A pril 2 4 , 1 9 9 6 • T he P ori land O bserver
P age A 2
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la s t, a corporate
downsizing we can cele
brate!
After 25 years of
bi
demeaning and degrading Afri
can Americans and Latinos,
WABC-AM talk radio host Bob
Grant “has been terminated by
mutual agreement,” according
to the official release by Capital
Cities/ABC.
Yeah, right. Translation: he was
fired, by mutual agreement among
99% o f the human race
Those o f us in the JaxFax world
know that the National Rainbow
Coalition has been a leading critic of
Bob Grant's hate talk for years U s
ing the research o f the media watch
dog group F A IR , the N R C highlight
ed a complete series o f Grant’ s most
malicious radio comments in the 11/
17/94 JaxFax Reverend Jackson led
picket lines at W A B C , and the N R C
organized a protest o f the corporate
sponsors ofGrant's show, which led
to numerous withdrawals
Then last week, in the wake o f
Grant's despicable comments about
the death o f Commerce Secretary
Ron Brown, the N R C launched a
new campaign calling for Grant’s
dismissal
Step one--In last week’s JaxFax
(4/11), we strongly criticized Grant’s
ugly remarks about Ron Brown Step
two--The next day, Reverend Jack-
son wrote a letter to Michael Ovitz,
President o f the Walt Disney Com-
Ai
nr"
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
The ^Iortlanh © bseruer
N A T IO N A L
K U
IhuBaW
C O A L IT IO N
The Thrill Of Victory...
The Agony Of Defeat
pany, parent corporation to A B C ,
calling Grant’s comments a “dis
grace," and urging Disney to “take
action...immediately.” Step three-
The N R C organized and announced
apicket line for A B C . Step fo ur-Th e
N R C began planning for another
corporate sponsorship boycott.
Step five—Victory! A B C ’s pa
tience was exhausted, the heat was
on, and a moral judgement was de
manded Result: Bob Grant is histo
ry. Thanks to all the Rainbow family
who fought his mean spirit over the
years.
Sad to say, we can't win'em all—
and what the Voting Rights Act
giveth, the black-robed crowd taketh
away. The courts struck down yet
another majority-minority district,
Florida’s 3rd, currently held by Con
gresswoman Corrine Brown.
Apparently it’s a “judge thing”-
wecertainly don't understand. A court
system which sat by complacently
for centuries while every single dis
trict and voting rule in Am erica was
gerry mandered to insure white dom
ination, now seems determined to
guarantee that “geography” and
“compactness’ o f districts take full
precedence o ve r “ ra ce ” and
“ethnicity" in political redistricting
The court’s logic is fraudulent. It
is based on a wish, a world that never
w as-a world where race is supposed
to play no role in politics. These
judges apparently believe, centuries
o f evidence to the contrary, that A f
rican American candidates have an
equal chance to win majority white
districts. They imagine a color-blind
world, pretend that the severe hang
over effects o f slavery have been
erased, and then issue court rulings
based on that fantasy
We have an alternate fantasy for
them—try to imagine Newt G ingrich
winning election in any majority-
minority district in America!
The Florida Courts' own language
makes their guilty feelings crystal
clear "the decision should not be
interpreted as turning back the
clo ck' on gains made by African
American voters, and other racial
and ethnic minorities. Nor should
the decision be interpreted as cut
ting back on he continued viability
o f the Voting Rights Act as a means
to remedy discrim inatory voting
practices.”
Today we expect the court to issue
an opinion that longer days, warmer
weather, budding flowers, and spring
rain should not be interpreted as turn
ing back the clock on winter.
What do these court rulings really
mean? That every African American
and Latino candidate-for city coun
cil, state legislature, county com m is
sion, or U .S. Congress—w ill face a
stacked deck for the foreseeable fu
ture.
T o pretend otherwise is a farce, a
travesty Unfortunately, this is the
third time the courts have weakened
the Voting Rights Act in recent
months, in Louisiana, in Georgia,
and now in Florida. The end is not in
sight, and Am erica is a weaker, d i
minished democracy as a result.
V a n t a g e P o in t: The People’s Lawyer
i first two weeks of Ap-
have been difficult
tim
times for Black America.
W ith in a span of ten days the B lack
Nation was rocked by the loss of
three o f its finest sons: Ronald H.
Brown, C arl B Stokes, and W
Haywood Bums, perhaps, the least
well known o f these outstanding fig
ures, but a man who made and in
credible mark within the civ il rights/
human rights and progressive move
ment in this country and the world
I first became aware o f Haywood
Burns in the late 60’s. I kept hearing
about these bad attorney brothers
named Lennox Hinds, Haywood
Bum sand VictorGoode who were at
the service o f the Black liberation
movement, counseling brothers and
sisters on how to use the law as a
weapon in the struggle for social
change and defending Black free
dom fighters and political prisoners
against the intimidation and repres
sion ofthe U.S. government. I subse
quently learned that these brothers
were a part o f a organization that
viewed itself as the “ legal arm o f the
B lack Revolution,” the National
C o n fe re n ce o f B la c k L aw yers
(N C B L ). These brothers, and there
were many sisters among them too,
had chosen to use their legal skills
and talents to serve the people
On April 2, 1996 W Haywood
I f you h a v e
“s u g a r ” y o u
h av e diabetes.
Bum s was killed in a tragic accident
in his beloved South Africa along
with Shinara Gilbert another N C B L
stalwart. They were attending a con
ference on democracy and the law in
South Africa. On April 8. thousands
gathered at the historic Abyssinian
Baptist Church to mourn the passing
o f a man that Dr C alvin O. Butts,
pastor o f Abyssinian, eulogized as
the "people’s lawyer.” The outpour
ing o f people, their tributes, love and
affection was a living testimony to
the legacy of a human being, a son of
Africa who had made his mark with
and on behalf o f African people and
oppressed humanity.
As a young up and coming lawyer
who graduated with honors from
Harvard College and earned a law
degree from Yale, Haywood Bum s
could easily have chosen to simply
be a “successful" member ofthe Black
bourgeoisie. True to the teachings o f
one o f his African heroes, Am ilcar
Cabral, however, Haywood made a
conscious decision to “return to the
source,” to immerse him self in the
struggles o f a battered and oppressed
people, to be an instrument o f human
A-i
better
liberation.
Q u ickly recognized as a young
man with an agile legal mind and
exceptional comm itment to the strug
gle for social justice and social
change, he was called upon to serve
as the Assistant Counsel to the
N A A C P Legal Defense and Educa
tion Fund and he later went on to
become general counsel to Martin
Luther K in g ’s Poor People’s Cam
paign. Convinced that the B lack Free
dom Struggle urgently needed cad
res o f committed B lack Freedom
Struggle B lack attorneys to develop
offensive and defensive legal strate
gies to advance the civ il rights/hu-
man rights movement, Haywood
Bum s was one o f the founders o f the
National Conference o f Black Law
yers in 1969, and served as its first
Director He later became the first
African American President o f the
National Lawyers G uild, an organi
zation o f radical, progressive law
yers and activists who m obilized
hundreds o f la w ye rs to go to
M ississippi as a part o f the Freedom
Summer in 1964 to challenge south
ern apartheid.
P h y lie ia R a sh a d , H on orary S p o k esp erso n
A frica n A m erica n P rogram
I want you to know that diabetes is
serious and life threatening. If left
unchecked, diabetes can cause blindness,
kidney failure, heart attacks, foot and leg
amputations...even early death.
But there’s hope. By eating smart,
exercising and taking the right medicine,
you can control this serious disease.
Take charge of your diabetes.
Call the American Diabetes
Association today.
^ .A m e r ic a n Diabetes Association.
t
<
by
P rof . M c K inley B i rt
«p'
*| | J
V *
ast week's promise to
“exam ine particular
remedies" served to
elicit some rather impassioned
responses from the citizenry,
generally, we could say the
range was from the zealous to
the embittered, if not from the
ole “sublime to the ridiculous."
I though it best to step back from
the highly emotional onslaughts and
take refuge in a strictly analytic
posture. That was at first, but then I
realized that this has become a wide
ly-practiced intellectual game — and
constitutes most o f the problem. On
the other had, neither is our cause to
be advanced by virtue o f snappy
one-liners from our governor, “Not
a case o f how much, but for what?”
Now, he knew that was a tautolo-
g y ’-
In respect to
my reference to
the “ o fte n -d e
m o nized sales
tax”, let me make
one thing perfect
ly c le a r ’ as a
former president would preface
statements (before being demon
ized himself) - it would seem that
there is no other proposition more
likely to enrage Oregonians, poor
or rich, labor or business communi
ty, native or foreign-bom, right
winger or liberal, educated or illit
erate. But-let-me-say-this’ (in the
manner o f pol itic ians who are quick
to hedge their bets after making a
particularly forthright statement),
in all probability it w ill be the con
cept o f a state-wide sales tax dedi
cated to education which w ill win
out over all the other proposals be
ing thrown in the hopper.
A s regressive and u n fair a
burden to the poor as it is said to
be, nevertheless th is p ro p o si
tion p ro b ab ly w ill pass muster
because in the exp e rien ce o f
most states the p ro ce ss soon
becom es ignored i f not p ain le ss
to most tax-p ayers; more o f a
/lu isan ce than an ythin g to c u s
tomer and vendor a lik e (so rt o f
like bridge to lls - one year be
com es decades.)
The question o f a over-burdened
taxpayer has prompted a related
comment from several readers. And
it is a concept to which I have given
considerable thought over the years
That i s , “the only person who actu
ally pays any taxes is the wage earn
er, the shopper and those who own
their places o f residence. A ll others
the store owner, the processors, the
manufacturers and the landlords
treat their taxes as part o f the cost o f
doing business and pass them on to
the consumer. They pay only when
consumers themselves. This con
sideration quite often arises when
people are discussing school fund
ing and someone advances a new
proposition for taxing business and
industry. Cries o f frustration are
evoked when it becomes obvious
that there are definite constraints to
be taken into account here. “ In the
end we’ w ill pay, or, horrors, we
may drive firms
out o f the state
A t this time
By
there are spirited
Professor
discussions go
Mcklnley
ing on concern
Burt
ing a possible in
crease in the Ore
gon State Incom e T a x w ith a
dedicated percentage “ reserved’
for education. T h is b rin g s up an
interesting question; ju st how
do you go about “ d ed icatin g or
reservin g m onies for a p a rticu
lar purpose. We a ll are aware o f
the co n stantly e xpan ding d e fi
nition o f “ E co n o m ic D e v e lo p
ment” — sheer gen iu s in vo lve d
in these p o litic ize d sem antics.
One reader (I th in k se rio u s)
suggests that the licen ses for
casin o g a m b lin g by the In dian s
be revoked and that this lu cra
tive revenue be e x c lu s iv e ly fun-
neled into a “ State Edu catio n
F u n d ” . O thers lo u d ly resent the
“ short-term ” , m ulti m illio n d o l
lar scho o l bail out by the M ayor
o f Portland. And there are those
who object to putting a “ short
term bite” on lo cal industry.
The many seem u n w illin g to
accept less than reg io n -w id e ,
long-term so lutio ns — and c a ll
for more studies, more focus
groups, more th in k tanks. Per
haps we can get “ P o g o ” to edu
cate our kid s. O r in du stry, it
self.
(©Hseruer
(USPS 959-680)
J
OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION
Affirmative Action Update
A ffirm ative action supporters
“waiting to exhale”, had been warned
not to wait as the anti-affirmative
action California C iv il Rights Initia
tive signature drive brought in an
astounding L I m illion signatures,
more than enough to put the issue on
the ballot. Then on March 7, 1996,
President Clinton gave supporters a
“heart flutter” by announcing a 3
year moratorium on the Federal set-
aside program that brought the Con
gressional Black Caucus immediate
ly to the White House. “That was a
mischaracterization” according to
White House Public Liaison D irec
tor, A lixis Herman, an A frican Amer
ican, attesting to the President’s com
mitment to affirmative action The
President was in the Middle East.
The S B A has approximately 634
firms on the set-aside program in
California in an attempt to provide
entry in business areas that minori
ties and women have been excluded
from in the past.
Meanwhile, in California, Assem
blyw om an M arilyn Brew er (R ,
Irvine) introduced A B -33 07 (293
pages) which abolishes Affirm ative
Action in state procurement for mi
norities and women (not disabled
vets) under the guise o f State Pro
curement Reform Revisions. Assem
bly Committee hearing was set for
April 23, 1996 at 9:00 a m., State
Capital, Room #447, Sacramento,
C A . The California Business Coun
Which Road To An
Effective Structure For
School Funding, II
r£he (SJditor (Ultc
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor,
PO Box 3137, Portland,
OR 97208
-......... ..... , .... .................
„ —............... , ..........
bv F rederick E. J ordan ,C hair ,
C alifornia B usiness C ouncil
F or E qi al O pportunity
p e r s p e c tiv e s
Established in 1970
cil for Equal Opportunity ( C B C E O )
has indicated concern over the pop
ularity o f reform revisions among
Republicans and Democrats alike as
it prepares to testify against the bill.
However, Senator Richard Polanco,
Senate Minority Leader, on the other
hand has introduced SB286, C alifo r
nia Procurement Act, Which w ill re
tain affirmative action and small busi
ness provisions currently in place,
but make other changes.
C B C E O is also preparing to testi
fy against the Senate confirmation o f
Peter Stamison, who has been nom
inated as Director o f the California
Department o f General Services. The
hearing on Stamison, who is consid
ered the mastermind o f AB-3307,
was set for Ap ril 15, 1996 at 1:30
p.m., in Room #113 o f the State
C a p ita l. R ecen tly, Senator R ay
Haynes, (R , C h ico ) and A C A 1 0 ,
Kopp, (I, San Francisco) deleting
affirmative action from contracting,
employment and education A hear
ing date has not been set.
Governor Pete Wilson also be
came outraged when asked by the
media if his appointment to the State
Supreme court o f Appellate Court
Judge Janice Rogers Brown, an A fri
can Am erican, was an example o f
affirmative action. Those who know
Justice Brown say the Governor may
be surprised that he will get a bright,
fair and competent j udge with a sense
o f personal integrity and not the likes
o f a Supreme Court Justice Clarence
T h o m as or U .C . Regent W ard
Connerly.
Charles Washington—Publisher
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