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F ebruary 16,1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A2
Two Roads: One To Hope,
One To Helplessness
Some years ago, when we
the blacks were emerging front
the rubble of reconstruction.
There was set in our minds for
sure. One Road. This road lead
inexorably to our freedom. Free
dom of thought, freedom to ex
ercise our rights, our complete
autonom y, and other inalienable
rights. Hope was high in the
breast of the black father. A
smidgin of education was avail
able, vocation schools were in
a b u n d a n c e ...
W e lite r a lly
flo o d e d
the
w ork m a rk e t
with availabil
ity.
A ll w ent
well as long as
im m e d ia te
needs were met. We were looked
upon as jocular fellows who eased
the boredom of the workplace,
and provided essential drollery
to our su p erio rs. The black
woman was then content to re
main in the home, while some of
them provided minimum maid
service to the more wealthy citi
zens.
These m aidservants brought
back to their husbands and chil
dren, the current news of how
the husband’s workmate lived.
This of course created embry
onic aspirations in the husband
for a better life for his own fam
ily.
His white counterpart be
came sick at heart after discov
ering the blacks were not satis
fied with things as they were.
The black men were then ca
joled, promised, lied to, threat
ened, then buffeted into tem po
rary submission. These» blacks
started relying on “It takes time
for these things to happen”.
. «S
In the mean time after having
inflamed his passion for more,
the black wife prodded her hus
band for some kind of action. The
blacks, working from a standpoint
of no power, nor any executive
position , used anger and retalia
tory language to try and accom
plish their ends..
• Thus began the era of expul
sion and complete emasculation
of our black workforce.. Those
who had imminent potential for
upper level ad
vancement were
e ith e r d e lib e r
ately held back,
or were outright
f ir e d __ T here
w ere no r e
course, we had
no viable repre
sentation, in groups or otherwise.
The while money controlled the
NAACP, and any local or state
Reps, were either impotent or had
taken the, “Wait and see attitude”.
The idle men became insolent,
bitter, and abusive to both their
wives and children, then later to
themselves, and one another...
The few “Token” blacks that
remained in the workplace, de
cided to distance themselves from
these troublem akers. Thus a p
pearing in prefect conformance
to their superior’s idea of what
we should i.e., stay in our place”.
The one road for us at that
point divided.....
The non working black picked
up on what jobs that he scrape
together from day to day. Som e
times he did not go home after
receiving his meager earnings,
but hung out at the local Taverns
with his other drifter buddies, and
bitched about the “ Man”.
Meanwhile the wife has to
increase her workload to make
ends meet. At evening time she
drags her tired body home to
complete her wifely duties. The
husband is not there now for her
to rag after, so she takes it out on
the children. She sets up tight
spending limits, cuts back on
the eats, and eliminate all things
pertaining to leisure activities,
and demands full cooperation.
And why not? Isn’t she sacrific
ing everything for these ingrates?
Fights erupt between hus
band and wife, wife and kids,
kids and husband, husband
leaves hom e, som etim es for
good.....
Down the other road goes
the “Token”, He is given m erito
rious awards, (trinkets) for his
loyalty, fine work and superior
sucking up ability. He is also
given enough overtime at work,
and coupled along w ith his
wife’s wages, he can now move
out of the Ghetto.. So he moves
a couple of blocks north, and
this gives him the unreachable
status of upper-poverty, and
many invitations to “fishing par
ties”. (Brainpicking) these are
held on patios and in dens by his
white counterparts. The real par
ties are later held to assess what
has been learned by all at the
fishing party..
The divergence of the two
roads now widens because the
token negro is not only secretly
en v ied by his le ft b eh in d
nonworking black brother, but
the token comes under suspicion
as an uncle tom.
The token black and the idle
black stop talking to one an
other, the feeling and meager
ideology is passed down to their
progeny, thus setting up two
hostile camps.
More to come.
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p ersp ect i v e s
lack Contributors
To Medicine
T his is a continuation of
the list of citatio n s I began
last week. T hese distinguished
re s e a rc h e rs and p h y sic ia n s
fo llo w
on in a g r e a t
m illcniunm s-old A frican tra
dition. See my article on an
o th e r
p la c e
here; “ M ore on
the Ancient A f
r ic a n P r a c t i
tio n e r s
Of
M edicine.”
P e r c y
L av o n J u lia n
( 1 8 9 9 -1 9 7 5 ) .
D eveloped the
drug p h y so stig m in e fo r the
treatm ent o f g la u c e rm a s -rc -
duces eye pressure, thereby
preventing, blindness. A su
perb research ch em ist Julian
becam e D irector of R esearch
for the fam ed G lidden C om
pany, forem ost m anufacturers
o f P aint and varnish in A frica
(1936). H is talents carried the
firm into new and profitable
fields based upon proteins ex
tracted from “ soy b e a n ” oils
(rem em ber Dr. C arver?)
These included not only
s u b s ta n c e s w ith m e d ic in a l
properties, but chem icals used
in the coating and sizin g of
paper, in cold w ater paints and
in tex tile sizing. A lso Julian
used soy beans to develop a
new p ro d u c t, “ A e ro -F o a m ”
that could be used to put out
gasoline and oil, fires, cutting
o ff the oxygen supply from
tex air. Y o u ’ve seen new scasts
w here the foam has been used
to ex tin g u ish the flam es at
sp ectacu lar airp lan e crashes.
This sam e m aster chem ist
innovated a process to e c o
nom ically extract the valuable
‘s te r o l’ from soy b ean oil,
m aking it possible to m anu-
facture large q u a n titie s o f s y n
th etic m ale and fem ale h o r
m ones, testo stero n e and pro
g e s te ro n e , As you p ro b ab ly
know , the latter d rug has saved
the live so co u n tless unborn
babies by p ro tectin g expectant
m o th e rs
a g a in s t m is
carriag es.
In
1950
J u li a n
w as
honored for his
in n o v atio n of
a n o th e r
re
m arkable syn-
th e s is --s y n -
t h e t ic “ c o r t i s o n e ” , w h ic h
brought this pow erful p a in -k ill
ing drug w ith in reach o f m il
lions o f a rth ritis suffers. The
foregoing is m ust a p artial re c i
tatio n o f his m any b rillia n t ac
com plishm ents that have h e a l
ing to m ankind. H ow ever, since
he was an A frican A m erican,
he was not spared th e racist
slings and arrow s of an o u tra
geous fate. T he very year of his
co rtiso n e aw ard, arsonists a t
tem pted to bum dow n his new
hom e in the O aks Park suburb
of C hicago.
T h e p re s tig io u s C h ic a g o
S un-T im es new spaper clucked
its tongue and deplored the in
cident, but less than a year later,
on June 12, 1951, a dynam ite
bom b was exploded under the
bedroom w indow w olf the tw o
Ju lian ch ild ren . A gain, the e s
tab lish m en t clucked its tongue
and w rung its hands. B ut ju st
tw o m onths later w hen Julian
was invited to attend a national
m eeting o f scientist as the Union
L eague C lub he w as n o tified an
hour before the m eeting that no
b lack could be allow ed to a t
tend a m eeting there.
In 1 9 5 4 J u lia n le f t th e
G lidden C om pany and found
his ow n Ju lian L aboratories,
Inc. in C hicago and the L abo
ratories Julian de M exico in
M exico City. T he latte r lo c a
tion was developed after it was
d is c o v e r e d t h a t th e w ild
“ y am s” o f M exico w ere even
b e tte r th an soy b ean s as a
source o f his products. Ju lian
L a b o r a to r ie s b e c a m e th e
w o rld ’s larg est producers o f
drugs from this source and in
1961 Julian sold his o peration
to Sm ith, K line and French
P harm aceutical for m any m il
lions.
Dr. Julian used his m oney
to aid causes that so ught to
address the problem s o f A fri
can A m ericans; “ A ll N egroes
identify w ith the civ il rights
m ovem ent because none, no
m atter w hat his incom e level,
can escape racial d isc rim in a
tio n .”
He gave generously to Dr
M artin L uther K ing and the
S outhern C hristian L eadership
C onference and to the N A A C P
Legal D efense Fund. His son,
Percy Lavon Julian Jr., a M adi
son, W isconsin law yer helped
to organize the student N on
vio len t C oordinating C om m it
tee (SN C C ).
W hen we plan for the fu
ture o f our children in this tec h
nolo g ical w orld we m ust re
m em ber Dr. Julians last w ords,
“T he A m erican ghetto and the
A m erican brand o f apartheid
m ade the N egro w ith scientific
talen t and yearnings probably
the m ost poignantly tragic in
tellectual schizophrenic o f the
first h alf of th is c e n tu ry .” W e
ask about this last half. W e
have seen w hat produced this
violent world.
We Have No Opinion
by
B ill S cott
For weeks, we have been bom
barded with the Tonya Harding
saga almost non-stop on every
major TV channel. We have heard
all of the debated over her pos
sible involvement in the assault
on Nancy Kerrigan. The media
was even asking people on the
street for their opinions on the
issues. What I found interesting
was that on this issue African
African faces were conspicuously
absent. Evidently we had no opin
ion. Are we not expected to have
an opinion about things not des
ignated “Black” issues? I became
uneasy with the fact that the me
dia was conditioning us, shaping
pubic opinion and preparing us to
accept Tonya as an Olympian in
spite of what our common sense
tells, us.
Think about it. TV cameras
went from the Clackamas ice rink,
to Gresham sports bars to the
crowds outside of the courthouse
for public reaction to every little
tid-bit of information. Men and
wom en spoke volum es about
Tonya’s rights, and about being
innocent until proven guilty. 1
prayed for them to come to Cleos.
Finally I went to Safeway and the
Lloyd Center myself to conduct my
own sampling of African American
opinion. I asked these two questions:
1. Do you think Tonya should
skate in the Olympics?
2. Do you think that she knew of
the plan to hurt Nancy Kerrigan be
fore it happened?
Out of 25 responses, 10 said yes
she should skate, 15 said no, she
should not. However all but 4 be
lieved that she knew of the planned
attack before it happened.
1 know that Blacks ao not
usually figure prominently in win
ter sports competition, though we
all remember the brilliant, ath
letic skating of Debbie Thomas.
Two weeks ago while visiting the
Lloyd Center, I saw a young Afri
can American girl about 11 years
old doing what looked like seri
ous practice on the icc. It made
me think.
What will little girls like yours
and mine and the one practicing at the
Lloyd Center think about all this?
That winning at any cost is what
counts? That winning by any means
necessary is condoned if you have
good lawyers and a large number of
people with a vested interest in your
success?
1 realize that there arc large is
sues at stake here. We must not forget
tli at the Olympic Games arc a compe
tition between nations. But this is our
nation too. these athletes, represent
all Americans and that includes us.
So if your opinion is that fair
play, sportsm anship and good
character are secondary consid
erations, and that Tonya should
represent us to the world; If you
think she is the kind of person
your little ice skater should em u
late, then let the media know that
it is ok to bring the cameras into
our neighborhoods on an issue,
not just on “ Black” issues or when
some or our young people have
done something violent.
African Americans loom large
in athletic competition in America.
Why then have wc no opinion about
something that could forever taint the
accomplishments of all American ath
letes in future Olympics.