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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1982)
Page 2 Portland Observer, December 16.1962 Black-on-black crime: Portland's youth by ¿arris« D uke One o f the m ott awesome effects o f black oo black crim e is on our youth. Ernest C athcart fro m O ive U t T his D a y , a com m unity-based adoption o rg an izatio n , says black ch ild ren are exposed to too much violence. “ Just look at T .V . There is so much explo itatio n o f sex and violence. Kids today can discuss a movie filled w ith sex and violence like we used to discuss How dy-Doo- dy. “ M a n y people to d a y are angry and we are relying on violence. This contributes to black on black crime. One o f the things that is hurting us is that we are beginning to see o u r selves the way that whites sec us. We have this attitude o f when someone does me w rong and th a t person is black then I ’ ve got to k ill that nig ger. T h e re needs to be m ore o f a co m m u n ity fee lin g . W e are not teaching our ch ild re n a sense o f c o m m u n ity , or a p rid e in o n e’ s existence or heritage. W e act like we believe what whites say about black p eople. W hy we even call one another ‘nigger.’ " A report released tw o weeks ago by the Portland Chapter o f the N a tio n a l C o u n c il o f Jewish W om en found that m in ority children were receiving harsher punishment than whites. C athcart said this does not surprise h im . “ T h e system reacts that way to A fro -A m eric an s, both children and adults. T h e system is racist and works a double standard. You sec that not only in the criminal justice system but the educational system as well. As a group o f people the system does not work in our be h a lf. T h e c rim in a l ju s tic e system turns juvenile offenders in to adult criminals. The problem is that more o f our people end up behind bars. From what I ’ ve seen or read prisons just make good prisoners.** Cathcart says that the weakening of our fam ily structure doesn't help either. “ The extended fam ily is also weakening. W e may rationalize it by saying in slavery we were not given the chance to develop a fam ily. O r the black m an m ay la y th at the black w om an w o n ’ t let him be a man. N o one lets you be a man. You either are or you are not. The black Sears man is very im p o rtan t to our race and he must take a stand to sec his importance. Black men o ffer stabil ity. But, i f you allow the fam ily to be ru n d ow n you w ill d estroy the race. W hat black children need are black adults.“ Janice B arn ett, a ju v en ile coun sellor, says that peer pressure has a lot to do w ith juvenile crime. “ You get a couple o f b ro thers together and they start ta lk in g ab o ut w hat they d o n ’ t have; they becom e in spired to commit crime. They boost one an o ther up u n til they com m it the crime. Parents are spcnding,all their time battling with white folks on all fronts. They are fighting the schools, courts and at their jobs. We are living from day to day. There is nothing that comes easy fo r black fo lk s. W e are dealing w ith racism from left to right. The effects on our children is slow death. “ I f you don 't have a community w ith some kin d o f pride you can’ t pass that on to your children. They go to school and learn they were slaves. They go to the store and it’ s dirty. How can you feel good about going to Fred Myers on U nion and Killingsworth?" Ms. Barnett says that education in Portland perpetuates racism which leads dow n the road to crim e. “ Look at the kids who get bussed. I have a little girl on my caseload who was bussed over to the west side. She said the reason she got involved in crime was that all her friends had d iffe re n t items and things. By the time her friends were seniors in high school they had clothes and cars. She wanted to be in that group o f kids. The only way she saw was to steal. “ In the c rim in a l justice system you have counsellors who work with black youth superficially or not at all. You have black males who have been through the system a number o f times. In the end the kid gets the message th a t it's O .K . to co m m it crimes. A ll o f a sudden five crimes dow n the ro ad he hits a little old lad y in the head and steals her purse; then he ends up in MacLaren or Hillcrest.” She concludes that it is easier lor black children to enter the crim inal justice system because they get a r rested more often because they arc Mack. The National Urban League’s re port, " T h e State o f Black America, 1982,“ says that the median age o f the black population is 25 years, as compared to the median age o f the white population, which is 41. Black teenagers comprise a larger portion ot the black p opulation, nationally as well as locally. This means that the problems o f today's black teen agers in the long run w ill affect the entire black population. A v e l M a y fie ld , d ire c to r o f the N .E . Y o uth Service C enter, spells out the sheer num bers under 18. “ W ithin 1-5 on the west, Colum bia Blvd. to the n o rth , 42nd Street to the East and the B anfield Freeway to the south lies 70 .2 percent o f M u ltn o m a h C o u n ty ’ s black 10-18 year-olds. W ith in this service area black yo u th accounted fo r m ore than 53.3 percent o f all juvenile jus tice involvem ent. N o w , when you look at these numbers you must be gin to talk about black youth as not being a risk, but being at risk. The lives o f black youth are at greater jeopardy than at any other time in o ur h is to ry. T h e p ro blem is sys tem ic , or system atic, racism . W e must focus on black children's lives being at risk. We need to make sure that we are not blaming the victims for circumstances beyond their con tro l." Ms. M ayfield defines the status o f black youth in Portlan d as a " c r i sis .” T h e u nem p lo ym en t rate among black teenagers is 52 percent in M u ltn o m a h C o u n ty . L ack o f skills and preparation are among the reasons why. But still you can't take fault away fro m the system which created the problem s that become the burden for black youth to over come.” In terms o f resources that could be u tilitz e d to chip aw ay at this problem, Ms. M ayfield says that the distribution o f funds in inequitable. “ I f we were to look at the types o f support that should be in our com m unity I would have to say that tT isn't enough. I f I were to look at our current fu n d in g situ a tio n I w ould have to say that we are underfund ed. W e have alw ays been u n d e r fu n d ed . In this c u rre n t fu n d in g cycle we are proposing an allocation fo rm u la — a fo rm u la that w ill take into account the high rate o f black youth in ju v e n lile justice in v o lv e ment. U n til we begin to use an allo cation formula the funding situation w ill remain inequitable. There is no way that this community receives its share o f the funds to deal w ith its share o f the problem s." Rota modal* As a d u lts , one o f the most im portant impressions we can leave on o ur ch ild ren is the im p rin t o f our lives. T y a A n d erson fro m P o rt land's H o t Line says " I t ’ s hard for parents to serve as role models be cause o f the double standard society has required for us to act under. We tell our kids not to lie, yet, when a bill comes due. our children hear us lie. O nce I le ft the house w ith no money and I came back w ith g ro ceries. " M a n y parents have fo rg o tte n ab o u t role m odels. T h e ir only th o u g h t is s u rv iv a l. A lth o u g h we can't supply the physical model we can s till create values w ith in our c h ild re n . W e must begin to deal with their m inds." Eugene P e rk in s , a u th o r o f "H o m e is a D irty Street; The Social Oppression of Black C hildren,” de fines how the image o f a role model relates to our c h ild re n . “ Persons who are in the street are those whom ch ild ren o f the ghetcolony (black c o m m u n ity ] w ill try to em u la te . These men and women are products o f the ghetcolony and as such per so n ify the values and life styles which are transferred to the youth ___ The choices given to black chil dren are often narrowed to self-de feating and self-destructive models whose lifestyle only reflect the hope lessness and powerlessness that ac companies restricted m o b ility. (In P o rtla n d our ch ild re n have some p ositive role m odels lik e R onnie Herndon and the late Leon Johnson whose im pact changed the lives o f many a youth by reaching them at T h e A lb in a Y o u th O p p o rtu n ity Waiting for a friand Many young paopla thia ago hava llttla opportunity and few rola modal* to help tham aaak a productlva Ufa. (P h oto : R ich ard B ro w n ) School)." M any children, especially young men, are blinded by the glitter o f the street life. Yet, when you compare the streets o f P o rtlan d to those o f L .A . and New York what we have in Portland is a penny-ante manifesta tion o f what we think the street life should be. In Portland we have the so-called hustler w ho hustles his own m o th e r, and T r i- M e t pim ps w ho are the firs t to te ll you how many women they have, or the man who stands on the co rn er w ith a handful o f one-dollar bills telling us how sporting he is. M any youth are arou n d the streets to hear these tales But they aren’t getting the full story. I f they decide to enter the fast life they will realize the game is not all fun, and “ cop and blo w " is how they spend th eir m oney. Iceberg S lim , an ex-pim p , sums up the ex periences he had as a pimp; "1 had spent more than h alf a lifetim e in a worthless, dangerous profession. I f I had stayed in school, in eight years o f study I could have been an M .D . or an a tto rn e y . N o w here I was, slick but not smart, in a cell. I was past forty with counterfeit glory in my past and no m a rk etab le tr a in ing, no future. I had been a bigger sucker than a square m ark. A ll he loses is scratch. 1 had joined a club that suckered me behind bars five times." Perkins concludes, " T h e black community needs positive role m od els that can be felt on the streets and throughout its total environment. 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