•• • •
. '
*
■. • '. : ..
*
.
.
• / •
.«
.-■ •• : •
» '
.
.
.
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. A ll 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 o f the
general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition o f
such ad. © 1996 T H E P O R T L A N D O B S E R V E R AL1 R IG H T S
R E S E R V E D , R E P R O D U C T IO N IN W H O L E O R IN P A R T W IT H ­
O U T P E R M IS S IO N IS P R O H IB IT E D
Subscriptions:$30.00 per year
The Portland O bserver-O regon’s Oldest African-Am erican Publica-
tio n -is a member o f the National Newspaper Association-Founded in
1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated
Publishers, Inc, New Yo rk, N Y . and The West Coast Black Publishers
Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver
S ubscribe to
f t i j c $ o r t i a n h © t « ™ H er
The Portland Observer Can Be Sent Directly To Your Home For Only $30.00
Per Year Please Fill Out. Enclose Cheek Or Money Order. And Mail I o:
S ubscriptions
T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137
P ortland , O regon 97208
AI&T True Reach Savings
Saw 25% on fax calls and
w
O f
AT&T
more.
Your True Choice
rW w ft' -æ
Name:
Address:
City, State:
Zip-Code: