> qe 2 P rfland Observer June 3, 1987
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
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A NEWS SERVICE
OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
I
I
M ANAGEM ENT
A weekly column on personal finance distributed by
the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Affirmative Action For Whom?
I
I
Give Credit Where Credit Is . . .
Need cash? Want to borrow money? If you're a re
gular borrower with a few paid up loans under your
belt and a wallet full of credit cards, chances are you'll
have no trouble borrowing money. But, if you've never
had the need to borrow money or buy on credit, you
could be considered a poor credit risk. Why? Because
the philosophy of many lenders can be characterized by
a slight modification of a familiar saying, "Give credit
where credit is . . . " It seems that those with credit can
get more apd- those without must first prove them
selves. A prudent policy, no doubt, but one that can
make life difficult for the first-time borrower.
To avoid being faced with a problem when the need
for credit arises, the Oregon Society of CPAs suggests
that you establish a credit rating in advance of your
need. Whether you're newly married or newly single,
if you've never had credit in your name, you should
start working on establishing a credit rating.
When you apply for a loan or credit card, lenders turn
to credit bureaus to check on your status as a borrower.
Contrary to'what many people think, it is not the credit
bureau who decides how good or bad a credit risk you
are. It simply collects information about you and sells
it to lenders who then determine whether they think you
are credit worthy based on their own standards or credit
scoring system. You credit file generally contains basic
identifying information like your name, address, Social
Security number, date of birth, employment history,
etc. The credit bureau knows where you have loans
and how timely you are about repaying them. They
keep track of any judgements filed against you and
whether any of your bills have been turned over to a
collection agency.
Obviously, if you've never used credit, a credit bureau
cannot report on what kind of payer you are and therein
lies the problem. With no credit history to rely on, a
lender may be reluctant to provide you with a loan.
To establish a credit rating, you should start small.
Begin by opening a savings and checking account at
the same financial institution. While this does not ac
tually establish credit, it does develop a banking rela
tionship And later you may apply to this institution for
a credit card.
Normally, the easiest credit cards to get are those
with a single purpose - perhaps a department store or a
gasoline company Apply to stores or companies where
you tend to shop most often If you application is ap
proved. your credit limit will, as a rule, start off low —
maybe just $500. But as you demonstrate your credit
worthiness, it's likely the store will increase your credit
line.
Once you receive your credit cards, be sure to use
them. Just having been granted a credit card does
nothing to establish a credit rating. You must use your
credit and demonstrate a pattern of timely repayment.
If you're using a credit card strictly to establish a credit
rating and don't want to be faced with interest charges,
be sure to pay your bill in full each month within the
grace period allowed. And, be careful not to exceed
your credit limit.
After a period of using and repaying on your cards,
you are ready to apply for a national bank credit card
such as MasterCard or Visa. Your chances of approval
may be best at the financial institution where you open
ed your savings and checking account. Again, you'll
probably be given a low credit limit to start, with in
creases as your reward for prompt payment. Bank
credit cards may carry more weight on your credit rating
than store charges because they are more difficult to
obtain.
There are those who advocate that you should apply
for a personal loan as another step toward establishing
a credit rating. But, if you don't really need the money,
this may be costly, since there is no grace period for
interest charges. If you do decide to take out a loan for
the sole purpose of establishing a credit rating, deposit
the loan proceeds in an interest bearing account. This
way the interest you earn can help offset the interest
you will pay. Keep in mind that you will probably have
to pay income tax on the interest income and that the
Tax Reform Act of 1986 phases out the deduction for
interest paid.
After you've gone through all the trouble of establish
ing credit, you'll want to continue to use your credit in
a sensible manner. Don't have any more cards than
you need and don't get into any more debt than you
can handle. Most experts agree that your credit debts
(excluding mortgage and car payments) should not
exceed 10% of your take-home pay.
Be selective in choosing the right form of credit to
meet your borrowing needs. The right choice can save
you a significant amount of money. Shop around for
the best deal in credit cards. If you use your credit card
mainly for convenience and pay your bill in full each
month, you need not be concerned about the annual
percentage rate on your card because you will not be
charged interest. You should look for a card with no
fee and a long grace period. But if you tend to stretch
your payments out, it's to your advantage to find a card
with a low interest rate.
You should keep receipts for all charge purchases
until your bills come in and then check your receipts
against the bills. Many billing errors have been disco
vered this way.
It's a good idea to prepare a list of all your credit
cards, with account numbers and the address and
phone numbers of the banks and stores that issued
them. Keep this list at home in a safe place. If your
cards are lost or stolen, immediately notify everyone
on your list. When you call, note the date and time
and get the name of the, person you spoke to. Then
follow up your call with a letter.
CPAs urge you to establish a credit rating in advance
of your need and once you have, make every effort to
keep your rating umblemished.
Looking for a CPA in your community? Call the Ore
gon Society of CPAs for free state-wide referrals at
1-800-255-1470 (toll free)
A Fight For Human Rights
by Alexander R. Jones
The battle is raging. In response to an unprecedented
United Nations report which attacks psychiatric abuses
around the world, the American Psychiatric Associa
tion (APA) has put forth an international effort to sup
press the report in hopes of protecting psychiatry's
failing cardboard credibility.
Dr. Thomas Szasz, tireless critic of psychiatric abu
ses, and world renown psychiatrist, author, and lec
turer, has condemned the APA's effort as a sham. He
has been joined in his criticism by the Citizens Commis
sion on Human Rights, an organization he and a mem
ber of the Church of Scientology co-founded over
twenty years ago to investigate and expose psychiatric
crimes.
Adding to these voices, and amid a background of
growing congressional concern, individual U.S. Con
gressmen have begun to express strong support for the
United Nation's report.
The issue here is a simple one—patient mistreatment.
We're talking about forced lobotomies, electro-shocks.
rapes, beatings, over-drugging, bizarre experimenta
tion, even murder. It's an awful, awful scene.
Were talking about whether a psychiatrist should
have the right to stick ice picks into a person's eye
sockets and destroy his brain, or electro-shock a 78
year old grieving widow to an early grave, or drug some
poor person in the back ward of an institution for 40
or 60 years, all against the "patient's" will.
Dr. Szasz, in his usual eloquent manner, explains,
"The UN report is now under attack from the psychia
tric industry. We must keep in mind that the notion of
the psychiatrist speaking on behalf of the so-called
'psychiatric patient' is fundamentally flawed. This is
similar to having Nazis speak on behalf of Jews or plan
tation owners in the southern United States or the
South African government speak on behalf of Blacks.
The oppressor must never be legitimized by allowing
him to speak on behalf of the oppressed."
Yes, the psychiatrists are upset. They should be.
The truth about their practice is about to be exposed
to the world.
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Portland Observer!
female co-worker, but was passed over for a promotion
in her favor. The object of the suit, Diane Joyce, is now
justifiably pleased with the decision. She noted, "This
case will have an impact on all women and I'm very
happy for them ."
The question is, will African American and other
racial and ethnic women benefit as much as white
women from this decision? Equally important, will male
and female members of these communities, as a whole,
benefit as much? Or will corporate America use this
opportunity, as it has since the birth of affirmative ac
tion, to pit white women against racial and ethnic com
munities by hiring white women at lafger proportions.
A recent study by the United Church of Christ Office
of Communication revealed some startling statistics.
Though the employment record of the 3 major networks
— CBS, NBC and ABC —is still abyssmal when it comes
to both white women and minorities, nevertheless,
within the top 85% of their staffs, women are employed
at more than twice the rate of those from racial and
ethnic communities. As noted in a recent article, the
newsroom staff of NBC's "Nightly News" is almost
equally distributed between white men and white
women. But African Americans are few and far bet
ween. The same problem exists in many New York
City industries, a town whose labor force is 46.7%
minority. Statistics from 1982 reveal that white women,
for example, held 47% of the department store non-
supervisory jobs, compared to 9% for African American
men, 18% for African American women, 3% for His
panic males, and 4% for Hispanic females.
The response to the Supreme Court's recent affirma
tive action decision has been almost as interesting as
the decision itself. The decision affirmed that it was
legal for an employer to promote as employee, with
equal qualifications, over other employees in order to
achieve a better balance of women and minorities in the
workforce.
Terry Eastland, the Justice Department's top spokes
man, sharply criticized the decision and said that what
the Supreme Court needed was "a new appointment or
tw o ." His comment might be considered just a bit pre
sumptuous given the fact that the Reagan administra
tion has already made two appointments to the Sup
reme Court. The Administration's anger is understand
able, however. For this is only the latest in a series of
Supreme Court rulings to refute Reagan's hell-bent
opposition to affirmative action.
In Feburary the Justice Department sided with white
Albama state troopers fighting a court-ordered affirma
tive action plan. The Supreme Court upheld the plan,
noting that Alabama has refused to hire any African
American troopers until forced to do so in 1972, and
that even since then, Alabama had continued to resist
court orders to hire more African Americans.
Of course, the Justice Department's response to
affirmative action is predictable, given its own record in
this area. The New York Times obtained figures which
show that none of the Justice Department's major divi
sions is headed by women or minorities, and of the 94
U.S. attorneys, only one is African American, one is
female and two are Hispanic. Of the 300 federal judges
appointed by Reagan, only 5 are African American and
12 are Hispanic; however, 26 are female. In fact,
women have generally fared better than African Ameri
cans in the Reagan Administration. Last year, for
example, white women held over 200 of the top federal
posts controlled by the Administration, while African
Americans held less than 50.
This brings me to the second response to the Sup
reme Court decision -that of women, specifically,
white women. The decision was based on a suit filed
by a white male who scored two points above his white
Certainly we should celebrate and take advantage of
this new broadening of affirmative action boundaries.
However, as the women's movement emerged out of,
and advanced as a result of, the heightened activity of
the Civil Rights Movement, so it must now re-examine
its progress in light of the still large discrepancies bet
ween the employment levels of white women and those
from racial and ethnic communities. Let us take care
that the racial exclusivity of the "old boy's club" is not
adopted by the "new girl's ciub" as well.
Along the Color Line
by I)i
M m iiin tj M o r.ib lo
Dr
M a n n in q M . .ih lc is p ro fe sso r o f s o c io lo g y a n d p o litic a l science
at P u rd u e U n iv e r s it y
A lo n g
th e C o lo r L in e " a p pears in ove r ,4 0
n e w s p a p e rs in te rn ,it lo n a llv
Alternatives to Prisons
white electorate's equally strong inclination to keep all
government expenditures at rock bottom Thus white
reactionaries are outraged when they learn that in New
York City, for example, it costs $113 per day to house a
single prisoner. Moreover, few white middle class
neighborhoods want a correctional facility anywhere
nearby. A 4,000-inmate jail was planned in New York
City's Staten Island, but the proposal instantly pro
voked community opposition. In a cynical but typical
political play, Mayor Ed Koch then suggested that he
would "reduce the number of shelters for the home
less" in that particular borough if the local residents
permitted the construction of a jail there.
There are realistic alternatives to the prison construc
tion movement. Few critics ever point out that the
majority of inmates in most urban jails are being held
for trial, and haven’t been convicted of the particular
crime for which they're being detained. In New York,
the typical inmate who can't obtain bail or who isn't
able to raise the money has to wait behind bars for 47
days, compared to only 26 days back in 1977. An ex
pansion of work-release programs, in which some pri
soners would be permitted to hold down jobs on the
outside during the day and would be locked up at night,
would relieve some problems.
The NAACP’s Prison Program is another successful
model for penal change. About 3,000 prison inmates
currently belong to the NAACP program,, which in
volves extensive activities: educational classes in math,
reading and writing; job training seminars; Christmas
gift projects for low income families; programs in public
affairs, Afro-American history and culture. Over the
past decade, 32 prison branches have been established.
Involvement in these constructive programs helps to
break the cycle of recidivism. At the Elmira, New York,
Correctional Facility, for instance, the NAACP branch
-has a 14 percent recidivism rate, vs. 50 to 55 percent
for non-NAACP prisoners. Nationally, the NAACP
branch recidivism rate is approximately 15 percent vs.
60 percent for all prisoners.
Building additional prisons won't address the funda
mental factors behind the penal population explosion.
So long as the U.S. devotes billions of dollars to nuclear
weapons and Star Wars and comparatively little on ur
ban education, jobs programs, health and human
needs, urban crime will continue to grow rapidly, as so
will the penal population.
There is a growing crisis of "numbers" within the
American criminal justice system. In state after state,
prisons are seriously overcrowded — and relatively few
politicians are moving toward rational or humane solu
tions to deal with the problem.
In Texas, for instance, there are over 38,000 inmates,
and the state's governor, William P. Clements, has or
dered several moritoriums on new inmate admissions.
In New York City, there are 7,000 inmates in the City's
jails a decade ago. By last month, the number of pri
soners in New York City passed 14,700; by this autumn,
there will be about 16,400 inmates in the city.
The unprecedented demand for new and expanded
prison facilities has fostered a new "growth industry",
as the private sector has tried to obtain a share of the
action from the mass human misery generated by the
criminal justice system. Thirty six states to date have
been ordered by courts to ease the overcrowded condi
tions inside their prisons by any means necessary. Ac
cording to the U.S. Justice Department, just to keep
pace with the spiraling growth of the prison population
in the United States, officials should be constructing
one new 200-bed penal facility every day. Experts pro
ject that the potential annual gross revenue from prison
construction could top $17 billion by 1990.
The basic factors behind the penal population explo
sion are political, social and economic. As millions of
working people lose their jobs due to plant closings and
other economic factors, many are forced into proverty.
For many, criminal and antisocial activity becomes a
means of survival. Petty theft, piostitution, street hust
ling, drug dealing and Black-on-Black crime are all, to a
great degree, the social consequences of limited eco
nomic opportunity, poor urban schools, neighborhood
and social disruption.
A person who cannot eat, or feed a child, will usually
steal; when drugs are introduced into elementary
schools, should we be surprised that children are en
gaged in crime? Political conservatives within the white
middle class, turning a blind eye to their own "w hite
collar crimes", rage for law and order without social
justice. Blacks and Hispancis who steal hundreds of
dollars are locked up, while white suburbanites who
pilfer millions in the securities markets and in govern
ment contracts go free.
The frenzied desire to put all nonwhite "criminals"
behind bars conflicts, however, with the conservative
Portland Observer
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