Page 2
Port land O baerver
Thursday. l * u * * r 13. i a t i
J jttM ti) tht £dtlM
We see the world
through Black eyes
A less« eot leaned
Bissarti« playpoeed
Parenti,
Porent?, have obiected
objected to the concrete tun
iungle at
(Jnthank Pork since it was first built. The huge
climbing mountain mode of concrete invites small
children to fall and break their bones
The play areas surrounding these climbing struc
tures are concrete. A fall from the slide would be a
fall on huge concrete blocks. The area for small
children to run ond play is a floor of concrete.
Two railrood tracks, inviting children to tty to walk
them, and »o fall off, are mounted on large concrete
blocks ond are close enough together for a child to
fall from one and strike his head on the other side.
Aside from the obvious dongers, the playground is
not kept up properly. Concrete pots, roils and walks
are crocked ond broken and the orea is littered.
A child's death has ogam brought the pitfalls of
this pork to the community's attention. Although if is
easy to be sorry, to be concerned, to biome each
other ond others, it is also easy to become
complocent ogain until another child is killed or
seriously injured.
The city must occept the responsibility to remove
this playground ond replace it with one that is safe
and clean. And if necessary, the community must
see that this is done
We repeatedly heor from the Portland School
district ond the press, references to the Race ond
Education report written by the Blue Ribbon Schwob
Committee in 1964. The school district now refers to
ihis study ond ,ts recommendations as the rational
ond the reason for its desegregation program.
The district correctly blomes the NAACP for getting
them into the business of desegregation in the first
place The NAACP did point out segregation in the
schools and demanded on end to it. After denying
that segregation existed, the School Board named
the special committee to study »he situation ond
make recommendations.
What the district foils to remember is that the
NAACP and every other Block organization strongly
rejected the study and its recommendations They
particularly opposed the "m odel schools," which
further segrega’ed Block children. Of course the
recommendations were adopted over the Block
community's protest.
When Dr Robert Blanchard presented his Schools
for the Seventies the NAACP protested the portion of
the plan that left lower elementary schools - grodes
one through five or six — segregated. The NAACP
colled for desegregation beginning in the first grade
— not in the fifth or sixth.
The district went about setting its programs in
motion — eliminating the upper grodes from the
schools in the Albino area but leaving the lower
grodes still substantially segregated.
When the Modei Cities Education Committee
wrote its plan for the schools, it asked to send the
lower grade students to schools out of the area and
to bring upper grade white students into the Albino
schools. This plan was rejected by the school district.
We con see that although the district would like to
biome their present dilemma on the NAACP and
other elements of the Block community — it all come
about becouse they failed to listen to the voices of
the people who are involved but chose to do it their
own way.
The district has one more chance to listen and the
way they respond w ill have a great deal to do with
whether they w ill retain the right to make their own
desegregation plans or whether it w ill become the
responsibility of the courts.
Retrain fishermen
The state courts and the fisheries deportment in
Washington are on a collision course with the
federal government. They have consistently at
tempted to avoid Judge Boldr's decision protecting
Indian fishing rights by trying to superceed the
federal court or refuse to enforce federal court
rulings.
This type of octi on con do nothing but bring oil of
the police powers of the federal government down
on the state ond on the non-white fishermen.
If there is not enough left of the fishing industry to
allow the Indians their share and still support a
non-Indian commercial fishing, then the state should
be using its resources to assist the non-white
fishermen retrain and become established in some
other enterprise
It is unfortunate that fishing is no longer a lucrative
trode, but industrialization, loss of resources, etc. has
coused the demise of many trodes before this and all
would be better served by a rapid readjustment.
Institutional racism, racist personality explorad
To the Editor
Ccncerning the Town H all progrsm.
dealing w ith opportunities for racial and
ethnic minorities in the Portland area.
Sunday. October 2, 1977.
1 am r a t anxious to be the loudest voice
or the moat popular. But I w.-uld like to
thin k th a t, at a crucial moment, I was an
effective voice of the voiceless, an effec
tiv e hope at the hopeless
Commissioner Jordan has got his show
together. Brother Jordan did his home
w ork. He spoke out against Institutions
Used Racism in the State of Oregon. We
must explore the history of institutions
fixed racism in Oregon, until we do. our
ideas and strategies for dealing with
racial hostilities are going to remain
isolated, irrelevant and ineffective
In Oregon, super patriotism w ith reli
gtous fevor is often used to legitim atize
almost everything from V iet Nam to
W aterg a te .
The "Communist or red
scare" has always served the super
p atrio t. H e explains away all of his critics
and ojiponents as communists or suhver
sives. W e can no longer allow, atrocious
bullies to carry things w ith a high hand
by wrapping themselves in the flag they
have disgraced.
A relatively unpubbeiaed pi-nod at
Am erican
history
from
the
1890 s
through the 1930 s reveals that Blacks
are not the first Am erican citizens to
have experienced blatant forms o f racism
at the hands of th e ir fellow « o ra l led
C hnstian Americans.
T he caucasmd
Angle-Saxon Protestants o r Nordics fear
ed competition and economic displace
nvent by the non Nordic imm igrants
They used every means to prove that the
not im m ediately diagnose him as grossly
pathological. Y et when the society at
large employs these mechanisms they are
overlooked. P a rt of the explanation for
overlooking this rests w ith the obvious
fact that the very people who would
diagnose the pathology are themselves
racists sad consequently unable and
unwilling to view th e ir behavior as sick.
M oreover, the endemic nature of racism
makes it easier to ignore its pathology. It
is as if everyone in the society has the flu
perpetually; under such circumstances it
would take some careful analysis to
recognize th a t, despite its prevalence, to
have the flu is to he sick. Too often people
are w ant to mistake the prevalence, to
a form of behavior aa testimony to its
normalcy. T he man who kills one man on
a street corner w ith a knife is considered
a m urderer, the man who drops an atom
bomb, killing fifty thousand humans, is a
hero because he i t m erely one of many.
W hat is common soon comes to be
regarded as normal. Hence, the common
ness of racism enables most in the society
to ignore its pathological nature. Y et
even the prevalence of racism would not
enable the racist to be unknowing of his
illness unless they employed the usual
device employed by all sick people to
avoid confrontation w ith th e ir pathology.
im m igrants w ere genetically inferior and
passed repressive legislation baaed on
this as justification. Now because they
present an «cononuc throat, the Blacks
and o ther m inorities of color are expected
to suffer through the same pages of
history at the pleasure of the children of
the old Nordics and the Anglicised
children of the old imm igrants. This is
so-called Chnstian raucasiod American
history that every Black should know.
And it is just as im portant that every
Black let the raucasiod Americans know
that he knows it.
T ho se who cannot rem em ber the past
are condemned to repeat IL “ George
Santayana 11863 1952».
Brother Kent Ford attem pted to deal
w ith the psychodynamics of the collective
raucasiod racist, in the State of Oregon.
Tm forced to agree w ith B rother Ford. I t
is im portant that Black folk in Oregon
have some understanding of the patho
logy of raucasiod racism so th a t they may
deal w ith it more appropriately.
I f an individual w ere to w alk into a
psychiatrist s or a psychologist's office
exhibiting the symptoms that are so
typical of the racist in Oregon, there isn't
a clinician o r any competence that would
Respectfully,
D r. Jam il Cherovee
Police brutality questioned
To the Editor:
Yo ur front page story of “Police Bruts
lily Against B la ck s " has left me wonder-
ing what the tru e facts were.
There
seems to be an automatic rationalizing
that the Black is always rig ht, the police
always wrong.
Suppose the tru e facts w ere that the
Black in question was a pow erfully strong
man. who because of his drunken abusive
ness to his w hite wife forced her to call
the police for protection for her and her
baby Drunken husbands, white or Black,
can became savage brutes you know.
In answer to her call four patrolmen
arriv e. Perhaps they have had to deal
w ith this Muhammad Ah before when he
was drunk. They go in the house to
arrest him far assault A t this juncture,
outside, the Black neighbor lady heard
“blows against flesh“ inside the bouse.
Suppose those blows w ere the drunken
Black attacking the arresting officers,
whom the frightened «rife had called?
Porsocution
Blows on th e ir flesh?
In th a t case, it would be “Black
b ru ta lity ." w ouldn't it?
I have always believed that a tru e
friend of the Black people would not
encourage them in b itte r self-pity, so
destructive an attitude. Perhaps nothing
th eir eiders could do o r say would
encourage Black youth in contempt for
the law and crim e m are than this
self p ity. 1 have some Black friends who
are tellin g th e ir children. “Measure up!
Keep you r nose dean! W o rk hard, study
- don’t ask favors just because you're
M a rk .“ T h e ir children are a credit for
any com m unity, w hite or Black.
of Blacks
T o the Editor:
“A difference in color?" You are to be
commended tor I have continually said,
“I f the man is proven guilty O K . but
don’t just push a Black man down who
had ability and perseverance and became
a leader just because he is Black."
I liked H erb Cawthorne's article on
"U n ity". Thia we must have if we are to
overcome.
Thank you for your help to O.S.P.
Sincerely Yours,
Ms. H . Pike
Oregon C ity, Oregon
(Editar's N etoT he m u ta y u r t f i i waa
Sincerely.
E velyn Collins
■at drunk; ha was in jw r f Pebce hru-
Dood inmate's relatives sought
To the Editor:
N. W I L L I A M !
[MINORITY r S S S M
Eliot 11-Another Redevelopment
RIP-OFF??
Portland O bserver
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Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company. 2201
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1st Place
Beet A d R e e a ta
O N P A 1971
Does anyone know the address of the
next of kin of Dennis L . Collins? Fm
w ritin g because I just read a notice in
Esquire. I t reads:
“Kenneth N ile Copptnger. J r ., was
beaten and stabbed to death in a Dallas
County ja il cell a fte r police mistakenly
arrested him instead o f his fath er on a
drinking while d riv in g charge. Probation
officer W ayloa D . Vernon said. "W e
re g re t that the bay loot bis life and feel to
some degree responsible."
Esquire w rites. “A w , c'mon W'aylou,
don't be so hard on yourself."
W h a t seems to be implied is that
someone connected w ith corrections is
hinting that he m ight be vaguely respon
sible for his own actions
And th a t’s a
start.
On August 22nd. of this year. Dennis
hung himself in cell *214 in the segrega
tioo building at Oregon's prison. Cell
9214 is almost a t the end of a tie r th a t has
fifteen cells numbered 201 215. T h ere is a
shower stall between 201. and the ceiling
to-floor bars separating the guards land
ing from the tier.
A few days a fte r Dennis hung himself
another man hung himself -after cutting
his w rists) in cell 9216 on the opposite
side of the same floor. The tie r that thia
second man hung himself on is numbered
216-230. There's a shower stall, as on the
other side, between the first cell and the
ceiling to floor
bars
separating
the
guard's landing from the tier.
This
second man lived because the guard (a
d ifferent guard) called for help in time.
T h e re are a few of us who believe
Dennis may have lived if the guard
w orking on August 22nd had not delayed
in getting help. And we wish to mention
this to his next of kin if we can find them.
Dennis hung himself a fter the segrega
two unit was locked down for the night.
The men on each side of Dennis heard his
body beat against the bars in its last
. The steel door that Dennis hung
in the T ri-C ounty area. S8.00 per
I Paid at Partlaad. O r a n e
Í
O N P A 1973
The P e rtla a d O bserver's official position is expressed only in
its Publisher's column (W e See The W orld Through Black
Eyes). A n y other m aterial throughout the paper is the opinion
of the individual w rite r or subm itter and
reflect the opunon at the Pertlaa
Sth Piece
Best E d ito rial
N N P A 1973
Herrick Editorial Award
NN A 1973
2nd Piece
ALFRED L. HENDERSON
him self on rattled against its steel casing.
The men on eith er side of Dennis yelled*
“Man down!", the cry used when someone
hangs up. and others took up the cry .
The guard w orking that night had
argued w ith just about everyone on the
tie r about making noise.
T he noise
irrita te d the guard.
Apparently he
couldn't concentrate on the magazine he
was reading. A fte r he yelled the tie r into
submission he returned to his mags zine
or talking over the phone. But not for
long.
The men b rin g near Dennis yelled
again. T h e guard returned and tried to
shout the tie r down again. But no one
quit. A fte r arguing w ith a man in one of
the front cells, the guard finally went far
help
Dennis was cut down and laid out on
the tie r. H e had stopped breathing, but
another guard brought him back «nth
mouth-to-mouth resudtation. Dennis died
the next day. T he several minute« the
guard delayed getting help m ight have
made a difference. I t was only three or
(our minutes total, the exact tim e it takes
to starve a brain of oxygen.
A p paren tly the guard thought we w ere
yelling “M an down!" just to irrita te him.
program th a t puts unexperienced guards
in charge of prisoners, w ith a changeover
every month that results in numerous
misunderstandings, argum ents and disci
plinary reports (some guards don't learn
how to open the cells for a w eek o r tw o
w ithout being shouted at dozens of times.
This guard was one of them ). If th e guard
did know w hat the cry "M an down!"
m eant, then he deliberately delayed
getting help for a man hanging in a cell.
Even though the guard was “just doing
his job,“ th a t favo rite refrain of new
guards and G rand Juries going through
the motions of investigating thia prison,
even though there is no rule th a t a guard
has to help a man hanging by his neck in a
cell - even though Dennis put his own
head in the nooae, it seems there should
be some common sense guidelines among
the staff that supplement that civil
service regulations.
Someday in the future, maybe not this
century, but someday prison staffs might
be held responsible for th e ir actions.
That's w hy the question is asked a t the
beginning of thia le tte r.
4iZa
... I.
Dinctreiy,
Donald Danford
Oregon State Prison
I f the guard didn't know w hat “M an
down!" m eant, it is indicative o t a training
lit-.
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Address
O N P A 1975
M ÍM M R
Oregon
Newspaper
Publishers
Association
N
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am w -n s
f> D
City
Zip
Portland Observer
Box 3137
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1
97203
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