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Attention Readers!
14, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver
RAINBOW PUSH
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C O A L IT IO N
(L lje | J o r t l a n i » © b s e r u e r
Deja Vu All Over Again
(USPS 959-680) Established in 1970
Charles Washington
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Mark Washington
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Danny Bell,
Yvonne Lerch
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Production & GraphicDesign
Paratrooper Bush must have been laughing to himself, as 1,000
media “points o f I ight" I it up the City o f Brotherly love. As current and
former presidents painted over graffiti - what are these guys running for.
mayor?- it was, in Yogi Berra's immortal words, deja vu all overagain.
I here is not hi ng wrong with volunteerism - it isessential to a healthy,
democratic society. But it is as clear as day to us that it is a supplement
- not a substitute - for public programs, for government assistance and
funding, fortheenforcem entofcivil rights laws, forthe reconstruction
o f urban America.
George Bush proposed 1,000 points o f light because he didn't want
to pay for concentrated government action against poverty, rac ism, and
urban decline. Powell and Clinton should have know better.
After all, did General Powell win the Gulf War with unpaid,
untrained, part-time volunteers? And didn't president Clinton just
dedicate FD R's memorial, the man who invented WPA, C'CC. SSI, and
the New Deal? (Isn't politics great? Clinton gets to praise FDR, after
dynamiting the social safety net Roosevelt created...)
It's time for the 2nd Clinton Administration to turn the lights back on
in the White House. Let’s consider one example, civil rights:
*there is more focus on balancing the budget than on balancing
opportunity;
Gary Ann Taylor
Business Manager
Michael Leighton
Copy Editor
Contributing Writers:
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Wrapping it up, if th at’s possible
by
P rofessor M c K inley B urt
don't know why I should find it difficult to wind up our recent
excursion into 'new ' entrepreneurial territory (Busi
pess Information You Can Trust,’’ four parts). But,
then, I’ve always had that ‘could-have-done-more’ feel
ing about aii my projects, no matter how successful.
In the case at hand, I’ve been dealing with a tried and
true Commercial data base, and the mode o f interpretation
for either the new or veteran business person has equally
well proven to be effective in either my university teaching
experience or in on-the-job corporate mentoring. What is new, of course,
is my structuring of these stand-alone federal and state data bases into an
integrated format that enables the entrepreneur to gain fresh insights.
The commentary of Portland Observer readers indicates that this
approach does indeed work very well; this placing of possibly unconnected
business, occupations, machines, materials, services and commercial
organizations, machines, materials, services and commercial organiza
tions into new and revealing relationships.
And as a reader remarks, “ I se ‘for-profit’ possibilities of all kinds in
other than those ‘commercial organizations’. They all have certain stan
dard and basic needs.” (Gale’s Encyclopedia of Associations).
And, by the same token, another reader says he used the Gale’s manual
in the same manner that I did in setting up Union Avenue Finance
Company for the used car dealers. “I hear what you’re saying. If it worked
back then, it will work now, because nothing has changed about how people
come together to advance a common interest. I contacted a commercial
organization formed by firms engaged in my area of interest— but where
there were not how-to books’ or college courses.”
The reader went on to detail that just as I had done a number ofyears ago,
he obtained all the tools-of-the-trade, as if it were; accounting, office and
tax forms specific to the particular enterprise.
And then description o f support materials and functions relating to
I
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*forthe first time since Eisenhower, no civil rights liaison sits in the
White House inner circle;
"■there is currently no Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights;
*the EEOC is looking at a backlog of 100,000 cases;
*the Office o f Contract Compliance is frozen in place;
*and with Prop. 209, Pete Wilson has launched what is essentially a
states' rights challenge to the Federal government, with no serious
response from the Clinton/Gore Administration. W ilson's challenge
has gone largely unanswered by the Feds.
Dr. King did not give his life marching for unstaffed, unenforced,
unfunded mandates. He did not win the Nobel Peace Prize fighting on
behalf o f volunteerism, critical as it was to the success o f his own
movement. He kept his eyes on the prize.
He fought forcivil rights. Hedemanded new public laws, with tough
enforcement. He demanded real funding, to equalize centuries of
segregation and slavery. He demanded new Federal programs and
agenc ies, with staff and support adequate to the task o f promoting equal
opportunity.
He demanded a one big tent America, with equal opportunity and
equal access for all. With all the sleepwalking at the White House these
days, they’ve forgotten his dream.
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This Way for Black
Empowerment
marketing, advertising, personnel, training, continuing education, equip
ment, materials shipping, etc.—even invitations to
visit, to get hands-on orientation. Nothing changes but
the name of the game.
I think it obvious here that good communication
skills are an invaluable help once you’ve learned ‘ where-
its-at’.
I always impressed this in my students as a key skill,
without which all else may fall apart—no matter how
gifted and capable one might be in other areas. Work at it!
Another reader says “ I like your approach— where you craft a real-time
curriculum out of the realities o f the world around us; somehow it’s
academic and experience-based at the same time, and it works.” Well,
thank you dear, kind reader, I try.
And another thing, your public library is a gold mine. I’ve gotten so
much there and have worked for major corporate owners who got all
academics there.
I would not close this business series without emphasizing that even
when I recite my experiences in large corporate enterprises, part of me is
remembering earlier experiences at much smaller enterprise— and the
many times of doing my own thing in the world of commerce, car wash,
laundromats, short-haul, real estate, public accountant, advertising spe
cialties, you name it.
My point being, there is a lot to be found out about small business while
working for big business, they contract and otherwise interface with the
smaller enterprises— right down to the one-person shop. Obviously, by
the same token, that individual (or small partnership) entrepreneur enjoys
a similar learning experience suitable for growth and expansion if so
desired. School is going on all around you everyday and in every way.
Don’t drop out.
Well, that wraps it up, for this time only.
By Dr. Lenora Fulani
Malcolm X: People’s Philosopher
There is much talk in liberal
circles nowadays about the need for
a new public philosophy, the need to
reshape how we, as Americans, talk
about, think about and enact social
policy. I agree with the concern
expressed by many of these liberal
intellectuals. The problem is that
they have nothing to recommend.
Often these conversations — on
talk shows or in magazine “think"
pieces — focus on how liberalism
abandoned its vision of humanism,
stopped addressing moral issues and
left a vacuum into which the right
wing has moved. This is, of course,
true But the liberals have been mak
ing this pint for close to 20 years.
They want to lament the lack of a
progressive vision But they don’t
seem to want to do anything about
it. They view a new public philoso
phy as something waiting to be dis
covered, rather than something that
must be created.
I reflect on this state of affairs as
we get ready to mark what would
have been M alcolm X’s 72nd birth
day on May 19 Some of Malcolm's
most brilliant and cutting remarks
come to my mind. “You put the
Democrats first, but the Democrats
put you last.” True enough in 1964,
when he said it. But shockingly
accurate as a predication of where
we, as Black people, have come to
more than 30 years later This ap
pears nowhere in the liberals' con
temporary analysis of the decline of
progressivism and humanism.
That remark about the Demo
cratic Party’s disregard for Black
interests was part of his brilliant
and famous speech "the Ballot or
the Bullet,” in which he described
how the choices for Black America
had come down to effective elec
toral political power or violence.
Today, we have virtually no politi
cal power. And we have uncondoned
violence The "bullet” did not turn
out to be part of an armed political
revolution, but rather the violent
destruction that Black people — in
desperation and deprivation — often
inflict upon one another. The pow
erlessness of Black America is also
unmentioned in the liberals’ call for
a new public philosophy.
I believe that America needs a
public philosophy that not only takes
into account the state of Black
America, but which is co-created by
Black America, together with the
millions of white Americans who
have come to believe that they have
been putting the two parties and the
government first, but the two par
ties and the government now put
them last.
If there is to be a new public
philosophy. Black and white
America will build it in the context
of building a new political party and
new political culture that promotes
democracy and development for all
Justice Denied: Police
rutality And Us
C ivil R ig h ts J o u rn a l
B> B ernice P owell J ackson
In New York City two Hispanic men are killed when they are
shot from behind 28 tim es and another Hispanic man is choked to
death after his football hits a police car. In Pittsburgh an African
Am erican businessm an is choked to death after being stopped for
a traffic violation. A St. Petersburg FI African American m otorist
is shot to death also after a traffic stop. A New Haven CT African
Am erican man suffers the same fate. In each case the killing
occurred w hile the men were in police custody or in the course o f
a police actions.
These are ju st a few o f the stories which were heard at the
N ational Em ergency Conference on Police Brutality held in New
York City recently. Sponsored by the C enter for Constitutional
Rights, this conference brought together people who had experi
enced police brutality from across the nation, including Kentucky,
G eorgia, O hio, Florida, New York, and New Jersey.
Indeed, crim inal ju stice is the issue which seem s to show the
greatest racial divide in this nation. Most people o f color would
characterize the system as the crim inal injustice system and most
European A m ericans would not. A New York Times colum nist
recently w rote how, in the course o f writing a book, he has asked
African A m erican men across the nation whether they have ever
been hassled by police. Most o f them can tell a story o f being
stopped in a store or in their car while driving in a white neighbor
hood. Som e may have been questioned sim ply because they were
at a phone booth or in a mall. It d o e sn 't m atter whether they are
w ell-dressed or what their occupation. Even off-duty or plain
clothes police officers have been stopped, or occasionally even
shot w hile on duty. Few European Am erican men have had this
<
experience.
Not only are hundreds, perhaps thousands o f people of color
victim s o f police brutality every year, but they seldom find justice
in the courts. Take the case o f Johnny Gam m age, an African
Am erican businessm an and the cousin o f Pittsburgh Steelers
player Ray Seals. Mr. G am m age was choked to death after a
routine traffic stop outside Pittsburgh in 1995. Last month the
judge in the case dism issed charges against the police officers
accused in his killing, saying that prosecutors unfairly singled
them out.
Or take the case o f Anthony Baez, the young New Yorker who
was choked by police after his football hit a patrol car. The officer
accused in his m urder was acquitted o f all charges in a non-jury
trial.
It is im portant to note that while police brutality disproportion
ately impacts com m unities o f color that the num ber o f European
A m erican victim s is growing. A recent Montel W illiam s show
focused on white victim s, for instance. And it is also important to
note that while m o sto fth e police officers are European American,
there are officers o f color who occasionally have been found to be
violent.
Finally it should be noted that brutality isn o tju st found in police
officers It is also present in corrections officers, imm igration
officers and others in the crim inal justice system . And its victim s
are also women, often those who are incarcerated.
What are the reasons for the increase in police brutality cases
and what can we do about it?
Next week I will turn to those issues.
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