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Page 2 Portland Observer SEPTEMBER 28, 1989
EDITORIAL! 7
The King Neighborhood Association:
An Exercise in Futility
_ • /
In October, 1988, the King Neigh
borhood Association Board o f D i
rectors received for review a discus
sion draft o f a plan to revitalize the
K ing neighborhood. The plan was
prepared by Jankans-Arnold, Urban
planner o f Portland, Oregon, at the
request o f the King Board.
T he
p la n
id e n tifie d
unemployment.drugs, crim e, and
abandoned housing as key issues to
be addressed (and w ith a ll deliberate
speed) i f the King neighborhood was
to be rescued from i t ’ s hostile e nvi
ronm ent
A lthough the plan lacked sub
stance, it served one essential p u r
pose; it brought forth to the K ing
board input from King residents and
businesses based on actual interviews,
w ho expressed their views on what
they w ould like to see happen in their
com m unity. Unfortunately, this in
form ation was inadvertently om itted
from the plan fo r had it been in
cluded, perhaps it w ould have im
pacted the K ing board more favora
bly.
A fte r careful review , the K ing
board voted unanimously to approve
their plan, and by law, submitted it to
the K in g neighborhood residents in a
general meeting fo r approval or re
jection.
According to the by-laws o f the
K ing neighborhood association, nine
members o f the association attend
ing a general or special called meet
ing constitutes a quorum. This in
cludes general membership or board
members. Minutes o f the association
dated February 28, 1989, reflects a
total o f twenty nine votes cast by
members o f the association who le ft
the fa c ility under the impression they
had approved a plan which would
restore vision for a com m unity which
for so long had been “ looking thru a
glass darker” . Thus, the King neigh
borhood re-vitalizauon plan as ap
proved was in compliance w ith the
King association by-laws and should
have been implemented w ith a ll de
liberate speed.
But as commonly happens in neigh
borhood associations, p olitics came
into play once again. The c ity coun
c il, after earlier approval rejected the
K ing plan and voted to consider other
options as requested by the N orth
east C oalition o f Neighborhoods, o f
which the K in g association is a
member. The decision to contest the
K ing plan was made by the C oalition
board in a general meeting, and
strangely enough, the K ing associa
tion representative who voted for the
plan at the February 28 meeting voted
against the plan at the Northeast coa
litio n m eeting.This double dealing
served no useful purpose other than
to divide the board, cast suspicions
throughout the association and add
to an already declining membership.
Com pounding the associations
problems is the absence o f leader
ship on the board. The chairperson o f
the K ing board for reasons unknown
has failed to attend recent meetings
and no board member has stepped
forward to f i l l the void. As a result,
the plan to re-vitalize the K in g neigh
borhood, w hile not yet dead, is most
certainly in lim bo.
Some K in g board members, con
tacted recently by the Observer, state
they were thoroughly confused and
somewhat disgusted at the cheap
politics arid total lack o f ongoing
disregard fo r the K ing neighborhood.
Some have indicated they plan to
tender their resignations when their
term expires in October.
H opefully the city council w ill re
evaluate it ’ s priorities and fu lfill it ’s
promises before this happens.
Troops, Drugs, and Gangs!
• wA*'* "
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z.
*•*» ’s*;
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The decision by Governor N eil
G oldschm idt to call in the National
Guard to provide support fo r the Port
land Police Department in combating
drugs and gangs in N /N E Portland
was a wise one and w ell received by
com m unity residents and businesses.
In offering the guard, the governor
made it em phatically clear that the
role o f the guard would not involve
police action but log istical and ad
m inistrative support. In this regard,
the National Guard performed ad
m irably and should be commended
fo r a jo b w ell done.
According to police sources, it is
much too early to assess what im
pact their presence has had on the
flo w o f illegal drugs into N /N E Port
land. However, street sources claim
hard drugs are as ple ntiful as ever,
ju st more expensive and cheaper
quality. They also state that m ari
juana is d efinitely scarce. Credit
here must be given to improved
detection methods by Federal and
State law enforcement agencies and
special recognition to Portland Po
lice fo r effective drug enforcement.
Special recognition to the gover
nor also fo r not turning the guard
loose in the streets o f this comm u
nity as called fo r by certain factions
including the M ayor. Although his
o ffice issued a statement claim ing
he was m isquoted, his headlines sent
tremors through the Portland com
m unity.
The N ational Guard are com
monly referred to as “ Weekend War
rio rs” called into action to quell
c iv il disturbances or patrol local
disaster areas to protect life and
property. Since the police depart
ment had identified less than five
hundred gang members in N /N E
Portland, that hardly constitutes a
state o f emergency, requiring the
presence o f heavy a rtille ry or tanks.
Thanks N eil!
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O PIN IO N
Along the Color Line
’’Freedom
for Nambia”
Dr. Manning Marble
In only tw o months, an election
w ill be held in Nam ibia w hich could
decide the future o f the entire libera
tion struggle throughout southern
A frica . A n international agreement
sponsored by the United Nations has
created the possibility fo r democ
racy and m ajority rule fo r this south
west A frican state, which has been
controlled by w hile South A fric a for
decades. But the promise o f demo
cratic government is being threat
ened by several factors, w hich may
yet produce the tyranny o f white
supremacy throughout the region.
South A frica accepted this inter
national election in N am ibia due
largely to events which began back
in 1976. Aparthied troops were de
feated m ilita rily by the Angolans and
Cubans in A n go la ’s liberation war.
South A frica suffered serious strate
gic losses also w ith the independ
ence o f M ozambique; and w ith in
another four years, Zim babwe w ould
be liberated as w ell. Consequently,
the South Africans fe ll back into
N am ibia as their last line o f defense.
The South A frican air force con
structed a series o f bases along the
northern frontier o f N am ibia, and
conducted bombing raids against
SW APO camps in Angola. In 1978,
the apartheid m ilita ry escalated these
attacks, and in one instance the South
A frica airforce murdered over 600
civilia ns in one bombing raid.
It was in response to the aparthied
assault that the United Nations called
fo r a peace plan in 1978, w hich in
cluded an immediate cease fire ; the
removal o f a ll but 1500 apartheid
troops after two months; and the sched
uling o f elections fo r a new constitu
ent assembly based on universal suf
frage. Under the Carter adm inistra
tion, South A fric a was being pres
sured to accept these terms; but after
the U.S. elections o f 1980, the Re
agan adm inistration inform ed the
apartheid regime that they were under
no pressure to accept the U N ’ s agree
ment im m ediately. The U.S. used its
diplom atic w eight to perm it South
A fric a to consolidate its e lf inside
Namibia,by establishing paramilitary
forces among the white settler popu
lation, and by recruiting blacks who
accepted a puppet/client role in op
position to SWAPO.
The South Africans were only
forced to come to terms in 1988,
when they were defeated m ilita rily
at the battle o f C ujito Cuanavale. It
had become clear to them that Na
m ibia could no longer be held as a
direct colony o f apartheid. But the
Reagan adm inistration had given the
South Africans eight im portant years
in which to consolidate its clients in
side Namibia. They were able to recruit
spies and agents to infiltrate SWAPO;
and they had identified local Blacks
who were agreeable to oppose
SW APO in the upcoming constitu
ent elections.
Although the international agree
ment declares that the people o f
N a m ib ia m ust e xercise s e lf-
determination, South Africa has a strat
egy to undermine this process. A c
cording to a provision in the agree
ment, any w hite South Africans who
were bom in N am ibia or w ho can
prove at least four years' residency
w ill be perm itted to vote in the
Namibian election, even i f they no
longer live in the country. The apart
heid regime has registered perhaps
as many as 150,000 whites in an
e ffo rt to throw the election from the
Black m ajority. M ost p o litic a l ob
servers had assumed that the South
West A frican People’ s Organization
(SW APO ), w hich has been the lead
ing progressive political force in the
struggle against apartheid dom ina
tion o f the country, w ould easily win
more than tw o thirds electoral sup
port it requires to control the new
constituent assembly. But a com bi
nation o f errors and mistakes on the
part o f SW APO, plus the maneuver
ing o f the apartheid regime and its
local allies, now have created a giant
question mark fo r N am ibia’ s future.
SW AP O ’ s first error occurred in
A p ril, im m ediately proceeding the
initia tion o f the U N peace settlement
process. SW APO ordered into north
ern Namibia perhaps as many as 1200
fighters o f its People’s Liberation
A rm y o f Namibia. The purpose was
to consolidate its position in the re
gion. South A frican m ilita ry and its
local param ilitary clients reacted,
k illin g 300 fighters, and terrorizing
the local population. This permitted
the South Africans to delay the proc
ess o f dem ilitarization u ntil m id-
August. D uring this interim period,
the m ilita ry and param ilitary units
were able to intim idate thousands o f
potential voters. A frica n voters were
told to stay away from p olitical meet
ings sponsored by SW APO, and not
to register fo r the elections. In the
northern part o f the country, where
the greatest fighting occurred this
year, registration figures are low --
precisely in the electoral areas in
which SW APO had counted on to
produce its necessary 66 percent man
date.
S W AP O ’ S second p olitical error
was the product o f South A fric a ’ s
successful attempts to infiltrate the
organization over a period o f several
years. Under the terms o f the inde
pendence process, both the apartheid
regime and SW APO were obligated
to release their detainees. Hundreds
o f SW APO prisoners were indeed
agents o f apartheid. But unfortunately,
many others were n o t A group o f
prisoners had been veterans o f the
antiapartheid struggle and members
o f SW APO who had been unjustly
arrested due to the fear that they had
been agents. A few prisoners, such as
SW APO form er central committee
member victo r Nkanddi, had also
been prisoners previously in South
A frica n detention camps. SW APO
o ffic ia ls now adm it that many m is
takes were made in the treatment o f
prisoners, and that many mistakes
were made in the treatment o f p ris
oners, and that many mistakes were
made in the treatment o f prisoners,
and that those individuals who have
acted against party procedures w ill
be held accountable and prosecuted.
However, the entire incident has
created the sense among many sup
porters o f S W APO that the organiza
tion has lost a good amount o f p o liti
cal cred ib ility.
A third mistake is that o f political
inconsistency. SW APO
fo r many years maintained an un
ambiguous p o litica l line, calling for
a fundamental, radical economic
reorganization o f the nation, and a
sharp break from a ll comm ercial ties
w ith apartheid. But SW APO has
m odified its economic program in an
attempt to w in over non-S W APO has
m odified its economic program in an
attempt to w in over non-SW APO
constituencies. This e ffo rt has con
fused their core defenders.
I f SW APO fails to w in a two-
thirds vote, the liberation struggle
may be stalled for another decade or
more. But the forces o f w hite su
premacy are taking no chances. On
12 September, fo r example, one o f
the senior white o fficia ls o f S W APO,
Anton Lubowski,an attorney and
form er member o f the South African
arm y who defected to the Africans,
was murdered in front o f his home in
Windhoek. Lubowski would have be
come a key leader o f a SW APO-led
government When pushed to the lim it
apartheid and its clients in Namibia
respond w ith terror, harrassment and
death. These area the essential tools
o f racism.
South A frica cannot achieve free
dom unless Nam ibia also becomes
free. We must pressure the Bush
adm inistration to step up tougher
sanctions against South A frica. We
should also contact Congressmen
Howard W olpe (D ) and Dan Burton
(R ), the chair and ranking R epubli
can members, respectively, o f the
House Foreign A ffa irs Subcom mit
tee on A frica , to demand the end o f
South A fric a ’ s murderous maneu
vers to subvert m ajority rule and
democracy in Namibia.
Vantage Point
Racism is Alive and Well in
Am erica
by Ron Daniels
O ver the past decade it has be
come fashionable to discuss the
“ declining significance o f race” in
terms o f the growth and develop
ment, o r lack o f it, as it relates to
African-Am ericans. Under the in flu
ence o f leading social analyst like
W illia m Julius W ilson, and the ris
ing sector o f conservative Black
Republicans like W a lle r W illiam s,
and Thomas Sowell the idea that
racism is no longer a severe im pedi
ment to African -American racial prog
ress has come into vogue. W ilson
argues that racism w hile s till a factor
as it relates to Black progress is sec
ondary to economic factors. The Black
conservatives seem to suggest that
Black progress is tied to economics
and the need fo r more energetic e f
fo rt by A frican-Am ericans them
selves.
W hile there is more than a kernel
o f truth in both these viewpoints, the
cold reality is that racism is alive and
w ell in Am erica. U nfortunately the
growth and relative prosperity o f the
Black upper and m iddle class has
tended to mask the reality o f contin
ued racist oppression, and racial
barriers at a ll levels. This “ illusion
o f progress” has had the effect o f
lu llin g Black people to sleep on the
question o f racism. Indeed the pain
o f racism is such that our desire to
ignore it in order to live a normal life
almost constitutes a kind o f w ishful
thinking.
The escalating incidence o f racist
violence, slurs, insults, and the stag
nation o f A frican-A m erican progress
in relation to w hite Am erica is now
fo rc e fu lly com pelling us to face the
fact that no matter how w e ll o ff, how
w ell educated, how poor or rich we
may be A frican-Am ericans are s till
seen as niggers in America by a fright
fu lly large number o f w hite A m e ri
cans.
Bensonhurst and V irg in ia Beach
are sim ply tw o o f the more highly
publicized instances o f racism rear
ing its ugly head to haunt and harm
African-Am ericans. In the case o f
Bensonhurst the result was fatal. In
V irg in ia Beach though there were no
fatalities it was clear that a com m u
nity had decided that Black students,
fo r a ll o f the Sgreen powerS they
were destined to expend, were un
wanted and unwelcome.The fact is
that the more publicized incidents o f
racist attacks and intolerance like
Bensonhurst, V irg in ia Beach, and
Howard Beach are but the tip o f the
iceburg. A ll across Am erica its as i f
a floodgate o f suppressed and re
pressed racial antagonisms and feel
ings has burst loose.
A couple o f months ago I p a rtic i
pated in a march in F airfield , South
C aroling protesting an incident o f
police violence which resulted in the
death o f a young Black man. In re
cent conversations w ith friends from
that state they report an alarm ing
growth in a ll kinds o f incidents o f ra
cial harassment and racist violence.
South Carolina is not isolated in this
regard. Reports (unpublicizedO o f
racial violence and harassment have
become commonplace. From small
towns to m ajor urban centers, from
the rural south to the sprawling me
tropolises o f the west, racism is openly
resurfacing as a disturbing and un
avoidable fact o f life fo r A frican-
Americans.
Being affluent, rich or pow erful
may reduce racism to a simple n u i
sance fo r some African-Am ericans.
But as several prom inent A frican-
Americans recited on both A .B .C .’ s
“ Black in w hite A m erica’ ’ and on
N .B.C.’ s R.A.C.E., their prominence
does not exempt them from being
viewed and treated like “ niggers” .
In fact the only thing that saved M r.
or Ms. prominent A frican-Am erican
from a fatal beating in Howard Beach
or a b ullet in Bensonhurst was not
their prominence, but their absence.
Beyond the mere “ nuisance”
factor there is m ounting evident that
the gap between Black and w hite,
even between rich Blacks and rich
whites is unavoidably attributable to
racism. Economic factors are adm it
tedly crucial, but the deep seated,
firm ly entrenched fact o f racism and
cultural aggression remain persistent
factors which we as A fric a n -A m e ri
cans dare not ignore as we b uild an
agenda for our future, and map strate
gies fo r our liberation. Illusions,
w ishful thinking, or faulty analysis
w ill not erase the fact that racism is
alive and w ell in Am erica!
Letter to the Editor
It was a pleasure to read in your
September 14 issue the article by Mr.
Samuel Dubois Cook on his recent
trip to Israel. Mr. Cook’s report seemed
balanced and very caring. W e cer
ta inly jo in w ith him in his prayers fo r
an end to the violence, fo r every
one’ s sake.
Another aspect o f Israeli society
w hich may be o f interest to your
readers was the dramatic rescue, in a
danng and covert operation, o f 14,000
black Ethiopian Jews in 1983-1985.
These people preserve a form o f
Judaism dating back 3,000 years, they
w ill form an elite group in that soci
ety.
I enjoy reading your paper regu
larly.
Sincerely,
Charles R. Schiffm an
Executive D irector,
Jewish Federation o f Portland
f c
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