Page 2 The Portland Observer May 23, 1*90
E ditorial / N
ational
F orum
ty jfits Journal
I
The Poverty Numbers Game
by John E. Jacob
Poverty in the United States is vastly
understated, feeding the indifference
that stands in the way of dealing with
the problem.
According to the official statistics,
about 13 percent of Americans are c las -
sified as po o r-a big decrease over the
past two decades.
But part of the drop in poverty was
accomplished with smoke and mirrors.
By manipulating definitions o f pov
erty, government makes the very real
improvement in the numbers look even
better. And in the process it lulls people
into thinking the problem isn’t very
urgent
The official definition of poverty is
based on 1963 estimates of the mini
mum amount of income a family must
have to maintain the barest minimum
living standards.
Those estimates, in turn, were based
on data of family spending and con
sumption patterns made in a 1955 sur
vey.
That survey showed the typical family
spent about a third of its income on
food, so the poverty line was calculated
as a multiple of the Agriculture Depart
ment’s lowest-cost food budget
Each year, the Census Bureau up
dates the poverty line to account for in
flation, but the outdated formula re
mains the same, even though the cost
mix in the typical family’s market bas
ket of necessities has changed.
Housing costs, for example, are far
higher than they were back in the 1950s.
So are clothing, transportation and other
basic costs.
Changing the poverty line isn’t just
an academic exercise. Eligibility for
benefits under many means-tested pro
grams are based on the poverty line. So
an artificially low figure excludes mil
lions of people from programs they
need to survive.
Patricia Ruggles, an economist, has
written a new book published by The
Urban Institute about alternative ways
to define poverty titled, “ Drawing the
Line.”
She says that calculating a new pov
erty line based on changes in food and
housing costs would probably result in
a poverty line about 50 percent higher
than today's.
In one typical example, the poverty
line for a family of three, now defined
at $9,435, would be at least $14,200.
Currently, official Black poverty
stands at about 30 percent. Under vari
ous alternative poverty line definitions,
African-American poverty would range
from about 34 percent to about 46 per
cent.
That’s in line with what anyone can
see in today’s African-American com
munities, where poverty’s growth is
apparent even as the wider society pre
tends things are getting better.
Redefining poverty would result in a
more honest picture of the extent of the
nation’s poverty, and hopefully, it would
also result in a more enlightened public
debate about the need for policies to
help the poor.
Many families today are struggling
to survive at the most minimal living
standards—far below what most people
would call “ poor” -b u t are officially
defined as being above the poverty line
and ineligible for a variety of desper
ately needed benefits.
Despite the urgent need for a realis
tic poverty line, some are trying to
redefine it downward to include vari
ous subsidies as income. So a poor
person who gets a $50,000 open-heart
operations paid for by Medicaid, would
no longer be considered poor since the
value of the operation would be added
to his income.
That typified the numbers game being
played with the poor. The Administra
tion could take a giant step forward to
fairness and justice by establishing an
updated poverty standard suited to our
times.
Responses By Black or African Americans To The 1990
Census Race Question
The Census Bureau has received
numerous questions regarding how Black
or African should answer question num
ber 4, “ Race” . The 1990 Census form
asks all persons to classify themselves
as White, Black, or Negro, American
Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, one o f nine
specific groups listed under Asian or
Pacific Islander, or * ’Other” , and fill in
the circle next to their choice.
However, the bureau plans a special
review/edit of all write-in entries to the
race question. The procedure will al
low tabulation of write-in responses,
such as “ African/Afro American” , to
gether with filled circle responses of
Black or Negro, to ensure an accurate
count for Blacks and African Ameri
cans.
In 1983, advice was sought from
community leaders and experts on race
and ethnicity on the most appropriate
term to use in the 1990 census race
item. At that time, the consensus was to
use both “ Black” and “ Negro” on the
1990 form. The latter term was in
cluded because some segments of the
population, especially older persons,
do not identify with the word “ Black.”
ftw i
by Benjamin F.
Chavis, Jr.
Save The Children:
The Greatest Challenge
More Adventures In Learning:
The Aluminum Plant
by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
The National Center for Children in
Poverty based in New York City has re
leased a chilling, controversial and
challenging report on the poverty of
children under the age of six in the
United States. According to the latest
federal government population data,
there has been a slight decline in recent
years of those living in poverty when
the entire population is used as the basis
of analysis. But, shockingly, for chil
dren under the age of six, the poverty
rate is now increasing.
The future of any nation is depend
ent upon its ability to care for, nurture
and to enhance the development of its
children. This nation has its priorities
misplaced. Not only are the rich get
ting richer and the poor getting poorer,
but also tragically the youngest of the
nation are having their futures destroyed.
In particular, African American, His
panic American, Asian American and
Native American children under six are
in a situation where they are twice as
likely to be living in poverty than Anglo
American children under six. This sta
tistic is true even when both parents are
present. There have been countless
prior studies that have insinuated that
the absence of one of the parents in
racial and ethnic families is the major
contributing factor to the impoverish
ment of these families.
The significance of the research by
the National Center for Children in
Poverty is that it provides the first na
tional statistical profile of children under
six living in poverty. The findings of
this report point to the institutionaliza
tion of both racism and poverty in
American society. The report stated,
“ Early childhood experiences contrib
ute to poor children’s rate of school
failures, dropout, delinquency, early
childbearing and adult poverty.”
The report entitled, “ A Statistical
Profile of Our Poorest Young Citizens,”
found that nearly one of every four
children under six in the nation is poor.
How can the United States afford to
have one-fourth of all children, regard
less of race, bom after 1984 to live in
abject poverty?
We must remember that 1984 was
the year that this nation re-elected Ronald
Reagan as President. Rather than di
recting a war on poverty or drugs, the
Reagan Administration went to war on
Grenada, Nicaragua, El Salvador and
Angola. Now our children are reaping
the whirlwind often years of misplaced
Republican priorities and policies.
Another myth that this report ex
posed is that to have a job will prevent
"In particular, African
American, Hispanic Ameri
can, Asian American and
Native American children
under six are in a situation
where they are twice as
likely to be living in poverty
than Anglo American chil
dren under six. This statis
tic is true even when both
parents are present. "
you from living in poverty. The study
detailed examples of both parents work
ing and yet their children are still being
consigned to living beneath the poverty
level. While the report did not point
fingers at anyone in particular, we feel
that we have a responsibility to demand
that federal, state and municipal gov
ernments do substantially more to meet
this challenge.
Our children are our future. Judith
Jones, who is the director of the Na
tional Center for Children in Poverty
stated that this nation’s policy of react
ing to crisis rather than preventing cri
sis is part of the problem. Now that
there is considerable national debate on
what to do with the so-called “ peace
dividend,” which is actually money
that is to be re-budgeted away from
unnecessary military spending, we be
lieve that the first priority should be our
children. To our dismay, Secretary of
Defense Dick Chaney is opposed to the
“ peace dividend” being spent on do
mestic social programs. Chaney is
advocating the traditional Reagan-Bush
line that the first priority should be to
reducing the national deficit.
The national deficit is important, but
our children, particularly those under
the age of six, are more important. The
greatest challenge for this nation or for
any nation is to “ Save the Children!”
by Prof. McKinley Burt
Contrary to the experience of many
African Americans, some of my most
productive times were spent in small
western towns where the population
numbered under 10,000-even under
100. It is not difficult to select the one
that stands out above them all; “ The
Dalles’ ’, Oregon where I lived from the
fall of 1963 to the fall of 1969, em
ployed in the accounting department of
the Harvey Aluminum Company (later
to become “ Martin Marietta Inc.” )
One thing I have discovered through
the years is that, without exception, all
of life’s situations have an excellent
learning/teaching potential. And this
small (pop. 10,500) enclave of cherry
orchards and aluminum reduction plant
met all the criteria, and then some.
Unlike the railroad gangs-w here one
was swept into a frenzy of activity,
willing or not-here, where only 10 of
us out of 10,000 were Black, it took
some well-planned and perspicacious
moves to gain a meaningful place in the
mini-infrastructure. You are always
recalling the old southern adage of
Blacks, “ They’ll either lynch you or
deify you-lhere is no in-between, it alll
depends on how you come on stage.”
I had not come to this place with a
plan to learn or teach; just wanted some
breathing room after an unpleasant
California divorce. Correspondence
with a white friend who was manager of
the radio station there led to an invita
tion to visit fora month and just “ kick
back and fish” before coming back to
Portland. The month’s “ kick back”
stretched into three and I found myself
too broke to go farther. My answer to
an ad offering a position with the alu
minum company got no response at all.
Fortunately I was being mailed copies
of the “ Los Angeles Sentinel” , the
major African American newspaper
where I had lived. Noting that “ Homer
Harvey” the son of the company founder
was chairman of some Democratic
Committee or other—and a major phi
lanthropist to the support of minority
affairs-I got off a special delivery de
scribing my slate of suspense while
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Q
Remember The Students Who Died At Jackson State
JT l
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by Ron Daniels
On May 4, the eyes of the nation
were fixed on Kent State University
where a major observence was held to
mark the 20th anniversary of the trag
edy which occurred on that campus in
1970. Four Kent State University stu
dents were Killed when Ohio National
Guard troops fired on unarmed demon
strators. The nation was stunned. The
tragedy seemed all the more shocking
since the four students who were killed
were white. From the bloody demon
strations in Chicago in the American
State, with Richard Nixon at its helm,
was sending a message that not even
white kids were permitted to challenge
the American power structure.
Death and brutality were not strang
ers to African Americans however. Black
people who rebelled against slavery,
segregation and racism have always
been faced with violence and death.
Murdering Black freedom fighters in
America is commonplace. It is little
wonder, therefore, that there is almost
no mention of the Black resistance to
the Vietnam War, and the fact that on
May 15, 1970 two Black students were
killed at Jackson State University in
Jackson, Mississippi and nine others
were wounded. The police fired into a
groupof Black anti-war and civil-rights
demonstrators without provocation. The
Jackson State protests were a part of a
wider Black anti-war resistance move
ment which linked opposition to the
Vietnam War to the questions of civil-
rights and human rights for Africans in
America.
In his “ Beyond Vietnam” speech
on April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King
had not only expressed his fervent op
position to the war, he also indicted the
American system for its lack of concern
for human rights. Kwame Ture (Sto-
kely Carmichael), Imam Jamiel Alam-
ien (H. Rap Brown) and other leaders of
SNCC openly called for African Ameri
cans not join the armed forces or sup
port the war. “ Hell no we won’t go,”
was their battle cry. The movie “ No
Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger”
featuring Muhammad Ali also point
edly raised the question as to why the
oppressed sons and daughters of Africa
in America ought to be fighting in a
distant land against another oppressed
people of color.
No doubt all of these influences per
meated the conciousness of African
American students across America who
had to ask themselves why they as
young Black people should fight for
“ freedom” abroad when Black people
were being victimized by racism at
home. Many African students were
also keenly aware that Black people
were disproportionaiely bearing the brunt
of the casualties in America’s immoral
war against the Vietnamese people.
Though Black people were only 10%
of the population, more than 30% of the
battlefield casualties were African
Americans. And when Blacks were
killed in combat the families of the de
ceased soldiers often had to suffer the
indignity of burying their love ones in
segregatedcementaries. In Wetumpka,
Alabama for instance, the Black com
munity erupted in anger when an Afri-
Professor McKinley Burt
others not nearly so qualified were being
interviewed daily.
For years later there were varying
stories about what happened the next
day when Homer Harvey opened up his
private line from Los Angeles to the
local plant. What I do know is that by
noon the personnel manager was at my
home in a company car to take me to
meet the plant manager and the head of
the accounting department. By one
p.m. 1 was busy collecting workforce
data and recording it. By the weekend,
I had been invited to join “ Toastmas
ters” . By month’s end I was a member
of the chess club, and that year I was
elected president and, being in charge
of meetings, I was given the keys to the
First National Bank meeting p lace-
and the code to turn off the alarm!
Somewhere along the line the old per
sonnel manager was transferred to the
“ Virgin Islands” bauxite loading port
facility.
Well, that was an education in itself,
but it got even better. Surprising to
many people is the fact that a lot of rural
people are not “ rustics” in the classic
sense. I found among my new acquain
tances, many former New Englanders,
New Yorkers, and midwesterns, who,
though high paid professionals in the
other environs, had opted for a much
lower paying but less stressful life in
the “ boonies.” Consequently, I now
found myself in a strange and unprece
dented social/learning lifestyle of close
relationship with fellow workers or club
members who were former lawyers,
engineers, architects, whatever-even a
top New York surgeon. For them, the
peace, fishing, skiing, mountain-climb
ing was the thing.
It was a summer of my third year in
The Dalles, that I found myself listen
ing to a tale of woe from a mathematics
teacher who had a summer job at the
plant as a guard. “ My students can see
no relationship between the dry texts
and stylized algorithms of a boring class
room” and the "real world” which
must soon be faced. This encounter
gave rise to my idea of placing termi
nals right in the classroom and going on
line with computers at the company and
elsewhere to simulate many of the func
tions of computation and telecommuni
cations that are performed each day in
the “ real world.”
In designing and installing the so
phisticated system I was able to draw
that vast talent bank I’ve described. A
local rancher footed the bill for com
puter lines into the schools. Telephone
company and industry executives used
a teletype component to communicate
with the kids and to inspire them to
further exploit the new learning mode
(several years ago the Observer news
paper carried articles and pictures). This
1966 program won a National Science
Foundation award). The participating
mathematics teacher received a fellow
ship to an eastern university, and at the
plant, I was promoted from transferring
labor distribution data to distant com
puters, to powerhouse and electronic
instrument technician (?). As I’ve said,
there is no in-between. You’ll either be
lynched or deified.
In the community I was now a mem
ber of the Ham Radio Club, and grow
ing crystals for other members. A local
juke box distributor provided electronic
goodies for my Kids Science Club. You
can make any situation a learning ma
chine-try it!
can American soldier was refused bur
ial rights in a “ white” cementary. Word
of these kinds of indiquities fed the
Black opposition to the war and Amer
ica.
The students at Jackson State took a
stand against the war in Vietnam and
the oppression of Black people in
America and people of color in Viet
nam and the world. In so doing they
stood valiantly in the finest tradition of
African American resistance to oppres
sion. As they demonstrated on the
evening of May 14 and into the early
morning of May 15, they were faced by
a police force which was accustomed to
harassing Black students and the Black
community. On this tragic night the
police were determined to put the nig
gers back in their place. Two students
died and nine were wounded.
To their credit, those who gathered
at Kent State on May 4th did pay tribute
to the students who died at Jackson
State. However, May 15 will pass with
little more than a whisper about the
heroic stand of the students at Jackson
State. That a whole nation could turn
its attention to Kent State on May 4 and
overlook Jackson State of May 15 says
something profound about America; a
Black life is not as precious as a white
( '( t l c h t h e
life. Racism is still deeply rooted in the
N ci,!g h h (> l/llH )< / i \ ’c i t s , \ l ) ! g / c
very fabric of American culture and
In
society.
T h e P o r t! (ititi O b sej'tT l'
America may have amnesia, but our
duty to ourselves demands that we as
African Americans remember the stu
dents who died at Jackson State, May
15, 1970.