P age A2
F ebruary 23, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
Blazer Arena Project:
Are Blacks Really Scoring?
p e r s p e c tiv e s
More Black Contributors
To Medicine, II
B efore we continue on with
our recitatio n o f illustrious black
c o n trib u to rs in the health field,
le t’s do one o f those “you-heard-
it-h e re -firs t” things. For Black
H istory M onth six years ago, I
in clu d ed in one p re sen tatio n , 1/
10/88, a p icture o f Dr. H allie
T an n er Johnson “ F irst W om an
p h y sician ce rtified in the stale o f
A lab am a.”
This black 19th-century pioneer
was until very recent years one of the
best kept secrets
in A m erica. A
reader of the Port
land O b serv er
N ew sp ap er in
forms us that just
this year she has
now seen c ita
tions all over the
place, including Jet, Essence, etc.
Again, actor Bill Cosby is proved
right about black history, “Lost,
strayed or stolen.”
This week, let us honor Dr.
Lloyd A. Hall (1894-1971), the sci
entist who coined the slogan “ More
nutritious and appetizing food for
better health and longer lifathrough
food technology.” This great chem
ist understood better than anyone
this century that there was an urgent
need for better standards and quality
controls for food preservation if the
nation’s food supply was to be kept
safe. E-Coli was very rampant be
fore Hall’s innovations. Though ob
taining a B.S. degree from North
west University and doing graduate
work in chemistry at the University of
Chicago, he neverthclcssencountered
intense discrimination in seeking a
position. Finally 1916, Hall was hired
as a chemist by eh Chicago Depart
ment of Health Laboratories where he
rose to senior chemist in one year
(nothing has changed much through
the years has its civil service gets
bright minorities for half the going
rates paid by industry).
Eventually, industry recognized
the talent so the young chemist and
the huge Iowa
m eat pack in g
com pany, John
M o rre ll, Inc.
hired him away
from the city of
Chicago. There
was a series of in
creasingly impor
tant positions in food technology un
til, in 1925, he went to work for the
famed Griffith Laboratories. Hall was
appointed chief chemist and director
of research, remaining with the Chi
cago firm until his retirement in 1959.
What most people do not realize
is that the preservation of meats was
still a fairly haphazard affair before
Hall went to work on the problem.
Salts for curing and preserving foods
were not very satisfactory, though in
use since ancient times. Although
nitrates were added to give meats
their red color, the mixture did not
allow the preserving salts to penetrate
properly. Hall solved the problem with
his invention of a combining process,
“Flash drying.”
by
We are further indebted to the
eclectic contributions of Mr. Hall for
many other inventions that advanced
the quality controls of food handling
and, therefore, raised the health stan
dards of the world. His research dis
covered that, contrary to popular im
pression, most spices marketed to
allegedly preserve foods, instead,car
ried millions of germs in the form of
bacteria, molds and yeasts/ Natural
spices such as cloves, cinnamon, gin
ger, paprika, all spice, sage, even
onion powder an garlic pow der-all
were guilty of contaminating food
(even by meat packers).
In an o th er burst o f genius,
H all solved this problem for the
nation (and the world) by d e v e l
oping a process that sterilized
fo o d s by p la c in g them in a
vacuum cham ber filled w ith e th
ylene oxide gas. Now, the very
sam e process is applied to drugs,
m edicine, m edical supplies, c o s
m etics, d e n trific e s, b an d ag es,
surgical dressings and so on .
F urther, we m ay thank him for
developing a w ide range o f p re
serv ativ e s c a lle d an tio x id a n ts
that prevent fats and oils from
soiling and becom ing rancid.
So it is we may also credit him
with the concept of the ‘solid’ cook
ing oils like “Crisco”. Hall stands
with Frederick M cK inley Jones,
black inventor o f the re frig e r
ated truck and box care, as the
greatest o f co n trib u to rs to the
sciences o f health and food p re s
ervation. Bon appetit!
THIS WAY FOR
BLACK EMPOWERMENT
J ames L. P osey
The Blazer Arena Project public
relations team has been working over
time promoting what some say is the
unprecedented, successful participa
tion of disadvantage businesses on
the arena project. Eight months into
construction, many news articles
abound featuring Blacks working on
the job, while exalting the high num
ber of contracts awarded to minority
and women businesses. And, most
Portlanders have seen the impressive
TV commercial showing Trail Blazer
players in hard hats, running heavy
equipment at the construction site.
Consequently, it’s logical to assume
that the commercial, in part, is meant
to symbolize Black participation on
the project.
Such notables as Congressman
Ron Wyden and Mayor Vera Katz
have visited the job site and publicly
praised the efforts of the Drake/Ttimer
joint venture and its contribution to
the economic viability of the North
east community. Blazer officialsclaim
to have talked to Northeast commu
nity leaders about how well the project
is performing. Drake/Turncr has even
gone so far as to describe the project
as a successful model for the rest of
country in achieving minority busi
ness participation.
But what’s really going on? On
January 14, the National Association
of Minority Contractors of Oregon
(NAMCO) requested specific infor
mation from Drake/Tumer to deter
mine who is benefiting from the work
on the project. NAMCO wanted to
assess in real dollars just how much
money is actually flowing into the
Black community. W hile Drake/
Turner’s response can only be char
acterized as reluctant to provide this
detailed information, enough has been
obtained to raise several red flags.
The first flag went up with the
hiring of a person to administer the
DBE program who, from all appear
ances, is a novice in arena construc
tion and DBE programs. The second
one is raised when Drake/Tumer pre
sented information that tends to lump
all the groups together without an
exact accounting of their involve
ment on the project. Although this
information has been requested on
several occasions, as of this writing,
management has yet to provide the
specific break out of which minori
ties, specifically African-Americans,
have benefitted and at what dollar
amount.
Other flags are raised when offi
cials question the propriety of giving
information based on private dollar
vs. public dollars. Likewise, the flags
start waving when program statistics
don’t reflect the actual quantity of
work performed by minority subcon
tractors compared to the project’s
entire workforce. For example, based
on current data, of a total of 25 Afri
can-American workers currently em
ployed, two relatively-small compa
nies have hired over two-thirds of the
total Black workforce.
No one should mistake this ar
ticle for an indictment of the Oregon
Arena project because it is apparent
they have tried to approach minority
contracting and employment in a dif
ferent way. The real question is have
B lack residents of Northeast Portland
scored on this project? None of us
should celebrate until the numbers
have been evaluated. NAMCO will
continue to monitor the situation and
update the community as soon as the
Oregon Arena Project provides more
detailed information. Stay tuned.
James Posey is a small business,
owner with a background in social
work and community activism.
Oregon Sojourners
J/m Beckworth
The O regon T erritory becam e
the state o f O regon in 1859, but
p rio r to this ev o lu tio n , this v ast
territory had been visited by a
num ber o f different nations w hose
crew s w ere o f m ixed hues and
races. As noted, the first recorded
presen ce o f a black man in the
O re g o n te rr ito r y w as th a t o f
M arcus L opez who m et an u n
tim ely death. A lso noted before
was Ben Y ork of the famous Lew is
and C lark E x p ed itio n th at tra v
elled through the O regon T e rri
tory on th eir way to the coast.
In addition to th ese so jo u rn
ers, we have E dw ard R ose who
lived with the Crow Native A m eri
can Tribe. His life am ong the Crow
gave Rose enough know ledge o f
the W est to becom e an ex cellen t
guide and in terp re ter for m any
ex p ed itio n s. In 1811, R ose was
hired by M r. H unt to guide an
ex p e d itio n to O reg o n . D ue to
problem s w ith his tem peram ent,
he w a sn ’t able to co m plete the
trip.
A nother m ountain man who
helped shape Oregon was James
Beckworth. his explorations in Ne
vada and California scouted out ma
jor passage routes for new settlers
moving into the West and Northwest.
Building Bridges
Between Blacks And Jews
Last week Minister Louis Farra-
khan of the Nation of Islam showed
all of America why he is the major
African American leader in the United
Stales.
Long one of our most important
and respected religious and moral
leaders, at this Washington, D.C.
press conference on February 3 min
ister Farrakhan made clear that he is
a man of integrity and compassion
who has the courage to stand up to nay
and all who would harm the Black
com m unity-whether they be white,
Jewish or Black.
At the press conference the pub
licly disciplined M inister Khalid
Muhammad for his speech at Kean
College in New Jersey on November
29. Khalid’s remarks were not, as
Minister Farrakhan pointed out, con
sistent with “the teaching and guid
ance of the Honorable Elijah Muham
mad.”
At the same time, though, Minis
ter Farrakhan insisted that Minister
Khalid was not the issue. The real
issue, Farrakhan pointed out, was the
attem pt by the A nti-D efam ation
League of the B ’nai B’rith (ADL),
which had paid for a full-page ad in
the New York Times containing ex
cerpts of Khalid Muhammad’s re
marks, to further divide the African
American and Jewish communities
and, in the process to extend its influ
ence over the Black political estab
lishment and within the white politi
cal establishment.
As Minister Farrakhan pointed
out: “Their aim was and is to destroy
the reputation and character of Louis
F arrak h an in the ey e rs o f the
world...and to destroy the unity of the
Nation of Islam with any of the estab
lished Black leasers.” At the press
conference Minster Farrakhan dis
tributed an internal ADL document,
“ Mainstreaming anti-Semitism: The
Legitimation of Louis Farrakhan,”
which discusses Minister Farrakhan’s
success in building alliances, with
Black elected officials-particularly
the Congrcssiona 1B lack C aucus-and
weighed various approaches the ADL
might take in responding to this de
velopment.
The ADL memo concedes that
“now that Farrakhan has obtained a
measure of legitimacy from the main
stream Black community...the pic
ture has become more complicated.”
The League wonders whether it can
continue to pursue a “hard line”
against Minster Farrakhan and still
maintain its influence “with the CBC,
the NA ACP, and other respected lead
ers int eh black community who are
no longer willing to ostracize the
Nation o f Islam.” The document re
veals that the ADI is quite willing to
sacrifice is supposed principles in the
name of political expediency.
The real agenda of the ADL,
which claims to be the standard bearer
of the fifth against antiSemitism, is
becoming more and more obvious,
even to many in the Jewish commu
nity. The ADL is all about cynical
political maneuvering-improving its
bargaining power within America’s
(non-Jewish) ruling circles-and has
little or nothing to do with protecting
the Jewish community from anti-
Semitism. If the ADL was serious
about building bridges with the Black
community it would have responded
positively to Minister Farrakhan’s nu
merous attempts to reach out to the
Jewish community over the last few
years. Instead, it has looked for ex
cuses to widen further the gap be
tween the two communities. In con
trast, Minister Farrakhan is seriously
working to build bridges. When he
was un New York City last month for
arally of 10.000 Black men interested
in fighting crime and drug abuse in
their communities, he met with me
and Dr. Fred Newman, a Jewish leader
who has worked with me in the New
Alliance Party to build unity between
Blacks and jews at the grassroots
level. M inister F arrakhan , Dr.
Newman and I discussed ways of
bypassing the official Jewish leader
ship to bring ordinary African Ameri
cans and ordinary Jews together to
dialogue ont eh issues that keep us
a p a rt.M in is te r F a rra k h a n , Dr.
Newman and I, along with
many, many, ordinary people
in both communities realize
that it’s time to get Black-
Jewish relations out of the
hands of the professional
politicians whose only con
cern is getting elected, and
organizations like the ADL,
which seek only to increase
their fundraising potential
and their big power connec
tions and influence (all of
which are, of course, related).
We need a people -to-
p e o p le c o n n e c tio n b e
tw een Blacks and Jews;
ordinary folks w ho are
ready to say: “To hell with
all o u r p o litic ia n s and
political w heeler-dealers
whoa re using the tensions
betw een our peoples are a
political fo o tb all.”
H ow
can
A be
Foxm an, natio n al d ire c
to r o f the A D L , b u ild
Black Jewish unity?He has
absolutely no credibility
in the Black com m unity
and less and less in the
Jew ish com m unity. How
can Rev. Jesse Jackson
build Black-Jew ish unity?
He has been w illing to
c a p itu la te to p re s s u r e
fro m th e p r o - Z io n i s t
w hite political e sta b lish
m ent at every turn.T he
fact is there is an issue
that B lacks and Jew s can
unite a r o u n d - i t ’s getting
rid o f Abe Foxm an and
Jesse Jackson (and a few
others to boot). We could
unite around getting rid
of all those Black and Jew
ish leaders who are p lay
ing gam es over the dead
bodies of B lacks and Jews
w hile the pow ers-that-be
(w ho are n eith er Black
nor Jew ish) sit back and
laugh at the sight o f us
destroying each other.
Y o u ' re his
role model,
mentor,
friend
master
AND
chef.
D epend
on
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O 1994 U S WEST Inc