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
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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.
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