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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1979)
P«B*2 Portland Observer Thursday, August 2. 1979 EDITORIAL/QPINION Education by N. Fungai Kumbuta Apology in order Preach liberation What an insultl Frank McNamara, chairman of the Board of Education, said to the press after a brief meeting to get the demands of the Black United Front that the BUF's demand of two-way busing is difficult, because the white community largely is not ready for such a move. If McNamara believes that he can remain a viable factor in the solution to this problem and still think of Black children with a double standard, he is far off base. He should retract this insulting statement. McNamara, and the large segment of the white community to which he alludes, had better listen to BUF spokesmen who made it clear after the meeting: "W e will no longer allow our children to be victims of a racist one-way busing program, abusive disciplinary practices, and we will no longer allow our children to be perpetual recipients of a second rate education." The demands of the Black United Front are reasonable, they are consistent w ith problems identified long ago; and they have unquestion able support in the Black community as well as among many whites. If the larger white com munity is not yet ready, after 15 years of forcing the burdens on Black residents, then McNamara would be wise to come up with specific plans to get them ready— and in a hurry! The Black people have had enough of the discrimination and the insults. The boycott organized by the Black United Front and widely supported by individuals and groups in the Black community is gaining steam. To forge this new alliance, we must have the complete cooperation of the well-established ministerial community. This struggle needs the blessings of the Black ministerial leaders. The struggle of Jesus was the struggle of the oppressed. The school system is oppressive, and there are few so well versed on the moral indignity of oppression than the Black ministers who preach for the uplifting of the poor, oppressed, and weak every Sunday morn ing. The religious structure can provide a network of communication. Bulletins, newsletters, Sun day announcements, and pulpit references can spread the word and help this cause. The Black United Front recognized the im portance of m inisters, and cultivated their support w ith several meetings before the announcement of the boycott plans. As boycott co-chairman, Reverend John H. Jackson of Mount Olivet Baptist Church, said, "If the powerful call of our respected ministers was given not only in celebrating the Holy Word on Sunday, but also for political organizing during the week, Black people would learn faster that their collective action will bring collective strides toward equality in education." Emanuel Hospital wins discrimination suit (Continued front page I col. 6) 1976. Mrs. M ildred Barker, a nurses aide, said Mrs W righten bore a heavier case load than other RNs in the same shift. Mrs. Mildred Sie, a nurses aide, testified that she had been pressured to take “ W O P " tim e and was “ floated” to more areas than white aides were. Gloria Buggs, a practical nurse, said Mrs. W righten had a heavier total patient care load then white nurses. She charged that she had been discriminated against in work assignments. Mrs. Leonora M orris, a registered nurse, said she believed she had been d iscrim inated against w hile at Emanuel. Ger Vigon, a therapist, testified she was denied pay because o f her national origin. M illie W hitm ore, a lab ora tory technician, said she felt d iscrim i nated against in pay and work assignment. Charlene Wilcoxson, an aide, testified that Mrs. Wrighten’ s work load was heavier than that of white nurses and that on the whole white supervisors were rude to Black employees. Carol Bennett, a nurses aide, said Mrs. Graham bore more work than other l.PNs. Ms. Janette Andrews, Frances Odom, Hcrice M inor, Pauline Kin ney, Buggs, M orris, testified that Black patients received inadequate and inappropriate care from white staff and that certain personal and hygiene needs were not as well at tended as with white patients. For the defense, Ms. Barbara Weleber, medical coordinator, and white, said she promoted Evelyn Johannesen, also white, rather than Mrs. Wrighten because she believed Ms. Johannesen had superior nur sing skills, relevant experience and “ displayed a greater spirit o f coopera tion and potential fo r good staff relations.” Ms. Weleber and Margaret Nelson testified they did not know o f a single time that staff had to take in voluntary “ W O P” time. Records submitted did not indicate whether “ WOP” time was voluntary or in voluntary. Burns determined, “ It is clear that any such coercion in a routine manner directed at specific individuals or specific races was not the policy o f the hospital.” Judge Burns ruled that although the p la in tiffs presented testimony that Blacks had been denied trans fers, forced to take W OP tim e, generally harassed about coffee breaks, slight tardiness and minor in fractions in a discriminatory fashion. "T h e re was very little credible evidence that white co-workers were preferentially treated. No specific in cidence or written transfer request improperly denied, or an involuntary W OP tim e was a ctua lly proved. This, the plaintiffs’ evidence, while probative o f poor employee morale. was not sufficient to meet plaintiffs initial burden.” The hospital presented evidence showing it employed more Blacks and minorities than are found in the work force. “ There were enough in consistencies, such as d ifficu ltie s identifying individuals and their race in the d iffe re n t reports so as to vitiate any possible probative value (he statistics, i f correlated and verified, might have had.” Results o f the survey showed 18 Blacks out o f a total o f 71 fired, and 210 Blacks out o f 1,625 voluntarily terminated or retained. Blacks com prised 13.5 per cent o f the staff. There were 80 per cent more firings o f Blacks than would have been sta tis tic a lly probable. Judge Burns determ ined that the statistical analysis “ is not itself sufficient to compel an inference that disparities shown for that year were produced by racial factors” . . . This, combined with other factors led the judge to conclude " t h a t W righten and Graham do not meet their burden in establishing a pattern o f practice of employm ent d is c rim in a tio n at Emanuel H ospital at the relevant time in question.” My folks were, and to some ex tent, still are very simple people, simple in the sense that their needs were very basic: a roo f over their heads, food on the table, clothing and the like. Nothing fancy. But, there was one thing on which they were most uncompromising and that was education fo r their children. Living in an age o f oppression, after our country was stolen, all our parents saw education as the one avenue left for us to realize what po tential had been stilled by the onset o f co lonialism and the accom paniment racism. I remember many a day when there was no food on the table, when my mother wore the same pair o f tat tered sneakers she had been wearing for a year, when we walked around in clothing so patched up we may as well have been wearing nothing but patches and all the time mom and dad were saving to pay tuition for one o f us. My folks always have had this fierce determination that, come what may, their children were going to get an education. This fierce determination has fired me through the years. My parents, like parents everywhere, were far from perfect but, as long as 1 live, I will always remember, cherish and value this supreme act o f love they bestowed upon us all. In the Black community at the moment is a group o f concerned parents, fueled by the same love, same determination to see their children get the chance they never got. The group in question is the Black United Front, brought together by a number o f problems that have simmered for much too long. The BUF is proposing a boycott o f classes next months as a way o f fo r cing a number o f changes. I have follow ed the demands and the development with a very keen eye be cause there is more to the class boycott than meets the eye. The parallels between the problems BUF is addressing and those that the parents back home have struggled with for the last eight decades are uncanny. The d riv in g force, the motivation behind each is to see their children get a good education, a quality education. When the Europeans came to rape Africa, steal the continent and make slaves o f its people, they completely disrupted our way o f life. By bring ing a different kind o f technology, it also necessitated a new form o f education. To survive in this new form o f society, Blacks had to adjust to this so-called formal education. Because the whites set the criteria for achieving, the wherewithal for sur vival, they also decided what form the education was going to take. Needless to say, they did not want all Blacks getting the same educational opportunities because, if that hap pened , then they (the whites) would very soon become obsolete. Blacks would simply take over and start running the show according to their own dictates. So, all over A frica only a few schools were opened and only so many Blacks could take advantage o f them. That has been the pattern throughout colonial Africa. It has only been in recent years, with the overthrow o f colonialism in most o f Africa that this trend has been halt ed and, in some cases, reversed. Those Africans brought to this coun try found themselves also thrown in to a society that, on the one hand, demanded that they learn how to read and write and on the other, punished those who tried to learn. A fte r decades o f agitation, o f street dem onstrations, marches, petitions, they finally wrested access to educational opportunities which, should have opened the gates to ‘ the land o f opportunity.’ Everything in this country hinges on education. From the day you are born, you are made to understand that, without an education, your options are very limited. Just about any job you can imagine, be it digging a ditch or operating a spaceship, requires some form o f literacy. For a while, it looked as if every body could aspire to be anything: that everything was open to a ll, w ithout regard to race or color. Lately, however, the facade has been lifted to reveal the grim reality be neath. While in Rhodesia and South A fric a they b la ta n tly lim it educational o pp o rtu n itie s fo r Blacks, in this country the same sinister plan is carried out in a slightly different manner: what is lim ited here is quality education. Hasn't it ever struck you as some form o f conspiracy? Year in and year out reading scores in the Black community keep plummeting. So when Black kids cannot read, write or articulate their thoughts properly, that's grounds for denying them decent jobs. ,s it the fault o f the kids that they cannot read? Is it the parents who are at fault? In either case I would have to answer in the negative. BUF has shown the parents’ concern; the children have shown concern because they are acutely aware o f the deficiencies o f the education they are getting. The fa u lt has to be w ith the teachers and the school administra tors. If the teachers were doing their jo b , there would bound to be some im provem ent. I refuse to believe that all these children who spend so much time in school would all be too naive to realize that unless they get a real education then they are doomed to a life o f failure, un certainty and definitely no hope at all for the future. A ll these children go to school with one specific purpose in mind: to learn so they can acquire some marketable skill. The school administrators are to blame because o f their system o f as signing teachers. It appears that those teachers who are assigned to the Black community feel like they are being unfairly singled out, as if its some form o f punishment. As a result they do not identify with the students at all. They are there simply to draw a paycheck. The children can feel this and a teacher’s attitude can make a world o f difference to them. A teacher has to be interested in his job to be able to motivate his/her students at all. This, however, is not a blatant condemnation o f all teachers in the Black community. Some do make an honest e ffo rt while others are hampered by a lack o f fam iliarity with the Black community and, con sequently, the background o f their students. The demands o f BUF have been documented numerous times in various news releases. I w ill, therefore, not go into detail about what they are. Instead, I shall just touch on one other demand which 1 consider very important: the estab lishment o f a middle school in the Black community. At the moment, because there is none, Black parents are forced to send their children out to other areas even when they would prefer for them to stay in their own community. The absence o f the small number o f Black teachers is another sore point that needs addressing. It would appear to me that where there is a 15% Black enrollment, there should also be a 15% Black representation on the faculty. By the same token, there should be a Black school board representation proportionate with the number o f Black students. Like a friend o f mine said, Black parents, like everybody else, pay taxes and it is these taxes that sup port our public schools and colleges. So, why should Black students be shortchanged? A move has successfully been made to provide Spanish speaking students bilingual instruction, an acknowledgement o f their different culture. Why then is there a systema tic effort to deny Black students their culture? Jessie Blocker charged that he was term inated by Red T op Service, which contracts with Emanuel to do housekeeping services, in 1977. (Please turn to page 9 col. 3) Union seeks social justice (Continued from page I column 3) under civil service, and as often is the case, most decisions were made for us. Under a good civil service system, the system makes the decisions the employees should make. It is easy to sit back and let that happen.” Lucy and his fellow employees organized a local o f AFSCME, and in 1965 he became president o f Local 1695, Contra Costa County Employees. Lucy joined the AFSCME Inter national staff in 1966, as associate d ire cto r o f the Leg isla tion and C om m un ity A ffa irs Departm ent then served as Executive Assistant to President Jerry W orf. In May o f 1972, he was elected In ternational Secretary-Treasurer, the second highest national office. Lucy is a vice-president o f the AFL-C IO Industrial Union Depart ment, The Maritime Trades Depart ment and the Department o f Profes sional Employees. He also serves on the board o f directors fo r the A f r ic a n - A m e r ic a n I n s t it u t e , Americans for Democratic Action, National Black United Fund, and is a member o f the National Leadership Conference on C iv il Rights and several other labor and community organizations. He was a founder and is the presi dent o f the Coalition o f Black Trade Unionists, an organization o f union leaders and rank-and-file members dedicated to focusing on the needs of Black and m inority group workers. At its third annual convention in Detroit in 1974, Lucy was elected CBTU’ s first President. For the last fo u r years Ebony Magazine has selected Lucy as one of “ The 100 Most In flu e n tia l Black Americans.” le t P lace PORTLAND OBSERVER Community Service ONPA 1973 The P ortland Observer IU S P S 969 8801 » publnhed every Th un dey by E«ie Publishing Company. Inc , 2201 North Killingeworth Portland, Oregon 97217, Poet Office Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 97206 Second class postage paid at Portland Oieqon ALFRED L HENDERSON Editor/Publisher 5th Place Best Editorial NNPA 1973 The Portland Observer's official position is expressed only in its Editorial column Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion o f th e individual w rite r or su b m itte r end does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer Honorable Mention Herrick Editorial Award NNA 1973 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place Community Leadership ONPA 1975 3rd Place Community Leadership ONPA 1979 M tM *« Your nearby Fred Meyer Super Shopping Center is filled with ' People Pleasing" services to make your shopping more pleasant. Wide, spacious aisles, friendly helpful clerks and un dercover parcel loading are just some of the "People Pleasing" services to you. Plus everyday low prices on thousands of items you use ano need everyday help lower your cost of living. 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