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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1994)
P age A 2 S eptember 7, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver The Rise And Fall Of Ben Chavis by W il l ia m R e e d , N N P A D irector oe C ommunications W ill The E x-N A A C P Head Resurrect With A New group? The end o f Benjamin Chavis’ tenure as executive director o f the National Association for the A d va n ce m e n t o f C o lo re d people (N A A C P ) was greeted w ith sadness by some, re lie f from other and defi ance by the self-proclaimed “ free dom fighter.” M any African Americans con tend that the allegations o f sexual harassment and m ish an d lin g o f N A A C P funds are part o f a plot by “ certain factions” toget rid ofC h a vis because they opposed his "progres sive stance.” " I t ’ s pretty clear that there is a plot to stop Ben Chavis from putting his hand out to more progressive people,” said Gabriel Kenyetta, vice president o f the New Marcus Garvey in Detroit. Others said Chavis ignored the ones from whom the 85-year-old c iv il rights organization traditionally gets its hand outs. Mariam Blanks-Smart, president o f the Southern Oakland branch, said she supported the na tional board’ s decision and hopes it w ill end public discussion o f the m a tte r, w h ic h dam aged the organization’ s reputation and ability to raise funds. “ The continued dis cussion o f it was taking attention away from the very positive and good things that this great organiza tion is doing in the black commu nity, she said. Others, such as Barry M urray, editor Washington, D .C .’ s News Dimensions newspaper, point out that whites, and particularly Jews, Have been p o lic y fo rm e rs and sources o f revenues since the N A A C P ’ s foundering. " I f he wants to pursue his progressive posture’ he should form his own organization and we w ill help him ,” M urray says. Chavis has said, “ I intend to live the rest o f my life fighting for freedom. Never again w ill we allow forces outside the A frican Am erican com- ers F e c t / v e s F Minority Business vs ‘American’ Business: 7 ' - ?. i" . ■ I ' 'r . < Years ago when I first saw that title used to head an article describ ing the special d ifficulties o f A fr i can Americans in the area o f ‘ free’ enterprise, I knew the conserva tives and racists would advance the same type o f hysterical disclaimers provoked by the concept o f ‘ Black’ History; “ Why, we are all one in this great ‘ melting pot’” . That was a decade ago, and the article was correct regard ing the contem porary scene— n o t revealed that there has been considerable retrogression (in clude Portland). I use this particular time frame because it permits me to cite the documented reference, “ Evidences O f Progress Am ong The Colored Peoples” , G.F. Richings, 1908. Several years ago, I quoted here quite extensively from this remark able text and photo essay compiled by a black man who traveled the length and breadth o f the country, pride-fully documenting fo r pos terity the magnificent accomplish ments o f the race in commerce and the professions (we are as fortunate in this instance as we are that the ancient Africans wrote in stone- denying the racists and hypocrites a safehavenfor their revisionism and propaganda). Many o f you wrote to say how amazed you were to find out that ‘ back then’ A frica n Am ericans across this nation owned and oper ated factories, mercantile enterprise, public transit, clinics, granaries, pro duce farms, beauty colleges, trade schools, hospitals; a ll attained against the greatest o f odds. Then, too, there were the many inventions by these men and women, many o f which were key to the development o f American industry and its com petitive position in the w orld (see m y book, “ Black Inventors O f America” ). Now, this is not the first time I ’ ve described this “ rushing back wards” economic phenomena. And a few others have voiced their sur prise, once being made aware But, what is absolutely startling and amazing is that our great leaders and highly-paid directors o f our key social and economic agencies have not thoroughly researched this economic recidivism ’ phenom- enon-and prescribed a counter structure (fo r $200,000 a year we should be able to get competence and a p la n -n o t arrogant statements like “ I am the au th o rity !” ). O nce again the‘ M inority Busi ness’ community is hawking the latest figures on “ Black B u y in g Pow er almost 400 b illion dollars by the end o f the year (U.S. Census fig ures). And fin a lly we have verifica tion o f a fact that ‘ freedom-fighters and b o y c o tte rs ’ have a lw a ys known. According to the director o f econom ic forecasting at the Un i- versity o f Georgia, “ The spending power that African-Americans con trol can be the margin between suc cess and failure for many busi nesses” . O f course, what he is ta lk ing about here is “ W hite” business and black advertising agencies try not to let them forget the fact. Now, the foregoing ethnic al location o f business revenue is un derstandable in terms o f the terrible reversal o f that “ Evidences o f Progress A m o ng The C olored People” cited by Richings a hun dred years ago. A young student in a class o f mine at Portland State U niversity put it to me, “ all you say it true, and I am happy to learn the mechanics and structural param eters o f our poverty and the ghetto. Perhaps the knowledge w ill help me to escape. But, who is doing this tousand why? I ’ ve always frowned on conspiracy theories’ and I'm not paranoid-but damn, professor” ! This student was, shall we say, “ ready” at the time and I was able to provide a new and enlightening frame o f reference; one that has enabled him to ' move-on-down the line in Atlanta. You can be privy too. Follow m y next series, where all discussed here can be under stood in terms o f “ Im migration: Race, M oney and Power” (The ^ a r tla n b (©hsertfer (USPS 959-680) OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established in 1970 by A lfre d L. Henderson Joyce W ashington-P ublisher The P O R T L A N D O B S E R V E R is located at 4747 NE M a rtin L u th e r K ing, J r. Blvd. P o rtla n d , Oregon 9721 1 503-288-0033 * Fax 503-288-0015 Deadline for all submitted materials: A rtic le s :F rid a y , 5 :0 0 p m ? ' * ■ I RS » »' ‘'■’b i l l if - • A ds: M o n d a y N oo n P O S T M A S T E R : Send Address Changes to: P o rtlan d O bserver, P.O. Box 3137, P o rtlan d, O R 97208. Second Class postage p a id at Portland, Oregon The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w ill be returned I f accompanied by a self addressed envelope A ll created design display ads become the sole property o f the newspaper and can not be used in other publications or personal usage, w ithout the written consent o f the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition o f such ad. C 1994 THE P O R T LA N D OBSERVER A L L RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRO DUCTION IN W H O LE OR IN PART W IT H O U T PERMISSION IS P R O H IB ITED Subscriptions $30.00 per year The Portland O bserver-O regon’s Oldest African-Am erican Publica tio n —is a member o f the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York. N Y , and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver m unity to dictate who we can meet w ith and what we can meet about. I intend to rise from this moment,” Chavis said on the day o f his firing. Such internal bickering is not new to the nation's largest and oldest c iv il rights organization. D uring the early 1980s, a feud developed be tween then-board Chair Margaret Bush-W ilson, a St. Louis lawyer, and executive director Benjamin Hooks. Hooks prevailed after five years o f con flict, and W il I iam G ibson - a longtime N A A C P activist and G reenville, S.C. dentist - became the new chair. From A p ril 1993 to A u gust 1994, Chavis was embroiled in controversy and had a confrontation w ith the board comprised o f three whites and 61 blacks, six months after h is appointment when they tried meeting in Detroit and Summit 1 in Baltimore were black nationalists, and that is no, the N A A C P philoso phy. Bridge-building in the N AA C P includes w orking w ith white people, Johnson said. “ We are a m inority in this country, so the fight has been to compel the m ajority to recognize the rights and interests o f its m inority citizens,” Johnson said. C havis, 46, was chosen from a fie ld o f fiv e fin a lis ts in A p r il 1993 to succeed H oo ks, w ho re tir e d a fte r 15 y e a rs . E a rlie r, C havis had spent seven years in C leve la nd as head o f the U n ite d C hurch o f C h r is t’ s C om m issio n fo r R a c ia l J u s tic e . He h o ld s b a c h e lo r’ s m a ste r’ s and d octo ra l degrees in c h e m is try , d iv in ity and m in is try , re s p e c tiv e ly . to strip him o f certain powers. His public criticism started when he de fended gangsta rap and pledged N A A C P support fo r a truce among street gangs. In A p ril 1994, it was revealed that Chavis met secretly in Detroit with so-called m ilitant and le ftis t black leaders. E lizab e th W right, editor o f Issues &. Views, calls Chavis a “ self-avowed M arx ist” and unexpected dow nfall o f Chavis is stunning. A Ithough the flap about Louis Farrakhan and C havis’ handling o f accusations o f his al leged sexual harassment prove that he fin ally misread w hite liberal sup port, he had every reason to believe he was invincible in their eyes,” Former detroit chapter President A rth u r Johnson said that several group leaders invited to the U nity Ben Chavis And The Crisis Of Black Leadership by D r . M anning M arable The recent tiring of Ben Chavis as executive director of the NAACP culminated a campaign of vilification which had lasted for nearly nine months. T he N A A C P ’ s board voter over w helm ingly to dismiss Chavis, stat ing that he had failed adequately to explain the use o f the organization’ s funds to settle a threatened lawsuit by fo rm e r e m p lo ye e , M a ry E. Stansel. Abandoned by his principal supporter, N A A C P president W il liam Gibson, Chavis felt b itterly be trayed. W ithin days, he filed a law suit in the D istrict o f Colum bia Su perior Court, demanding his rein statement as executive director. To the media, Chavis a ngrily blamed outside forces which had manipu lated the board’ s vote and described his ouster as a “ c ru c ifix io n .” Earl Shinhoster, the association’s field secretary, was selected by the board to replace Chavis temporarily. A ll o f us are fa m iliar w ith the general outl ine o f the political “ lynch ing” o f Ben Chavis. But in truth, the ouster o f Chavis as leader o f the oldest c iv il rights organization in Am erica had little to do w ith M ary Stansel, or the fact that Chavis was no wizard at financial management. The real question at issue is whether A frican Am erican people have the right to select their own leaders and make them accountable to our con cerns and demands. Who speaks for black people in this country? A nd do we have the rig ht to develop strate gies which address our own con cerns and advocate programs which advance our interests? The debate over Chavis represents a greater d i lemma, the crisis o fb la ck leadership in Am erica. A fte r the 1960s, the N A A C P and the c iv il rights movement were confronted w ith fo u r basic chal lenges, which they never fu lly un derstood or overcame. First, the eco nomic crisis o f A m erica’ s central cities created profound problems for black leadership. Jobs disappeared in the ghetto, as thousands o f plants and factories relocated to the sub urbs or the sunbelt. Second, the fis cal crisis o f federal, state and local governments reduced funds for so cial programs. Reaganism repre sented a war against the cities, and A frican Americans and Latinos were the c h ie f victim s o f that war. C iv il rights organizations were challenged to shift their energies from cooperat ing w ith the federal government to obtain legal and political reforms, to pressuring Congress and the White House to reverse regressive and re pressive social programs. As Repub lican adm inistrations increasingly relied on expanding the prison sys tem as the prim ary means o f social control for the black comm unity, the N A A C P and other organizations were pushed by blacks from all so cial classes to become more m ilitant and aggressive. Yet under the lead ership o fN A A C P executive director Benjamin Hooks, the organizations drifted w ithout a clear political or ideological compass. The Third m ajor challenge was the growth o f class divisions w ithin the A frican Am erican comm unity itself. Since the late 1960s, the size o f the black middle class increased by over 400 percent. M illio n s o f A frican Americans moved from the inner cities to the suburbs. Those who were trapped in the worst neigh borhoods o f the urban ghettoes tended to be the poor, the unem ployed, the homeless, young women and children. In the 1980s, there was an explosion o f gang violence con • nected w ith the economics o f illegal drugs in urban black communities. The N A A C P made few efforts to understand or address the growing social crisis which was experienced by the m ost oppressed A fric a n Americans. Fourthly, there was the political and social impact o f Reaganism w ith in the black com m unity. True, more than 90 percent o f all A frican Americans voted against Reagan; nevertheless, like other Americans, th e y w ere a ffe c te d by the adm inistration’ s agenda in many m ultiracial coalitions. As white American moved right, the political culture ofblack America became fertile terrain fo r the reac tionary agenda o f conservative black nationalism and the resurgence o f Louis Farrakhan. Black support for Farrakhan has less to do w ith his odious a n ti-S e m itis m or n a rro w and d o g m a tic se xism , than his unique a b ility to express the rage and fru s tra tio n o f broad sectors o f the urban underclass. Thus A fric a n A m ericans m ay reject the b ig o try o f the N a tio n o f Islam , but nevertheless fe el th a t F arra khan expresses some im p o rta n t ideas re fle c tin g the m ood o f the c o m m u n ity . Ben Chavis im p lic itly under stood all o f this. Chavis had been a political prisoner in N orth Carolina for nearly five years in the 1970s. I became friends w ith Ben when we both were leaders o f the National Black Independent Political Party in the early 1980s. He had been an early critic o f what became know as “ envi ronmental racism,” and won praise as the director o f the Commission o f Racial Justice o f the United Church o f Christ. Chavis was an astute ob more subtle ways. In the 60s, blacks believed overw helm ingly that gov server and participant in social pro test politics. He understood that or ganizations like the N A A C P had to radically redefine their mission in order to capture the support o f the post-C ivil Rights generation. This was the fundamental reason that Chavis inevitably came under attack by the white p olitical establishment. ernment was on their side. The fed eral governm ent was a bulw ark against racial segregation, at least in the Johnson a dm inistration. But Reagan ism undercut blacks’ attitudes toward the role o f the federal gov ernment and also eroded the b e lie f in V a n ta g e î-’oint Time Out For Nervous Negroes: Black Power Must Confront White Power by R on D aniels The recent firestorm swirling around Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis and the NAACP is really about power. The power o f forces external to the African com m unity to control and exploit the A frican comm unity in this country and the w orld; to keep African people disoriented, disunited and weak. The cold historical fact is that Europe and Europeans have pros pered m ightily from the underdevel opment o f A frica and African people through the holocaust o f enslave ment, colonialism, neo-colonialism and domestic colonialism The vast and extraordinary wealth and riches o f African and the incredible talent, skill and inventiveness o f the A fr i can m ind and body have been used to nurture Euro-American capitalism and propel Europe and America to a position o f supremacy, white su premacy in the w orld today. While supremacy developed and has been sustained by some age old, time tested tactics - divide, conquer and exploit. The holocaust o f en slavement was carried out because o f the superiority o f European weap onry (the gun) and the a bility to use that weaponry to turn African against A frican The objective was clear - to rape, pillage and control A frica in the interest o f enriching and devel oping Europe and Europeans. In the colon ial era Africa was simply carved up by the European powers w ith disregard for the w ell established boundaries and borders o f African nations and ethnics groups. This reck less splitting up o f the African na tions and peoples was designed to disrupt the unity o f the people and facilitate control. In addition, ethnic differences were exploited e.g. fa voring one ethnic group over an other as a means o f maintaining the profitable control and dominance o f white supremacy. Neo-colonialism and domestic colonialism , the ind i rect control o f A frican nations and communities was/is maintained by the same strategy and tactics - divide and exploit. And, every form o fd o m i nation has been characterized by cultural aggression and mis-educa tion; the conscious attempt to de stroy A frican history, identity and culture to undermine the capacity o f A frican people to unite and resist domination. I site these historical references sim ply to point out that the current controversy engulfing the N A A C P and Black America is about power and control; the a b ility o f Europe and America and Europeans to con tinue to divide and exploit and pros per o ff the human and material wealth o f A frican people. N othing is more terrifying to white supremacy/power than the prospect that African people might unite and use our enormous resources for our own development. N othing is more frightening to white power than the specter o f Black power. As long as the Hutu and Tutsi are at each others throats in Rwanda and B u run di, w hite suprem acy/ power is secure. As long as the ten sion between the Yoruba and Hausa in N igeria is perpetuated, then white supremacy is safe. As long as the id e o lo g ica l differences between Booker T. W ashington, Dubois, Garvey and R andolf could be accen tuated then w hite supremacy re mained com fortably situated. The prospect that M artin Luther King and Malcom X m ight have com bined forces to develop a common agenda fo r the B la c k freedom struggle sent shock waves through the w h ite p o w e r s tru c tu re - cointelpro, character assassination and physical assassination followed. Make no mistake about it, A fr i can unity is not in the best interest o f w hite suprem acy/power. A frica n self-reliance and self-development is not in the best interest o f white supremacy/power. Black power is not in the best interest o f white su premacy/power. That’ s what the fuss is all about. What is the African American Leadership Summer suc ceeds? What i f Black Americans begin to effectively use its $350- $400 b illio n income and consumer power as a tool for self-development and a weapon to punish those corpo rations who exploit our people with little or no return9 What i f this unity and self-reliance idea spread like a virus to infect Africans in the C arib bean, Central and South America and, heaven forbid, Africa? We as Africans in America must be clear about what is at stake and act accordingly. We have the power in our own hands to liberate ourselves. The burden o fa $3 m illion debt at the N AACPshould not even bean issue. We are 40 m illio n strong w ith, to repeat, a gross African annual in come o f $35O-$4OO b illio n . We should not be on our knees begging anybody for grants or corporate do nations as the prim ary source o f in come for our c iv il rights/human rights organization and leaders. We should wipe out the debt and see A frican/ Black dollars as the main source o f incom e fo r the B la ck freedom struggle. White supremacy prefers ner vous negroes and w ittin g ly or u nw it tin gly perpetuate the slave/planta- tion m entality among our people; nervous negroes who cannot con ceive and therefore cannot achieve African unity, self-reliance and Black power; nervous negroes who would keep us di vided, dependent and pow erless. I believe that it ’ s tim e out for nervous negroes. It’s time fo r A fr i can people to do w h a t’ s neces sary to lib e ra te ourselve s fro m w h ite suprem acy and d o m in a tio n . It s tim e fo r B la ck P ow er to c o n fro n t w h ite pow er. I t ’ s tim e fo r A fric a n p e o ple to f in a lly com e o ft the p la n ta tio n to be come free and s e lf-d e te rm in in g people a gain!
