A ugust 10, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A2
R aimbo W p e r s p e c t i v e
C O A L I T I O N
N
orth Carolina Plan
Upheld--Not Neces
sarily A Victory
A redistricting plan that created
tw o black m ajority congressional
districts in NC was acknow ledged to
be "racial gerrymandering" by a three
judge appeals court—but it was held
to be constitutional! The 2-to-l rul
ing turned back a challenge by live
white voters who sued the state, say
ing its redraw ing o f congressional
districts should be declared uncon
stitutional. The Court said. "W e find
that the plan’s lines were deliber
ately drawn to produce one or more
districts o f a certain racial com posi
tion and that it is thus a ' racial gerry
m ander’ subject to strict scrutiny,
but we none the less conclude that
the plan passes constitutional muster
under that standard because it is nar
rowly tailored to further the state's
com pelling interest in com plying
with the Voting Rights Act..."
The language in this decision is
a source o f great concern. The law
suit was initially dismissed, but upon
appeal the Supreme Court revived it
in Shaw v. Reno, saying the shapes
o f the districts resembled racial ger
rym andering or political apartheid.
The panel’s decision approvingly
uses the terms ‘racial gerrym ander',
which the High Court opposes; and
uses the term s ‘deliberately draw n',
which is another way o f saying the
VRA encourages intentional racial
gerry mandering. Such language may
in fact be a setup to virtually insure
that the Supreme Court will, it not
invalidate the Voting Rights Act, at
least make it ineffective.
In the Louisiana case, the court
said racial gerry mandering was un
constitutional. In a state 30% black,
only two congresspersons have been
elected since Reconstruction. The
first Louisiana plan. 65° o Black and
35% White, was drawn in 1992 and
thrown out in December, 1993. The
second plan. 55% Black and 45%
W hite, was redrawn in April 1994.
and thrown out last Thursday . The
third plan, created by a federal ju d i
cial panel dom inated by Reagan and
Bush appointees last week, created a
new 4th district, 70% White and
30% African American. The new
map effectively elim inates Cong.
Cleo Fields (D -LA -4th) and insures
the election o f a Republican. The
tw o conflicting opinions insure ap
peals.
t
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.31
s Minority Business
Still "Show Busi
ness"?
T hat’s the question a feature
writer for a national weekly news
magazine asked me last week. It
seems that a major article this w in
ter will be along the lines o f"W h at
ever Happened To Minority Busi
ness?" I addressed that question in
these very pages several years ago-
-particularly Portland.
In a w id e -
ranging conversa
tion we had an ex
c e lle n t
in te r
change and were
able to intimately
explore some sub
ject matter not fre
quently addressed. He had been di
rected to me by a fellow m em ber o f
the ‘Association o f Oregon Indus
tries’ with whom I serve on a com
mittee; an industry CEO w ho in the
1970s had served with me on the
Business School faculty at Portland
State University.
It was interesting that no Afri
can American had suggested me as
a relevant contact, though many are
involved in "M inority Business” ,
took my classes and/or received
counseling in real tim e' enterprise
formation. As a matter o f fact, the
two must visible practitioners o f
this commercial art form took ev
ery class 1 taught in the field. I can
understand it. for there is no telling
what 1 might say -th o u g h my ob
servations will certainly be valid
and experienced-based.
The magazine w riter had al
ready made contact with local white
m edia and was aw are o f a forthcom
ing article on "Korean-American En
trepreneurs" (see The O regonian for
8 4/94, E6). He com m ented on a
scenario he found consistent across
the c o u n ty -a sometimes violent an
tipathy betw een the Asian m erchants
and their black clientele (include
Vietnamese in some areas). I have
written extensively on this subject,
but have never gotten the response
that I desired or expected.
This may very well be because I
did not address
the issue in fiery
m a n - th e - b a r ri-
cades o r"S ice m ”
Professor rhetoric. W hat I
Mckinley ¿ ¡ j w as m ake
B urt
clear that the busi
ness organization
and financing structure em ployed by
the Asians at this level has been
available to American blacks in many
areas for well over a hundred years;
generations before m any A sians
heard o f America-level some blacks
have developed and exploited the
lower-level economic opportunities
p erm itted ’ them (m ostly in the
south), there has been a miserable
and obvious failure to pursue the
cooperative modes described in the
O regonian article.
1 expect immediate wails and
excuses: "W e d o n ’t have that kind of
m oney th e y m e n tio n , $ 4 0 ,0 0 0 ,
$90,000". That is a lie! We have
always had it. W hen I came to Port
land in 1945 African Americans had
millions in businesses and real es
tate. Much o f it had been assembled
over time in "southern style”, now
called "A sian Style” . Organizations
o f black w orker like the pullman
porters, dining care waiters, red
cups, post office em ployees, etc.
pooled their m oney five and ten
dollars a week until they could pay
down on various properties and
equipment. 1 handled the account
ing for most o f these organizations
so I know these to be the tacts.
Today the Koreans call this type o f
cooperation and mutual support
“ Keh”-b a s e d on trust and friend
ship.
So what has happened some
younger people may ask? W here
are the black cleaners, full-service
contractors, coin machine vendors
(cigarettes-Juke boxes), apartm ent
complexes, etc.—what happened to
them? It is interesting that, now,
younger blacks (and w hites) in
Northeast are asking pointed ques
tions; they are no longer accepting,
“well whitey cam e up with Urban
Renew al’ like he did other cities to
wipe out black progress.” They ask
in turn, "D idn’t w e have any black
lawyers who could be m arshalled
against th is -o r at least negotiate a
r e a s o n a b le
c o m p e n s a tio n ?
Couldn’t they have brought in some
people with backbone?"
A lot o f the northeast populace
are tired hearing the old U ncle Tom
tune, “T here’s N o Business Like
Show Business” They ask, “who
buys the leaders, how could the
Fred M eyer and other properties
have gotten away? What happened
to the Alberta Street Developm ent
Plan—w hat’s the net dollar invest
ment todate? The youth have no
success stories or role models. They
are in the street dying, w hile rascals
prosper.
To Be Continued.
better ^ 0 Ute <3udit0r
Send your letters to the Editor to; Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
am a physician who
'll works full-time within
the Oregon Depart
ment of Corrections. I am
appalled at the unnecessary
expense associated with the
present policy which allows
smoking by prisoners.
The Supreme Court ruled that
there is no constitutional right for
prisoners to smoke. They have also
ruled that the prison system must
provide medical care to all inmates,
and that withholding treatment is
equivalent to cruel and unusual pun
ishment. Finally, they have ruled
that prisoners have a right to a smoke
free environment.
Smoking is well known to cause
illness. Prisoners are allow ed to
smoke even when they have signifi
cant conditions potentially com pli
cated by smoking; asthm atics con
tinue to smoke, know ing that they
can dem and ever more expensive
treatm ents, even hospitalization;
heart attack victims can continue to
smoke, even if they may then be able
to demand open heart surgery; the
w o m e n ’s p riso n a llo w s p re g n a n t
p ris o n e rs to sm o k e , th o u g h a
sin g le p re m a tu re in fa n t can c o st
w ell o v e r $ 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 in th e first
w eek s o f life. G iv en th e p re se n t
$26 m illio n b u d g e t fo r p riso n
m e d ic a l c a re , even a sm all p e r
c e n ta g e re d u c tio n in illn e ss could
sav e m illio n s
I have discussed the issue with
Mr. Hall, head o f the O regon D epart
ment o f Corrections, along with Mr.
Maas and Mr. Zenon, the superin
tendents o f the prisons w here I pres
ently work. They agree that many
county jails in O regon have gone to
no-smoking status without difficulty;
Mr. Hall took his previous facility to
no-sm oking status. However, they
do not want to make any immediate
changes at the prisons where smok
ing is now the greatest problem. I
feel that when sm oking by prisoners
is prohibited, there will be an addi
tional incentive to avoid incarcera
tion for those eligible for parole, and
decreased medical expenses for the
aging population w ho are not candi
dates for parole.
Help me question every elec
toral candidate about their position
in this matter?
—Robert Ingle, MD, MPH
C iv il "R ig h ts J o u r n a l
Jobs, Welfare And America
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
She was an easy target. Poor,
uneducated, powerless, she
couldn’t fight back.
J
So when Ronald Reagan turned
the wrath o f A m erica on m others on
welfare by labeling them “w elfare
queens” and pointing only to the
infrequent cases o f w elfare fraud
and abuse, the w elfare m other and
her dependent children could not
fight back Portrayed as people who
were free-loaders, lazy, irresponsible
women with low morals, mothers on
welfare could not fight back. Now,
fifteen years later, the m other who
supports her fam i ly with A id to Fam i-
lie s w ith D e p e n d e n t C h ild re n
(A FD C) still has not been able to
overcome that stereotyping and that
scapegoating.
Let me be very clear. There is
som ething wrong with the w elfare
system as we have com e to know it in
America. W hole families should not
spend tw o or three generations on
welfare And contrary to some be
liefs, being on welfare is not easy.
Being on w elfare only ensures that a
child will be able to survive in pov
erty. It is dem eaning and dem oraliz
ing to the m other and does not give
her children an equal chance.
Let it also be clear that there is
som ething wrong with the jo b m ar
ket as we have come to know it in
America. M anufacturing and low
skill jo b s have all but disappeared as
skilled, technological jobs have in
creased. Welfare mothers, many o f
whom are high school drop-outs,
will need extensive job training to
qualify for such jobs. The service
sector jobs and low-paying fast food
jobs which w elfare m others might
qualify for rarely include health care
and retirem ent benefits.
Every American should be guar
anteed the right to a real, productive
job which pays enough to support
this or her family. Indeed, the reality
is that unless this country creates a
massive number o f good-paying jobs
and com prehensive em ploym ent
training which provides m arketable
skills, tinkering with the w elfare sys
tem w ill respond to the political rheto
ric, but will only cause extrem e hard
ships for families already poor and
further alienation o f that growing
sector o f our population conveniently
labeled the "underclass." The reality
also is that unless we pass universal
health care bill and guarantee m oth
ers on welfare day-care for their chil
dren, there can be no w elfare reform
In recent weeks the Clinton Ad
m inistration has put forth a welfare
reform proposal which includes some
job training and does include child
care provisions. It includes increased
child support enforcem ent efforts
which require parents to help sup
port their children. It includes the
Earned Income Tax Credit, already
passed by Congress, which already
has helped poor families cope by
subsidizing low -paying jobs. But it
also lim its women to a lifetime maxi
mum o f 24 months cash assistance.
Even disabled mothers or mothers
with disabled children must develop
“em ployability plans” that eventu
ally lead to work.
A recent Time m agazine poll
show ed that 74 percent o f Ameri
cans agree that we should replace
w elfare with a system o f guaranteed
public jobs The A dm inistration pro
posal does this. After tw o years o f
receiving AFDC, m others would be
required to w ork in public service
jobs But they would not be guaran
teed the same em ployee rights, com
pensation or benefits as regular gov
ernm ent workers. Indeed, ifw e think
about the fact that most Americans
also do not want to see the size of
governm ent increased, and many
believe that governm ent is inept and
unresponsive to citizens, the ques
tion must be asked why would we
want to put welfare mothers into
dead-endjobs with little or no future
And what will happen to the
w elfare reform act if universal health
care is not passed by Congress? It is
important to know that many fami
lies on welfare ended up there be
cause o f health-related reasons and
many women are trapped on welfare
because the current w elfare system
offers them Medicaid coverage, while
most o f the part-tim e or temporary
jobs they can qualify for do not in
clude health care benefits.
And if w e're going to talk about
ending governm ent subsidies for not
working, let’s be fair. L et’s also talk
about ending farm subsidies which
the governm ent pays to farm ers not
to work.
Part o f the debate on C ap ital H i 11
about welfare is about the num ber of
single mothers in A m erica and it’s
about choice. It's about how Ameri
cans, including teenaged Americans,
make choices to have families. But
with all the talk about w elfare re
form, too little o f it has included real
dialogue with m others and children
on welfare. Too little has included
focusing on the success stories -
those women who got o ff and find
ing out what they had or what they
did to enable them to escape
The w elfare system needs to be
changed. But let's not expect fami
lies on welfare to walk that tightrope
with absolutely no safety net. If they
fall, it will reflect on each one o f us.
THIS WAY
FOR BLACK
EMPOWERMENT
Clinton Conference On
Africa Ignored CBC
V
resident Bill Clinton
d 14 appears to go out of
'Tj
his way to disrespect
the African American com
munity.
After a year and a half o f ignor
ing Africa - from the brutal dicta
torship in Zaire to the genocide in
Rwanda - the Clinton A dm inistra
tion hastily called a tw o-day con
ference on Africa on June 26-27,
without consulting at all with the
Congressional Black Caucus.
“ I d o n 't think there has been a
focus on Africa ever in any A dm in
istration, including this one," C on
gressman Donald Payne o f New
Jersey, a m em ber o f the A frica Sub
com m ittee o f the House Foreign
Affairs Com m ittee and the chief
foreign policy spokesperson for the
Congressional Black Caucus, told
the New York Times. “ I have no
idea what the focus o f the confer
ence is or what its intended goals
I are.”
Since he as not invited to par
ticipate in the conceptualization and
planning o f the conference. C on
gressman Payne, like m ost m em
bers o f the Congressional Black
Caucus, did not attend. The Clinton
adm inistration apparently d o esn't
think that the views o f people o f
African descent in this country need
be taken into account in shaping
U.S. policy tow ard Africa.
O ne c le a r e x a m p le is the
a d m in istra tio n ’s p o licy tow ard
Zaire. There is grow ing support
within the African American com
munity for the dem ocracy m ove
ment led by Etienne Tshisekedi.
The Clinton adm inistration, on the
other hand, has been, in effect, do
ing what it can behind the scenes to
support the 27-year-old CIA-in-
stalled dictatorship o f M obuto Sese
Seko, w hich has left the country
brutalized and in a state o f eco
nomic and social collapse.
O n Ju n e 16, the S ta te D e
p a rtm e n t re le a se d a sta te m e n t
‘ta k in g n o te ” o f Ju n e 14 “ e le c
tio n ” o f a new p rim e m in iste r,
K en g o w a D o n d o , by Z a ir e ’s
H igh C o u n c il o f the R e p u b lic .
T he sta te m e n t re fe rs to K engo
as c o m in g “ from th e o p p o s i
tio n ,” and e x p re sse s th e hope
th a t his e le c tio n w ill lead to a
‘c re d ib le g o v e rn m e n t o f n a
tio n a l u n ity ,” th e re b y im p ly in g
th a t the a d m in istra tio n c o n s id
ers his ele c tio n le g itim a te .
The statement is misleading
on two counts. First, Kengo is not
"from the opposition.” He was
M obutu’s prime minister in the
days before the Sovereign Confer
ence -- the current government,
w h ic h is a tte m p tin g , d e sp ite
M obutu’songoingsabotage.to lead
the nation’s transition to dem oc
racy -- was created. Kengo has
emerged as a favorite ofthe Clinton
a d m in is tr a tio n a n d in t e r n a
tio n al fin a n c ia l in stitu tio n s, but
the Z a iria n p e o p le h a v e n ’t fo r
g o tte n him as the ru th le ss p e r
se c u to r o f the p o litic a l o p p o s i
tio n u n d e r the M obutu d ic ta
to rsh ip . M o re o v e r, K engo w as
c ite d by the S o v e re ig n C o n fe r
en ce as h a v in g used his p u b lic
o ffic e to d iv e rt state p ro p e rty
in to h is ow n p o ck et.
Secondly, the June S e le c tio n
in the High Council o f the Repub
lic was illegal because it violated
the Transitional Constitution, the
"P rotocol d ’A ccord" and other
docum ents governing the transi
tion to democracy which were re
cently signed by Mobutu and the
democratic opposition forces in the
presence o f the United States and
its allies. Article 78 o f the Transi
tional Constitution requires that the
prim e minister be designated by
the opposition. The opposition met
in accordance with the law and
e le c te d the d e m o cracy lead er
Tshisekedi as prime minister with
89% o f the vote. Mobutu has re
fused to honor his agreements, and
through his stacking o f the High
Council, orchestrated the June 14
“election” in which Kengo, his
crony, was chosen.
T he C lin to n a d m in istra tio n
c a n n o t ho p e to a v e rt p o litic a l
a n a rc h y in Z a ire — or th e rest
o f A fric a - if it c o n tin u e s to
ig n o re th e d e m o c ra tic w ill o f
th e p e o p le o f A fric a an d the
p ro -d e m o c ra cy view s o f th e A f
rican A m erican p e o p le and our
re p r e s e n ta tiv e s in C o n g re ss.
W e m ust urge the C lin to n a d
m in is tra tio n to sto p p la y in g
p o litic s w ith A frican liv e s. W e
m u st urge him to w ith h o ld re c
o g n itio n from th e K engo g o v
e r n m e n t, a n d to a f f ir m h is
a d m in is tr a tio n ’s c o m m itm e n t
to a ssistin g Z a ire in its e ffo rts
to e sta b lish d e m o c ra c y an d the
ru le o f law .
(The ^ o rtla n b (©bseruer
(USPS 959-680)
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