Page 4, Portland Observer, March 2, 1988 Exclusive — Continued from Page 1 ” L.A.-influenced” . "This is Portland, not L A. We don’t want to be identified with L.A. We are not into drugs. We are not into drug houses. And no one has asked us to do drugs for them. We are not into violence, but we are not going to let so­ meone like the Crips come into our neighborhoods and take over. And, we definately are not going to let them tell us what we can wear. If we buy some clothes that are red, we are going to wear them ," said the group member. Many of the group members who were interviewed said they believe Portland Police are afraid of the Crips because of their vio­ lent and aggressive behaviors. "The police know who the Crips are. They know which Crips are running drug houses. You see, the Crips can slide in here by night, drop off their dope, com ­ m it some violence and leave in the same night,” said another younger member. “ We can't. We have to live here. If we were into drugs and all that, everyone would know it. We re not going to bring ourselves down to that level. If the Crips want to sell dope, let them do it in L.A. Weare tired of seeing our buddies, part­ ners, moms and little children strung out on dope; dope we know the Crips brought in here. That's what the fight is all about. The police should be helping us instead of threatening us like cri­ m inals.” Group members noted that most of the positive activities which were geared for Portland Black youth have all but dim i­ nished. “ We can no longer hang out at the parks w ithout being confronted by Crips. They come into the parks blasting their loud car music, branishing guns, mak­ ing threats and scaring little kids. The same thing happens at bas­ ketball games and house parties. Most of the clubs have closed down. A in’t nothin left to do. We have to hang together just to pro­ tect ourselves.” The Homeboys said they are disappointed with the efforts of The O ffice of Neighborhood As­ sociations and some members of the Portland Police. "W e met with a representative from the Of­ fice of Neighborhood Associa­ tion in good faith. He asked us what did we want him to do and we told him. In turn, he promised that he would do all he could. He took our names, and we went away from the meeting feeling pretty good. We thought we were finally going to get some positive understanding. When we saw him again, he had rap sheets on all of us. He even showed up on television saying negative things about us. He was a totally different person than when we first met him. We would never trust him again. "W hen we got into the fight with the Crips out at the Chiles Center during the G rant/Jeff game, we went there because the police told us it was alright to come. We just wanted to see our homeboys play hoop, and the po- ice said they would provide us protection. But that ain’t the way it went down. Although there were 30 or 40 Crips sitting toge­ ther in the gym, the police chose to guard us like we were the cri­ minals. Then during the intermis- sion, a fight broke out. A police­ man got hit, and we were the ones who got slammed. On the news all you saw was red. No Crips. Why? It made us look like the bad guys.” Members of the Homeboys say they feel abandoned by the com ­ munity, the city and the police. “ Although we are wearing red and the police are wearing blue, we are out here doing their job. We are trying to keep the Crips out of our neighborhoods, yet the police are treating us like we are the ones bringing in the dope and opening up the dope houses. Wherever we go, we get harass­ ed. We can’t even be safe in our own community. If the police really wanted to help us, they know how to find us. They know we aren't into drugs and guns.” When asked to cite the differ­ ence between the L.A. Bloods and the Portland Bloods, the fo l­ lowing inform ation was shared: “ We wear both red and blue and whatever color we feel like wear­ ing. A L.A. Blood wears all red, Critics Hit Portland Schools for Low Standards, Mediocrity from head to toe. In L.A. the Crips claim territory that is "B lu e ” and the L.A. Bloods claim territory that is "R ed” . Neither allow the other to come into those terri­ tories. In Portland there is no red or blue territory, except where the Crips have set up shop (a drug house). Another thing, we are just homeboys who are trying to set a good example for the young people here. We want our ho- mies to know they don’t have to be scared or in tim id a te d or pressured into selling or doing drugs.” by I.R. Macrae When students graduate from high school w ithout having ma­ stered even the fundamentals of math and English, teachers and school adm inistrators have tend­ ed to shift the blame to unmo­ tivated students, dysfunctional fam ilies or society at-large. On Friday, Feb. 25, Portland School Board members faced several citizens who questioned the myth that good schools can pro­ duce illiterate students. Halim Rahsaan, chairman of the Dese­ gregation M onitoring Advisory Committee, asked, "A s long as we have (mediocre) standards and s ta ff. . . why should we still continue to be surprised when we produce students who are mediocre?” Rahsaan asked the question in the course of delivering the m id­ year report of the citizen watch­ dog group, a report that included lengthy quotations from Black educators whose schools have won national recognition forada- demic excellence. Rahsaan read sections of a letter he received from Dr. Jerome Harris, Superin­ tendent of a Brooklyn, New York, school. "S o m e people and groups have a vested interest in portraying ethnic and poor stu­ dents as ill-mannered and uncon­ trollable . . .” the letter read. “ These nay-sayers would not be pleased to see (such) students .. well-behaved and achieving above the national average. . . for then the myth that family back­ ground is the principal cause of . . . lack of discipline and low aca- d e m ic a c h ie v e m e n t is dispelled,” Harris said. A fte r reading these c o m ­ ments, Rahsaan suggested that upholding high academic stan­ dards is the way to produce well- educated students. "The basic difference between Dr. Harris’ school d istrict and Portland Pub­ lic Schools is one of expecta­ tions . . .” he stressed, adding, "Portland Public Schools’ ethnic students w ill continue to play catch-up as long as a large body of d istrict staff continue to feed the fires of incompetence and in­ feriority.” Rahsaan also c ritiz e d the The Homeboys said things are getting tight and that there is the potential for a real hot summer, if something isn’t done to curb the Crips recruitment of young A frica n -A m e rica n s. R e c ru it­ ment, they say, is being done at most Portland schools. The lure is money, clothes, jewelry, cars, parties, and drugs. House parties, once the pride of many young African-American Portlanders, are now seen as dan­ gerous to life and limb. Stories were to ld about how young African-Am erican females are used to lure Homeboys to parties where they find themselves trap­ ped inside by Crips. “ You go to a party nowdays; you don’t know if it’s a Crip party or not. A girl might tell you it’s cool to go, and you get there and here are the Crips hanging on the wall. They close the door and whatcha gon do? “ They recruit homeboys and girls, and then get our addresses and come shooting into our houses. This scares the little kids; so, whenever they are ap­ proached by a Crip to sell dope, what other choice to they have? Then a lotta little kids look up to the Crips. They think they bad. They think they w ill protect them. But, see, we’re trying to tell them they shouldn't be doing that. We see homeboys we grew up with carrying beepers and selling dope. We see some of our home­ boys’ moms begging for a dollar to buy dope. How you think that make us feel? These are our peo­ ple,” one member said angrily. Continued next week. PORTLAND OBSERVER 'The Eyes and Ears of the Community” 288-0033 CHUNK TUNA „ , BUMBLEBEE FBUMBLE BEEX I PACKED IN OIL or WATER YOUR CHOICE fjunkLii;hlTunainlt.iig Wholesale Pricing W k On Groceries Gone Public Did you know that for almost 30 years you could have bought some of your groceries at wholesale prices? The Bee Company, for over 30 years, has offered the public weekly stspments of name-brand groceries at genuine wholesale prices. You’ll find canned and packaged goods, pet foods, as well as frozen and close-dated deli products on the shelves. The best feature is that you do not have to buy by the case. You buy just what you want to buy, just the amount you need. Located at 800 N. Killingsworth, just east of 1-5, they are open Monday through Saturday 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. Isn’t it about time you save on your grocery bill? PHONE 283-3171 Two-thirds of business people surveyed expressed dissatisfac­ tion at the way the public schools are teaching basic skills. — Tony Bates Photo by Richard J. Brown Portland School Board’s recalci­ trance in implementing the Base­ line Essays, documents design­ ed to form the basis of the dis­ tric t’s M ulti-cultural Curriculum. Noting that the district s till has no firm tim e-line for im plem ent­ ing that program, which has been seven years in the making, he asked why it has yet to introduce “ truthful, relevant inform ation about African Americans, Am eri­ can Indians, Hispanics and Asians” into the mainstream cur­ riculum. Rahsaan summarised his con­ cerns bluntly, saying, "A frican American and American Indian students . . . are truly at risk . . . It is d iffic u lt to close the achieve­ ment gap or to produce ethnic students who w ill achieve in higher educational institutions when they are lacking in their basic academic fundamentals and (a knowledge of their own) cultural history.” Among the DMAC re port’s many specific recommenda­ tions: the district should pay more attention to the academic problems of American Indian stu­ dents. Noting that statistical data shows those students per­ form ing worse than any other ethnic group, Rahsaan urged the board to make com pletion of the American Indian Baseline Essay L a st m o n th w a s A fric a n A m e ric a n H is to ry M o n th . . . K e e p th e c e le b ra tio n a liv e all y e a r lo n g . 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Alex Stone, Vice Chairman of DMAC, underscored that concern, saying, “ I was shocked to see that the drop-out rate for our students has been twice that of the d is tric t average for the past 9 years.” The Ameri­ can Indian speaker appealed to the board for “ attention and sup­ port to turn these terrible stati­ stics around.” Perhaps the most disturbing report of the evening came from Tony Bates, President of the Port­ landia Club and member of the Educational Com m ittee of the Portland Chamber of Commerce. Bates revealed the results of a survey of metro-area businesses which found local business peo­ ple expressing dismay and out­ rage over the poor a b ilitie s of job seekers who are products of the Portland School system. Includ­ ed In the survey were statem ents by business people com plaining of an abysmal lack of skills in the basic areas of arithm etic, spel­ ling and geography; lack of real knowledge of how business ope­ rates; inability to follow instruc­ tions; and more im portantly, ina­ bility to think. Two-thirds of busi­ ness people surveyed expressed dissatisfaction at the way the public schools are teaching ba­ sic skills, Bates said. Pointing to th e d iffic u lty of get­ ting rid of poor teachers, Bates suggested that a way to deal w ith m ediocrity in the teaching pro­ fe s s io n w o u ld be to a llo w parents and students to evaluate teachers at the end of the acade­ mic year, and dism iss those who were found incompetent. Bates appeared to confirm the view expressed by Rahsaan ear­ lier when she said that many parents and students surveyed felt learning expectations were "very low ” in many classes. M ul­ tiple choice and fill-in-the-blank tests are the rule, she noted, la­ menting that students are taught to “ pass quizzes, not to think.” In a statem ent which seems sure to provoke controversy, Bates q u o te d -w e teacher who had been surveyed as saying that poor teachers were being “ coun­ seled out to schools on the North side (of Portland)” O CD Hands on Workshop Tax Break Class & Easter Surprise |— "co Sunday, March 13, 1988 O )