j vi y 2, 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver
j E
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hina represses religious
freedom, dominates Tl-
L, bet, threatens Taiwan,
restricts democracy in Hong
Kong, oppresses independent
unions, and undercuts wages
with prison labor-so now they've
been rewarded with Most Fa
vored nation (MFN) status.
Cuba gets a trade embargo, even
on food and medicine. Could it be
because Cuba is small, while china
has a billion potential consumers?
The MEN vote for China this week
was a setback for human rights.
SHAFTA-Rep. BobWise(D-WV)
calls it SHAFTA-the Southern Hemi
sphere Area Free Trade Associa-
tion-the Clinton Administration's
attempt to win “fast track" negotiat
ing authority for NAFTA expansion
into South America, starting with
Chile.
However, by 2-1, a majority of
Americans believe that trade agree
ments are more likely to cost jobs
than to create them. 73% believe
labor and environmental issues
should be negotiated as part of trade
agreements, rather than separately.
And the AFL-CIO will oppose any
fast-track legislation that does not
require enforceable labor and envi
ronmental standards.
lio r tia n b (O h sm w r
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T hank Y o t F or R eading T iu P ortland O bserver
This Way for Black Empowerment
Bill Clinton Can’t
Heal The Racial
Divide
by
I) r . L enora F ulani
everal w eeks ago
P re s id e n t C lin to n
kicked off his cam
paign to heal the racial divide
in America. Bill Clinton is one
of those politicians who has
built his career off of reinforc
ing that racial divide.
Bu, like any politician who
bases his principles on the polls,
the focus groups and the politi
cal winds, what he did yesterday
has no bearing on what he docs
today. Everything is for political
gain Little is for the good of the
country. And nothing is for the
good of African Americans
In his speech at the University
of California in San Diego he
told the country that we have the
opportunity to overcome the ra
cial polarization that still plagues
A m erica and create a “truly
multi-racial democracy." Presi
dent Clinton says we need to
have a constructive national con
versation on race.
I agree that we need to work to
create a "truly multi-racial de
mocracy." But in order to have
the meamngtul conversation that
President Clinton is calling for.
then some true things about the
situ atio n that we, as B lack
people, find ourselves re, are
going to have to get said.
Some of those things are go
ing to have to be about the issue
of political power. Because the
long-standing inequities between
Black and white America - in
education opportunity and the
quality of education - in job
opportunity and the quality ot
jobs -- persist because the cur
rent political arrangement has
kept us marginalized as a politi
cal force. This problem must be
addressed, it we as a country and
Black people as a community,
are going to overcome. And no
amount of commissions, or con
versations, or apologies for sla
very are going to make a différ
ence unless we do that.
How do we do that? Slavery
may have been abolished and
“apologies” may be forthcom
ing, but most of Am erica's key
political institutions were cre
ated during slavery -- notably
the Democrats and the Republi
cans and still bear the slavery
mentality. Until we create a new
political party that includes Af
rican Americans as full partners
in its inception, conception and
design, we will remain without
the political power we need.
Moreover, it's building this new
party - together with other
Americans -- that will heal the
racial divide.
Editorial articles do not necessarily
reflect or represent the views o f
(Ebt?
Inrtlanb ©baerucr
RAINBOW PUSH
C O A L I T I O N
The week in review
The upshot is that NAE TA ex
pansion cannot succeed this year
unless Clinton and big business can
persuade 40-50 "Free trade Demo
crats to vote for a GOP last track bill
with no environmental & labor stan
dards. But most House Democrats-
and a block of Republicans-oppose
this, so the final vote is in serious
doubt.
Oppose fast track-please contact
your Congressperson!
Don’t Forget-lhe Rainbow/Push
Coalition first annual conference will
be held at the Chicago Hilton &
Towers, from July 30th through
August 2nd. We will be discussing
our Wall Street Project, schools &
jails, and Vision 2000 (including an
open conversation about our politi
cal plans on Saturday, 8/2-to run or
not to run?).
We need you there for your input.
Please call Ms. Velma Wilson at
773-373-3366 for details.
Huelga-Rev. Jackson gave a key
note address at LULAC’s national
convention in Anaheim, CA. He
called for Latino/Hispanics and Af
rican Americans to continue to work
together to insure that existing civil
rights laws are enforced; stood with
LULAC President Belen Robles to
demand that the President fight back
against Gov. Pete Wilson's Prop
209 states' rights challenge to affir
mative action; and demanded that
the President appoint more minority
judges to the Federal bench-includ
ing filling the next Supreme Court
vacancy with our first Hispanic Jus
tice.
Tear Down the Walls-Rev. Jack-
son also spoke at Trinity Church in
New York this week, calling on Wall
Street to he part of the solution to
racism. Using information provided
by historian John Hope Eranklin.
currently ch airing President
Clinton’s Commission on Race, Jesse
pointed out that Wall Street histori
cally played an integral part in the
salve trade:
• about 60 NY clothing firms were
doing business in the South on the
eve of the Civil War;
• several NY firms were branches
of Southern firms, and many NX
businessmen and firms owned
slaves & plantations in the South;
• the NY Journal of Commerce
commented on Eeb. 19, I860, that
New York was “almost as depen
dent upon southern slavery as
Charleston itself, and on May 5,
1860, that "downtown merchants
of wealth and responsibility are
extensively engaged in buying and
selling African Negroes."
• many NY merchants were very
interested in the slave trade be
tween Cuba and the (. oast of Af
rica, with business firms of the
"highest repute" supplying the
capital for these ventures.
By opening up to African Ameri
cans and Hispanics, Wall Street can
help tear down the walls of racism,
eliminating the internal trade barri
ers which artificially restrict growth
and prosperity. Our Wall Street
Project will continue to focus on this
goal.
/
¿
More science - the right kind III
p e r
ere is that promised sup
port and motivation ma-
r
terial for directing our
children and youth into the fields
of science and technology. For
the many, their socio-economic
future will depend on an early
introduction and education in
these areas - and ‘you’ have got
to be there for them!
In preparing this package, I was
sharply reminded that there are sev
eral basic technology learning aids
that have stood the test ol time - a
long time! A recent discussion with
a group of parents and grandparents
revealed that two of these - learning
tools that we ourselves used to ini
tially grasp the nature of science -
are readily available at “Toys R Us",
Lloyd Center or Jantzen Beach.
For many decades the “Gilbert
Erector Set" has been the point of
entry for many an inquisitive child
who was to become a mechanical
engineer, architect, bridge builder
or space crat t designer. And of course
the newer “Leggo" sets lend them
selves to later and expanded appli
cations.
Equally important, there are the
famous “GilbertChemistry Sets that
sparked the development of many a
child into a gitted
neneiactor 01
gifted benefactor
of
m ankind—medicines, foods and
much else.
Let me say again in respect to
chemistry in particular and about
science in general (last week) - be
ing about discipline, order and logi
cal, steps or building blocks - our
parents used the very accessible
models of the labels/formulas on the
packages of food in our kitchen and
on the prescription drugs in our bath
rooms; The pre
cise, ‘repeatable’
formulation of the
product
from
package to pack
age
(Safety
through ‘Quality
C o n tro l’). And
they would make the same pint with
the recipes for meals.
These attitudes were inculated
early on in our basement and garage
science clubs, not only by parents or
youth counselors, but by the next
older generation ol youth who al
ways handed down their skills and
motivation; just as with the bicycle
clubs, river steamer excursions and
the supporting fund-raising activi
ties. Fifty years ago (and even before
senior high school) black kids in our
neighborhood were buying their own
test tubes, retorts
and reagents -
..... - —
s
kind of minds this country will need
crystals to make our little radios -
to compete on the world stage. We
model airplane kits (from scratch).
had it right before.
We made soaps, lubricants glues,
And the new issue of “Forbes
paints - and alot of messes. But
Magazines” expresses the resent
that’s learning.
ment of many educators that major
Of course these were the days
computer
companies are “dumping
when the great black inventors I
millions
of
dollars of P C. s and
wrote about were delivering the ge
software
on
our
schools and belea
nius of their innovations to a waiting
guered,
over
worked
teachers. “Ex
world. And we kids would hear about
citement
is
not
learning’
we arc told.
them through the black press, then
“We’ve yet to effectively teach the
quickly head for
counting, reading and writing, be
the lihi.irx li'
fore big super-marketing techniques
search the’ how
smother us.” I say, “homework be
P u o i essor
to-do it books’.
fore NET."
M< KIM.I V
There were n a
Talk to your children’s science
tional magazines
B eri
teacher. Direct that television time
like “Boy’s Life"
to the “Learning" and “Discovery"
that each month
channels. Get those relevant monthly
featured new projects in chemistry,
magazines coming to the house.
radio, biology or mechanics. We have
Check
your library for ordering,
lost so much today with ready-made
“Scientific
American. Popular Sci
products that require no ingenuity.
ence
Across the country, today, we are
Sm ithsonian, N ational G eo
seeing a number of parent groups
graphic,
Natural History - and/or
progressive public schools and al
the
‘junior
versions’. Also at the
ternative schools who have recog
library,
get
addresses
for “Edmund
nized the significant negative as
Scientific
Co.”
and
other
suppliers
pects of "out of the box, ready-to-go"
of
science
toys
and
equipment.
Re
toys for the direction and guidance
member
we
quoted
polls
saying
68%
of American children into the 21st
of black kids expected to become
century world o f technology.
wealthy professional athletes. On
Stamped-in-a-mold Asian imports
what planet?
will not be useful in developing the
Civil Rights Journal: Chief Wahoo must go
instance.
Sambo were to African Americans.
But stereotyping is a dangerous
They
were
all
racist
caricatures
live in Cleveland, where
and
dehumanizing phenomenon.
which showed hlack women as ves-
the city is preparing to
Black
men in the U S. are constantly
tiges of our slavemothers and black
host the 1997 All Star
shown
in television news and pro
men as subservient, lazy and slow-
Game.
gramming
as criminals and the re
witted. Chief Wahoo is no more an
It is a time when the nation s
sult
is
that
many Americans fear
honor than Charlie Chan was to
sports attention will be turned to our
black
men.
Women
were once ste
Asian A m ericans or the Erito
city and to baseball. But what prob
reotyped
as
less
intelligent,
more
Bandito was to Mexican Americans.
ably will receive little attention is
moody
and
only
concerned
about
All of these arc stereotypes which
the movement to change the name
getting married and the result was
de-humanizc
and take away the dig
and the logo of the Cleveland base
that women were barred from jobs in
nity of a group of people. All of these
ball team. It’s not a popular story
the corporate and governm ent
take the worst characteristics, often
because it is a story of institutional
worlds. Chief Wahoo is such a ste
imagined, and make them foremost
and public racism, but as President
reotype -- dangerous to native Ameri
in the public mind All of them have
Clinton encourages us to talk about
cans and dehumanizing to a whole
been used to sell products or to de
racism, we need to include Chief
group of people.
mean people rather than to honor
Wahoo in the dialogue.
Chief Wahoo is no honor to those
them.
Maybe you’ve seen the logo of the
people
who discovered Columbus
Now, unfortunately, stereotyping
Cleveland baseball team - a grin
and
then
shared their wealth, their
is not a new concept. Germany ste
ning, bignosed, bug-eyed, deep-red
knowledge
and their resources with
reotyped Jewish people as money
colored caricature of a native Ameri
those
who
followed
Columbus to the
grabbing and power hungry before
can But, maybe you never looked at
new
world.
That
grinning,
bug-eyed
World War II and a demeaning cari
the image closely or thought about
Chief
Wahoo
is
no
honor
to
a people
cature similar to Chief Wahoo was
what it was saying underneath the
whose
land
was
taken
away
from
used in anti-Jewish German propa
stereotype. Or, maybe you unthink
them, whose language was taken
ganda, for instance
ingly believed the explanation that
away from them, whose religion was
And, stereotyping is not just an
the name, the Cleveland Indians,
taken away from them and now
European or American concept ei
and the logo. Chief Whaoo, were
whose dignity is being taken away
ther. Idi Amin, former Ugandan
honoring native Americans.
from them through this stereotype.
president and one of Africa s most
But Chief Wahoo is no more an
If native Americans are offended
infamous despots, stereotyped Indi
honor than Aunt Jemima or Uncle
by
the image of Chief Wahoo, then
ans who lived in that nation, for
Ben or Step n Fctchit or Little Black
B y B ernice P owei . i . J ackson
better ^ 0
...
f^Lditor
Send your letters to the Editor to:
a 11-7 Dnrtland OR Q7208
iLxi
-»-»c-t /if
hi* offended
< ft t('H i 1 also.
disc
the » rest
of us mnet
must be
Outside this All Star Game the de
scendent of Louis Sockalexis, the
native American baseball player for
whom the Cleveland team is report
edly named, will announce his
family's and the Penobscot Indian
nation's rejection of the myth that
the name and the logo honor Louis
Sockalexis.
In the words of the first stanza of
a poem written by a native American
poet, Juanita Helphrey:
Why is it that when we say, “It
hurts, take it away,” You say, “No it
doesn’t, You shouldn’t fell that
way?”
So as you watch the All Star Game,
remember the story which probably
won't be told. Remember the struggle
of native American people to get rid
of Chief Wahoo and to change the
name of the Cleveland baseball team.
And then write to Dick Jacobs, the
owner of the team, and, while you’re
a, it, write to the owners of the
Washington Redskins, the Atlanta
Braves and the Kansas City Chiefs.
• Dick Jacobs, Cleveland Indians,
2401 Ontario Street. Cleveland, OH
44115
• Ted Turner, Atlanta Braves, 521
Capitol Avenue, SW. Atlanta, GA
64129
• Lemar Hunt, Kansas City Chiefs,
I Arrowhead Dr., Kansas City, KS
64129
iic
.
U / n r L in iT t n n U o z lc L in V
R FK
S lil-