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A ugust 24, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserv er
P age A3
p e r s p t' c t i V e s
setter 'Co
The Geography Of Nowhere:
Locating Minority Business
ülie (SL Pitor
1 was thrilled to see that Taey ona
Jackson, a young Black student and
Jefferson Dancer, was acquitted June
22 in Juvenile Justice Court ot as
sault and trespassing. These charges
w ere trumped up by Meier and Frank
because she objected to racist treat
ment and an attack by two security
guards.
This is a significant victory and
sets an important precedent. Hun
dreds of Oregonians signed a peti
tion demanding that the charges be
dropped against Ms. Jackson and
two other young women and that
Meier and Frank stop its policy of
racial harassment.
Black custom ers, especially
young women, are targeted by
poorly-trained security guards and
roughed up, publicly humiliated, and
false charges are filed against them
in retaliation when the women stand
up for their rights and expect to be
treated with dignity and respect.
The two guards who attacked
Ms. Jackson, who is barely 100
pounds, are white and over 200
pounds each. They threw her to the
ground, twisted her arms behind her,
put a knee in her back; they rubbed
her face into the rough floor carpet
causing a facial bum, handcuffed
her to a pole in a holding room, and
refused to call her mother despite
repeated requests. Store guards seem
to specialize in terrorizing teenaged
women o f color.
The D. A.’s office and the police
department have unquestioningly
accepted numerous ludicrous charges
against young women of color and
are using public funds to drag these
women into the Juvenile Justice sys
tem.
Taeyona Jack so n ’s victory
points the way to make public offi
cials and Meier and Frank account
able to us.
Send your letters to the Editor
to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland,
OR 97208
c O A I I T 1 O N
GATT A n d T h e W T O G lo b a l N A F T A
/
he p o litic ia n s and
/ I i m edia have the
country in a frenzy
over health care, crime and
welfare reform legislation.
While public attention is fo
cused on these worthwhile issues,
the Clinton administration is qui
etly rushing through legislation that
may have an even greater impact on
the country in the long run -- i.e.,
GATT. At least there was a big
public debate over NAFTA. There
is no similar discussion over GATT,
even though its impact and implica
tions will be larger. Whether one
agrees or disagrees with GATT,
everyone ought to support a delay
in rushing the legislation into law
prior to an extensive public debate.
If you liked NAFTA, you’ll
love GATT, the General Agree
ment on Tariffs & Trade, GATT
represents the corporatization ofthe
world economy. If NAFTA repre
sented the rationalization, increased
centralization and concentration of
capital in the Americas and Canada,
GATT represents the same pattern
on a worldwide basis.
In September 1986, economic
negotiators representing 105 coun
tries met at a resort in Punte Del
Este, Uruguay. Negotiations since
that time are known as the Uruguay
Round. The agreed upon objectives
of its participants were the liberal
ization of trade involving all gods
and services and the strengthening
ofGATT’sauthority indealingwith
disputes among member nations, as
well as overseeing their trade poli-
cies.
The existing GATT contract of
1947, signed by President Truman,
was a contractual agreement among
membersona voluntary basis. G AI T
was not a binding agreement and the
U.S. did not have to conform to
restrictions and guidelines instituted
under GATT.
On April 15,1994, in Marrakesh,
Morocco, M ickey Kan tor, U. S. Trade
Representative, and the now 124
member nations, signed what is
known as "The Final Act Embody
ing the Results ofthe Uruguay Round
of Multilateral Trade Negotiations,”
hereinafter referred to as the World
Trade Organization or WTO. The
committees formed at the outset of
the negotiations were to negotiate an
agreement on textiles/apparel, agri
culture, intellectual property, ser
vices, subsidies, dum ping and
countervailing measures, tariffs, and
strengthening GATT rules.
The primary goals of the U.S.
negotiators, it seems, were to open
up trade services. They negotiated a
system to protect intellectual prop
erty rights, as well as open up mar
kets in other countries, particularly
in the third world; the significant
objective was to open up investment
in these countries primarily for the
sole interest of U.S. insurance com
panies and banks.
The primary negotiating tools
were in two major areas - textiles/
apparel and agriculture. In order to
meet the fast track deadline of De
cember 15, 1993, the U.S. trade ne
gotiators gave up the farm. The most
serious errors committed during the
Round were the obvious failure to
address workers rights and labor stan
dards. The Round could have con
tained many provisions that would
allow for free trade without subju
gating workers’ rights and labor stan-
better '"Co rChe <3oi)itor; The
by
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Despite humanitarian impulses
th a t
tug
at
A m erican
heartstrings, we must avoid the
im p en d in g
U.S. m ilita ry
invasion of Haiti. It is a bad idea
that repeats the mistakes of
the past and sets a negative
precedent for the future.
The United States has a history
of intervening in the affairs of neigh
boring states, and this history does
not (despite some modest successes)
reflect well on the American people
, w
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
In the past month or so as I
have been speaking to various
groups and churches, I have
felt compelled to talk about
speaking truth in love.
r <
*T1
•• • :
-1?
ffiSípJí
si
or their government. Over the years
the targets o f U.S. intervention have
included Cuba, the Dominican Re
public, Grenada, Guatemala, Panama
and Haiti itself. The last time U.S.
troops invaded Haiti in 1919, our
occupation lasted 25 years. This
hardly recommends another such
military adventure.
The basic problem with military
intervention in Haiti in 1994 is that,
although the people of Haiti are suf
fering under a repressive regime (as
they have since their war ofindepen-
dence in the 18th century ),’there is
no clear threat to the U.S. national
Because the reality is that too
seldom do black and white Ameri
cans speak truth to each other. Too
often we have shied away from shar
ing each other’s pain and joy. And
while African Americans know the
world of white America, very few
white Americans know the world of
African Americans.
The result o f our failure to be
truthful with each other has been that
often it is as if we are speaking two
different dialects of the same lan
guage in the best o f times arid two
distinctly different, unrelated lan
guages in the worst of times. We
have, too often, based our common
life in America, on lies or half-truths.
Take, for instance, criminal jus
tice issues. In the eight months since
I have been Executive Director of
the Commission for Racial Justice,
15-20 percent of my letters have
been about the criminal justice sys
tem They come form prisoners them
selves. sometimes admitting their
guilt, but still pointing to the inequi
ties of sentencing or the racism they
feel in the treatment they receive by
guards and prison authorities They
tell of how the Kian is active in one
prison in Florida. They tell of how
they have received unequal treat
ment in New York, in Illinois, in
states all across this country'.
The most difficult letters and
calls come from mothers with sons
on death row. I have written about
one such case, the Chain o f Rocks
Bridge case in St. Louis, where four
young African American men sit on
death row after a trial which in
cluded questionable testimony and
evidence which mysteriously had
disappeared. But there are dozens of
other stories. Indeed, African Ameri
cans still are disproportionately on
death row. That’s why the Congres
sional Black Caucus held up its sup
port of the President's Crime Bill for
inclusion of a Racial Justice provi
sion which would be used as long as
p eople
of
co lo r
rem ain
disporportionately represented on
this nation’s death rows.
Time magazine recently wrote,
“The perception among blacks that
the criminal justice system discrimi
nates against them is pervasive and
deep." It pointed to the fact that
justice in Americastill seemsswifter
when the murder victim is white.
Sixty-three African Americans have
been executed for murdering whites.
While one white has been executed
for murdering a black in the past 17
years.
Interestingly , while many Afri
can Americans probably would agree
with that Time magazine statement.
which outrages most Northeast resi
dents, and not just because of the
’inconvenience.’ Many blacks and
whites in the area now perceive the
“black barrier” for just what it was
designed to be; a “ghetto control
installation - like the recently in
stalled street cut-off controlling
Northeast 14th between Alberta and
Sumner streets.
It did not take long for others in
the audience to take up the refrain: “ 1
can see a direct
tie to the situation
with our youth,”
said one woman.
A school teacher
she went on, “a
community is or
ganic and inter
active or at least it should be. 1 had a
couple of courses in the school of
urban planning at PSU; when the
planners leave the classroom, they
go for the money and implement
what the bankers and real estate in
terests want.” (The ’real’ planners).
Note the car dealers were cleared off
Union early.
So we have it that the develop
ment o f “minority business” (or any
other kind) depends upon a good
understanding of the political and
social dynamics of the greater met
ropolitan area. That “median strip”
on MLK will come out - when the
“big boys” downtown and ' back east’
want it to come out; when they are
ready for the high rise and truckline
and warehouse/wholesaler distribu
torships they planned in the sixties.
The ‘meat and potatoes’ are not
reserved for inner city residents, but
for those financially able to hold
their equity and pay their taxes. Like
coliseum-area properties for which
black's got peanuts and are now
worth hundreds of millions, strate
gic siteson MLK, Williams Avenue,
V an co u v er,
A lb erta
and
Killingsworth will go through the
same phases. (To be continued.)
US Invasion Of Hiati
Is A Bad Idea
gods forced him to push a heavy
and elsewhere by saying we needed
gional conflicts does not work. “In
fact, it usually aggravates the situa
tion... It rarely achieves its purpose
and often has the perverse effect of
obstructing, rather than advancing,
what it seeks to achieve. (American
peacekeepers in Lebanon in 1983,
for example, were an aggravating
rather than a stabilizing force.) Inter
vention usually harms American in
terests as well. The most compelling
arguments against American inter
vention are its ineffectiveness and
harm it causes all parties involved.”
President Bush argued in favor
o f intervention in the Persian Gulf
interest that motivates action. The
Haitian military junta is not revolu
tionary, making noises about spread
ing revolt across the Caribbean. It
has not invited enemies of America
to establish military, naval, or air
bases on its territory. It is not en
gaged in terrorist acts against U.S.
citizens or businesses or diplomats.
Without a clearly defined na
tional interest to compel military
action, U.S. intervention is doomed
to fail. As Barbara Conry, a foreign
policy analyst at the Cato Institute,
recently noted, in the vast majority
o f cases, military intervention in re-
Civil Rights Journal: And
S'
’• ' t
R ichard E. S incere , jr .
dards.
The GATT-established new
global commerce agency (WTO)
will have increased power, closed
procedures and a mandate to assure
the supremacy of trade imperatives
over health, safety and other living
standards The WTO would operate
under a no-veto, one-nation, one-
vote procedure.
The WTO will g reatly ex
pand the trade rules to impose
new restrain ts on many n o n -tar
iff policies, such as consum er,
environm ental and w orkplace
conditions, w hich traditio n ally
have been controlled dom esti
cally; and it will significantly
s tre n g th e n s e c re tiv e d isp u te
resolution m echanism s, guaran
teeing stricter enforcem ent o f J
the global trade d isciplines over
dom estic laws and policies in
every co u n try , in clu d in g the
U.S.
The WTO will also undermine
citizen control and kill the ability of
domestic state and federal demo
cratic bodies to make future im
provements for a vast array of do
mestic policies, from food safety, to
federal and state procurement, to
communications and public invest
ment policies.
The bill to implement GATT-
WTO, H R . 4206, has been intro
duced by Rep. Norman Mineta (D-
15-CA). The bill is 60 pages long
and is limited to the implementa
tions of GATT-WTO provisions
concerning antidumping, intellec
tual property rights, and unfair busi
ness practices. It has been referred
to four (4) House committees and
two (2) Senate committees where a
companion bill is expected.
1 note that last week’s refer
ences to that ubiquitous "Union Av
enue” of yesterday sparked a bit of
interest in the past and the possible
future of this business street.’ Not
just amazement that 1 was able, that
early on, to pioneer some racially-
interactive business enterprises (ac
counting, finance company), but that
it was indicated other African Ameri
cans could have/should have fol
lowed suit.
Now, in the
following assess
ment of the com
mercial values/pos-
sibilities of Martin
L u th er King Jr.
Blvd. (MLK), keep
in mind that for my
part, there is a gap or discontinuity in
my appraisal. 1 left Portland for Los
Angeles in 1954, when my used car
dealer accounting clients began to
desert MLK for 82nd Avenue,
Milwaukie and Beaverton. When I
returned to Oregon in 1963,1 found
that urban renewal and the “Great
Society” had forever changed the
landscape.
Without going into too much
detail, I shall site two of the most
important factors that impacted the
black economic scene; not all occur
ring at once, but in a sequence which
seriously impaired business devel
opment to this day. Not only did the
planners” initially use their almost
unlimited resources to wipe out acres
o f the African American business
district and adjoining residential ar
eas (the coliseum and freeway) - but
subsequently installed that fateful
‘median strip” down the length of
MLK. Many blacks say that only the
ill-fated Emanuel Hospital expan-
sion/development project came near
to destroying as much taxable real
estate. All ofthis property, o f course,
was taken off the tax rolls (location,
location, location).
It is that “MLK median strip”
to prevent global instability. Indi
rectly, perhaps, Haiti’s unpopular
and undemocratic government might
threaten global stability. Yet insta
bility is inherent in an international
system made up of more than 150
sovereign states with differing inter
est, some benign, some malignant.
For the United States to intervene
everywhere to maintain global equi
librium would create a strain on our
resources and would be futile at the
same time. Such a policy stance re
minds us o f the Greek myth of
Sisyphus, whose punishment by the
Justice For All
_
. . .
i •.
Time received letters from whites
who strongly disagreed. It was one
more indication ofthe gulf between
what black America perceives is re
ality and what white America per
ceives.
The letters I receive don’t just
come from prisoners or their family
members, either. They come from
ordinary citizens, like the woman in
southern Illinois who wrote that in
her entire lifetime her town never
has had an African American on a
jury. Or like the person in Georgia
whose routine speeding ticket is be
coming a real struggle for justice. Or
the case in Virginia where an ill
African American man was taken
off a bus, and even after his relative
informed the bus driver and the sher
iff that he was ill and not intoxicated,
the man was forced to leave the bus
and the relative forced to stay on.
The man was then left by the sheriff
at a local truck stop, known to be a
KKK stronghold, rather than taken
to a hospital. That man has not been
seen since.
These are just a few of the sto
ries I have heard. The fact is that if
there is a perception that the laws of
our land, and the system which en
forces them does not treat all citizens
equally, then the perceived injustice
is a reality.
It was the judicial system which
ruled that blacks were only two-
thirds human, through the Supreme
Court’s Dred Scott decision Not
•__ the _ days
j __
since
of i___.
lynching in the
South, when black men were rou
tinely hung from trees for suppos
edly looking at a white woman or for
not stepping off the curb when a
white person passed them on the
street, have African Americans felt
that they could receive equal treat
ment by the judicial system of our
country.
Even as the African leaders and
groups who fought for integration of
schools and public accommodations
in the 1940’s,50’sand60'stum edto
thejudicial system for these changes.
they were experiencing the water
hoses and dogs of the local sheriffs
all across the South. The scales of
justice have not always been bal
anced when it comes to people of
color.
For many African Americans,
of all education and income levels,
the moment of truth was the Rodney
King verdict For all o f America,
both white and those of color, had
watched over and over the tapes of
Rodney King being beaten nearly to
death. And, for the most part, white
America accepted the explanation of
thejurors who said that Rodney King
was in control of what was happen
ing that night. For most people of
color it was proof that even when
white America could see with its
own eyes, it denies what it sees and
that there is not justice for all.
A merica. we' ve got to talk about
the differences in our experiences.
We’ve got to some how, some way,
speak the truth. W e’ve got to ensure
justice for all. For without justice,
there will be no peace.
builder up a hill all day long, only to
have it roll back down to the bottom
each night, starting the whole pro
cess over again the next morning.
D u rin g th e C o ld W a r,
A m e ric a w as v iew e d as th e
w o r l d ’s p o lic e m e n . T o d a y ,
A m erica has been transform ed
into the w o rld ’s nanny. N eith er
ro le b e fits a c o u n try w h o se
achievem ents in science, e c o
nom ics, culture, and p o litics are
unm atched and praisew orthy.
So, to President C linton and
his advisors: Think tw ice, and
then again, before sacrificing the
lives o f young A m ericans for the
vague cause o f “regional sta b il
ity” or for futile “hum anitarian
assistan ce.”
Send your letters to the Editor
to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland,
OR 97208
Wlje ^ o rtla n h (¡Dbeeruer
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