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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1982)
K rs F ra n c s s S ^ h o e r.-’.e u i^ a p e r Rcoa U n iv e r a lty o f O ra ro n L i b r a r y All A bout Love ■», Black History New York style Alcohol is bad for your health All-time Blazers Page 16 Paged Pag«6 PORTLAND OBSERVER February 11,1982 Volume XII, Number 18 250 Per Copy USPS 959-680-855 State econom y dims J i m t i D aPrlaat. conductor of tha Oragon Symphony, discusses tha contributlona of Black people to the United Stataa during Black Hlatory Month presentation at Foderai Building. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) School Board lets Tubman wait The P o rtla n d School Board let another meeting pass without decid ing to honor its promise to establish H arriet Tubm an M iddle School in the Eliot Building. By the end o f the M onday night Board meeting, the proposed sites were narrowed to three— M onroe, Eliot and Boise— but the Board re fused to recom m it to placing the school in the Black community. The Board discussed the more specific material it had requested on sites to be considered— M o n ro e , W ashington/M onroe, Adams, Jef ferson, Boise and E lio t, and PCC- Cascade Campus. A new bit o f in fo rm a tio n p ro vided to the Board was a “ national ly recognized in d icator*’ o f move ment tow ard desegregation devel oped by D r. Ira Cissin o f Oeorge Washington University and Oeorge Pugh o f the Lambda Corporation. The index shows the Boise option with the highest index, .584; Eliot with .562; and Monroe with .575. The use o f Boise would make a greater increase in m in o rity percentages in every affected school, but this o p tio n shows a better “ desegregation in d ex” because it removes the current Boise, which has a high m in o rity percentage. Usion E lio t shows a worse index because theoretically some students w ould go from a desegregated E lio t program to a more segregated (B lac k or w hite) neighborhood school. F rank M c N a m a ra asked about the legal implications o f the increas ing minority population o f schools. This year a significant number o f Black students returned to their neighborhood schools and place ment o f Tubm an at Boise or Eliot would increase the percentages in several o f the surrounding elemen tary schools. District Council M ark M cC lana han replied that “ would depend on the honesty o f the decision made.” He explained that for 15 years the understanding was that the intent is presumed from the result. For the last three years the rule is “ actual in te n t” but an observer w ould still find intent if there was a reasonable expectation that the result will oc cur. Fearing legal action over “ deseg regation” the Board has based its defense on its m otives— that a l though its actions have resulted in increased percentages o f m inority students in some schools, its intent is to further desegregation. Herb Cawthorne pointed out that t Please turn to page 4 co. 4) The Oregon Legislature called a halt to its deliberations over how to cut $211 m illio n fro m the State budget or Find money to replace it, when they learned that the deficit could reach another S I50 million. The Legislature has been in special session fo r three weeks attempting to agree on budget cuts or on means to raise a d d itio n a l revenue. In light o f the pre tions, they recessed to meet again . ten the information is more firm. The Executive D ep artm en t re leased a report Tuesday — the p re lim in a ry d ra ft o f its q u arterly economic forecast — which showed that tax income will be less than had been expected. Oregonians earned $500 m illion less in 1981 than the State had nroiected in N o vem b er. This is directly related to the State budget, since 75 per cent o f the S ta te ’ s general fund comes from personal income taxes. The new forecast showed that fewer O regonians than expected were w o rkin g at the end o f the year, w ith 9 ,50 0 fewer jobs than -ip ected . The new forecast project that by Spring there will be 18,300 fewer jobs than had been projected in November. The forecast also shows that Oregonians are being paid less than had been p ro jected . F o r the firs t time since 1973 O reg o n ’ s average hourly earnings increase, in manu facturing, will drop to the 7 to 8 per cent range. When the legislators retu rn to special session next Tuesday, they will have to look to further cuts in social programs. Senate President Fred Heard A t the tim e the news o f the new projections reached the legislature, at about 10:00 a .m . Tuesday m orning, a conference com m ittee was a ttem p tin g to w ork out a com prom ise that would have allowed adjournm ent. The Senate prefered a change in the income tax brackets that could have raised $48 m illio n , but the House wanted a surcharge on income taxes. House Speaker Hardy Myers Program marked for extinction by Harris Levon McRae D r. W illia m L ittle , departm ent head o f Portland State University’s Black Studies Program was told M onday by the dean that his p ro gram may not be in existence at all next fall. PSU has been directed to propose by Feb. 24th , ap p ro xim ately $2 million in additional budget cuts for 1982-83 by C h an cello r Roy Lieuallen. University President Joseph Blu- mel was notified o f the additional cuts last Tuesday in a meeting with the Chancellor and the other institu tio n presidents. The $2 m illio n is Portland State’s share o f a $12 m il lion budget reduction proposal re quired o f the entire state system o f Higher Education. “ Now is the time when the com m unity needs to exam ine P S U ’ s Black Studies program. I f we have been o f benefit to the community re garding the Black experience, then the community should offer us their support,” says D r. Little. A ten tative program reduction plan must be presented to the Board’s office on Feb. 24th by Pres ident B lum el and a fin a l plan on M arch 3rd. The recommendations o f the C h an c ello r are to be pre sented to the State Board on March 13th. The cuts will be considered by the B o ard ’ s C o m m itte e o f the Whole on March 18th and by the en tire Board on March 26th. “ We can’t wait until we arc elim inated before we take actio n ,” D r. Little points out. “ Citizens have to not only contact President Blumel but the State Board o f Higher Edu cation and the Legislature.” The Black Studies program at PSU has the highest student/teacher ratio in the entire university. It is the only program in the state system that deals with the Black experience and this is done with only $100,000 out o f a budget o f over $37 million for the entire University. The Black Studies department at Portland State is not just a resource fo r the Black c om m u nity. It p ro vides opportunities to interact for a ll people. It has been useful in bridiging the isolation gap and in im proving com m unication between Oregonians. D r. L ittle concludes: “ The com munity should be outraged that the Black Studies program is even se lected as a possible elimination!” Administration rejects affirmative action as 'reverse discrimination' W illia m B radford Reynolds, d i rector o f (he Civil Rights Division o f the U.S. Department o f Justice, ex plained the administration’s view o f affirmative action. “ We will be alert to guard against em ployers, in an overzealous a t tempt to satisfy recruitment goals, engaging in reverse discrimination. Were we to treat the matter in any other light we would be vulnerable to the charge that we have sought to remedy d is crim in atio n w ith dis crim ination. This the Department will not do. “ Judicial or administrative impo sition o f racial quotas in em ploy ment introduces into federal nondis crimination laws a tolerance for the very wrong those laws were intended to eradicate. W here racial quotas have been imposed, they have driv en a wedge o f racial resentment be tween fellow workers. The issue has divided the country, engendering new racial tension and threatening I the h ard -fo u g h t gains o f the past three decades. In our view, adher ence to the color-blind ideal o f equal opportunity for a ll— the ideal that guided the framers o f the Constitu tion and the drafters o f Title V I I— is essential to preserving the national consensus condemning discrimina tion in the workplace, and holds the greatest promise o f realizin g the proclamation in the Declaration o f Independence o f e q u ality for all Americans.” The primary responsibility for en forcing civil rights laws is assigned to the A tto rn e y G eneral o f (he U n ited States. O ver the years the Justice D ep a rtm en t, through its C ivil Rights Division, has initiated or participated in hundreds o f legal actions on behalf o f individuals and o f classes o f citizens. Most o f what progress has been achieved in the area of employment has come about through legal enforcement o f civil rights laws and Executive Orders re quiring affirm ative action and con tract compliance. Reynolds— the man in charge o f civil rights enforcement— expressed his o p in io n that attitudes have changed substantially since 1954, the national consciousness has been raised, and the injustice o f discrim ination broadly recognized and con demned. Racial and other stereotyp ing is declining and most people un derstand that d iscrim ination is il legal and im m o ra l, but there are some exceptions so enforcement is still required. “ But it is critical, in my view, to appreciate that such cir cumstances are the exception and no longer the ru le .” A consensus has developed in Congress and in the country, he explained, “ that racial d iscrim in atio n is w rong and no longer ought to be tolerated in any form ." He and the adm in istration fear that this consensus is breaking down and that it is breaking down because o f the imposition o f “ quotas." He believes that most Americans agree that employers should not discrim inate and should take positive " a f firm a tiv e a c tio n ” steps to ensure that all barriers to employment and advancement are removed. The Administration and the Pres ident support such a ffirm a tiv e ac tio n , he explained, but:— “ W e do not support, however, and in litiga tion will neither insist upon nor en dorse, the use o f racial quotas— by that or any other name— designed to provide preferential treatm ent to nonvictims o f employment discrim ination.” Reynolds distinguishes between (he remedies (hat can be imposed in b eh a lf o f an in d iv id u al who has been the victim o f a specific act o f discrim in atio n , and “ a ffirm a tiv e a c tio n " which protects a class o f people who have been denied access because o f race. “ The proponents o f this point o f view (affirm ative ac tion) sought the granting o f prefer ences, not simply to individuals who had in fact been injured, but to an entire group o f individuals, based only on their race or sex.” Federal courts have consistently upheld a ffirm a tiv e action goals, generally justified on the theory that under-representation o f minorities on the jo b reflects discrim inatory employment practices. Employment goals are imposed to remedy past discrimination and to facilitate min ority hiring until the work force is representative. “ Equating 'discrimination* with ’ underrepresentation* ignores the primary determinants o f occupation selection in a free society: individual interests, industry and a b ilitie s ,” Reynolds said. Reynolds uses the “ reverse dis crimination” tactic to oppose a ffir mative a ctio n . “ By elevating the rights o f groups over the rights o f individuals, racial and sexual pref erences are at war w ith the A m er ican ideal o f equal opportunity for each person to achieve whatever his or her industry and talents warrant ----- It is no answer to the the victim of reverse discrimination to say that quotas lack the invidious character, the stigmatizing effect, o f discrimin ation against minorities.” Reynolds also fears for those who are the recipients o f a ffirm a tiv e action. “ A ll members o f the pre ferred group, even those who would have made it anyway, fall under sus picion, from themselves and others . . . the consequent damage to the self-esteem o f members o f the pre ferred group, and to the esteem in which they are held by their fellow students and workes, is u n avo id able.” Repeatedly referring to affirm a tive action goals as “ quotas,” Rey nolds said the adm in istration will embrace “ the principle o f race and sex neutrality in the field o f public and private employment . . . ”
