K • l' S
P age
J uly
A2
NATIONAL’
Men And
Women
Working
Together
C O A L IT IO N
O ne of the main providers of
dom estic violence treatm ent for men
in the Country is located here in Port
land - the M en’s Resource Center.
We presently offer 19 men ’ s domestic
violence groups at our Portland and
Oregon City offices, treating over 200
men at any given time for violence
p ro b le m s. In a d d itio n , th ro u g h
W om en’s Agenda Counseling C en
ter w eoffer4 women’srecovery groups
for women who have been the victims
o f domestic violence as well as 2
w om en’s anger m anagement groups.
Finally, we offer a group for couples
in w hich the man has successfully
com pleted the dom estic violence
group. As should be evident, we have
extensive knowledge and experience
in addressing issues o f dom estic vio
lence and anger management. Sev
eral therapists here, including licensed
psychologists, licensed clinical social
workers, and other masters level thera
pists are available for interview s or as
sources o f information on these is
sues. W e can also arrange to have
men interviewed who have com m it
ted domestic violence and have suc
cessfully com pleted our program or
who are currently in a group.
W e also offer general m en ’s
therapy groups, groups for men who
w ere sexually abused as children, and
a group for non-violent men who
have been the victims o f domestic
violence. In addition, we offer indi
vidual therapy for variety o f issues
including depression, anxiety, adult
survivors o f sexual abuse, alcohol and
drug abuse, m ajor mental illness such
as schizophrenia and m anic-depres
sion, and eating disorders. W e con
sider ourselves as a staff to be feminist
in orientation and gay sensitive.
We offer counseling at a variety
of times includingeveningsand w eek
ends, however we answ er the phone
b etw een 9 :0 0 and 3 :0 0 M onday
through Friday. W e check messages
frequently and those left by the media
will be returned promptly.
Feel free to contact us if we can be
of any assistance in providing infor
mation concerning domestic violence
issues or any other m ental health
issues.
Send your letters to the Editor
to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland,
OK 97208
The Suprêmes Are At It Again
igh Court puts lim its
on the Voting Rights
Act Stop In The Name
of Love’
&
T h e r e ’s an o ld p ro v e rb th a t
sa y s, “ A jo u rn e y o f a 1,000 m iles
b e g in s w ith a s in g le s te p .” A n
c ie n ts so m e tim e s k ille d , p u n
ish e d o r d ro v e m ad a n o th e r h u
m an b e in g by a llo w in g a sin g le
d ro p o f w a te r to d rip c o n tin u
o u sly on th e ir a d v e rs a rie s h e a d .
N e ith e r the “ ste p ” nor the “d ro p ”
w ere c a ta c ly sm ic in and o f th e m
s e l v e s , b u t o v e r tim e b o th
a c h ie v e d th e ir p u rp o se .
That is what we are facing with
the various decisions com ing forth
from the Suprem e C ourt around the
Voting Rights A ct - small but con
sistent interpretations that are c h ip
ping away at the effectiveness, and
to som e extent even the validity, o f
the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Exactly one year to the day after
the Shaw v. Reno decision under
m ined a North C arolina redistrict
ing plan designed to give African
A m erican voters their First congres
sional representatives since R econ
struction - the C ourt struck again.
In two separate opinions, a Florida
case, Johnson v. De G randy, and a
G eorgia case, H older v. Hall, the
C ourt sought to lim it a broad inter
pretation o f Section 2 o f the Voting
Rights Act. Section 2 outlaw s “ all
form s” o f voter discrim ination. C on
gress intended a broad interpretation
so as to be able to address the various
and subtle forms o f voter denial, but
the Court appears increasingly to want
the narrow est and m ost limiting o f
interpretations. As the New York
Tim es Editorial said, "... the C ourt
was driven by a core of justices who
evince no respect for C ongress.” The
lead singers in the voting right cabal
are Suprem es Clarence Thom as and
A ntonin Scalia.
The Florida case was brought by
Republicans and conservative Latino
politicians against the Legislature’s
D emocratic leadership. The issue was
w hether a District C ourt’s order to
redraw state legislative districts so as
to increase from 9 to 11 the numbers
o f Hispanic districts in Dade County
was constitutional. The Court said it
was not. The Florida map stands.
W hile on the surface nothing appears
to change with this decision, by rul
ing that legislatures are not required
to increase m inority representation,
the issue is w hether the C ourt has sent
a political signal for lax enforcem ent
o f the Voting Rights Act; or even that
the C ourt is backing away from the
act’s dictates.
In the G eorgia case the issue was
w hether a 1912 created O ne M em ber
c o u n ty c o m m issio n in B leck ley
County,currently a22% Black county,
was racially discrim inatory. Only 11
counties in the U .S., all in G eorgia,
have such an unusual system. By a
5-to-4 decision the C ourt ruled that
the size o f a governing body cannot
be challenged under the Voting
Rights Act as diluting the influence
of minority voters because no stan
dard exists for determ ining what
would be a fair num ber o f com m is
sioners. Again, the New York Times
said in its editorial, “T his is historic
myopia... The act was created pre
cisely to counter such Southern tricks
as restricting the num ber o f offices
to hold dow n black participation.”
Suprem es T hom as and Scalia
went beyond the majority opinions
to challenge some o f the very sub
stance o f the Voting Rights Act in
1970,1975 and 1982 with the clear
m eaning and an understanding that
the A ct w as being used in redistrict
ing cases - that the Voting Rights
Act did not apply to reapportion
ment cases like those in Florida and
Georgia.
T h e b ig issu e o f the Shaw v.
R eno an d the fiv e S o u th e rn c o n
g re ssio n a l d is tric ts b e in g c h a l
lenged is still o u tsta n d in g . P e n d
ing the o b v io u s d a n g e r o f a la rg e
se tb a c k , th e im p o rta n c e o f th e se
c a se s is a su b tle d a n g e r — th a t
th e p o l i t i c a l f a l l o u t o f th e
C o u r ts ’ re je c tio n o f a b ro a d in
te rp re ta tio n o f the V o tin g R ig h ts
A ct w ill h a v e a c h illin g e ffe c t
for v o tin g rig h ts in te rp re ta tio n
and e n fo rc e m e n t in th e fu tu re .
THIS WAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT
Coalitional Politics?
The white corporate press is, of
course, typing to opportunize off our
The three day African American differences. A few day s after the summit,
Leadership Summit hosted in Jack Newfield, a columnist in the New
June by the N AACP in Baltimore York P o st wrote, “What most observers
was the m ost diverse, and didn’t seem to notice is that NAACP
perhaps the most im portant, Executive Director Ben Chavis allied
s in g le g a th e rin g o f B la ck himself with Louis Farrakhan and Lenora
Fulani of the crackpot New Alliance
leaders in 20 years.
Party.” On what are we allied? Accord
The summit, in which I was proud ing to Newfield and Joe Conason, an
to participate, was an important demon other white liberal writing in the New
stration of the growing unity of African York Observer, we are “hatemongering
American leadership during this period separatists,” opposed to the coalition
of increasing economic disparity and politics of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the
social crisis. It showed that despite our Rev. A1 Sharpton and Princeton Univer
differences, and despite pressure form sity professor Cornell West.
The charge that Dr. Chavis and I are
the white establishment, we can all sit
opposed
to working in coalition with
down and talk to each other. Through the
white
people
is, on the face of it, absurd
summit we were better able to clarify our
-
we
are
both
leaders of multi-racial
common ground - and to see where and
organizations.
And
Minister Farrakhan s
how our tactics for Black empowerment
long
history
as
a
principled
Black na
diverge.
by
D r . L enora F ulani
tionalist has not prevented him in recent
years from reaching out to other commu
nities - including the Jewish American
community - in an effort to build bridges
based on respect for the Black commu
nity and the Black agenda.
The fact is that everyone attending
the summit recognizes the political ne
cessity of coalitional politics. We share a
common understanding that Black unity
is based simultaneously on the Black
experience and on living in America. As
people of African descent living in
America, the issues isn’t whether or not
we work with white folks. The issues is
which white folks we work with and
what the objectives and terms of coali
tions with them must be.
The identification of these two dif
fering approaches to coalition building
is, in my opinion, one of the most impor
tant things to come out of the Baltimore
summit.
Civil Rights Journal: Images, Violence and Youth
by B
ernice
BY
Dr.K.Y
W
P owell J ackson
he hero d riv e s an
e x p e n s iv e c a r and
'brandishes
a gun.
- ki
Perhaps he implies that he sells
drugs and he calls women “hos and
bitches”. H e’s a gangsta rap video star
and he’s listened to by millions of chil
dren and young people.
Day after day we see stories of the
violence engulfing our cities. Some of us
even live those stories. Violence is de
stroying a whole generation of young
people. Violence is enslaving not only
those young people who are the victims
or the killers, but those who are afraid to
leave their homes after dark and even
mothers who are said to put their babies
to sleep in bathtubs in the hope that stray
bullets cannot reach them.
Violence is enslaving those who
live miles away in suburban communi
ties remote from the inner cities of
America. Because the reality is that chil
dren in su bur ban comm uni tics arc caught
up in the fervor of violence as well.
Because the reality is that more and more
tax dollars are being used to incarcerate
the perpetrators of violence and to pay
the astronomical health costs of many of
its victims. The reality is that every
American is enslaved by violence in
some way and w e'd all better get busy
doing something about it
Several African American women
in Congress are doing just that - they are
getting busy and doing something about
the violence and negative images found
in gangsta rap music. In the process they
are taking on the multi-billion dollar
entertainment industry and beginning
an important public debate.
Both Congressw om an Cardiss
Collins and Senator Carol Moseley-
Braun have sponsored hearings on vio
lent and demeaning images found in
popular music today. Not surprisingly,
they found that many are demeaning to
women. Not surprisingly, they found
that the addiction to violence found in all
of American society is apart of rap music
culture as well. “We are a society infatu
ated with violence in a clinically obses
sive way,” testified a representative of
the American Psychiatric Association.
Not surprising, they found that there is a
relationship between exposure to vio
lence and childhood development
A symposium held recently by Con
gressman Tom Lantos of California on
violence and video games heard many of
the same kinds of testimonies. Indeed,
those middle-class suburban parents who
think their children are escaping the
violence need only to look at some of the
video games their children play. Games
where women are hunted and hung on
meat hooks. Games where captives are
beheaded or have their hearts ripped out.
Both the hearings on violence and
gangsta rap and those on violence and
video games have focused attention on
the entertainment business and the epi
demic of violence this nation is suffer
ing. It is estimated that the video game
industry earns $10 billion a year world
wide and that hip hop music, including
gangsta rap, generates nearly $1 billion,
or close to 10 percent of the total U.S.
musiemarketevery year. Without count
ing the movie industry or the television
industry’s revenues from movies featur
ing violence, violence is big business in
America.
Some are beginning to talk with
parents to try to make them more aware
of the content of the music their children
listen to constantly or of the video games
they play everyday. But far too many
parents remain ignorant of or just don’t
care about what their children watch or
hear.
Finally, the hearings are raising
important questions about how music
reflects the culture in which itis created.
The reality is that as awful, as demean-
ing.as frightening as the lyrics of gangsta
rap music may be, they are only reflec
P ortland O bserver
p e r s p e c tiv e s
better rCc>
‘'Che (Suditor:
. ith the recent murder
charges against O.J.
S im p s o n , d o m e s tic
violence has been getting a
great deal of attention in the
media of late.
13,1994 • T he
tive of the economic and social break
down of the cities in which these young
people live.
Music critic and author Nelson
George testified at Congresswoman
Collins’ hearing that this music is a
consequence of the long-term lack of
employment, the isolation from middle
class values and the concomitant adopt
ing of street values, the contempt for
authority, the celebration of male bond
ing and the rampant consumerism of all
of U.S. society.
Congressw om an Maxine W aters
testified at Senator M oseley-Braun’s,
hearings that gangsta rap was bom o f
the frustration and hopelessness, the
raw energy and alienation among in
n e r c ity youth. She c h a lle n g e d
A m erica to listen to the message of
these young people, who have been
isolated and alienated.
Clearly we must find ways to end
the violence in our communities. We
must get rid of the guns, we must get rid
of lyrics, music videos and video games
which glamorize violence and destinize
our children to i t We must find ways to
give young people hope - hope that they
can get jobs, hope that they are valued by
society, hope in the future. There are no
fast and easy answers or quick fix solu
tions.
Television Murder,
Violence and Rape
Not New: Try Grimm’s
Fairy Tales
rTi?'' o r those of you w ho have been so te rrib ly
4 11 concerned about the impact of television mayhem
C r I upon our children, perhaps you can take heart
from the fact that my generation survived similar immersion
into blood and gore; at home, school and day care (and try
Walt Disney).
Many rem em ber that Snow W hite’s stepm other arranges the
m urderofher stepdaughter, thatdovespeckouttheeyesofC inderella s
stepsister, that Briar R ose’s suitors bleed to death on the hedge
surrounding her castle and that a mad rage drives R um pelstiltskin to
tear him self in two. M urder, mutilation, cannibalism , infanticide and
incest grace alm ost every page of one o f the all-time best selling books
in European cultural history: “Nursery And Household Tales”, by the
Brothers Grim m (commonly called “G rim m ’s Fairy Tales *).
O ne of the two brothers,
W ihelm, was surely blessed
with a rather m acabre sense
of hum or, for in his preface to
the book he had this to say,
“These stories are suffused
with the sam e purity that
m akes children appear so
marvelous and blessed.” Al
m ost immediately, one is plunged into the sweetness and light o f the
“Juniper T ree” ; a woman decapitates her stepson, chops his corpse
into sm all pieces, and cooks him in a stew that her husband devours
with obvious gusto. W e wonder if this tale was on Jeffery D ahmers
'T o p T en ’ reading list (The M inneapolis C annibal).,
So far, television’s entertainm ent gurus haven’t put forw ard
G rim m ’s Fairy Tales as a defense in their testimony before various
House and Senate com m ittees investigating the gratuitous and
senseless violence that permeates the airwaves. Congress persons
who are sym pathetic to the fears and concerns of millions o f parents
are finding them selves the targets o f well-heeled lobbying efforts
(and prom ises) by the networks.
“ Art im itates life,” it is said. It is interesting that these tales
collected by the G rim m brothers in the Late eighteenth century m irror
much o f European culture at the time. W e arc witness to standards of
behavior, folkw ays, m ores, traditions, fear phobias, manners, civili
ties and all other social relationships. And for those o f us who have
had further readings into the history of the times, there are specific
insights into the politics and econom ics o f the era. Much o f this speaks
generally to the northern European states, though m ost o f the tales are
from G erm an folklore (The birthplace o f the brothers, Grimm).
The m odem m ind and tem peram ent takes pause at a statem ent
by the brothers such as “These stories will be seen to instill excellent
virtues and m odes o f good conduct in children at a very early age.”
Especially when one might be taken to a passage like this i n ' Hand
My H edgehog’. “ W hen they had distanced them selves a bit from the
city, Hans My Hedgehog took o ff her clothes and stuck her with his
quills until she was bloody, and said: 'T h a t’s your rew ard for being
false. G o aw ay, I don’t w ant you.’ Then he m ade her go back hom e,
and she was disgraced.”
Cold? Cruel, unforgivable conduct? But this was ‘art im itating
life in Europe at the time, and life was not a very pleasant enterprise.
Note the considerable am ount o f reference to “step-m em bers” o f
families. It is hard to say whose lot was worse; children who has lost
one or both parents and were adopted into an existing fam ily — or
orphans left to run the streets on their own or were exploited by cruel
taskm asters as thieves, childlabor or prostitutes (see stories by
Charles Dickens).
There are a num ber of com prehensive studies on the G rim m s in
English as well as German: Bruno Bettlehcim , The Uses O f
Enchantm ent: The M eaning And Im portance O f Fairy Tales , N.Y.,
Random House, 1977 (Classic Psychoanalytic study); For quicker
and easier reading see, M aria Tartar, ‘ The Hard Facts O f The
G rim m s Fairy Tales” , N.J. Princeton University Press, 1987,277pp.
If needing a really in-depth bibliography call me at (503) 284-7080
or Fax at (503) 284-0484.
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