Page 2 Portland Observer DECEMBER 20, 1989 E ditorial I O pinion 4 ^ “Post-Black Politics? The Election Of Wilder And Dinkins” Part One of a Two Part Series More Ways To Go by Professor McKinley Burt Well, here we are at the end of another busy and interesting year, but I am not about winding down here. Last week I spoke of the community's talent bank we had available--the many college graduates, professionals and others who could (and should) be busy at countering the "shrill assault of denigrating media images "which can only stultify and impede the activism and remedial responses of the community to its problems. We are certainly compelled to con­ gratulate those newly-energized groups of Black men and women who have moved on the issues of youth and gangs, drugs illiter­ acy, teenage mothers, and family m ainte­ nance. But, these are just the initial-albeit scattered-responses to the emotional im- mediaces prescribed by the establishment media. What is really needed among this new class of Black activists is a specific structuring which will enable them to fully utilize their skills and background in a facile and effective manner. It is important that even before determining goals and objectives, there should come a clear de­ lineation of the playing field. Then, a per­ son or organization is enabled to select areas of participation relevant to specific skills and/or areas of interest. What kind o f a ' ‘Playing Field’ ’ are we looking at here? There is housing/home- lessness, education/lileracy, employment/ job development, health/safety, consumer protection, media monitoring, anti-defa­ mation. Now, just for my own writings and manuscripts (and w ith no staff), I am able to maintain a fairly current and organized information base corresponding to the cate­ gories just cited. Therefore it is base corre­ sponding to the categories just cited. There­ fore it is no big leap for me to project the idea of a Black-operated u rb an Inform a­ tion center structured along the same lines- computerized and with printouts from the data base available on demand to any and every resident or organization in the com­ munity. How else could they intelligently or effectively serve themselves or their constituency? Given today’s level of awareness and demonstrated commitment shown in this community, I cannot see that there should be much difficulty in securing the volun­ teers required to man such a center. It occurs that, with proper supervision, a number of high school and college students can be used in clipping, sorting and collating media material in preparation for data entry. I would contemplate that the modicum of expense required for rent, utilities and computer/peripheral rentals could be fi­ nanced through monthly assessments of individuals and organizations. It may even be possible to have the premises donated; the same with some of the other costs. I have reservations about accepting help from many of the governmental agencies; this is because I have found through experience that most of what they describe as a m oni­ toring or reporting process is in reality a control function. Now, in any system which is designed to collect information that is to be used in an applications environment, it will soon become apparent that there are informational needs beyond the naked data. You must have manuals and reference books to guide you in the effective application of the data to the specific area of relevancy. Otherwise the information is like an unsorted hand of cards; you must have a lib rary . Let me provide you with a model. In the early 1970’s I maintained an office where, under contract to Model Cities (Charles Jordan) and the Albina Contractors Association, I provided fiscal management and business assistance services to large and small community corporations -the total cash flow was close to a quarter-million dollars a month. Because of my establishm ent, real world experience I had available the type of lib ra ry necessary to conduct procedures in a productive and accurate manner. To my surprise and consternation, though, I found that I was being besieged by the personnel (and clients) of neighboring Black-operated programs who were trying to operate without libraries. Since I was dealing with every type of business and social enterprise, my shelves were crowded with hundreds of volumes pertaining to the operation of the entire spectrum of these entities. Not only were there the standard texts, but I had materials from wet and dry leasing of vehicles to the various industrial classification manuals and four types of Dictionaries of Occupational Titles. There was also the individual T rade o r Profes­ sional Association material. I was not a carpenter without tools. The same applies today if Blacks are to be able to use the data bases made available to them. That is if there is going to be an effective process of improving our quality of life in the afore­ mentioned areas of housing, health, educa­ tion and so forth; old Massa is not going to do it for us. That has been made evident. Last month’s elections of Douglas Wilder as Governor of Virginia and David Dinkins as Mayor of New York City represent a turning point in national Black political history. In the quarter century since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, most Black elected officials have gained office from Congressional or state legisla­ tive districts which are predominately Afri­ can-American. Few Blacks seeking office ever earned more than 25 percent of the white electorate’s vote. An “ invisible ceil­ ing" within the electoral system limited the mobility of talented women and men, seemingly denying them access to effective positions of power within the larger soci­ ety. Although W ilder” s margin of victory was far smaller than polls had indicated, and Dinkins failed to win majorities in white, traditionally Democratic constitu­ encies, the two politicians successfully broke through the invisible ceiling. By reviewing their political histories, its possible to understand the reasons for their respective victories, as well as the problems each will encounter immediately upon assuming office. David Dinkins and Douglas Wilder are the products of the civil rights era, entering politics during the maelstrom o f change initiated by the mass desegregation cam ­ paigns across the South in the 1960s. Wilder was a liberal Democratic attorney who made a living defending the poor and victims o f police brutality. In his initial campaign for the Virginia State Senate twenty years ago, he had an Afro hairstyle and employed the political rhetoric of Black Power. Dinkins was also a liberal ideologically and politi-. cally, developing close relations with the city’s powerful public employees unions, the liberal-left intelligentsia, and Black middle class reformers in Harlem and throughout the city. And from the beginning, Dinkins culti­ vated cordial links with New York’s influ­ ential Jewish community, lending his back­ ing to Jewish causes, speaking out against anti-semitism, and defending the federal government's financial and political sup­ port for Israel. Dinkins took pains to de­ nounce Black nationalist leader Louis Far- rakhan, and repeatedly took the initiative to resolve tensions between the African- American community and an upper middle class Jewish constituency which was grow­ ing increasingly conservative politically. Like many politicians with extensive ties to organized labor and Democratic urban organizations, Dinkins was not with­ out flaws. Almost two decades ago, Dink­ ins failed to file his income tax returns for several years, which he eventually paid. There were questions concerning the value of communications company stock he sold to his son to avoid conflict of interest' charges when he was elected Manhattan Borough President. But compared to most of the politicians who had emerged from the city ’s corrupt institutions, Dinkins’s personal history and professional record was better than average. W ilder” s record of personal conduct, by contrast, was largely unblemished. However, he had a very different problem. During the 1970s, W ilder’s political ambi­ tions began to target the then-unlikely goal of achieving the state's governorship. To do so. W ilder recognized he would have to remake him self into the traditional image of the classical. Southern patriarch - con­ servative, button-down, pro-business, anti­ crime, and abundantly safe. He couldn't cross the color line personally, but he would do so in terms of his political image. Wilder sought to become a Southern version of Los Angeles M ayor Thomas Bradley, a moder­ ately conservative politician who was “post- B lack "—beyond identification with race. Wilder reversed his opposition to the death penalty. He backed away from his earlier advocacy of granting the District of Colum­ bia full statehood rights, which in effect would place two African-Americans into the U.S. Senate. Hoving away form liberal Keynesianism in economic policy, Wilder opposed any changes in Virginia’s rigid "right to w ork” laws, which prohibit compulsory membership in unions within individual businesses. After four terms in Virginia's Senate, Wilder was successfully elected Lieuten­ ant Governor, the state's second highest office in 1985. Almost immediately specu­ lation began concerning W ilder’ ’s chances for election as governor, since Virginia prohibits incumbent governors from seek­ ing re-election. One of W ilder’s chief dif­ ficulties was maintaining his natural base among the African-American electorate, which had strongly supported the insurgent presidential campaigns o f Jesse Jackson in both 1984 and 1988, while reassuring white voters that he was just as conservative and pro-business as any Southern white politi­ cian. W ilder placed each foot within tow dramatically divergent political cultures, recognizing that both were necessary for him to achieve his goal. He praised Jackson personally, but took pains to distinguish the charismatic campaigner's liberal-left agenda from his own. He diffused the critics by suggesting, somewhat falsely, that Jackson’s electoral mobilization represented symbol­ ism without substance. “ Jesse runs to in­ spire,” W ilder observed, " I run to win.” There was a fundamental difference between the Wilder and Dinkins campaigns vs. the dynam ic electoral mobilization of Harold Washington in Chicago in 1983 and 1987. In the later case, African-Americans used the electoral process to reject the ‘ 'plantation-style politics” of acorrupt and racist Democratic Machine. They used the system to protest against institutional ra­ cism, economic discrimination and politi­ cal powerlessness. But in the Wilder-Dink­ ins strategy, the agenda of African-Ameri­ cans was not on central stage. Both candi­ dates, especially Wilder, ran “ post-black" campaigns, recognizing that the African- American electorate had no where else to go to express its political objectives. Both politicians had recognized years ago that their Black electorates were too small to provide the entire core for success­ ful bids to high office. Over a decade, they cultivated political records which would place them well within the moderate main­ streams of their respective political cul­ tures in order to appeal to white liberal-to- centrist constituencies. Rather than deny­ ing race, both sought to "transcend” the color line, offering generous platitudes of how racism had supposedly declined in significance during the 1980s. The problem with this perspective is that all the evidence suggests that white voters still remain highly race conscious far more so than African- Americans or Latinos. In hundreds of elec­ tions across the U.S., when white Demo­ cratic voters have been faced with a choice between a Black Democrat who espouses their views and class interests. Articles and Essays by Ron Daniels Peace On Earth Goodwill Towards Humanity December and January are months filled with religious and spiritual holidays and celebrations which tend to cause us to pause to contemplate the current circumstance and destiny of humanity. From Ramadan to Hanukkah from Christmas to Kwanzaa this is a season of celebration and reflection on the planet earth. With a world tom by strife and turmoil this season is generally marked by a momentary calming of conflict and a temporary reduction of tensions. It is difficult to imagine that somehow deep down inside the bosoms of the vast majority of human beings there is not a hunger for peace. From Northern Ireland, to the middle East from Central America to South Africa, from Bensonhurst to Miami most human beings are decent people who yearn for stability, quietude and peace. Most follow a religions or creeds which upholds moral values like love, justice, devotion to family and respect for human­ ity dignity. Why then is the world in such a tumul­ tuous state? The problem seems to be the difficult leap from belief to practice, from lip service to daily living - translating ideas into a living, breathing and meaningful reality. Peace and prejudice are incompat­ ible. Extremes of wealth and poverty, vast disparities in peoples access to opportu­ nity, surrender to racism, sexism, religious bigotry and cultural chauvinism all breed tension, hatred, violence and war. As we pause to celebrate and reflect during this season we need to recognize that there can be no permanent peace without justice. The ultimate vision of an “ age of Aquarius” is not possible unless we re­ solve to heed the admonition to feed the hungry, to cloth the naked, to loose the prisoners, to turn swords into ploughshares. The recent meeting of Bush and Gor­ bachev at the Malta Summit seem to hold out new promise that a world which has been burdened by the adverse effects of a cold war and a maddening, insane arms race may now be on the brink of a new era where the resources of the great powers can now be used to convert guns into butter. The prospect and promise of such an era can only be realized if the overwhelming m a­ jority of the citizens of our global village our committed to the triumph of good over evil. What Albert Schweitzer called the spiritual and ethical forces of progress must come to guide and lead the material forces of progress. This is essentially the message that the “ Prince of Peace” came to bring a strife tom world nearly 2,000 years ago. Our world is still waiting for us to convert our basic instincts of decency and kindness into a daily ethic that can rescue humanity from misery and turmoil. The relative interlude of tranquility during this season is a great source of optimism. For it suggests that peace is attainable. We must keep striving and strug­ gling to bring it to fruition. If we listen, leam and live out the multiple meanings of the positive messages of this season then indeed peace on earth good will towards humanity is possible. Be Equal by John E. Jacob Southern Conference Movement: 50 Years of Struggle Christmas, 1989 PORTI ERVER OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established In 1970 Alfred u HendereorVPubUsher Gary Ann Garnett Qusinew Manager Laen Harrls/Goneral Manager Joyce Washington Sales/Marketlng Director PORTLAND OBSERVER Is publish«! weekly by Esle Publishing Company, Inc. 4747 N.E. M .L .K . Bled. Portland, Oregon 97211 P.O. B os J137 Portland, Oregon 9 7 2 « • ••• *• Me *•••*• (503) 288-0033 (Ottico) Deadlines tor alt submitted materials : Articles: Monday, 5 p jn .;A d s : Tuesday, 5 p.m. n » PO RTIA M O 0S S E R V E R «M tconw ItOTtanca tutoiTmion». M a n u w R I* and phologcapha abouU ba d a * y la M a d and w aocompanJad by a aad ad d m a a d am aiep . AA craalad daai«nad daptay ad* baooma M» »ola ptaparty U M a r a n p * p ir and can noi ba utsd in olhar publcalran* w panonal u»*g*. w tih e v i M a w.man aonaonl al Iha (onorai n