Portland observer., February 19, 1981, Page 2, Image 2

Page 2 Portland Observar February 19. 1961
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Citizens participation: Portland style
Was the City of Portland's true interest in
citizen participation revealed in its public
hearing on the federal Community Develop­
ment Block Grant Tuesday evening?
The hearing was held in the office of the
Planning Commission, on Southwest Alder
and Broadway. Aside from the severe parking
problem in the center of the City, the room
was too small for the number who attended
the City wide hearing.
The Chairman repeatedly mentioned the
obvious - that the room has extremely poor
acustics making it difficult to hear.
The hearing is required by the federal
government and is supposed to provide a
voice for the citizens in spending the $10
million. If input is really wanted - there cer­
tainly should be a more adequate place to hold
the meeting. Even City Hall would have been
preferrable.
For five years citizens have attempted - in
vain - to have a say in how this money,
designated for poor neighborhoods, is spent.
But the City goes on its way, disregarding the
citizens, often disregarding federal rules. It is
the same old story no matter what pot the
money comes from - CETA, EDAC, etc.
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
There was an article published in
last week’ s paper pertaining to
’ 'Oregon Blacks and the Republican
P a rty ” written about Mr. Thomas
Kennedy. I would like to point out
that I support his freedom o f choice
to join any political party which he
desires. Hut when he uses the term
“ we have done some progressive
things in the area of human and civil
rights” referring to the Republican
Party, one has to wonder is M r.
Kennedy one o f those who has been
disenfranchising Blacks and other
m inorities all these years. I f the
Republican Party program is as
progressive as M r Kennedy points
o ut, I am sure this w ill be en­
couraging to our many minority job
seekers who have been or will be out
o f work due to Republican conser-
vertism. This is not to say that the
Democratic Party is any better, but
To the Editor:
I f there hadn’ t been a picture
accompanying the article "Oregon
Black • and the Republican P a rty ”
one could have easily mistaken
Ihomas Kennedy words to be those
o f any right winged conservative
who believes that one o f America's
most troublesome burden is "Black
people. ”
l or example (quote): “ You can
describe the predicament o f Blacks
in the 80s like a basketball player
coming to a football game with the
wrong un ifo rm to play. We are
playing the wrong game and should
learn new ones very fast. We as
Blacks must prepare ourselves
because this country is becoming
more competitive.” (end quote)
Here, we find Kennedy painting a
picture o f blindness, stupidity, and
an in a b ility , on the part o f Black
people, to understand what is hap­
pening with America. It is very ap­
parent that Kennedy is not a student
o f history, or o f modern day
To the Editor:
In reference to your February 12
a rticle , "O reyon Blacks and the
Republican Party, ” it is very dis­
heartening to read where any Black
person says “ the free lunch is over”
when describing persons who have
few resources at their disposal. As a
matter o f fact, “ the free lunch” is
not d istributed in abundance to
African-Americans in Oregon, but
when stated by a Black person, the
m a jo rity com m unity o f Oregon
probably thinks he or she is talking
about their own people.
the Republican Party has just star­
ted recruiting minorities with semi­
open arms.
I also support M r. Kennedy’ s
contention that the Republican
Party intends to eliminate welfare
fraud, but I hope his statement is
not in fe rrin g that Blacks arc the
major recipients o f welfare checks. I
also take offense to his statement
that the “ free lunch” is over. I
might note that since my birth and
my forefathers before tnc have not
received anything free in this coun­
try, (but hell). Anything Blacks have
received, which M r. Kennedy
referred to as a “ free lunch,” has
been paid for in blood.
One other note, an 1 I quote,
“ firs t we have to analyze our
position in this country, then we
have to change our behavior
patterns as they relate to saving
money and reinvesting in our coin-
politics. History will reveal that it is
not “ Black people” who are playing
the wrong game, but the American
government. I l ’ s an ancient game
that first involved the invasion ot
A frica, the introduction o f slavery
to the Americas, using p rim a lily
Black people. I t ’ s an ancient, up
dated game involving almost
700,000 unemployed Blacks (the
figure will go higher as Reagan cuts
deeper into our lives), racism that
involves the killings, murders and
sometimes torture o f Black people,
poor education (it was just a
moment ago that America, in her
high c ourt, said ok, w e 'll allow
Blacks to eat with us, ot frequent
our schools etc), police attacks, the
freeing o f Klu Klux Klansmen in a
court o f law, and on and on. Not
for one moment have Black people
been misled, as far as, what kind o f
game we should be playing, from he
moment we set foot on the shores of
America, our has been a "struggle
fo r survival and freedom. ”
Kennedy blames Black people for
Based on what the Republican
Party has represented in recent years
from the African American perspec­
tive, use and abuse Black fo lk
whenever necessary, its Black party
members (as long as they do and say
as expected), are really the ones get­
ting the free lunches while the rest of
us starve. Apparently, those same
Blacks
are
philosophically
somewhere out to lunch, when
talking about getting your own and
perhaps protecting it with your life?
Such thinking is contrary to a way
o f life as practiced by Black fo lk
long before some Republican Party
munities.” This must be some kind
o f joke. In the context which the
statement is made, 1 fin d it non-
relevant since most o f our people
are out o f w ork or in low -paying
jobs and don’ t have the necessary
capital to reinvest in to the neigh­
borhood to bring about the kind o f
economic stability which is needed.
Short money has to look for the best
buy for the dollars available.
It is good to note that M r. Ken­
nedy can stimulate the Black com­
munity’s economy with his purchase
ol haircuts, shoeshines, clothes
cleaners, and other penny-ante pur­
chases. These items won't build nest
eggs for reinvesting capital. What
we need is well-paying jobs like Mr.
Kennedy has and all those that think
as he does have, and then we can
also talk sh___ !
Sincerely,
James Lovlny
their economic misery and makes it
seem like our entire existence in
America has been one o f “ welfare”
and “ band aid” programs. Not so.
Blacks have engaged in the every
aspect o f the b u ild in g o f the
American economy; ranging from
inventions to carrying the weight o f
corporate racism, as it relates to
factories, plants etc. Blacks are a
viable part o f the American work
force, and I don’ t believe fo r one
moment that most Blacks wouldn’t
work, if they had the chance. Black
exclusion from the economic struc­
ture o f America was by design, not
accident! and u n til there is
economic equality, most Black
Americans w ill never feel that
Am erica is “ their piece o f the
rock.”
Thomas Kennedy is playing the
wrong game, for the wrong reasons,
using the wrong methods, directed
toward the wrong people. He owes
the Black people o f this community
an apology.
Nyewusi Askari
came in to existence, i.e. m utual
w ork based on sharing w ith a
p o litic a l, c u ltu ra l, social, and
economic commonality.
Your well-written article clearly
exposed and forced one to wonder
why Black Republicans never have
the same problems as Black non-
Rcpublicans: unemployment, poor
housing, poor education, and a
sense o f belonging. Obviously, they
know how to survive, but at what
cost?
Sincerely,
Ben Priestley
Portland Observer
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The Portland Observer is a champion of justice, equality and
liberation an alert guard against social evils a thorough analyst
and critic of discriminatory practices and policies, a sentinal to
warn of impending and existing racist trends and practices, and a
defender against persecution and oppression
The real problems of the minority population will be viewed and
presented from the perspective of their causality unrestrained ana
chronoically entrenched racism N ational and in te rn a tio n a l
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World peoples shall be considered in the context of their ex
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United States and their relationship to this nation's historical
treatment of its Black population
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The guns of Zimbabwe
By Fungai Kumbula
The guns o f Zim babwe were
blazing again last week but this time
they had a more sinister ring to
them. Casualty figures vary depend­
ing on who you listen to but they
range from a hundred to two
hundred dead and an unspecified
number wounded. Death is always a
tragic occurence but it is all the
more tragic when it is so totally un­
necessary. The above tragedy is
supposed to be the fallout from the
“ d e m o tio n " o f one Joshua
M qubuko N kom o, leader o f the
minority ZAPU (Zimbabwe African
Peoples U nion) in the co a litio n
government o f Prime M inister
Robert Mugabe.
Nkomo, whose party garnered 20
o f the 100 seats in last February's
elections to Mugabe’ s ZANU (Z im ­
babwe African National Union) 57,
was initially offered the position o f
M inister
of
Home A ffa irs .
D issatisfaction w ith his per­
formance and a barrage o f citizens'
complaints led to his being moved to
the less pow erful post o f M inister
W ithout P o rtfo lio earlier this
m onth. Know ing that he has to
weed out inefficiency during these
early stages or Zim babwe w ould
soon be plagued with an unwieldy
and
impossible
bureaucracy,
Mugabe has not hesitated to act
against friend and foe alike. In the
same cabinet shake-up, Z A N U
secretary-general and M anpower
Planning M in iste r, Edgar Tekere
was relieved o f his cabinet duties
ostensibly
also
because
of
dissatisfaction w ith his p e rfo r­
mance.
A pparen tly, this past week,
ZAPU guerrillas who still owe their
loyalty to Nkom o rather than the
government o f Zimbabwe, staged a
rebellion aimed at eventually over­
throw ing the governm ent. The
guerrillas have been housed just
outside Bulawayo, Zim babw e’ s
second largest city in a government
e ffo rt at returning them to the
general p o p ula tion. Far from ac­
cepting this obvious government
gesture o f goodw ill, these malcon­
tents used the o p p o rtu n ity to
fu rth e r underm ine the young
nation’ s recently and democratically
elected government.
Twice in recent months, they have
instigated armed conflicts forcing
the government to send in its own
troops to restore order. These rebels
in essence used civilians as a shield
and shot those that refused to
cooperate. In the end, the civilian
casualty rate was higher than that of
the combatants; just what the rebels
wanted so they could charge the
government w ith an attempted
genocide against the Ndebele, the
Bulawayo area residents who all
along have throw n their support
behind Nkomo.
In their latest te rro r campaign
they went even further and brought
in tanks in addition to, a barrage of
light and heavy automatic weapons.
This time it was an out and out in­
surrection and the plan was to cap­
ture Bulawayo and use it as a
launching pad fo r the eventual
capture o f the whole country. In
spite o f all the reconciliation
e ffo rts o f the governm ent, ap­
parently, the thinking in some o f the
inner ZAPU circles is: “ What you
cannot get through the ballot, you
get by the bullet.”
Anxious to minimize bloodshed,
the government made repeated ap­
peals to the rebels to lay down their
arms and again remined them that
whatever grievances they had, there
was legal avenues to which evey
Zimbabwean now had recourse. The
rebels responsed by just blazing
away at the approaching govern­
ment troops. In the end. Prime
M inister Mugabe, who is also the
M inister o f Defence, ordered the
troops in to restore order. As the
death to ll m ounted, Mugabe o r­
dered in the A ir Force to overtly the
b a ttle fie ld . O nly when these A ir
f orce o f Zimbabwe jets were (lying
d ire ctly overhead and poised to
swoop any second did the rebels
surrender and sullenly return to
their barracks.
The damage was already done. In
spite o f its best efforts at restraint,
the government has been forced to
restore order by force. The dead
could not be brought back to life
and the government's reconciliation
effo rts had been dealt another
serious blow. As before Nkom o
and other high ranking o ffic ia ls
deny any complicity in the uprising.
These denials ring hollow when one
recalls that the rebellion was staged
in the name of Johsua Nkomo; in an
unsuccessful e ffo rt to replace the
current Prime M inister Mugabe
with none other than Nkomo.
Now the government is trying to
move all ZAPU guerrillas away
from the Bulawayo area back into
the bush from whence they came.
The idea is to take them away from
. the populated areas and in to the
open country where, i f they should
cause any more m ischief, the
government will move in swiftly and
decisively. The governm ent now
realizes that it is dealing with
honest-to-goodness insurrectionists
whose avowed aim is to overthrow
the government. These rebels have
already done untold harm to Z im ­
babwe and, as was to be expected,
the international media was quick to
swoop in and exploit the “ trib a l
divisions; the inherent distrust
between rivals Mugabe and Nkomo
and all their other favorite themes.
M oving the rebels has h it one
early snag in that the mass transit
drivers asked to drive them out o f
the city have refused. U nderstan­
dably, they say they fear fo r their
lives. The government has decided
to wait until the rebels ware out of
the populated areas before disar­
ming them.
Probably the worst thing to come
out of this sad, long episode is that
from now on the government may
begin to show a stronger and more
decisive hand in dealing w ith its
critics. One bad apple may not spoil
the whole barrel but the odor it gives
may be so bad the taster cannot af­
ford to check.
Outlaw racism in USA
(Continued from Page I Col 6)
rights, in terms o f projecting and
fo rw a rd in g their objectives, that
any decent person or society should
respect. On the co n tra ry, their
proposals and aims arc so repulsive,
false and anti-human that allowing
them to promulgate those ideas is a
disservice to real freedom and
wellbeing.”
It is agreed that the right to free
speech does not include the right to
cry “ fire " in a crowded theatre, he
continues. “ Then how can there be
a right o f freedom o f speech to
declare all Jews implacable aliens to
social order with foul motives and
varietable satanic agents fit only
fo r burning and to declare all
colored people as im m utably in ­
ferior mentally and morally to white
people and fit only for servitude.
“ The force o f this question is in­
tensified when one bears in mind
that this is not a theoretical question
but rather one posed on a historical
record, and a recent one at that,
w ith in an ever more crowded
theater, that is to say, the globe. It is
as though it meant the death o f the
sheep, or argued for the right o f the
slave owner to continue enjoying his
peculiar property in the name o f his
right to do so...or insisting on his
freedom, or anyone else’ s freedom,
to urge the enslavement o f Black
people.”
It is absurd to abolish slavery and
allow its advocacy. It is not only ab-
surb; it is viciously dangerous to do
so - and both Nazis and Kluxers in­
sist that servitude to whites is the
proper status for Black people.
“ The rationalization for slavery
was racism. There is no more reason
to tolerate racist argumentation in
the name o f freedom than to
tolerate the enslavement o f Black
people in the name o f the freedom
of others to possess slaves.”
When Nazis carry signs saying
" K i l l a Jew” or “ Cias all commu­
nists" - that is not a manifestation
o f freedom, it is a manifestation o f
a backward society where such
people come in to existence and
where such messages are tolerated in
the name o f so-called freedom. A ll
o f this is not a matter of theory or a
m atter o f some insane group
picketing a meeting, this is a matter
o f an outlook o f racism and anti-
scmitics which resulted in oceans o f
blood and torment o f hundreds o f
m illio n s o f people. And what is
being e x p lic itly advocated is a
repetition o f such activity.
“ To permit the promulgation o f
such poison in the name of freedom
is absurb and visious.”
In the U .S., the KKK was in
power in a dozen states, a quarter
century after reconstruction. It
conquered states like Oregon,
C olorado, O hio, Indiana, in ad­
d itio n to southern states in the
1920s.
The Nazis conquered Germany
and most o f Europe only 40 years
ago. They rule today in Chile and
South Africa. There is again a Hitler
cult in West Germany and there is a
rise o f a Nazi movement in this
country.
“ We are de fin in g the so-called
right to free speech for those who
have an outlook and a movement
that led to the death o f 50 m illion
people,
and
which
almost
conquered the world, just the other
day h is to ric a lly speaking.. .and
which right now is in power in
significant nations on two c o n ti­
nents.
“ We have witnessed in the past
months the m urdering o f 15 Black
men in 1 os Angeles; the killing of 6
Black men in Buffalo; the killing of
tw o Black men in U tah; the
shooting o f Vernon Jordan; the
murder by KKK and Nazis o f five
people in Greensboro, N orth
C arolina, and their acquital;
viscious KKK harassment o f Black
families in Contra Costa County 20
miles from San Francisco; KKK
candidates fo r Congress on a
Democratic ticket in California and
a Republican ticket in M ichigan;
defacement o f cemetaries, schools
and synagogues by Nazi gangsters in
New Jersey and C a lifo rn ia ; KKK
officials teaching Boy Scouts how to
k ill in Texas; a training camp for
Nazi and KKK members called
"C a m p Mai L a i” fu n ctio n in g in
Alabama. These are examples o f the
national resurgence o f these
criminal groups.
Combating racism is not censor­
ship. It is one form o f effective
struggle against the censorship that
characterizes our society today.
True censors are those that have
hidden the true history and culture
o f Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Indians,
I
etc.
Many nations have laws fo r ­
bidding racist w ritings. Great
B ritian makes crim in a l language
which insults other people in racist
terms. In the Netherlands, the penal
code states: “ Any propaganda or
organization based on the theory of
superiority o f one race or group of
persons o f one color or ethnic orgin
w ith a view to ju s tify or prom ote
racial d iscrim in a tio n , hatred or
abuse, or any act o f violence or in­
citement against any person or
groups o f persons by reason o f or
reference to religions, racial or
ethnic affiliation shall be considered
an offense against society and
punishable under the law ...”
In 1972 France passed a law
making it illegal to incite race hatred
or discrim in a tio n . Most socialist
countries outlaw racism.
The Postdam Agreement outlaws
Nazi activity in Germany, but this
agreement has only been enfored in
East Germany - the German
Dem ocratic Republic. In West
Germany,
Nazism
is
again
flo u rish in g . Nazis are active in
England, Spain, Ita ly, West Ger­
many and South America, and their
leaders have met with the leadership
ot the Kian and the Nazis in the
U S.
The Universal D eclaration o f
Human Rights adopted in 1948
e s p e c ia lly
condem ned
discriminatory practices and urged
such practices be elim inated. The
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights adopted by the UN
in 1966 provides that “ any advocacy
ot national racial or religious hatred
that
constitutes
incitem ent,
discrimination, hostility or violence
shall be prohibited by law.”
I he resolution adopted by the UN
Internation al
Conference
on
Human Rights in 1968 says: “ The
peoples o f the world must be made
fu lly aware o f the evils o f
d iscrim ination and must jo in in
com bating them. The im plem en­
ta tio n o f this p rinciple o f non­
discrimination...constitutes a most
urgent task o f mankind at the inter­
national as well as the national level.
A ll ideologies based on racial
superiority and intolerance must be
(Please turn to Page9 Col I)