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P age A2
D ecember 14, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
Monday, Reverend Jesse L.
Jackson spoke at the Park
Avenue Synagogue. Following
are excerpted remarks from his
speech.
"Inthenam e of religion, there is
talk ofa Christ ian culture, a Christian
nation. Yet we know that the great
ness o f America is its ecumenical
character and commitment to reli
gious tolerance Let us remember
that the concept o fa Christian coali
tion is not 9
new. In slavers times, the eco
nomic forces rationalized slaver} by
saying that African descendants were
three-fifths human Their pseudo
scientists, predecessors of Charles
Murray. rationalized slavery arguing
that Blacks had a small Cephalic
index, that our brains were smaller
The Christian Coalition rationalized
their support of these forces by say
ing that we were the cursed descen-
dantsofHam. .Germany had a Chris
tian Coalition. It betrayed the char
acter of the faith with silence or com
plicity as the notion that the Jews
killed Jesus became fuel for Führer,
killing without conscience as people
prayed in schools and churches while
C O A L IT IO N
The Christian Coalition
the trains rolled. Only a few brave
souls defied the ‘big lie.'
“Often, forces have appropriat
ed the name “Christian" but lack the
character of the faith. Theirs' is a
spirit of retribution and selfishness
that goes against the teachings of the
church. An authentic Christian Coa
lition must be measured by the char
acter of our faith, not by the appro
priation of our name. The character
ofthe Christian faith will make Amer
ica better. The character of our faith
has always obligated us to fight rac
ism, anti-semitism, fascism and
homophobia, to fight for the rights of
working people and. indeed, to reach
out to the least of these.
“In 1954, the Supreme Court
ruled that we must have equal protec
tion under the law and to integrate
our schools. Many of the Christian
Coalition chose private Christian
academies over sharing and building
culturally-diverse public schools. In
1963, Dr. King's letter from a Bir
mingham jail was written to the Chris
tian Coalition. A group ofwhite min
isters challenged his right to be in
Birmingham and the moral substance
of that mission. ..
“Where there is religious perse
cution. next comes anesthesia ofthe
conscience, from whence so often
follows ethnic cleansing and other
forms of brutal acts of inhumanity .
And so we must take this critical
opportunity now offered to us by the
rise of the polarizing right-wing in
our nation to renew our covenant
with each other and with our
faiths I lie new right-wing may have
temporarily captured the political
center, but we are concerned with
maintaining the moral center. If this
were Germany, we would call it rac
ism. Here, we call it conservatism.
And it provides a cover for a public
policy ofscapegoating, exclusion and
distrust.
“The election returns ofNovem-
ber 8th were not a mandate to in
crease the number of poor children
or frighten us into a more racially-
polarized society. The forces o f rac
ism and intolerance are heading
downhill like a truck with no brakes-
-gaining speed and losing control.
We have an obligation to take
responsibility for speaking the
truth about these issues—because
the truth is the only brake that
can stop this tru ck ’s dangerous
m om entum .”
CIVIL RIC/HTS JOURNAL
Out Of Sight Will Not Be Out Of Mind
b \
B f . rnice P owell J ackson
was killed himself by other teens.
The Chicago district attorney sug
ewt Gingrich’s term as
gested that there were other children,
Speaker of the House
even as young as eight, who were
of Representatives is
involved in violence and that the
off to a frightening start. problem
His
is that we have no way to
call for the use of orphanages
lock them up at that age. Locking up
to reduce the welfare rolls
8 year olds is not the solution. Nei
should be a wake-up call and a
ther is sending the children ofjobless
call to action for each and every
single mothers to orphanages. Put
one of us. His plan gives new
ting people out of sight is not going to
meaning to the old joke about
put them out ofmind. Thelivesofour
the person who shows up on
children are too important for such
your doorstep and says, “I’m
political rhetoric and partisan poli
from the government and I’m
tics.
here to help you.”
The lives ofour children are too
Mr. Gingrich has proposed al
important to leave them to the gov
lowing states to end payments to
ernment Rememberthat famous line
unmarried mothers under 2 1 and to
“Ask not what your country can do
then use those funds for a “boarding
for you, ask what you can do for your
school or a group home" where chil
country.” We must re-create that at
dren of jobless mothers might be
titude in our communities. National
placed. He then suggested that Mrs.
Urban League President Hugh Price
Clinton, who had criticized this plan
has been advocating a fund whereby
as “unbelievable and absurd,” watch
those who have can give - $500 or
Boystown, the sentimental movie of
$1,000 a year to save our youth.
nearly six decades ago.
William Belton, a prisoner in Sing-
Mr. Gingrich is by no means the
Sing, has written me suggesting that
only person advocating this “put them
every African American - young or
away” mentality. This summer we
old, wealthy or poor, even those in
watched the sad case of 11 -year-old
prison should give to a fund for our
Robert Sandifer unfold in Chicago,
youth. We must raise dollars from
when he killed a teenage girl and then
our own communities for our youth
N
But the lives ofour children are
too important for the government not
to provide funds as well Manyofthe
problems our youth face today re
volve around the scarcity o f jobs in
our communities. Our government
has yet to develop a comprehensive
strategy for dealing with the enor
mous changes in the job market over
the past decade, as we transform from
an industrial economy into a service
and information economy. The large-
scale reduction of blue-collar un
skilled jobs has had enormous im
pact on communities of color. Put
ting people to work cleaning up parks
and fl ipping hamburgers is not a long
term solution for supporting fami
lies.
Families need other kinds of
support as well - from government
and from people. The children in
volved in the violence or facing ne
glect or abuse are children o f fami
lies in crisis. They are children of
families who don’t know how to be
families. We need programs to help
families learn how to be families We
need people in our communities to
help families learn how to be fami
lies.
The lives of our children are too
important for us all not to be in
better 'Ua
volved, directly and personally.
That's what Kent and Carmen Amos
did in Washington. D C. nearly 15
years ago. They started inviting the
childrenoftheir community into their
own home at night for dinner and
conversation and study sessions.
Their numbers grew to 20 or 25 a
night and in 10 years their extended
family grew to 100 young people, 35
ofwhom have already graduated from
college and another 28 of whom arc
attending college.
That extended family concept
has grown into the Urban Family
Institute, organized by the Amoses to
facilitate safe environments for ev
ery child, to change the process that
creates and perpetuates destructive
behavior and to provide a framework
for community-wide nurturing. Ex
tending the family. That’s what our
grandmothers and great-grandmoth
ers did before us. That’s what we can
do again. That's what government
needs to help communities find ways
to do. Orphanages and prisons for
children are not the answer. Extend
ing the family is - we must keep our
children in our sight and in our mind
all the time.
(SJditar
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
The Destiny Of The Race Is In Our Hands
s I reflect retrospect-
ively about the arduous
task of organizing the
National State of the Race
Conference (SORC) held in
Baltimore November 17-20, and
contemplate prospectively the
potential impact of the SORC, I
am convinced that as Africans
in America we must face one
fundamental fact: the destiny
of the race is in our hands.
In spite of the State of Emergen
cy afflicting the masses of African
people in this country and through
out the Pan-African world, we must
find the resolve to rise above our
circumstances to rescue and restore
the race. Without that sense of re
solve the SORC would not have oc
curred
The SORC was an event that
was necessary, an essential coming
together at a crucial moment in the
life and times of Africans in this
hostile nation. As I recounted in an
earlier article, the SORC did not be
come a reality because we had the
money or the staff to make it happen
Indeed, organ izing the SORC seemed
to be an impossible undertaking giv
en our lack of resources and staff.
However, we were not deterred As
organizers we saw what needed to be
done and launched out on faith The
„»i
4
overwhelming success of the SORC
is a testimony o f faith, tenacity and
will.
As African people we are called
upon to discover within ourselves
that same faith, tenacity and will as
we struggle to reconstruct the Black
community into the 2 1 st century. We
must take responsibility forourselves,
our people, the black Nation and the
Pan-African world We must find the
resolve to be self-initiating, self-reli
ant and self-determining. We must
organize ourselves, our collective
intellect, energy and resources to re
gain our place in the forefront of
human history. In spite ofthe horri
ble and debilitating crises we face as
Africans in America and the world,
we must have the faith (Imani) that
ultimately we will be victorious.
As the SORC unfolded in Balti
more it was clear, to all who would
allow themselves to feel, listen and
leam, where the source of our collec
tive will as an African people is to be
found. The source of our strength
and power is in our culture and spir
ituality. There was a spirit and power
at the SORC that was nourished by
the emphasis on African culture and
spirituality at the conference It was
this emphasis on culture and spiritu
ality which so infused the partici
pants with enthusiasm for the work
and filled the participants with the
thirst for fellowship, bonding and
community that all of the mistakes
and problems of the conference be
came inconsequential.
The African nation was ch er
ishing a friendly union with it
self. By the time we reached the
celebration o f Pan-African World
C ulture on Saturday evening and
concluded with the Spiritual C el
ebration on Sunday m orning the
whole conference was on a cu l
tural and spiritual high that was
incredible. The ancestors, and the
G od(s) o f our “weary years" and
“silent tears,” the G od(s) o f our
legacy o f historical achievem ent
were with us.
And, so it must be as we move
forward with the formidable task of
raising up a race battered by the
holocaust of enslavement and brutal
ized by centuries of oppression un
der a global system of white suprem
acy Culture is the repository o f our
historical memory of ourselves in all
of its fullness - the tragedies and
triumphs - and the foundation for our
future development as a race And,
our African culture is at once a re
flection of and source of our spiritu
ality an and African people. It is in
our culture and spirituality that is to
be found the moral codes that should
guide our behavior toward each oth
er and the world. It is in our culture
and spirituality that is to be found the
historical examples o f courage, re
sistance and victorious struggles that
can and must serve as the source of
inspiration in the trying moments of
our sojourn on this planet. It is in our
culture and spirituality that is to be
found the faith to face adversity and
not be turned around; the faith to
confront disaster and not be over
come by apathy and inaction; the
faith to see in the impossible the
prospects of possibility.
It is with that faith, a faith ground-
ed/rooted in our African culture and
spirituality that we must proceed with
the awesome task of restoring the
race. It is that faith which you must
feel in your heart and soul as we
tackle this enormous task It is this
faith, with its capacity to inspire vi
sion, love, hope, compassion, com
mitment, dedication, energy and righ
teous work, which must become con
tagious in African communities in
this country and the Pan-African
world. It is this faith that will give
African people the will to win.
Persons interested in participat
ing in the follow-up to the SORC
should call: 4IO-383-9555 or write
SORC c/o NBUF, 50 Park Place
#938, Newark, NJ 0 7 102.
p e r s p e e tir e s
Art Of “Blaming
The Victim” Reaches
New Heights
39
ow desperate were
the Republicans for
a victory last month?
Let’s put it this way. Their
political strategists figured
that if six years earlier the
Bush campaign people could
come up with the black crime
issue wrapped in a single
package (Willie Horton) as a
lead pipe cinch to win an
election, then, surely several
hundred thousand black
w ould be a m o re -th a n -
successful budget issue
(welfare and other income
security payments to the
poor).
As I have r
indicated in
recent a rti
cles, this ap
proach (a t
tack) has been
collateralized
by assaults on ......
the I.Q. o f blacks and their
ability to grasp m odern civ ili
zation. But, it being the case
th at’ a rose by any other name
sm ells as sw eet’, I have also
d elineated a parallel “white
w elfare” structure supported
by the tax p ay ers (in clu d in g
African A m ericans).
This system was com prised
of, first, the leading m ultina
tional corporations in ag ricu l
ture and food processing to the
tune o f hundreds o f billions
each year. And in addition to
these direct su bsidies, there
were m yriad ‘d o le -o u ts ’ by
congressm en to th eir biggest
campaign contributors.
Now, in som e other uni
verse, this situation would be
h ila r io u s
because
th e
“Solom on P lan” (R .N .Y .), d e
scribed as a radical restru c
tu rin g ’ by the most co n serv a
tive o f R epublicans, contem
plates “a reduction o f w elfare
and alm ost all other program s
for the poor by a total o f $ 150
billion over the next five y ears.
But please note that w hile this
cut will be absolutely dev as
tating for the poor, in the same
time frame, the m ultin atio n
a l’s “w elfare” will be $3 tril
lion (5 years m ultiplied by 600
billion per year, and ju st for
agriculture).
Y ou w ill n o te th a t we
h av en ’t even m entioned the
trillions in w elfare gotten away
with by the “ Savings and Loan”
people during the 1980’s, and
we could go on ad infinitum
ju st listing the rascals reported
by S enator P roxm ire in his
w e e k ly
“ G o ld e n
F le e c e
Award” ... billions upon billions
paid to defense contractors by
the Pentagon: $600 w renches
and $800 toilet seats. Boy, those
colored people on welfare ought
to be ashamed, they might drive
this nation to econom ic ru/n.
W hites support their habits.
But wait a minute, why does
everyone keep saying "those
colored people” on the dole?
A ren’t there any whites who
are down on their luck? What
about the tim ber industry, all
the industry lay-offs and re
structuring? Must not be any,
The N ew spapers and television
(including P o rt
la n d )
se ld o m
show any but A f
By
rican Am ericans
Professor receiving serv ic
Mckinley
es. A num ber o f
Burt
ten me about this
ugly racist skewing o f dem o
graphics, including a form er
student o f mine who manages a
local social agency. “ It makes
it difficult for both the p rovid
ers (whose allocations or co n
tributions are way down), and
for truly needy white clients
who are often confronted with
steely stares and d isb elief.”
Perhaps worst o f all is the
fact o f an increasing reduction
o f the standard of living o f those
African Am ericans who have
worked, scraped and sacrificed
to escape the most immediate
ghetto, only to find that the
white public authorities (city
and county) have raised the
“ Black Skin Tax” astronom i
cally. Back on August 18, the
O regonian carried an article on
page A3 which also appeared in
the New York Times; “ A naly
sis Finds Suburban Taxes Pe
nalize B lacks.” It may be su r
prising to some (but not to me),
that most o f this rip o ff occurs
in the North.
T h is is a c ru e l and
unexcusable burden to place on
the backs o f hundreds o f th o u
sands o f law abiding, tax -p ay
ing, loyal citizens who, among
other things, will be the first
laid o ff in econom ic downturns
and who are salvaged by other
versions o f the “ Black Skin
T ax ” . M ore revelations next
week on the real estate hustle
and other thefts practiced by
that great mass o f “decent, law-
abiding, long-suffering m iddle
class whose standard o f living
has been re d u ced by b lack
“ loafers” (Try v ictim s’).
:__ _________________ J
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