Page 2 The Portland Observer May 30. IMMO
E ditorial / N
ational
F orum
V antage P oint
Articles and Essays by Ron Daniels
As the world celebrates the
release o f Nelson Mandela,
and the beginning o f talks
aimed at startingserious nego
tiations toabolish apartheid in
South Africa, the situation o f
African Americans continues
to deteriorate.
A ll across
America a veritable epidemic
o f racial assaults is being un
leashed against Black people
at all levels. The drug crisis has
provided a veil o f legitimacy
for growing police harass
ment, terror and murder in
African American communi
ties. Racial incidents on col
lege campuses arc mounting,
and racial attacks o f the kind
which occurred at Howard
Beach and Bcnsonhurst arc
becoming increasingly more
commonplace.
This alarming resurgence of
racism and racial violence is
unfolding w ithin a climate
where affirmative action and
the gains o f the sixties arc also
under attack. From the Su
preme Court to the halls of
congress there arc forces at
work which arc determined to
turn back the clock. There
appears to be a prevailing view
in white America that African
Americans, w ith all their
elected officials, prominent
television personalities, ac
tors, athletes and corporate
executives have made it. As a
consequent o f this mispercep
tion, there is a decided lack of
national w ill to press forward
with a national civil rights and
human rights agenda.
There arc increasing signs,
however, that African A m eri
cans do not intend to become
passive victims o f this latest
outbreak of anti-Black racist
antagonism. A growing A F ri-
can American revolt against
racism appears to be brewing.
Recently Prof. Derek Bell
from the prestigious Harvard
Law School announced that
he was voluntarily leaving the
faculty, and would not return
until the Law Schoo, hired a
Black woman to the faculty.
Prof. Bell who is widely re
spected as one o f the leading
scholars and intellectuals in
America was aiming his pro
test at the kind o f tokenism
which has become the pattern
at most colleges and universi
ties in the United Slates. Su
preme Court Decisions" over
the past decade have served to
undermine affirmative action
and lessen an already feeble
commitment on the part o f
many universities to imple
ment strong affirmative action
policies.
in taking his stand, Prof. Bell
is in cflcct risking occupa
tional death. His career is on
the line. But Prof. Bell de
clared that, "1 cannot continue
to urge students to take risks
for what they believe if I do not
practice my own precepts". It
is precisely this type ofcouragc
which is required by Black men
and women to inspire our
people to fight back against
racism and the blatant at
tempts to beat back Black
progress.
Though Prof. Bell's stance
received national notice, an
other action by Black students
at Temple University did not
make national headlines.
D uringthc last week o f A p rila
late evening melee erupted at
Temple when some white
members o f fraternity falsely
accused a group of Black stu
dents o f kicking in the door of
their fraternity house. The
white students attacked the
Black students with baseball
bats and 2" by 4" planks. When
the campus police arrived the
Black students were hit with
biliy clubs and herded into
paddy wagons as if they were
the ones guilty o f prcccpi-
tating the incident. Five white
students were eventually ar
rested, but not o f them were
subjected to beatings with billy
clubs, handcuffed or thrown
into paddy wagons. A few of
the Black students had to be
treated for cracked ribs and
broken arms.
Black student organizations
and leaders came together in a
united front to demand an
apology from the university
and further that charges be
brought against the police of
ficers for police brutality. A
number of other grievances
were also raised. \Vhcn the
President of the university re
fused to meet with them or
respond to their demands, the
Black students and some
Latino, Asian and white sup
porters took to the streets,
more than 1,000 strong. They
blocked every major access
road to the university in a
massive act of civil disobedi
ence. With this courageous
stand, the students at Temple
University joined the growing
revolt against racial oppres
sion.
PORTLffND'OBSERVER
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rQSTMAST E B ; Stn d Addrc g C lu m -i s tu: furU und
O b w n t r . f .O , B u t .U ? ?. I'urlla
It’s Time to Put an End
to Workplace Discrimination
By Rep. Donnie Gedling
Imagine this scenario. You are in
terviewing for a job. You have all the
right credentials and come highly rec
ommended The interviewer is im
pressed. You are asked if you smoke
You do. The interview is over. This
company does not hire smokers, no
matter how well-qualified.
Unfortunately, this is not just a hy
pothetical situation. It happens every
day, all over the country. And this
treatment is not limited to people who
smoke. Such unfair practices also
may be applied to a person w ho plans
to start a family, an overweight per
son, those who consume alcoholic
beverages or even one who races
motorcycles as a hobby. More and
more, people are fired or not hired at
all because of activities, hobbies or
events related to their personal lives.
If you think this smacks of discrim
ination, you are right. And many leg
islators, including myself, agree. In
the past two years, five states — Vir
ginia, Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado
and Kentucky — and several city
councils have enacted legislation de
signed to protect employees from
non-work-related discrimination. A
number of other states, including Del
aware and Rhode Island, are presently
considering such legislation.
Some of the laws contain a number
of privacy issues — prohibiting em
ployers from subjecting employees or
job applicants to lie-detector tests, ge
netic screening, psychological stress
tests or unwarranted breathalyzer test
ing — and some are more specific —
prohibiting employers from requiring
workers or job applicants to abstain
from using tobacco products on or off
the job.
But the premise is the same: Em
ployee privacy needs to be respected
and protected. We cannot have em
ployers dictating what legal activities
or social values, particularly those re
lating to a worker's non-working
hours, are acceptable.
This point was brought home in a
recent survey of 1,007 adults by the
National Consumers League. The
vast majority of survey respondents
felt prospective employers have no
right to ask questions about, among
other things, plans to have children,
smoking off the job, or off-the-job ac
tivities or hobbies. And respondents
overwhelmingly found it inappropri
ate for an employer to refuse to hire an
overweight person, refuse to hire a
smoker or require an employee to stop
smoking, or require an employee or
applicant to change diet.
America’s workers don't want em
ployers deciding how they should live
their lives within our nation's legal
framework. And legislators cannot
and should not stand idly by while
they do it. W'hile many Americans
view laws as restrictive, this is one in
stance where laws are necessary to
help keep this nation free.
But I think it's a sad statement that
legislation is even needed to ensure
that employees are guaranteed the
fundamental rights of individuals that
we always believed were protected by
our state and lederal constitu
tions. Ill
Slate Rep. Gedling is a m em ber of the
Kentucky House of Representatives.
» 1990 PM Editorial Services
More Adventures in Learning:
Portland State University
I took this faculty position for one
semester in 1971-and remained for ten
years; teaching, designing curriculum
and implementing innovative techniques
that eventually spread throughout the
university. A notable example was my
“ Affirmative Action Workshop,’’ the
first college-accredited course of its
kind in the Pacific Northwest. But it
began “ off-campus” as a three-day
workshop for U.S. Forest Service per
sonnel of the 19 regional forests scat
tered around the Northwest and Alaska.
At first just a government consultant,
I became “ Instructor of Record” after
acquiring university status, and was
able to award credit hours to “ stu
dents” attending this traveling class
room on mountain tops, at resorts and
Indian reservations, and at remote towns
on the Canadian border. Teaching
conventional courses on campus three
days a week, I spent the remainder at
sessions and in helicopters, 4-wheel
drives and on Air Oregon Flights. Word
of the course soon spread around the
downtown campus where it was not
available, and people were driving
hundreds of miles to participate. There
was great interest in the Portland busi
ness community where there was tre
mendous pressure to become well versed
in “ E.E.O.C.” law (Equal Employ
ment Opportunity Commission). Their
negotiations secured my course a per
manent place in on-campus curriculum
and a listing in the school catalog.
Another element of my learning curve
in this new (to me) “ industry” of edu
cation, was the financial ramifications
of the growing interface between insti
tutions of learning, the business com
munity, and governmental agencies. It
did not take long for me to become
aware of the ten of thousands of dollars
that would be generated by these activi
ties in student fees-often supported by
employer subsidies for staff training.
CREED OF THE BLACK PRESS
The Portland Observer:
Reflecting Community Pride
The Black Press believes that Am erica 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
F r a « strives to help every person in the firm belief that all are hu rt as long as anyone
to held back.
African American Festival
presents
First Annual NW
Gospel Jubilee
at the
Schnitzer Concert Hall
1037 SW Broadway
Portland, Oregon
Saturday, June 16,1990
7:00 p.m.
Tickets are on sale for $9.50
and $15.50 each. Prices
include user fee and service
charge. When ordering 10
or more tickets, the prices
are: $7.50 and $13.50.
The ticket outlets are:
Portland Memorial
Coliseum
1401 N.Wheeler
Civic Stadium
SW 20th & Morrison
1990 Virginia Slims Women's Opinion Poll:
Twenty Years of Women’s Attitudes — And Then Some
By Liese Cochran
PM Editorial Services
You've heard the lament. "Men
— can’t live with 'em: can’t live
without 'e m " And according to a
recent national poll, women still
think this is true. The majority of to
day's American women say men are
increasingly egocentric, selfish and
lazy. In fact, poll results found
women are far less likely than they
were 20 years ago to say that most
men are basically kind, gentle and
thoughtful. At the same time. 90 per
cent of the women surveyed were
married or planned on someday tying
the knot
These are just a few of the mount
ing frustrations women expressed in
the 1990 Virginia Slims Women s
Opinion Poll, the most comprehen
sive women's opinion poll in the
nation. Sixth in a series of national
surveys begun in 1970. the poll sur
veys a cross section of 3,000 women
and 1.000 men to measure women's
attitudes, beliefs and behavior at inter
vals that correspond to changing events
in society.
1990 marks the 20th anniversary
of the poll and reveals that women
today are looking for changes and
making demands. Women may have
made major breakthroughs in the
workplace over the last 20 years, but
now they are faced with increased
stress while trying to juggle the re
sponsibilities of being a co-worker,
mother, spouse and homemaker all at
once.
This is one of the reasons women
have become increasingly critical of
men. With their newfound indepen
dence. they expect more from their re
lationships. As they contribute more to
the family income, they expect a more
equitable division of household re
sponsibilities and child care
And yet, while women have made
great advances in the workplace,
their greatest source of satisfaction
still comes from home life. Marriage
Do Women Think Things Have Improved or Are Worse?
Civic Auditorium
SW 3rd & Clay
Performing Arts
Center
1111 SW Broadway
T h e P O R T L A N D O B S E R V E R welcomes freelance submissions. M anuscripts and p
logtaphs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a s<
addressed envelope. All created designed display ads become the sole property of I
newspaper and can not be used In other publications or personal usage, without
w ritten consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the cmnposil
• f such ad i m r O R T L A N D O R S E K V E R A L I . R IG H T S R E S E R V E D , H E F R O IIl
T IO N IN W H O L E OR IN F A R T W IT H O U T P E R M IS S IO N is » R O t lllll I I I)
SaEscripSiear. tit.» « par j t a t in (Ac rn -C e a n ty area. S 2 S .lt a ll m hrr a rra i.
The P O R T L A N D OBSERV 1 R -• Oregon's Oldest A frican-A m erican Public .ilio o -i
m em ber of T h e National Newspaper Association •• Founded in IXII5, and I heNatioi
Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., New Y o rk, NV
And that, after my salary and expenses;
a learning game.
There was an interesting and produc
tive spinoff to all this, especially for
African American students. Ninety-
five percent (95%) of the enrollment
was white and the evening classes in
volved management and other person
nel from such local firms as Tektronix,
Esco, U.S. Bank, First National Bank,
United Parcel, Omark, etc., and many
of the federal, state and city agencies.
At break-time these people would en
counter minority students in the cafete
ria and, after a brief conversation, sched
ule them for an interview the very next
d ay -o r in some cases they were hired
on the spot. By the end of the first year
minority and white female students were
enrolling in droves.
Another innovative approach I used
to ensure the successful delivery of a
needed educational product was the
design mode used for a three-semester
course, “ Black Economic Experience.”
I will not begin a description until next
week for I believe the story can be best
told in a cohesive narration. Suffice to
say, it was a multi-disciplinary approach
and was simultaneously accepted for
credit by “ History, Business, Minority
Studies, Urban Studies and Sociology.”
I will have more to say then on the need
to design curriculum beyond the cur
rent arbitrary constraints of traditional
nomenclature, and to fit it, instead, to
the realities of life as it is encountered.
A ll G.I. Joes Ticket Outlets
For all group sales,
call
230-6702
CHARGE-A-TICKET
248-4496
Percentages
and family remain the center of most
American women’s lives. And for
the first time since 1974, women’s
preference for a lifestyle that com
bines marriage, family and career has
declined. The proportion of women
who would choose a dual-earner,
shared-responsibility marriage also
has dropped from 57 percent in 1985
to 53 percent in 1990 — a slow swing
back toward the 4b percent of 1974.
"Women are reevaluating where
they are today,” said Bums W.
Roper, chairman of The Roper Or
ganization Inc., who conducted the
poll. “ While they don't want to go
back to a traditional wife and mother
lifestyle, the poll suggests they feel
that new solutions for balancing fam
ily and career need to be found.”
Women would like more help from
their spouses and feel they should put
less pressure on themselves to be
superwomen. They also would like to
see higher pay. The chief source of
stress in their lives is money, the
principal tactor they feel would make
it better Sixty three percent say that
the amount of money they have to
live on is the leading cause of resent
ment in their lives. Salary inequities
between men and women are at the
root ot the problem — 50 percent of
women believe that over the next 10
years major changes are needed to
make women's salaries comparable
to those of men
Most ot all. the 1990 Virginia Slims
Women's Opinion Poll confirms that
the role of women in society is still
changing. Three quarters of women
believe that their roles should and w ill
continue to change in the 1990s.
However, as always with change,
some things remain the same And
with women, it appears the eternal la
ment over men will do just that M
Source 1990 V>rg.n.a Shm» Wbmeo 9 Op»n»oo Po
119 90 PM Editorial Services