February 7, 1990 • Portland Observer
Black History Month • Page 7
NATIONAL FORUM
“The Myth of Equality
A myth is haunting Black America-lhe
Uusion that equality between the races has
>ccn achieved, and that the activism char-
icteristic of the previous generation's free-
lorn struggles is no longer relevant to
»ntemporary realities.
In collective chorus, the media, the
eadership of both political parties, the
:orporate establishment, conservative so-
:ial critics and public policy experts, and
:ven marginal elements of the Black middle
:lass, tell the majority of African Ameri-
:ans that the factors which generated the
iocial protest for equality in the 1950s and
1960s no longer exist. The role o f race has
supposedly “ declined in significance” within
he economy and political order. And as we
survey the current social climate, this argu-
nent seems to gain a degree of credibility,
[he number of Black elected officials ex-
xeds 6,600; many Black entrepreneurs have
tchieved substantial gains within the eco-
tomic system in the late 1980s; thousands
)f Black managers and administrators appear
o be moving forward within the hierar-
:hies of the private and public sector. And
he crowning “ accomplishment,” the
slovember, 1989, election of Douglas Wilder
is V irginia's first Black governor, has been
jromoted across the nation as the begui
ling of the transcendence of “ racial poli-
ics.”
The strategy of Jesse Jackson in both
1984 and 1988, which challenged the
Democratic Party by mobilizing people of
» lo r and many whites around an advanced,
progressive agenda for social justice, is
Jismissed as anachronistic and even " r e
verse racism .” As in th W ilder model,
racial political and cultural style of th white
mainstream. Protest is therefore passe. All
die legislative remedies which were re
quired to guarantee racial equality, the spectre
dictates, have already been passed.
critics who call for the enforcement of
affirmative action and equal opportunity
legislation.
Behind the myth of equality exists two
crises, which will present fundamental
challenges to African-Americans in the
decade of the 1990s. There is an “ internal
crisis" - that is, a crisis within the African-
American family, neighborhood, commu
nity, cultural and social institutions, and
within interpersonal relations, especially
between Black males. Part of this crisis was
generated, ironically, by what I term the
“ paradox of desegregation.” With the end
of Jim Crow segregation, the Black middle
class was able to escape the confines of the
ghetto. Black attorneys who previously had
only Black clients could now move into
more lucrative white law firms. Black
educators and administrators were hired at
predominately white colleges; Black phy
sicians were hired at white hospitals.
As the Black middle class increasingly
retreated to the suburbs, they often with
drew their skills, financial resources and
professional contacts from the bulk of the
African-American community. There were
of course many exceptions, Black women
and men who understood the cultural obli
gations they owed to their community. But
as a rule, by the late 1980s, such examples
became more infrequent, especially among
younger Blacks who had no personal
memories of experiences in the freedom
struggles of two decades past.
The internal crisis is directly related to
the external, institutional crisis, a one-sided,
race/class warfare which is being waged
against the African-American community.
The external crisis is represented the con
juncture of a variety of factors, including:
the deterioration of skilled and higher paying
jobs within the ghetto, and the decline in the
economic infrastructure; the decline in the
public sector’s support for public housing,
health care, education and related social
services for low-to-moderate income people;
and the demise of the enforcement of af
firmative action, equal opportunity laws
and related civil rights legislation.
The myth of equality is required in
order to convince African-Americans that
the external crisis doesn't really exist, and
t|hat racism is dead. T hat’s why it’s more
important than ever for the Black Move
ment to be reborn, using the strategies of
demonstrations, community mobilizing and
resistance to the “ new " racism. Institu
tional racism may be more sophisticated,
using the language of equality, but the
necessity for struggle still exists.
It is never an easy matter to combat a
myth. There have been sufficient gains for
African-Americans, particularly within the
electoral system and for sectors of the Black
middle class in the 1980s, that elements of
the myth seem true. But from the vantage
point of the inner cities and homeless shel
ters, from the unemployment lines and closed
Factories, a different reality behind the spectre
emerges. We find that racism has not de
fin e d in significance, if racism is defined
»rrectly as the systemic exploitation of
Blacks' labor power and the domination
snd subordination of our cultural, political,
:ducational and social rights as human beings.
Racial inequality continues despite the false
rhetoric of equality. Those who benefit
materially from institutional racism now
use the term “ racist" to denounce Black
The American economic and political
To Be Equal
by John E. Jacob
Tragedy In Washington
The arrest of Washington, D.C. mayor
larion Barry on drug charges is a personal
id national tragedy that raises important
sues about political leadership, drugs,
id law enforcement in our nation.
At one level. Mayor Barry’s downfall
a poignant personal tragedy. He is a
ipular leader whose long career was marked
t contributions to social progress. He was
ought down by a weakness that has be-
nne all too common in our nation.
It is a very lucky American family that
m claim no direct impact from drugs. No
atter how wealthy or powerful, virtually
1 of us are touched by the drug plague—
ther directly, as Mayor Barry was; by the
vofvement of family members and friends,
• through the deterioration o f neighbor-
jod life caused by widespread drug deal-
g and drug abuse.
Drugs were something the majority of
mcricans chose to ignore as a problem of
ner cities and the so-called underclass, or
: the plaything of a deviant subculture of
e privileged.
But today, drugs are endemic and their
U on our society has spread to the point
here virtually all of us--of whatever color
' status-are touched by th epidemic of
ugs.
Sympathy for the plight of Mayor Barry
id others who become victims of drugs
innot, however, obscure the essential point
at drug use is illegal and cannot be toler-
ed.
And while the Mayor was able to
lmcdiatcly check into a clinic to receive
e treatment he needs to overcome his
■oblem, this is not an option available to
ost drug abusers.
The bulk o f those in need of treatment
e too poor to afford anything but public
u g treatment clinics, and for all the noise
x>ut a “ war on drugs," treatment facili-
es are in short supply, underfunded and
iderstaffed. They serve barely a fraction
F those who want help in kicking the drug
ibiL
Another aspect of the tragedy in W ash-
ington that must be confronted is the wide
spread feeling among many African-Ameri
cans that the M ayor was the victim of a
conspiracy to “ get” Black political lead
ers, especially those who are outspoken and
aggressive.
That feeling was reinforced by the
entrapment process used by government
agents.
Whether the process by which Mayor
Barry was caught stands up in court or not,
it is clear to a layman that it was entrap
m ent-law officers setting up a situation
that encourages a citizen to perform an
illegal act.
And while ultimate responsibility for
performing that act must rest on the indi
vidual who breaks the law, it is troubling to
find federal law enforcement officials
engaging in such questionable tactics.
Many African-Americans can’t imag
ine a similar law enforcement effort to
entrap a white political leader. And those
feelings are strengthened by the fact that
over the past decade disproportionate
numbers of African-American politicians
have been indicted and subsequently ac
quitted.
But despite all the misgivings and troub
ling features of th Washington tragedy, we
have to accept the fact that leaders must be
accountable and must be above suspicion.
Ethical and moral standards have tight
ened considerably in recent years, and our
leaders have to play by those new rules.
That Mayor Barry ran afoul of those
rules is sad, and hardly the occasion for the
gloating that comes from some quarters.
Politicians are people too, and office hold
ers face enormous pressures that unfortu
nately will sometimes lead to personal
problems, including drug abuse.
But no matter how sympathetic we
must be, and no matter how much we wish
to help victims of drug abuse, alcohol abuse,
and other illnesses, a strong, rigid line has
to be drawn that says such behavior will not
be tolerated from anyone, and most espe
cially from those who would lead us.
system promises equality, but has never
delivered for the African-American. In fact,
the system uses the rhetoric and myth of
equality to hid the process of oppression,
both through legal and illegal means. Blacks
are being destroyed.
Illegal drugs destroy thousands of
African-Americans in many direct and
indirect ways. We witness the daily, de
structive impact with the proliferation of
gangs and fratricidal criminality, but there
are other indirect effects as well. In Janu
ary, 1990, a comprehensive study by the
New York Hospital-Comell Medical Cen
ter, which reviewed traffic fatalities be
tween 1984 through 1987, observed that
nearly one in four drivers age 16to45 killed
in New York City tested positive for co
caine in autopsies. Researchers suggested
that individuals addicted to cocaine experi
ence spatial perception and other physical
dysfunctions. How many thousands of
African-Americans are crippled and killed
in accidents caused by those whose abilities
are impaired by crack or other drugs? How
many homes are destroyed, and dreams
shattered? How many daughters and sons
are lost forever from their families and
friends?
The cancer of crack creates many more
living victims than those who are killed by
the drug. Crack is part of the new urban
slavery, a method of disrupting lives and
‘ ‘regulating’ ’ the masses of our young people
who otherwise would be demanding jobs,
adequate health care, better schools and
control of their own communities. It is
hardly accidental that this insidious cancer
has been unleashed within the very poorest
urban neighborhoods, and that the police
concentrate on petty street dealers rather
than those who actually control and profit
from the drug traffic. It is impossible to
believe that thousands and thousands of
pounds of illegal drugs can be transported
throughout the country, in airplanes, trucks
and automobiles, to hundreds of central
distribution centers with thousands of
employees and under the so-called surveil
lance of thousands of law enforcement
officers, unless crack represented at a sys
temic level a for of "social control.”
Most African-Americans do not real
ize that the most destructive drug problem
within our community is tobacco addic
tion. The tobacco industry makes its high
est profits from African-Americans. For
two decades, tobacco companies have fol
lowed a strategy of "special marketing,”
targeting younger, poorly educated Afri
can-Americans as potential consumers. In
late December, 1989, for example, R.J.
Reynolds Tobaccocompany announced the
Cashing In On The
Peace Dividend
Articles and Essays by Ron Daniels
development of "U ptow n” menthol ciga
rettes, a product specifically designed to
“ appeal most strongly to Blacks.” One
NAACP leader has called the strategy
“ unethical,” and the American Cancer
Society declared that the "cam paign ex
ploits Blacks, especially the ghetto poor.”
Under fire, R.J. Reynolds was forced to
cancel the scheme for higher profits.
The “ Uptown” controversy highlights
the fact that African-Americans currently
suffer higher death rates for virtually all
types of cancer, especially cancer of the
lungs, prostate, esophagus and cervix, than
white Americans. The statistical life expec
tancy for Blacks actually declined in the
late 1980s, due in part to extremely high
mortality rates from cancer.
However, the major means for the social
control of the African-American remains
the criminal justice system. As of June,
1989, the U.S. prison population reached
673,000, of which Blacks comprise 46
percent. Prisons have become the methods
for keeping hundreds of thousand of poten
tially rebellious, dissatisfied and alienated
B lack youth off the streets. There is a direct
correlation between the absence of job train
ing programs and social programs designed
to elevate Blacks’ incomes, and the in
creased utilization of the criminal justice
system to regulate unemployed and unem
ployable Blacks. Keep in mind that be
tween 1973 and 1986, the average real
earnings for young African-American males
under 25 years fell by 50 percent. In the
same years, the percentage of Black males
aged 18 to 29 in the labor force who were
able to secure full-time, year-round em
ployment, fell from only 44 percent to a
meager 35 percent. Is it accidental that
these young Black men, who are crassly
denied meaningful employment opportuni
ties, are also pushed into the prison system,
and subsequently into permanent positions
of economic marginality an social irrele
vancy? Within America's economic sys
tem, a job has never been defined as a
human right; but for millions of young
.poor black men and women, they appear to
have a “ right” to a prison cell or place at
the front of the unemployment line.
The struggle against the myth of equal
ity requires a break from the tactics and
ideas of the desegregation period of the
1960s. Our challenge is not to become part
of the system, but to transform it, not only
for ourselves, but for everyone. We must
struggle to make economic and racial equal
ity for all.
th e staggering cost of the arms race
between the United States and the Soviet
Union has been a gigantic burden which has
severely hampered the growth and devel
opment of both major super powers. Though
it is now abundantly clear that the “ threat’ ’
from the Soviet Union was greatly exagger
ated, this perception of threat has been the
basis for the near sacrosanct status of the
defense budget and the military-industrial
complex.
Mikail Gorbachev however, has con
cluded that the fulfillment of the aspira
tions of the citizens of the Soviet Union
have been delayed long enough. Under his
leadership the Soviet Union is quickening
the pace of disarmament and demilitariza
tion in order to feed, cloth, house and
otherwise improve the standard of living
for the masses of Soviet citizens.
Despite the enormous wealth and pros -
perity in America, the arms race has not
been without its toll here either. With huge
sums of monies going to research and
development for the military and invest
ment in military hardware, there has been a
pronounced erosion in America’s civilian
economy. While other nations like Japan
and German have invested in research and
development to improve technology for
civilian pursuits, the U.S. has been left out
along with the Soviet Union in the “ Cold
W ar.” Not only has America lost its com
petitive edge in terms of industry and
commerce, the disproportionate outlays for
unproductive defense spending has left much
of America’s infra-structure of roads, rail
roads, highways, bridges, industrial plants
etc. in disrepair and ruin.
But the greatest cost of the arms race
has been the human toll; the underdevelop
ment of vast numbers of human beings
because o f America’s preference for guns
and bombs over bread and butter. While
America gloats over the “ collapse of
Com munism," the underbelly within this
society, the domain of the poor and disad
vantaged is as devastated as any dispos
sessed Third World nation. Those who are
stuck at the bottom of the ladder in America
yearn for a kind of perestroika as deeply as
their Soviet counterparts.
The dramatic changes transforming
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union mean
that there is absolutely no reason why poverty,
disease, illiteracy and the absence of oppor
tunity cannot now be erased from the face
of this nation. Now any pretense of a real
threat from the Russian bear is just that, a
pretense. If there ever was the prospect of
the dawning of an “ age of A quarius," the
time is at hand. America has no excuse not
to convert to a peace economy.
Former Defense Secretary Robert
McNamara estimates that the United States
could reduce military expenditures by 50%
over the next decade. Currently the defense
budget is about 300 billion annually. At the
current pace of spending, 1.5 trillion will be
spent on defense over the next 5 years and
a mind boggling 3 trillion dollars will be
shelled out over the next decade. Using
McNamara's formula, 150 billion a year or
1.5 trillion could be slashed from the de
fense budget and used for other purposes.
This “ peace dividend" could work m ir
acles in terms of creating jobs, building
affordable housing, providing education,
health care, repairing America’s infra-struc
ture and cleaning up the environment.
Unfortunately, ushering in an age of
Aquarius and an era of universal prosperity
will not be quite that simple. The military
budget has been the sacred preserve of a
relative small circle of rich and super rich
corporations and individuals who have made
their fortunes feasting on defense appro
priations and contracts. Profit not peace has
always been the principal agenda of this
elite circle. Hence the current circumstance
of prosperity for the few and misery for
many in these United States.
President George Bush is not anxious
to upset the status-quo. Despite his obvious
jubilation over the changes sweeping the
eastern bloc. Bush has warned that America
must maintain its military muscle such a
posture, in light of current events is hardly
rational. But in an effort to head off the
anticipated clamor for deep defense cuts,
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney is already
offering up what amount to some cosmetic
cuts. Cheney is proposing reductions of
only 39 billion or a mere 2.6% over the next
five years.
W hat all of this means is that if Afri
can-Americans, other minorities, poor and
working people are to cash in on the “ peace
dividend,’ ’ we will be forced to fight for it.
The power of our collective voices, ballots
and marching feet must be heard. Other
wise the peace dividend will simply be
come yet another bonus for the rich, the
privileged and the powerful.
T his W ay F or B lack E mpowerment
/»V Dr. Lenora L ula ni
Make Way For Democracy i
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.
Support District of
Columbia Statehood
Colonization is an injustice in the na
tion’s capital area. Taxation without voting
representation in the Congress of the United
States for two-thirds of a million people, 80
percent of whom arc African-American, is
an injustice.
We join with Congressman Walter
Fauntroy and Rev. Jesse Jackson in their
united call for the building of a national
movement for statehood for the District of
Columbia. There are many who believe that
the large racial and ethnic population of
D.C. is one of the leading factors contribut
ing to the reluctance of the Congress of the
United States to act on this issue.
Given the fact of the daily testimonies
from members of both the legislative and
executive branches of the U.S. government
concerning the welcomed atmosphere of
freedom and democracy, particularly as
been evidenced in eastern Europe, the ab
sence of participatory and representative
democracy in this nation’s capital city is
beyond the absurd. Jesse Jackson stated,
“ Washington is the last colony here and the
Congress should end its occupation and its
tyranny of taxation without representation."
Last year, the United States Senate voted 97
to 2 not to approve financing for a D.C.
Statehood Commission to study the issue.
Why would the Senate not even entertain a
study of the question? What are the mem
bers of Congress afraid of? Is it the predic
tion that D.C. statehood would insure at
least one African-American a seat in that
august body known as the U.s. Senate? Is
this a form of American apartheid?
Congressman Fauntroy has been erect
ing statehood signs throughout the District
of Columbia as part of the growing cam
paign. Some o f these signs read, “ W el
come to the Nation’s Last Colony: All
Residents Must Leave Their rights at the
Border. D.C. Statehood Now !”
The campaign for D.C. statehood will
be one of the major national political issues
during the 1990’s. There are now organiz
ing committees being established in every
state to support the effort.
Given all the negative publicity that the
District of Columbia has received recently
because of the drug crisis and unprece
dented crime rate, the campaign for D.C.
statehood is a journey “ up the rough side of
the mountain.” We believe, however, that
once the majority of Americans understand
the moral principles involved as well as the
contradictions surrounding the District's
present status, the battle can and will be
won.
As during the 1960’s, when it became
necessary to bus freedom riders to the deep
South to challenge racist, segregationist
laws and institutions, we predict that it may
be necessary in the near future to send
freedom riders of the 1990’s to the nation’s
capital to help mobilize for D.C. statehood.
■ Î -
No sooner had Francis Fukuyama, the
State Department official who declared that
history has come to an end, uttered this self-
serving idiocy than millions of people around
the world burst forward with a renewed
militance and fervor-for human progress!
The heirs of Josef Stalin-the old left-were
put on trial by the masses of Eastern Europe
and found guilty: corrupt traitors to the
radically humanistic social vision of Marx
and Lenin; counterfeiters who substituted
the fake coins of bureaucracy for the real
gold of democracy; saboteurs of hope.
For their crimes against humanity many
of revisionist communists, whose parties
had exercised state power for more than a
generation, have been justly disgraced and
punished (Mikhail Gorbachev, seeking to
be spared, has embraced feudalism as well
as capitalism in the hope that the Pope and
George Bush will together help him feed
the spiritual and material hunger of the
Soviet people). Like the once formidable
Berlin Wall-reduced overnight to a histori
cal curiosity from which tourists and entre
preneurs hack off souvenirs-the Commu
nist Party governments of Eastern Europe
are already relics of an obsolete past.
The leadership of the Communist Party
USA and their clones on the traditional
(orthodox. Stalinist, old) left in this country
have done at least as bad a job here as their
comrades have done in Europe; they have
totally abdicated responsibility for organ
izing a working class-led resistance to the
right wing takeover of the American politi
cal process, of culture and the economy.
There could be no belter expression of
the difference between America’s corrupt,
anti-democratic old left and the non-revi
sionist new left which is rising up to take its
place than in th roles they each played
recently in a very significant New York
City election. The scene was the predomi
nantly Black and Puerto Rican 11th Coun
cilmanic District of the South Bronx, which
includes some of the most economically
and socially devastated neighborhoods in
the United States of America. On one side
was the incumbent City Councilman, Ra-
fael Casteneira Colon, a political hoodlum
enmeshed in the notoriously corrupt county
Democratic Party machine. On the other
side was a grassroots Puerto Rican leader.
Pedro Espada, who ran against Colon on the
independent New Alliance Party line.
In Colon’s comer was the entire array
of Democratic Party officialdom, elected
and otherw ise, m achine hacks and
“ reformers” -INCLUDING THE CPUSA.
Backing up Espada was the new left politi
cal tendency that gave birth to the Black-
led, multi-racial, working class wide NAP.
Everyone in the district (and the city) knew
who was who: Colon, frantic, rode up and
down the streets of the South Bronx on a
school bus lent to him by the borough
president, warning the people that the
“ communists” wanted to turn the district
into “ another Cuba-another Nicaragua.”
Despite the red-baiting tactics, physical
intimidation, and the deeply entrenched
Democratic Party “ habit” to which our
people have been forcibly addicted, on
election day an extraordinary 42% of the
Black and Puerto Rican electorate in the
11th Councilmanic District rose up with
their sisters and brothers in Beijing and
East Berlin and Sofia to cast a vote against
corruption and for democracy. The new left
made it possible.
The fact that the old left has never held
state power is the only major difference
between the Communist Party in this coun
try and its counterparts in Eastern Eurupe-that
and the fact that the masses of American
people know little and care less about the
senile, racist, hog-tied-to-thc-Democrats old
left, whose leaders have wallowed in the
mud of political compromise for so long
that there is no longer anything “ left” of
them.
As a proud and vigorous and dedicated
new leader of the new left, I call on the
leadership of CPUSA and the rest of the old
left to follow their European comrades into
retirement-to leave the stage of history
before they are booed (or kicked) off. The
new left, which does have the support of the
masses, is taking over.
Say You Saw It In The
Portland Obseri
■ M :