P age A2
J uly 12, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
The ^ o r tla n h ffihserucr
he progressive com­
munity is under attack,
especially people of
color. The wedge issue being
used to drive a much broader
re g res s iv e an re p res s iv e
agenda is a affirmative action.
The extreme right-wing has had
us under the gun before, yet we have
still made progress and won. The
Reagan and Bush Administrations at­
tempted to turn the clock back on civil
rights, and in some ways succeeded.
Yet, even under their administrations,
we passed 24 civil rights laws with the
support of 85% of the House and Sen­
ate, including strengthening the Vot­
ing Rights Act by : ( 1 ) adding the bilin­
gual dimension; (2) preserving the “re­
sults” versus “intent” standards of
proof; and (3) extending it for 25 years.
M
NATIONAL! I f
R C O ainbow
A L IT IO N
A ffirm ative Action
A c tio n !
We can win again if we fight
back. What we need is affirmative
action Action! here’s what to look
for and where to act:
The President. The courts made
affirmative action more difficult and
more costly, but they did not close
the door. Therefore, the outcome o f
affirmative action will be decided
more in the political arena (executive
and legislative action or inaction)
than in the courts. President Clinton
must teach and lead, not just referee
and review.
The House. Reps. Canady (R-
FL-12) and Fawell (R-IL-13) will soon
introduce legislation to outlaw all fed­
eral affirmative action programs.
The Senate. Jesse Helms (R-
NC) has already introduced legisla­
tion to eliminate all federal affirma­
tive action programs. Robert Dole
(R-KS) is increasingly becoming a
problem. Phil Gramm (R-TX) has
threatened to attach anti-affirmative
action amendments to legislation. We
should be especially watchful o f such
amendments being attached to one or
more o f the 13 appropriations bills.
“Along The Color Line”
W hat A ffirm ative Action Really Means; Part tw o
D r . M anning M arable
he difficulty in assess­
ing the political and
ideological debate over
“affirmative action” is that there
is no coherent definition within
the public discourse on what
the term actually means.
by
Reforms which may be described
by liberals as “goals and timetables”
for the achievement o f gender and
racial diversity are characterized by
conservatives as “quotas." In gener­
al, most white Americans still want
to be perceived as being "fair” to­
ward racial minorities and women on
issues o f discrimination According
to the March 17-19, 1995 USA To-
day/CNN/Gallup poll, when asked,
“Do you favor or oppose affirmative
action program s,” 53 percent o f
w hites polled expressed support,
compared to only 36 percent op­
posed. N ot surprisingly, African-
Americans expressed much stronger
support, 72 percent for affirmative
action programs to only 21 percent
against. Despite widespread rhetoric
that the vast majority o f white males
have supposedly lost jobs and oppor­
tunities due to affirmative action
policies, the poll indicated that only
15 percent o f all white males believe
that “they’ve lost a jo b because o f
affirmative action policies.”
However, there is a severe ero­
sion o f white support for affirmative
action when one focuses more nar­
rowly on specific steps or remedies
addressing discrimination. For ex­
a m p le , th e U SA T o d a y /C N N /
GALLUP poll indicates that only 30
percent o f whites favor the establish­
ment o f gender and racial "quotas” in
businesses, with 68 percent opposed.
Conversely, two-thirds o f all Afri­
can-Americans expressed support for
“quotas” in business employment,
with only 30 percent opposed. When
asked whether quotas should be cre­
ated “that require schools to admit a
certain number o f minorities and
women,” 61 percent o f the whites
were opposed, with 35 percent in
favor. A majority o f whites would
also reject policies which “require
private businesses to set up specific
goals and timetables for hiring wom­
en and minorities if there were not
government programs that included
hiring quotas.” On issues o f imple­
menting government-supported ini­
tiatives for social equality, most black
and white American still live in two
distinct racial universes.
It is not surprising that “angry
white men” form the core o f those
who are against affirmative action.
W hat is striking, however, is the gen­
eral orientation o f white American
women on this issue. White women
numerically have been overwhelm­
ingly the primary beneficiaries o f
affirmative action. Millions o f white
women have gained access to educa­
tional and employment opportuni­
ties through the implementation and
enforcement o f such policies. But
most o f them clearly do not share the
political perspectives o f African-
Americans and Hispanics on this is­
sue, nor do they perceive their own
principle interests to be at risk if
affirmative action programs were to
be abandoned by the Federal govern­
ment or outlawed in the courts. For
example, in the same USA Today/
CNN/Gallup poll, only 8 percent o f
all white women stated that their
“colleagues at work or school pri­
vately questioned” their qualifica­
tions due to affirmative action, com ­
pared to 19 percent o f black women
and 28 percent o f black men. Less
than one in five white women polled
defined workplace discrimination as
a “major problem,” compared to 41
percent o f blacks and 38 percent o f
Latinos. Forty percent o f the white
women polled described job discrim­
ination as “not being a problem” at
all. These survey results may help to
explain why middle class-oriented,
liberal feminist leaders and constitu­
encies have been relatively less vo-
cal in the mobilization to defend af­
firmative action
A quarter century o f affirmative
action programs, goals and timeta­
bles has been clearly effective in
transforming the status o f white wom­
en in the labor force. It is certainly
true that white males still dominate
the upper ranks o f senior manage­
ment: while constituting only 29 per­
cent o f the nation’s total workforce,
white males comprise 95 percent o f
all senior managerial positions at the
rankofvice president or above. How­
ever, women now constitute about
40 percent o f the total workforce
overall. As o f the 1990 Census, white
women held nearly 40 percent o f all
middle management positions. While
their median incomes lag behind those
o f white males, over the past twenty
years white women have gained far
greater ground in terms o f real earn­
ings than black or Hispanic males in
the labor force.
In this context, civil rights advo­
cates and traditional defenders o f
affirmative action must ask them­
selves whether the majority o f white
American women actually perceive
their material interests to be tied with
the battles for income equity and
affirmative action which most blacks
and Latinos, women and men alike,
continue to fight for.
Vantage Point: Independent Politics Needed To Defeat Radical Right
by
R on D aniels
The November 8, 1994 election
which propelled the radical right into
power was viewed by Gingrich-Dole
and their conservative allies as a
mandate to imposes the racist and
reactionary Contract on America. In
reality, how ever the Republicans
have a very shallow mandate. Only
20% o f the eligible voters actually
participated in that election. N one­
theless, the election did in fact give
the radical right the reins of power in
the Congress of the United States.
This minority regime now has the
capacity to make laws, remake laws,
undo laws and press for the enact­
ment of the agenda of the radical
right.
R egrettably vast numbers of
voters, most of whom will be affect­
ed by the Contract on America, sat on
the sidelines in the last election. In
many respects what we really have in
the U.S. is the illusion of democracy.
Some 65 million Americans are not
even registered to vote, and the U.S.
has the lowest level of voter partici­
pation of any western democracy.
W idespread disaffection, alienation,
apathy and a sense of powerlessness
permeates much of the electorate.
This feeling of powerlessness is re­
enforced by the knowledge that big
money controls both political parties
and the electoral political process.
Hence we have a kind of "democracy
for the few," a fake democracy which
plays into the hands of the big mon­
eyed interests who use the electoral
political process to legitimize their
position of wealth and privilege in
this country. The power elite has a
very simple creed: “the business of
government is business.”
As we struggle to Break the
Contract on America we must en­
gage the radical right in the streets -
massive demonstrations, strikes, boy­
cotts, civil disobedience, disruption,
but we must also engage the forces of
reaction at the ballot box. We cannot
allow alienation and apathy/non-par-
ticipation to give the radical right the
reins of power by default. The up­
surge of active resistance which is
sweeping the country must congeal
into a powerful force to sweep the
radical right and their conservative
allies from positions o f power at all
levels in this land.
The legions of non-voters who
are sitting on the sidelines, however,
will not respond to politics/business
as usual. They must feel that their
participation will not be betrayed by
two establishment parties dominated
by the same moneyed interests; es­
tablishment parties which are both
going in the same direction but argue
over how far to go in that direction.
The Democratic party, the party of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New
Deal is increasingly becoming what
one liberal democratic stalwart de­
scribed as a “kinder, gentler version
o f the Republicans." The people who
have opted out of the electoral polit­
ical process will not be inspired by a
choice between evil and the "lesser
evil,” a choice between the Republi­
cans and the Democrats.
To achieve this vision we must
fight for real democracy in the U.S.
The illusion of democracy or democ­
racy for the few must end. The elec­
toral political process must be opened
up so that the American electorate no
longer has to choose between twid­
dle dee and twiddle duni. We must
free the electoral political system
from the dictatorship of private mon­
ey. The struggle for real democracy
must include a number of pro-de­
mocracy reforms: publicly financed
elections; equitable access to media
for all candidates; fair minimum bal­
lot access requirements to allow in ­
dependent parties and independent
candidates to compete on a level
playing field; and proportional rep­
resentation.
Ultimately, we need a fighting
new independent progressive party
that will uncompromisingly stand up
for the rights of people of color, poor
and working people and the strug­
gling middle class. The new America
which must become will be fash­
ioned out of the dreams and aspira­
tions and the energies of those who
have been most affected by oppres­
sion and exploitation in U.S. society.
The days of the radical right with
their ideology of white supremacy
and white male domination are num­
bered. We will Break the Contract on
America and a visionary indepen­
dent political movement will forge a
new covenant for a new society.
THIS WAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT
Development Is The Issue In
America’s Schools
by
D r . L enora F l i am
ince the United States
Supreme Court’s land­
mark decision Brown
Vs Board of Education more
than forty years ago, America's
school system has been a battle
ground w here issues like
desegregation, funding, and
community control have been
hotly contested.
For all o f the victories we have
won over the years on the education
front, most experts agree that the
quality o f public schooling in this
country, particularly in our inner cit­
ies, continues to decline
Nowhere is this more true than
New York City. However, the cen­
tral issue in the current debate among
Mayor Giuliani, School Chancellor
Ramon Cortines and the Board o f
Education has been whether or not to
introduce police officers into the
schools to ensure the safety o f the
stu d en ts. And now that Ram on
Cortines has resigned (effective in
O ctober), the latest political football
is which administrative body (the
Board o f Education or City Hall)
gets to pick the next chancellor. Sur­
prisingly, an issue that is ignored in
all this is how to transform New York
City s schools into institutions where
children can learn and develop
As a developmental psycholo­
gist, I am profoundly concerned about
the safety o f our young people But,
whoever wins the debate over school
security or who should be the new
chancellor, the question to ask is,
“ How do we support our young peo-
ple to become learners? How do we
create environments in which growth
-- not safety -- is the primary issue?”
I have helped to found the All
Stars Talent Show network, which is
widely recognized as one o f the larg­
est and most effective anti-violence
programs for inner-city youth in the
country. For the last decade the All
Stars youth, from the country’s poor­
est communities, have produced a high­
ly successful and cost-effective alter­
native to violence; they are the ticket
sellers, the stage hands, the emcees,
the security and, o f course, the per­
formers. In the 1994-95 season the All
Stars involved 30,000 youth in New
York, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston
and Miami in a developmental activity
that supports them to be leaders and
learners And all this without a penny
o f government money.
I also helped found the Barbara
Taylor School, a seven-year-old in­
dependent laboratory school in
Brookly, New York for grades K-8,
where the focus is entirely on the
continuous development o f children
as learners — rather than merely as
good question-answers, test-takers,
report-writers or problem-solvers.
It doesn’t help our kids to sim­
ply defend school administrators who
we think are ‘p rogressive,’ like
Cortines in New York, or angrily
denounce politicians who think edu­
cation should be the first line item on
the chopping block, like M ayor
Giuliani We need to take every op­
portunity to have an open and far-
ranging discussion on how to best
invest our education budget in devel­
opmental teaching approaches and
programs that work
p e r s p e c t i v e s
How Good Can It Got? More Inspiring Reading
ell, how about a factual
and non-racist book
that accurately traces
the timelines and dynasties of
170 E g yp tian P h ara o h s ,
African Kings and Queens?
We have just that in “Chronicle
O f The Pharaohs: The Reign-By-
Reign Record O f The Rulers And
Dynasties of Ancient Egypt,” Peter
A. Clayton, Thames And Hudson,
1994.
B eau tifu lly
written in a narra­
tive, yet sequen­
tial
for
the
“Chronicle” pre­
sents biographical
portraits o f each
pharaoh built into a comprehensive
and immensely readable history o f
this part o f ancient Africa. There are
datafiles for each pharaoh listing key
information such as royal titles, place
of burial, and family relationships,
e tc.:
D jo ser,
A k h en aten ,
Tutankhamun, Ramesses the Great -
- Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Cleopatra.
P eter A. C layton is an
Egyptologist, archaeologist and nu­
mismatist ofinternational repute who
has excavated at sites in both Africa
and Egypt. He is a member o f a
number of related professional soci­
eties and is the editor o f “minerva:
the International Review o f Ancient
Art and Archaeology .”
the book sells for $29.95 and is
well worth it.
Since obtaining this book a week
ago from the Looking Glass Book­
store at 318 S. W. Taylor, I have not
missed a single day o f marveling at
its scope and seeking to establish
point-to-point correspondence (and
verification) with my own decades-
long assembly o f articles, quotes,
photos and other data.
I also wish to compare the mate­
rial with the "Penguin Guide To An­
cient Egypt", Dr. William J. Mumane,
1983. That book, considered by many
as a sort of “bible”, is cited by the
author.
This chronicle o f an African his­
tory whose ancient contributors ante­
dated all the rest o f the world in
structuring its language, mathemat­
ics, astronomy and architecture will
prove invaluable not only to the gen­
eral reader, but to the many students
and practitioners o f both the Chris­
tian and Judaic religions. Many will
be interested in correlating the so­
journs o f Joseph and his family and
matching the times o f Moses and the
Exodus with the reigns o f particular
Pharaohs. Biblical cross-reference is
easily achieved.
There is no want of excellent
color photographs of the statues, build­
ings, stelae, sarcophagi, furniture,
jewelry and other artifacts. A Iso, there
are useful maps, family trees and oth­
er charts indicating significant con­
sanguinity-important considerations
of geography and
economics are tak­
en up w herever
By
that type of sup­
Professor port is needed. Re­
Mckinley
ligious and other
Burt
cultural icons are
treated in a digni­
fied and respectful manner.
When one is furnished such a
scholarly and well-structured treat in
place o f so much of the tabloid-type
sensationalism usually accorded Af­
rica and its rightful place in history,
there is a well-justified urge to make
quite a fuss. Certainly, if not con­
vinced before, one can now under­
stand Napoleon’s awe when he stood
before the Great Pyramid at Gizeh
and told his tropps: “Forty centuries
o f greatness look down upon you.”
I wish that and similar citations
o f mine had “made the cut” when I
was a contractor to the Portland School
district’s “Baseline Essay Process”.
But it is difficult to deal with an
educational structure that will only
admit that Egypt is in Africa when
dragged kicking and screaming to the
altar o f truth. Recent media protesta­
tions o f “essential revision” to origi­
nal material still harp on the “sheer
fantasy” o f Egyptian gliders. That’s
like the racists who harp on the trans­
gressions o f a few “welfare queens”,
while corporate welfare bleeds the
taxpayers for hundreds of billions.
This book has no fear of showing that
the ancient Egyptians looked lil^e the
1975 Jefferson High student body!
No mistake about it, racists are
racists and their “Liberal” facades
have long since worn thin. Fortu­
nately, my original research and ci­
tations o f both African and African
American contributions to science
and mathematics are being incorpo­
rated into CD-Rom and other elec­
tronic presentations by two o f the
nation’s largest software manufac­
turers. You will be able to get the
truth from industry if not educa­
tors' this winter. Scientists ought to
know!
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