Page J—The Portland Observer—April 17, 1991
The Mourning Of Men In Blue Fails
To Stir Public Sympathy For Gates
P E R S P E C T IV E S
by Professor McKinley Burt
L.A.’s Police Chief Awakens to a New And Colder Morning
Part two of a three part series by A. Lee Henderson
Perhaps the
local papers
nationw ide
preferred to
ignore the
story as a
local in c i
dentnothing
im p a c tin g
other cities
¿¡or states. I f
this is true,
Henderson we had bet
ter awaken
ourselves. We are in a state o f numb
ness and the uneasy desire to look the
other way...the type o f Gestapo envi
ronm ent that helped Nazi Germany
c o m m it genocide in the name o f its
a rc h ite c t..H itle r whose maniacal v i
sion was for the “ public good.”
The police, too, are serving our
“ public good.”
Are we going to accept their ex
treme use o f power w ithout any re
course to justice? Are we going to con
tinue our passivity w hile we relegate
our expressed anger to a few exchanges
o f social vitrio l?
I l ’ s tim e to continue in Prayer and
Power...to fuel ourselves fo r Positive
Power and initiate Programs to Purge
our Nation o f a Program (Program: an
organized crackdown to exterminate or
brutalize that sector o f the people singled
out fo r punitive measures by the gov
ernment in power) m entality no better
than that o f the ancient Czars o f Russia.
The contemporary fascists o f dictator
nations initiate programs against m i
norities that resemble the actions toler
ated w ithin the police departments o f
our own United States o f Am erica. C it
ies in this country reflect too often,
w ithin their police departments, the
diffuse samples o f local brutality that
can, i f converted by hate groups or an
agency o f national control...explode into
the racism that gets “ out o f control.”
The seeds o f it exist. The seeds o f the
hatred are there and must be expunged
in a calculated, point-by-point program.
M y concern is for Prevention o f
future incidents o f police violence.
Aggression that is inflicted upon hu
man beings, calls for a sensitivity train
ing program o f intensive proportions
being instituted, ongoing, w ithin po
lice departments or enforcement agen
cies that deal w ith suspected o f known
crim inal /social offenders.
Scapegoat Racism is Real.
Scapegoat Racism demands m obi-
lized action o f our citizens in com m uni
ties across the nation to:
1) C all or wnte your local police
department. (Be sure not to use Emer
gency telephone numbers that could
interfere w ith operations.)
2) C all or w rite your local and state
representatives o f your concern. Be
factual. Be specific.
3) C all or wnte the M ayor and/or
city council administrators and repre
sentatives.
4) Constitute yourself a com m it
tee-of-one to seek cooperation from
others in your community.
5) Keep your national Congres
sional representatives aware o f what
you are doing and solicit their support.
6) W rite to President Bush and
keep him informed o f your operations
as “ a point o f lig h t” in the nation’ s
wealthy human resources.
We have an obligation to quote
Police C hief Daryl F. Gates in his own
words on department policy w ith in his
police force:
“ Usually when you have some
incident, you have someone stand up
and say ‘ Yeah, but’ and offer some kind
o f defense. But this department does
not countenance that kind o f conduct.
There is a unanimous view in this de
partment that that conduct was wrong.
I urge the Police C hief to take credit
for these temperate words in his future
temperate actions: I invite him to in
form us o f reconstructive measures he
has initiated and w ill take in the long-
range future.
Further, Gates has said in spread
ing o f race relations:
“ I think w hat’s really bothering
me is this attempt to bring this into a
racial focus. This is a diverse city. I
agree w ith the mayor (Bradley) that the
strength o f the city is its diversity. To
try to make this into a racial incident I
think, i f it is, i f there is some connota
tion there w e’ll deal w ith that...But to
p it one group against another...I think it
would be very harm ful.”
There is no group that can exacer
bate the police brutality beyond what
the policemen involved meted out to
their victim ...wounds that required sur
gery, medical reported heart damage,
and extensive head injuries suffered by
Rodney King, a man ironically described
by a local storekeeper he had form erly
burgled as ‘ ‘provoked’ ’ into aggression
by the shopkeeper himself. For that
offense is the only publicized recent
record o f K in g ’s former record. No
justifica tion fo r the beating, certainly,
occurred on the night in question. The
car King was driving, a Hyundai, reput
edly clocked at excessive speeds o f 110
miles an hour, has been reported as
incapable o f going at such speed...its
capability o f high speeds was m axi
mized at 80 mph by the manufacturer!
The beating, caught on video, shows
a defenseless K ing subjected to police
violence he equated as having the fe
rocity o f “ a pack o f dogs.”
Could this, we ask Police C hief
Gates have its m otivation in anything
other than racism? O r is the police
department on a prejudicial tear against
tall people? O r is it the p olicy to beat
first and ask questions later when the
suspicions o f anything like “ drugs” is
suspected?
Black people are less susceptible
to “ herd’ support than C hief Gales
w uh his police department Police League
supporters. They were so w ell organ
ized. They closed ranks in a demonstra
tion o f loyalty to each other...rather
than honest, open self-examination.
Were Black people tighter to unify,
to rally, to organize we would have
done so long ago.
Black people, I rem ind C hie f Gates
do not even support unilaterally the
policies o f his most severe critic, Black
M ayor Tom Bradley. Indeed, Jesse
Jackson’ s criticism o f Bradley echoes
other leaders. The distrust o f corrup
tive finances attributed to Bradley’ s
recent banking indiscretions, which have
been masked, are an affront to claim
many good conservatives...among them
many conscientious Blacks!
We are various in the Black com
m unity as the stratas o f social, p o liti
cal, and financial levels, operating and
voting beyond color and reflecting our
individual, American-blessed civic heri
tage to choose...certainly w ithout the
lim itations o f assuming color-groupie
unaimity.
BUT...we do hold fo r unanim ity
on c iv il and human rights...in concert
w ith the com m unity o f a ll peoples con
cerned in preserving freedoms. Our B ill
O f Rights needs to be reconstructed in
visible day-to-day practice.
Ira Glasser, executive director o f
the American C iv il Liberties Union has
warned us to be wary o f police controls
exacted in the name o f drug search.
Often used as a cover-up for allow ing
drug Enforcement an invasion o f p ri
vacy, Glasser released some startling
statistics.
Continued next week
The Ancient
African ‘Public
Library’
Thank You! A ll the parents, teach
ers (and students) who responded to
last week’ s article, “ Isaac Newton: Black
H istory Student” .
And thank you Carolyn Leonard
(School D istrict Adm inistration) and
Darrell M iln e r (Portland Slate Profes
sor) for your able defense o f the school
districts “ Baseline Essays” on the
K A T U Tow nH all Program, A p ril 7.
As 1 predicted here on A p ril 3,
there was provided an opportunity for
the entire region to view a number o f
racist detractors o f black history at their
denigrating best. Interestingly, the one
w ith the least cognitive equipment was
from the Com m unity College-that
academic anomaly where only recently
the president chastised five ‘ ‘CREDEN-
T IA L E D B U R G L A R S ” for breaking
into the files o f a fellow professor, a
m inority female who taught M in o rity
Studies. Beautiful!
Let me supply some additional facts
and documentation in support o f last
weeks revelations. Let me further tweak
the ears o f the half-educated who claim
that there is no need for a ‘ B la ck’
History (M e thinketh thou doth protest
too much). Some material here is from
Luciano Canfora, “ The Vanished L i
brary: A Wonder o f the Ancient W orld”
(U niversity o f C alifornia Press, 1990);
Marshall Clagett, “ Greek Science in
A n tiq u ity ” (C o llie r-M c M illa n , 1963);
and Sir James Jeans, “ The Growth o f
Physical Science” (Cambridge U. Press,
1961).
Projects Fund to W illie D. (Don) Jones,
owner and operator o f J.A.M . Develop
ment, a 100 percent m inority-owned
home construction company.
Jones intends to build 1100-to-1300
square foot, 3-bedroom homes in the
$50,000-560,000 price range.
J.A .M . has the capability and de
sire, according to PD C ’ s loan review, to
build low-cost housing in Northeast
Portland under Security Pacific Bank’ s
S M A R T S T A R T II program, but that
Inform ation about remodeling, re
modeling contractors, and related top
ics is now just a to ll free phone call
away. The Oregon Remodelers asso
ciation has made available the hot line
service to Oregon residents. The num
ber is 1-800-863-9119.
Jim Brcitbarth, Executive D irec
tor o f the Association, said the prim ary
purpose o f the to ll free line is as a
referral service to obtain names o f
(USPS 959-680)
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of The National Newspaper Association - Founded in 1885 and The National Advertis
ing Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., New York, NY
q u a lifie d rem odeling contractors.
Anyone calling for contractor referrals
w ill be given the names o f three con
tractors. The caller w ill receive a fo l
low up contact by m ail to assure correct
service.
Consumers can also use the to ll
free number to get inform ation about
remodeling and how to select a con
tractor.
The Oregon Remodelers associa
tion is a state wide organization o f
professional remodeling contractors and
related trades. Current membership is
over 500 w ith local chapters in Port
land, Salem, Albany/Corvallis, Eugene,
Hood R iver and Bend.
The Association sponsors the an
nual Home Improvement and Remod
eling Show at the Oregon Convention
Center in October.
Are • The • Proud • Sponsors • Of
Reinvestments
Community
Mt. Hood Jazz Festival Announces
Complete 1990 Lineup
■.
Federal Extended
Benefits Triggered
PORTI
Alfred L. Henderson
Publisher
i
"W h a t’ s in a name?
We understand now why the Greeks
were able to return to their homeland
and set up those great scientific schools
such as M iletus. W hat we need to fu r
ther understand is the terrible envy,
jealousy and insecurity that prompted
Alexander and others to bum many o f
these libraries. Understand that and you
w ill comprehend the fury o f the
“ Baseline Essay” detractors, the ‘ lib
eral’ academics you saw in action the
other Sunday. It is not always true that
‘ ‘ TH E T R U T H W IL L SET Y O U
FREE! ’ ’ N ot in the case o f racists. But,
keep in m ind that under the pressures o f
this American culture we are not going
to motivate our black youngsters u ntil
we teach them too, who we were, who
we are, and who we w ill be!
AMALGAMATED PUBLISHERS, INC.
the builder could not participate in the
program w ithout in itia l financial support
from PDC. Jones plans to utilize m inor
ity contractors from North/Northeast and
employ com m unity residents.
The loan to J.A.M . w ill be used to
secure an operating line o f credit from
Security Pacific, which also w ill provide
a construction line o f credit. The bank
already has 150 prequalified home buy
ers seeking appropriately designed and
priced homes under S M A R T STA R T II.
>
historian. Gibbon ( “ Decline and Fall
o f the Roman E m p ire ") comments on
"th e treasures o f Egyptian Libraries-
Aristotle, Pliny the Elder and Galen pe
rused these w ritings o f their predeces
sors (Canfora, p p .l 12,113)” . And it is
Newton who is quoted in the books I
cited last week, “ Africans developed
the concept o f the SPHERE in that part
o f A frica now known as L ib ya ” .
By their own testimony we know
o f the many other Greeks (and Ro
mans) who attended school or were
bom in A frica (the busts we have today
o f the alleged ethnic Greek mathemati
cians and astronomers are conceded
not to be valid representations-and we
know that many ethnic (Negro) A f r i
cans look Greek names before and after
the invasion o f Alexander. So when we
think o f Pythagoras, Euclid and o f A ris
totle who transferred scores o f Greek
students from Athens to the A frican
Temple Schools o f Egypt and the Su-
dan-w e should also th in k o f
Shakespeare’ s cogent observaion,
Toll Free Information On Remodeling
Now Available To Oregon Consumers
Minority-Owned construction Firm To Build Low-Cost
Housing In North/Northeast Portland With PDC Assistance
As many as 20 new or rehabilitated
homes, most in North/Northeast Port
land, could be put on the market fo r
low-and moderate-income families over
the next 12-to-18 months as a result o f a
loan approved today by the Portland
Development Commission (PDC).
PDC-the C ity ’ s urban renewal,
housing and economic development
agency-approved a 530,000 low -in te r
est loan under the Housing and C om
m unity Development Northeast Special
Establishment history texts gener
a lly make much fuss over the ancient
A frican Library (ies) o f Alexandria,
Egypt and it is not denied that the
greatest collection o f knowledge known
to exist u ntil modem times was to be
found there. O f course it is seldom i f
ever mentioned that Alexandria was in
A fric a -o r that the next largest library
was also founded in A frica , but many,
many centuries later. This was at the
“ U niversity o f T im b uktu ” in ancient
M a li on the east coast o f A frica , just
above the equator. An international
c e n te ro fle a m in g in th e 14th-16th cen
turies, its traditions were carried over
to Katsina, a Hausa state in Northern
Nigeria. The c ity was the capital o f
” Askia, The Great” , Emperor o f Song-
hay in 1538, and he ruled an empire
that stretched from the A tlantic Ocean
to lake Chad and was LA R G E R T H A N
W ESTERN EUROPE.
But to return to that earlier scene
o f A frican intellectual glories, Alexan
dria (renamed, o f course, to suit the ego
o f its later conqueror, “ Alexander The
Great (?)” ). W e need to understand
that these libraries were reservoirs o f
ancient scientific, philosophical and o f
Temple Schools or U niversities-Like
H eliopolis where Moses studied sev
eral thousand years B.C., and long before
the Greeks became literate. These u ni
versities produced other black schol
ars, like Imhoteps who designed the
Step Pyramid and who was the greatest
phy sic ian o f that age (as ackno w ledged
by Hippocrates who learned from the
w ritings and ‘prescriptions’ o f the
master; S till preserved on the “ Eber’ s
Papyrus” in the British Museum).
So we may w ell understand why it
is that as late as the 17th century, Isaac
Newton turned to A fric a in his search
fo r the meaning o f universal principles
which underly the cosmos. The famed
BSl
Santamaria has long been at the top
o f the heap when it comes to conga
drum m ers. He le ft Cuba fo r the U.S. in
1948 and soon was w o rkin g w ith Latin
bandleaders tito Puente and Cal Tjadcr
Saxophonist Johnny G riffin , conga
drum m er M ongo Santamaria, pianist
Ray Bryant, bassist Leroy Vinnegar
and the duo o f Tuck and Patti have
been signed to round out the 1990 M t.
Hood Festival o f Jazz, accordine to
an announcement by Paul Kreider,
Festival o f Jazz Foundation President.
The Festival is Aug. 3-5 outdoors at
M t. Hood C om m unity College.
The five jazz, artists jo in the ninth
annual Jazz Festival lineup that a l
ready includes M el Torm e, Tony
Bennett, the Terry Gibbs Dream Band,
Larry Carlton, Stanley Jordan, A l Hirt,
M ichael Franksand the Harper B ro th
ers. Singer A n ita Baker headlines the
popular Friday N ig h t Event this year.
Oregon unemployed workers may
be able to extend their unemployment
benefits for up to 13 more weeks begin
ning A p ril 7, according to state Em
ployment D ivision officials.
That is because the state has trig
gered on to federal extended benefits,
which are designed to provide addi
tional unemployment benefits during
periods o f high unem ploym ent
An estimated 10,000 claimants who
w ill have run out o f benefits but still
have active claims are expected to be
eligible for the extensions. Those who
receive extensions w ill be paid at their
normal weekly benefit amount. Ore
gon’ s maximum weekly benefit is 5247
per week.
Federal extended benefits are trig
gered on when the ratio o f those receiv
ing unemployment benefits to the num
ber o f workers covered by unemploy
ment insurance law averages 5 percent
or more for 13 weeks. Seven other
states have also triggered on to ex
tended benefits.
“ Even though Oregon’ s total un
employment rate has been lower than
the national average, we have had a lot
o f Oregonians filin g unemployment
claims over the past 13 weeks,” ex
plained Em ployment D ivision A d m in
istrator Pamela Mattson. The claim load
was especially high during December,
a lime period which is traditionally
heavy and is included in this federal
calculation, she said.
I
He learned bebop via Bud P ow ell and
Red G arland w h ile gathering steam
on his ow n distinctive style o f piano
jazz.
before form in g his ow n band.
B ryant was bom in the ripe jazz at
mosphere o f Philadelphia, where he
began playin g piano at 6, subsequently
learning jazz fiom listening to A rt Tatum,
Teddy W ilso n ,C o u n t Basic and others.
Bassist Vinnegar, who leads a quar
tet, has long been in the com pany o f
elite ja zz musicians. H is firs t claim
to fame came in the '50s; when he
joined Andre Previn and Shelley Manne
to record the best-selling “ M y F air
L a d y " jazz album and went on to be
Chicago native G r iffin has resided
in Europe fo r the past 25 years but
come one ofthe leading bassists in
jazz.
makes an annual v is it to the Unitec
Slates to tour. A standout im provisa
tional talent and know n fo r his speed
and technical prowess, G riffin brings a
solid bebop style to the Festival.
porary fram ew ork o f jazz.
A d d itio n a l in fo rm atio n may be ob
tained from the M t. Hood Festival o f
Jazz o ffic e by phoning 503-666-3810.
T u ck and Patti play in the contem
Profile of Dancer/Choreographer Ruby Burns of the Oregon Dance Consort
D epositing her infant daughter on a
secure spot o f the studio flo o r and strip
ping o f f several layers o f A fric a n -in
spired fashions, dancer Ruby Bums picks
up a large A m erican flag and starts to
sw irl it around. A flag?! Yes, indeed.
W ith a well-established reputation as
one o f the re g io n ’ s top interpreters and
teachers o f A frica n dance. Ruby is
branching out to explore the vocabu
lary o f A m erican modem dance--and
Am erican m odern dance in the 90s is a
m any-faceted artform .
I t ’s not such a huge leap for Ruby as
it sounds; trace any modem dance style
back to its roots and y o u ’ ll find that the
early pioneers drew heavily on fo lk and
ethnic themes fo r inspiration in their
w ork. Ruby herself has been greatly in
spired by the w ork o f modern dance
pioneer Katherine dunham who based
her style directly on various forms o f
A frica n dance.
T oday, A frica n dance is a high ly
visible, enthusiastically received part
o f P ortland’ s cultural scene, but when
Ruby arrived here in 1978 as a refugee
from New Y o rk C ity , this was harldy
the case. A s a facu lty m ember at D anc
ers’ W orkshop, as a choreographer and
perform er, R uby has played a v ita l role
in focusing attention on the d ive rsity
and pow er o f A frica n form s o f music
and dance. N o w , in her recent and
upcom ing w o rk w ith the m odem dance
company O regon Dance Consort, she's
b u ild in g more bridges and u tiliz in g her
pow erful stage personality to interpret
dram atic w o rks from another tradition.
"Reinvestments in the Community" is a weekly column appearing
in API publications throughout the USA.
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