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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1992)
•» *rww**w» » » i »4 * « ■» < ♦ 4 • « Page 2...The Portland Observer...August 19, 1992 p e r s p e c tiv e s > > How Black People Work Hard To Fit Into American Society by Professor McKinley Burt ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ N o S p a r e P a r t s IV: D o e s M in o r it y B u s in e s s B e g in I n A s i a ? Most intelligent people in the world understand that a critical area of busi ness development is identifying the most profitable market for your products and skills. None have learned this lesson any better than the enterprising South east Asians (Korea and Taiwan) and the Japanese. The key target for their export o f capital, technology and bodies (im m i gration) has been the United States. There has been nothing under handed or sinister about this, ju st good common sense, or what you would expect from people who can read and write. It was also expected that those im m igrants at the lower end o f the economic scale — not having autom obiles or televions to sell - would seek to get ahead by exploiting opportunities available to those o f the working class w hose LIFE STYLES permitted the accum ulation o f capital for business. And w hat better and more lucra tive opportunity than the 500 Billion D ollar Black consum er Market? A fter all, this is the gold mine exploited by the European immigrants who came before the Asians and who took the money and ran How surprised and ecstatic the new arrivals must have been to realize that many scores o f years later, here was a population o f 22 million blacks, apparently still inca pable of supplying their basic needs. And that this situation persisted though this huge minority population contained hundreds of thousands o f college gradu ates and several million quite literate skilled and semiskilled workers and clerical types - who in 30 major cities own a total of only Three S uper Markets worthy o f the name. It seems necessary that we under stand this state o f affairs before discuss ing those “business developm ent o p portunities available” prom ised last week. Though quite true, there is a little more to the problem than the criticism s put forth by, say, “Tony Brow n’s Jour nal” and sim ilar critiques. W e do in deed spend billions upon “conventions, liquor and chicken wings that neither p ro d u c e b u s in e s s e n te r p r is e (o r C hicken)’” And it is equally true that many times (in the north) blacks will not trade with enterprises owned by African Americans even when services and prices are on a par with others; prestige habit, past experience, self- deprecation? W hat wc need to understand is that beginning in the early 1940’s certain African American publishers, adver tisin g e x e c u tiv e s and e co n o m ists launched a massive campaign to per suade the white m anufacturcrsof goods and services that blacks were huge consumers o f their products and that therefore these corporations should advertise heavily in black newspapers, magazines and television. You can see that it worked, from autos, electronics, appliances and clothing to food, alco hol and tobacco. W hat the Asians are seeing is the Ultimate Consumer; the U.S. “ Black M arket” is the m ost stud ied, researched and exploited in the world. An analysis of this situation quickly reveals that at the same time we have a circumstance designed for maximum exploitation by others, there is a m ag nificent opportunity for thinking and energetic African Americans to avail themselves o f the very same research and distribution techniques. Accentu ating the positives and discarding the negative, they can indeed build an “ap propriate technology and econom y” just like that o f the people o f Ghana, Africa I described the past two weeks in my articles,” No Spare Parts” . But we need leaders and activists who are in dustry experienced or oriented. Today, blacks can use the exact same techniques to build their own wealth and economy as used by A m eri can industry to profit trillions from a “captive market” - an effort which was designed and expedited by our “ tal ented tenth” blacks as Dr. W .E.B. Dubois called them. There is no reason why we, too, cannot organize and train the brightest o f our graduates to de velop the vast innercily consum er base and harness it to our own enterprises. For the last 40 years, A m erica’s Liquor, tobacco, soft drink and fast foods industry has done exactly that, using our own advertising people and psychologists to develop the indepth statistics and consum er profiles neces sary to saturate the captive market. The data is there in the texts and studies for us to use also (if we have the sense). W e, too, can put thousands o f our young people on the streets of our ghettos to sell produc is and serv ices we develop - and wc, too, can develop good well-designed public relation li aisons between our enterprises and our people. The S.B.A. a in ’t about to do these absolutely essential tasks. many of us will never understand why the “ Black M arket” hustlers who “sold” their brothers and sisters to in dustry (including foreigners) could not sec that with their new-found expertise and wealth they could easily have built the kind o f black p ro sperity and economy that earlier comm itted blacks could only have dreamed o f (Booker T. W ashington, Marcus Garvey, Madame C.E. W alker, and others). Strange that now in four states, the Indians have developed a quarter-billion dollars through enterprise. In my “Black Economic Experi ence” classes at Portland S tale Univer sity” ( and in my book, “Black Inven tors o f A m erica”), 1 focused on this problem . I gave out photo copies of ads appearing in relevant industry m aga zines like” Advertising Agc” and “Print ers Ink”. Placed by the black advertis ing agencies and publications like “Ebony/Jet” ’ they had one clear m es sage, “ Place your millions in advertis ing dollars with us - We Develop And Control Black Buying Habits ’. In particular, 1 rem em berone huge ad they placed in Advertising Age, featuring a picture o f the comedian “Redd Fox”. The caption had him say ing something like, “ w e’ve g o t’em baby, w e’ve got the statistics and the researchers: automobiles, liquor, to bacco, beer, food products, w hatever you need”. Wc can still beat these greedy “plantation agcnts” at theirow n game if we c a n ’t persuade them to come over toour side. Sec my com pan ion article in this issue. “Real Minority Business: Now or N ever” Portland Community College Continues To Register Students According to officials at Portland Community College, there are still open ings in many classes at the college ’ s four campuses. PCC will continue to register students through Sept. 21, when fall term classes begin. Open registration for new and re turning students began Monday, Aug. 3. PCC President Dan Moriarty said, “Despite the crow ds the first day o f registration and the fact that some classes in popular time slots are closed, there are still many classes available to stu dents.” Fall term enrollm ent figures were unavailable. “ It’s too early,” said A ssis tant Registrar Jeanine Lofton-Hendrix. “All indications show we will have an increase in our fall ’92 enrollm ent over last fall,” she said. WI jb ^ n rila n ò (©bseriier Lofton-Hendrix did a data search on Thursday, Aug. 6 and according to registration reports, classes were still available in transfer courses such as W riting 121 and 122, Chemistry 104, History and most others. “ However, students may not be able to take a class at exactly the lime they want or the location they w ant,” explained Lofton-Hendrix. r Publisher McKinley Burt Dan Bell Mattie Ann Callier-Spears Bill Council John Phillips Alfred Henderson Operations Manager Joyce Washington Accounting Manager Gary Ann Garnett I I I purttani» CObserüer I I I I T he P ortland O bserver I CAN BE SENT DIRECTLY TO I I YOUR HOME ONLY $25.00 I PER YEAR. I P lease fill out , enclose I I CHECK OR MONEY ORDER, I and M ail to : I I I S ubscriptions I T he P ortland O bserver I I PO Box 3 1 3 7 P ortland , O regon 9 7 2 0 8 I I I I Name I I I I I Address I I city, State I I zip-code , I T hank Y ou F or R eading I I T he P ortland O bserver I S ubscribe (USPS 959-680) OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established in 1970 Contributing Writers Tl Production Staff Dean Babb Gary Ann G arnett Rea W ashington Public Relations Chuck Washington Sales & Promotions Tony Washington The PORTLAND OBSERVER is published weekly by Exie Publishing Company, Inc. 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 288-0015 Deadline for all submitted materials: Articles: Monday, 5:00 pm -Ads ■ Tuesday, noon POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Second class postage paid at Portland Oregon. The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and can not be used in other publications or personal usage, without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 1991 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. Svbscrtptions:$25.00 per year. The Portland Observer-Oregon’s Oldest African-American Publication-is a member of the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., New York, NY. k Jeffrey Sims, Artist Jeffrey Sims has this picture displayed on a billboard at S. W. 13th and Salmon downtown Portland, through the end of August. Jeffrey, "says the picture portrays how black people work so hard to fit into American Society, to obtain the American Dream, yet government legislation, KKK fights to keep black people from achieving their goals. Jeffrey will be attending Cornish College of The Arts in Seattle, Washington to obtain a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the end of August. His furture goals are Black Comic Book Illustrations. N o n -P a y m e n t O f R e n t Times are hard. Jobs are lost. And sometimes bills don’t get paid. But if you’re having trouble paying rent, the landlord c a n ’t simply toss you out into the street. He must follow certain legal steps that give you more time to pay, and even the chance to fight an cv iction. If your rent is eight days overdue, your landlord must give you a written 72-hour (three days) notice to pay up. If you pay your rent within that time, you cannot be evicted. If you d o n ’t, the landlord can have you removed through the courts. In most cases, you have only 72 hours to pay the rent after receiving a written eviction notice. T heclock starts ticking immediately after you are per sonally handed the notice. The 72-hour deadline also applies if your landlord both posts the notice to your door and mails you a copy. But he can only use this double-pronged attack if your w rit ten rental agreem ent says he can. If, however, he only mails the no tice and doesn’t post it, he must give you an additional three days, for a total o f six, before suing toevict you. Posting alone is not effective service. If the eviction deadline passes, and you still haven’t paid the rent or moved, the landlord must go to court to legally kick you out. To do this, he must file a lawsuit, called a Forcible Entry and Detainer (FED). The deputy sheriff or other person serving the court papers (FED Summons and FED Complaint) will hand them to you, or will tape them to your d o o randdropa copy in the mail. You normally will have to appear in court within a week. As soon as you get the papers, especially if you think you’re being ev ic te d u n fa irly , call M ultnom ah County Legal Aid at 224-4086 and tell the person answering the phone you have court papers. Legal Aid can offer advice about a possible defense to the eviction, such as part paym ent, im proper notice, discrim ination, retalia tion, illegal entry or lack of repairs to the rental. Beware, however, that Legal Aid does not advise withholding rent to get repairs completed. You can also call the Tel-Law tape library at 620-3000 and ask to listen to tape 7016 (Rights and Duties of T en ants) and 7017 (Rights and Duties of Landlords). Multnomah County Legal Aid Ser vices provides legal advice and repre sentation to low-income people living in Multnomah County with landlord- tenant problems. Appointments may be made by cal ling our down town office at 224-4086 or our N orth/Northeasl Com - munily Law Office (on the Portland Community College Cascade Campus) at 295-9494. CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. War On Drugs: Made In America R epeatedly m any have asked, “W hat happened to the war on drugs in the United States?” W ell, the so-called “war on drugs” has amounted to noth ing more than a political fabrication, that is, it was “made in A merica” as a rhetorical device in political campaigns, especially during presidential cam paigns during the last 20 years. The huge magnitude of the pres ence of dangerous and addictive drugs in nearly every community in the na tion is an indication of how pervasive the drug problem has become. There is in fact a national “drug crisis.” Crack, cocaine, heroin and other drugs arc more prevalent in 1992 than in 1972. The negative health impact attributed nationally to the drug epidemic alone has cost this society billions of dollars. But beyond the devastation on the national economy is the devastation on m illionsof human lives. Entire families have been wiped out due to drug addic tion. Importing, distribution, and sell ing drugs is big business in the United States. This multi billion dollar illegal enterprise is thriving today with im pu nity. The reality is, there has been no real war on drugs in this country. “W ar on D rugs” has become only a sorrowful slogan that is given voice to satisfy political expediency. President Bush’s record of use of this fabricated term bears need o f review. The New York Times did an analy sis of the President’s record on “fight ing” the so-called drug war. Reporter Joseph Trcaster observed, “ Mr. Bush has often spoken o f the value of educa tion, treatm entand prevention programs to staunch the desire for drugs. But disregarding the near-unanimous advice o f independent experts as well as some White House aides who say these are the most effective weapons, Mr. Bush has consistently subordinated health and education to law enforcement. These tactics have sometimes been proven to be q u ic k , v isib le and p o litic a lly useful.....but the benefits have usually been ephemeral at best.” Remember President Bush ordered the invasion o f Panama in 1989 as part o f the war on drugs. It was only later to be revealed that General Manuel Noriega was actually working for the CIA while Mr. Bush was head o f the CIA in the 1970’s Many innocent persons died dur ing that invasion and the flow of drugs to the United Suites has only increased since the arrest of Noriega. No one has ever answered the question o f why the CIA has been involved in the importa tion o f drugs into the United Stales? Now we are learning what many assumed to be true, and that is the active involvement of police officers in many of the large cities support drug traffick ing under the color of the law. Sadly all of this leads to an indirect sanctioning of the destruction of millions o f lives through drug abuse. The official policy of stressing “law enforcem ent” over treatment, education, and prevenlion of drug abuse is a policy that has m iser ably failed. Current public opinion polls, how ever, do not show that the nation’s drug crisis is a high priority during this presi dential campaign. Wc believe that the issue of the eradication of drug abuse should be a top priority issue in this election year. Yet, wc know that this issue should be viewed not solely as a political campaign issue but also as a lundamental moral issue facing the na tion. The profitability o f illicit drug use must be challenged by removing the economic vulnerabilities of millions of persons who are literally shut out of the national economy. Our society cannot afford to be tricked by false rhetoric concerning a war on drugs that never existed. A lter natively wc call upon every person in every community to take greater re sponsibility in playing a direct role in combating drug abuse. It is a national and international problem, but until wc m obilize around this issue at the grassroots and community level, it will be increasingly difficult to stem this huge tide. The struggle against drug abuse has to engender our support in the same manner as our struggle against racism because these two evils are inextricably linked, both in history and in our present realities. Portland Observer encourages our readers to write letters to the editor in response to any articles we publish. —- j I • p 1 ■» * • - — --- /
