Page 2, Portland Observer, February 5, 1986
Healthwatch
EDITORIAL/OPINION
by Steven Bailey N. D.
Black Families in Jeopardy
Black families in America are facing the most
formidable challenges o f any other institution o f its
kind in the country In fact, (he Black fam ily is in
deep trouhle, and if the causes o f the trouble are no,
addressed in a curative manner, survival o f the
Black fam ily is in serious jeopardy.
The National Urban League's annual publica
tion. The State o f Black America 1985, has as its
lead essay, "T h e Black Family Today and Tom or
row.” The essay should he read and studied by
every face, o f the Black community The schools,
fam ilies, political organizations, neighborh<x»d
clubs, and churches would do well to make it a
priority o f study and discussion Ibc essay con
tains a wealth o f information that w ill enable the
grasping o f a handle at making a response to those
challenges tearing at the heartstrings o f the Black
fam ily
Even without the essay, we see symbols o f trou
ble in the streets o f our cities — men, young, old,
and middle aged standing on street corners with
nothing to do and no place to go. We sense the
crisis as Black on Black crime constantly occurs in
Black neighborhoods, and when our young people
Rainbow Coalition Task Force
attack their family members.
There are three major problems facing the Black
family today which account for most, if no, all, o f
the difficulties tliey encounter and for so many
Black babies in the stream (the essay sheds light on
Black babies in the stream). These are not new
discoveries nor are they problems unique to
Blacks, bu, they have a devastating effect on the
stability and cohesiveness o f Black families.
The three major problems are: divorce and sep
aration. which dissolve large numbers of Black
families every year; teenage pregnancy, which
creates new families in which all members are at
risk, and non-employment and unemployment
which are the most serious o f all problems faced by
Black families because they are the primary reason
for their poverty.
In order to cure these problems. Black com
mumties throughout the nation must come together
and help one another, especially those Blacks who
are in the position to do so. If we Blacks are to
survive in the future, we need to do something now
for the Black family today
In n iu lJ jn u a ry . ihc Rainbow C o a li
tion health care task force met to de
velop a policy statement on health care
issues The policy w ill be presented to a
general Rainbow meeting February
I Ith al the Maranatha Church. 1222
N F Skidmore, fo r fu ll approval
The health care meeting was fa c ili
tated by Beverly Stein and Richard
Brow n o f the C oalition and featured
presentations by county commissioner
Gretchen Kafoury and slate senator B ill
M cCoy
W hile the task force was
charged w ith developing a draft for
general membership approval, there
appeared to be a consensus on most
issues discussed and the draft w ill prob
ably receive easy endorsement from the
general ux-mbership
Senator McCoy hegan the meeting
discussing his b ill S B 4 , 1, which would
enact a slate health plan intending Io
guarantee health care Io all This b ill,
w hich sal in committee last legislative
session, w ould so radically alter the
current provider system that most o f the
in dividu al issues discussed at this task
force meeting would be met by its
coverage S B 4 3 I, w ould to some e x
tent create a socialized system in O re
gon setting up a coverage plan on a stale
w ide basis It is n<x too surprising that it
sal in com m ittee last session
Com m issioner Kafoury spoke in
support o f S B 4 3 I. and follow ed w ith
comments on health concerns in gen
eral Her comments prim arily dealt
w ith the inadequate health care for the
indigent, the p ixir and other m inorities
She also expressed concern that change
cannot be achieved w ith in the medical
com m unity, but w ill need something
like S B 43I to alter the present system
Literature presented by the Oregon
Health A ction Cam paign m irrored
these later comments on the monied
self interests of the medical lobby
T heir (O H A C ) figures fo r "la ib b y in g
expenses fix lbe health care industry
1980 19X4 are
Oregon M edical Society, S2I2.OUO.
Oregon Association o f H ospitals,
$121,000« Kaiser. 1117.000« Blue
Cross/Blue Shield. $102,000 for a
T otal o f $552,000
This h a lf m illio n dollars is state
monies and excludes the national lobby
dollars o f the A M A
W hile the m ajority o f the mem ber
ship had mx read SB43I land therefore
did not totally endorse the b ill) there
was consensus support fo r the items
presented from the b ill The task force
w ill, as previously mentioned, present
the tinal draft February I Ith The mayor
issues w ill include "access for a ll, to
their chosen, quality health c a re ", at
tendon to current inadequacies in pre
natal care, indigent cate and rural
health concerns, cost containm ent,
prevention, education and improved
occupational and environm ental safety
Letters to the Editor
To The Editor:
Is Amerika Creating The Permanent Underclass?
—
■
.......................
■
i
■ ■ ■ ■ —
■>
“BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER”
Along I he Color Line by Dr. Manning Marable
hungry and without prospects — may subcon
sciously attempt to assert himself, displacing his
own unarticulated aggression against his Black
brothers
Another element in the equation is the tendency
o f most police to consider Black on Black crime as
nonconsequential For instance, only about 5 per
cent o f all murder victims in the U S are white
males who have been killed by Black men How
ever, over 70 percent of the Black men currently on
Death Row had white victims; and not one white
male has ever been executed for the murder o f a
Black person or the rape o f a Black woman in U S
history . Police and courts punish Black on white
crime most severely, while ignoring thousands o f
crimes committed by Blacks against other Blacks
In many cities, police simply do no, investigate
Black-on Black violence; as a result, many Black
victims do not report cases to the police, because
they know in advance that nothing w ill be done
Different organizations have begun to mobilize
against Black innercity violence In 1983, the
" Black-on Black Love Campaign" was initiated
in Chicago by Edward Gardner, head o f Soft Sheen
Pnxlucts. which promoted the goals o f Black pride
and collective development Now in seven cities,
the "B lack-on Black l ove Campaign" uses radio
advertisements, posters, and other forms o f public
ity to discourage violence In Savannah. Georgia
las, year, the NAACP started an anti-violence task
force, which has conducted educational and social
awareness projects among Black residents
However. Black-on-Black violence cannot be
resolved solely through educational efforts, nor
through the increase o f police patrols and citizen
anti violence task forces The murder o f brother
against brother is a symptom o f economic, political
and racial oppression Black self hatred and frat
ricidal violence is the logical culmination of
economic, social and political forces which collec
tively crush the life and humanity out of thousands
o f young Black people annually A comprehensive
strategy o f resistance must include demands for
full employment, quality housing, urban economic
development, and expanded human needs prog
rams. which can provide the self respect necessary
for young Black men and women
In 1984. 10,728 Americans were killed by
handguns. Two essential points can lx* made from
this blixxly statistic. First, the United States fosters
a culture o f s«xial violence and nihilism which is
unequaled in western industrial societies By way
o f contrast, the number o f persons killed with
handguns in 1984 was 48 in Japan. 52 in Canada,
42 in West Germany, 21 in Sweden, and only 8 hi
Great Britain Second, about 50 percent o f all U S .
murder victims in any given year are Black Amen
cans, and 94 percent o f those who murder Blacks
arc Black people
The statistics on Black-on Black violent crime
are terrifying In the U S , a white female has a
one-in-606 chance o f being a murder victim For
white males, I chance in 186; Black females, I
chance in 124; but for Black males. I chance in
twenty nine. Roughly 60,000 Blacks w ill be" mur
dered in the 1980s — more than the total number
o f American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War
The leading cause o f death among Black males age
15 to 24 is murder by other Black males
W hy are Black men murdering each other? Par,
o f the answ er resides in the economic deterioration
o f the ghetto. As of October 1985, the Black adult
male unemployment rate was 14 percent, com
pared to only 5 I percent for white male adults For
Black teenagers 16-19 years old. the official job
less rate is almost 40 percent In innercities, the
actual unemployment rate for Black young males
exceeds 55 percent CETA and other Federal jobs
programs were either eliminated or severely cut In
New York C ity, for instance, I 7 m illion people
mostly Blacks and Hispanics — were eligible for
the "Jo b Training Partnership A c ," funds, bu, last
year only 34, (MX) persons were actually trained for
employment with this program
High unemployment, ptmr public schools,
crowded housing conditions and the existence ol
gangs and drug traffic are the material and social
factors which breed mass anxiety anti repressed
rage Psychiatrist A lvin Poussaint suggests that
Black-on Black crime is essentially a form of
"re a c tiv e " racist violence In a society with white
capitalist values and rampant materialism, to lx*
Black and ptxir is to be a negation of the dominant
cultural and social ideal To murder someone who
looks like yourself is to strike out against the actual
"im a g e " o f oneself Drawn into a violent confron
tation, a young Black male — jobless, perhaps
If.ihiNr inn Hr» pflitutil »<»■
Hamitu**
Vr»
My perception o f the answer to that
question is yes. absolutely And it has
reached a point where only the i.iost
radically new approaches Io the di
lemma o f being black in Am erika can
prevent us from marching in lockstep
toward that destiny
O r perhaps I
should say shuckin' and jiv in ' instead
o f marching because we. Iix>, arc par
Im p a lin g in our steady erosion as a
people
At the moment. I would like to deal
w ith the Media Media exist as one o f
the most jx iw e rlu l controlling forces in
Am erika I hey hold up a m irro r to soc
iety al large and say " th is Is the Way
I hings A re '" Not only our perception
of others but our perception ot ourse
lves is shaped to a tremendous extent by
Media When I was a child I put an
enormous amount ot energy into trying
to reconcile tlx* double image I kept
getting about what black-or in those
dass, Negro was supposed to mean At
close hand were a beautiful black
mother, a b rillia n t black father, and
gifted, accomplished black friends But
the sense o f pride I look in what I
seemed to be and what I seemed to
come from was undermined by the con
slant message I got from Media that the
cisilize d black world in which I moved
was an isolated cixoun, a freakish ex
ception. and what black really meant
was W illie Best, slobbering and ro llin g
his eyes in perpetual fright
I le i ades have passed and nothing has
changed Caucasians still control the
black image ill Media and tell us who
we are If you have any doubt, let me
give you some figures We have just
emerged from the era o l the black
exploitation h im in which we were
bombarded w ith one movie after
another depicting black people as
pimps prostitutes and dope pushers
I hat era. thank God, is over because
black lilm goers got bored w ith it and it
ceased Io be luctative to those who lu s
tered it
Those ugly movies that
p.uadrd an army ot pimps and dope
pushers m trout ot bl.K k children as role
models to admire and emulate warped
many a small black psyche and made a
lot ot Caucasian people a lot of nxmey
H ollvw ood products arc seen in every
nook and comer ot the world M illio n s
o l non residents ol the United Stales
dejvend almost entirely oil the movie
industry lo r their knowledge o f black
J p ORTWND OBSERVER
To the Editor;
By now, most Oregonians have
received their State Income Tax
booklets and have noticed tha,
their tax rates have been re
duced from las, year.
The rates are lower because
the 1985 legislature eliminated
the eight percent income tax sur
charge that was initiated in 1981.
We determined tha, the sur
charge could be eliminated and
that our major obligations for
providing services could still be
me,.
The law required the legisla
ture to balance the state's bud
ge,. "Deficit spending" cannot
occur in Oregon government. Bu,
there are powerful pressures to
spend more each year and to in
crease taxes to pay for the addi
tional spending. In spite of these
pressures, the cos, of state go
vernment in Oregon will increase
at less than the rate of inflation
for the fourth consecutive bien
nium.
The hard budget decisions will
tie with us for a while longer,
and our tax reform work is not
finished either. As the public
continues to demand tha, we hold
the line on state taxes, we must
proceed with the difficult task of
reforming our school finance and
property tax systems. With this
challenge ahed of us. Oregonians
can take comfort from the reduc
tion in state income tax rates. I,
shows that we're on the right
track.
Yours truly.
Steve Starkovich
Senate Majority Leader
>15 for one yaa<
>25 for tw o years
bo« 3137 Portland OR 9 7?0ti
I
I
s m
m <
t j
2-
St’ W
Apt
state
At W
MI K
ZtP
Portland Observer____
ut*t ■»«>•»
CfâW
member
4/<»t</Ae (<•/<>,/rnr uppruzt m <»-rr/4> nrM tpoprrt
M to cittioa - Founded IM S
Subscriptions »15 00 par yaar a» tha Tr» County aras Post
m aa ta r Sand sddraaa changas lo the Portland ( g a m e r . P 0
Boa 3,37. Portland. Oragon 9730«
Alfred L. Henderson, Editor/Publisher
AI IEilhams. General Manager
A,
I
1
» «
• •
i
9» .
o«»' ««rim
-"»
at I. *z
Tha Portland (M a rn e r wax aatabkahad n 1970
Mt
I
V
n C 5 - i- i
o to 0 z O
(Z)
2 & *
— f i -s
-t
Z * S
Ï»
o r;
X
5 *
Tha Portland < d n rrv rr IU SPS 989 8801 a pubftehad avary
Thursday by t m P u b M vn g Company. Ine . 1483 N t K *n g e
worth. Portland. Oragon 97311. Poai Ofttca Boa 3137 Portland
dragon 97308 Sacond class postage part al Portland. Oragon
at l o t fair L'mvfrwv,
tnirrneiD»>naU\
w ix ild do an efficient jo b, but if he/she
has been fed one stereotype too many
they may look and see not you but Flip
W ilso n's "G e ra ld in e " goofing on the
jo b . painting her fingernails and calling
up her boyfriend to chat on company
tim e I f so. fo r all your qualifications,
you're not the one who is going to get
the jo b
Dr. Jamil Cherovee
life as those who have been abroad can
testify Other m illio ns o f Caucasian
Amertkans o f all ages co n firm their be
lie! about blacks al the ncighhortxxxJ
theater
N ix is it easy to ovcr-cmphasi/.e the
importance o f the movies as agents in
shaping public opinion That scenario
has already begun to untold as new
generations o f children read hardly at
all and rely on the television box almost
entirely for their perception o f the
w orld
That black people perceive them
selves as a com plex entity in w hich can
be found every shade o f com plexion,
every degree o f education and wealth,
every conceivable occupation and
therefore resent the uniform depiction
o l them as bickering simpletons, mat
ters not one w hit As long as black
people suffer in silence the situation
w ill continue The Italians are more
alert When the television scries "T h e
U ntouchables" created the impression
that organized crime was almost exclu
sively Italian they raised the roof and
suddenly the program found it po litic to
unearth mobsters o l other ethnic o r i
gins The Jews are more alert Even a
program presented w ith such m eticul
ous i are as Holocaust has been subject
to the most endless hairsplitting c r iti
cism and scrutiny from the Jewish
com m unity As they hashed and re
hashed that program in every conceiva
ble public forum they could address,
they gave us all a sharper perspective on
what we hail seen Where blacks arc
concerned. I have watched an endless
army ot pimps and vicious urban ter
rorists parade across the screen on the
police shows and clowns on the sitcoms
and heard from our appointed ix estab
lishm ent leaders not a murmur
When I express concern for our
image in Media, do n't imagine for a
moment that anything as shallow as a
racial ego posture is involved The way
we are perceived by this society affects
the most basic areas o f our lives When
you apply tor a jo b the interviewer in
personnel reacts to you not only in
terms o l who you arc but also in terms
ot who he/she thinks you are There are
countless images floating arixrnd in
his/her head and many o f them are
traceable to the Media
You may sit in front o f them as a
neatlv dressed, intelligent pe rvxi who
3 a
288 0033
N a tio n a l A d v e rtis in g R e p rä s e n ta tiv e
A m a lg a m a te d P u b lish ers. Inc
N a w Y ork