Page 2 Portland Observer JULY 27, 1989
ËDÎTÔ’RIÂL
TO BE EQUAL
CIVIL RIGHTS - 25 YEARS LATER
by John E. Jacob
The recent W hite House celebration o f the 25th anniversary o f the
passage o f the C iv il Rights A ct o f 1964 was a reminder that race remains a
m ajor national issue.
In 1964, the nation struggled to overturn legal segregation and to assure
A frican Americans and other minorities basic constitutional protections
other citizens took for granted.
In 1989, there is a w orrying lack o f consensus about how we can remove
race as a factor that lim its peoples's aspirations and accomplishments.
The W hite House ceremony took place in the shadow o f recent Supreme
C ourt rulings that reflect the conservative tide o f the past decade - a new
national mood u n w illin g to tolerate the necessary efforts to remedy the
legacy o f racial oppression and the persistence o f discrim ination.
And it took place at a time when a Census Bureau analysis o f poverty
statistics found little change since the late 1060s.
For a w hile in the decade o f the sixties, the poverty gap was closing and
black income rose. But w ith the anti-poor mood o f the 1980s, the Bureau has
found that the poverty gap has grown. Today’ s poor are further below the
poverty line than yesterday’ s.
Some say that’ s not a c iv il rights issue -- but it is. You can’ t separate
rights from status and economic outcomes.
Our system was b u ilt on exploitation o f black labor and the exclusion o f
A frican Americans from equal opportunity. The c iv il rights laws o f the
1960s sought to remove the legal basis for that inequality and to enable
m inorities to compete on an equal footing.
I t ’ s not enough to say that the laws have made us a colorblind society
when the practices o f our society result in very color-conscious outcomes
such as disproportionate black poverty.
The original c iv il rig h t movement was w ell aw are o f that d istinction —
the 1963 March on Washington that led to passage o f the 1964 C iv il Rights
A ct was made under the banner: “ Jobs and Freedom.’ ’
The in itia l struggles to secure freedom by changing the laws and w inning
fu ll constitutional protections were logically follow ed by the thus far less
successful effort to end poverty and to assure fu ll equal opportunity.
Equal opportunity doesn’ t sim ply mean removal o f specific barriers to
individual progress. It needs to be implemented by education, employment,
health and housing advances that assure ultimate rough parity between the
races in the m ajor areas o f life.
The m ajor difference between the 1960s and today is that in the sixties
there w as a national consensus that segregation and racially-based inequal­
ity was m orally wrong.
Today’ s moral climate is weaker. Too many p olitical leaders and judges
refuse to see the moral tragedy o f continued racial injustice. They pretend
our nation is now colorblind; that race is not a factor in life ’s outcomes, and
that the effects o f past racism do not reach into peoples’s lives today.
So they fight measures to reduce economic inequality and deliver
decisions that throw up new barriers to the victim s o f d iscrim ination and
poverty.
To a large degree their actions reflect the legacy o f Reaganism, but we
have to realize that we can’ t pin it on one man - Reagan largely reflected
the views o f many in a nation tired o f reform and indifferent to m oral claims.
W e need to rekindle the moral fervor that led Am erica to make such
sweeping changes in the late 1960s, and to fin a lly complete the positive
revolution begun then.
ANEW
POLITICAL DAY
IS DAWNING
From Marcus Garvey and Paul
Robeson to Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr.. M alcolm X and Dr. M artin L u ­
ther K ing, Jr. to M inister Louis Far-
rakhan, the Reverend A1 Sharpton,
and attorneys A lton Maddox, Jr. and
C. Vernon Mason, we have seen our
leaderscutdown--maligned, im pris­
oned, m urdered-for the crim e o f
defending the Black com m unity.
When Black leaders step out to
lead, the Pow ers That Be move quickly
to punish them. The law is turned
into a w eapon-not in the cause o f
justice but against it; the white cor­
porate--owned media lend themselves
to the ta sk-w h ich is not to expose
the truth but to invent lies; and the
o ffic ia l Black leadership (those who
have sold themselves to white corpo­
rate America at the expense o f the
Black masses) jum p on the band-
w ag on -no t to stand up w ith their
sisters and brothers under attack but
to repudiate them.
These phony black leaders--most
o f them hog-tied to the Democrauc
party - have the job o f cooling out the
black comm unity w hile ensuring that
no new, independent black leader­
ship emerges to bring our people out
o f bondage. For as we know only too
w ell. Abraham Lincoln (the "G re at
Em ancipator” ) never intended to
abolish slavery; the northern indus­
trialists fo r whom he won the C iv il
W ar were just concerned w ith free­
ing Black labor for their won use
west o f the Mississippi. And those
who p ro fit from the enslavement o f
black people are still not w illin g to
let us go.
Today a new generation o f Black
leaders is emerging. We are not in­
tim idated by the attempts to silence
us. to discredit us, to wrench us away
from the Black com m unity by c a ll­
ing us names--’ ’ tax evaders.’ ’ “ po­
lice inform ers.” "sexual perverts.’ ’
“ extremists.: :anti-Scmites.” We
know that we cannot rely on the old
leaders, the ones who long ago sold
the Black com m unity for a mess o f
pottage, to defend our people in the
war that is being waged against us.
And we recognize that it is Black
people themselves who must enlist
{
as soldiers in the resistance against
genocide.
W hen I say that w hite corporate
Am erica is conducting a genocidal
war against the Black masses, I am
not ju s t using “ a figure o f speech. “
I am talking about w ar--dislocation,
imprisonm ent, brain washing, torture
and death. I am speaking about the
physical, p o litic a l, cultural and psy­
chological destruction o f a people by
any means necessary--guns, drugs,
terror, deprivation and hum iliation.
As the chairperson o f the inde­
pendent New alliance Party, 1 am
leading a movement to empow er our
people and the sisters and brothers
w ho are our allies in this life and
death struggle. A new p o litic a l day is
dawning. W e—the women o f color
who are helping me to b u ild and lead
the independent political weapon that
the black com m unity and other en­
dangered peoples can use in our own
defense.
As an independent candidate fo r
mayor o f New Y o rk, I am calling on
the people o f the city to follow me
into battle. Because the time has come
w hen the .African Am erican com m u­
nity has to decide whether it is going
to continue fo llo w in g Black Demo­
crats w ho year in and year out m is­
lead our people, who have delivered
the com m unity into the hands o f our
’ OPINION
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
IN HONOR OF THE AFRICAN
AMERICAN CHILD
by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
Every day we read in newspapers and see on our television sets story after
story about the problems o f A frica n Am erican youth. We are told about the
crack epidemic and its impact on young people, about young people
dropping out o f school in large numbers , about gang wars and crim e and
violence. We are told and warned that in particular racial and ethnic children
in the United States are now being doomed fo r future hardships. These are
true stories and stories w hich should challenge a ll o f us to find new and
effective ways to save especially A frica n Am erican children, who are twice
as lik e ly to die in their first year o f life , who are three times as lik e ly to be
poor and four times as lik e ly to be incarcerated between the ages o f fifteen
and nineteen as w hite Am erican children. Indeed, the very future o f an entire
race is being challenged by a ll o f these terrible facts which A frican
Am erican children must face.
But the reality is that a ll too often we are only told the negative stories
about A frican Am erican children. A ll too often we do not hear the stories o f
the A frican Am erican valedictorians who are graduating from high schools
across this country, o f the young people who volunteer w ith local c iv ic and
com m unity groups: o f the successful athletes, artists and scholars who are
making significant contributions to their comm unities and, often, to their
churches.
A t a recent convocation o f the M inisters fo r Racial and social Justice and
United Black Christians o f the U nited Church o f C hrist held in fo rt W orth,
Texas, eight-year old W ile tra B urw ell o f Warrenton, North C arolina spoke
to nearly a thousand people who had gathered to hear M ayor Andrew Young
at that im portant gathering. W ile tra nearly brought the house down w ith her
eloquent speech, w hich she w rote herself and delivered impeccably.
But rather than tell about W ile tra ’ s speech, I decided to reprint it here
because it gives hope and challenge to us all:
I A M T H E B L A C K C H IL D
“ I am the black ch ild ! A ll the w orld awaits my coming. A ll the earth
watches w ith interest to see what I shall become. C iv iliz a tio n hangs in the
balance, fo r what 1 am, the w orld o f tom orrow w ill be. I am the black child!
You have brought me into this w orld about which I know nothing. You hold
in your hand my destiny. Y ou determine whether I shall succeed or fa il, Give
me, I beg you, a w orld where 1 can w alk tall and proud fo r I am the black
child...
1 feel 1 must say to you that a ll o f us are not interested in drugs and vulgar
rap m usic...I say to you adults this evening, pray fo r us. Forbid us not from
participating and from being included.Know that our generation needs more
love, more understanding, and we certainly need some more inspiration. We
need the same kind o f inspiration that Rev. Dr. M artin Luther K in g, Jr.,
M alcolm X and many others gave to you.
M any times, adults accuse us o f being apathetic, but I say to you that fo r
the most part we are not apathetic .that we are concerned about today’s
issues. W e are concerned about education. We are concerned about apart­
heid and about our brothers and sisters in South A frica. No, we are not
apathetic, but I must tell you some o f us are uninspired. So, I challenge each
o f you adults to w ork a little harder at loving us more; w ork a little harder
at understanding us belter, and then, w ork a little harder at inspiring us, at
providing us w ith good inspiration - fo r what we are the w orld o f tom orrow
w ill be.”
W e hear you W iletra. W e are touched by your eloquence and you render
honor to A frican Am erican children. Let us a ll get to w ork to live up to your
challenge;______________ _____________________ ___________________
LETTER TO THE
EDITOR
A Far Cry From M.L.K.
what? A good paying jo b , i f you look
the other way? A raise i f you don’t
te ll anyone what you’ ve seen? The
promise o f a little status i f you hold
the nail w hile I swing the hammer? It
is very hard to say, “ N o ” ,to getting
ahead even when it means leaving
your brothers and sisters behind.
The c ity o f roses, in the 1960’ s
along w ith the rest o f Am erica expe­
rienced the trials and tribulations o f
the C iv il Rights movement. A lot
The Northeast com m unity may
was accomplished due to strong Black
be rotten, but certainly not to the
leadership. Leaders such as Dr. Martin
core. A little m inor surgery and the
Luther K in g, and Medger Evers, in
com m unity could be repaired. Right
their times, relentlessly fought and
now, this community is suffering from
struggled to get out o f the backs o f
a severe lack of; good strong leader­
busses, into desegregated schools and
ship, and parents who care as much
on to a better economic frontier. Death
fo r their neighbor's children as they
is what they received fo r their e f­
do fo r their own, to name a few. It
forts. Good leadership in black com ­
seems that many who can make a d if­
munities a ll over Am erica today is
ference have already been sucked in,
seriously lacking. C all it politics or
or kicked out.
apathy, it may be both, whatever the
"Rock stars" are on the rise. Babies
cause black leaders are not, and may
are being bom addicted.The man
never be, as strong as they were in the
you’ ve known for years who has
days o f M .L .K .
always held a fu ll time jo b is now
In M a rtin ’ s day we could see that
selling drugs to make ends meet, or
we had something to struggle and
using drugs because enough is too
fig ht for, not to say that we no longer
much. Someone should turn back the
have anything to fig h t for. N ow we
clock, because w e’ re not ready to
face an even a greater enemy in
continue. When all o f the faking stops
Portland's Northeast community, i.e.
maybe we can be what ever it is that
lack o f leadership. Good leadership
we want to be, and come together
could be the answer, but w ho’s w ill­
and
save our com m unity.
enemies, w ho have betrayed the Black
ing to take the podium next? Port­
Good
leadership in the form
masses over and over again w hile de­
land is a beautiful c ity, However, it is
manding our loya lty sim p ly because
of.parentsdeacherschurches^nd local
threatened by the e lic it drug trade as
they are Black!
politicians, combined is most like ly
gangs decide the fate o f many young
The question is what the Black
the answer to our com m unity’ s prob­
men in the Northeast com m unity.
com m unity is going to do about it?
lems. R ealizing the importance o f
One man has never been able to
W hat are the Black people o f New-
having good leadership in our com ­
do it a ll alone, but then, who was
Y o rk going to do about the fact that
m unity is what w ill make a d iffe r­
there when Mrs. Rosa Parks decided
Manhattan Borough President David
ence., W aiting and expecting help
to remain seated. Portland’ s N orth ­
D inkins--the senior black elected o f­
from the outside is fine, but develop­
east com m unity, like many, has a l­
ficia l in the city , whose bid fo r the
ing our own is better.
lowed its e lf to be pacified; but by
Democratic Party’ s m ayoral nom i­
Ruth E. James
nation I am supporting-has said
not. They need to decide whetner crats. Or do they want to w in the war
p ub licly that he did not want my
they want to change this rotten, cor­ against our people? And do they want
support and w ould not meet w ith
rupt and oppressive syste m -o r n o t
it badly enough to do something
me? Such an attack is not ju s t an
They need to decide whether they radical, independent, and different
attack on me, an independent black
want to applaud me and shout. :R ight from what the old leaders are telling
woman. It is an attack on the tens o f
on, sister!” but still support D e m o them to do?
thousands o f people w ho are sup­
porting m y independent campaign.
Because i f I am ignored, i f I am ex­
cluded from the p o litic a l dialogue,
the masses o f our people w ill not be
heard. And the A frican Am erican
O REGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PUBLICATION
Estabwhed in 1970
community needs to decide whether
Laon H arria Ganar* Manager
Alfred L H*rxJ*r»orv Put*»her
it wants to be heard or n o t O ur people
need to decide w hether they w ant our
Joyce Washington
G ary Ann G am att
com m unities to be empowered, or
Saie» Marx e#ng Orector
Butina«* Manager
PORTLAföjtf&RVER
Along The Color
Line
Dr. Manning Marable
“ A Woman’s
Right to Choose”
The Supreme C ourt’s ruling on
abortion sparked a m ajor political
debate across the country in recent
weeks. As expected, the high court
did not overturn the landmark Roe v.
Wade decision which established legal
abortions nearly tw o decades ago,
but instead greatly curtailed the ac­
cess o f lower income and unemployed
women to safe abortions. By a five-
to-four vote, the Court declared that
states do not have to provide funds,
facilities or employees for abortions,
or to encourage or counsel women to
have abortions. I f states adopt such
restrictions, this decision could a f­
fect almost a ll hospital abortions,
w hich comprise about 10 percent o f
the 1.5 m illio n abortions done annu­
ally.
More ominously, however, the
recent abortion decision indicated that
fo ur o f the nine justices were fu lly
prepared to o v e rtu rn Roe v.
Wade.Three o f the pro-choice ju s­
tices are eighty years or older: W il­
liams Brenan, Thurgood Marshall,
and Harry Blackmun. Even i f Sandra
Day O;Connor, a Reagan appointee
to the C ourt who declined to outlaw
Roe in the recent case doesn’ t jo in
the so-called pro-life group, odds are
that President Bush should soon
appoint another member to the Su­
preme C ourt who holds equally reac­
tionary views on the issue o f abortion
rights.
The battleground on abortion is
rapidly shifting to individual states,
as state legislators and governors in
the 1990 elections w ill be examined
closely by both prolife and prochoice
groups on the abortion issue. A l­
though most prochoice groups are
alligned w ith the Democrats, and the
prolifers tend to be ideological con­
servatives and Republicans, the d iv i­
sion on this controversy isn’t strictly
partisan. There are m illions o f white,
ethnic Catholics in urban areas, gen­
erally w orking class or blue collar,
who are m orally opposed to abor-
tions and reject the use o f govern­
ment funds to provide abortions o f
anyone. Conversely, m illion s o f sub­
urban, upper class whites who are
nominal Republicans on fiscal issues
also hold liberal views on abortions.
They reject the p ro life view that the
state has the right to dictate a woman’s
individual decision regarding abor­
tion. N ationally, most Americans
strongly favor a wom an’ s rig ht to a
safe abortion, and oppose the arbi­
trary outlawing o f abortions under
all conditions.
The abortion issue needs to be ad­
dressed w ithin the A frican American
com m unity, in part because pro life
groups has consistently distorted the
position o f blacks as being strongly
prolife. A frican Americans has ex­
perienced a history o f being v ic tim ­
ized by forced sterilizations and other
oppressive strategies to lim it or cripple
our population, so it is not surprising
that most Blacks have p olitical reser­
vations about any involvem ent o f the
state in health issues.
W hat’ s striking about the abor­
tion debate from the vantagepoint o f
the Black freedom struggle is the
profound ideological inconsistency
o f the m ajority o f p ro life groups.
They demand fu ll legal rights fo r an
embryo, and are w illin g to set aside
the wishes o f the pregnant woman,
regardless o f such factors as poverty,
unemployment, the absence o f a male
spouse or whether pregnancy resulted
from rape. Prolife conservatives fre­
quently don’ t express any interest in
how a nonwhite, pregnant young
woman is going to be able to feed,
clothe, educate and house a child
once it comes into the w orld. Is it fair
or just to impose teenage mothers
w ith such a burden? And given the
reductions in federal expenditures
for jobs, food stamps, housing and
healthcare, the outlaw ing o f legal
abortions means the massive expan­
sion o f an underclass largely consist­
ing o f young, unemployed women o f
color and small children.
The Black C om m unity has a d i­
rect interest in fig htin g fo r a wom an’s
right to control her own body, and to
preserve the option o f safe, legal
abortions as a matter o f personal
choice. To do less would compound
the problems o f poverty, powerless­
ness and sexism w ithin our commu­
nity.
GUEST OPINION
Send O llie to ja il, not to the Black com m unity! A convicted felon has
been sentenced, in addition to a three-year suspended prison term and two
years’ probation, to give 1200 hours o f public service w orking w ith an anti-
drug program in the inner c ity o f Washington,D.C.
W ait a minute. A convicted felon? To counsel Black youth against
drugs? W e ll, just what was this person convicted of?
You know I ’ m talking about Col. O liver “ Hero” N orth. H is crime? He
was convicted for his involvem ent in the secret sale o f U.S. arms to Iran and
the illegal diversion o f the profits to the Contras ravaging the countryside o f
Nicaragua.
That means, and he has admitted, that he is a liar. He also is a thief. But
is that all? North enthusiastically supported the Contras, not o nly w ith these
illegal profits, but w ith his heart and soul. W hat did the Contras do?
A June 26 article in the TH E N A T IO N magazine gives a first hand
account o f contra activity by quoting excerpts from affidavits obtained by
Reed Brody, a form er New Y o rk State Assistant Attorney General, “ who
conduced a private-fact-finding mission in Nicargua from September 1984
to January 1985 in which he interviewed 145 victim s and witnesses to contra
violence against civilians.
Ask yourself i f you would want a man to counsel your children who
actively supported the fo llo w in g types o f behavior.
D uring a contra attack on the township o f El Quayabo, nine people were
killed. A 14-year-old g irl was raped repeatedly and then decapitated. Three
women were forced to lie in the mud w hile the contras took shots at
th em jcilling one and wounding another. A woman was raped. Christina
Borge, a 10-year old, witnessed the k illin g o f two uncles and another woman
and was used as target practice: she received four bullet wounds before
being left fo r dead (miraculously, she survived.) Four houses were burned.
D id C ol. North work w ith these contras the way he has been sentenced to
w ork w ith Black children? What vile, warped brand o f patriotism w ill he be
pedaling to our black youth under the guise o f anti-drug counseling?
Let us not forget that it is a matter o f public record that the contras
shipped drugs to America which ultim ately were sold on the streets in the
Black comm unity.
Back to the contras. According to a lay pastor, inocente Peralta, when he
found seven people taken in attack on Jinotcga cooperative in 1984, this is
w hat he found.
“ We found [Juan Perez] assassinated in the mountains. They had tied his
hands behind his back. They hung him on a wire fence. They opened up his
throat and took out his tongue. Another byonct had gone in through his
stomach and come out his back. Finally they cut o ff his testicles. It was
horrible to see.”
"H e ro
North helped make all o f this possible through his illegal
dealings and now he is being sent to our youth who already are victim s o f
the brutality o f this system.
Were members o f the Washington, D.C. Black com m unity consulted
about the assignment o f this cu lp rit to invade our neighborhood like his
contra friends invaded the countryside o f Nicarauga?
One good thing could come from this sentence. Maybe w hile on the
streets o f the inner city, some way ward drug dealer w ould drive by and blow
Col. North o ff the face o f this planet. I ’m sure many mothers and fathers o f
children tortured at the hands o f the contras would say, “ Am en.”
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