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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1985)
Page 4, Portland Observer. January 9, 1985 EDITORIAL/OPINION Taxation without representation As Mayor Bud Clark lakes office, he is accept ing an inequalily — no A fro-A m ericans on his siaff and no staff member with an intricate or inti mate knowledge o f Northeast Portland. Hie racially unbalanced composition o f Mayor C la rk ’s transition sta ff paves a foundation on shaky ground. For a candidate who benefited from the surge in voter registration his actions do not measure up to the reality o f what he has brought to City Hall. Americans. She coasted into office on name fa miliarity and is practicing taxation without repre sentation. K afoury has taken A ffirm a tiv e A ction back twenty years by engaging in "w in d o w dressing" — having a Black ou, front and none in the back. Both Clark and Kafoury must remember the same margin o f victory that put them in office can take them out. Their hiring attitudes and actions b or der on racism and reinforce the racism that exists in government institutions. Portland w ill be better served by City Hall and Multnomah County administrations that operate on the reality o f fairness and not the illusion o f inclusion. Certainly, Clark is aware o f the C ity’s A ffirm a tive Action hypocrisy and Kafoury can see that the County’s A ffirm a tive Action applies everywhere but in administration. The racial composition o f these two elected officials can only produce p o li cies that w ill make the Grand Wizard o f the Ku Klux Kian proud. I he inauguration is over and low-income com munities and those o f color are faced with a sym phony o f inequalities from national, slate and local policies. The only way for the powerless and voiceless to survive in 1985 is to challenge the status quo that Mayor Clark has replaced. County Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury, who benefited from Gladys M cC oy’s political miscal culation (she resigned to lose in the City Commis sioner’s race), is practicing this same type o f hiring hypocrisy as she retained M cCoy’s secretary but hired no staff o f color or any with a reputation o f working in District 2. We challenge C lark to implement policies o f Affirm ative Action within his own staff, and Ka foury to practice wha, she preaches in terms o f believing in Black self-determination. Challenge them to bring Portland out o f the dark ages o f inequality to the enlightened decade o f fairness in hiring practices. A fte r all, people o f color pay taxes, too. During the campaign, Kafoury told our editor ial s ta ff and (he R ainbow C o a litio n that she agreed with the premis that Black political power could be expressed by Blacks in politically respon sible positions. However, she exploited the com m u n ity by ignoring a pool o f q u a lifie d A fro - Letters to the Editor us, he has never been involved in any Black activist moves in this in s titu tion. It is w ith great d iffic u lty that we combat the racism in the Oregon Slate Penitentiary and elsewhere, but it is with an even greater difficulty that we must combat the ignorant enemy with in. (Because he is our color, does not always mean he is our kind.) A ll allegations are totally prepos terous and conjured up in a wild imag ination, or possibly of another small mind that influences him. I he Observer welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typed or neatly printed and signed with the author's name and address fad dresses are not published). We re serve the nghi to edit fo r length. Mail Io: Portland Observer, P. O. Box 3137, Portland. OB 972OH Allegations preposterous HOMER D eV ILLE C LA Y. A N T H O N Y LINK, BONNIE KINSEY. IA M O N T JOHNSON, WA YNE HOW ARD. To the Editor, Our first response io this article (No More Tom s, was one of physical vio lence. but after careful consideration the source of our aggressions are calm and we intend Io show (he m enial growth Uhuru professes. U h u ru as well as every o rg an iza tion in this institution has the oppor tunity to submit inmates to the Classi fication Committee for trips with staff. It is norm al fo r each organization (1 akota, J ay tees. La Raza Running C lu b , A th letic C lu b , A . A ., etc.) to have two inmates on trip status, but this is not always true, in Uhuru's case because we have been very active in such projects as the festival we pul on this summer at Delta Park and the Pri soners Forum that we sponsored to in form the public o f the genocidal pro portions o f Blacks that are being lucked up nation-wide. We have been allowed to have as many as six (6, Bro thers with escorted trip status. There is notably a certain amount of envy that exists. Sometimes, this envy shows in the form of malicious slander such as shown by M r. Boyd who has had four years to address us about any issues he is dissatisfied w ith . That would have been the manly thing to do. Not only has he not approached •l »43391 H40H40 »4493! »44*66 »42301 Danny Boyd is right To the Editor, This is being written in response to " N o Uncle T o m " that was printed in the December 19th ed itio n by M r. Danny K. Boyd as well as " U n c le Tom Sour Grapes” and "U ncle Tom Rebuttal," printed in the January 3rd edition. I am an inmate here at the Oregon State Penitentiary as well as a member o f Uhuru Sa Sa. This is not being written to throw mud but to try to put things in an objective view and shed insight. On January 4th, I personally spoke w ith the tw o top members o f our leadership in U h u ru Sa Sa. It was agreed by ourselves and other mem bers who were present that M r. Ron nie M artin has not been as effective as he could be in his job capacity here at O SP. There are several reasons o f fered for this being so. I , M r. Ronnie M artin has much apprehension for his job because o f lack o f minority em ployees w ith in (he O S P to support him ; 2 , M r.' R onnie M a rtin is the only minority on the Executive level and is overworked; and 3) the minor ity inmates here at O SP are not seri ous minded in the proper areas and do not give M r Ronnie M a rtin the means or incentives necessary to ap proach the a d m in is tra tio n and re ceive serious consideration. A dditionally, what was not m en tioned in the December 19th or the January 3rd editions is that M r. Ron nie M a r lin is also the A ffirm a tiv e Action O fficer here at O SP Whose responsibility is it to recruit m in o r ities w ith in the O S P em ploym ent ranks? I personally think that Danny K. Boyd is right: the community and so ciety should keep a closer watch on this institu tion and Departm ent o f C orrections because the Danny K. Boyds o f this institution w ill be re leased one day, back into the com m unity and society, w ith a lot o f hatred built up due to the actions o f the w h o le c o m m u n ity , whites in cluded, corrections department em ployees, all the way from the Execu tive level down to the CSOs. Along ihe Color Line by Dr. Manning Marable The recent anti-apartheid demon strations across the nation represent, in the short run, an attempt to revive the old civil rights coalition of Blacks, liberals. Latinos, Jews, and labor. De spite the refusal of some Orthodox and Conservative Jewish groups to take part in the protests — because o f Israel’s extensive economic and po litical links w ith the South A frican regime — many Jewish rabbis and po- litical activists have endorsed the ac tions. William Lucy, secretary-treasur er o f the Am erican Federation o f State, C ounty and M u n icip al E m ployees, was among those arrested at the South African embassy in Wash ington. In San Francisco, members of the Intern ation al Longshorem en’s and W arehousem en’ s U n ion have refused to unload cargo from South A fric a , and over 500 dockw orkers and community leaders have demon strated on their behalf. As M Car I H o lm an , executive director o f the National Urban C oalitio n observes, these "sit-ins have been u sefu l" in bringing together all liberal, labor and m inority forces around a clear-cut issue o f moral and political im m edi acy. “ This kind of action will probably result in a spurt o f action in other areas." Viewed historically, however, the anti-apartheid campaign represents a renaissance o f Black solidarity and identity with A fric a. A nd in many respects, this connection of culture and politics has very deep roots among A fro-A m erican s. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, Black Americans were acutely aware of their African kinship, and sought to express their connectedness in num erous ways. Free Blacks in the north ern states in the years before emanci pation frequently named their f r a ternal societies and educational in stitutions after their ancestral home. The first Black school in New York City, founded in 1787, was called the " A fric a n Free S ch o ol.’ ’ Boston’s Black community founded the "Sons of the A frican S o ciety" in 1798, to provide financial assistance to the poor. W hen A fro -A m eric an s were prohibited from worshiping in many whites’ churches, they started their own denom ination in 1816 — the African Methodist Episcopal Church. M any nineteenth century Black leaders, disillusioned with the failure o f Am erican democracy to embrace Black freedom, proposed a mass emi gration back to A frica. In 1887, the Kansas African Em igration Associa tion advocated the creation of a “ Unit ed States o f A frica, for the elevation of the African and for the perpetuity of our race." Black abolitionist leader Dr. Martin Dclany went to Nigeria and successfully negotiated w ith local chiefs for a tract of land suitable for Black American emigrants. In the twentieth century, a m ajor shift in Afro-American social thought occurred, produced by the nse of racial segregation. Blacks were denied the right to vote, were refused em ploy ment or service in public establish ments, and were fo rcib ly removed from white neighborhoods. Over five thousand Black Am ericans were lynched between 1882 and 1927, and many publicly burned, the new racial codes segregated all sports facilities, restaurants, buses and trains. Birming ham, Alabama even outlawed Blacks and whites from playing checkers or dominoes together in 1930. Facing the reaction against racial equality, most Black Am erican leaders now advocated a political philosophy of civil rights and integration. Blacks were "fu lly Am erican,” and as such, should be extended basic civil liberties and rights shared by whites. Any con nection with A frica was deliberately ignored or forgotten. G rad u ally, by the 1950s, most Black Am ericans knew little about Africa’s history or its people. Yet the links between A fric a and A fro-A m erican s did not disappear entirely during these years. W .E .B . DuBois, noted civil rights leader, spon sored an important series of political conferences which brought together West Indians, Black Americans and Africans between l9(X)and 1945. In in by L s n ita D u k e a n d R ic h a rd B r o w n creasing numbers, African intellectuals came to the U .S . and took part in desegregation campaigns. N ham di Ankiwe of Nigeria and Kwanie Nkru mah of G ham both attended all Black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania Their respective nse to power in the 1950s was covered extensively in Black Am erican newspapers, and the achievement of African independence captured the im aginations o f U .S . Blacks. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell o f Harlem attended the initial conference o f Third W orld and non- aligned nations in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. After independence, connec tions across the Atlantic deepened in both symbolic and concrete ways. In both dow ntow n Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi, major streets were named in honor of Du Bois, the “ father of Pan Africanism.” In South Africa, young Black leaders such as the late Steve Biko developed their "B la c k C o n sciousness” movement against apart heid by drawing upon the rhetoric and tactics o f the "Black Pow er" move ment in the 1960s. Black Am erican students and tourists in increasing numbers began to make pilgnmages to their "homeland"; U.S. Black cultural fashions and hairstyles began to con sciously imitate African patterns. Iro n ica lly , it was only w ith the achievement o f desegregation and the granting of democratic political rights in (he 1960s that Black Am ericans could fully revive their political and cultural relations with A frica. Black mayors and elected officials began to use their offices to develop closer eco nomic and civic ties with their African counterparts. Black Congressmen lobbied for increased U.S. aid to sup port A fric a’s development, and pres sured administrations to halt economic and political support for apartheid. The recent demonstrations are a return to a rich historical tradition of support and identity with Africa — sharjiened by the realization that no genuine democracy can exist for Black Ameri cans so long as others in the African diaspora remain under racial rule and economic exploitation. The recent shooting in a New York subway prom pted the Street Beat team to ask, “ Should the authorities prosecute the subway rider, who shot four youths who tried to rob him, as a criminal or hail him as a hero?” Asmar Haheeb-ullah Saleem CLA RENCE EU G EN E JONES United Way To the Editor, O n behall o f U n ited W ay o f the Columbia-Willamette, I would like to express by gratitude to Portland- Observer readers for your outstanding support o f the recently concluded United W ay C am paign. ROBERT H. SHORT Volunteer ( umpatgn ( hairman Portland Observer M t" • African and Black American connections j ... Dexter Morrison Terminal Operator Toni Harris Service Representative " I d on ’ t think he should be treated like a criminal. He was de fending him self. H e was just doing what is right.” “ They should prosecute him as a criminal. His motive was wrong because his intent was to kill. It aggravates tensions between Blacks and whites. Should every body carry a gun with an intent to kill?” Johnny Johnson Cool'R "T h e y should treat him like a criminal, there was no reason for him to shoot those youths like he did. Even though the youths were wrong, they should treat him like everyone else." The Portland Observer fU S P S 959 680) it published every Thursday by Ewie Publishing Company, Inc . 2201 North Killings worth Portland. Oregon 97217. Post Office Bo« 3137, Portland. Oregon 97208 Second class postage paid at Portland. Oregon I ««I I »«I The Portland O birrvtr was established in 1970 MEMBER Subscriptions » ,5 00 per year in the Tri County s in . Post m aster Send address changes to the Porr/ertrf O b irr ir r. P 0 Bo« 3137, Portland Oregon 97208 NÊWA peh Ajtocicrio/i - Founded IM S Alfred I Henderson, Editor/Publisher A l Williams, General Manager Î portwnd Ô bs ÊS j Ë r I I 283 2486 National Advertising Representative Am algam ated Publishers. Inc N aw York 1 15 for one year □ Ray Bruner Steetworker 125 for two Bo« 3137. Portland OR 97208 " T h e y should hail him as a hero. He was just protecting him self. You would do the same." A*, Street c ir v Jeffery Jones Security Officer Apt state ZIP < z >} r i ci r X 5 * 50 ö " I d o n ’ t think he should be prosecuted as a c rim in a l. They should lake into consideration the crime rate in New Y o rk, assault on the elderly, etc." Tryger Bey Molder " I d o n ’t think they should do either. They have not prosecuted the guys who tried to rob him ."
