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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1995)
P age B ö A prii . 5, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver Race And IQ In The War Against m N o r m R. A l i lx j k . teachers believed that Blacks were genetically inferior to Whites. If these dubious educators en trusted to teach Black students have such low expectations o f them, most likely they are neither able nor will ing to teach them properly. But the rigid biodeterminists would proba bly argue that no matter how hard one tries to teach the stupid Blacks, they will not learn anyway. And the few Blacks who are intelligent wjll learn regardless o f encouragement or the lack thereof. But fortunately, throughout his tory, many educators have ignored the racists. There are numerous examples o f educators who have been deter mined to teach all students to the best o f their ability. Examples include Marva Collins who has taught poor Black chi Idren in Chicago, and 1 laime Escalante who has taught calculus to poor Latino Students in East L A. At Hostos-Lincoln Academy o f Science in the South Bronx, many students are excelling in their studies. As Lynell Hancock writes in the Octo ber 24, 1994 issue o f Newsweek, "These 300 black and Latino stu dents provide the basis for a strong re to rt to "T h e B ell C u r v e .'” W ith the popularity o f the con troversial book The Bell C urse by political scientist Charles Murray and the late psychologist Richard J. H erm stein, increasing numbers o f W hites are embracing the idea that Blacks, on average, are mentally in ferior to W hites and Asians. Indeed. Rutgers University President Francis Law rence has stated that Blacks con stitute "a disadvantaged population that doesn't have that genetic hered itary background to have a higher average' on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT.) And ironically, Law rence has in the past condemned The Bell Curve and reportedly refused to read it. Moreover, Lawrence, who was defended by Black analyst Carl T. Rowan, has an excellent record in his career at Tulane and Rutgers, in prom oting affirmative action poli cies. He has also apologized for his controversial remarks. One can only wonder how many leading educators and univ ersity pres idents throughout the U.S. believe Blacks to be genetically inferior to other groups. One writer estimated that in the late I980s/early 1990s, one out o f four eighth grade biology Afrocentric scholar Asa G. Hilliard and other Black educators have re ported that there are schools where Black students at elementary levels are doing advanced mathematics Furtherm ore, most o f A merica s Black doctors, scientists and engi neers come, not from schools with White supremacist instructors and administrators, but from historically Black colleges with faculty who be lieve in them. But most White supremacists, such as J. P h illip e R ushton, a neoeugenicist and author o f Race, Evolution and Biology, argue that Blacks have made no "significant contribution to civilization" This kind o f "thinking," however, is root ed in arrogant Eurocentric assump tions. All one has to do is carefully study the history o f Egypt, Knobby . Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali, Songhay and other civ ilizations to debunk this White supremacist myth. Joseph McCabe, writing in Keys to Culture (book 3, p. 50, 1927), related: "four thousand years ago, when civilization was already two thousand years old, white men were just a bunch o f semisavages on the outskirts o f the civilized world. If there had been anthropologists in Coming b Coming To Pow ell's Saturday Storytelling Weekly at 10:00 am: Saturday Storytelling continues weekly at 10:00 am in the Gold Room. All ages are welcome. Fol low ing is a list of story telling to p ics for A pril: • A pril 8th - Pow ell's favor ites. • A pril 15th - Bunny Stories followed by a fun craft activity. To day's project is best suited for ages 4 and up. • A pril 22nd - Earth day. Join us for some ecological stories. • A pril 29th - Children’s au thor illustrator and Portland artist Nancy Coffelt. See details below. • Book P resentations S a tu r day the 8th 10:30 am Powell's welcomes Language Arts students from Newport Middle Street Drug Dealers Arrested subject was arrested on an outstand ing Robbery Parole Violation. The mission was part o f an on going effort to impact illegal drug activity in residential neighborhoods. Officers targeted areas based on in formation from concerned citizens, and observations by Neighborhood Liaison Officers. Similar missions will be con ducted in the future. Gang Enforcement Team offic ers recently targeted street drug deal ers during a mission, in Northeast Portland neighborhoods. The officers, posing as would be drug buyers, were contacted by deal ers. After agreeing to sell drugs, ar rests were made. Four women and seven men were taken into custody. All were charged with Possession and or Distribution o f Cocaine. One ROAD SAFETY PROMOTED “ The car kits are a p erfect w ay for everyone to begin p re p a rin g for an em ergency, large or sm all,” said Sue Patterson. Red C ro ss d isa ste r p re p a re d n ess sp e c ia list. The safety kits cost S 15.99 with proceeds to support local Red Cross programs. They are available at the Red Cross bu i Iding, Health and Safety Department, 3131 N. Vancouver Ave. The Red Cross has added a car safety kit to its line o f safety prod ucts, which includes a variety o f first aid kits, supplies and disaster kits. The car kit was created in part nership with Consum erC areC orp.. a local manufacturer. They contain first aid materials, a non-flammable can o f fix-a-flat, ice scraper and other basic safety items. Egypt, Crete, and Babylon, they would have pronounced the white race obviously inferior, and might have discoursed learnedly on the su perior germ plasm of...colored folk,” It is ironic that Murray (who is o f Irish ancestry ) and Hermstein (a Jew) promote the same kind o f ra cialist drivel that was used against their forebears in this century. In the 1920s it was common ly be I ie ved that Poles, Irish and Italians were genet ically inferior to other Europeans. And later. H itler's scholars deemed the mythical "Aryan" race superior to all others, with the Jews placed at the bottom o f the genetic hierarchy. But zealous bigots who are ea ger to promote an unsound ideology are not concerned that their kind o f propaganda can be used against them selves. Indeed, Daniel Vining Jr., a University o f Pennsylvania eugeni- cist confined to a w heelchair due to a stroke he suffered, watched a Nazi eugenics film with Adam Miller o f Rolling Stone magazine, and com mented, “ I probably would have been exterminated m yself" Yet he per sists in promoting his eugenics pro gram, while denigrating the intelli gence o f others! If other racist scholars were so ► Powell's School, present ing book talks. These students have each created a unique product in response to a book they have read. Today’s presentations will include songs, videos, paint ings and much more. This event will take place in the Purple Room. Nancy Coffelt Saturday the 29th 10 am Nancy Coffelt, Portland artist and children’sauthor/illustrator, will present her new book, The Dog Who Cried Woof. Join us for a drawing presentation along with the story o f Ernie, a big lovable dog who barks at everything. The peo ple he lives with have learned to ignore Erinie’s barking, but eventu ally, Ernie discovers that a well- timed bark will get him the attention he deserves. Other books by Nancy Coffelt include Dogs in Space, Good Night, Sigmund and T om 's Fish. Readings at Powell’s Ivan Klima Sunday, April 2 7:30 pm: Ivan Klima was in the United Staes when Russian tanks entered Prague in 1968, but against the advice o f friends and colleagues, he returned home. He became a dissident, writing books (never official ly pbulished) that were invariably inspired by Czechoslovakia’s repressive regine. But what hap pens to a rebel artist when there is Computer Security Device Offered To Public The Portland Police Bureau in cooperation with Multnomah Coun ty Library, is offering a new security service to owners o f personal com puters known as "M ICRO-ID". MI CRO-ID is a software program that internally marks a personal comput er’s hard drive in multiple locations with specific information about the owner. In addition, the program takes an internal inventory o f the computer and records this data. Such detailed information helped law enforcement officers determine the lawful owner of a stolen computer and w hether any parts have been removed. Once a computer has been prop erly “encoded" thieves will not be able to determine that the machine has been marked. On the other hand, police officers using a security “de coding” program entitled “Cop- O n ly " will easily be able to ascertain whether the computer has been en coded and by whom. CASCADE BUSINESS CENTER M arch S pecial ! 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P O N T IA C -B U IC K -G M C ------ O regon ' s N umber O ne GMC D ealer 95 Suburbans Ready For Delivery ?F 7.5 Acres Of Cars And Trucks ?F Oregon's Premier Gm Service Department ?F Sale - Trade - Lease t F Ask For Clarence Larkins and hostile, and demanded that hate speech and racist literature be al lowed to flourish in academia Mean while, they launched rabid verbal and written attacks against Blacks and others they accused o f threaten ing the alleged beauty and unity o f American culture. And these attacks have not surprisingly created a huge market for books such as The Bell Curve T h ro u g h o u t h isto ry , som e B lacks have responded to the b i zarre n o tio n s o f W hite su p re m a cists with b iz a rre notions o f th e ir own But B lacks need not resort to senseless talk o f "w hite d e v ils,” B lack genetic su p e rio rity , the magic o f m elanin, etc. F ig h t ing h atred and n o n sen se w ith m ore h atred and nonsense w ill not give B lacks m oral auth o rity or intellectu al cred ib ility . B lacks m ust c o n tin u e to think c ritic a lly , and to d efend th em selv es in a c o u rag eo u s, in tellig en t and d ig nified m anner. And this, u n fo rtu n a te ly , w ill p r o b a b ly be a n ev eren d in g task. Norm R. Allen Jr, is the execu tive director o f African Americans for Humanism, headquartered in Buffalo, New York. inclined, they could devise tests in the name o f science to support all kinds o f views. Some might search for a genetic basis to support the idea o f the greedy, stingy, deceptive, ma nipulative, wandering and conspira torial Jew. Some might seek a genet ic basis for the alleged weakness of N a tiv e A m e ric a n s. O ne co u ld argue that Irish and Italians are g en etically p re d isp o se d to e n gage in crim e and v iolence. Some m ight search for a gene to ex plain the alleged greed, a g g re s sion and d e stru c tiv e nature o f E u ropean "Ic e P e o p le .” Som e m ight even suggest that, because W hite A m erican teens have far m ore c h ild re n out o f w edlock than do th e ir E uropean c o u n te r parts, th ere is a gen etic c o m p o nent to W hite A m erican teen p ro m iscuity! T he sky is the lim it for crazy, ra c ist and irre sp o n sib le " s c h o la rsh ip .” The drive to further tarnish the image o f Black people is largely fu eled by the reactionary and racist enemies o f so-called political cor re c tn e ss. W ith the rise o f Afrocentrism, multiculturalism and other calls for inclusion and diversi ty, angry whites became defensive CL lie U n rt latió O b s t r u e r WESTON “ lacks 655-2166 • 22555 SE Stark • 255-3840 (503) 283-8624 PREVIOUSLY CALLED GEORGE AUTO CARE IS NOW CALLED PRESIDENTIAL AUTO CHECK IT OUT
