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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1985)
Page 4, Portland Observer, March 27,1966 HI.IX4 ftkVIP.,. FARMERS ARE PUMW.MIU7ARV RENS/OAIS ARE 700 F A T < . , EDITORIAL/OPINION Give humanity a chance The current wave o f violence in South Africa is typical o f a dying colonialism and the corre lation between the 1963 observations o f Frantz Fanon in his book, “ The Wretched o f the Earth“ and South A frica today is too strong to ignore. Fanon was a Black psychiatrist who observed the Algerian Revolution when the Algerians fought the French for their independence. In 1963 Fanon called South Africa "colonialism.” “ Apartheid creates a world o f permanent ten sion. The settlers pit brute force against the weight o f numbers.” In South A frica the Black population is 22.7 million. The white population is 4.7 million. Although Blacks comprise over 72 percent o f the population, they can live permanently on only 13 percent o f the total land. To maintain eco nomic, political and social control the minority regime employs a complex system o f security measures supplied by American multi-nationals such as International Business Machines (IB M ). Fanon wrote, "T h e settlers keep alive in the native an anger which he deprives o f an o u tle t.. only to trap the native in tight links o f the chains o f colonialism.” This anger has boiled over and the South African Black is willing to die for their freedom. Oregonians have an opportunity to contribute to a non-violent movement called divestment before violence escalates to a point involving that entire region and the entire world. Representative Margaret Carter, who intro duced House Bill 2001, has charted us a road which will prohibit new investment by the Pub lic Employees’ Retirement Fund, State Bank deposits and other public funds from propping up the colonialists in power who retain control by force. Whatever violence occurs after the votes in Salem are counted, if Oregon is still funding the virus called apartheid, the blood shed by the regime trying to maintain oppres sion and the lives sacrificed by both Blacks and whites in pursuit o f freedom will be on the hands o f all Oregonians. For once, let’s maintain a position that we will no, be ashamed o f in the year 2001, a mere 16 years from now. O ur children need no, live with the guilt o f our reluctance to avoid violence by our willingness to tolerate apartheid for the sake o f a buck when profitable alternatives exist. Let’s give humanity a chance in the year 2001. Encourage your state senator and state repre sentative to vote "yes” on House Bill 2001. Let’s stop the bloodshed now! Letters to the Editor The Observer welcomes tetters to the editor. Letters should be typed or neatly printed and signed with the author's name and address (ad dresses are not published) We re serve the right to edit fo r length. Mail to: Portland Observer, P. O. Box 3137, Portland, OB 97308 Recapture neighborhoods To Ihe Editor, Whenever people «re being dehu manized and Iheir neighborhoods are bang held hostage by pimps, whores, Johns and drug dealas, ii becomes the business o f the religious commun ity o f the entire area. Parts o f north and northeast Port land are being made most unlivablc by an element that defies (he authori ties and makes a mockery o f the jus tice system. Women cannot go to the store without being harassed Young girls cannot ride Tri-M ct on Union Avenue without the fear o f pressure for prostitution and drugs. Some people tell us that there arc those who could care less about what happens in our neighborhoods and say that prostitution and its accom panying destruction o f patple and p ro paty ’ ’belongs over there" — meaning in our community. Some groups argue that legalizing prostitution can solve the problem. It would Io w a the crime statistics but not the devastation o f communities. We consider the push to legalize pros titution now under way in the Slate legislature (H B 2940) is to be an as sault on the justice system and on the faith beliefs o f the great majority o f the religious community. W e feel that lack o f support from (he greater community is not a lack of concan but a lack o f undastand- ing. I f we can get the support o f the religious community, we can solve - - M lO r e q » » » • Association ™ JO H N LEU TH O LD Chairperson, Board o f Elders Not our kind To the Editor, She's our color, but not our kind. I am hoping to help some of the Black men and women at OSP, O S O and O W C C . Ms. Hazel G. Hayes - the chairperson of the Parole Board and the chairperson o f the N .A .A .C .P . in Portland — is without a doubt "Miss Uncle T o m .” This so-called Black woman came into our Black club meeting here at OSP to answer questions that w a e concerning Black brothas and sisters. She came to this concerned meeting, v a y staggering drunk and made a statement with the word that Blacks have been trying to erase as part of the vocabulary. After one o f our beautiful Black sistas from O W C C asked her why she refused to answer any o f her three tetters — one was sent by Express Mail and Ms. Hayes had to sign for it — Ms. Hayes refused to answer the young lady's question. As she sat down, she said to C h a lm a Jones, who is an o th a Black parole board pason, "T hat's why I don’t like niggas " Ten to 15 Black men and women overheard Ms. Hayes' arrogant state ment and things got a little out of hand. During the dispute, Ms Hayes' money was stolen out o f her handbag. She did not know until one o f our snitching brothers wrote and told her who did it. There is no understanding when a Black person comes to Ms. Hayes and h a KKK members By the metrix system, my parole release date was December of '84. Because of my sev en years minimum sentence, which the parole board could have over ruled but refused to even though they have released three other men years ago that were involved in the same crime. They all have been to prison numerous times before this in cident and are back today. Also, the parole board overruled their mini mum and withheld mine. I had neva been incarcaated in my life before this. I would have writ ten this later many moons ago, but I was afraid of doing so when I had to go up before the parole board. Now I have almost complaed my time and th ae is nothing for me to be afraid of, for th a e is no way I can hurt myself by presenting the (ruth to the N .A .A .C .P . I am asking for the support of the N .A .A .C .P ., Black United front. Urban League and the people o f our community to help those of us that have not been pushed over the line to w hae there is no more existence in society. WA Y N E H O W A K D ^ 2 ,f)/ Portland Observer H Publishers the problem. The Board o f Elders o f Mallory Avenue Christian Church is address ing the problem, and we need your help and support. You and your or ganization can help in three ways: I) Become informed about the devas tation o f on-the-street prostitution and open drug sales; and how it ad- vasely impacts on entire communi ties. 2) Contact your state legislators and ask that H B 2940 be defeated. 3) Call Mayor Clark. Chief Harring ton, and District Attorney Schrunk to ask for enforcement of laws now on the books (or write them). We can help with the first step. Bob Nelson, an Elder and a Trustee o f Mallory Church, is active in com munity groups trying to recapture our neighborhoods. Call Bob, 287-4050, and arrange a meeting with various groups in your area to hear our story. The problem is real and a solution must be found and soon, before peo ple decide to act on their own — one to one — with their tormentors. ** oe»‘ ‘• ' » I . na».o*a» Th« For Hand Observer ZUSPS 959 6801 is published every Thurtdey by E m Publishing Company. Inc . 2201 North Killings worth. Portland. Oregon 97217, Post Office Bos 3137, Portland. k»t t * '-J. Oregon 97208 Second class postage (rent al Portland. Oregon The Portland Observer was eslab, n ed in 1970 Subscriptions 115 00 per year in the 11'County area Post m aster Send address changes to the Portland Observer. P 0 Bo« 3137 Portland, Oregon 97208 MEMBER NÊWA peb A ssociation - Fo u n d ed I I I IM S Alfred L. Henderson, Editor/Publisher AI Williams, General Manager PORTLAND OBSERVER 283 2486 National Advertising Repreeentatlve A m algam ated Publishers. Inc N ew York I I S for CM'« y««f ITS for two Boa 3137 Portland OR 9 W1B M m Mat Cri 9tf Apt < Z >5 ° 3 is. 5 * * o -t > X MMWTHlMf,,, MQ SON MlCHML l$AWRK&>,„, ianw . mene AK MP SOCKS 25 years of struggle marked by Corbin Seavers Tw oity-five years ago this month, 69 Black South Africans (Azanians) men, women and children lost their lives peacefully demonstrating against the apartheid govanm ent's Pass Laws, this is such an historic occa sion in the ant 1-apartheid struggle that the United Nations officially recognizes March 21 as the Interna tional Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in memory o f the Sharpeville Massacre. Nobel lau- rate Bishop Desmond Tutu describes the pass laws as "the most resented feature o f a hated system" and says the pass books, "m ore than anything else in South Africa, demonstrate that the Black pason is a second class citi zen in the land o f his birth.” All Africans over the age o f 16 must carry an identity book called a "pass" at all limes or face imprison ment if caught without it. The pass contains the pason’s fingerprints, ahnic background, place o f birth, residence, employment and even tax information. It is a key instrument in the South African government’s enforcement and application o f the Group Areas Act which tells the A fri can majority where they can and cannot stay; the several Bantu Laws defining the relationship of Africans to white establishments and places o f nnploymcnt; and the Influx Control Acts which restrict the mvoement o f Africans to the urban areas. All these laws arc known as the Pass I jiws instituted by the white minority gov- anm ent in South Africa to restrict and control all African labor and movement. "The survival o f white supremacy in Azania (South A frica) is dependent on the continued suppression o f the indigenous people, restrict their movement a ril put them in places w hae they can always be seen and controlled,” explains exiled Azanian N. M . Muendane. The pass books represent the pass laws because without the former it would be impossible to implement the latter, and it is for this reason the March 21, I960, anti-pass cam paign led by the kPan Africanist C on gress of Azania represented a direct challenge to racist minority rule in South Africa. Il struck at the heart o f the apartheid system: The pan Africanist Congress o f Azania (P A C ) holds the belief “ that the acceptance o f any indignity, any insult, any humiliation is the accep tance o f inferiority." Once the mind is free, explains the P A C leadership, "the body will soon be free and once white supremacy has become mentally untenable to our people, it will be come physically untenable to o !" Armed with this perspective and understanding o f liberation the P A C led tens o f thousands o f Africans to peacefully protest the pass laws by burning their pass books and giving themselves up for arrest. P A C Chair man J. N. Pokcla describes that fol lowed on that infamous day: "L ik e all reactionaries threatened by mass and popular action the South African racists, too, reacted with brute force against unarmed men, women and children. At Sharpeville, 69 Azanians were killed in cold blood and 186 wounded, many saiously. Also in response to the challenge posed by the mass-oriented March 21, I960 campaign, the racist regime de clared a state o f emergency, arrested and incarcerated P A C leaders and members and hurriedly passed a legis lation to ban the liberation move ments (the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Con gress)." The white minority government detained 18,000 people, banned pub lic meetings, enforced press censor ship and sent several military con voys into Black townships. Il even took the unprecedented step o f sus pending the pass books for 17 days. Foreign companies panicked thinking a revolution might occur soon and quickly withdrew 48 million dollars from South Africa causing for its foreign reserves to plummet. There was enough o f a political crisis that many South Africans thought the partheid government might soon collapse until U S. banks came to its rescue with emergency loans. For the struggling African major ity, the Sharpeville massacre had its impact too. “ Overnight, Sharpeville showed the w ay," writes PA C mem ber David Dube. " It injected a new confidence in the African. Il taught the importance o f self-reliance. It showed the African that he was his IPIeuse rum to Page 10, Column !)
