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P age A? A pril 26, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver Editorial Articles Do Not Neccessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f The JJortlanh (©bscruer Newspaper Or Its Staff ormer history profes sor and now Speaker of th e H o u s e N ew t Gingrich does not practice what he teaches-history. Responding to an affirmative ac tion question. The Washington Post reported. "Gingrich dismissed the ar gument that the beneficiaries o f affir mative action, commonly African Americans, have been subjected to discrimination over a period o f centu ries "That is true of virtually every American,' Gingrich said, noting that the Irish were discriminated against by the English, for example .” Despots and other totalitarians like to burn the books—i.e., start his tory when they come to power, or pervert history' for their ow n narrow political ends. One would expect more from a former history profes sor, especially one originating in the South History is unbroken continuity, with causes and effects, actions and reactions, truth and consequences— but continuous. To try to compare the acculturation problems that other ethnic groups had when they volun tarily came to this country for a better opportunity ; with 250 years o f invol untary slavery, language, culture. R iko W C O A L IT IO N Gingrich: Historian That Denies History families and freedom destroyed. 3/ 5th human written into the constitu tion, "no rights that a white man is bound to respect" (Dred Scott), "sep arate but equal" (Plessy v. Ferguson), and ongoing discrimination, is unbe coming o f a history professor. To equate this history' with the history o f the Irish, the Polish, the Jews, the Italians or any o f the other immigrant groups is beyond cal loused and distorted. To erase this history , to deny this reality , is simply to propagate a racist myth and to operate from a racist premise—which is not a long distance from begin and out-and-out racist. [The only excep tion to this is Native Americans, a people who experienced genocide on their own continent ] This level o f ignorance from the Speaker o f the U.S. House o f Representatives, who is just two heartbeats away from the presidency , is dangerous. On "Face The Nation" last week, Bob Schieffer again asked Newt about affirm ative action. His re sponse? “ Well, I draw a real distinc tion. Bob. between helping individu als—which I thinkw eshould do...But 1 think anything which is based on a genetic code where there’s an auto matic set-aside, an automatic quota where we re not dealing with you as an individual, but w e’re now dealing with you as some kind o f class struc ture. 1 think is frankly un-American. I think America is a country where we are endowed by our creator as individuals with certain inalienable rights, h 's not a question o f us being endowed as a block grant, where we have to find out. “Who was your grandmother? Who was your great grandmother? How do you fill out the forms? And I think that that’s a big m istake'.” Schieffer: I take it the basis o f your preference programs, if that's what you want to call them, would be based on economic need. Gingrich: Yeah, I think any American w ho’s poor, whether they’re white, or black, or Hispanic, or American Indian or Asian, ifyou’re poor, we need to help you because we want all Americans to be in the middle class.” Newt says he’s a revolutionary. Until this last statement on "Face The Nation," JaxFax had its doubts. But this should prove it to all the w orld-N o Poor People, No Rich People. Only Middle Class People. That should prove that Newt is a genuine revolutionary! “Along The Color Line”: The Changing Politics Of Race Bv D r . M anning M arable v e ry w h e re w e tu rn to d ay, the headlines and the media seem to be preoccupied with the politics of race. Sometimes the politics o f race is obscured in an aesopian language, in which the victims and the predators are half-hidden or even inverted; some times on late-night talk shows or even racialized films, the politics of race which are addressed through person alities or issues connected with the black community come under vicious attack or parody. In recent weeks and months, the politics of race has been expressed through a variety o f issues and events: for example, affirmative action and minority set-aside programs are pub licly attacked as policies promoting "reverse discrimination"; the televised trial o f former football superstar O.J. Simpson continues to fascinate mil lions o f Americans, with its burlesque mixture o f interracial sex, double-ho micide, spousal abuse, and police mis conduct; welfare programs are under new scrutiny, with calls for mandatory work by AFDC recipients, and de mands to outlaw support to unwed mothers under the age of eighteen: and new restrictions are being pushed on nonwhite immigrants, from the denial of access to public medical services to the imposition o f "English Only" lan guage requirements. "Race" thus con tinues to be central to American poli tics. but' its definition and meaning are being radically transformed. One reason for this is the massive migration of millions o f Latin Ameri can, Caribbean, Asian and African people into the US, as well as in West ern Europe, since the 1960s. The in flux of these new minorities in Europe has meant the break down o f older racial identities and communities. For example, in the United Kindom by the 1970s, immigrants from the Caribbe an, Asian and Africa o f radically di vergent ethnic backgrounds and lan guages began to term themselves “black", as a political entity. In the US. the search for both d isaggregation and rearticulation of group identity and consciousness among people of color is also occurring, although along different lines due to distinct histori cal experiences and backgrounds. In the Hawaiian islands, for example, many of the quarter million native Hawaiians support the movement for political sovereignty and self-deter mination. But do native Hawaiians have more in common culturally and politically with American Indians or Pacific islanders? What are the paral lels and distinctions between the dis crimination experienced by Mexican Americans in the US Southwest and African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow segregation? Do the more than five million Americans o f Arab, Kurdish, Turkish and Iranian nation ality and descent have a socioeconom ic experience in the Us which places them in conflict with native-born Af rican-Americans, or is there sufficient common interest and social affinity which provides the potential frame work for principled activism? Affirmative Action: Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil bv J ames L. P osea s the w hite backlash a g a in s t a ffir m a tiv e action reaches a frenz ied pitch, you have only to review A m erican histo ry to u n d e rs ta n d w h y so m an y w h ite s re fu s e to a c c e p t u n re fu ta b le e v id e n c e th a t racism an d d is c rim in a tio n continue to favor white America at the expense of nearly all other racial groups. Even when the evidence is obvi ous that these programs in many cas es favor whites more than ethnic minorities, the attacks persist. For som e unexplained reason, many whites become oblivious to the facts and reasons when the issue is race conscious remedies. They simply ignore the data, resist all logic, turn the tables and become artful in blam ing the victims. Let me repeat it: the very pro grams under attack have been manip ulated to ultimately favor whites and refutes the absurd notion of reverse discrimination Programs ostensively designed to lift the fortunes o f people o f color after centuries of discrimina tion are so thoroughly corrupted that real economic progress for African- Americans is barely perceptible. Today in Oregon, Blacks and oth er minorities, especially Hispanics, are just as much responsible for the de mise of affirmative action as any an gry white man. Additionally, white women are particularly at fault since they receive the lion’s share o f most contracting work or employment ad vancements. They all have allowed misuse and abuse in programs to exist and persist unabated. They have all sacrificed the integrity o f the program for their own self interests. For exam ple, there is a local Black trucking firm which routinely obtains contracts and as a minority firm and almost exclu sively passes on the benefits of the program to white male trucking oper ators for a small broker's fee. And, any reasonable observer would be hard pressed to find a white woman, particularly in the area o f construction contracting, who recip rocates the benefits o f affirmative action programs to other women or minorities either through subcon tracts or by providing jobs. Further more, project owners and affirma tive action officials at all levels re quire little accountability and sub scribe to a general policy o f see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil. As it was in the reconstruction period just after slavery was abol ished, scoundrels, both Black and white, unscrupulously exploited the promise o f freedom. From the begin ning, one has to question who was thought to deserve fairness, equality and freedom in America. With slavery as a backdrop, one has to wonder how the founding fathers could emersed themselves in so many moral plati tudes, such as, "All men are created equal,... endowed with certain inalien able rights.... life, liberty and the pur- suit of happiness." At the same time, they had to know they were invoking the greatest hypocrisy by preaching democracy while practicing tyranny and committing atrocities. So it is with the attacks on affir mative action today. How can Amer ica deny if sown conscious and sense o f humanity in the face o f persistent and insistent racial inequities? As national columnist William Raspber ry and others have asserted, in this entire debate, there is little focus on the disease that precipitated the need for affirmative action. Another col umnist, Clarence Page, tried to put a positive face on the issue by asking readers to examine the realities o f the argument. H is attempts to reason w ith white America by making the case that white males are really com pet ing with each other for nearly all jobs is backed up by plenty o f research. He easily makes the point, as the data indicates, that there is virtually no threat from minorities and women, particularly at the higher levels. bv ecently I spent a day c a n vass in g parts of N o rth P o rtla n d to d e te rm in e how v o te rs feel ab o u t the u p co m in g b allo t measure called 26-26. In spite o f lots o f publicity on the subject many o f my neighbors still do not know that the ballot measure wi 11 secure thousands o f acres o f land to provide open space, streams and parks in the Metropolitan Portland area This is especially surprising considering the number o f parcels that would be saved right in our own backyard North Portlanders stand to ben efit greatly, as do all o f the residents News o f your upcoming retirement from Cascade General, Inc. has reached me in Washington. D.C. As you celebrate this occasion, I wanted to add my congratulations to those you will no doubt be receiving from your family, friends and colleagues. Your 50 years o f service in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry is truly impressive. Your long career has been tilled with many "firsts," and you should take great pride in your manyflccomplishments. Your record o f service to the industry and in y our union serves as a model to others, and I applaud your commitment. Again, congratulations on your retirement. Please know that I wish you all o f the best in your future endeavors. Kindest regards. Sincerely, Murk O. Hatfield C larice W h ite : o f our region, by conversion o f 27 acres o f Willamette River frontage in what we call “ Willamette Cove" to open space for bicyclists and hikers. With minor cleanup o f the area and care for existing habitat and wildlife on the site, we can convert what has been an illegal dump site and hazard ous play area for local youth to a beautiful and highly usable open space for bicycling and walking. Furthermore, by obtaining this particular piece o f property and clean ing up the vacated Carey Boulevard and converting it to the Peninsula Crossing Trail, recreational users will be able to travel essentially from Cathedral Park under the St Johns Bridge to Smith and Bybee Lakes, then on to Kelly Point Park Right now Carey Boulevard is heavily rut ted by vehicles, some o f which have dumped garbage, old furniture, cloth ing and yard debris. There also are signs along the path that prostitutes and drug users enjoy the overgrow n vegetation to cover their dirty deeds. I live betw een the “C ove" p ro p e rty and the p ro p o sed trail and long for the day that the pu b lic ow ns the re h a b ilita te d p ro p e rtie s so that hik ers and b ic y c lists ov erru n them ra th e r than b la c k b e rrie s and villain s. This is an incredibly exciting time to live in North Portland The Getting Help (Education) II 3B hen I suggested last week that “It’s Hard To G et G o o d H elp T h e s e D ays (In g e ttin g Educated),” a broad cross- section of readers agreed. And se v e ra l suggested in turn that I expand fur ther on the “a tti tudes, support level and long-term Com mitment” of, “That nebulous entity you term industry." I plan to do just that and in the very near future. Several other education issues, however, demand our more imme diate attention. A few weeks ago I had a very spirited dialogue with a group o f parents who were excited over reports in the national media that an African American teenager has netted herself over a quarter- million dollars in college scholar ships and grants. As is usually the case under these c ircumstances, one has to, simultaneously, keep up or enhance the enthusiasm to achieve a similar success—but also prepare gung-ho enthusiasts for a less-than- happy outcome. In the first place, as subsequent media accounts revealed, the girl was an over-achiever o f the first rank: Grades, extra-curricular ac tivities, student offices, community interaction and so forth. Much o f the listed diverse and eclectic activ ity indicated strong abilities and traits involving com m unication skills—as well as intense parental support. In em phasizing these facts, what I was really saying to these parents was, “hey! be sure that your little darling and his/her family sup port structure is up-to-snuff before ou start building air castles that can come crashing down and do permanent economic and emotion al damage”. I put an experience- based spin on the matter as I recited my recruitment and counseling ac tivities while teaching at Portland State University. I tried to get across this should be no Mickey Mouse affair, but a sophisticated and logi cal approach. Subsequently, several parents have called me in reference to a April 1 8 ,1995 Oregonian article by Julie Tripp (“Managing Your Mon ey: Comparing College Offers” ). They reassured me that my assess ments o f academic affairs fit in very well with the contemporary evalua- tions they were collecting. For in stance Ms Tripp seems to have para phrased some o f my most cogen: advice: When you are comparing several; financial aid packages don’t be dazzled by the total amounl o f the aid of fered. Instead compare whal Sy your family has Professor to pay in each Mckinley case, and what Burt you have to borrow in each case.” There is much more good advice but in the end, all dependents upon the students/parent’s ability to transmit, retrieve and process infor mation. Forthose who feel thaf'H igher education" is a very'necessary build ing block for structuring a realistic future in the 21st-Century, the ac tivities and pronouncements ofboth the Oregon State Legislature and Gov. John Kitzhaber have created nothing but a deep concern. As the Governor said, "How ironic, a fis cally conservative Republican leg islature putting the next budget out o f balance". (Voting to give $3.55 billion in state aid to kindergarten through the 12th grade sch o o ls- $100 million more than he sought). O f course, the governor is not nearly as upset as those involved in higher education and dependent on it for a meaningful future-hey believe that any over-budget legislation and en suring shortfalls will be at the ex pense and detriment o f Oregon’s Colleges and Universities. You know, looking back to where I first became aware o f the "pedagogic wars" as they have been termed, I seem to remember that a few decades ago. rushing out to buy the latest edition o f "Lovejoys Col lege Guide” (Circa 1465). I was employed in administration at a large industrial plant, and as I have recit ed here before, there was much con cern over the level o f competency o f many o f the college graduates being hired (and high school gradu ates). O ur departm ent head was determined that he was going to conduct his own little investigation o f the “ incomprehensible", procur t ing school catalogs, samples o f cur riculums, etc. / When I left the firm in 1969 the man was still talking to himself, and had a vacant, bewildered stare; "D on't these people understand that both groups are trying to educate the same youth? l TTI tc ^fJortlanb (©bseruer (USPS 959-680) OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established in 1970 by Alfred L. Henderson Joyce Washington Publisher The PO R TLA ND OBSERVER is located at 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97211* 4503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Deadline far all submitted materials: Articles:Friday. 5:00pm Ads Monday Noon POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Dear Mr. McDonald: Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, POBox3l37, Portland, OR 97208 p e r s p e c t i v e s dump has closed and is providing funds for worthwhile projects in our area. McCormick and Baxter and its stench o f creosote has been replaced by cleanup efforts. North Precinct remained in our midst, and citizens are working with police to under mine crime. Work is underway to solve many other livability concerns here. I hope all h o m eow ners in our region w ill jo in me in v o tin g yes on 26-26. It is w orth m uch m ore to each o f us than the p ric e o f a pizza and soft drink in annual taxes th at it w ill cost us to save these p re c io u s p ro p e rtie s from dev elo p m en t Second Class postage paid at Portland. Oregon The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions Manuscripts and photo graphs should be clearly labeled and will be returned If accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property o f the newspaper and can not be used in other publications or personal usage, without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad <* 1994 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 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