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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1982)
Portland Observer, February 25, 1982 Section III Page 5 The cquitebte Ufa Assurance Society ot the United State* M S S.W HeM Btvd , Saavan on. Oregon S700S The present effects o f slavery O n u s ro o l News, N. W .—Slavery was an in te g ra l p a rt o f A m erican history, and its effects are s till fe lt by the A fro-A m erican people. In a revealing interview. Dr. Darrel M ill- ner traced the effects o f actions in the 16th century on tw entieth-cen tury Afro-Americans ; Q: Whal are the economic effects d f slavery, that are fe lt by the fo r - rher slaves In these times? ■ M illn e r: The m o il overt effect is tjia t it gave the Caucasian race a head start in terms o f economic de velopm ent. But it was Black labor Chat developed the Western H em i sphere. Although they contributed ipost o f the labor they got very few <jf the benefits. One race benefited from tw o and three hunderd years , f free labor from another. When Slavery legally ended many whites believed that we would start over as <quals. But that is unreasonable. You d o n ’ t start even a fte r three undrcd years o f exploitation. F or to d a y ’ s Blacks fin d them - lelves in a hole in terms o f competi tion. Another race has a three hun dred year head start in economic de velopment. ’ Q: A re there any psychological problems inherited fro m slavery. M illner: The psychological effects re s till strong today and fe lt in »laces like Portland where the Black mpulation is small. We live in a so le ly where Blackness and the Black experience are a source o f embar- asunenv I t ’ s a re a lity that every [Back ha* to face. i There Is also the psychological ef t t fe ct o f the w hite m e n ta lity which ■ays i f it Is not white, i t ’ s not right. Blacks who live in this culture are Bated in a p o s itio n o f accepting hat; being bad and wrong or mak- ng an effort to counteract that. It's tard enough being a human being in he modern w orld w ith o u t having he additional burden o f race. Q: What can parents do to count eract this negative psychological e f fect? M illn e r : The role that parents should play is to give love and sup port to the o ffs p rin g . M any Black parents are in the least favorable po sition to econom ically im prove the conditions o f the children. But love is not expensive nor is psychological support. Parents can provide a posi tive home atmosphere and this w ill create a home environm ent to con tend with the world. Q: Is there a social aspect o f slav ery that's fe lt? M illn e r: You can talk about this on many levels. The white response in some cases is that they are embar rassed by slavery and they try to avoid it. Slavery was no historical accident. It was a mainstay o f A m erican life . One o f the legacies o f slavery is that modern white Am eri cans d o n 't have to be racists to benefit from racism. Slavery was the beginning o f the in s titu tio n o f ra cism. When Blacks were freed there wasn’t anything done to compensate them fo r three hundred years o f slavery. So Blacks suffered in real terms because o f lack o f access to education, economic resources and v o tin g . W ith o u t those re alities Blacks d id not fu n c tio n the way other minorities have. There was no way to pass through. Q: Does history repeat itself? M illn e r: No, just certain patterns in history emerge over time. But you never can return to an earlier histor ical period because some o f the ba sic ingredients have changed. I f hu man beings learn nothing else they should learn that change is part o f the human experience. Q: Are Black people being p u t in th e ir place the same way we were during the period a fte r reconstruc tion? M illn e r: There is a desire on the part o t w hite A m erica to redefine raciles to the way they were 30 and 40 years ago. And this is not to say that Black people w o n 't experience any negative times. One o f the prob lems for young Blacks is the passage SANDRA K. BELL Aptlfit Specializing in Disability 6 4 3 9.300 Treat A Kid To Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken Hil My name is Orlanda. I'm smiling because my Mom is bringing home some Popeye’s Chicken. I love Popeye's Chicken. Popeye's has everything I like —corn dogs, pop, french fries and chicken tacos. o f time has separated them from the realities o f what Black life was like 20 years ago. I believe that Blacks may still remain the most oppressed and exploited group in this country. Q: H ow should the present gener ation view slavery? M illner: One mistake Blacks have made is to be ashamed o f slavery. Blacks are not the people to be ashamed o f slavery. They were the v ictim s o f slavery. They never wanted to be slaves nor were they happy as slaves. Blacks should look back at slavery fo r some o f the sur v iv a l tactics to use in the com ing years. Q: What kind o f survival skills? M illn e r : Just lo o k at what we used during slavery as families and in d iv id u a ls . The extended fa m ily was invented in A m erican slavery from its roots in A frica . It was this unit that enabled Blacks to survive fo r 300 years. Q: Is there a carry-over fro m slav ery in Black m ale-fem ale re la tio n ships? M illner: I t ’ s hard to identify what the problems are in male-female re lationships. C e rtainly slavery con trib u te d . We tend in th is c o u n try to talk about slavery as an economic institution. But slavery was a sexual in stitu tio n as well. One o f the rea so n s w h it e - m a le - d o m in a t e d A m erica hated to give up slavery was not so much the economic bene fits but sexual as well. [M illn e r be lieves that this is one o f the reasons Black people are so many shades.] Our definition o f Black is not based on color but in social and political reality. A nother survival skill is how we use transportation. Whites have be come spoiled. Il they don't use their car they may not get to work. Blacks have always dealt w ith public tran sportation. We can use the survival skill individually or collectively as a race to get by in these hard times. Put A Smile On Your Kid's Face! 3 Locations To Serve You: 5949 N.E. Union Ave. 283 9542 3120 N.E. Union Ave. 281 2628 2320 S.E. 82nd Ave. 774-9651 It's a little-known fact that Napoleon, the famous emperor of France, was not French, but Italian. Both his parents were Italian. • r r "Voice oLOur Grassroot News, N. W.—On Sat urday, February 27, the Urban League is sponsoring "V oice o f our People,” performed by the Media Forum Players. This group consists o f six Black Hollywood stars; Den ise Nicholas-Hill, Robert Hooks, Brock Peters. Janet MacLachlan, Charles Floyd Johnson and Tracée Lyles. In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Denise Nicholas-Hill talked about her introduction to this theater group. "A b o u t a year and a half ago the Media Forum Players asked me to perform. The most ef fective portrayal we could do was to compile Black poetry into a produc tion benefit. From that we de veloped. ’ Voice o f our People.’ " Last summer they made their na tional debut on public television. " I t ’ s a thing in and o f itself. It gives people another point o f view. We're dramatic, musical and com edic. This is one way to deal with one aspect o f Black literature. Most o f the material is already composed so it ’s a lot easier than w riting a scrip,. It’ s a very simple and very moving show ." Mrs. H ill goes over the premise o f the show. In light o f the roll-backs in feder al funds for the arts Denise Nicho las-H ill believes that the ball is back in the court o f the community if they want to experience art. " I f they want to expose their children and their families the community w ill have to support it. And I don’ , think that's bad. It is (he responsi b ility o f the individual and not Government to supply certain Black Awareness Day In keeping w ith the n a tio n ’ s celebration o f Black History month, A lle n Tem ple C .M .E . C hurch members invite you to attend "P e r spective’ ’ a Black Awareness Day Celebration. Saturday, February 27, 1982 at 7:30 P .M at our church’ s location, 4236 N.E. 8th Ave. A llen Temple's m ulti-talents w ill be displayed in the form o f drama, poetry and m usic. Some o f the presentations w ill be o rig in a l and others w ill be taken from the works o f great Black writers. Music w ill be g lo rio u s ly done by " T h e Black Awareness C o ra le .’ ’ Rev. L .T . Strayhand, Pastor; Lillia n Jenkins, chairm an and Louise Jones, co- chairm an and D ire c to r o f Black Awareness Coralc, feel assured that a ll w ho dare to come w ill have a most e njoyab le, c u ltu ra l and educational experience. brings screen stars things. A rt has always been a step child in this country, anyway. I f we are going to have it at all we must get out and make it ourselves." Denise Nicholas-Hill acted for five years with the series, "R oom 222." She was involved with two movies starring Bill Cosby and Sid ney Poiticr. She gives her reasons as to why Black movies are no longer distributed. "B la ck people as a whole were not vocal or demanding in what they wanted to see. We tend to sit back and wait for things to happen. You know, who cares if you don’ t care. I f we were to make our demands felt people would re spond." Many o f the Black movies suf fered a Black backlash. Is this why they aren’ t around today? “ Yes, it is. It caused a lo, o f fear in the in dustry and they needed an excuse not to do them anyway. Rather than coming up with alternatives we had a total icing over o f all Black movies." Ms. H ill agrees with the contention that we cut our noses o ff to spite our faces. How does Ms. H ill feel about the way Black people are portrayed on T.V.? " I don’ t see any Blacks por trayed on television. The reasons why there are so few is, why should the white directors and producers care more about us than we do. They are not interested in making Black people rich or famous. They are much more concerned about themselves and each other than we are. They present and promote themselves. Unless forced to do something else, they won’ , . ’ ’ On Friday, February 26, you can see some o f our most popular actors and actresses at a reception held at Ben Franklin’ s Boardroom on the 19,h floor. One S.W. Columbia. That reception is 25 dollars bu, on Saturday they w ill hold a media workshop a, the Jefferson Gymna sium (hat is free. Let's get together and welcome this group to Port land. W hen Stephen Foster w rote his fam ous song, "W ay Down Upon the Swanee River," he misspelled the name of the river. Its correct name is "Suwanee.” There is no Swanee River in the U.S. • W hich 2 U .S . states border on the m ost other states? 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