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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1981)
P«8* 2 Portland Observar. September 17. IM I EDITORIAL/OPINION U.S.A. and U.S.A.: Natural' allies by N. Fungai Kumbula Affirmative action on the block The Reagan Administration’s move to elimin ate a ffirm a tiv e action regulations has been joined by members o f Congress. Senator Orrin Hatch has introduced Senate Joint Resolution 41 which would amend the United States Constitution to prohibit the U.S. Government or any state from making or en forcing ary law that makes distinctions on ac count o f race, color, or national origin. Obviously, the purpose o f this legislation is to eliminate any legal recourse for those who are left out o f the economic system because o f race. Already Reagan has removed 75 per cent o f the employers from a ffirm a tiv e action require ments. This b ill would go fu rth e r— it would negate the major portion o f civil rights legisla tion designed to provide equal employment op portunity. The actions o f such as Reagan and Hatch are to be expected. The disgusting development is the bandwagon chasing o f such Black “ intellec tuals’ ’ as Thomas Sowell who has already testi fied as to his strong aversion to affirmative ac tion before the Senate hearings. Sowell uses the results o f the government’ s failure to enforce existing affirmative action regulations as his evi dence that affirm ative action is so d iffic u lt to administer and its goals so vague as to render it suspect and unworkable. The testimony o f those who w ill serve their own selfish ends by supporting racism w ill be plentiful as the Senate hearings on this and re lated bills continue. Those who defend the rights o f m inorities to participate in this co u n try’ s economy should also make their voices heard by contacting Senator Hatch and their own Sen ators. The bill states that laws that prohibit discrim ination “ shall not be construed to permit the es tablishment or maintenance by such private in dividuals or enterprises o f any program or policy that makes distinctions on account o f race, col or, or national origin.’ ’ The bill would forbid the U.S. or the states from maintaining affirm ative action goals or guidelines and prevent them from requiring or allowing any individual or company from main taining affirmative action goals or guidelines. The bill would also define discrimination ac cording to intent, and would not allow discrim ination to be judged according to its dispropor tionate impact on individuals o f ethnic groups. The bill would deny to any court the right to make any determination that takes race, color, or national origin into account. Smith opposes King honor The U.S. House o f Representatives passed legislation Tuesday providing $25,000 fo r a statue memorializing Dr. M artin Luther King, Jr., to be placed in the national capital. Dr. King will be the first Black to be so honored. Unfortunately, the story is not all good for many o f the Congressmen voting to honor Dr. King in this manner did so in an effort to head o ff the campaign Black members o f Congress have waged for many years to have Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. Oregon’ s Congressman Denny Smith distin guished himself by being one o f the few Con gressmen who voted against the bill. Oh well, Denny Smith also mentioned during his election campaign that if the 1964 Civil Rights Bill were before Congress this year he just wasn’ t sure that he could vote for it. played somewhere in the midwest. The U.S. State Department started it all by giving permission for the team to enter the U.S. in spite o f opposition here and abroad. The ex cuse: the government doesn’t want to interfere with sport. Mayor Byrne and others like her per petuate the myth by refusing to deny their “ con stitutional right” to assembly. It doesn’t seem to matter at this point that the Chicago appearance will be in secret, with few if any spectators. And the excuse for bringing the team here in the first place was to expose Americans to the sport o f rugby. While American leaders argue the right o f the South African team to play its game in the U.S., the rest o f the world is attempting to isolate and condemn that nation for its inhuman practices against its Black citizens and its illegal occupa tion o f Namibia. The United Nations General Assembly condemned South A fric a Monday with a 117-0 vote. (Twenty-five countries, in cluding the U.S., abstained.) Deny AWAC aircraft sale The United States should end its career as the world’s leading provider o f arms with the refusal to sell the AWACs aircraft to Saudi Arabia. Armaments is a lucrative business in the U.S. and American-made arms are readily available on the world market. Often both sides of a clash are using U.S.-made arms—whether two nations in a border war or two sides in a civil war. The U.S. government is also in the arms busi ness. Immediate plans are to provide arms for Saudi Arabia to use against Israel, to Taiwan to use against China, to China to use against the Soviet Union, to Pakistan to use against A f ghanistan (or India), etc. These can be provided through sales, gifts or loans (usually written o il) but all are paid for by American citizens. The U.S. will also supply arms to some o f the crudest dictatorships—Chile, Guatamala, El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina. These countries murder, torture and imprison thousands o f their own citizens each year. The only possible use for m ilitary equipment is to use against their own people or against each other. The U.S. has the responsibility to stop the es calation o f the arms race and to provide the leadership needed to negotiate arms limitations. It can begin with a withdrawal o f its offer o f AWACs to Saudi Arabia and let the world know the store is closed. Portland Observer The P o rtla n d Observer (U S P S 959 6801 ie publiehed every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company. Inc , 2201 North K illings worth, Portland. Oregon 97217. Post Office Box 3137, Portland Oregon 97208 Second class postage paid at Portland, Oregon Subscriptions: 110 00 per year in Tri-County area Postm aster Send address changes to the Portland Observer. P O Box 3137. Portland, Oregon 97206 283 2486 Bruce Broussard Editor/Publisher National Advertising Representative Am algam ated Publishers. Inc N e w York * OH»‘ **'*1, NAHTWAt M W S P A P fR ¡¿N i, h ’ MÍMMR Oregon 1 Newspaper ____Publishers ' ¿ ■ l a w Association member nêwal PER AstociaHon - Founded IM S U .S .A . was the only country to come to the aid and salvation of the other U .S .A . There was a vague, ambiguous statement from the U.S. W hite House which sought to lay the blame for the invasion as much on Angola as on South Africa. Can you top that? Blaming Angola for being invaded!!! The African, Car ibbean and other Third World coun tries that are immediately concerned about events in Angola had bent over backwards trying to accommo date U.S. concerns in the Southern African region and had re-worded their condemnation of South Africa accordingly to avoid the expected U.S. veto, but it was to no avail. In a third vote at the close of (he week when a move to expel South A frica from the upcoming debate on Namibia was tabled, again it was the U .S. that led the fight to sit South Africa. This time, though she was able to drag 21 other countries with her, the vote to bar South A f rica passed by a lopsided 118-22. South A frica, therefore, will be barred from the debate to focus on independence for Namibia sche duled for later this year. These three votes by the U .S.A . (United States of America) support ing the other U .S .A . (U nion of South Africa) have damaged what American credibility this country still had with the rest of the world. The Black community in this coun try was outraged and a number of prominent figures have initialed steps to correct this country's fo r eign policy, among them former U .N . ambassadors Andrew Young and Donald McHenry as well as the National Council of Churches. The Africans are also considering moves of more effectively dealing with both U.S.A.s. Already all fifty- one African countries have indicat ed to the International Olympic Committee that they plan to boycott the next Olympics scheduled for Los Angeles in 1984. In 1976, all but five o f the A frican countries stayed away protesting the participation of New Zealand which had hosted a rugby (South A frican version of football) tour by the South African Springboks. This year, not only has New Zealand allowed another Springbok tour (amidst some of the most violent demonstrations the country has seen in quite some time) but the Springboks are scheduled to come and play in this country later this month. They had originally scheduled four matches but two of them in Ro chester have been cancelled due to popular opposition. The other two, one in Chicago, are still scheduled starting September 18. I f they should go on as scheduled, we can all write o ff the 1984 Olympics be cause not only will all the Africans boycott but they will most likely be joined by most of the Caribbean, the Soviet Union (remember the Moscow Olympics and the U.S. boycott?) and even some Asian and South American countries have in dicated they may join the boycott. Already plans are under way to hold alternative Socialist Games some where in Eastern Europe. Maybe in place of all these countries planning to boycott, the U.S.A. can invite the U.S.A. South Africa recharges Blacks by Joel Drey/uss Pacific News Service And the game goes o n . Forty nations have threatened to boycott the 1984 Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles o f the South African Springboks Rugby team plays in the United States and the Washington Post reports that the Soviet Union will ask that the games be moved in order to allow the Third World nations to participate. The pleas of Mayor Tom Bradley, whose city is scheduled to have the 1984 games, have fallen on deaf ears. They mayor and city council o f Chicago, where the Springboks are supposed to play, passed a resolution condemning South A f rica’ s racial policies but refused to cancel the game. The mayor o f New York City finally did can cel the permit to use that city’ s public stadium but not fo r reasons o f human rights. M ayor Koch was advised by his Chief of Police that the cost o f policing and possible damage from riot ing opponents would cost too much. Rochester also cancelled the team’ s appearance but A l bany, New York accepted. A third game is to be In the hushed chamber, the eyes of the world turned to the one lone hand raised in opposition to the wishes o f the rest o f the civilized world. The lone hand belonged to the UN representative of the United States of America, otherwise abbre viated to U.S.A. The vote in question was a Security Council condemna tion of the barbarous invasions of a fellow U N member's territory by an almost member called the “ Union of South A frica" also abbreviated to U .S.A . An audible groan of dis gust, anger and frustration could be heard from the African and Carib bean quarters that had both lobbied so hard for this simple, straightfor ward censure. W ith that one veto by the U .S ., the move to condemn the South A f rican invasion, a move that had been approved by every other UN member including all the other Se curity Council members (B ritain, France, W . Germ any, China and the Soviet Union) died. In spite of the clear violation of the U N ’s own charter to which the U .S., self-pro fessed leader o f the free world, claims to adhere, the U.S.A. still ve toed a mere condemnation o f the aggressor, South Africa. This one act alone further drew the U .S .A . and the U .S .A . closer together as more "natural allies" in spite of the Reagan administration’s lame pro testations at displeasure with South Africa’s internal policies. To make matters even worse, the above vote came just a few days af ter the U.S. had vetoed another UN resolution calling on South Africa to withdraw from Angola fo rth with. Then as in the later vote, the Although the Reagan administra tion appears largely to have neutral ized Black political opposition on domestic issues, a major storm is brewing on the foreign policy front. To Black Americans who know the legacy of racial injustice in their own country, South African apart heid evokes the same kind of deep- seated emotion that memory of the Holocaust triggers in American Jews. Thus, the recent U.S. veto of the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning South A f rica’s raid on Angola may well do what the administration’s conserva tive economic and social policies have not: galvanize Black America. Washington’ s conciliatory ap proach to Pretoria already has pro voked a formidable organizing ef fort in Black communities, much of it centered in churches. The Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, pastor of the Ca naan Baptist Church in Harlem , heads the New York-based Interna tional Freedom Mobilization, a co alition of Black churches in 40 cities across the United States which coor dinates Sunday sermons and special exhibits, aimed at politicizing m il lions of Black voters on the issues of Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa. One Sunday in Aug ust, for example, was devoted to South African Liberation Day. But Black concern on '.his subjeci hardly is limited to Sundays or church-goers. A 1980 Black Enter prise poll of its largely middle-class readership showed that more ’ nan 90 per cent felt they should partici pate in the struggle against apart heid. When TransAfrica, a Wash ington, D.C.-based Black lobby on foreign policy issues, gave a SlOO-a- plate dinner last spring, 1,200 peo ple showed up. TransAfrica support committees now arc being set up in most major cities The Joint Center for Political Studies, a Black think tank in Wash ington, D .C ., which has concentrat ed on domestic issues, recently ob tained major foundation funding to expand into economic and foreign policy areas. Many of these Black organiza tions have begun to forge links with traditional white liberal anti-apart heid groups. While most Black Americans view the situation in southern Africa as a last attempt to retain white suprem acy as a legitimate basis for gover nance, administration conservatives see it differently. For them, it is less a matter of racial injustice and con flict than it is of Fast-West confron tation. In the Hoover Institution book, "T h e United States in the 1980s,” Peter Duignan and L .H . Gann out line the prevailing conservative view: Decolonization has left Africa worse off; the continent is a "field of international competition" be tween the Soviet Union and the United States; and American global interests should take precedence over "local concern ’’ "Despite its authoritarian streak," Duignan and Gann argue, "South Africa is not nearly as op pressive as numerous African dicta torships with whom the United Stales enjoys correct relationships.” Duignan, who has been mentioned as a candidate for U.S. ambassador to South Africa, goes on to suggest that Black South Africans are better o ff than citizens of other African countries. This interpretation of the facts is politically convenient, but South Africa— with it rigid racial separa tions, jobs reserved exclusively for whiles, computerized passbook sys tems, denial of political and educa tional rights to Blacks, banning or ders and family separations forced by the homeland system— would easily qualify as a totalitarian state under U .N . Ambassador Jeanc Kirkpatrick’s own standards. More over, white South Africa’s ability to control 20 million Black people is vastly increased by its advanced technolocical development. Few A f rican dictators have the infrastruc ture to exercise the kind of control South A frica has over its Black population. Black South Africans do, in fact, earn higher wages than workers in most other African nations because their country is the continent’s rich est state. But a recent Rockefeller Foundation report showed that Blacks in the homelands— South Africa's land set aside for "indepen dent Black countries’ ’— actually have lower living standards than Blacks in all but the poorest African nations. For example, the infant m ortality rate o f Blacks in rural South Africa is 240 per 1,000, com pared to 12 for white South A fr i cans and 64 for urban South A f rican Blacks. The infant mortality rate is 160 per 1,000 in Zaire and 200 per 1,000 in Niger. In the present hostile racial cli mate at home, the links between such statistics and U.S. domestic politics is sobering: If America still can justify racial repression abroad, it again can justify racial repression here. In any case. Black Americans and other minority groups have long k been struggling with the legacy of a dual economy created by racial seg regation in this country, an econ omy which is quite similar to that now in existence in South Africa. The arguments about "lower stan dards” posed by defenders of apart heid sound to U.S Blacks much like those made by opponents o f a ffir mative action in America. And South Africa’s increased repression of Blacks during the very period of its greatest economic growth raises serious questions about the poten tial effects of supply-side economics at home as well. (Reports last month indicated that Black unemployment shot up to 15 per cent while white unemployment dropped to 6 . 1 per cent. What will the future bring?) In a sense, therefore, the real value of the conflict in southern A f rica for Black Americans is the clari fying role it plays in their own strug gle. Complex economic issues, divi sions over busing, the inability to engage whiles in a constructive de bate about opportunity and racism, have made it difficult for the tradi tional Black leadership to organize around domestic problems. Eco nomic insecurity has reduced the generosity of white America and threatens to make Blacks scapegoats for many of the nation's problems. But South A frica is a powerful moral issue, and its moral dimen sions offer some surprising possibil ities for coalition, among them tra ditionally conservative Roman ( atholics who themselves arc an gered by the administration's moral insensitivity in Central America. I he impact of other ethnic groups in America on U.S. foreign policy has long been accepted as a factor in the foreign policy process. For ex ample, Jewish and pro-Israel organ izations are expected to lobby hard against the sale of AW ACS to Saudi Arabia—while the common percep tion ol Blacks is a large, poor, pow erless group (hat has no business in foreign policy. Indeed, a large part o l the Black population is sinking evermore deeply into despair. But an equally large middle class has been created in the last decade. I here presently are more middle- class Blacks than middle-class Jews in this country. And in the 1980 election, more Black voles were cast than Jewish voles. Why should they not influence foreign policy? I he Reagan administration's in sistence on seeing everything in the Third W orld- and especially in A f ric a —in U.S.-Soviet terms could make these signs harbingers of a more potent Black political future as well. I ’llU lH N l-» \S l-tH iC , |UNI
