c.
P»oe 2 Portland Observer Thuredav. December 7. 1978
We see the world
In desegregation
Equity the Question
through Black eyes
Scare not proper conduct
M edical Examiner for M ultnom ah County
should be censored by his fellow doctors and his
employers for his blatantly racist and alarmist
remarks to the Portland School Board Monday
night. These remarks were designed only to
frighten
parents
into
resisting
school
desegregation. W e expected the racists to bring
up the old bug a boos such as the sanctity of the
neighborhood school, the loss of "freedom "
because of "forced busing," and even commie
infiltration.
But Larry Lewman actually warned of mass
deaths and major catastrophies resulting from in
creased busing. He doesn't know when or where
these deaths will occur — but they are coming —
and right behind them a law suit.
The facts are that during the past eight years,
two million Oregon children have been bused, yet
there have been only nine deaths and 180 injuries.
Three of these deaths were the result of a train-
bus accident. The Portland District has had only
one death in those eight years.
If the doctor would read the Coalition proposal
for pairing schools he would find that if the
recommendations are accepted as proposed
busing will decrease not increase.
W e haven't heard the doctor express concern
about the hundreds of Black children bused every
day. Or the handicapped and retarded for that
matter. It's only when middle-class white kids are
involved that he begins to speak out against the
great dangers.
Make restitution
"A day that will live in infamy" was what
Franklin Deleno Roosevelt called December 7,
1941. One of the most infamous acts of the war
with Japan was the confinement of American
citizens of Japanese ancestry in concentration
camps.
The Japanese have a long history in Oregon,
the first settler having arrived in Portland in 1861.
By 1900 there were 2,501 Japanese in Oregon,
the m ajority in M ultnom ah C ounty. The
Japanese w ere also early targets of racial
discrimination. On several occasions in the early
1900's Japanese workers in the W illam ette
Valley were driven off their jobs and out of their
homes.
In spite of the fact that Japan sided with the
allies in World W ar I, Oregonians feared the
"yellow peril." In 1917 the first bill was in
troduced into the Legislature to restrict Japanese
ownership of land. In 1920, during the heyday of
the Ku Klux Kian in Oregon, the Governor's office
ordered a study of the "Japanese situation."
By 1920, Japanese were doing well in the
rooming house business in Portland, with ninety
percent of the cheaper hotels operated by
Japanese. The rural fam ilies lived around
Russelville and Gresham, where they dominated
the berry industry and did well in fruit farming,
potatoes, and dairying. A lthough located
throughout the state, another concentration was
in Hood River where they acquired orchard and
berry land. Sentim ent against the Japanese
grew, resulting in their being barred from Medford
and parts of Central Oregon. Finally in 1923, the year
the Ku Klux Kian dominated the Legislature,
Caucasian resentment against persons of another
race who were industrious and therefore too suc
cessful came to fruition. An Alien land law was
passed barring ownership of land by Japanese
and Chinese non-citizens.
In spite of these adversities the Japanese
people worked hard and prospered, placing tW'
of their land in the hands of their American bom
children. In 1930 they marketed crops worth
$3,500,000 and by 1935 there were 210 Japanese
owned or controlled businesses in Portland.
Then, in May of 1942, all persons of Japanese
ancestry — American-born citizens as well as
im m igrants — w ere ordered to pack a few
belongings and be moved to concentration camps.
Their property was confiscated and their lives
left in ruin.
Now, 36 years later, Japanese-Americans are
seeking payment — $25,000 each — for their
econom ic losses, their suffering and their
humiliation. This is a small price for American
citizens to pay for the racism and abuse they have
heaped on fellow Americans.
Board hears desegregation opposition
(Continued from Page 1 Column 6)
minute ride — and return the other
students to King.
Robert Fulkerson of S.W. Port
land said “ implem entation o f
desegregation that requires large
amounts of busing," it will create
budget programs and deprive the
district o f money it needs for
educational programs.
One o f the most blatantly
emotional pleas against the issue of
busing itself was from Dr. Larry
Lewman, Multnomah County
Coroner, who said his office has the
responsibility of investigating violent
and unexplained deaths — which in
cludes school bus accidents. Lewman
admitted that most school bus ac
cidents take place in rural areas due
to increased distance and time, un
predictable schedules due to distance
and time, higher speeds on highways.
“ We can’t predict how many kids
will be killed or when,” he said, but
suggested that if a busing program is
instituted and if a child is killed “ you
may have some legal problems.”
The need for equal educational
opportunities for Black children and
the federal and state requirements
for desegregation are seen as a
“ Black problem.”
Dick Loy, a former member of the
Area I Advisory Committee, said the
Coalition has been viewed as coming
about as the result of a problem of
the Black community. “ Concern has
taken a shift, whites see it as having a
great impact on our lives, where we
haven't been concerned with the
Coalition because we didn't think it
was a problem that concerned us.”
Carson Taylor of Northwest op
posed “ forced busing” as not a
“ cost-effective” way to improve
education. He admitted to “ very real
problems of the Black community.”
Nancy Russell of Sylvan district
assured Blacks that the demand for
neighborhood schools is “ not
because we want to keep other
people out.” Blacks should under
stand, she said, that neighborhood
schools are historical — they were
there before many Blacks came to
Portland.
The one Black person speaking
against the recommendation was Bob
Hughes who said that although he
favors integration "I don’t want to
be thrown at anyone who doesn’t
want me.”
In spite o f the fact that a great
outpouring of sentiment against the
recommendations had been expected
and in an unprecedented move the
district had sent home notices with
students regarding the November
27th and December 4th meetings, the
speakers were fairly evenly balanced
for and against the proposal.
Halim Raahson supported the
recom m endations. “ I hope my
children will receive the integrated,
quality education that was not
possible during my elementary, high
school and college experience in Port
land.”
Robert H ill, a Madison High
School student, said that as a trans
fer student he has benefitted
educationally and socially. Asking
the Board to continue to desegregate
the schools he asked, “ Is it socially
right to lock kids in their own neigh
borhoods?”
Walter Morris asked the Board to
adopt the recommendations in full,
explaining that the benefactors o f the
system’s racism will never relinquish
power and that “ liberation never
takes place without crisis.” To
protea the rights of Black people is
not to deny the rights o f white
people.
Lillian Herzog, N.E. Tillamook,
refuted the claim that desegregation
will bring “ white flight” . Referring
to the influx of white families into
Albina, she said “ If whites move
out, there will be people to move
here. Houses are going like hotcakes.
Wonderful people are moving in and
Blacks and white are working to
gether.”
Louise W eidlich, who fears a
“ hom oganized, one-world slave
state,” never-the-less recommended
that “ If we’re going to have busing,
it should be both ways.”
Florence Bancroft, president of the
Portland Association of Teachers,
speaking for herself, said many
speakers seem to believe that quality
is something that happens in my
school but not in yours. “ Busing
doesn’t interrupt the process — it’s
what happens at the end of the ride
that counts. Integration is of benefit
to the whole community, not just to
Blacks . . . We adults have a great
opportunity to set an example. If
whites and Blacks hide in their
communities, there will be no under
standing . . . Housing patterns won’t
change until people get to know one
another.”
Pauline Anderson o f the City
Club, said the school district has
done in the past what is reasonable
and politically possible and has
found answers for some students,
but “ The time is right for the
Coalition recommendations to pair
schools and bus both ways. Take the
next step toward desegregation.”
Mrs. Jerri Newhall, S.W. West-
wood Drive, advised that additional
Coalition recommendations are cen
tral to the program: teacher training,
fair discipline, and minority hiring. As
a member of the Blue Ribbon Com
mittee on Discipline she has a con
tinuing concern with discipline
problems. “ Double standards
reflect institutional racism.” The
school staff refleas attitudes of the
community at large. Discriminatory
aaions might be unconscious on the
pan of the teacher, but the students
feel it.
Austin Collins, refleaing that his
daughter experienced an integrated
education on an Indian reservation,
pointed out that “ many parents are
doing their children a disservice by
adamantly opposing desegregation.”
Ms. Betty Walker announced that
the Multnomah County Democratic
Central Committee has unanimously
endorsed the Coalition’s recommen
dations.
Charles White, a Portland State
University student, said if busing is
to be used it must be equalized. Since
1954 integration has been instituted
in a small way. Since the 1960’s when
equal housing laws were passed,
segregation has increased. Equal
Employment laws have been passed,
yet Blacks have twice the unem
ployment as whites. “ The people
more educationally and financially
able to handle it will scream the most.
They d on ’t want to be inconve
nienced.” Ms. Raella Brown, o f
the University of Oregon School of
Nursing, was raised in the South and
worked in all areas of the nation. She
related that her children have attend
ed schools throughout the country
but have never faced the harassment
and hassels that the two youngest
have experienced in Portland. “ I see
bv Herb L. Cawlhome
As the discussion mounts, it will
be important to remember that the
key question in the desegregation
controversy in Portland is equity.
To the Black community, equity
means a shared responsibility. It
means that the burdens for respond
ing to federal regulations, state law
and school board policy will be
evenly distributed among both
Blacks and whites. Why should one
community be saddled with the
predominate obligation to keep the
Portland public schools in compliance
with laws and regulations regarding
racial balance?
In the past, the Black community
did not come on bended knees to the
Board o f Education begging for
desegregation. However, there was
an effort to identify and force a
response to the debilitating effects of
racial segregation in the Portland
schools.
And in 1964 the Committee On
Race and Education found that
many social and systemic problems
render the school district less effec
tive in delivering educational services
to children in the predominantly
Black Albina area.
fluence, many whites ignore the fact
that Black people, too, find busing
disruptive, often irrelevant, and cost
ly.
There are laws which Black people
did not create. There are policies the
formation o f which had little in
fluence from members of the Black
community. Therefore, they are laws
and policies to which the entire
community ought to respond, not
simply one segment. The burden
should be shared.
Beyond the equity issue, however,
is the notion that desegregation
ultimately leads to integration, and
integration will be increasingly the
world order as the future unfolds. It
is our responsibility today to prepare
our children for the integrated world
in which they will live tomorrow.
While integration is the ultimate
step toward the creation of harmony
among races tomorrow, the issue
today is clean and clear cut: Th>
desegregation program in Portland
must be equitable to the degree that
both the Black and white com
munities share the advantages and
the obligations.
The question is equity.
and they did not condone, the
grossly inequitable system which was
eventually implemented. Every
school which had a high percentage
o f Black youngsters, except Boise,
has been converted to an early
childhood center, including only the
lower elementary grades. Children in
the upper grades have been scattered
and isolated.
The 44 children from Eliot, for in
stance, attend 22 different schools in
all parts o f the district. A single
family may have children attending
several different schools. There's no
doubt that the burden for desegrega
tion has been placed on the shoulders
of the Black people.
It is clear that many whites in this
city are opposed to busing for
desegregation purposes, while others
are opposed to integration under any
circumstances.
In many ways, busing is disrup
tive, since it alters the neighborhood
patterns o f school to which we are
accustomed. It seems irrelevant to
educational aims. It is costly.
These points are recognized
among Blacks as well as whites. Yet,
in the fervor to advance their own in
Sooth Africa: Apartheid at crossroad over 'crossroad’
by N. Fungai Kumbula
Somebody coined a phrase for it:
‘A man’s (person’s?) home is his
castle.’ After a hard day of work,
play or study, we all take for granted
that we go home. ‘Home’ may be a
house; an apartment, hotel suite but,
it is still first and foremost a home.
For most of us, home is where the
heart is, where the family is. In every
Black community anywhere in the
world, the family is an all powerful
entity, an all powerful force. I would
like us to ponder these and other
related thoughts as I relate the story
of “ Crossroads.”
By now we are all familiar with
apartheid. South Africa’s satanic
system that rigidly keeps the races
apart, separated from one another.
•Apartheid’ actually means ’apart
ness.' The whole country is sliced in
to white areas, ‘Coloured’ areas,
Asiatic areas and Black areas.
Coloureds refers to people of mixed
parentage. Mixing o f the races is
discouraged as much as possible, the
only contact between Black and
white, for instance, is that of master
and servant. Blacks are tolerated in
‘white’ areas only as long as they
provide their labor.
This was the idea behind the
creation o f the “ bantustans,”
barren, unproduaive areas that have
and can have no way o f supporting
the people that are resettled there.
They have no minerals, industries,
suitable farmland, nothing what
soever that could provide jobs. Add
ed to that is the faa that, though
Blacks make up 87% of the total
population, these homelands that are
being set aside for them only con
stitute 18% of the land. Consequent
ly, they are badly overcrowded —
50% of all Black children die before
the age o f five due mostly to
malnutrition.
Under these conditions, housing,
for the Black South Africans, is a
matter o f the utmost concern.
Crossroads is an outgrowth of this
phenomenon. Crossroads is what is
called a squatter camp. Because
Blacks and Coloureds are hounded
out of house and home every time
they lose a job, there are lots of
"Crossroads” all over South Africa.
As of September, Crossroads had
a population estimated at 20,000. It
has come to be a focal point of all the
squatter camps in South Africa
because of the repeated clashes be
tween the residents and the police.
These residents, called squatters, are
considered illegal occupants because
Crossroads is located on the outskirts
of Cape Town. Cape Town is con
sidered a white and Coloured area
and there are no ’legal’ Black
residences in it.
In a squatter camp, the houses as
they are, are made out of corrugated
iron sheets, plastic, wire mesh or
whatever other materials the ‘squat
ters’ can lay their hands on. The idea
is to fashion a shelter, any form of
shelter so the family can be proteaed
from the wind and the rain. Building
a proper home is out of the question
because, one: most Blacks do not
earn enough to be able to afford a
house; two: they would not be
allowed to build in a ’white’ area
anyway; and three: they know they
are transients, playing a game of hide
and seek with the cops. Periodically,
the government sends in bulldozers
to demolish these “ houses,” which
for most of the people, are the only
homes they have ever known. This is
what apartheid refers to as “ influx
control,” a way pf keeping down the
numbers of Black residents in Cape
Town.
When their homes are destroyed,
the ‘squatters’ find themselves out in
the streets and this is supposed to
force them to “ go back” to the
homelands. The majority o f the
Crossroads residents work in Cape
Town — the men doing all sorts of
dirty, low-paying, unskilled, menial
work and the women mostly as
maids. For them, living in
Crossroads is a way of keeping the
fam ily together. The only other
alternative would be to stay in single
sex dormitory like structures that
have been built for Black workers.
But, these are so small and so rigidly
patrolled that it is impossible for one
to keep his family with him.
The single sex dormitories are
designed to keep the Black family
split up. Since Blacks are only sup
posed to be in Cape Town to sell their
labor, their families are not allowed
to stay with them but to remain in
the homelands where the men can get
to visit them once a year. How would
you like to see your loved ones once
every year? The establishment of
Crossroads and other such like camps
is an act of defiance against this
unholy policy. Blacks would rather
live in these impermanent shelters,
each day running the risk of being
thrown out into the street just so they
can keep their families together.
By this small gesture, they are turn
ing up their noses at apartheid, forc
ing it to accom m odate them by
bending all its ‘laws.’ And they are
once again re-emphasizing the strong
ties that bind the family together.
The confrontations with the police
are sometimes violent. In September,
the police swooped down on
Crossroads in a pre-dawn raid
smashing down doors, windows,
beating up people and demanding
passes in search of “ illegal residences.”
Between 400 and 500 people were
arrested and most o f them were
women and children.
Ten days later, the police returned
but, this time the people decided to
defend their homes. They threw
bricks and rocks at the police who
immediately opened fire. Two men
were killed and, in the mad stampede
to dodge the flying bullets, a baby
that fell off its mother’s back was
trampled to death.
In July of 1976, Crossroads was
declared an “ emergency camp” but,
only after a lengthy court battle and
a lot of community protests. This af
forded some measure of protection
from eviction. They now also get
some services such as waste removal
and piped water. However, they also
now have to pay rent. Initially, it was*
$11.00 per month but has since been
cut back to $8.00 after some
protests. In a country where Blacks
(Please turn to Page 4 Column 3)
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