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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1986)
Pag© 2, Portland Observer, April 30. 1986 EDITORIAL/OPINION U.S. Senate Vote, Bad Decision The U.S Senate's vote to terminate next year’ s $4 6 billion revenue sharing program was a bad decision. Revenue sharing provides cities, towns and counties with funds to help pay for police protec tion, road repairs and other basic services. Thanks to Senators Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood (who voted against continuing the prog ram), Oregon cities w ill jo in other cities nation wide that w ill be foccd to cut back vital services to its citizens. Die action by the Senate was irresponsible. Many cities across the Nation are in urgent need o f funds This is due to an eroding tax base as a result o f President Reagan’ s tax cut. Eliminating the revenue sharing program w ill force local governments to increase property and sales tax in most states. This is an unfair burden to put on local officials and citizens. Especially when this country gives billions o f dollars a year in loreign aid Most o f it in the form o f weapons o f death. rhe U S. Senate should be concerned about the liva b ility o f our cities Judging by their vote to eliminate revenue sharing, this is not their concern Voters should remember this on election day. Attack on Black Educator Along The Color Line by D r Manning Marable What do Black parents expect from a teacher or professor in the field o f Black Studies? We would expect, foremost, excellence as a classroom in structor and an ability to spark in students the desire to perform at full potential We would want an individual who is well-read, who is engaged in scholarly research and related activities, and who exhibits a deep commitment to the intellectual and social growth o f our children More than almost any other professor I have encountered over the years. Dr. Mary Hrxiver o f California State University-Long Beach fills these qualities Dr. Hoover received her B A degree from Howard University and her Ph D in Educational Linguistics from Stanford University in 1975 Dur ing Dr. Hoover’ s career, she has published over 20 scholarly articles and two txxiks on literacy educa tion Professor Htxiver has served as a professor at University o f Pennsylvania, Edward Waters C o l lege, and in 1984 was appointed chairperson o f the Black Studies Department and Associate Professor at Cal State. Professor Hoover combines the rare characteristics o f being both politically and academically involved. Professor Htxivcr is a member o f the national N AACP's testing advisory board, and has been active in anti-apartheid de monstrations. Cal State Long Beach was truly fortunate to recruit Dr Hoover. Instead, she has been made a victim o f one o f the most incredible vendettas I have witnessed in higher education in recent years When Professor Hoover became chairperson o f Black Studies, (he department and Black academic community had been under attack for some lime An external review committee reviewing the de partment states that based on the number o f stu dents served. Black Studies should have I I to 15 faculty. Instead, the administration had hired only six teachers Between the spring o f 1984 and early 1985, Black Studies classes were cut back by one- fifth . Overall Black enrollment at the Long Beach campus also fell from 2.400 in 1981 to 1,800 four years later Only one in eight Black students at Cal State cams a degree after five years Hoover pressed the administration to make long overdue changes. Im m ediately, the white academic hierarchy criticized her w ork. and started a campaign o f harassment against the Department o f Black Studies. Last year, the Cal State administ Or Wunninif M iiiib l, irit* A n pnhiH at th u g I hr I I inf u h fc4r>ff> al U m vrriitv a p p ra n in < n rr /4 D nr* ipaprrt mirrnaln»naU\ • 15 for one •2 5 for tw o SHOP < m o o Apt STATf -t —i < Z O ZIP X r*i > * 0 > X Portland Observer • • N ew .p.iprti Publishers Association ■ |fl » Th» Pnn lena O b v m r IU SPS 97» 080 1 a p u b M w d w a ry Thuratey by Ex» P u M a h n g Company. Inc.. 1 4 0 N E Katog» worth. Portland. » e g o n >7311. Poet OTRca Box 3137. PortNnd, Oregon 972OB S e c o n d d e e a poataga paid al Portland. Oregon The Portland C fe x rrw r wee aatafaHahad n 1*70 MEMBER M Auoe M M IPER ioMon - rounded IM S I sufficient development or ihe ability to exercise political influence io protec I their social interests or even their lives Ghetto schools are institutionalized agencies for the perpetuation of ignor nice The conditions in big City Black Colonies is a classical reflection that Blacks have become the great surplus o f labor There has been a vital shift in the dynamics o f our situation from the economics o f exploitation to the economics o f uselessness which poses crucial questions o f survival The de stiny o f Black people has always heen tied lo our value o f Amerika as a profit making investment The modem urban dwelling Afnkan population is rapidly outliving its usefulness as a source o f cheap industrial labor. and. furthermore, corporate capitalism is not w illing lo train Blacks for productive use This is a dangerous situation Black leaders shovld know. that wiihout control over land, resources and production, there can he no self- determination for a people Every Black person in Kirtland should read, "T he Choice:” The Issue o f Black Survival in Amenka by Samuel Yelle The works o f Erantz Eanon, should he a must in reading for all Black High School and College Students He de plored a European culture that was im- perahstic in its economic, social, and psychological relations with the col onized people o f the world Eanon criticized psychoanalysis in Ihe process o f acknowledging lhal il substituted an ontogenetic perspective fo r a phylogenetic one. when the reality o f colonial oppression necessitated a "socio-diagnostic," or in cssen.se, a sociogenic perspective Di Jamil Cherovee Letters to the Editor -■ ■ ■ i < o co o i o 2 & * m c/> ClTV There is a kind o f development, throughout Amenkan history. Blacks were neven given access to large amounts ol land, rural or urban Ihe essential social relatiixvs heiween a col onial people and a metropolitan people preclude Ihe development o f the colo nial people until the relationship is rup lured, since the colonial people do not receive enough goods, services, educa tion. health resources, elc , to produce and reproduce Ihemselves in a fashion that conduces to an accumulation o f wealth within the colony In fact, the separation o f the people o f A trika from their territory, the separation o f a whole people from the means o f production makes Black people in this country ihe Archetype O f A Colonial Society I ’ m inclined to believe. Oppression can occur in one's homeland or in the homeland of Ihe taller has been suf fered only by Iwo great people — the Jews and ihe Amenkan Blacks The most conspicuous and significant historical factor relating to the system of exclu sion and exploitation o f Black people has been (he calculated design to main tain them exclusively in a property-less status in such a position. Black peop- pie have always had Io turn Io and dc pend upon caucasoid people for every single one of their needs This situation confirms the colonial captive position of Ihe Black population Without con trol over any significant portion o f ihe Area they occupy, and not having own ership o f any capital instruments or means of production. Black people are not simply oppressed bui are the vic tims o f super exploitation The lack of command over land left them without any hasic resources essential for self- AIDS Update Bo> 31 37 Porti»™» 0 « SfrWf " A better word to use than separa- txm is independence This word separa turn is misused The thirteen colonies separated from England but they called it the Declaration o f Independence, They don't call it the Declaration of Separation, . When you're indepen dent o f someone you separate from them If you can't separate from them it means you're not independent of them Malcolm X In any analysis or discussion of the urban cnsis in Amerika. our point o f reference must he the inherent economic and political contradictions caused by race and class oppression and exploitation o f Afrikan people in the U S For the dialectic o f these con tradiction* hase moved Black people (Xi the Elast Coast to a struggle to con front the specific social and economic relationships on which the Amenkan political structure and economic system is based The history o f racism in Amenkan life reveals ihai there has been an elaborate conspiracy Io deprive Afnkan people in this country of politi cal rights and economic security through (he control ot land In reconstructing and defining (he na ture o f the Black man's condition in Amenka, the U S must he seen as a colonial oppressor and Blacks, as a col onial people w ithin the territorial con fines o f the most powerful capitalist country in the world However, in order Io understand the silualion ol the A fn kan colony in ihis country , today, it is necessary to understand the nature of colonialism I'm using the term colo nial people rather than colonial lemlory since lemlory may he developed while the people become less developed Healthwatch Portland Observer! I I “The Archetype Of A Colonial Society’’ ration removed Hoover from her post. Inexplica bly, the university dean appointed a new chairper son of Black Studies without the department’ s formal vote during the summer absence o f the faculty One Black Studies faculty member. Amen Rahh, termed the move ’ ’ the most unprofessional posture that could be employed. It was reminiscent o f slavery . . . we’ re under attack by the white, right wing o f the Cal State system.” One student publication noted that Dr. H»x»ver “ had majority support o f the faculty, but she was passed over for someone who would not rock the boat.” By w rit ing anti-racist articles and engaging in anti- apartheid demonstrations. Professor Hoover was “ not endeared (by) the administration.” Dr Mary Hoover’ s next "m istakes” concern bf Steven Bailey N. D. ing her role as Director o f the Language Skills program at Cal State, where she designed language skills courses and assisted students to study for their writing proficiency exams. Under her gui dance, Black students in the Language Skills prog Last week’ s New England Journal o f Medicine transmission from AIDS is under 1%. In other ram performed better than white students in En vol. 314 #17 A pril 24. 1986 featured a special words fewer than I in 100 healthy people who glish classes Instead o f being praised, she was report "Occupational Risk o f Acquired Immune accidentally expose themselves to the AIDS virus demoted from the directorship The reason? White Deficiency Among Health Care W orkers" by w ill test positive for the H T L V III administrators claimed Dr Hoover has an "a rro g Eugene McCray M D. from the center for Disease This is a comforting rate o f transmission, espe ant” attitude! Perhaps they are upset because white Control, Atlanta, Georgia I was particularly in cially in light o f recent studies that suggest the students failed to match the standards o f Black terested in this article as I had recently given a H T L V i l l virus can survive for long periods out undergraduates trained by Dr Hoover. lecture to the St. Paul srxiety on the contageous- side of the body What has shown in this study is The assault against Black students and Black ness ot AIDS and had down played the risk o f again the tact that a disturbed immune system is an Studies at Cal State has become worse Dr Htxivcr contacting AIDS within Ihe health care industry. initial risk for susceptability to viral infections stated recently that white administrators “ are try This article goes far to aleveate the fears o f w ork The study suggests that health care workers still ing to keep outspoken, political. Black-conscious ing with AIDS patients use extreme caution in working with AIDS pa faculty out of lo n g Beach.” Several "controver tients. ihe study also goes far to substantiate the AIDS has been shown to he a disease which is sial” Black professors were not rehired, despite still predominate theory that casual contact with transmitted via intimate contact, either through the fact that they had “ the largest attendance in AIDS patients is an extrem ely low risk situation intercourse or by sharing needles in street drug use classes. New strict admission requirements I he extremist views that we need to quarantine This is similar to the method o f transfer o f hepatitis which w ill take effect in 1988 w ill result in severe B virus infection But this report offers a substan AIDS patients appears to be w ithout any scientific reductions in the total number o f Black students. tial support to the theory that it is extremely d if base, and is founded more on fears and prejudice Protesting the institutional racist attack at Cal than fact. ficult to contract the ?\IDS condition State-long Beach is absolutely necessary, but not We as general public must look at this like other enough by itself, because similar situations are Where as 19-27 percent o f health workers who diseases We must refrain from unsafe sex (use o f occuring all over the nation If we value Black accidentally contaminate themselves with needle condoms, and decrease in promiscuity), avoid scholarship, teaching and service to students, we or serum from positive Hepatitis B carriers w ill sharing needles and maintain sane hejlth practices, cannot afford to sacrifice any o f our best teachers come down with the disease, the rate o f similar so we do not individually become more at risk or programs in Black Studies and higher education 1 generally. Support Our Advertisers! Say you saw it in the ! I* P ortland O bserver EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY SuOacrtpnora 115 00 par year n the Tn County area P e e l m aata» Sand adrXeaa changaa IO tfra A v r le r d Oftarrw r. 7 .0 . Box 3137. Portland. Oregon 9 7305 Alfred L. Henderson, Editor/Publisher A! Williams. Genera! Manager 288-0033 N a tio n a l A d v e rtis in g R e p re s e n ta tiv e A m a lg a m a te d PubNehera. Inc N a w Y ork Dear M r Henderson, We are in the process of getting a pelilion to change Ihe dislrihulion of 34% of ihe lottery funds from economic development lo primary and secondary school support, as an offset lo property (axes The money, including interest, would he distributed according to schiMil district per capita, and would he in addition to the basic school support allocated lo ihe school districts by the stale legislature and administered by the Stale Board o f Education We tecl that this change would help support Ihe schools, as well as give property tax relief, which in lum, should help existing Oregon businesses and draw new businesses into our stale We realize this is noi the complete answer lo Ihe major problem o f sch<Ni| support, hui it is a beginning Many people have told us they would buy lottery tickets if the money was going for school support, others have said they would buy mote tickets The initiative petition has been sent lo Ihe Attorney General for a ballot t i tle After lhal, there is a period of ten days that written opposition can he sent lo the Secretary o f Slate W'e were ad vised by the legislative council that it would he to our benefit to write an ar gument in favor o f ihe initiative. W’e are asking anyone who agrees with what we are doing to send a written comment telling why they favor Ihe initiative lo Ihe Secretary o f Slate. Barbara Roberts The address is: 141 State Capitol. Salem. Oregon 97.310-0722 Time to attain S3.361 eligible signa tures is going to he limned To pul the initiative on ihe November General ............................ Election, we must have the signatures in Salem by July 3rd Not knowing exactly how king ihe government pro cess w ill take, and because lime is of the essence, we are compiling a list of names and addresses o f persons who are w illing to circulate the petitions so that we can rush ihe petitions into circu lation just as stxin as we can legally begin getting signatures W'e do not plan fund raising for ad vertisement so we are depending on word by mouth and/or letters It's im portant (hat you tell anyone who w ill listen about this If you know any per son or group that might he iniercsted in helping circulate the petitions, please ask them to contact us Any suggestions or ideas on anything you feel we could do lo further our cause would he gratefully accepted' Thank you, Marian Owens 6126 Azalea Glen Glendale. OR 97442 Ph 832-2182 Janette Kirkland 544 Fir Point Lane Glendale, OR 97442 Ph 832-2183 or 832-3252 Lisa Kirkland 270 Fir Point Lane Glendale. OR 97442 Ph 832-2483 evenings Dear Editor: May I means many things to many people To me it brings happy personal memories ■ / First, o f my mother helping us ch il dren to make little paper baskets, and then candy for them On May Day she took us into Ihe woods gathering yellow violets lo top our baskets which we hung on friends' door*. So. when my husband to-he and 1 announced our engagement, naturally we hung little May baskets on ihe doors o f college friends! Historically, May Day is a very old people's holiday — greeting the Spring — in Western Europe and the British Isles Celebrated by great country fairs, with music, dancing and feasting Happy memories o f May Day were brought lo our country by many Euro peans in Ihe 1800s. along with their trade union traditions By the 1880s ihe 16-hour day had mostly been brought down lo 12 hours — two shifts a day in the steel mills In the 1870s the American Federa tion o f Labor grew from the old Knights o f Labor A main concern o f the mem bers was a shorter working day. So they chose May Day in 1886 — 100 years ago — to "dow n tool*" and march to start their campaign for an eight-hour day. A few years later a world conference adopted the "made in-the-U.S A .” holiday. May I, lo work for the eight- hour day They called il International Workers Day — Ihe gift o f the people of our country lo the world Your* very truly, Violet On 78700 Bryson Sears Rd. Cottage Grove, OR 97424
