Page 4 Portland Observer, December 3,1981
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Human Rights for Haitians?
The neglect and abuse o f H aitian refugees by
the U.S government is fast becoming a national
disgrace. W h ile accepting refugees fro m those
n a tio n s th a t arc id e o lo g ic a l “ enem ies” w ith
“ open arms and h e a rt,” the U .S. governm ent
denies these poor, Black people from H a iti refu
gee status, co n fin e s them in in h u m a n c o n d i
tions, ships them to prison in Puerto Rico o r de
ports them to certain to rtu re and death at the
hands o f their government.
A lthough the agony o f the H aitian people has
continued fo r decades, it is o n ly recently that
their plight has come to the attention o f the in
te rn a tio n a l press and sm all b its o f news have
leaked to the Am erican people.
The great m igration o f Haitians began early in
the 20th century, but it increased sharply fo llo w
ing the occupation o f the island by the U.S. in
1915. Imm ediately, large numbers began leaving
fo r the neighboring nations o f Cuba and the D o
minican Republic.
preferrin g death at sea to starvation o r m urder
at home.
Because the Haitians are Black and poor, and
because the U .S . governm ent has no p o litic a l
points to gain by accepting them, the treatm ent
o f those H a itian refugees who arrive in the U.S
has been brutal at best. They are the victim s not
only o f their ow n governm ent’ s oppression but
o f the U.S governm ent’s silence about their true
condition.
Because the Haitians have no legal rights and
no legal protection they are easy targets fo r ex
p lo ita tio n . U n s c ru p u lo u s m e rch a n ts charge
$1,500 to “ g u id e ” H a itia n s to F lo rid a , where
they are directed to areas where they are used as
virtual slaves. The same thing happens in the Ba
hamas, Guadalupe, M a rtin iqu e, Venezuela and
the D om inican Republic. In the D om inican Re
p u b lic H a itia n wom en are sold lik e c o m m o d i
ties, workers are held as slaves to U.S. corpora
tions, and many are murdered.
The U .S . defin es H a itia n s as “ e c o n o m ic ”
rather than " p o lit ic a l” refugees, w h ich a u to
m atically denies them o ffic ia l refugee status and
makes their entry in to the co u n try illegal. This
refusal to recognize the p o litica l reality is an e f
fo rt to present the exodus as a fin a n c ia l p ro b
lem, masking the terrible oppression the people
must endure.
The U.S m ust redefine its refugee p o lic y to
base status on need, not on political expediency.
Refugees fro m H a iti, El Salvador, G uatem ala
and other dictatorships should receive the same
status as those fro m Cuba and Southeast Asia.
The U .S. should jo in w ith the F irst C o n tin
ental C onference in S o lid a rity w ith H a iti— an
o rg a n iza tio n representing over 30 n a tio n s — in
calling on the government o f H a iti to release all
political prisoners and should honor that organi
zation’s request that countries w ith H aitian re fu
gees treat them humanely.
The U.S. should use its influence and power
to suppon the liberation movements that seek to
remove the current regime and bring about a re
turn to constitutional government.
The U n ite d States shou ld celebrate H u m a n
Rights Day, December 10th, by extending a little
hum anity to the H aitians who fin d their way to
our shores until they can make their way back to
a free H a iti.
Lately, the m igration has been so great that it
is viewed as one o f the m ost re m a rka b le phe
nomena o f H aitian history. They go not only to
the U.S. but to the Bahamas, the Dom inican Re
public, Guadalupe, M artinique, Venezuela, C u
racao, C anada and C uba. A n estim ated one-
sixth o f the population has left the country.
H a iti is not only one o f the poorest nations in
the w o rld ; it is run by a tyra n n ica l dynastic re
gime that practices mass m urder, im prisonm ent,
arrest and subsequent disa p p e a ra n ce , and
brutality. Even the rudim ents o f political and so
cial rights are absent.
Less than one per cent o f the population owns
40 per cent o f the n a tio n a l w e a lth ; eig h ty per
cent o f the gross natio nal produ ct goes to five
per cent o f the population. The average income
is $260; 40 per cent are unemployed.
L ife expectancy is 42 years, the high rate o f
death due to m alaria and m a lnu tritio n, aided by
the terrorism o f the secret police. N inety per cent
o f the people ca n n o t read o r w rite . C h ild re n
must go to w o rk at age eight to help su p p o rt
their families, then as adolescents jo in the ranks
o f the unemployed.
Those w ho leave th e ir c o u n try are becoming
know n as “ boat peo ple .” U su a lly p o o r peas
ants, they flee in flim s y , unseaw orthy boats—
Violence by white youth: the growing in crisis
by Dr. Manning Marabie
The election of Ronald Reagan to
the Presidency has inspired, at the
level o f popular culture and social
relations, one o f the most massive
racist reactions in American history.
Across the nation, policemen are
shooting our young Black men at
the slightest provocation. In several
hundred towns and cities, crosses
have been burned at Black homes;
in dozens o f instances young Black
women have been verbally abused
and sexually assaulted by white law-
enforcement officers. Yet the media
is largely silent before these mount
ing human tragedies. The Congress
passes legislation cutting welfare
and human services programs de
signed to improve the status o f
Black lives. The President is silent in
the face of these racist atrocities—
and this silence implies consent.
Racism is nothing new. Yet par
ticularly striking about this period is
the steady proli Herat ion of random,
racially-motivated acts o f violence
committed by white children and
young adults. Somehow, many
young whites have sensed the shift
in the national mood. The old segre
gationists, whose lips still drip with
race hatred, are reentering the polit
ical arena. The most extreme pro
ponents of Reagamsm, conservative
groups quietly sympathetic to facist
slogans and Ku Klux Klan-type po
lemics, are training a new genera
tion to hate Blacks.
Since last January, there have
been series of shocking incidents in
volving white teenagers. A brief
sample includes:
The drowning of John Stencil, a
Black freshman at Farleigh Dicker-
son University, on A pril 11, 1981.
Two white youths pushed Stencil
into the Hackensack River as he sat
on a bridge railing. Stencil reported
ly “ shouted to them that he could
not swim but they went aw ay.”
Hackensack prosecutor Roger Bres-
lin , a white lawyer, termed the
drowning an "accident.”
Five white youths in a car a t
tempted to run down three young
Black women in Far Rockaway,
New York, on February 28, 1981.
Charged with attempted murder,
the youths pleaded innocent and
were released on only $5,000 bail.
Five young white men were arrest
ed by M aryland State Police on
June 1, 1981, and charged with con
spiring to burn a cross on the lawn
o f H arford N A A C P president Jo
seph Bond of Churchville.
Several white youths burned two
crosses on the lawn of Renne Burns
in Cleveland, on June 4, 1981.
Gary Allen Smith, a 24-year-old
Black student at M organ State
University in Baltim ore, was vi
ciously attacked by eight white
youths in June, 1981, after Smith
had argued with a white female em
ployee where he worked. Smith was
beaten with pool cue sticks and suf
fered “ a broken left arm, contu
sions and swelling of the brain.**
Three white men, ages 19, 21, 23,
tossed a pipebomb into the house of
a Black Detroit fam ily. Mrs. Syn-
thia Steele had seen the bomb crash
through the bathroom window,
picked it up and was attempting to
throw it away when it exploded in
her hand. Three fingers of her right
hand were blown o ff. The attack
was the last in a series lasting two-
and-a-half years. Previously, white
youths had thrown baseballs
through Mrs. Steele's windows and
painted KKK signs on her garage.
Michael Jarrett, a Black youth of
19, was killed by a gunshot wound
to the head in Steubenville, Ohio,
on April ,7, 1981, for allegedly dat
ing white girls. Police (raced (he
murder weapon to a white youth,
who was eventually released. Over
500 people marched to protest po
lice inaction in this case.
White students at Cass Technical
High School in Detroit have begun
calling themselves “ the junior
K K K s" and “ Baby H itle rs ." Last
March the juvenile racists circulated
white supremacist literature, spray-
painted lockers with swastikas and
assaulted a student with a knife.
At Wesleyan College, Connecti
cut, a racist campaign o f terror has
been mounting for months. White
youths posted a series o f “ Wanted
— Dead or Alive’* flyers throughout
the campus, with an ugly, twisted
sketch o f a spear-carrying Black
man portrayed. One flyer charged
"Jigaboo" with a variety of crimes,
including, "rape, murder, robbery.
He (is] led by Communist Jews in a
conspiracy to destroy America and
the W hite race.” Another flyer
taunted: “ You call yourselves
brothers... well, you’re brothers of
the gorillas. I have a d ream .. . you-
all gonna die in pain.** Still another
racist tract promoting a fraternity
informed prospective white mem
bers that it was “ dedicated to wip
ing all g-damn niggers o ff the face
o f the E a rth .” By late October,
1981, KKK members were visiting
Wesleyan’s campus to recruit young
racists.
Il is particularly sad that the Anti-
Defam ation League o f the B'nai
B'rith has chosen this moment to as
sert that America is not “ institu
tionally racist" and that the Kian is
an "aberration." Nothing could be
further from the truth. Legions of
white teenagers and young adults
are being indoctrinated into the tra
ditional patterns o f racism, while
the government and the majority of
white public opinion concur
through silence. So long as incidents
like (hose illustrated above can oc
cur, not a single Black person in this
country can /e e l secure.
A final note: While drafting this
essay 1 happened to return to my of
fice at the Africana Center. Cornell
University, early one morning. The
windows on the first floor o f the
building were punctured by an air-
rifle. On my door was printed clear
ly a single word—" N IG G E R ."
Bullets before butter
Ronald Reagan is m aking a last-ditch e ffo rt to
save face w ith the W hite House Conference on
Aging— going all the way from packing the dele
gation w ith his own supporters to m aking a per
sonal appearance and dragging along the vice-
president.
Older Am ericans should not be fooled by his
promises to save Social Security— after repeated
threats to sink it.
Nearly 16 per cent o f the elderly— 4 m illio n -
have incomes below p o v e rty level ($3,941 per
year fo r a single person). W ith o u t Social Securi
ty, 60 per cent would be below poverty level. In
1980, more than tw o-th irds had incomes o f less
than $6,000. Medicare paid fo r only 38 per cent
o f medical bills fo r the elderly. Yet, rather than
substantially increase the benefits fo r the elderly,
the Reagan regime threatens cuts.
There are c o n tin u o u s p re d ic tio n s o f b a n k
ru p tc y fo r S o cial S e cu rity. W here to get the
money?
Over the next five years arm y aircraft funding
w ill increase 55 per cent over fiscal 1981 expendi
tures; missiles w ill increase 54 per cent; artillery,
tanks, arm ed personnel ca rrie rs, 96 per cent;
am m unition, 40 per cent. In 1981, the Navy w ill
spend $114.4 b illio n , the A rm y $52.1 b illio n ; the
A ir Force $51.5 billion.
That would go a long way tow ard m aking life
fo r our elderly citizens a little more com fortable
and secure.
HPim.
THE
'BUMPING 1 TRIED LAST
SuriVER DIDN'T WORK
GUE5S I'LL HAVE TO
.CUT.
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