O ctober 12, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age A2
T
he realities of Black
Am erica are alm ost
invisible on PBS, the
one network with a public...
mandate, expressed by the Carnegie
Commission for Public Television in
1967: (1) to "help us see America
whole, in all its diversity"; (2) to
serve "as a forum for controversy
and debate:; and (3) to “provide a
voice for groups in the community
that may otherwise be unheard.”
In its entire history, PBS has
never lived up to that mandate... es
pecially where America’s minonties
are concerned. “Eyes on the Prize”
and i ’ll Fly Away” clearly show that
quality programming about minority
concerns is possible at PBS — but
only when dealing with the past. PBS
currently carries one program ad
dressing issues of the Black commu
nity, "Tony Brown’s Journal."While
this (well produced) show should
have its voice (and views), should
this be the only consistent program
ming on PBS dealing with issues
concerning the Black community?
PBS has along history of reject
ing programs that address issues of
particular concern to the Black com
munity - that can also serve to edu
cate and inform the rest of America.
For instance:
"TheMakingofSunCity,”. 1986.
Winner of the IDA (International
Documentary Association) Annual
Award about making the anti-apart
heid hit record “Sun City.” PBS
claimed it was really an advertise
ment for the 56 musicians who vol
unteered their time, talent and repu
tation for this project. Just one month
later. PBS bought and aired "The
Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark,”
about making one of Hollywood’s
all-time money-makers.
R ììhbd W
C O A L IT IO N
The Invisible Person At PBS
Blackout On Black America
"South Africa Now,” 1938.
When South Africa’s apartheid gov
ernment used press censorship to shut
down worldwide coverage of the free
dom struggle. South Africa Now
stepped up to fill the information
gap. PBS refused to fund or distrib
ute this program, in effect, aiding the
apartheid government in its war
against truth and justice.
"Mandela in America,” 1991.
An award-w inning documentary cov
ering Mandela’s historic visits in
Boston, New York, Washington, DC,
Atlanta and Lcs Angeles in 1990.
Connections between racism in South
Africa and racism in America were
not cosmetically concealed.
This pattern of exclusion con
tinues unabated today. Among the
missing are:
“Rights & Wrongs” - The only
regular TV series in the world that
focuses on human rights. It is hosted
by 16-year PBS veteran Charlayne
Hunter-Gault. According to the LA
Times (July 31, 1994), PBS claims
that “human rights alone is' an insuf
ficient organizing principle’ for a
PBS series.” You can see it in South
Africa, but not on PBS.
“Street Life" — A newsmagazine
covering national and international
news from an African-American per
spective. Producer Delmarie Cobb
has been told privately by PBS insid
ers that her show is "too Black.”
(Delmarie Cobb was Jesse Jackson’s
press secretary for his 1988 presi
dential campaign).
"The Fire This Time” -- A docu
mentary tracing the roots of the 1992
uprising (around Rodney King) back
to FBI and police sabotage of com
munity empowerment programs --
programs organized by the Black
Panther Party and other community
activists in response to the Watts
Riot. PBS claimed it “already cov
ered” the uprising in one 90-minute
documentary on “Frontline” that
never mentioned the issues explored
in this film.
“Passin’ It On” - A documen
tary about Black Panther leader
Doruba Bin Wahid, including the
real political program of the Pan
thers in the 1960s, the police-state
ware against the Panthers that put
him in jail for 19 years, and the
struggle that eventually freed him to
pass the torch to a new generation. It
w as rejected by PBS for prime-time
public affairs broadcast, and eventu
ally shown in the summer schedule
of “P.O. V.,” the underfunded series
pejoratively labelled as possessing a
"Point Of View,” in contrast to PBS’s
“objective programming.”
Finally, there are program s
whose concerns disproportionately
affect minority communities: “We
Do The Work” - a half-hour monthly
program focusing on the lives of
American workers, and “America’s
Defense Monitor" — a broad-minded
approach to national security that
actually includes people’s well-be
ing. With Cold War military budgets
largely intact, as our inner cities con
tinue to decay, this show is a must -
and PBS is a bust.
But invisibility is not total.
In the adding-insult-to-injury de
partm ent: PBS has ju st spent $1.5
m illion to produce a full season
of “Think T w ice,” a half-hour
quiz show. The "good new s” for
m inorities? As reported by the
New York Tim es (S eptem ber 12,
1994), its host is a B lack stand
up com ic, hired “in an effo rt to
add cultural d iv ersity ” to PBS
program m ing.
Media Fight: This has been
printed as a background and in prepa
ration for Direct Action to be taken
by the Rainbow Coalition (and oth
ers) against PBS if they do not change
their employment and opportunities
policies. If you are interested in orga
nizing a Direct Action campaign
around the media in your community
please contact Pierre R. Barolette at
the NRC at 202-728-1180. We want
to identify Rainbow activists and
organizers in 75-to-100 cities, edu
cate them with our six step process,
coordinate our efforts, and Act To
gether with pickets on a certain date.
Fulani: The Haiti Invasion
On the first day of the Clinton
administration’s “invasion” of
Haiti, U.S. troops stood by while
the goons of the m ilitary
dictator Lieut. General Raoul
Cedras beat to death demon
strators.
by
to the ground and kicked in the stom
ach.” Photos in our newspapers show
U.S. brass co-mingling with the very
same Haitian military bigwigs they
were supposedly sent to overthrow.
This is nothing new. The ties be
tween the U.S. government and the
Haitian military go back decades.
D espite a constant underm in
ing of the dem ocratic process,
the H aitian people have dem on
strated in extraordinary dedica
tion to the cause of dem ocracy -
- a dedication that has resulted in
significant victories against enor
D r . L enora F ulani
A week later, the New York
Times reported that police broke up
another pro-democracy demonstra
tion "with clubs and rifle butts... Four
men were seen being dragged away
and a pregnant woman was knocked
< ‘
I, • ' • • Ï«....
• •/ .
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
- *» • V ’•
Mental Health Care Inadequate
- - r
'he problem with the
mentally ill people on
__ 'our streets is not due
to the lack of adequate funding
for psychiatric programs.
1
e
■
The reason I say this that the
psychiatric industry is dumping their
failures on the streets and blaming
the lack of funding for their failures
rather than their own inability to
handle the human mind. Since the
early 1960s the psychiatric industry
has been allocated billions of dollars
in federal funds, over 18 billion in
1993 alone. During this time the prob
lems with the mentally ill have only
seemed to get worse.
The woman that was shot in the
Gresham Fred Meyer Store had been
in a mental ward in Providence Medi
cal Center four times in the 10 days
Wages For Skilled
Workers Not Higher
Profits
I
deposed the 30-year-old dictatorship
of the Duvaliers, and the military
regimes of General Henri Nampy
and General Prosper Avril.
In 1990 a sim ilar lavalas or
“avalanche” o f support swept the
peo p le’s priest, F ather A ristide,
into office in the fairest election
in H aitian history. But each vic
tory for dem ocracy won by the
Haitian people has been subtly
and not,,so subtly underm ii)^d:by
thp U S .g o v e rn m e n t’s equivocal
policies toyyard the dem ocratic,
forces and its quite unequivocal
and long-standing connections to
the Haitian m ilitary elite.
A sim ilar crisis during the
preparation for the 1990 e le c
tion, which eventually resulted
in Father A ristid e 's The rem oval
o f the m ilitary m ust com e with a
p u b lic a c c o u n tin g o f o u r
governm ent’s com plicity with the
dictatorship throughout most of
this century.
betters^ 0 cChe (SLfiitor
* k • *
•
mous odds. Through strikes, dem
onstrations and other overwhelming
displays ofthepopularw ill, the H a i
tians have, over the past eight years*!
uring the past 15 years
l ve learned a lot about
C T
public works projects
and the wages paid on them,
having served as director of
research for Oregon’s Bureau
of Labor and Industries and
now as an attorney in private
practice.
* .
The cost of labor on construc
tion jobs is frequently 15-20 percent
of the total cost By requiring all
employers to pay prevailing wage,
competition for work is based on
management efficiency, supply ac
quisition, overhead, and profit mar
gin .. not on who can pay the cheap
est wages to construction workers.
C onstruction workers don t
work year-round, they work fromjob
to job and are frequently unemployed
The higher the wages paid to them
help make up for frequent periods of
■
HB rfsi
Ä-'VJj'.
if I
-vi
C ittì
unemployment.
I would rather see my tax dollars
go to worker wages than to employ
ers who usually invest their profits
and retirement money in ways that
don’t help the Oregon economy. I
know that most construction workers
spend their wages on goods and ser
vices in their home communities, thus
helping their local economy. Also,
these workers are all paying taxes on
the wages they receive.
Prevailing wage laws protect
skilled workers and provide them
with the opportunity to earn a decent
living.
Repeal of these laws does
nothing more than help m anage
ment carve out a reduction in
labor costs - and substantially
increase profit m argins.
Sincerely,
Norman D. Malbin
Attorney
prior to her death. You would think
that if psychiatrists were really doing
anything that was benefiting people
this woman would have been getting
better. It seems pretty obvious that
she was only getting worse. Which
just proves my point that if the psy
chiatric industry knew anything about
the human mind and were able to
cure people, there would be fewer
mentally ill on our streets not more.
I think that the dumping of psy
chiatric failures onto the streets of
our fine city is a travesty that must
cease. We must look very closely
into cleaning up the field of mental
healing and find a viable way of
handling the mentally ill and I don’t
think subjecting them to damaging
“treatments” is the answer.
Scott Sulak
Portland
law yers can offer positive role
m odels to A frican-A m erican
youth as they strive to be the
best in their chosen law spe
cialty. Also in attendance were
17 top law firm s and g overn
m ental legal departm ents.
This was a very im pressive
and well attended job fair for
all!! As a com m unity, this fo
rum p ro v id e s
an opportunity
to hire a p o ten
The Black Law
a community, we
tial 20 new m i
“
held have the responsibility nority lawyers
SOCK
and keep them
its-i994BLSA to say ‘‘Enough is
in the Pacific
N o rth w est. As
^ h "
the Guest Host/
F a ir at the
Sponsor,
1
strongly
salute the
Portland C onference Center,
efforts
of
local
BLSA
P resi
Portland, Oregon. There were
dent.
fellow
students,
colleges,
over 30+m inority law students
and law firms in this venture to
in attendance (from Lewis and
stop the m igration of m inority
C lark C ollege, Oregon State,
law y er ca n d id a tes from the
U niversity of Oregon etc.) and
Pacific NorthW est.
these students were very im
Sincerely,
pressive and articulate They
James L. Moore, DWP/km-
would make an excellent addi
plovment
Outreach Coordinator
tion to any law firm in the Pa
Urban
leagu e o f Portland
cific N o rth w est. These future
T he A fric a n -A m e ric a n
com m unity has been under
siege by different factions of
the crim inal elem ent (inside/
outside) and crim inal justice
system . As a com m unity, we
have the responsibility to say
“Enough is enough" and take
action to help change the crim i
nal ju stic e system .
On O c to
b er 1, 1994, 44
Winners And Losers In
The Education Game II
Oregon is still being prom ised
he education estab
"the best educated citizens in
lishment seems to be
the nation by Year 2000 Since
in a neck-and neck
this announcem ent is usually
race with the nation’s industry
preceded by one about the issue
to see which can accomplish
of “C ertificates o f A dvanced
the fastest and the mostest’
M astery” , one cannot help but
“restructuring”. In the school
w onder if the schools th em
house this is referred to as
selves have been issued a C er
“reform”.
tificate in A dvanced Puffery"
Just as re
In
th e
cently
as the late
minds of many
1980s,
the edu
A m e r ic a n s ,
By
cational
estab
both trends are
Professor
lishment
and
the
an in d ic a tio n
Mckinley
media
were
all
that the system
Burt
agog
over
two
is well on its
highly
ac-
way to dow n-
claimed
additions
to
the
pedagogic
scaling the delivery of both an
literature. First, Allan Bloom s
education and jo b product. So
Closing
Of The American Mind
well developed are these trends
(Simon
&
Schuster), where Bloom
that the euphem ism s have be
is said to speak “provocatively and
com e s ta n d a r d iz e d ; fo r the
wickedly on such subjects as cul
teaching profession the b u zz
tural relativism’’’ Second, we had
word is “refo rm ” , and for in
E.D. Hirsh, Jrs Cultural literacy:
dustry, the bad news is ‘restru c
What
Every American Needs to
turing. In either case the result
Know
(Vintage Books), "Skill as
would seem to be less of a good
knowledge
and knowledge as skill”.
thing--m uch less.
In
other
words
that cognitive (unc
Now, like m ost of us, it re
tion
needs
to
draw
from a full deck
ally hurts me to be taken for a
of'bicycle’s.
fool; especially if it is an area
It’s been exactly 20 years
where one has achieved a re c
since
I headed the M inority
ognized degree of experience
T
e
a
c
h
e
rs O rg a n iz a tio n and
and expertise -- in the p artic u
scared
off
a timid rank and file
lar case, accounting, public and
by
trying
to
mount a law suit
industrial. Several industry fig
against
the
Portland
School D is
ures and editorial w riters have
trict—for failure to deliver the
been p o ntificating on the well
prom ised educational product.
being of the A m erican econom y
This was successfully done by
and no less on the com fortable
parents and disaffected teach
wages paid the em ployers. This
ers in W ashington D C. (H obso
is nothing more than sm oke and
vs Board O f E ducation; I had
m irrors when, actually, ‘re a l’
visited him and returned with
wages have shrunk alm ost 10
all the data, briefs and ex h ib
percent in the last tw enty years;
its). Often our bravest-talking
that is, m easured in term s of
‘re v o lu tio n is ts ’ and activ ists
1974 buying power.
bug
out when it com es to ch a l
This state of affairs is re
lenging
‘the m an' in a realistic
flected by the g o v e rn m e n t’s
fashion; “I d id n ’t really mean it
most recent figures on the ec o
boss, that was ju st for televi-
nomic state of a goodly part of
sio n —please d o n ’t cut me o ff
our populace: 39.3 m illion of us
for life, I got to educate my
live below the poverty level.
kids, m assa” .
T h at is 15.1 p ercen t o f all
I’m still asking the ed u ca
Am ericans. Could there be some
tional system ” what is your real
relationship here betw een the
problem ” , as if I d id n ’t know.
shrinking of jo b s and p u rch as
“ I lift my segregated southern
ing power on the one hand (stan
high school circa 1939 which
dard o f living), and the current
had a curriculum that would
and accelerating rapprochent of
have satisfied either Mr. Bloom
ed u catio n w ith in d u stry --d e -
or Mr. Hirsch: Black, white,
scribed as “refo rm ” . I en co u n
green, grey, or grizzle those
ter them at the A ssociation of
G erm ans m andated four-year
Oregon, Industries.
sequences. G eneral M athem at
Why else would they be d e
ics, A lgebra 1 & II. Geometry I&
scribing such tactics as “ b lend
II. Advanced Functions if you were
ing academ ics with new voca
bright; General Science I & II Biol
tional paths that lead to further
ogy I & II. Physics I & II, Chemis
studies and good jo b s ” , or “S tu
try I & II; English & Literature all
dents taking 'A u th e n tic Routes
the way through, Social Sciences
To S u ccess” (W hatever h ap
the same; choice of Latin or French,
pened to the role of the C om m u
Choir or Glee Club and, of course,
nity C olleges). Looking at one
Gym. I didn’t know there was any
of those frequently displayed
other kind of highschool until I got
'S chool Reform T im elines' I am
to Oregon in 1943.
rem inded that the good state of
T
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