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EDITORIAL/OPINION
FREEDOM
&
SOCIAL .11 SI K E
BY
ALEXANDER R JONES
Director ot Minority and Third World Allans tor
The Church ot Scientology’1 International
Hubbard Method Revealed During
Black Caucus Weekend
The Hubbard Method represents and educational breakthrough as
fundamental and powerful as the invention of the wheel or the discovery of
fire. It has already created a growing educational revolution in the Black
community, dramatically rocketing the learning rates of Black children in
cities throughout the country. It has the potential of sparking a renaissance
of ability and achievement among Black Americans heretofore throught
impossible.
Tutors using the Hubbard Method are continuously exploding false
psychiatric claims that our children are genetically inferior, that some of our
children just can't learn, or that others have to be placed on drugs to
correct bogus "learning disorders” — disorders that were INVENTED by
the psychiatric industry.
In Centennial High School in Compton, CA, for example, a group of
two dozen students who tested below 50 percentile on the California
Achievement Test, registered an average increase in reading comprehen
sion and vocabulary skills of two years after just 40 hours of instruction in
the Hubbard Method. Two of these students even made the honor roll!
During the recent Congressional Black Caucus Weekend in Washing
ton, D.C., Zyra McCloud, mother of two young daughters, explained how
the Hubbard Method propelled her from a state of "hidden illiteracy” to
elected school board member for Inglewood, CA.
She related to the fascinated audience how after some training in the
Hubbard Method, she "began to strategize and think and put together mat
erials, speak, write, comprehend, and pass all kinds of educational tests,
intelligence tests, you name it, within a matter of six weeks. It was
incredible!"
As a result of her increased competence, Mrs. McCloud went on to
become PTA president, and then later an elected school board member for
Inglewood, CA.
"As you have heard many times,” she concluded, "winners are not
born, they are MADE. And I promise you that if you take the time, get in­
volved, become a part of this revolution, you will never regret it. But not
just for your children. Do it for yourself."
Interest in the Hubbard Method, developed by philosopher and edu
cator, L. Ron Hubbard, is bound to mushroon, and rightly so. Find out for
yourself about this remarkable breakthrough. Write to: Keys To Effective
Education C/O Freedom & Social Justice, 4914 South Normandie Avenup
Los Angeles, CA 90037.
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
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by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., Executive Director
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OF THE U N ITED C H U R C H O f C H R IS I
C O M M IS S IO N
FOR RACIAL JLJSTIC L
Racism and the Halifax Five
As the nation continues to celebrate the virtues of the United States
Constitution, we all need to be reminded that racism is still deeply em
bedded in the thread and fabric of this society. Just a few days ago, for
example, I observed the trail of five African American community leaders in
Halifax, North Carolina. Inside the Halifax County courthouse the atmos
phere and climate of racism was so thick I almost choked.
Even before the hearing began it was clear to everyone entering the
courtroom that one side, the right side, had been reserved exclusively for
white citizens with the other side reserved for all non-whites. I overheard
two white men whisper rather loudly, "W e got to teach these niggers a les­
son. They've gotten too uppity. Who do they think they are interfering
with OUR school board?"
Halifax is a small rural town in northeastern North Carolina. Being one
of the oldest towns in the state, it prides itself on its many historical sites
from the Revolutionary War, which led to this nation's founding. A resi­
dent of Halifax attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787. With its
historic markers and colonial restorations, Halifax has encapsulated itself
in the pride of a nation supposedly founded on principles of freedom and
equality under the law. In the midst of this legacy sits the courthouse
square.
Today Halifax County is 50% Black, 50% White. The District Court
system, which includes this county, has three judges. All of them are white
males. In addition, there is only one resident Superior Court judge in Halifax
County. He also is white. This judge is responsible for appointing all the
magistrates in the county, all of whom are also white.
The school system in Halifax County is predominantly African Ameri­
can. Yet only one of the seven school board members is African American.
At a recent school board meeting Rev. James Johnson, Rev. Jeremiah
Webb, Rev. C.E. McCullom, Mr. Gary Grant and Mr. Willie Lowe, Jr., who
compose the African American leadership in the county, were arrested.
They were arrested because they dared to speak out for greater input in
the decisions affecting the county's school system.
Atty. Frank W. Ballance, Jr., an articulate African American attorney,
made an eloquent plea to the judge to dismiss the charges against these
community leaders on the basis that they were only exercising their "rights
to freedom of speech and due process as guaranteed under the Constitu
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EDITORIAL
The Denigration of
African-American Children
by Nyewusi Askau
Recently, at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Asso­
ciation in New York City, the findings of two studies, one conducted in the
United States and the other in Trinidad, revealed that "feelings of racial
inferiority among young Black children are as strong now as they were 40
years ago."
Educators, Black and White, were shocked by tfie findings. How, they
asked, could such a thing be? Hasn't there been progress since the 1954
Supreme Court decision to outlaw segregation of public education? And,
what about the efforts of educators to create classroom environments
where Black children can develop healthy self images and expunge all
notions and feelings of racial inferiority?
In the meantime, Black parents are growing uneasy and are starting to
ask some very real and disturbing questions: are White teachers really
capable of educating Black children? Are modern day Black college gra­
duates capable of educating Black chiMren? What is it about public edu­
cation that causes Black children to withdraw? And is the problem peculiar
to Black children?
Dr. Kenno"i Clark African American professor emeritus of psycho­
logy at the City University of New York, believes that racism is the villian.
"What the children are telling us is that they see their color as the basis
of self-rejection We've tried to hide the damage racism does to Black chil­
dren, but the damage is there and will continue as long as racism con­
tinues," he warned.
Perhaps the best description of the damage Dr. Clark speaks of is
found in the extraordinary work of Dr. W.E.D DuBois, "The Souls of Black
Folk." He wrote: "The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and
gifted with a second sight in this American world
a world which yields
him no true self consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the
revelation of the otner world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double­
consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes
of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in
amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness
an American, a
Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring
ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being
torn asunder.
"The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife — this
longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a
better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to
be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to
teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood
of white Americanisms, for he knows that Negro Blood has a message for
the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a
Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows,
without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.
"Between me and the other world there is ever an unmasked question:
'How does it feel to be a problem . ?' "
Dr. DuBois' analysis goes straight to the heart of the problem: most
African-American students are treated as "problems" by the American
public school system; but this is not a new phenomenon. From the first
moment African Americans decided to use American education as a tool
for advancement and acceptance into American society, their children have
been treated as problems.
This belief that Black children are "problems" can be traced to Ameri­
ca's beginnings. According to Professor Winthrop D. Jordan, "This ven­
detta had its roots in the early English descriptions of Black people. No
other color except white conveyed so much emotional impact.
As
described by Oxford English Dictionary, the meaning of 'black' before the
sixteenth century included, 'deeply stained with dirt; soiled, dirty, foul,
having dark or deadly purposes, malignant, sinister, horrible, wicked.'
Black was an emotionally partisan color, the handmaid and symbol of base­
ness and evil, a sign of danger and repulsion Embedded in the concept
of blackness was its direct opposite
whiteness. White and black con­
noted purity and filthness, virginity and sin, virtue and baseness, beauty
Portland Observer
________ MHI
— ’^ ■ lo ie g u n
||B Newspaper
iH H Publishers
M
tion of the United States ' Atty Ballances argument was so profound
that everyone in the courtroom
Black and White alike
was temporarily
spellbound. He spoke of the long struggle that the descendants of African
slaves have endured for 300 years, particularly in Halifax County. He noted
that it was truly a sad state of affairs that in 1987, while the country cele­
brates its Constitution's bicentennial, these same descendants still have to
beg the court for basic respect When the time came for the State to re­
spond, the District Attorney simply stood and stated, "W e have no
comment.
The judge, with great arrogance and with a look that said,
"H ow dare you, a Black attorney, come into my court and lecture me about
the Constitution then promptly denied Atty Ballances motion to dismiss.
By the end of the day, the judge had found all five African American leaders
guilty of the charge of disruption.
Rather than sentence the men to jail, the judge decided not to invoke
the wrath of the African American community, and issued instead "A
prayerful judgement
lo the judge’s surprise the five leaders stood and
rejected tl.e judge's offer of leniency For them the principle of speaking
out for justice was more important than letting the court off the hook.
Thus, these five men now face a jury trial where the risk of going to jail is
higher. To them, it is a risk worth taking. For they understand if the victims
of injustice every conclude that accejjtance is better than protest, then
injustice will never end.
H
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Letters to the Editor
Committee Given 90 Days
to get Signatures
The"Committee to Rescind Fair Share" is circulating petitions in all
state agencies to procure the approximately 6000 signatures that will be
required to call an election of all 16,500 state employees represented by
the Oregon Public Employees Union.
The Committee has been given 90 days from October 19, 1987, to
gather these signatures. A majority vote will determine whether those
persons wanting to remain non-union will be forced to pay the equivalent
of union dues. Those dues will be deducted automatically from their Nov­
ember 1st paycheck, and then every month for the duration of the two year
contract period. The election ballots will be counted by the Employment
Relations Board in Salem.
"Our Committee, comprised of both union and non-union members,
feel that public employees should be able to decide whether they want to
belong to this or any other union," says John Ingram of the Rescind Com­
mittee. "Our country is a democracy and each member of the state work
force should have the right to choose for themselves whether to be union or
not."
"OPEU is attempting to make these decisions for us, even to the extent
of preventing employees from joining competing unions, We ask state
employees to seek out those who are circulating petitions, sign them and
then vote yes to rescind fair share."
John Ingram
"PORTEND OBSERVER
I
Post Ottica Bo« 3 ’ 37
and ugliness, beneficence and eveil, God and the devil.
Thomas Jefferson in "Notes on Virginia proclaimed, comparing
them (African-Americans) by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagi­
nation, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to whites, in rea­
son much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing
and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination
they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous . . . "
American religion and science asserted that black people were the
children of Ham and were doomed to suffer forever; were doomed to serve
the needs of the white race forever” and that "black people were inferior to
whites and that no matter how much they progressed into the mainstream
of white society, they would never be treated as equals.
Such pretentious beliefs are still present in public education. Because
of the kinds of programs it brings into the classroom, it points out to Black
children that they are negatively different. These programs send the mor­
bid message that Black children are plagued by academic, social and moral
defects.
And, while educators play this piteous game of contrast and compari­
son, the feelings of racial inferiority among Black children grows. The
game off-sets the momentary, exhilarating feelings of pride and dignity that
comes from hearing a three minute speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The game depreciates the value of African-American contributions to the
building of American society. It creates a serious dichotomy for Black Chil­
dren: "If our Ancestors were so great, then why are we treated so pathe­
tically?" Black male children are sent narrow, unclear messages that read,
"W e want your body to help us win football and basketball games, but
we are not interested in your mind."
The ability of many Black children to survive such an assault is com-,
mendable. However, for every hundred that survive, a thousand fall victim
to self-doubt, self-hate, rejection, low self-esteem and an anger that lingers
for years. This anger feeds upon itself and returns to haunt us all — Black
and white.
Amrican public education should try to avoid making premature
decisions about the education of African-American students. The system s
strategy of becoming defensive each and every time the African-American
community speaks out against strategies and plans that will harm their chil­
dren is counterproductive — damaging to the relationship between the
schools and the community — and it destroys what little faith there is left.
In the meantime, what will become of the Black children who have
already suffered to the point of no return? Will they become prostitutes,
pimps, dope-fiends, muggers, prisoners . . . ?
Look around you. The question has already been answered. Portland
Public Schools should take notice. If, as Matthew Prophet says, his big­
gest concern is gangs, then he should make sure that Portland Public
Schools isn't guilty of supplying these gangs with needed resources: the
African-American student.
As the Black folk song says, "W e will see . . . "
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