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3age2, Portland Observer June 15, 1988
OREGON'S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION
OPINION
EDITORIAL
by John E. Jacob
PORTLRHb'OtfeERVER
A lfre d L. Hendeison/Pubiisher
Hope For
Homeless Youth
Leon Harris/Gen Manager
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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EDITORIAL
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II the primaries have ended and the vote is in. From every numer-
_ ical extrapolation it would appear that Jesse Jackson will not be
the standard bearer for the Democratic party in the 1988 presidential
election. And still his organization is furiously at work garnering
superdelegates for the inevitable confrontation in Atlanta next
month. Dispite all of the apparent odds against his candidacy, Mr.
Jackson can still convey a certain mystique among the voting public
and within the political arena. In the perception of his detractors,
every Black person has now become a political science pundit with
regard to Jesse Jackson’s intentions. Again and again and again we
are asked. “ What does Jesse Jackson really want?” The kindest thing
that can be said about that question is that it is a curious euphemism.
The meaning hidden between the lines is twofold. First, it is a mute
admission that the Black populace has finally attained a level a
maturity which is an irrevocable reference point to the decision mak
ing process of the power structure. Secondly, it suggests an
unspoken threat to the present power brokers who are loathe to relin
quish or to share such prominence among the closet racist element
that has felt comfortable to surface within the Democratic party dur-
,ng the last eight years. New strategies to recapture control cannot
be developed until the freshman partners articulate their demands.
The interrogator really is asking, “ What do Black people want now
that they have attained more than a spectator position within the in
ner circle of the club?” To ask such a question is to express a certain
insouciance for what Black people have been demanding for more
than two centuries. We are demanding our rightful piece of the ac
tion. We want full participation in every aspect of this great nation
whose limitless potential never could have been achieved without
the sweat, tears and sacrificial lives extracted from millions of Black
sersons over the span of three centuries.
We no longer can depend upon the fickle opportunism of the
American political circus. What one great reformer giveth in one
generation another infamous revisionist taketh away from the next.
Currently, preparation is in progress to celebrate the bicentennial
of the U.S. Constitution. History has demonstrated the unfortunate
observation that longevity does not confer perfection upon a princi
ple that was initially defective, it only aggravates a deteriorating con
dition. Rather, experience improves the insight of the user. Mr.
Justice Thurgood Marshall previously indicated that the constitution
had to be amended more than 20 times to correct the imperfections
that have emerged over the years. After two hundred years it is now a
tattered patchwork of confusion which even its writers would find dif
ficult to understand. A constitutional convention is long overdue.
Many foreign sovereignties and even some of the 50 states have
found the need to re-write there own constitutions. It is a process that
should be repeated every 100 years. By so doing we could benefit by
the social, philosophical and technological advances that evolve
within an ever changing society.
■,?.t
1
N.W. it is pushed under the car
pet. The realtor who was inter
viewed on T.V. wasn't very helpful
to the clients who had asked her
about crime in the N.E. area, be
cause she hadn’t done her home
work and apparently doesn't want
to sell any houses. She apparent
ly doesn't know that Portland's
famous police department clump
all crimes together. The police
don't break down crimes by area
or district. I would like to
challenge all four stations to go
around, especially to my neigh
borhood, District 19, or any other
N.E. neighborhoods, to actually
find out how the people who live
there feel about crime.
Dear Editor,
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I am a concerned resident who
lives on the N.E. side of town. I
feel that all four local T V. stations
have biased news reports regard
ing the N.E. side of town. The
straw that broke the camel's back
with me was on KATU Channel 2,
June 8, 1988, when the news me
dia interviewed the couple that
had their house broken into. I am
sorry that their house was broken
into, as I was this couple's neigh
bor about eight years ago. At that
particular time the neighborhood
was very quiet and there ere no
problems. But neighborhoods do
change.
The news media has been very
biased in reporting N.E. crime. I Thank you,
notice when things happen in Gwen Stokes
S.E.,- S.W., Lake Oswego, and Resident of N.E. Portland
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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I . a m em ber ol The N e t, one!
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New Tor»
. 1 V
Mary Hatwood Futrell
President, NBA
oday in America — our land this crisis by passing legislation
of plenty, our land of opportu that appropriated $5 million to
help states fund the education of
n ity — 700,000 children are home
less. They live in temporary shel homeless youth.
This initiative, the Homeless
ters and welfare hotels. They
"live” in old cars, abandoned Assistance Act, signaled a begin
buildings, alleyways. Almost al ning— but only a beginning. Its
provisions were — and remain —
ways, they live in hopelessness.
These children — already strug inadequate. If the $5 million pie
gling for shelter and clothing — were divided equally, the share
must now struggle for an educa allotted each homeless child
would come to $7.14.
tio n ,
fo r
th e
p ro m is e d
Unfortunately, the Reagan Ad
passageway out of povery and
despair. But despair persists. For ministration evidently thinks that
seven dollars is too much to
thousands of America’s school
districts have closed their doors spend to educate a homeless
child. The Administration’s pro
to homeless children.
Why? Because many residency posed budget would totally elimi
requirements bar children who nate this paltry appropriation.
I find that unconscionable. And
have no permanent address from
attending public school. The re I am convinced it runs counter to
the common sense and uncom
sult: 43 percent of all homeless
mon compassion of the American
school-age children do not attend
school. These children, in the people. They know that national
security cannot rest on policies
words of the National Coalition
for the Homeless, are thereby that neglect already neglected
denied ‘a much needed sense of children. They know, too, that
place and continuity they lack in unleashing the full potential of
every child is essential to the
their fragmented lives.”
My heart aches for these chil health of our democracy.
Americans, I believe, will not
dren— perhaps because I knew
poverty as a child. But amidst abide the heartless treatment of
poverty, I found solace. I had a homeless youth. That is why
home. And I had a second w e —
home — my school. Those bless each of us — must contact our
ings sustained me. But increasing Congressional representatives
numbers of children today must and demand that they reject the
do without such sustenance. elimination of the education fun
ding provision of the Homeless
When these children are denied
access to public education, they Assistance Act. If, instead, Con
are denied the last source of hope gress increases that funding, we
will all be richer. So, too, will our
they may ever know.
In 1987, Congress responded to nation.
T
control of events is accomplished
(Include Em ploym ent O ppor
tunities).
So, those who simply castigate
PART 1 of 2
the highly visible multi-national
corporations bring to mind the
warning of Plato, the ‘Greek’ phi
losopher, "Existence as per
ceived is but the shadows on the
surface of a pool; Reality lies be
neath the surface.” ‘Reality’ for
Black Americans is America’s ed
ucational and cultural establish
ment which for the most part
dances to a tune of historical
oversight and plain fiction. It is
how you are seen to fit into the
overall schem e of thing s —
yesterday and today, at home and
abroad — which determines when
or if you shall be employed and at
what level, and which determines
how or if you shall be educated,
by Professor McKinley Burt
or even where you shall live. The
‘Desegregation Program’ of the
Portland Public Schools includes
y articles of the past two
a
series of "Baseline Essays in
weeks were a documented
African
History," that are design
demonstration that TARZAN IS
ed
to
rectify
many of the histori
ALIVE AND WELL — 'At home
cal
lies
and
omissions
that have
and abroad: I emphasized that we
so
cruelty
affected
the
status of
are fighting a system carefully
African-Americans.
fashioned over a span of cen
Many American scholars were
turies for the control of all Third
also
educated in Europe and
World people and their lands. It
know
better than to continue to
should be further understood that
deny
an ‘African Presence’ at
in consequence of an internation
every
iqstance
of the formation of
al linkage of greed and racism, a
the
world’s
civilization
and cul
temporary success in, say, the
ture.
A
well-rounded
—
IDIOT
war against drugs and gangs may
would
reach
a
contrary
conclu
do little to mitigate the problems
sion, even without the evidence
of minorities in America. Powered
of artifacts ranging from ancient
by a world system’ of cultural
dominance, THE NEXT DEVASTA paintings and statues with their
“ Negroid” features to the preserv
TION IS WAITING IN THE WINGS.
You will understand, then, that ed proclamations of Black Kings
Blacks must get 'ahead of the and Queens, Popes, and Poets
game,' and not simply react to the We have this situation in Eqypt,
game of the day. One must be Ethiopia, Nubia, The Sudan and in
Libya (here, Isaac Newton cre
ware of how our MEDIA — from
prime-time news to textbooks — dited the ancient African astro
nomer ATLAS with the concept o
‘colors' our perceptions as it not
only packages the events of the the sphere and its mathematics).
And, then, we have the so-
day but translates' and forwards
called "M iddle East” where
h is to ry w ith in the c u ltu ra l
today's "PERSIAN GULF” was
guidelines of Darwin's "favored
races.” A few years ago Dr. Mar called by the ancients “ The Ethio
pian Sea." Half of the oil mini
shall McLuhan at the University of
sters and tribesmen would be
Montreal made this fact crystal
clear. He wrote a best seller, the ‘lost in the crowd' in America’s
inner-cities And, there is India
Medium Is The Message, and
where the GANGES river is nam
from that moment on even a fool
could understand how cultural ed fora great African general.
RACISM:
At Home And Abroad
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' e’ve had an abundance of special commissions and task forces
\ A f examining minority deprivation in America, and all come up wJUi
the same c o n c lu s io n s -th a t we are nowhere near where we should be
in terms of equality.
Twenty years ago, the Kerner Commission issued its warni/ig
that America was sliding into “ two societies — separate and unequal. r
In 1988, we’ve had re-examinations of the Kerner Report’s con
elusions that reinforce the warning and say that its grim prophecy ,js
coming true.
I1
Most recently, a blue-chip national commission headed by
former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford and made up ct
political, business and education leaders drawn from both parties aryJ
all parts of the ideological spectrum issued a new warning.
It said, “ America is moving backward, in its efforts to secure
equity or minority citizens.
)C
That’s a conclusion amply justified by the facts, and it ought to
be taken very seriously by America’s policymakers and by the el^p
torate. Certainly the number one issue in the presidential campaign has
to be how to stop the backward movement and start moving forward
again.
The report rightly suggests that continued gradualism is righting
wrongs is unacceptable and that it's necessary to develop programs
that produce results.
If opponents of affirmative action don't like mandated goals affid
timetables, they are challenged to come up with alternatives that pro
duce equal or better results. For the only proper measure can be the ef
fectiveness of such programs in moving minorities into the mainstream
and in overcoming the barriers to equal participation.
I was a member of the commission, but what I found io
remarkable is that a truly bipartisan consensus was forged among the
members. There was general agreement that the pace of progress was
far too slow; that America was moving backward, and that it is essential
to assure full participation of minorities in American life.
But the challenge has been offered before — in countless com
missions and task forces. What's needed now is the political will and
leadership to implement programs to do the ¡ob. and to provide the
leadership to build a national consensus behind the policies necessary
to bring about positive change.
(?
Civil Rights Journal
by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
he anti-apartheid movement continues to gain momentum
throughtout the world. Here in the United States, however, there
is a need to increase public awareness and support for the freedom
and independence of Namibia from the genocidal clutches of the
racist government of South Africa.
While I was in southern Africa recently I talked to many Nami
bians about the illegal armed occupation and exploitation of their na
tion by South Africa. I also learned of eyewitness accounts of some
of the most brutal acts of terrorism committed against the people of
Namibia by the more than 100,000 soldiers of the South African
Defense Force patroling inside Namibia.
Namibia is a nation the size of California, Oregon and
Washington combined. Its population is 1.6 million: 95% African a id
5% white. Namibia is located on the southwest coast of Africa,
bordered by Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South
Africa to the south.
Namibia is Africa's last colony and suffers from the continued
imperialism of western nations, led by the United States, in unholy
league with apartheid South Africa. Since 1969 the United Nations
has condemned South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia. In
Namibia, just as in South Africa, Blacks live under a legalized system
of racial segregation and oppression. They are denied all rights and
have no voice or participation in the governing of their own nation. All
rights and power are reserved for the white minority which is only 5%
of the population.
Namibia is an extremely wealthy nation with many natural
resources, including valuable minerals. Yet the wealth of this nation
has been stolen by South Africa and supporting western powers.
All the Namibians I met overwhelming expressed their sup
port for the Southwest African People's Organization (SWAPO) and
recognized it as the liberation movement of Namibia. SWAPO's
crucial role in Namibia's independence struggle has been universally
recognized in the international community. P. W. Botha, the ruthless
president of South Africa, announced in April that South Africa would
take “ fitting and effective action” against SWAPO.
In response, Kapuka Nauyala, SWAPO's representative in
Zimbabwe, stated, "This is aimed at silencing SWAPO and othfcr
democratic organizations in order to stifle the mounting opposition
to Pretoria's continued illegal occupation of the territory." It is our
responsibility to help prevent the silencing of SWAPO.
What can we, in the United States, do to help our sisters add
brothers in Namibia and in South Africa? It is urgent that we publicly
support the Dellums-Cranston Comprehensive Sanctions Bill (HR
1560/S 556). This bill would require U.S. companies to leave South
Africa, would ban all trade between the United States and South
Africa and stop the flow of military and intelligence information be
tween South Africa and the United States.
<3
Additionally, June 16th is National Anti-Apartheid Action and
Lobby Day, when hundreds of thousands of people will gather around
the country to protest apartheid and express support for compreheh
sive sanctions against South Africa.
'V
While I was in Zimbabwe I read a copy of the ‘Namibian
newspaper. A front-page article detailed a vicious atrocity that has
become all too common in Namibia. It was the story of Rebecca,ra
young, 16-year-old Namibian girl who was riding her bicycle home
from the market outside of Oshakati. in Namibia. Earlier that day
there had been an explosion in town which killed 23 Namibians. A
truck-load of South African soldiers stopped Rebecca and inter
rogated her. Then one of the soldiers shot Rebecca at point-blank
range in the stomach Rebecca did nothing to provoke this attack.
After shooting her, the group of white soldiers stripped hör
naked and then drank beer and shot up into the air, while she was ly
ing in the road, crying out for help. Four hours later a fellow Namibia#)
passed by and attempted to respond to Rebecca's cry. The South
African soldiers pointed their guns at the man and told hime to "keep
moving” or they would kill him. Other witnesses confirmed th#t
Rebecca laid there and cried for her life all night long As dawn bioke
the next day. she cried out with her last breath. “ Into your hands. Oh
God, I come ”
T