J uly 27, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age
A2
p e r s p e c tiv e s
The Clinton Health Plan:
Terminal?
C O A I. I I I O N
Rainbow Launches L.A. Action Against Media
On M onday, July 25, the Rev.
Jesse L. Jackson lead the newly-
form ed Rainbow Commission on
Fairness in the media in a discussion
o f direct action strategies to win
greater access, equity and em pow ­
erm ent for minorities and women in
the news and entertainment indus­
tries. The meeting was from 9 AM to
11 AM at the African American
Com m unity Unity Center, 944 West
53rd Street (at Verm ont Avenue) in
Los Angeles. An 11 AM press con­
ference is scheduled to follow the
meeting. Com m unity leaders and
activists, clergy, writers, producers,
directors, talent agents, actors and
actresses, attorneys and other inter­
ested oersons were urged to attend!
The Commission was formed
to combat institutional racism in the
multi-billion news and entertainment
industries. Assembly woman M ar­
guerite Archie-Hudson (D-48th Dis­
trict), who represents South Central
Los Angeles, was named chairper­
son o f the Commission. Serving as
cochairs are Sumi Hari, President o f
the Association o f Asian Pacific
Artists, and Esther Renteria, Execu­
tive Director o f the National His­
panic M edia Coalition. Eddie Wong,
Western Regional Director o f the
National Rainbow Coalition and in­
dependent film and video producer
was selected Director o f the Com ­
mission.
Rev. Jackson said, "The mass
media should look like the face o f
America. W hen 1 see an ad prom oting
ABC News showing Cokie Roberts,
Sam Donaldson, Peter Jennings, Bar­
bara W alters, Hugh Downs, George
Will and Ted Koppel with the slogan
Air Suprem ancy,’ 1 know th at’s not
representative o f America. A ir Su­
premacy in the form o f all white news
anchors and Sunday m orning news
show s does not reflect the best
America has to offer.
Recent cancellations o f ROC,
South Central, Sinbad, The Arsenio
Hall Show and In Living Color leaves
few er outlets for talented African
Americans to write, produce, direct
and act within the entertainm ent in­
dustry. M oreover, many o f these
shows will be particularly missed be­
cause they presented positive role
models and multifaceted portrayals
o f the African American community.
Discussion at the Monday m eet­
ing focus on how the community can
be mobilized to protest the cancella­
tion o f these shows and to demand
that the Fox Network and other out­
lets exam ine its dual standards o f sup­
port for white-oriented programming
versus African American program-
m ing relative to promotion and promi­
nence. Fairness and equity for A fri­
can Americans and other minorities
within the television and entertain­
ment industries is the goal. The pat­
tern o f lack o f support for these pro­
grams indicate a lack o f sensitivity
and com m itm ent to the community
by the television industry.
“ We will bring together a broad
cross section o f allies to mobilize
forces for direct action on the televi­
sion industry, “Rev. Jackson said. “Our
dem and is a reasonable American
e x p e c ta tio n -re c ru itm e n t, training,
em ploym ent, prom otion, program ­
ming, decision-m aking and business
opportunities. We who have been
locked out want to be affirm ed.”
“The television industry must take
vigorous steps to remove the vestiges
o f apartheid from its own house, “
said Rev. Jackson. “ In 1994, it is
almost inconceivable that minority
writers receive only 3.9% o f writing
assignments in television. Is it that the
experiences o f African Americans,
Latinos, Asian/Pacific Americans and
Native Americans are o f so little inter­
est to the publ ic? Or is it a case o f gross
insensitivity to building racial har­
mony in our multi-cultural society
that such disparity exists?” Jackson
added.
The Commission on Fairness
in the Media has compiled the fol­
lowing statistics based on studies
conducted by the Screen Actors
Guild, the Writers Guild of America
West, and the Directors Guild.
•
People o f color were only 13%
o f the characters portrayed out
o f 19,645 speaking parts in
1,371 TV shows broadcast from
1981 to 1991. M inorities are
30% o f the U.S. population.
•
African Americans were only
5% o f those portrayed as ex­
ecutives or professionals in 620
TV shows that ran from 1955 to
1987. Latinos w ere 1% o f ex­
ecutives and professionals por­
trayed.
•
African Americans appear on
the news as crim inals twice as
often as other groups.
•
The Directors Guild o f America
reported in June, 1994, that
minority directors received only
4 % ofthe directing assignments
in 1993. M inority unit produc­
tion managers only received 2%
o f those assignments.
“The lack o f progress on so
many fro n ts-a c c ess to program ­
ming, one-dim ensional depictions
or invisibility on television, lack o f
hiring and promotion am ong other
issues—creates a situation where
boycotts are inevitable,” said Rev.
Jackson. “ We can no longer sit back
and watch television contribute to a
more racially polarized society.”
Form ore information call Eddie
W ong at 510-465-0120.
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
-v .
n the Oregonian on May
J | 24, 1994, there was an
a rtic le in the M etro
s ec tio n
th a t
was title d
“Witnesses Say Patients Used
As Guinea Pigs.”
; <
'S
It specified that stricter controls
are needed to ensure that Americans
d o n ’t becom e g u in ea pigs w hen
they ’re wheeled into the hospital emer­
gency rooms or become mentally ill,
patients and ethics experts told con­
gress. W itnesses spoke to the House
Small Business subcommittee whose
chairman is Ron Wyden, D-Ore. While
reading that article, a bell was rang
due to personal medical problems.
During the sum m er o f 1974, I
was taken to the emergency room
after falling o ff o f my balcony. A
I , - A*
/A
- • 1
*■ t 'r .
doctor requested my consent to place
an object in my Achilles Heel that
would assist in the recuperation o f my
legs. Dr. Robert A. Berselli,an Ortho­
pedic Surgéon, at 501 N. Graham,
Suite 350 adjoining Emanuel hospi­
tal, supposedly rem oved the screw
like object in N ovem ber 1975, giving
me a replica screw to keep for a sou­
venir. For the past almost 19 years, I
have had different ailments that ap­
peared to generate from my Achilles
Heel. Even though I have spoken with
several doctors, little attention has
actually been placed on my concerns
o f now being an experimental indi­
vidual.
Even though I had spoken with
one o f Rep W yden’s assistants previ­
ously, I went to a Town Meeting on
July 9,1994 at the Northeast Commu-
nity Policing Facility to speak with
Congressman W yden personally. He
(W yden) specified that no real evi­
dence had been presented that would
warrant an investigation, w h ile speak­
ing in a more conservative pattern to
all questions presented to him during
that town meeting. This eliminated
the possibility that the American Medi­
cal Association was anyway involved
in creating any elem ents o f control
over a large segm ent o f the popula­
tion. Blacks?
Since I have kept m yself very
active, time has continued to go by
because my ailments have been tempo­
rary. However, now I w onder if Rep.
W yden is actually know ledgeable
about these im proper medical prac­
tices. My reason for com ing to this
type o f assumption, is do to a severe
Civil Rights Journal:
¿—ja*
here’s a myth out there
about African Ameri-
canswhichjustisn’ttrue
and which, unfortunately, even
too many African Americans
believe. It’s the myth that African
Americans haven’t been, aren't
and therefore can never be
entrepreneurs, that we don’t
have any business sense or
history.
f he reality is that African Ameri­
i *
2
i
-x * ’X
cans have been businesspersons since
we first arrived on these shores be­
cause we brought that business sense
with us from Africa. There were free
blacks who owned their own busi­
nesses as blacksmiths, bakers, tavern
k eep ers, and sail m akers in our
country’s early days. Madame C. J.
W alker became a millionaire selling
hair products in the first half o f this
century and her m odem counterparts
include Earl Graves, Joshua Smith,
th e late R eg in ald L ew is, B ruce
Llewelyn, and Oprah W infrey (in her
role as businesswoman and producer).
I rem em ber U Street when I was
grow ing up in W ashington D.C. U
Street was the heart o f the “black”
business district, where there were all
kinds o f black-owned businesses, in­
cluding optometrists, theaters, night
clubs, cleaners, and funeral homes. A
few years ago there was PBS docu-
mentary which focussed on the black
business district o f Kansas City fifty
years ago. There were other cities
w hich, prior to integration in the
1960’sa n d 7 0 ’s, had flourishing black-
owned small businesses. But the real­
ity is that with the flight o f the black
middle class to the suburbs and to
integrated communities, these black-
owned businesses waned and most
died.
Speaking at a recent meeting,
N A A CP President Benjamin Chavis
named economic development as be­
ing one o f the priorities o f the African
American community as we enter the
next century. Dr. Chavis said, "W e
thought that if we only could get the
political power, we could change
things. But, w e've found out we need
the economic power as well.” Or as
some have put it, if you can't buy the
soda when you sit down at the counter,
having the right to sit at the counter
really doesn’t mean much.
Clearly, we need healthy African
American-owned businesses if A fri­
can American com m unities are to
survive. Small businesses provide the
largest numbers ofjobs in this country
and with unemployment rates at least
double that o f whites, African Ameri­
can desperately need jobs
In Los Angeles they’re not just
talking about economic development
in the African American community.
headache with noises that woke me up
at about 1:30 a.m. on July 10th, with
the generating impact com ing from
my Achilles Heel and wonder if my
timeline o f existing can be shorten do
to my outspokenness at City, County,
Regional and State affairs. A question
has now been developed as to w hether
lam outstepping my bounds since I’m
now fighting with W ashington D.C.
Hopefully, this ailment will be
short and sweet, elim inating the pos­
sibility that this will be one o f my final
opportunities or chances at w riting
“A Letter To The Editor,” that covers
problems currently being faced by
Blacks, M inorities and even som e
W hites, because this is a situation
with no place to turn or seek help.
Charles Flake; N.E. Com m unity
Activist
Power To The People
they’re doing som ething about it. One
o f its key supporters has been Con­
gresswoman M axine Waters. While
Rebuild L. A. was getting all the head­
lines about w hat it was going to do for
the people o f Los Angeles, Com m u­
nity Build got busy with the people.
The results are exciting - and chal­
lenging to the rest o f us.
Leimert Park is one o f Com m u­
nity B uild's projects. It's a block-long
area o f shops, jazz clubs and a theater
- all African A merican-owned. The
names are exotic -- A frica By the
Yard, the Venusian Salon, the Code
o f Consciousness.
But the businesses translate into
real com m unity development. Cul­
turally, Leimert Park is a haven for
African American artists, who can
sing or tell jokes or play jazz at the
clubs in the neighborhood. Artists can
exhibit in the city-sponsored arts fes­
tivals. The Museum in Black houses
cen tu ries-old m asks and original
manuscripts by Richard W right and
Alex Haley and even shackles used on
slaves.
Socially, Leimert Park has be­
come the center o fthe African Ameri­
can community in Los Angeles. It s
like Harlem was during the Harlem
Renaissance or like M emphis was to
the blues or New O rleans was to jazz
It gives the Los A ngeles African
American com m unity a point o f focus
and a sense o f ow nership like it once
had in Watts, which is now half Latino/
Latina.
Economically, Leimert Park has
brought about not only a renaissance
o f black businesses, but has enabled
middle class African Americans to
w ant to move back to that com m unity
to live. It has helped to stop the flight
to the suburbs and enabled a viable
com m unity once again to flower.
One o f Leimert Park’s driving
forces has been actress M arla Gibbs,
whose Vision Theater is an anchor to
the developm ent going on there. She
has invested more than two million
dollars in her vision o f Leimert Park
as an African village. Not only does
her arts complex stage productions,
but it also hosts banquets, holds art
classes for children and church m eet­
ings and counseling program s for vic­
tims o f domestic violence and rape.
Leimert Park is an exciting story
o f how when our total com m unity
works together and makes economic
developm ent a priortity, our com m u­
nities will be revitalized. Perhaps you
know o f other African American eco­
nomic developm ent success stories
going on in your community Write to
me at 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland,
OH 44115 and I'll share them. W e’ve
got to create econom ic power with the
people if our nation is to flourish in
the next century.
Capitol building to deliver a pizza.
The Pizza Hut Corporation is ac­
cused o f paying for health insur­
ance for Japanese and German
workers, “ but for many workers
in Am erica—Pizza Hut pays no
health insurance at all’. O f course,
what this is all about is that “ Em­
ployer M andate” ; the contention
o f health care proponents that with­
out forced em ployer contribution,
“ it will be impossible to achieve
health insurance coverage for all
A m e r ic a n s .
Now, if you
Demonstrating
are one o f the last
how p artisan
o f the really t rue-
th e se b a ttle s
believers on the
can be, the two
face o f this earth,
senators from
just what was it
Kansas, repub­
that persuaded
licans
Dole and
you to think such
a wonder could take place in these Kassebaum, rebuked the advertis-
in g-P izza Huts headquarters are
United S û te s? ‘N ational Health
Insurance Plans’ have been ad­ in Kansas!
Back hereon the Oregon home
vanced b efo re-b y presidents, by
front
we find as much uncertainty
Congress and by organizations (not
as
ever—unbelievably,
just about
m edical societies). And alw ays,
as
much
as
existed
before
then state
such proposals have been defeated
senator
Kitzhaber
successfully
in­
as “socialistic, wasteful or a viola­
troduced
his
Om
ni-care
health
bill
tion o f that great Am erican spirit
in the legislature. It is not just the
o f independence.”
W eare told that in those coun­ case that W ashington demanded
tries or sU tes (H aw aii) where such adjustments and refinements to the
program s are in force and appear proposal, but that there is a crush­
to be working, the real truth o f the ing, defeat-breeding psychological
matter is that these governm ents pressure on full-coverage propo­
are facing econom ic disaster; or nents all across the land. And cer­
that, as a m atter o f fact, the deliv­ tainly they are being out spent.
ery o f medical services is really Ironically, the money is coming
quite prim itive and their institu­ from their opponents w hose deep
tions have little o f the m odern, pockets they fill to the brim: Doc­
tors, pharm aceutical com panies
m iracle hardware o f Am erica.
W e peons, o f course, have not and the like. Can Clinton plan sur­
the time or resources to investigate vive, or is it terminal?
Many more Americans are be­
the hundreds o f claim s and coun­
com
ing
aware o f the costly medi­
terclaim s, the inventus and deni-
cal
handiw
ork’ perpetrated by the
grations in the greatest propa­
R
e
g
a
n
-B
u
sh a d m in is tr a tio n s
ganda war since W orld W ar II. So
many o f these affiliated, even re­ (“lives for campaign contributions’
is one term that has been used). At
motely, with the medical fie ld -
individuals, societies, corporations, a recent C ongressional hearing
private and public agen cies-a re convened by Oregon representa­
throwing so much cash into the tive Ron W yden, it was revealed
fray (over half a billion) that we that the Scripps Research Insti­
suspect it may be enough to sup­ tute, the nations largest private’
port an entire segm ent o f health biomedical laboratory, signed a ten
year $300 million deal granting
care.
At any rate we may be certain Sandoz, the giant Swiss pharm a­
that the media has no red ink on its ceutical, the right to com m ercial­
b r e a k -th r o u g h s
m ade
books. Those opposing any major ize
reform o f health care in this coun­ by Scripps scientists. Dr. Healy
try are now running hom ey televi­ o f NIH which funds Scripps with
sion soap operas, cleverly designed our m oney to the tune o f 100
to cast doubt and confusion on million a year says this ‘makes
adm inistration health plans. And Scripps into a subsidiary o f a for­
o f course it also com es from the eign drug com pany.” And with ex­
clusive rights to breakthrough
other side.
An ad vertisem en t show s a drugs, you and I will pay again,
youth cycling toward the nation’s and again!
fter all the hoopla, brass
bands, flag waving,
O V arm-twisting, lobbying,
political
contributions;
statistics and prayers intended
to demonstrate an uncomprom­
ising commitment to universal
health care for Am erican
citizens, It seems that no such
creature will pass this session
of Congress—at least not in any
recognizable form.
(Lin' ^ o rtla n b (ObserUvr
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