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 . . . ”