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Page 2, Portland Observer, November 17, 1988
EDITORIAL /
OPMON
Skin heads: racism, terrorism and murder
Perspectives
Continued fro m Page 1
TheB lack Church: A
Real H ist o ry ( Part 3)
I began this four-part series b-
suggesting that the Black Chur
(an 8,000-year old institution)
could bring youth into the fold by
promoting the true and docu­
mented history of the Black
people - by promoting the con­
cepts of identity and an enhanced
self-im age.
It was a significant and pervasive
role indeed that Africans played,
not only in the creation of the Chris­
tian Church, but more importantly
in developing the ancient con­
cepts of spirituality and existence
which provided the basis for the
earlier Hebrew religionist. Let us
examine this excerpt on Creation
and the Trinity (Diop, pp. 108,109,
The African Origin of Civilization).
"O ne can also understand that
Phoenician religion and beliefs
are to some extent more replicas
of Egypt’s. Phoenician cosm og­
ony is revealed in fragments of
Sanchoniation, translated by Philo
of B yblos and re p o rte d by
Eusebius.
According to these
texts, in the beginning there was
uncreated, chaotic matter, in per­
petual disorder (Bohu); Breath
(Rouah) hung over Chaos. The
union of those two principles was
called Chephets, Desire, which is
at the origin of all creation.
What impresses us here is the
similarity between this cosmic
Trinity and that found in Egypt, as
reported by Amelineau in his
Prolegomenes: In Egyptian cos­
mogony also, at the beginning
there was chaotic, uncreated m at­
ter, th e p rim itiv e N un (ef.
Nen=nothingness in Wolof). This
primitive matter contained, in the
form of principles all possible
beings. It also contained the god
of potential development, Khepru.
As soon as the primitive nothing­
ness created Ra, the demiurge, its
role ended. Henceforth the thread
would be unbroken until the ad­
vent of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, an­
cestors of the Egyptians. The
prim itive Trinity then moved from
the scale of the universe to that of
man, as it did later in Christianity.
Phoenician cosmogony reveals
once again the kinship of Egyp­
tians and Phoenicians, both of
K "sh it9 (Negro) origin. This kin­
ship is confirm ed by the revela­
tions of the Ras Shamra (ancient
Ugarit, on the Syrian coast) texts,
which place the original habitat of
Phoenicia’s national heroes in the
south, on Egypt’s frontiers (‘W olof’
is a West Coast African language
Well, well, well! Isn’t that exactly
what is said in the Book of Gene­
sis. written thousands of years
later? Write it stone or on papyrus,
brothers and sisters - and your
heritage cannot be denied. Not
the frequent allusions to the world
having been created from nothing:
‘‘Chaos - Primitive Nun - uncreated
matter containing all possible
beings. This is precisely how to­
day’s ‘scientists’ are describing
the creation of our universe - as a
Bio Bang in the middle of nothing,
whereupon in a billionth of a sec­
ond quarks, hydrogen, helium and
all the progenitors of matter, plan­
ets, suns and galaxies began ‘act­
ing up’. Get serious white folks,
obviously the African figured that
out millenniums ago.
The reference to the African gods
Osiris, Isis and Horus as the Trinity
underlines the theme of the Black
M other of Man carried throughout
the known world and its literature.
Isn’t it strange that the w orld’s sci­
entists have only now, through
genetic research, established a
“ Luey” as the African female pro­
genitor of all humans alive today?
Isis, the wife of Osiris, was the
m other of H orus. the African god
whose ‘eye’ Thomas Jefferson
placed above the pyramid in his
design of the Great Seal of the
United States. He stated that it
represented the secret spiritual
destiny of the nation (see the re­
verse of the dollar bill).
It is the story of Isis and her heroic
efforts to save her son Horus that
lead to the Jewish legends of
■ loses hidden in the bulrushes
Ji, Budge, The Dwellers on The
Jle), an infant Abraham rescued
from Nimrod (p. 134, Asim ov’s
Guide to the Bible). Matthew (2:13
to 2:15) describes the infant Jesus
saved by Joseph's dream. You
will note that everybody made it to
Africa for safety, good food and a
job. Just like the emigration to
America today.
(Concluded Next Week)
PORTLAND OBSERVER
“ The Eyes and Ears o f th e C o m m u n ity ”
288-0033
Creed Of The Black Press
The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from
social and national antagonisms when it accords to every person, regardless of
race, color, or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing
no person, the Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief that
all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.
PORR
ERVER
cago heavy metal group known
as Creative Violence.
Skinheads in Florida have dis­
rupted rock concerts in St. Pe­
tersburg and Clearwater, and in
October 1986, five were arrest
in nearby Ybor City after alleg­
edly clubbing a group of youths
leaving a punk-rock club. Ybor
City merchants have been the
targets of skinhead vandalism.
Several Tampa skinheads have
been arrested for aggravated
assault.
A skinhead band
known as Jehovah’s Sick­
nesses, which flamboyantly
hurls Nazi salutes and shouts
racial insults, has appeared in
bars in the Gainesville, Florida
area.
Tn Portland’ s Old Town District
last October, a gang of over 20
skinheads marched in forma­
tion toward a popular teen night
spot armed with axes, pipes,
knives and baseball bats. They
were intercepted en route by
some three dozen police in pa­
trol cars. Portland skinheads
have distributed neo-Nazi cards
printed by Gerhard Lauck, a
leading disseminator o f hate lit­
erature who lives in Chicago
and operates from a Nebraska
post office box. One o f the
Portland skinheads attended the
1986 Aryan Nations Confer­
ence.
In Orange County (south of Los
Angeles), California, skinheads
have d istrib u ted neo-N azi
flyers and vandalized property
with spray paint. The biggest
concentration in the area is lo­
cated in Huntington Beach.
Skinheads in Dallas have been
arrested for robbery, assault,
criminal mischief and narcotics
violations. In the Deep Elm
area, a hangout for skinheads,
there have been skinhead as­
saults on minorities. Skinheads
have reportedly threatened
store owners, destroyed prop­
erty, intimidated pedestrians
and resisted arrest.
Denver’s small skinhead con­
tingent has operated from an
apartment attached to the Salva­
tion Army building. Its leader
has been 20-year-old Robert
Cass Goodman, whose hair is
shaved in the form a swastika.
Hate Movement Links
Skinheads are regarded by
leaders o f functioning neo-Nazi
groups as potential recruits and
have been courted in recent
years with some success. On
June 30,1985 the Chicago skin­
heads participated in a march
sponsored by the (Chicago-
based) American Nazi Party to
protest the annual Gay and
Lesbian Pride Day rally. They
have also sent delegations to
weekend conferences for na­
tional hate-group activists
hosted by Robert Miles, former
head of M ichigan’s Ku Klux
Kian, who is presently under
indictment on charges of plot­
ting a violent overthrow of the
United States government.
Among others indicted are lead­
ers of an underground terrorist
gang known as the Order,
whose found Robert Mathews
(now deceased) reportedly
planned to use part of the
group’s illicitly-acquired funds
to promote white power rock
bands in the U.S. The Detroit
area skinheads have also shown
up at conferences sponsored by
Miles, where their leader, Dave
Lozon, was a featured speaker
in early October, 1987.
Skinheads have also been in
attendance at the 1986 and 1987
conferences of the Aryan Na­
tions, a militant Nazi-like group
whose compound is located in
rural Hayden Lake, Idaho. One
skinhead, Martin Cox, upon
driving away from the 1987
Aryan Nations conclave, was
arrested for illegal possession of
a firearm. Ex-convict Cox, on
federal parole for an assault in
California, is an organizer for
White Aryan Resistance (WAR)
leader Tom M etzger in Orange
County and has appeared on
one of M etzger’s self-produced
tapes (“ Race and Reason” )
which his followers around the
country distribute to cable tele­
vision stations.
Metzger, a former California
Ku Klux Kian Grand Dragon,
has courted skinheads from his
base near San Diego where he
is attempting to expand his or­
ganization and its youth arm, the
Aryan Youth Movement, be­
yond the confines of California.
Metzger describes skinheads as
“ young, urban working-class
people, and they don’t like any­
one to push them around.
Sometimes they get into con­
frontations with other groups,
such as black gangs.” A contin­
gent of skinheads showed up
last June along with Metzger
Message To The Community
By City Commissioner Dick Bogle
OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PUBLICATION
Established in 1970
Alfred L. Henderson/Publisher
Leon Harris /General Manager
Gary Ann Garnett
Nyewusi Askari
Business Manager
Editor
Joyce Washington
Mattie Ann Callier-Spears
Sales/Marketing Director
Religion Editor
Ruby Reuben
Marie Deculr
Sales Representative
Photographer
Rose Marie Davis
Sales Representative
The murder of Mulugeta Seraw is more than a senseless tragedy.
It is the visible eruption of a community cancer normally existing
just below the surface of our everyday lives.
Every citizen of this city deserves to be able to walk on any street
at any time, day or night, without fear of insult, injury or death.
Richard Medina
Photo-Composition
B. Gayle Jackson
Lonnie Wells
Comptroller
Circulation Manager
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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525 N E Killm gsworth St • Portland, Oregon 97211
P O B om 3137 • Portland. Oregon 97208
The ability to do that is one of the foundations in measuring the
degree of a c ity ’s livability. Mr. Seraw’s death is, of course, a loss
to his family and loved ones. But, in addition, the manner of his
death is an immeasurable loss to Portland, since we have to face the
fact that hatred has killed. We cannot deny that racist hate groups
do practice what they preach.
(503) 288-0033 (Office)
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I have full confidence that the Portland Police Bureau will spare no
effort to bring his killers to justice.
And, as we see this further evidence of irrational acts and violence,
we who claim to be pure of heart and open of mind must take
particular diligence not to allow the deadly virus of retribution to
infect our spirit and direct us down a path of violent confrontation.
* * * f.A f f
'
and other followers to picket the
office of California State Sena­
tor Ed Davis. Davis is the co­
sponsor of legislation increasing
penalties for the commission of
hate crimes. Metzger has high­
lighted skinhead activities in his
periodical, also known as WAR.
The periodical is distributed by
skinheads in Orange County
and in Cincinnati. The skinhead
SS-Action Group in Norwood,
Ohio sponsors M etzger’s pro­
gram “ Race and Reason” on
local cable access television.
A former youth organizer for
Metzger was the victim in Au­
gust, 1987 ofan assault by base­
ball-bat wielding thugs he has
identified as skinheads follow­
ing his public repudiation of his
racist past. Greg Withrow, who
helped launch M etzger’s Aryan
Youth Movement, was later
nailed to a six-foot plank and
slashed with a razor across his
upper chest after speaking out
on a Sacramento talk show. Ac­
cording to Withrow, his organi­
zation sought to attract young­
sters by offering propaganda,
“ all oriented toward violent
behavior.” One of the affiliated
groups of the Aryan Youth
Movement is none other than
Chicago’s Romantic Violence.
Skinheads are the subject of
admiring stories by The Spot­
light, the weekly publication of
the anti-Jewish organization
Liberty Lobby, which reaches
over 100,000 subscribes, and
Frontline, published by the
National Democratic Front, a
small Maryland-based neo-
Nazi group with close ties to
England’s National Front. A
1986 article and photo spread
entitled “ Skinheads: They’re
Young, T hey’re W ild and
Standing Up for America,”
although the fact of the skin­
heads’ youth also warrants the
active concern o f the entire
community.
No less serious than the pros­
pect o f violence is the possible
recruitment of skinheads into
the neo-Nazi movement. Hard­
core membership in the avow­
edly neo-Nazi groups in the
U.S. has declined steadily over
the past decade, from a peak of
1,000-1,200 in 1978 to no more
than 400-450 in 1987. The pres­
ent rise of the skinhead gangs
could bring about a reversal of
that downward trend. Plainly a
neo-Nazism with the appear­
ance o f a contemporary youth
cult and associated with rock
music is more attractive to po­
tential young recruits than is the
traditional image o f Nazism.
The skinhead connection also
offers the neo-Nazis something
they have rarely enjoyed in the
United States: a base of support
from which to recruit. Except
for links they have had with
fringe elements o f the motor­
bike culture, neo-Nazi groups
have operated in virtually total
isolation from any broader insti­
tution or segment of American
society. In consequence, when
past growth has occurred, it has
usually been at the rate of one-
convert-at-a-time. The skin­
head gangs, however, may pro­
vide the neo-Nazis with a pool
of prospective members, as
they have done in Great Britain.
Time will tell whether these
disturbing possibilities actually
become reality or if the skin­
head phenomenon proves to
be simply a passing fad. In the
meanwhile the progress o f the
skinhead gangs requires careful
monitoring.
C onclusion
Two main problems are pre­
sented by the appearance on the
American scene of skinhead
gangs; the threat it brings of
violence in our communities
and the possibility that it signals
the growth of youthful neo-
Nazism.
As this report has shown, crimi­
nal activity has occurred in virtu­
ally all the cities where the skin-
heads are active. This challenge
requires the attention mainly of
the law enforcement agencies,
"I sta rte d w ith th is ld e a
jn m y head. T h e re ’s tw o
th in g s I’ve go t a rig h t to
d e a th o r lib e rty .”
Racist and Anti-Semitic Groups
(Incomplete List)
Neo-Nazi
1. National States Right Party -
Marietta, Georgia.
2. N ew O rd e r - M ilw aukee,
Wisconsin.
3. National Alliance - Mill Point,
West Virginia.
4. National Sozialistische Deutsche
Aibeiter Partei-Auslands Organization
(NSDAP-AO) - Lincoln, Nebraska.
5. National Socialist Liberation Front
- Metairie, Louisiana.
6. Social Nationalist Aryan People's
Party - Coeur d ’Alene, Id a h o
7. Am erica First Committee -
Chicago, Illinois.
8. S.S. Action Group - Detroit,
Michigan.
9. National Socialist American
W orkers Party - Glendale, California.
10. N a tio n a l S o cia list W hite
America Party - Pacific Palisades,
California.
11. W orld Service - San Diego,
California.
12. National Socialist V a n g u a rd -
Goldendale, California.
13. E uro-A m erican A llia n ce -
Milwaukiee, W isconsin.
14. American W hite Nationalist
Party - Columbus, Ohio.
15. Am erican W orkers Party -
Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
16. New Order Legion - Portland,
Oregon.
17. Skinheads - Various factions
e g. Cincinnati, San Francisco, Seattle.
18. Ohio W hite Nationalist Party -
Toledo, Ohio.
19. National Socialist League - San
Diego, California.
20. National Socialist M ovement -
Cincinnati, Ohio.
21. National Socialist Party of
America - Chicago, Illinois.
22. American Nazi Party - Chicago,
Illinois.
23. Romantic Violence - Chicago,
Illinois.
24. Aryan Youth M ovement -
Fallbrook, California.
2 5 . N ew D aw n - B u rb a n k ,
California