension of this basic precept that the
impetus for any idea, plan, program, etc.
to “rehabilitate" Black prisoners must
come from Black prisoners!
Defined
thusly, then, no externally imposed rem
edy will be successful.
Using these
precepts, the executive body of Uhuru
haa sought to put together programs and
projects in a unique way so as to make
readily available the tools that we of
Uhuru need in taking well planned steps
Thursday, March 17, 1977
to Freedom. No greater need exists for
Black prisoners than the need to find
themselves as men, and to use their
prison time to full advantage of their
abilities to bring about their own rehabil­
itation-but Friday night!!!!.... We gone!
P A R TY wish you could be here........ .,
COME AND JOIN A STUDY-ACTION GROUP ON
Women and Corporate Imperialism.
This group w ill investigate and e rf on the problems
facing women who work for large corporations in
Portland, and in Third World counties.
Contact: Susan Dobrof
American Friends Service Committee
235-8954
A white South African look* at apartheid
by Richard Sergey*
PRETO R IA (PNS) - “A lot of people
think the Black man is our enemy,” said
South African Minister of Justice and
Police James Kruger in an interview at
his Union Building Office here.
“I
happen to know that as Afrikaners they
are our friends."
Kruger, described by many South
African newspapers as the man who has
been running South Africa since the
Soweto nets broke out in June 1976,
spoke at length about his white Afrikan­
er's vision for South African Blacks.
The picture he presented of the Blacks
was of a fragmented, leaderless people
who for the most part want to learn to
live peacefully with whites but are easily
exploited by those who "would make
political capital" out of them.
And he indicated that the and his
ruling Afrikaans-speaking National Party
planned to maintain policies that would
seem to have the effect of keeping the
Blacks fragmented and leaderless as a
group-offering Blacks political power
only in separate Black areas and continu
ing to crack down on unrest.
Because of such policies, the National
Party has become the chief target of
militant Blacks in South Africa.
Yet Kruger contends that of all the
Soyth African whites, his National Party
was "prepared to go the furthest with our
relations toward the Black people."
Kruger added that while the two
predominately English-speaking parties-
the United Party and Progressive Re­
form Party “pay more lip service to
liberal attitudes, they both suffer from a
total colonial mentality the Afrikaner just
never possessed. The Afrikaner himself
was a victim of exploitation.” .
Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch set­
tlers who first arrived in the area over
300 years ago. were later colonized by the
British.
But since 1948, when they
established their policy of strict racial
separation called apartheid, the Afrikan
ers have held political dominance.
A more tightly knit social group than
English speaking South Africans (des
eendants of later-arriving British set­
tlers), Afrikaners consider themselves
“white Africans."
"I find that Afrikaners are spiritually
easier going in their dealings with Blacks
than English-speakers are," Kruger said.
“There is less paternalism with them.”
Kruger acknowledged that the urban
By way of illustration, Kruger told of a Blacks-who live in huge shanty towns
conversation he had with an Afrikaner around the white cities and have been the
farmer in the Transvaal. “When you go source of recent mass protests-are his
on a holiday," I asked him, “do you leave party's “major problem.”
your farm in the neighbors' hands?'
“As far as urban Blacks are concerned,
“The chap said, ‘No, I turn it over to we will give them municipal rights. That
may foreman, who is a Black chap. He has is to mean they will have local authority
been with me all these years. He was for themselves.
born on my farm, he is part and parcel of
‘T h e urban Black will have full run of
the set-up. I give him a share of my crop.
the whole show in Black urban areas like
He's never let me down.’
Soweto. In other words, it will be a city
“So I said, ‘In actual fact, he is a great run by Blacks. That is the eventual ideal
friend of yours.' The farmer said, ‘Yes, of my people."
you could put it that way.' ”
Even if Blacks were represented in
But while Kruger says his government Parliament, Kruger contends, they would
“has already moved away" from a society not bo a cohesive politcal force.
based on racial discrimination, he points
'They would not be a homogeneous
out “this doesn’t mean moving to an Black group, they would be heterogen­
integrated multi-racial society."
eous," he says. “I cannot for a moment
“As far as we (the Nationalist govern­ see, I don't think any political realist can
ment) are concerned," Kruger stated, see, Gatsha Buthelezi (chief of the Zulus)
“separate development (the South A fri­ accepting the Cabinet post of prime
can word for apartheid) is the only option minister under Kaizer Mantanzima" (now
left to South Africa for a peaceful prime minister of the Transkei “home­
development.
As far as voting in land").
Parliament is concerned-this we are not
A t the same time, he opposes moves
prepared to deal with.
that might help them become a more
“I f you think of a one-man/one-vote cohesive force, such as recognizing Black
situation, all you have to do is take it to trade unions.
its full consequence to realize the amount
“We believe that trade unionism is, in
of violence you build up into it.
actual fact, alien to the Black mind, and
“The white man who holds a strong we are trying to develop something that
minority position but also runs the whole will give him the greatest amount of
economy and the civil service," he said, value," Kruger said. “It is not that we
“would probably sabotage a multi-racial are against the Black man, we just don't
Parliament, in an effort to regain his want him to be exploited by some trade
previous power position.
The entire union that wants to make political capital
structure would collapse into anarchy."
out of him.”
Instead, he says that “we will give the
And Kruger contended it was neces­
Black people much more amenities, such sary to maintain the system of job
as recreational facilities in the townships, reservation, which reserves the top jobs
middle-class homes, more theaters, more for white workers.
hotels, and where they haven't got hotels
“Job reservation is there from the
we will share ours.
colonial days," he said, “to protect the
“There are going to be tremendous white worker from competition with the
changes as far as the Black man is Black, who numerically is greater and
concerned," Kruger continued. “In 10 may elbow him out of his work. It is
years time I can see Black people having there to keep the white worker satisfied;
park space in the city, I can see them otherwise we would have a lot of trouble
having park space in the city, I can see from the white workers."
them having restaurants-even some of
As minister of justice and police,
them being multi-racial.
Kruger is in charge of implementing the
“I am trying to build a middle class for recent Promotion of State Security Act,
the Black. I am trying to give him a stake which permits him to detain any suspect
in the country. I am trying to close the for up to 12 months without recourse in
wage gap, as far as we economically can; the courts.
in principle we are for equal pay for equal
“I passed one clause that gave me the
work. These are all tremendous changes right to detain people for a period subject
in actual fact.”
to review," he said. “The idea is to take
people who are busy with an agitation;
you get the sort of chap that stays behind
the scenes.
“You cannot charge him with anything
because he never comes out,” he contin­
ued. “You know he is doing something-
but you cannot pin him, you cannot get
the evidence for it. I want to take him out
of the scene of unrest for the period of
unrest.
“I have 123 people in, and let me teU
you that it has stopped the unrest.”
While Kruger blames the 1976 Soweto
riots on the growing “Black conscious­
ness” movement in South Africa, he
asserts it has no wide long term appeal.
T h e fact is that the sUent majority,
approximately 80 percent of the Black
people, want nothing to do with the
riots,” he said.
“I see the Black consciousness move­
ment as a temporary one, student-based.
I think this will go away in time...They’ll
say we cannot get rid of these white
chaps, so we wiU have to learn to Uve
with them. The same as I have learned to
Uve with Black people.
Tom orrow when the sun rises the
Blacks will still be there. I must be as
nice to these chaps as possible. I have got
to met them, I have got to carry on with
them.”
THETEN
MINUTE SAVE.
Make a long-winded, long
distance call anywhere with­
in the state. A ten-minute
call costs $1.00 or less, plus
tax. Dial direct, without
operator assistance, any­
time from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Pacific Northwest Bell
•Richard Sergay is a freelance writer
who was born in Johannesburg and is
now based in Santa Cruz, CA. He has just
returned from six months in South
Africa.
Wed like to save you money.
P R O O F.
REALLY
“CEILING INSULATION, PLUS A LITTLE COMMON SENSE, IS SAVING US OVER S200 A YEAR!”
Public support for military venturo* sag*
by John Markoff
(PNS) - Public support for the use of
American military force abroad has fallen
to its lowest level since the beginning of
the Cold War.
According to an article published re­
cently in the prestigioius Political Science
Quarterly by Yale University professors
Bruce Russett and Miroslav Nincic, 'T h e
willingness of the American public to use
United Stales armed forces for the
defense of other nations is currently
lower than during the earlier Cold War
years."
Although support for the future Viet
nam type conflicts has fallen off, say the
authors, evidence suggests the public
might support a quick and successful
military action mounted by the executive
branch without prior approval from Con­
gress.
The Pentagon considers Russett and
Nincic's findings so significant it has
circulated copies of the article to key
Defense Department personnel.
The authors base their findings on
public opinion poll data taken between
1938 and 1978 by the Roper Public
Opinion Research Center, Louis Harris
and Associates and the American Insti­
tute of Public Opinion.
Both before World W ar II and between
1969 and 1975, the opinion polli« asked a
broad sample of the American people
which foreign countries should be defend­
ed from attack.
The surveys asked
specifically about Canada, Mexico, Eng
land, the Philippines, Brasil, Indonesia
and Malaysia.
Canada is the country the largest
number of Americans believe should be
supported by American troops in case of
foreign invasion.
Russett and Nincic
reported that while 73 percent of those
questioned favored defending Canada in
November 1938, by April 1975 the figure
had fallen to 57 percent.
Malaysia, the country that ranked the
lowest of the seven sampled, fell from 42
percent in July 1941 to 20 percent in
April 1969.
The authors state that the declining
public support for foreign American
military intervention is roughly para
lleled by changing public opinion on
mDitary expenditures. “Surveys since
December 1968 have consistently found
that 40 50 percent of the populace want to
reduce miUtary spending, as compared
with 5-20 percent in 1937 39,” they
conclude.
In addition, several polls have shown a
drop in the percentage of Americans
favoring military action in the event of
Soviet attack on American allies in
Europe. That figure has fallen from a
high of 52 percent in 1960 to a low of 39
percent in 1974.
Russett and Nincic also make the
following points about public opinion:
•Public willingness to use nuclear
weapons in behalf of allies is extremely
low, far below what it was in the early
1960's.
•Public support for using military
force, or even sending mDitary supplies.
for the defense of other countries IS
highly selective. Support tends to in
crease the closer a country is located to
the U.S. Economic ties to the U.S.,
formal military alliances with the U.S.
and the existence of non-communist gov­
ernments also increase public support.
•Support for military force depends
largely on the nature of the threat.
Between two and four times as many
people would support American interven
tion to defend another country against
external attack than against internal
rebellion.
•Different, groups exhibit different de
grees of enthusiasm for the use of
American troops abroad.
Elite and
leadership groups as well as those with
higher income and education are by far
the most willing to see Americans fight
ing overseas.
Russett and Nincic conclude that there
are no guarantees American leaders will
be influenced by changing public opinion.
They point to the possibility that in a
crisis public opinion may be manipulated
to create a “rallying 'round the flag.”
T h e re is also the risk-or opportunity,
depending on one’s perspective- that de
Uberately incurring some cost through a
rapid mDitary response could be used as a
tactic to rally and hold public support
even for an initially unpopular purpose,”
they point out.
(John Markoff, a freelance writer and
staff member of the Pacific Northwest
ReseMO^ Center in Eugene. Oregon, is a
fr e q ||M contributor to PNS.)
To the Costigans. watching watts is a full-time
challenge But the effort is worthwhile
Mostly, it's a matter of good, common sense
Adding storm windows to their mobile home Insu­
lating their heat ducts and water heater Keeping
the thermostat at 68° during the day and lower at
night These kinds of things
But Jim went one step further
He made access through the interior ceiling and
msutationTo cut
~....... .......;:J' "
Of course insulation saves no m a tte r what kind
of fuel you use So ask your insulation contractor
to check out your home Or call us at PGE for help
And don t forget watching watts, wherever you
can. will save even more energy And money
Just ask the Costigans
Conservation does pay off
They ve got the proof right in their pocketbook
•... SSB? ■■■■'■
■ ■
heat loss and con­
serve valuable
energy
Result: even
during our recent
cold snap, the
Costigans mo­
bile home was
warm and com­
fortable Plus,
the family s an­
nual energy use
has dropped
over 25%.
k , A n .r’ i
p m » ..fH
TH E SOONER YOU
IN SU LA TE YOUR C EILIN G S.
THE MORE MONEY
YOU’RE GOING TO SAVE
t
44 ,.,
fl
We have conservation ideas on
everything trom electric fur­
naces and water healers to light­
ing and insulation Plus our
newest Watt Watchers Guides
for both home and (arm Just
write us PGE.PO B om ,788
Portland OR 97207 or call the
' Conservation Center See for
yourself conservation really
does pay off'
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