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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 1996)
•• • • . ' * ■. • '. : .. * . . • / • .« .-■ •• : • » ' . . . 1 : ! . B t «r Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f The JJortlanh ©bsvruex* J A* ’ » » t ; . / ■ • • , • » • -*•% . v X -.-L ' his JaxFax was adapted from the 6 / 1 / 9 6 media statem ent by Reverend Jackson. ] We ha ve witnessed the return of the white sheet crowd, sneaking by night to burn the churches of our people. We have watched the mean- spirited m aneuvers o f the blue suite crow d, the G in g ric h C o n gress and many o fo u r state le g is latures, as they try day after day to wipe out a h alf-century o f so c ia l progress. l.ast week, we saw the return of the b lack robes crow d, who with each d ecisio n ro ll back a little more o f Dr. K in g ’s R e co n struction I his lim e, the U .S . Suprem e Court struck down m a jo rity -m i nority C o n g re ssio n a l d istricts in North C a ro lin a and T e x a s , in their co n tin uing effort to e lim i nate B la c k and Brow n leadership from the diverse, most represen tative U .S . C o n g re ss in the h isto ry o f this nation. We have c r itic iz e d the S u preme C o u rt's attack on m a jo ri ty-m in ority d istricts many tim es in the past. I his latest d ecisio n is ju st one more blow to the very idea of equal o p p o rtu n ity in Am erican p o litics. C O A L IT IO N White Sheets, Blue Suits, Black Robes One o f the cornerstones o f Dr. K in g 's le g a c y is the V o tin g R ig h ts A c t o f 1965, won by m archers on the bridge at Selm a How ever, the Suprem e Court re moved much o f the meaning from the V o tin g R ig h ts Act. With its 5-4 vote, the B la c k robes crow d threatens to reduce the B la c k and H isp a n ic C a u c u s es in C o n g re ss by half, w hile greatly lim itin g the o pportuni ties for A fric a n A m ericans and Latin o s to w in state le g islative , city co u n cil, and county co m m is sion seats in the future. The Suprem e Court had a l ready acted to alter the d istricts- -and injure the c a r e e r s -o f A f r i can A m erican U .S . Representa tives C y n th ia M c K in n e y ( G A ) , S a n fo r d B is h o p ( G A ) , C le o F ie ld s ( L A ) , and C o rrin e Brow n ( F L ) . Th e C o u r t’s latest d e cisio n ad d s L d d ie B e r n ic e Jo h n so n ( T X ) , S h e ila Ja c k so n -L e e ( T X ) , E va C la yto n ( N C ), and M el Watt ( N C ) to the endangered list. O th er A fric a n A m e rican s and H is panics in C o n g re ss may yet be je o p a rd ize d in the near future by the C o u rt's re d istrictin g ru lin gs. These leaders need our help. I r o n i c a l l y , th e se A f r ic a n A m e rica n s now threatened by re d istrictin g represent more d i verse d istricts than a ll but a hand ful o f their co lleagu es in C o n - gress-yet they are the ones the C o urt sin g le d out in their d rive to lim it equal opportunity. The Suprem e C o u rt is w illin g to accept incum bency, geo g rap h ic b oundaries, industry, and p o litic a l party registratio n as le g it imate factors in re d istrictin g . However, despite legislative and ju dicial fundings o f long-term prac tices o f racial exclusion—and by not fully considering the devastating his torical legacies o f slavery and segre- gation-the court has now decided to remove race as a critical factor in redistricting. Th is strikes at the heart o f the Voting Rights Act. This strikes at the heart o f political equality in Am eri ca. In 1996, the white sheets, the blue suits, and the black robes are all acting in concert to roll back Dr. K in g ’s R econstruction. H isto ry shows a sim ilar pattern from 1896, when lynchings and cross burnings, J im Crow laws, and the “separate but equal" decision o f Plessy v. Ferguson ended Am erica’s First Reconstruc tion. Unless we act now to stop it, 1996 w ill repeat the mistakes o f 1896. We must not allow history to repeat it self. We must not allow the 21st century to begin on the same sad note o f institutional racism which crip pled this century. The Case Against Immigration in II xkv tv Ç. R ohe k u > his spring, when the U.S. Congress voted against reducing the level of im migration, it was continuing a policy that is devastating the o p p o rtu n itie s for A m erica n Blacks to fully participate in the life of this country. I he effects of high immigration on American Blacks were ignored in the debate. But the radically increased level o f immigration since 1965 is believed by many to be one o f the most important factors in why black poverty has been growing for 25 years, and in the erosion o f our so cial, economic and political gains. I make that statement based in part on observations from my vantage point of living and working in vari ous financial positions in New York ( ity during that period. Few Am eri can Blacks here have not been aware of the harmful way immigration dis proportionately floods our labor pools, our neighborhoods and our schools. Now I know that what I have seen locally has been occurring nation wide, because o f a remarkable new book from the respected publisher W.W. Norton & Company. I he Case Against Immigration by Roy Beck is one o f the most pro foundly informative and insightful books I have read It has given me a totally new perspective on what im migration has been doing to our coun try and to our people. Beck reveals the answer to one of the most perplexing questions for American Blacks: Why did econom ic progress begin to stop for most American B lacks at the very time when civil rights laws were enacted and affirmative action programs were begun? I here are crowds o f commenta- to rs-in clu d in g some B lacks and some immigrants-who have conclud ed that the cause was a lack o f char acter among us. Even worse, some have gained great publicity for their theories about how our economic decline is an indication of the innate inferiority o f our intelligence. They often-sometimes gleefully-bolster their arguments by pointing out how much better recent immigrants have done than we, the descendants o f slaves. But “what the critics o f black Americans fail to realize," Beck writes, “ is that black workers have been systematically blocked from the economic base that made possible the celebrated achievements o f im migrant communities. And often, it has been the immigrants themselves who blocked the black Americans." In The Case Against Immigration, Roy Beck uses studies from top schol ars, lots o f newspaper accounts and his own on-the-ground reporting to paint a vivid and tragic picture o f how immigration since 1965: • has depressed the wages fo r most black Americans, • has actually taken jo b s from many o f them; • has allowed immigrants to large ly displace Am erican Blacks in many affirmative action programs; by al lowing immigrants special prefer ences to obtain contracts, admis sions to college and specific employ ment opportunities, the federal gov ernment has totally distorted the orig inal intent o f these programs origi nally set up fo r the benefit o f us, the descendants o f slavery, American Blacks, • has blocked American Blacks from thousands o f jo b s as ethnic- networking among immigrants has been a llo w ed to shut Am erican Blacks from many workplaces; • has further eroded the quality o f already inferior inner urban educa tional systems where black children disproportionately attend; • Au.v denied skilled level employ ment to'qualified Black men. and to less-educated young Black men at the entry-level jobs, while denying both groups decent wages at their level that would allow them to sup port a family. I he resu It o f these events has been to reduce the economic and social well-being o f American B lacks, to contribute to the prevention o f and to the breakup o f stable B lack families, and to cause increased poverty, crime, and violence among immigrants and American B lacks alike. Apparently, in recent decades, our B lack leaders and other prominent Black public speakers have been most timid in speaking up for our own interests on this issue. In part, we seem to believe that for a black per son to oppose immigration publicly is to break with our religious tradi tion o f helping all, and with an as sumed solidarity with other non-white groups. Well, our religious doctrines clear ly instruct us that charity begins at home. " I f any provide not for his own, and specially for those o f his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (I T im othy 5:8) While timidity in speaking up for our own poor in the face o f immigra tion seems to be the order o f the day for present Black leaders and public speakers. B eck’s book shows that timidity never occurred until recent ly- To be continued next week. <3Lditer Send your letters to the Editor to: p e r s p e c Top Educators Finally Catch Up With Me I® wenty nations report an average 2 5 point rise in IQ scores since 1 9 1 8 I and, worldwide, the academic community is forced to regroup, I rethink and rewrite. Those who deplored the racist and I pejorative conclusions o f " I he Bell Curve", are now strongly supported I in (heir thesis that "intelligence must be determined more by nurture than by nature. What is so I neat about it is that many readers were alerted quite early on, and right here in the pages o f the Portland Observer. Not once, but time and again over the years, I have used models from my own childhood from parenting and from teaching experiences, to illus trate this “nurturing” determinant or component. I described the stimulating com munication process that went on in I my home and those o f my black playmates, the current magazines on the cocktail table, my own subscrip tions to children’s magazines and the "supper table” input where little ears took in wondrous description o f an exciting world yet to be explored. And several times I have made the precise statement now being attribut ed to experts’ like Dr. John Boli o f Emory University; "Nature, in the form o f’ smart’ genes in a population, does not change at anything like the speed with which IQ has risen." The world’s scholars are alter nately “puzzled or astounded at last month’s international intelligence conference’ by those reports o f an unprecedented rise in IQ scores in the Western World “since 1918." That date is extremely important for it marks the end o f World War I and the first opportunity for educationists to examine a really massive data bank o f so-called “ intelligence test" infor mation e.g. examination o f military recruits. In a 1994 article here (Nov. 9, “The Attack Continues” ), I pointed out that even before Stephen Jay Gould's valuable, book (TheMismeausureofMan, 1981 ), I furnished documentation from U.S. Military Records that both white immigrants from the southern h alfo f Europe and American blacks have had their IQs and other cognitive abilities deliberately disparaged by manipulative techniques. (Lite Fortiani» (Observer (USPS 959-680) OREGON'S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established in 1970 Charles Washington-Publisher The PORTLAND OBSERVER is located at 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 * Fax 503-288-0015 Editor, PO Box 3 137, Portland, OR 97208 C I‘MM. \I*LJ ! Lorrain?, Jotinj'oa tiíar¿ from ti?r ¿augnípr in )it mt a ' » X s it’K a yimplp M ... Familipy jtd: Aon’t TXLl< W, way W y tti'iA to. That’s why f e r » j \y in ¿ayï. ÄIXT True Reach Savings Save 25% on every type of call on your AT&T phone hill to anyone, anywhere in the U.S., any way your family communicates long distance, when you just spend $25.00 a month* That includes operator assisted, AT&T Calling Card, and direct dialed long distance calls. Sign up today Call. 1800-TRUE Al l Mefcrx to long distance calls billed to ATAT home or ( ailing ( ard accounts Discounts o ff ATAT basic rates ‘ IM) spending minimum applies per residential line ( m a in exchniom apph \u h g c t to hilling availahilitv The ‘Nurture vs Nature’ thesis is strongly supported again; On 19 18 I army IQ tests, northern blacks usu ally outscored souther white—a fact conveniently ignored by 9 9% of educationists, sociologists and psy chologists. A s in the case o f that nurturing incubator o f my child hood, this regional phenomenon saw many o f us at our ghetto school scoring above 150 on the Binet tests And not all such high scorers had profes sionals in the family as in my case (moth er and aunt were teachers). Performances like this by black kids piqued the curiosity o f the white power structure. When I was older my mother told me that officials from “downtown” would come out to investigate how some segregated black schools could be scoring h igh- er than those in nearby neighbor hoods o f Irish, German, Polish and Italian extraction. It was probably on their minds, too, that; “hey, wait a minute! these black kids have old er hand-me-down books and equip ment from the white schools-and theirteachers and administrators are paid a lot less” (St. Louis, Mo. On the M ason-Dixon border line). These matters came up in heated discussions I had with in 1990 other participants who testified before the Committee On Teacher Standards, chaired then by Oregon legislator; now Portland Mayor, Vera Katz. This after-the-session debate took place in the hallway and at a nearby restaurant. What you read here is what they got and I emphasized my testimony that "the blind cannot lead the blind - any modification in teacher standards would only make a bad situation worst.” That side did not win a resounding victory (The un-nurtured’, cannot nurture). I did get to have an interesting talk with a white principal from eastern Oregon who was a subscrib er to the Portland Observer. The both o f us were avid readers and researchers; and both familiar with the 1987 revelation o f George Rawoliffe, Senior Lecturer in Fur ther Education, Blackpool, England, "For a century, social engineering in England saw to it that IQ tests were rigged to send boys to highly academic schools and girls where ever” . We wondered about “Amer icas plan for black.” C a n t’s next week. Deadline fo r all submitted materials: Articles: Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday Noon POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208, Second C 'lass postage p a id at Portland, Oregon. The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w ill be returned. If accompanied by a se lf addressed envelope. 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