P age A2
J uly 3, 1996 • Tin P ori land O bserver
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views Of
The ^lortlaitb (fibs truer
his JaxFax is one in a
series quoting short sec­
tions from Jesse, the new
book on Jesse Jackson by
Marshall Frady.
We are almost done, but we did
want to immediately summ arize many
o f the essential points Erady makes in
his book, since book reviewers, jo u r­
nalists, and political analysts are often
distracted from stating obvious truths
by the power o f the conventional wis­
dom.
♦’’Jesse paid a very high price in
those campaigns,’ Andrew Youngsub-
mits, ’but I think he may well have
saved the country with them, a, that
critical time during Reagan He re­
stored a mass focus on black concerns,
on poverty and other conditions hold­
ing a real danger o f social eruption if
left ignored He inspired great hope in
the black community. And his voter-
registration efforts brought a liberal­
ization o f the makeup o f Congress—it
was how we got forty blacks in the
House, how we got those Democratic
victories in the Senate. In fact, those
voter-registration cam paigns o f his
were ultimately how we got Clinton
elected, want to know the truth.” '
Bob Beckel points out, the party's
‘white male establishment never did
get it that the Senate came into Demo­
cratic hands only because o f Jackson's
C O A L IT IO N
Pilgrimage, Part 4
voter-registration drives in the South,
but I know that to be true.’”
♦Even l.ee Atwater, the mongoose-
shrewd genie o f electoral strategy for
both the Reagan and Bush White
House, acknowledged, Jackson and
his coalition gave the Senate back to
the Democrats in 1986 and made pos­
sible a new liberal politics in the dying
years o f the Reagan adm inistration.'"
♦’’Beyond that, as Henry Fairlie
reported, Jackson was "bringing into
the political mainstream a crucial num­
ber o f American citizens who seemed
to have permanently abandoned any
hope or belief that they might one day
find a place within it.’”
*” It would also com e to be general­
ly acknow ledged that it was Jackson’s
expansion o f the black electorate that
eventually supplied the margin to re­
pulse the reach for the Louisiana gov-
em orship by Ku Klux Kian leader
David Duke, w ho had actually drawn
the majority o f the white vote in that
election."
♦ Jac k so n ranged on into reaches
o f the American experience where no
important presidential candidate be­
fo re him h ad e v e r s e rio u s ly
ventured....Ultimately, his campaign
em braced a sense o f the American
family more com prehensive than any
tried perhaps since Robert Kennedy.”
*’“ Look, when it’s all written
dow n,' asserts Bert Lance, w ho's the
fella who really raised the question o f
health care in this country/...W ho was
the fella who ultimately called atten­
tion in a large way to the plight o f
M andela?” ’
♦"Simply the popular span achieved
byJackson’spopulistapostleshipw as,
Andrew Kopkind wrote, ‘o f historic
proportions. He traversed I ines ofclass
and race—African-Americans, Native
Americans, Arab Americans, field
workers, whitedisplaced farm and fac
tory families, the underclass and the
working p o o r-to create agenuine pop­
ulist force that played serious politics
inh)0*0*0*e highest political arena.
♦ ’M ore than anything else. Jack-
son has set out on h i s fore ign treks... as
an apostle for the expansion o f K ing’s
moral vision over the rest o f the
globe.”
♦’’Stanley C ro u ch ...d eclared in
1988, ‘If A m erica cannot use this
man in som e way, by fusing his co ­
lossal am bition with his ability to
inspire involvem ent in the d em ocrat­
ic process...then there is a problem o f
political imm aturity in our time much
greater than any we have adm itted...
♦"W hatever else might develop
with Jackson... by 1995 one was b e­
ginning to hear appraisals o f him like
the surprising pronouncem ent even
o f Ben Bradlee. ‘He is the heir to Dr.
King, th ere's nobody else who com es
close. In the last analy sis, he rem ains
a m arvelously interesting cosm ic
man. I m ean, a big figure in this
century.’”
>Jackson, quoted by Frady: “ Ifto ­
morrow is my day, wi 11 find me st i 11 out
there carry in' on the work I have all my
life. Be out there marchin’.”
Civil Rights Journal
The U.S. And Hidden Killers
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
e don't think about them
much here in the United
S ta te s becau se we
aren’t forced to.
O ur chi idren are not threatened by
them as they play, our farm ers d o n 't
have to worry about them as they
plow. But landmines threaten the lives
o f thousands o f children and many
farm ers in other parts o f the world.
Unfortunately, the U .S. govern­
ment has come dow n on the w rong
side o f the debate about the produc­
tion and use o f landm ines, w ith Pres­
ident Clinton recently rejectinga plea
to ban imm ediately the A m erican use
o f landmines. Instead, the President
decided to allow the m ilitary to co n ­
tinue using landmines in K orea, while
seeking a perm anent w orldw ide ban
on these w eapons in the next century.
Landm ines are the small explosive
devices buried in the ground which are
detonated by trip wires or pressure
plates when a person stands on them.
Every year 20,000 peop le are k i I led by
them and most o f the victims are civil­
ians. Thousands more are maimed by
these devices, often losing arm s and
legs. The principal victims are poor
rural people, often children and farm­
ers. “The chances are ten tim es as great
that the victim o f a landmine is going
to be a civilian rather than som ebody
in the military," said United Nation
mine expert Paddy Blagden.
A recent State D epartm ent report
estim ates there are at least 85-100 •
mill ion landm ines scattered through­
out the w orld, with new m ines being
laid every day. They are available on
the international arm s m arket for as
little as $3 per mine. A third o f all
m ines lie in A frica, with 10-20 m il­
lion in A ngola alone. A ngola has one
o f the highest am putee rates in the
w orld as a result o f these mines.
T he costs for treating civilians
w ounded by landm ines is enorm ous
and m ost o f the cou n tries affected are
the poorest. M ine injuries require
surgeons, large supplies o f blood and
antibiotics, prosthetic devices and
close follow -up. Indeed, the individ­
ual, the family, the com m unity and
the nation are all severely impacted
by the consequences o f landmines.
With President C lin to n ’s recent
announcement, the United States stands
with China and Russia in continuingto
in sist on p ro d u c in g an d u sin g
landmines. Thirty-nine other nations,
including our closest NATO allies,
have now stated their support for an
immediate and com prehensive ban on
the mines. Even the U.S. military is
divided on their use, with 15 high-
ranking retired military officers urging
the President to ban these weapons in
an open letter this spring.
T here is no rhym e or reason why
our m ilitary still uses landm ines,
w hose principal vjctim s are civil­
ians, often innocent women and chil­
dren. The U.S. can do better than
this—we can be better than this.
(You can write to President Clinton
at the White House, /600 Pennsylva­
nia Avenue, Washington, DC 20500.)
V o rv+ o g e P o in t : The Epidemic Of Church Burnings
he rash of Black church
burnings is not diminish­
ing.
It is intensifying. D uring the last
w eek two churches have burned in
G reenville, Texas, tw o in northern
M ississippi, one in O klahom a, one in
N orth C arolina, and new s has ju st
com e across the w ire that a church
has been burned on the E astern Shore
in M aryland.
It is clear that organized w hite
suprem acist groups and random rac­
ists are unleashing their venom and
hatred against A fricans in A m erica
by attacking our m ost sacred and
independent institution, the Black
church. W hile public officials and
m e d ia pu n d its p o n tific a te a b o u t
w hether there is a national c o n sp ira­
cy, a rein o f terror is being directed at
the very heart o f,h e Black com m uni­
ty. T his epidem ic o f dom estic te rro r­
ism m ust stop.
T he core coalition spearheaded
by the N ational Council o fC h u rch es,
w hich includes the C enter for D em ­
ocratic Renew al and the C enter for
C onstitutional Rights, has succeeded
in forcing the federal authorities to
break their silence and end their d e­
nial about the racial m otivation b e­
hind the burning o f Black churches.
T his is a positive step in the right
direction. U nfortunately, it w ould
appear that in many instances the
focus o f the investigations o f the
church burnings has been m is-direct-
ed The pastors o f the affected Church­
es have revealed a disturbing pattern
o f harassm ent and intim idation by
local, state and federal investigators.
R ather than focus on w hite sup rem a­
cist organ izatio n s that are active in
virtually every state where these burn­
ing have occurred, the A TF and FBI
have often treated pastors and con­
gregations as if they are the primary
suspects. Pastors and m em bers o f,h e
congregations have been intensely
interrogated w ithout the presence o f
attorneys, and asked to take lie de­
tector tests.C hurch financial records
have been subpoenaed. T he victims
o f the church burnings have been
treated like the villains.
The coalition has dem anded that
these kinds o f tactics stop. It is an insult
to the Black community that it has
taken so long to see the ugly hand o f
racism in the bom bingofBlackchurch-
es and an outrage that there is the
presumption that Black people are
burning their own churches. There is a
w idespread feeling in the Black com­
munity that if these churches had been
white churches. Catholic cathedrals or
Jewish synagogues the federal author­
ities would have responded much soon­
er and white pastors, priests and Rab­
bis wou Id not be the primary objects o f
the investigations. This duel standard
is racist in and o f itself.
While the coalition is dem anding
that the federal authorities end the
harassment o f Black pastors and con­
gregations and is pressing for a more
aggressive focus on w hite supremac ist
groups and organizations, steps are
also taken by the coalition to combat
the wave o f Black church burnings.
The C enter for D em ocratic Re­
newal (C D R ), which has been the
m ost authoritative source for infor­
mation on this crisis, is continuing to
conduct exhaustive research to iden­
tify the scope o f the crisis in term s o f
the actual num bers o f churches that
have been burned since 1990. CDR
has also been in the forefront o f an ­
sw ering the question o f who is burn­
ing Black churches.
the N N PA
lx of the nation's promi­
nent legal organizations
headed by women are
launching an effort to protect
affirmative action, a policy In­
creasingly under assault in Con­
gress, the courts and state gov­
ernments.
A bill co-sponsored by now -re­
tired Senate Majority Leader Bob
Dole and Senator C harles Canady
(R -FL) is expected to com e to a vote
soon in the House.
T he bill, called the Equal O ppor­
tunity A ct o f 1996, would effectively
outlaw affirm ative action by elim i­
nating any consideration o f race and
gender in federal program s, includ­
ing contracting, em ploym ent and
educational opportunities
“A ffirm ative Action is needed to­
day because discrim ination is still
very prevalent We ca n ’, afford as a
nation to turn the clock back to the
days o f segregation, o f separate and
unequal,” states B arbara A m w ine,
Executive D irector o f the Lawyers
C om m ittee for Civil Rights U nder
Law Her organization isjoining with
the Asian Pacific A m erican Legal
D efense and Educational Fund, the
N ational W om en's Law C enter, and
the W om en 's Legal D efense Fund to
establish the consortium . "A m ericans
for a Fair Chance: O pening D oors to
O p p o rtu n ity through A ffirm ative
A ction.”
Statistics paint a grim portrait o f
continuing discrim ination in the U n­
tied States African A m ericans who
constitute 11 percent o f the total
w orkforce, m ake up less than three
percent o f lawyers and dentists and
less than four percent o f doctors,
industrial engineers, engineers and
m anagers in m arketing, advertising
and public relations A frican A m er­
ican men with a college degree earn
$798 for every $1,000 earned by
their w hite m ale counterparts. The
disparity in earnings increases as the
education levels rise. Ninety-six per­
cent o f co rp o rate C E O ’s are still
w hite men.
Nationally, Blacks earn about one-
fourth less in wages than whites and
unem ployment remains twice as high
The disparity for women is also tell­
ing. W omen still make on average
11.3 percent ot African Americans
In 16.7 percent o f the instances in
which both the W hite and African
American received offers, the White
applicant was offered higher wages
White applicants w ere also notified of
jo b vacancies while applying for an­
other position at a rate 48 percent
greater than African American appli­
cants.
better ‘Ue
(SLÏÏitor
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
f
e e l ir e s
í
Top Educators Catch Up, Cont’d
ast week, many of the
readers were startled
to learn that the lead­
ing educators in the world had,
I themselves, been educated to
a fu n d am en tal b io lo g ic a l
fact: “Nature, in the form of
sm art* g en es, does not
change at anything like the
speed with which IQ has risen."
Though sore
ly wounded in re­
cent decades by
racist clap trap
co n c ern in g the
cognitiveabilities
o f n o n -w h ite s, ! A
(from Jensen and
Shockley to the, "Bell C urve”, we are
both surprised and elated o f what the
’enem y’ has long m ade us aw are o f -
that 'nurture' overrides ’nature’ in a
span o f'generations’.
Then it is not too difficult to make
abundantly clear the inference o f
chicanery and manipulation made last
week when I quoted both U.S. mili­
tary records and the research o f noted
anthropologist, Stephen J. G ould
("The M ismeasure O fM an ” )... to the
effect that African American IQs in
the North consistently measured h igh-
er than those o f Southern whites.
And, indeed, I proceeded to give
further evidence o f black intellectual
com petence in the dem onstrating o f
a superior cognitive ability am ong
my own childhood peer group. And,
further, described the “nurturing"
process which produced these edu­
cational accom plishments in ahighly
discriminatory and oppressive inner-
city climate; techniques and methods
which I integrated into my own teach­
ing practices and curriculum design
(acknowledging it takes a whole vil­
lage to teach a child as well as to
"raise” one). But racists are not inter­
ested in facts.
In this same vein, a local reader
who knew me ‘ back then ’, and whose
grandchild was in the Urban Eco­
nomics class I designed and taught at
Portland State University, says, “ It is
important for today’s generation to
know just how critical that incom pa­
rable 'early ch i Idhood education ’ was
to us.” She pointed out that in the
terrible depression ofthe 1930’s, “the
black middle class was hit twice as
hard because, o f course, they were
first to be laid off.”
She went on, "But the world should
note that when the family fortunes
disintegrated and ourparent's income
relegated us to the deep, deep ghetto,
we never missed a beat. W hen a
number o f us dropped out o f high
school to work because we had no I
clothes or had younger sisters and
brothers to take care of. there re­
mained the public library and corre-1
spondence schools. And with that par I
excellence 'early childhood educa-1
lion’ we had gotten it doesn’t seem to |
have materially hindered our futures.’
S he’s quite right, o f course, many I
ofus(likem e)nev-[
By
ft
those days. What
we did was make
careers o f surpris­
ing (or d i sappo i n t i ng) by ‘ fl oor show ­
ing’ on col lege entrance exams or the I
‘
US
Professor
Mcklnley
Burt
er returned to
high school, and I
they d idn’t have a
G.E.D. process in I
IQ tests given by personnel depart­
ments who thought “this will be the |
end o f it.”
In Oregon, after all these years, 11
still retain a vivid image o f shocked
Anglo Saxons at Lewis and Clark
Law School (Northwestern) and at
the personnel office o f the Harvey
Aluminum Co. “ W here did you all
say you were from ?”, they would ask
o f new students or new hires, black |
high school drop outs from the South
O f course, many readers are aware o f I
the rigorous high school curriculum I f
have detai led there a number oft imes.
Portland will be lucky if they reach
that standard o f math, science, lan­
guage and literature by year 2010 let |
alone “Year 2000.”
Many o f us, black and white, are |
very much aware ofthe ugly econom ­
ic and cultural game practiced in this I
troubled nation. The distortion or I
omission o f historical and dem on­
strable facts to the contrary continue
in the on-slaught against the intellec­
tual abi I it ies o f peoples ofcolor. II igh I
school dropouts, as I have described I
them, have gone on to become capa-1
ble doctors, engineers, lawyers, col­
lege professors, or mathematicians.
Yet we have a continuous manip-1
ulation o f fact and fancy (and statis­
tics) aimed at presenting blacks (or I
deliberately trainingthem) in the mode
o f Rudyard K ipling's famed descrip­
tion o fth e indigenous people o f In­
dia, “The white m an’s Burden.’’ The I
British, o f course, were in the process
o f extracting trillions o f dollars in
labor and natural resources from their
"burdens". Sounds familiar, as the |
new prison-building industries be­
come hot items on the stock market. I
What happens to “burdens” when no
longer needed? C o n c lu d e d «vex/1
week.
(Lite ^lurtiarth (©baeruer
(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
Deadline f o r a ll submitted materials:
Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday Noon
POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer,
P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208.
Defending Affirmative Action
by M esha M endenhall and
L eila M c D owell , S pecial to
f> e r
S ec o n d C lass p o sta g e p a id a t Portland. O regon
The Portland O bserver w elcom es freelance subm issions. M anuscripts
and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned. If
accom panied by a se lf addressed envelope. All created design display
ads becom e the sole property o f the new spaper and can not be used in
other publications or personal usage, w ithout the w ritten consent o fth e
general m anager, unless the client has purchased the com position o f
such ad © 1996 T H E P O R T L A N D O B SE R V E R . ALL RIG H TS
R ESER V ED , R E P R O D U C T IO N IN W H O LE OR IN PART W IT H ­
O U T PER M ISSIO N IS PR O H IB IT E D .
Subscriptions: $3 0 .0 0 p e r year.
The Portland O b se rv e r-O re g o n 's O ldest A frican-A m erican Publica­
tion—is a m em ber o f the N ational N ew spaper A ssociation—Founded in
1885, and The N ational A dvertising R epresentative A m algam ated
Publishers, Inc, N ew York, N Y , and T he W est Coast Black Publishers
A ssociation • Serving P ortland and V ancouver.
“ It is this type o f continuing dis­
crim ination that m akes affirm ative
action so necessary not ju st in em ­
ploym ent but in education as w ell,”
said Elain Jones, director counsel o f
the N A A C P-I.D F.“ How can we re­
verse this persistent condition if the
d o o r s to h ig h e r e d u c a tio n are
slam m ed shut to m inority students?”
“The goal o f A m ericans for A Fair
C hance is to help A m ericans under­
stand the truth about affirm ative ac­
tion,” asserts M arica G reenberger,
co-president o f the National W om ­
e n ’s Law C enter. A ffirm ative action
is sim ply giving everyone an equal
chance to succeed on their own merit.
T oo often a p erso n ’s race or gender
has m eant that they are not even
considered."
The consortium, which plans to
launch a series o f public education
initiatives, has already secured the
agreem ent o f noted actor C harles
Dutton, star o f the television program
“ Roc," to record a public service an­
nouncement The consortium can be
reached by calling (202) 662-8600
SUBSCRIBE TO (Thr JJortlanb (Dbseruer
The Portland Observer Can Be Sent Directly To Your Home For Only $30.00
Per Year Please Fill Out, Enclose Check Or Money Order. And Mail To:
S ubscriptions
T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137
P or i land , O regon 97208
Name:
Address:___________________________________ ______________
City, Slate:
___
Zip-Code:
T iiank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
I