Page 2, Portland Observer. December 3, 1986
Along the Color Line
Letters to the Editor
by Dr Manning Marable
Education and Culture
We must be for an education that will pro
vide meaningful definitions of Black exper
lence. We must re define our lives. We must
shape a culture, a politics, an economics, a
sense of our past and future history.
The Path of tribulations undergone by the
concept of culture is, today, long indeed1 The
opinions of "com m ittees of intellectuals” can
cel each other in a sterile dialectic; various
"sym posia" bring incomprehension and a hoi
low humanism into a timid encounter with his
torical truth and the progressive determination
of man up against the greatest calamities
known to history: Racism and imperialism
A Black person is a human being It has be
come today our historical duty to re establish
ourselves in a field such as culture, because
"The Dry Bones Of The Valley" are emerging
from a long period of eclipse during which the
most elementary attributes of man, notably
that of his creativity, were contested and
denied to us. According to a well nurtured
prejudice, Afrikans took no part in the general
task of shaping civilization. Afrika is accused
of being w ithout history and without culture
because it was necessary that this be so In
fact even w ithout archaeological research and
the tales of the Griots, ordinary common sense
was adequate to realize the absurdity or rather
the class consciousness of those who mana
ged to imagine a cultureless people.
Culture is an accumulated experience which
modifies man in a linear, progressive and
quantitative manner but with additional quali
tative phases of M u ta tio n . Everyone knows
that a foul use was made of culture by the pre
datory powers in the course of modern his
tory. in their appropriation, among other
things, of the Afrikan people It was first of
all necessary to legitimize the various kinds of
pillage and colonial domination in the eyes of
established morality To this end the natural
difference between our culture and that of the
people of these powers was used to justify and
accredit the ignominious assertion that We did
not have any culture and that a culture should
be bestowed and imposed upon Us
Here
started the crusade for humanization through
the culturalization of the "m arginal" peoples,
of the people which have remained at the
stage of "raw material people", of peoples
waiting to be manufactured in the Big Factory
of civilized m en/wom en
Or
The so called Christian caucasoid Master
transforms his slave into a Negro whom he de
fines as being without reason, subhuman and
the embittered slave then protests: as you are
Reason, I am Emotion and I take this upon
myself. This is how we loops the loops. The
so called Christian caucasoid Master assumes
his pre eminence, and the Slave his servitude,
but the latter claims his right to weep, a right
which the so called master grants him.
Recent events in South Afrika are of such a
magnitude as to justify the conclusion that the
world is witnessing the count down and as
sault that will spell the end of "Apartheid” the
fascist regime of institutionalized racism, ser
veing the multi national corporations and their
exploitation of the Black Afrikan population.
The focus of all concerned people in the coun
try must be upon the U S . government and in
forcing a disengagement from supporting the
Apartheid regime. The U S. policy in the U N.
countries to be one of blocking all efforts at
forcing economic and military sanctions
against the Pretoria regime. The ruthlessness
with which the apartheid government has re
sponded to the people's democratic demands
have buried the myth that U S. corporations
should remain in South Afrika as an influence
toward ending apartheid That myth has been
propogated by liberals and conservatives alike
as a retionale for increasing U S. corporate
investment in South Afrika U S. corporations
are in South Afrika for one reason only the
superprofits they get from the cheap labor and
miserable conditions of the Afrikan workers
which the fascist apartheid system make pos
sible The policy of die hard racism and colon
lalism has the official support of the United
States even while lip service is being given to
"m ajority rule" in Afrika
There comes a moment in the affairs of
humankind when honor requires unequivocal
affirmation of a people's right to freedom with
dignity and peace with justice The Reagan
Administration's alliance with the apartheid re
gime is diametrically opposed to the interests
of the people of this country I'm inclined to
believe, the apartheid system is a specific
manifestation of capitalist exploitation in its
most fierce and rapacious form It is mstitu
tionalized oppression, akin to Nazism and sla
very, whereby the tight control over the Afri
kan workers ensure their systematic super
exploitation.
Dr. Jamil Cherovee
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Manning M ai « c m a prolaaaor o f aocology and poAncal a o a n ta
at Purdua Unrvarait,
Along tfta Color Una" appear« ai ovar 140
nawapapae» m lw n atu n a ay
"Ed Meese, Civil Rights and the Constitution"
The old adage, "ignorance is bliss,” is
usually correct. One recent example of this
has been provided by a new public opinion
poll conducted by the Joint Center for Poli
tical Studies in Washington, D C. Most black
Americans continue to distrust the Reagan
administration. However, black approval for
the President has increased from 8 percent in
1984 to 25 percent this year. The sharpest
increases in Reagan's approval ratings came
from blacks below the age of thirty. "W e are
seeing younger blacks coming along who
don't have any personal memories of the civil
rights movement and who don't have the
same keen sense of personal discrim ination,"
states black political scientist Thomas Cava
nagh.
"Younger blacks feel they can
make it."
Meese. Speaking at Tulane University, Meese
insisted that Supreme Court decisions do not
"establish a 'supreme law of the land' that is
binding on all persons and parts of govern
ment, henceforth and forevermore." Meese
emphasized that "w e as citizens may respond
to a decision we disagree w ith ," and that
government officials should interpret the Con
stitution in their own manner and not always
follow the high court.
Immediately, legal scholars voiced opposi
tion and outrage. Ira Glasser, executive direc
tor of the American Civil Liberties Union, des
cribed the speech as "an invitation to lawless
ness", and called Meese "the most radical
and dangerous Attorney General in this cen
tu ry ." Since the Marbury v. Madison decision
of 1803, Americans have acknowledged that
the Supreme Court's constitutional decisions
were "the supreme law of the land." Even
when the Supreme Court was packed with
racists, and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
solemnly declared that the "Negro race has no
rights which the white man was bound to re
spect" — this was still the law of the land Be
ginning with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution,
through the 1954 Brown desegregation deci
sion and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the law
was pushed towards the goal of racial equality
and social justice for all.
Attorney General Meese now wants to re
verse this democratic process. Looking back
ward, Meese specifically has attacked the
Supreme Court’s 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas,
school desegregation case, Cooper v. Aaron.
By a 9 to 0 vote, the Supreme Court had
forced Arkansas to accept the Brown deci
sion Nearly three decades later, Meese blu
sters that this crucial ruling was "a t war with
the basic principles of democratic govern
ment ..." Cowardly, Meese did not state whe
ther he would have agreed with Arkansas o ffi
cials or not, or whether he would have endor
sed Court ordered desegregation. But we can
certainly guess which side Meese would have
taken.
Even more discouraging, the Joint Center's
poll noted that blacks ranked the pursuit of
"Civil rights" as only the sixth most important
priority out of a list of twenty possible an
swers Significantly, white Americans polled
ranked civil rights as a “ non issue", at 19th
place out of twenty
Blacks can afford to be "fo rg e tfu l" about
washing their automobiles on the weekends;
we can forget to take out the garbage, or for
get to walk the dog. But we dare not forget
that institutional racism still permeates Amen
ca's political, economic and social order We
dare not lose sight of the fact that civil rights
are not immutably etched in stone What has
been gained through more than a century of
democratic struggle can be taken away in the
span of a decade
Not long ago, the American Constitution
was nothing more than as apology for white
supremacy The Negro, according to Article
One, Section 2, was only "three fifth s" of a
human being The Constitution's Article One.
Section 9 sanctioned the bloody exploitation
of the trans Atlantic slave trade. Article Four,
Section 2 provided for the capture, imprison
ment and return of fugitive slaves. These pro
visions, as well as subsequent racist legisla
tion, were overturned through the sacrifices of
millions of black people To forget this history
of democratic struggle is to ensure a rebirth of
ignorance, race hatred and legal bigotry
A second example of extreme ignorance —
or at best, ideological blindness was exhibi
ted last month by Attorney General Edwin
Another old saying is, "Those who forget
their history are condemned to repeat it." To
be ignorant of what Reagan, Meese and their
cohorts are doing is to help them destroy our
hard fought Constitutional rights.
Teen Health Clinics Good Policy
The Observer thinks the decision by Dr.
Prophet, Multnomah County Commissioner
Gretchen Kafoury, and other county officials
to place additional teen clinics in the three
schools is good public policy.
We feel that such facilities are needed in an
effort to ensure that our young people are re
ceiving proper medical services All too often,
due to the high cost of health care, many do
not receive the proper medical care they need
The Teen Health Centers will make sure that
all students receive primary health care
Superintendent Prophet and Multnomah
County Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury, and
other officials from the Multnomah County
Department of Human Services, should be
commended for their concern about the health
of our youth.
Ensuring that every student is healthy is the
first step in educating our youth. This is the
goal of the School Board and society.
The Portland Public Schools has announ
ced plans to establish three additional teen
health centers at Jefferson, Marshall and
Cleveland High Schools. The clinics are sche
duled to begin operation at the start of the
second semester (January 26, 1987).
Dr. M atthew W. Prophet, superintendent of
Portland Public Schools, said he agreed on a
•
request by Multnomah County to establish the
health centers at the three high schools. Fun
ding for the teen clinics will come from two
sources. The Multnomah County Department
of Human Services will provide the $108,000
that is needed to operate the clinics at Cleve
land and Marshall High Schools. The Jeffer
son clinic will be funded by a $54,000 grant
from the State Department of Human Re
sources.
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Dr. Prophet said he agreed to allow the
Multnomah County Department of Human
Tha Airrletad O tta m tr IUSPS 9 » 9 B D i ■ puOAaftad «vary
Thuraday by Ene PuMwfwtg Company In t . 1463 N I KBetga
worth Portland Oragon >7211 P o« Office B oi 3137 Portland
Oregon 977GB Sacond d a * pnatage p * d « Portland. Oregon
Services to place the teen health clinics in the
three schools after evaluating the data from
the hearings held in the schools and on the
responses and input received from principals,
their staffs and concerned citizens in the com
munity. Portland Public Schools now has four
schools with teen health clinics. The first cli
nic opened at Roosevelt High School in Feb
ruary of this year.
The goals of the centers are to improve the
health status of enrolled students by providing
comprehensive primary health care to meet
previously unmet health needs and improve
learning ability and increase self-care abilities
of students and their families. Staff for the
clinics are from the Multnomah County Health
Division.
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