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Volumn XXII, Number 34
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The Eyes and Ears of the Community'
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Alcohol Use Kills One
In Twenty Oregonians
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Adolescents Have Highest Alcohol-Related Death Rate
H e a d e d io C o u r i
Floy Jay
The Portland Oregon Visitors A ssociation re
cently filed suit against Black business entrepre
neur, Roy Jay claim ing unfair trade practices.
Jay, who has been a m em ber o f the visitors association
since 1982 and on their board since 1988 was not the least
bit surprised by the recent legal action taken against one
o f his many business entities. The non-profit, taxpayer
funded visitors association, better know as POVA, has
filed a com plaint on A ugust 5th in M ultnomah County
Circuit Court and has also requested approval for a
preliminary injunction prohibiting the use o f a similar
trade name, which was approved by the State o f Oregon
and is exclusively owned by one o f Jay ’s business opera
tions.
The 45 year old Portland business entrepreneur sim
ply stated “this is the Olympics of the visitor industry and
w e’re going for the gold on this one”. Jay who has master
minded a business and marketing strategy which has
generated millions of dollars in potential convention leads
and referrals to Portland area hotels, tour operators,
meeting planners and small businesses over the past two
years has been continually applauded for his efforts. “In
a time when tax funding is short, it would appear that this
type of industry should be grateful for any additional help
instead o f wanting to put them out o f business” said a local
business owner.
Those closer to the situation, realize that the matters
have been brewing for nearly 3 years. It is believed that
conflicts started when Roy was told... “we allow no
niggers here” as he entered a board meeting. The POVA
board nor staff refused to reprimand the board member
that made the com m ent in the presence o f city, county and
business officials. Jay has been considered by many one
T
o f the most positive changes within the association. The
ironic part o f this situation is that this is the same Roy Jay
that was just given the POVA “President’s Aw ard” at their
annual appreciation breakfast held at the Oregon C onven
tion Center about one month ago. POVA applauded and
recognized him for his business efforts and participation in
the presence of nearly 1000 governmental and business
representatives. So what seems to be the problem? - One
of Jay’s operations has a registered business name similar
to POVA ’ s and they feel that he is infringing on their name.
Jay indicated that such is not the real issue and the
underline reasons are that they want to make every attempt
to put him out of business due to the continuing success o f
his operation which is primarily supported by business
mem bership and in fact by some of the same businesses
that were formerly members of POVA, but never realized
any economic benefits or other opportunities.
Jay who is represented by prom inent Portland attor
neys Curtis Kinsley and Patrick Butler will be filing an
answer to PO V A ’s com plaint soon as well as an undis
closed counter suit against the organization and others
involved. In a surprise move only a few days after the suit
was filed, PO V A ’s Executive Director, Charles Ahlers
abruptly resigned on Monday just days after the lawsuit
was filed and is headed to Southern California to take a top
position in the convention and visitors bureau in Anaheim,
starting in October.
“ It is unfortunate that the situation has got to this
point, said Jay, however some o f these people that run
POVA have shown little if any respect for African A m eri
cans at any level. 1 have been a victim o f racism, criticism
and just about any other “ ism” that you can imagine. It is
Continued on page 6
L ab or D a y is on tb e w ay
P la n A b e a a
More than 1.300 Oregonians die
each year as a result o f alcohol use,
accounting for 1 in 20 of all deaths in
the state, according to a report released
recently by the Oregon Health Divi
sion. This estim ate, based on methods
used by the National Center for Health
Statistics, is four times greater than
p rev io u sly e stim a te d , said D avid
Fleming, M.D., state epidemiologist.
“Alcohol is a contributing factor in
m ore d e a th s th an w e p re v io u sly
thought,” said Dr. Fleming. “Alcohol
use is especially significant in deaths
due to motor vehicle accidents, chronic
illnesses, suicides and homicides.”
O regonians drink themselves to
death in many ways. The most frequent
causes o f alcohol-related deaths in
cluded chronic alcoholism, alcoholic
cirrhosis of the liver and motor vehicle
accidents involving alcohol, although
the absolute number of alcohol-related
deaths increases with age, the propor
tion o f deaths due to alcohol use is
highest for adolescents. For example,
almost half o f the 49 males between 15
Clothing Drive
At Saturday
Market To
Benefit
Low-Income
Children
A children’s clothing drive spon
sored by Low Income Family Em er
gencies (LIFE) Center will be held at
Saturday M arket Saturday and Sunday,
August 22 and 23.
People are encouraged to bring
children’s clothing and usable school
supplies Saturday from 10 A.m. to 5
p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Saturday M arket is located under
the Burnside Bridge between First and
Front streets.
LIFE will give donated clothing
and supplies to children o f low-income
families at the center’s back-to-school
giveaway at Peninsula Park on August
20.
LlFE C enter.aU nited Way agency,
has provided Portland’s low-income
families with emergency aid for 25
years.
and 20 years o f age killed in motor
vehicleaccidentsduring 1989 had been
drinking, though none was of legal drink
ing age, said Dr. Fleming.
Premature deaths, serious injuries
and costly illnesses in Oregon occurred
as a result of several common patterns
of alcohol use: chronic heavy drinking,
acute heavy drinking, engaging in high
risk behavior while under the influence
of alcohol, and drinking during preg
nancy. Each month, more than 300,000
Oregonians consum e at least five alco
holic drinks on a single occasion. More
than h a lf o f O re g o n w om en o f
childbearing age use alcohol at least
occasionally. One analysis in the report
showed that a baby was more than three
times as likely to have a low birth weight
if its mother reported drinking four or
more alcoholic drinks per week than if
she reported abstaining from alcohol
use during pregnancy, according to Dr.
Fleming.
The report revealed that at least
1105 Oregonians died in 1989 from a
recognized drug overdose - a rate of
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two deaths per week. Tw o-thirds o f
these deaths were suicides, most of
which involved prescription drugs.
During the same year, 37 deaths oc
curred as a result of an unintentional
overdose of illicit drugs, according to
the report.
On the positive side, 88 percent of
Oregonians reported either not drink
ing alcoholic beverages or using them
in moderation. The Oregon Bench
marks, a series o f m easurable objec
tives adopted by the 1991 Oregon Leg
islature, call for increasing percentage
of Oregonians who report drinking in
moderation to 90 percent by the year
2000 and 95 percent by the year 2010.
The report,’’Alcohol and Drugs in
Oregon: 1989" ’ used information from
1989 birth and death certificates and
other information sources, including
telephone surveys o f Oregon residents,
Dr. Fleming said. In Most cases the
report providesonly minimal estimates
because sources tend to underestimate
the prevalence of alcohol or other drug
involvement in disease and injuries.
NAMCO To Hold
Its Monthly
General Meeting
The National Association O f
M inority Contractors O f Oregon
(NAMCO) will hold its monthly gen
eral meeting on Thursday, A ugust
20,1992. Special guest will include
Phyliss Gaines o f Key Bank, and
Dave Kish, M ayor’s Office. Tod
O ’Donnell, RepresentmgPacific Air
craft M aintenance Corporation, and
Dave Brenneman and Gail Wilstrom
o f Donald M. Drake Com pany, are
also special guest.
An array o f topics will be dis
cussed during this two hour affair
beginning at 6:00 P.M ., The annex,
located at 1625 N. E. Alberta St.
Gaines, head o f the newly cre
ated community services department
for Key Bank, will speak on two
program s the bank has established
under the Community Re-investment
Act, which will make Ioans avail-
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able for home repairs and im prove
ments in targeted areas of the city.
O ’D onnell o f PA M C O and
Brenneman o f Donald M Drake,
will both speak on opportunities
available to small subcontractors on
the $50 million PAM CO Facility
which recently broke ground at Port
land International Airport, and the
19,000-seat sports arena that will be
built near Memorial Coliseum.
David Kish, Aide to Portland
Mayor Bud Clark, will provide in
formation on the remodeling o f the
W alnut Park Fred Meyer building.
H e will also com m ent on the new
Oregon Arena and the citys First
Source Hiring Program. Bruce W alts,
CH2 A and Associates, arc also sched
uled to make brief presentations.
Cali 282-1190, for more inform a
tion.
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The Black Mainstream: Fact or Fiction
BY JAMES L. POSEY
There are a number o f other Black
solutions that we will discuss in later
articles. H ow ever today I feel the need
to look at the notion o f the Black m ain
stream as promoted by liberals and
conservatives alike. It never ceases to
amaze me to what lengths some people
will go to rationalize this corporate
dysfunctional behavior in A m erica
called “racism .” I’m talking about this
movement, this wave after wave of
pseudo sociologist/economist Black and
W hite who try to convince themselves
and the rest of the world that Blacks in
A merica have arrived. Everything is
better or getting better is the threme.
And those o f us who are not convinced
arc labeled at best obstructionist and at
worst reverse racist. They even go so far
as to say “ Yaw gotta ghetto mentally
which is the real reason why you have
rats and roaches and can ’t pay the light
bill.” These are some serious “mind
trippin gam es” being played on Black
people to create an illusion that has
about as much believability as the talcs
o f “Roger Rabbit.”
The one article in the Oregonian a
couple o f weeks go told the wonderful
story o f how two thirds o f all Blacks arc
now considered in the mainstream. The
w riter went on to prove his point using
a crafty definition of mainstream. He
used such nebulous terms as substantial
numbers of white and blue collar w ork
ers as indicators o f Black progress. He
also referenced statistical gains in ed u
cation. Another indicator essentially
boiled down to increased political power
through exercising the right to vote and
electing officials - things that white
people take for granted like breathing
air. The only economic indicator he
was obliged to use was thefollow ing: In
1940, 93 percent o f Blacks and 65
percent of whites were in poverty; in
1990 the rates were 31 percent and 10
percent respectively. There is some
validity in his numbers because the
Urban L cague’sannually S tateof Black
America clearly indicates that Blacks
arc three time likely to be in poverty as
W hites. Somehow these ratios d o n ’t do
anything to reinforce my sense of Black
progress. He also said in 1940 the m e
dian num ber of years of education was
seven for Blacks, and 10.7 for Whites;
in 1990 12.4 and 12.7 respectively.
W hat he d id n ’t say is that a Black man
with a collage education typically cams
less than the average white man with
8th grade education. Additionally, re
cent information suggest that Black
earning capacity is 62 cents to every
W hites persons $1.00. I never have
been very good with numbers, but you
tell me - docs that means Blacks can
buy, save, invest, recreate, send their
kids to college, afford health care, seek
higher education, and yes leverage
themselves out o f the ghetto 1/3 less
than W hiles? As in slavery when Blacks
constitutionally were considered only
two thirds of a human being; in 1992
does the 62 cents earning comparison
mean that Blacks arc only two thirds as
good as W hites? Despite reference to
Black successes such as Bill Cosby and
Collin Powell, high rates of Blacks in
jai, or prison, children in poverty,
homelessness, income disparity and etc.,
don’t give me a sense that the masses of
Blacks are in the m ainstream, more like
in the downstream.
However, I think the argument can
be made that there is danger o f Blacks
perceiving themselves as helpless and
dependent on the system. But one can
hardly presum e as the writer does,
Blacks arc waddling in their underclass
situation and using it as a crutch to
maintain a victimized status. Pardon
me, I just don’t believe Blacks are that
stupid.
Next, the w riter w ent on a raging
attack against Blacks who claim their
African heritage. He contends that it’s
divisive and distracts from the fulfill
ment of the “Common Destiny” and
melting pot theory o f multi-culturalism
promoted by many in America. I won
der if a persons is really intellectually
honest when they write this kind of
stuff. The reason being, is surely he
knows that it was not Blacks who put of
signs over the water fountains “C ol
ored O nly” and sent vicious dogs to
prevent Blacks from eating in public
accom m odations. Blacks have only
been separatist out o f the need to sur
vive physically and mentally after de
cades o f rejection and exclusion. Sadly,
he quotes W illiam Raspberry — “The
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need is not to reach back to some cul
ture we never knew, but to lay claim to
the culture in which we exist.” I don’t
know where W illiams been, but it ain’t
as if Blacks have not gone to extremes
trying assimilate or acculturate (trying
to be like the m ajority culture.) For
example, torturing their hair with lye to
get the straight look, or ever in creasing
episodes o f jungle fever, and on and on
and on. But for some reason Blacks
ain’t melting. The truth is many W hite
people don’t w ant to be in the same pot
with Black people. T hat’s why Black
people need their own pot. Raspberry
would be more correct if he said “reach
ing forward to a culture we should have
known in order to live in culture that
generally refused to adm it we exist.”
The sad irony is that despite ugly
oppression andexploitation in America,
Blacks arc as at least if not more patri
otic and com m itted to dem ocratic
American ideals in principle and in
practice then any other segments of
American society. It is not Blacks who
need to acknowledge that we have a
“Common D estiny.” W hites should
understand that Blacks a in ’t going back
to Africa or any other place. W e’ve paid
our dues with blood and sweat like
many other Americans. We gonna be
here.
Hence, it is a bold faced lie and
unscrupulous to use the tactic o f blam
ing the victims, inciting factionalism
(pitting the success of West Indian
B lacks ag ain st N on-W est Indian)
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Blacks,) did South A frica’s De Clerk
learn it from America. And it just w on’t
work to paint Blacks as un-American
for insisting that America live up to all
it’s ideals for all its citizens. It is also
insidiously devious to try to impose a
guilt trip on Blacks for a problems in
that is largely the creation o f selfish
values — a culture unrelenting, unwill
ing to share the A merica with Ameri
cans. Much of this is manifested by the
Rcagan/Bush philosophy — Be an elit
ist and sem i-racist, but put a nice face
on it and call it American tradition.
W hat’s scary is that the Democrats are
picking up on it and incorporating into
it’s philosophical model to appease
threaten whites voters.
Portland as well as the rest of
America would do well to be about the
business o f accomplishing real inclu
sion, but not at the expense of cultural
identity and diverity. It may be o f inter
est to some readers to know that Mayor
Bud Clark some months ago initiated a
process called Portland Future Focus. It
was to be a citizen planning process
used to visualize the progress that
Portlanders wanted to see in the future
and put an action plan in place to make
it happen. Its hard say where that pro
cess is now however a major objective
in the plan was to achieve citywide
diversity. One strategy I encouraged
was to institute and publish a diversity
index. The index would quantify and
qualify em ploym ent and contracting
accom plishm ents across the board. The
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idea was to let the world know what
com panies and organizations where
making the most progress in diversify
ing their work force and contract rela
tionships. Conversely, it would point
the finger at organizations who were
slow to include minorities and women
in the work force and provide contract
ing opportunities. I ’m almost sure that
most African Americans did not know
about the plan even though the African
A m erican com m unity theo retically
stands to gain if the plan is im ple
mented. We need to take advantage o f
every opportunity to remind the m ajor
ity culture that we live in a unequal
racist society and that their own quality
of living is jeopardized by this every
present shame. More than that, we per
sistently need to work together with all
right minded people to change the in
equalities now . And program s designed
to encourage minority participation in
business and employment is a good
place to start. W hen we achieve some
reasonable parity in these areas maybe
we can agree that Blacks have entered
the mainstream.
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