A ugust 31, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A3
RmoW
p e r s p e c tiv e s
Minority Business:
“Property Survey Finds Lack Of
Space For New Business In
Northeast Portland”
CO A L IT IÖ N
It’s Still A Crime (Bill)
n Thursday, August 11,
by a majority of 225-to-
210, the House voted
against a RULE governing floor
debate on the crime bill.
Democrats were stunned by the
loss! The vote—with 11 m em bers o f
the C ongressional Black C aucus
(CBC) voting in the m a jo rity -p re ­
vented the bill from com ing before
the House for a full debate and a vote
on the legislation. Fifty-eight (58)
Democrats voted against the Presi­
dent. The small num ber o f moderate
Republican defections (only 11 Re­
publicans voted with the President)
surprised the Democratic leadership.
The 10 Democratic CBC m em ­
bers voting against the bill were Clay,
Fields, Hilliard, Lewis, Rangel, Scott,
Stokes, W ashington, W aters and
Watt. Republican Gary Franks voted
with the majority, but for totally dif­
ferent reasons than the 10 D em o­
crats. Forty-eight (48) White D em o­
crats opposed the bill, most o f whom
were conservatives and opposed the
bill because o f provisions banning
19 assault weapons, and/or the bill’s
prevention com ponents-w hich they
described as "pork.”
CBC members were placed in a
dilemma. They supported the ban on
assault weapons, and $8 (o f the $33)
billion that was designed for preven­
tion program s-i.e., education, drug
prevention, recreation, jobs programs
for young adults and com m unity
policing. CBC members were an­
gered because Democratic congres­
sional leadership, and the W hite
House, refused to negotiate on the
death penalty; because the White
House, refused to negotiate on the
death penalty; because they were
morally opposed to the addition o f
60 new federal death penalty of­
fenses; and the exclusion o f the ra­
cial justice provision passed by the
House. The racial justice provision
would have statistically monitored
the death penalty to see if it was
being used in a racially discrim ina­
tory manner, and helped with ap­
peals o f those sentences. The CBC
attempted to negotiate a com pro­
mise on racial justice only to find
itself abandoned by the Wh ite House,
which withdrew its support when it
found itself in trouble in the Confer­
ence Committee, and a threat by 17
Senators to filibuster the bill if it
included the racial justice provision.
The need for the racial justice
provision isclear. According to Rep.
Rangel (D-15-NY), in the last two
years alone, 11 people have been
sentenced to death in the U .S .-a ll
have been black. O f the 236 people
ex ecuted since 1977, 200 w ere
B lacks c o n v icted o f m u rd erin g
W hites, even though W hites and
Blacks are victims in roughly equal
numbers. Prior to 1972, more than
half o f the people condem ned or
executed were African American,
even though the Black population is
just 12 percent.
T here w as intense lobbying
against the bill by the N R A -th ey
oppose the ban on assault w eapons-
-and an obstructionist Republican
leadership who said that the bill was
soft on punishm ent and additional
police. It is clear that this bill is
racially motivated, driven em otion­
ally by the fear o f crim e-portrayed
as Black—and a feeling that more
cops and jails will solve the (violent
Black crim e) problem.
What was even more interest­
ing, however, was the President’s
political response to his legislative
defeat. More Democrats than CBC
members voted against the Presi­
dent. More Roman Catholic legisla­
tors voted against the President than
did Blacks. More moderate D em o­
cratic Leadership Council (D LC)
m em b ers-th e organization the Bill
Clinton helped to form—voted against
him. Did he invite David W ilhelm,
Chairman o f the DNC, to the White
House and urge him to w hip up
grassroots Democrats against Demo­
cratic legislators? Noooh. Did he go
to a Roman Catholic Church and call
priests to the White House to send a
message to Roman Catholic legisla­
tors? Noooh. Did he call Al Fromm,
Executive Director o f the DLC, to
the White House and sic him on the
DLC members who abandoned his
ship? Noooh. Then what did he do?
President Clinton decided to pit
Black preachers against 10 Black
politicians. He w ent after Black
people through the Black churches
and Black clergy in order to put
political pressure and w hip the
strayed "sheep” in the CBC back
intothefold. First, he went to a Black
church in the DC metropolitan area
and “preached.” In his sermon, he
raised passage o f the crim e bill to a
higher level, claim ing it was “the
will o f God” that it be passed. He
invited thenation’s ministers to come
forward and support it. Second, he
invited 25 African A merican clergy
to the White House and com m is­
sioned them to go forth and preach
the Gospel o f Crime in an attem pt to
undermine the M ORAL O PPO SI­
TION and CONSCIENTIOUS O B­
JECTION o f 10 members o f the C B C .
The NRC joins with these 10
CBC members in a conscientious
objection to the current crime bill.
TODAY, call your representatives
in Congress at 202-224-3121 and
the Presdent at 202-456-1111 to ex­
press your opposition!
^itor
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3 137, Portland, OR 97208
City Of Portland Trashes Artist’s Work
“ It looked lik e ju n k to m e ’,said
the supervisor o f a Portland Bureau
o f Buildings operation”. This was
reported to a local Afro-Am erican
artist as he returned hom e from the
funeral o f a relative.
The artist, Ray Eaglin, had noti­
fied the Bureau o f Buildings that he
had been called to Houston since his
brother was gravely sick. N everthe­
less, Eaglin found the city had taken
his art when he returned.
E aglin’s w ork has been dis­
played in num erous colleges busi­
nesses, galleries, and public places.
Many pieces have been sold. They
were rem oving w orks o f art.
The city had a large dum pster
parked at the curb to remove more
“ju n k ”. Eaglin populated his whole
front lawn with works from his house.
The city backed off.
Ironically Eaglin had saved an­
other Afro-Am erican home from the
city the year before. The story was
that the day after the head o f house­
hold refused to sell her house to a
developer, the city condem ned the
roof. The roof'didn’t leak but “ looked
old". Eaglin joined a volunteer team
o f neighbors that put on a new roof.
E ag lin feels th at the c ity has
no legal o r m oral rig h t to e n ­
c ro a c h u p o n th e p r o p e r ty o f
h o m e o w n e rs and d e sig n a te w h at
is art and w hat is ju n k . He feels
he w as “ B litz k rie g e d ” .
Com m ittee For Com m unity Art
4909 NE 12th; Portland OR
9 7 2 1 1 ;281-4330
Civil Rights Journal
Aids and Black America
by
B ermcf . P ow ell J ackson
I heard a startling statistic a
couple of weeks ago. I heard
that more people have died now
from AIDS than the number of
Americans killed in the Viet
Nam War. More AIDS fatalities
than war fatalities.
In fact, the Center for Disease
Control estimates that nearly one
m illion Americans, or one in every
250 people, are now infected with
HIV. O ne in every 250. Ifyouroffice
has 250 or so em ployees, one o f
them is probably infected with HIV.
If y our high school class is 250, one
student has HIV. If your fraternity or
sorority chapter has 250 members,
one o f them may have HIV. If your
local church is a 250-m em ber con­
gregation, someone you are w or­
shipping with is infected with HIV.
T h e re a lity is th a t A ID S is
n ow th e le a d in g c a u se o f d e a th
fo r m en b e tw e e n 2 5 -4 4 y e a rs old
an d th e fo rth le a d in g c a u se o f
d e a th fo r w om en in th a t sam e
ag e g ro u p . It is th e six th le a d in g
c a u s e o f d eath fo r y o u n g p e o p le
b e tw e e n 15-24.
Y es. I said it is the sixth leading
cause o f death for young people un­
der age 24. One o f the fastest grow ­
ing segm ents o f the population suf­
fering from AIDS today are teenag­
ers.
V
The fact is that there were 14,000
American teenagers with AIDS a
year ago and nearly 13,000 cases
between the ages o f 20-24. A stag­
gering 51,000 cases o f AIDS were
reported a year ago am ong ages 25-
29. That m akes 78,000 young people
sufferingfrom AIDS last year. Ifone
were to include all those infected
with the HIV virus, the num bers
would be even greater. And from
what we know about the spread o f
the disease, that num ber has increased
in the past twelve months.
Moreover, our babies are living
and dying from AIDS. Black chil­
dren are more than 14 tim es more
likely to contract AIDS than white
children. In one city, San Francisco,
41 percent - nearly h a lf -- o f the
babies infected are African A m eri­
can.
It is important to say that AIDS
o f the 1990 s is a people disease It is
not a gay m en’s disease or an intra­
venous-drug users disease. It is a
disease o f teenagers and babies, it is
a disease o f hem ophiliacs and het­
erosexual mothers. AIDS is a dis­
ease o f the young and the old And it
is surely a disease o f African A m eri­
cans and Hispanic A m ericans as our
numbers ofinfected people continue
to grow. Lynora W illiams, o f the
A ID S A ction C o u n c il, w arned,
"Those who think they are insulated
from HIV are m istaken." You can ’t
contain an epidem ic and AIDS is
f
clearly an epidemic.
There are some, including some
in the African Am erican commu­
nity, who warn that AIDS is a pun­
ishm ent by God for the wicked ways
o f m odem humankind. But would
God punish a newborn baby? Would
G od punish a hem ophiliac child or
an adult who had open heart surgery
and becom e infected before they
knew how to test blood for HI V? Do
we really believe in that cruel and
fickle a G od0
In the midst o fth e controversies
about treatment, the controversies
about prevention and education, the
controversies even about the cause
o f AIDS, there is some good news.
Some stories o f people doing some-
thingabout this epidemic inourcom ­
munity. Some stories o f people who
are truly ministering to the least of
these.
O ne such sto ry is h a p p e n in g
in the San F ra n c isc o area. G od is
w o rk in g th ro u g h the A rk o f R efu­
g ee, Inc., a m in o rity c o m m u n ity -
b a se d a g e n c y w h ic h p ro v id e s
h o u sin g , d ire c t se rv ic e s, sp iri­
tu al h e a lin g and e d u c a tio n and
tra in in g for p e rso n s w ith H IV /
A ID S in the B ay area.
The Ark m aintains two clean
and sober com m unity living facili­
ties with support services for "low
income or no income” people living
with AIDS. In O akland, it provides
perm anent housing and support ser­
vices at its Hazard-Ashley House. In
San Francisco, it operates The Res­
toration House for African A m eri­
can women with HIV/AIDSand their
children. In addition, it provides train­
ing to the religious community and
com m unity organizations. It also
offers advocacy and support services
for people living with HIV/AIDS,
caregivers and clergy.
The Ark o f Refuge m inistry grew
out o f the dynamic m inistry of ayoung
A frican A m erican w om an, Rev.
Yvette Flunder. Originally an asso­
ciate pastor to Rev. W alter Hawkins,
and a powerful singer herself. Rev.
Flunder takes the well-known phrase
“The doors o f the church are open”
seriously. In 1991 she founded the
City o f Refuge churche, which has
now grown to more than 500 m em ­
bers. It is her mission to bring G od’s
love and human caring to those who
feel that nobody cares for them.
For too long the African A m eri­
can community, and other com m u­
nities o f color, have been in a state o f
denial about AIDS in our com m u­
nity. Our men, our women, our teen­
agers, our babiessare living with and
dying form this disease. L et’s get
past the denial stage Let’s minister
to our brothers and sisters with this
disease, regardless o f how they got
it. L et’s begin to talk to our teenagers
about how they can avoid getting
AIDSS And let us begin right now.
For tomorrow will be too late
D idn’t I tell you so? Last
week I talked quite ugly
about that “ Median Strip”
dividing Martin Luther King Blvd.,
“a deliberate and quite effective
barrier to the commercial and so­
cial developm ent o f the NE com ­
munity” see August 24th’s article
in The Portland O bserver (The
G eography o f Nowhere: Locating
M inority Business).
The next day,
A u g u st 25, the
d a ily ‘O regonian’
informs us that the
N o rth-N ortheast
B u sin ess A sso ­
ciation has con­
ducted a survey
that reinforces my cogent evalua­
tions o f this blighted area. Also, a
com m ercial Realtor in the area ob­
serves, “with regard to Northeast
Martin Luther King Blvd., com ­
mercial property there that doesn’t
have its own off-street parking isn’t
worth m uch.” O f course it isn’t,
and, indeed, the same prognosis
may apply to m any o f the lives that
have been circumscribed and im­
p o v e rish e d —in clu d e the youth
forced to mature in a dysfunctional
com m unity (deliberately or with an
equivalent contempt).
As reported here earl ier, it is an
accepted fact that it is “ Small Busi­
ness” that will be depended upon to
furnish most o f the nation’s new
jobs through and beyond the turn o f
the century. And at the same time,
we would keep it in mind that these
small enterprises, for the most part,
will be launched by owners who
gained their skills and experience
w orking for someone else, given
this fact, it immediately follows on
that the advocates and developers
o f “M inority Business” would be
well advised to evaluate the Afri­
can American (or Hispanic) em ­
ploym ent picture from the follow­
ing perspectives.
The continuing, if not acceler­
ating, layoffs in business and in­
dustry disproportionately affect
m inorities who, with few excep­
tions, have the least seniority. To
make matters worse, we 50 often
fin d
th e m
c o n c e n tra te d
(neosergregation) in particular skill
areas or departm ents o f an indus­
trial plant or governm ent bureau.
Both blacks and whites notice that
when the television cam eras visit
W ashington D.C. they take in en­
tire vistas o f folks w orking for so­
cial security, Treasury, Internal rev­
enue and the Veterans Administra-
tion-w all-to-w all ‘folk s ’!
Suddenly, the real portent o f
President C linton’s statem ent on
financing the “Crime Bill” brings a
num ber o f Blacks squarely up
against reality: “ Why, w e’re going
to Iayoff225,000' superfluous’ gov-
em m entem ployees!” I restm y case.
The phenom ena is repeated across
the country where city, county and
state governm ents, under the pres­
sure o f A ffirmative Action laws,
have stacked their work force decks
with virtual departm ents o f Afri­
can Americans in the lower-paid,
lower-skilled positions.
Now, if it is true that the new
sm all business
o w n e rs
w ill
c o m e fro m a
bank o f skilled
and experienced
w o rk e rs w ho
have been dis­
placed by cu t­
backs, out sco u rin g , leveraged
buyouts or other euphem ism s, then
it appears that not m any will be
drawn from the ranks o f unem ­
ployed African Americans. There
are a few exceptions if one may rely
on the investigative skills o f m aga­
zines like ‘Black E nterprise’, but
far from enough to make a real
difference. I called or faxed a num ­
ber o f my form er students around
the county, and they have reinforced
these observations.
Additional ly, they comment on
the continued discrim ination by
commercial banks against black en­
trepreneurs w hatever their back­
ground, preparation or resources
(rem em ber the "Fam ous Am os”
model I gave here several years
ago? The bank turned him down,
but the finance com pany gave him
what he needed). I answ ered in the
affirm ative to one student, now a
businessman in New York, who
w ondered had I seen a New York
Times News Service series o n ' Bank
D iscrim ination’ In Black C om m u­
nities (The Portland O regonian re­
printed a relevant article by Robert
D. Hershey Jr. on Tuesday, August
23, 1994: United States vs Chevy
Chase Bank).
However, this case and the na­
tionwide attack on bank discrim i­
nation centers on the bias in financ­
ing m ortgages; surprise, surprise!
But you can’t buy a house without
a jo b —and, all else being equal, you
can’t run a business without the
same bank support received by
O ther Americans! N ext week, has
anything changed in Portland?
While a professor teaching busi­
ness at Portland State University,
my w hite students could get loans
at the com m unity’s big bank, while
I required the intervention o f a vice
president. And in all the decades no
black has yet to reach a meaningful
‘line’ position ofpow er inany bank
here! Only staff positions for com ­
munity public relations.
(Tlti' ^ o rtla n if QMrseruer
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