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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1994)
P age N ovember A2 30, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver WEDNESDAY MORNING BLUES SONG b \ B eknice P owell J ackson It’s been called an earth- quake, a revolution, a h u m 's. cane, a tidal wave, a land slide and probably a few other things as well By w hatever name you use, the elections o f 1094 mean change for the American people For people o f color in this country, the elections o f 1994 may very well be a night mare come true ^Jl Make no mistake about it. I’m not talking about partisanship and blind support o f the Democratic Par ty. In my own family my father was a Republican w hen he died in the 1950s. But the Republicans now in power - Orrin Hatch, Newt Gingrich, Jesse Helms. Strom Thurmond. Alphonse D ’Amoto, Phil Gramm and Robert Dole - have never been good news for people o f color Take, for example, their posi- tions on the Voting Rights Act o f 1990. Everyone ofthem voted against it. We could look at their past records on other legislation impacting peo ple o f color as well The records would be similar But ju s t im p o rtan t as past re c o rd s are the annou n ced in te n tio n s for the future o f the new R ep u b lican lead ersh ip . F or e x a m p le , t h e ir “ C o n tr a c t w ith A m e ric a ” d e c la re s w ar on w e l fare. T h e ir so lu tio n s to the need for w e lfa re reform in clu d e e x c lu d in g teen ag e un m arried m o th ers and legal alie n s un d er age 75 from w e lfare a lto g e th e r, re q u ir ing u n m a rrie d a d u lt m o th e rs to get high school d ip lo m a s or face lo sin g $75 per m onth in b e n e fits and a life tim e lim it o f five y ears on w e lfa re for ev e ry o n e , w ith a tw o y e a r c o n se c u tiv e m axim um lim it. In a d d itio n a l, th e ir plan THIS WAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT B y D r . L enora F ulani Crown Heights Was Not A Pogrom. But It Could Have Been A Bloodbath. I first heard about the death o f Gavin Cato while 1 was on my way back to Manhattan from St. John’s University in Queens, where I had particip ated in a student protest against the acquittal o f four young white men who had been charged with raping a Black student. When 1 heard that Gavin, a seven-year-old Black child, had been run over by a car in the entourage ofthe Lubavitcher Grand Rebbe, 1 drove immediately to Crown Heights. When I got to the block where the Cato family lived, 1 thought I had entered a war zone. What seemed like an army o f police officers dressed in riot gear were staked out across the street; some o f them were up on the roofs, pointing sniper rifles. Outside the building where the Catos lived. 400 or 500 Black youth armed only with rocks and bottles faced down the police, while crowds o f Hasidic men milled around. The anger o f the young Black men was directed not at the Hasidim, but at the police. It was an extremely tense situation, and I realized that there could be a bloodbath unless someone stopped it. It turned out that the Reverend A1 Sharpton, attorney Alton Maddox and Sonny Carson were inside with the Cato family. I went around the block and asked some o f the Black women I saw to help me talk to the youth, but they refused. So I went back and stood in the middle o f the street, demanding that the commanding officer on the scene pull back his men so I could have room to work with the youth, and to persuade these enraged young men not to give any o f the officers a pretext for blowing their heads off. For ten hours, I talked myself hoarse. Eventually, the police did pull back. The snipers were called down from the rooftops. The kids called me every nasty name in the book, but they did cool down and none o f them died that day - which might not have been the case had the police been provoked into showing the kind o f force that the governor’s special assistant on crime, Richard Girgenti, later argued was required. Girgenti did not interview me for his report. He was originally as signed by the governor only to inves tig a te th e sta b b in g o f Y ankel Rosenbaum and the subsequent pros ecution and acquittal o f Lemrick Nelson. It was not until the day after Senator Alfonse D- Amato announced his intention to run for governor that Mario Cuomo - apparently concerned to prevent conservative Jewish vot ers' defection to D'Am ato - that he expanded G irgenti’s mandate to in clude an investigation o f the Crown Heights riots and the conduct o f the Dinkins administration in dealing with them. When politics comes be fore principle, even Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum must be sacri ficed on the altar o f political expedi ence. Lemrick Nelson, who now fac es charges for federal civil rights violations, is just the latest offering. A number o f political commen tators have pointed out that G irgenti’s report on Crown Heights - coming on the eve o f the mayoral election in New York City last year - effectively prevented Mayor Dinkins from be ing reelected by placing the blame for Yankel Rosenbaum’s death on Dinkins’ unwillingness to allow the police to move against the Black community w ith sufficient force. The truth is that if the police had not acted with some restraint in that situation, New York City - and other cities around the country - might well have erupted with bloody race riots which would have made Los Angeles seem tame by comparison. Recently, one o f the police com manders 1 confronted in Crown Heights came over to me and introduced him self. He thanked me for the role I had played in preventing a catastrophe, Sgt. Kelvin Alexander, a Black police officer who is the president of the Guardians Association o f the Transit Police Department (the Guardians are a fraternal organization o f African American police officers), and who was also in Crown Heights in August o f 1991, has said publicly that his organization endorsed my recent cam paign for governor because I am offer ing “real solutions” to the violence crisis. The Crow n H eights incident continues to be used as a political football which opportunistic politi cians o f both major parties toss about for their own partisan interests. Until we take on their racialistic opportun ism, violence will flourish. better rC^Che_ (SJfrtor Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 What Is Acting by N yewlisi A skari Recently, a very popular televi sion host did a show about people who preferred to act, dress and be have differently than members o f their own ethnic group. The panel was split down the middle between whites who said they wished they had been bom black and blacks who had adopted white styles and behav iors. And, as you might suspect, it turned out to be a very heated show. What got my goat was the at tempts by the host and black panel members to downplay all definitions o f “what black is.” Almost everytime the subject o f acting black or being black came up. black panel members would express an ignorance o f its true meaning. By the time the show as h alf over, most white audience members were in agreement that def initions o f white n’ black were not important; that African Americans should get off the definition band wagon and just look at themselves as humans The agreement generated hos tile disagreement between blacks and whites in the audience. Tragically, the same degree o f hostility exists betw een African A m ericans and whites in the larger society. One cause o f the friction has to do with how African Americans continue to de fine themselves. In the minds o f many Ameri cans, African Americans are simply Americans, not African, not black. The concept o f “ I see no color when I look at you” stems from that mind set. So does the expression, “I see you as a human being, not a black or A frican A m erican human being. “Sounds good doesn’t it? The only thing wrong is, good sounding ex pressions about race and ethnicity are not going to change the way in which African A m ericans define themselves. Why some people fail to realize is, “African Americans cannot es cape from their African ethnicity or their African ancestral roots.” Most African Americans know this, and more are learning it everyday. At the foundation o f that under standing is the realization that our African ancestors transm itted the genes and blood that are responsible for the color o f our skin, the texture o f our hair ‘n ’ skin and the physical features we were bom with. On top of that, our culture is an African-in- spired culture - from the language we speck to the dances we dance to the many ways in which we worship God. But quite as its kept, it’s that way in most pockets o f America. lack? Germans retain their ties to Ger man ancestry. The Irish retain their ties to Irish ancestry. An on *n’ on it goes. Why? Because the retention of ancestral roots is important in ethnic, group, racial, cultural and family identification. It identifies a begin ning. It defines custom, culture and ritual. It gives shape and definition to traditions, folklore, folktales, music, dance and other cultural forms as they evolve over time. Now back to the television show. The confusion among the black panel members about “what is black or African American” shouldn’t have existed. That points to a lack of under standing about who they are. In black popular speech, the world “black” is simply another term for the word “Af rican" Thus, when I am acting “black,” 1 am acting “African.” That means I am following the customs, rituals and behaviors passed on me by my ances tors and my elders. W hether some people believe it or not, our African ancestors and elders passed on time-honored, time- tested customs, rituals and behaviors which sustained African Americans for centuries. What has many Afri can Americans in a panic now is the fact that many o f those customs, rit uals and behaviors have not been passed on to our children! Those customs and rituals not only instructs how we are to treat others, but, also, how to go about properly raising African American children. Most African A merican baby boomers were exposed to those customs and rituals, especially those o f us who grew up in the deep South. However, many o f us have done a poor jo b o f passing them on, yet, we employ them as we go about our everyday lives. We try to make sure we are polite. We try to make sure we are fair. We try to make sure we are tolerant o f people who are different. W e try to make sure we honor and respect our elders. We try to make sure we continue to respect and w ork shop our Creator. We try to make sure w e’re not speaking profane. We try to make sure we put our children first. Being black or acting black is all o f those things and more. It is about coming from an established place where honor and respect are prima ry, social, virtues. It’s about honor ing and respecting the best o f your self so that you can honor and respect the best o f others who are coming from a different cultural space. Because, as Brotha Marvin Gaye told us, “Ain nothin like the real thang!” An Open Letter To Former Governor Neil Goldschmidt D e a r G o v e rn o r: We write this letter out o f con cern for our State and all its citizens. As you may recall, we and other Crime Victims United members have been close observers o f O regon's criminal Justice System for many years. You can imagine our surprise and great dismay when we heard the Department o f Corrections announce that the institutional capacity had doubled during your term. When the citizens hear that the capacity has doubled, they expect twice as many inmatestobe incarcerated Thatclear- ly is not the case According to your Task Force Study (June 1, 1988), there were 4,610 inmates in Oregon prisons. As a result o f “overcrowd ing”, there were an additional 1,001 inmates on “temporary leave’ status. If just the number who were actually in prison had doubled, we would have 9,220 inmates in prison How ever, we now have approximately 6,600 in our prison system In addition, we have included a copy o f the capacity study survey done by Dr. Richard Seiter, Director o f the Ohio Department o f Correc tions. He was selected as a consultant to conduct a capacity survey o f the Oregon corrections system for the Department o f Correction and your Task Force. This survey was includ ed as Chapter 4, Institutional Capac ity, in your Task Force on Correc tions Planning Publication issued in August 1988 With minimal adjustments such as adding double bunks. Dr Richard Seiter found a recommended total capacity limit of existing facilities to be 4985 (or 9970 if doubled.) This must be very embarrassing to you to be a party to such an uncon scionable hoax on the public. Cer tainly the intent o f the public was not to supply inmates with more space, but instead to incarcerate more of fenders. The criminals not incarcerated (80% o f convicted felony offenders) are obviously creating our victims. This is not merely a political issue, but a matter o f life and death o f innocent people. The “doubled pris on capacity" disinformation has been printed and reprinted. It has been referred to by the m edia and by Crim inal Justice Officia Is repeatedly until now it is accepted as concrete fact. It is our hope that you will ad dress this issue. This ty pe o f decep tive misinformation is exactly why the people have little respect for and have lost confidence in their leaders. Thank you for your attention. Bob and Dee Dee Kouns and M embers o f Crime Victims United d o es not give a d d itio n a l b e n e fits to m o th ers w ho have a d d itio n a l c h ild re n and re q u ire s m o th ers to su b m it to drug and a lc o h o l te s t ing and tre a tm e n t. W hile the wel fare reform proposed in the contract takes dollars away from mothers, it increases funding for group homes and orphanages, where, presumably, children o f these unfit mothers will be placed. The message that many o f us received from the elections is that America is struggling for its very heart and soul. As our economy changes and many o f the old blue- collar industrial jobs disappear, we are tempted to care only for and about our own. “W e’ve got it bad and that ain’t good. T hat’s the message I got from the elections. W e’ve a lot o f soul searching to do. We can only sing the blues for so long. Then w e’ve got to do something about them. p e r s p e c t i v e s Portland Blacks Defend Their I.Q.s ust like that famous ending Count Basie tacked on to his rendition of “April In Paris,” this I.Q. series seems to have a built-in “after-life.” Thanks for all those clippings from the “Doonesbury” strip from the comic section of the Nov. 13 Sunday Oregonian: “In an information-driven economy, society's class lines seem increasingly determined by knowledge and intellectual merit!” Whatever that is. 3 I a g re e , Trudeau is try ing to tell us something - and a lot o f p o o r white folks too. I hope the rest o f you got the point as well, seeing through the thinly- veiled reference: to industry dow n turns and layoffs to come. Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Here Ye! “More than at any time in our history, brains, not brawn, are key to economic suc cess... W ill you be part o f the new cognitive elite, will you make the cut?” And a worried Zonker ven tures, “ Hold it! What about those o f us who don’t know how to use a... oh-oh.” You w ouldn’t need to be a m ember o f that “cognitive elite” to know his next word would have been “computer.” If you’ve been listening to all that “ Information Electronic Highway” jargon being developed by the “language depart ments” o f the big advertising agen cies on the payroll o f the supporting hardware and software vendors and major communication companies. I’m sure that is how the marketing sector o f industry operates these days - specialists in goal-oriented metaphors, similes and icons please apply here. Preference given to ed ucation, curriculum specialists mill ing around, afraid they had outlived their usefulness (haven't felt secure since “the metric system” and the “new math” went by the wayside.) One reader reminded me o f a 1989 article in which I described the demise o f those “big old m ulti room (7 or 8) homes that we poor people could afford “back then" - when they went, the older families went, because they could not be accom m odated in the cute little cracker-boxes-on-concrete slabs m asquerading as homes. So much for my allusion to yester-year’s ex perienced providers to tutor and nurture children at critical stages. As a friend o f mine used to say, “w e’ve got to have some mau mau and some grandma.” That judgem ent call on your intellect (I.Q.) prompted by a re sponse to a series o f questions about nothing in particular, but which spe cifically reveal your exposure to a “know ledge environm ent” com posed o f the ele ments I cited in the Nov. 16 article is w hat determ ines that fateful “quo tient” and your en suing place on that “ b e ll-s h a p e d - curve.” In that same article, I point ed out that I revisited the childhood “ incubator” that had stigmatized some o f us with the “ low-I.Q.” den igration and found that most had achieved m agnificently in those o c c u p a tio n s and p ro fe s s io n s deemed to require high levels o f cognitive skills. In any case, let us be aware o f what is driving this most recent round o f attacks on African Amer ican intelligence. The right wing, wanting to ensure a victory by con servatives, needed an emotional is sue to which an increasingly inse cure electorate would respond, vio la! “ Blacks on welfare and too dumb to get off.” But what about “white welfare.” Thousand times larger: -$ 100 mi ll ion to Sunkist, Gallo, M E M ’s C a m p b e ll’s S o u p s, McDonalds and others to advertise their products abroad. -$135.6 million to private tim ber companies that owe taxpayers for timber purchased but are al lowed to default without conse quences. -$1 billion toContinental Grain, Cargill, Inc. and Louis Dreyfus for free shipping o f wheat, com and other commodities. Ju st the tip o f the ic e b e rg as R e p u b lic a n s plan to cu t “ b lack w e lfa re ,” food stam p s, school lu n c h e s, W IC , M e d ic a re and o th e r “w a ste .” Oh yes. S e n a to r G ram m g o t b illio n s fo r th a t a b a n d o n e d hole in T ex as. 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