P age A2
D ecember 25, 1996 • T he P orti and O bserver
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Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
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Miracle Theater
speaks out
To the editor:
On beh alf o f Miracle Theatre we would like to congratulate you on
the Portland Observador.
The Observador represents a new model fo r community expression.
Its fo rm a t encourages youth to voice their concerns and opinions. By
prom oting youth to express themselves, the Observador is helping to
m odel the fu tu re o f the la tin o - American community.
The Portland Observer is also enriching the community at large by
offering a Hispanic perspective to a large and diverse readership.
M iracle Theatre's mission is to provide Hispanic theatre, arts and
culture experiences to North w est’s audiences. We fe e l that the Observa
dor is a great asset to the promotion o f this culture.
Sincerely,
Jose Eduardo Gonzalez
Executi ve/A rtistic Director
Enie Vaisburd
Marketing Director
Miracle Theatre
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Who told you that you were naked? conclusion
by
P rof , M c K inley B urt
“
ou won’t know the play-
T f I ers unless you buy a pro-
C o gram, folks", shout the
vendors at the sporting events.
And some readers still express
amazement that I am able to
relate to so many people of differ
ent ages, races and walks of life,
particularly the youth.
Whatever the nature o f this modus
operandi, I frequently find myself
trying to translate it into some kind of
universal paradigm useful to any of
us who would successfully interact
with our communities. But as you
can well imagine, it is quite difficult
to tell most people, “Hey, your not
naked’, you’ve got everything you
need to work with--all the tools, all
the know how, Just Do It!”
What I usually get in reply is,
"that’s easy for you to say because
you know everybody’ — you can
design and implement projects across
the spectrum of education, economic
or societal; you've been in the com
munity 50 years, so you’ve automat
ically got credibility!
"Not true", I answer with vigor;
there is a little more to it than that.
Now that I am working with youths
again, as I did in my U S Forest
Service Outreach Programs during
the 1970s and early 80s, it is very
important for them to understand that
successful community interaction is
neither automatic nor easy.
First off, I explain the “inter-gen
eration advantage", using some con
tem porary activity for a model:
"alright crew, w e’re going out to
Beaverton tomorrow. The electron
ics company is sending two vans to
pick us up. You know, this reminds
me that twenty years ago some of
your parents were part of my "Tech
nology O utreach P ro g ram ” for
innercity youth, and were just about
your age at the time.”
The difference is that, then, I was
leasing Grey Hound buses for field
trips which included both youth and
parents; "Your grandparents," I em
phasize. We went to such sites as the
U S. Forest Service Tree Nursery at
Wind River W ashington, where the
black role model was the chief horti
culturist Oscar Halh a product of
famed Tuskeegee University “Some
of your parents were on those trips
and, in fact, are still employees of the
agency. And twenty years from now
you may have a key position with one
of the corporations we will be visit
ing this month Hundreds gained
employment before.”
And again, I make it clear to these
young people just as I do at meetings
w ith adults in the community, there is
no such thing as "automatic credibil
ity" I’ve had them study models I've
designed with specific experiences
in mind; from ’creating’ classes at
the university for the specific pur
pose of bringing into the mix with
students such people from industry
and public agencies as personnel
managers, department heads and even
a CEO or two, to simulating technol
ogy in the classroom.
I tell the youth I meet with that an
extension of this paradigm led to
further interaction with an ‘expand
ed ’ community that included other
cultures-very fruitful in the economic
sense.
In past years I had discovered
while working with some of the par
ents that they had a ‘bad altitude'
toward certain 'hard' components of
the learning process; "White folks
stuff," they called it It requires def
inite w eli-planned procedures to
overcome this disability.
One of the things I do is a tech
mque readers of the Portland Ob
server would immediately recognize.
I tirelessly point out the extraordi
nary number of mechanical and elec
trical devices around that were in
vented and patented by African
Americans -bui which most A m eri
cans think were developed by white
men like Thomas Edison orthe famed
W estinghouse of “airbrake fame.'
"It is institutional racism.”
It works and you can see young
sters swell with pride - but then they
ask, “why weren't we told this in
school, this is real education and
motivation."
I have no hesitation in telling them
the how and the why or about my 22
year fight to make a backwards school
system aware of this -in a lime of
accelerating technology, yet.
And it certainly helps in a session
out there in Beaverton, when a white
CEO verifies it then introduces a
black engineer who reinforces the
point. We will reprise my university
course.
"You really aren't naked, are you
Mr. Burt, said one kid. My father
says you can get more done in the
community with part of your social
security than some programs.”
Restating the problem: race and inequality
by
I) r . M anning M arable
he
poet
L a n g s to n
Hughes once suggested
years ago th a t the black
American's search for democra
cy in the United States was “a
dream deferred.”
Perhaps we should now add that
this dream has been so long delayed,
corrupted and com prom ised that
many black folk now question the
viability o f the entire political project
called American democracy.
Any understanding of American
society and history must begin with
the study o f the black American ex
perience in this county. This is be
cause the status and existence of black
people, the quality o f our lives and
the range o f possibilities which we
can realistically achieve through our
own endeavors, is the essential lit
mus test for the viability of American
democracy. It is the distance between
A m erica’s rhetoric vs. its reality,
between what America says about
itself vs. what it actually is.
African Americans are at the cen
ter of the definition about what it has
meant to be” an American.” The re
ality of "blackness” has all to often
been the criteria for determining a
series of questions about the rela
tionship between the people, the state
and civil society: who rides in the Jim
Crow section of the bus, and who
does not? Who lives in the ghetto,
and who does not? Who is the first
person to get a job, and who is the
last?
The basic paradox one must con
front in any consideration o f the role
of race in American life, is the ten
sion between "marginalizaiton" and
“inclusion.” Historically, African-
American culture has been central to
the construction of the cultural and
the aesthetic contours of America.
Politically, the issue of race has been
absolutely central to the major con
flicts in the American experience,
from the civil war to the civil rights
movement.
Economically, black labor was es
sential in the construction of this na
tion, from the unpaid exploitation of
slavery to the underpaid labor of Afri
can Americans in central cities in the
1990’s. Nevertheless, despite our cen
trality, we continue to be marginalized
by the mainstream of the dominant
social order. We are continually un
equal members of the household, but
never members of the national family.
In the language of “hip-hop” culture,
we are “dissed" in the very house we
have helped to construct.
From the vantagepoint of Afri
can-A m erican history, from the
depths of our sorrow and anger, we
ask ourselves, why do we continued
to be marginalized? Who benefits
from this marginalization? Who is
responsible for maintaining the struc
ture of power and privilege which
makes this marginalization and en
during fact o f American life?
African Americans understand that
race is not a valid biological concept,
that it has no genetic validity. Stripped
of the rhetoric superiority and inferi
ority, the science of race is nothing
but a fraud, grounded in power, priv
ilege and violence against those who
are oppressed. Yet our lives are de
fined and circumscribed by the bru
tal reality of racism, a system that
denies the humanity of millions of
people, lim iting their education,
employment, health, housing and
future.
This is why all the recent talk
about “reverse racism" is sheer non
sense. When African Americans con
trol all of the banks and financial
institutions in our neighborhoods, all
of the real estate and commercial
enterprises, we might begin to talk
about discrimination against whites
When our government truly reflects
the real percentages of African Amer
icans, Latinos and other racial mi
norities within the general popula
tion; when the corporations that ex
ploit black, brown and poorconsum-
er markets are actually controlled
democratically by those who pro
duce the wealth, then we might seri
ously discuss the possibility ol “re
verse racism.” Whiteness in a racist,
corporate-controlled society is like
having the image of a American Ex
press Card or Diners Club Card
stamped on one's face: immediately
you are “universally accepted."
Let’s restate the problem of black
liberation in a white, conservative
and capitalist society; to end racism,
we must end inequality.
Our goal cannot be simply the as
similation or integration of black elites
into the white cultural and corporate
mainstream. Nor can we combat ine
quality by going it alone, divorced
from real and potential allies from a
broad spectrum of brown, poor and
working class women and men.
The problem of the twenty-first
century is the challenge of multicul
tural democracy - whether Ameri- ,
can political institutions and society
can and will be restructured to incor
porate the genius and energy, the
labor power and social struggles of
millions of people who have been
denied full equality - Latinos, Asian
Americans, American Indians, Arab
Americans African Americans, wom
en, working people, the unemployed,
the poor and many others
A modern-day Christmas story
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
n the midst of the vlo-
'jJ lence, in the midst of the
O"
drugs, in the midst of the
recall of affirmative action, in the
midst of the cuts in welfare and
housing subsidies for the poor, in
the midst of civil wars in Africa
and not-quite peace in the Mid
dle East, Bosnia and Ireland, it is
easy to lose heart.
But, every now and then one hears
stories which show that G od’s light
still shines in the midst o f the dark
ness. Every now and then one hears
a story of hope. Here is one of them,
which I heard about on a recent Na
tional Public Radio news broadcast.
The M anchester C ra ftsm e n ’s
Guild is located in the heart of a poor
community in Pittsburgh. Once home
to w e a lth y in d u stria lists, the
Manchester section of the city was
left out of the 1980's re b irth of Pitts
burgh.
But, because of the vision of one
man, Bill Strickland, that communi
ty has not been forgotten completely
Thirty years ago Strickland, a Uni
versity of Pittsburgh history student
and pottery maker, began a ceramics
program for children in this neigh
borhood. Today it has blossomed
into an art program which impacts
thousands of Pittsburgh children and
into a training center for hundreds of
poor adults in that neighborhood
Strickland, combining his pottery -
making expertise with his experi
ence in the 1960’scivil rights move
ment, realized that the arts and a
caring teacher had saved his own life
and could do the same for others.
Using the apprenticeship model un
der which he flourished, he estab
lished a program which today in
cludes 5(M) students who learn ce
ramics, photography, painting, draw
ing and computer imaging. Another
4,(XM) students attend workshops run
by the guild in the city’s 12 public
high schools. In addition, guild stu
dents attend summer arts residency
programs at nearby universities.
Through exposure to the arts, these
students come to realize their own
creativity and imagination and de
velop a new sense of self-worth. From
this new view of themselves, stu
dents have new reasons to go to school
and new reasons to stay alive. “You
can't teach a kid algebra if they’re no
interested in being a liv e," said
Strickland. Remarkably. 80 percent
of the Manchester Guild students go
on to college.
And for the future? Strickland's
plans include a greenhouse which
will grow flowers and hydroponic
food on a nearby vacant lot. His
dream is to build an office tower and
women’s health care facility to make
the Manchester Guild and Bidwcll
Center self-supporting. Strickland
says, "I think that we could solve the
p ro b le m s o f the c itie s in our
lifetime... But in order to achieve that,
w e're going to have to gel a lot more
aggressive and a lot activist in terms
of our orientation and our orientation
and our thinking, and the m eter's
running.”
Signs of hope. Signs of light in the
darkness. It takes only one man or
one woman with a vision to be the
light ..And the m eter's running.
A blessed Christmas to us all.
Texaco, Avis, Shell, Circuit City et al
exaco is off the front
pages of the newspaper
and not on the television
screens, but a closer reading or
watching will tell other stories of
corporate racism which have
surfaced in the past few w eeks.
These stories show how institution
al racism is still very much a part of
corporate life in America as we near
the 21st century.
Indeed, only days after Texaco went
*1
r
off the media radar screens, we learned
that Avis car rental agencies in North
and South Carolina discriminated
against African American customers
and that the national Avis corporation
probably knew about these racist prac
tices Now a federal jury has found that
Circuit City has systematically dis
criminated against its African Ameri
can employees.
Corporate racism, then, is a coat of
many colors. These include the corpo
ration's employment practices, its ser
vice to its customers, its use of people
of color vendors and franchisers, and
its corporate social responsibility per
formance, not only in the United States,
but around the world
While recent headlines have fo
cused on discrimination and racial hos
tility in the work place, it is important
not to underestimate the importance of
social responsibility accountability. For
example, there is Shell Oil, which has
been criticized for its support of the
South African apartheid regime dur-
ingthe 1970’sand 80’sand its current
support of the Nigeria dictatorship,
which is responsible for the repression
of the Ogonl people, whose land sup
plies the oil Texaco itself has been
criticized for its role in developing oil
and gas reserves in Burma, which is
run by a repressive and illegitimate
military dictatorshipalso notorious for
human rights violations The attitude
an actions of multinational corpora
tions toward so-called Third World
nations, thus, must be considered a
part of their track record.
While the media world seems to
have put corporate racism on the me
dia back burner, it is not ofl the agenda
of the religious community, which has
been challenging corporations like
Texaco for 25 years. The Interfaith
Center on Corporate Responsibility
(ICCR), a coalition of 275 Protestant,
Catholic and Jewish institutional in
vestors with combined portfolios of
over $50 billion, is closely watching
the follow up to the Texaco settle
ment. ICCR-member agencies, form
stance, are sponsoring sharchiilder res
olutions on a variety of Texaco prob
lem They will call on Texaco to diver
sify its board of directors, to break
down so-called “glass ceiling" barri
ers to the advancement of women and
people of color and to make a detailed
report on Texaco’s diversity efforts."
(For more information about the Inter
faith Center on Corporate Rcsponsi
bilily, writc475 Riverside Drive. Rix>m
566. New York. NY 10115.)