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T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
J
l th a t the 20th Century civil rights
movement neglected the economic
needs o f African Americans, that its
leaders devoted little effort to gain
ing for black Americans a secure eco
nomic foothold in American society.
In fact, such claims c a n 't survive
the slightest scrutiny.
One can look, for example, at the
pictures o f the 1963 March on W ash-
ington and read what the sea o f plac
ards that punctuated its landscape
proclaimed: “for Jobs and Freedom.”
That was no accident. All o f the
placards in the march had to be ap
proved by its sponsoring coalition.
Furthermore, the “Official Call” to
the March, issued by the civil rights
groups on July 12, 1963 contained
demands for both civil rights and for
a comprehensive jobs effort. That
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views Oj
\
/
Civil Rights Journol
The Language of Racism:
Has It Turned On Those it Once Oppressed?
he word “racism” often con
lawn jockey.
jures up negative stereotypes
Curry stands by his m agazine’s
o f words and images used by bigoted
coverage o f Thomas and accompa
Whites or hate groups such as the
nying artwork, stating: “You put one
Klu Klux Kian toward Blacks.
person up there who has benefitted
Now, decades after the civil rights
from affirmative action.
victories of the 60’s and 70’s, racism
Then, once he gets there, (he)
within the Black community has
wants to deny it to everyone else? I
emerged into the mainstream. This
have a problem with that.”
week on America ’ s Black Forum, three
Taylor agrees. Although she does
media leaders-Emerge magazine Edi
not condone name-calling, she says
tor-in-chief George Curry, Essence
criticism o f black leaders was often
magazine Editor-in-chief Susan T ay-
done behind closed doors.
lor, and Vibe magazine president and
“It’s not O.K. to have any Su
CEO Keith Clinkscales-share their
preme Court Justice who will sweep
views on “Racism from W ithin” and
away the gains that African-Ameri
the role o f Black media.
cans have made, and w e’ve got to
O klahom a C ongressm an J.C.
speak about it. It’s the role o f Black
W atts’ reference to Jesse Jackson
media,” she says.
and other Black leaders as “race-hus
O ne area o f B lack cu ltu re that
tling poverty pimps” was but one
has had its share o f c ritic ism is
illustration o f what many African-
the m usic in d u stry , in p a rtic u la r,
Americans refer to as “Black-on-Black
rap m usic. C lin k sc a le s says i t ’s
racism.” Another was the November
tim e to stop m aking rap m usic,
' 96 issue o f Emerge magazine, which
w hich is “ a sliv e r” o f the in d u s
featured Suprem e C ourt Justice
try, a scap eg o at for e v e ry th in g
Clarence Thomas on the cover as a
th a t’s w rong.
T
c
r s p
Retraction: Perdue Farms Incorporated
On February 10,1997, the Commis
sion distributed Civil Rights Journal
#0160- Chicken Rights V. Human
Rights, which 1 wrote. In that article,
we mistakenly and wrongly identi
fied Perdue Farms as the owner o f a
poultry plant in Hamlet, North Caro
lina where 25 workers, mostly Afri
can-American women were killed ma
fire. Perdue Farms was not the owner
o f the Hamlet poultry plant and had
no connection with the fire at that
plant. Our mistake occurred as a re
sult o f an incorrect reading o f a report
produced and distributed by the Fel
lowship o f Reconciliation. We now
wish to state categorically that we
were in error.
* Perdue Farms was not associ
ated with the plant where this tragedy
occurred.
* Perdue Farms does not own a
plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. In
short, Perdue Farms has no involve
ment whatsoever in the Hamlet, North
Carolina tragedy.
As to the article o f February 10,
1997, we suggested that our readers
c
c
write Harry Payne, North Carolina s
Commissioner o f Labor and Occupa
tional Safety and Health, to protest
Perdue Farms’ supposed misconduct.
M r. P ayne re sp o n d e d to M rs.
Jackson’s article and admonished;
“I regret that your article has sev
eral inaccuracies which have misled
readers. The horrible fire which took
place in Hamlet, N.C. was at Imperial
Foods Products, Inc., and the owner
o f the plant is now in jail for man
slaughter. Perdue Farms had no rela
tionship to the plant. The accusation
that Perdue was somehow associ
ated with the fire reflects poor re
search and challenges credibility.
Certainly you have a great responsi
bility to make sure that your facts are
correct before you accuse an indi
vidual or organization o f wrongdo
ing.”
The United Church o f Christ, the
Commission for Racial Justice and
Bernice Powell Jackson apologize to
Perdue Farms and express our sin
cere regret for the inaccuracy in our
February 10,1997 article.
t i r c
s
Confusion Abounds In the land
in I’ roi :
M( K im i \
Bi r I
correspondents that this earth-shak
ing bulletin was prepared and issued
by the academic fortress ofone, Ward
Connerly, the Proposition 209 Guru
say that because in touching
who says, “the rhetoric about affir
bases with a number o f my
mative action being essential to the
correspondents - here and in
black middle class has become a ' self-
other parts o f the country - our com
fulfilling prophecy’. But before we
munications have revealed a wide
deal with that well-worn phraseol
and increasingly divergent assess
ogy, note this.
ment o f matters considered extremely
Several writers cited the ambigu
important to African Americans. And
ity in the second paragraph, “ ...the
this year, 1997, in particular.
average for white and’ Asian stu
We seem to have hit a peak (I
dents...” If it is meant that the scores
hope) with a “chilling” report from
o f the two races are lumped together,
the University o f California which
then the results are drastically skewed
has provoked reactions ranging from
because the A sian’ scores in most
terror to more marches to court ac
districts are appreciably higher than
tion. A syndicated columnist quotes
the whites. It is as though they oper
the University system as follows: “the
ate in an academic republic’ o f their
average black student in a California
own.
family earning more than $60,000 in
I pointed this out in an earlier ar
1985 scored lower on SAT tests than
ticle where I analyzed a substantiat
the average for white and’ Asian
ing Study in the respected Scientific
students from families earning below
American Magazine. The perfor
$20,000.”
mance o f immigrant Indonesian stu
It was immediately noticed by most
dents was examined - parents speak
I
ing little, poor or no English: the chil
dren were being raised in a motiva
tional and educational incubator the
likes o f which (I can attest) have not
been seen in minority homes since
before W orld War II.
Today, it is exceptional to find this
type o f cultural matrix among other
minorities except in exceptional cir
cumstances — individual households
with committed parents or exceptional
schools viz a viz those like Father
Clement’s school in Chicago, Harlem
Academy, etc. With this type o f tute
lage (and demand placed on parents)
there is no difficulty with IQ or SAT
tests.
Generally speaking, I would say
for the black student in families earn
ing more than $60,000 per year, he
would experience a similar perfor
mance deficit relative to his white
income peer as would the $20,000-
black-student in respect to his white
peer (except o f course in the circum
stances described in the previous
paragraph).
I never argue about it any more, I
noticed this as a youth. I found it later
to be true on the job whether as an
employer or administrator hiring, giv
ing tests or supervising. And later,
nothing occurred to disabuse me o f
this notion as a university professor
or when tutoring within or without
the system, black kids or white, as o f
now. It is as with that Indonesian
home.
It is all about culture and language,
not about brain power, as I so often
write. I call the problem the “Jeopardy
Syndrome” and have often asked
black youths or parents o f the so-
called “middle class” do you think
you could compete in this ABC show.
Most angrily reply “that w ouldn’t
prove anything” and I retort, “it al
ready had, your economics and fu
ture.
Then I hand them a copy of my 8/
8/90 Observer article, “Is It To Be
Cultural Literacy or European Lit
eracy?” Do we have a choice?
(C ont’d next week)
F o r J o b s A nd F reed o m
economic focus was furthered un
derscored in several o f the speeches
o f that day notably by A. Philip
Randolph, the venerable civil rights
leader, and by W alter Reuther, presi
dent of the United Automobile W ork-
ers and a stalwart ally o f the move
ment.
Or, one can look at the “Domestic
Marshall Plan,” Whitney M. Young,
Jr., then executive director o f the U r
ban L e a g u e , p ro p o se d at the
League’s 1963 national conference,
which was held shortly before the
march. Young put forward specific
proposals to encourage America to
tap the potential that lay unrealized in
Black America, and he warned that a
failure to do so would bring the so
cially destructive consequences in
stunted lives and ruined communi
ties that we are dealing with today.
Or, one can examine the compre
hensive national Freedom Budget
that the civil rights coalition proposed
in 1966.
Or, one can study the trajectory of
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s activism
during the last five years ofhis life: it
led him to Memphis that fateful Apnl
o f 1968 to march with black sanitation
workers seeking higher wages and
better working conditions.
Or, one can read an important new
book, The Dual Agenda: the African-
Amencan Struggle for Civil and Eco
nomic Equality, by Dona Cooper
Hamilton and Charles V. Hamilton, a
husband and wife duo o f distin
guished scholars.
Clearly-written and studded with
details from the civil rights groups’
position papers, congressional testi
mony, and the speeches o f their lead-
Civil Rights Journal
B y B ernice P owell J ackson
he first time I visited an indian
reservation I was horrified,
thrilled and overcome. Horrified at
the poverty, the unemployment, the
housing, the sense o f aimlessness in
so many. Thrilled at the deep-seeded
culture, the understanding o f con
nection between creation and Cre
ator and the beauty o f the people.
Overcome with a new understanding
o f the shame that this nation should
feel if we were to admit our role in the
destruction o f Indian people and the
taking o f their land.
Yet only two years before a new
millennium we find the United States
Senate, our nation’s highest legisla
tive body, trying to renege on our
^ o r t l a n h ® b se ru e r
j
B y H ugh B. P rice
P resident
N ational U rban L eague
T t ’ s become fashionable to claim
.
11
Attention Readers!
T
SEPT. 10, 1997
(Cfyc |}ortlanò ^iWserwr
Page A4
treaties with Indians, this time with
out even the benefit o f public discus
sion or debate. It does not bode well
for the 21st century or our nation’s
role in it.
It seems that Senator S lade Gorton
o f W ashington tacked two riders
which threaten two centuries o f treaty
law and understandings onto a $ 13
billion spending bill — without any
consultation with the tribes or even
other parts o f the Federal govern
ment. These riders would force tribes
to waive their rights as sovereign
nations in exchange for some $700
million that they receive from the
government and would require the
tribes to undergo means testing to
receive these Federal dollars.
As information about the legisla
tion has surfaced, Indian leaders have
attacked these riders loudly. “They
are a total departure from the govem-
ment-to-govemment relationship the
tribes always had with Washington,”
said John Blackhawk, chairman of the
W inebago tribe. “Solemn immunity
and basic Federal operating funds
are not subject to shifting political
w in d s... but are the result o f solemn
promises made by the United States
to tribal governments in exchange for
Indian lands,” wrote Senator Ben
Nighthorse Campbell to Sen. Gorton.
“We gave up vast amounts o f land in
return for sovereignty and certain
ers, the book recounts their consis
tent fight to gain civil rights for Afri
can Americans and social welfare
policies for all o f the poor.
Indeed, the H am iltons cite the
founding o f both the N ational A s
sociation for the A dvancem ent o f
C olored People and the N ational
U rban League in the first decade of
the century as evidence that the
“C ivil rights groups have alw ays
understood that (civil rights victo
ries alone) were insufficient to alle
viate the socioeconom ic problem s
that stretched over decades o f ne
glect or parsim ony .”
They go on to say that, “Begin
ning in the early 1960s (when it was
clear that the days o f legal segrega
tion were numbered), “virtually ev
ery major plan o f action and policy
statement included concerns for both
a fight against segregation and dis
crimination on the one hand, and, on
the other, for effective programs to
deal with socioeconomic problems
for all Americans, not just for blacks.”
So it was then. So it is today.
Contrary to the claim s some have
m ade, A m erica has not entered a
“post-civil rights era.” The head
lines o f last w eek, and yesterday,
and today m ake all too clear that
A fric a n A m e ric a n s and o th e r
people o f color still have to all too
often fight for the right to be treated
in a non-discrim inatory fashion.
but it is true that the im portance
o f A frican A m ericans, as individu
als and as a group, securing a strong
econom ic foundation is even more
critical than in the past.
In the first decade o f the 20th
C entury, A frican A m ericans and
their allies coalesced to fight for
jobs and freedom . The placards o f
the 1963 m arch on W ashington
p re se n te d th at m essage to the
A m erican people and the w orld in
the m ost dram atic way.
Now, as A frican A m ericans turn
tow ard a new century, they are
better situated than they w ere ju st
thirty years ago, w ith a grow ing
cohort o f individuals w hose large
and sm all c o n trib u tio n s to the
health o f the A m erican econom y
and A merican life in general cannot
be denied.
Yet, for all the progress, there is
m uch work yet to be done, by A fri
can A m ericans and by the larger
society.
Yes, we still have those placards
in our hands: For Jobs and F ree
dom.
Threatening Indian Rights
obligations.. .Now they want to throw
that out... yet, we aren’t even con
sulted,” said Debra Doxtator, chair of
the Oneida tribe.
Indian leaders p o int to Sen.
Gorton’s two decades o f work against
Indian sovereignty as the real reason
behind these surreptitious riders. In
addition, they blame the incorrect
public perception that Indian reser
vations are prospering because o f
casino gambling.
In actuality two-thirds o f reserva
tions do not have casinos and only 10
tribes took in more than half o f the
gambling revenues. Some Indian folk
do not see gaming as the solution to
economic development. Unemploy
ment on reservations is more than
three times the national average (on
some, it is up to 85%) and Indian
children are more than twice as likely
to be poor.
Then there is the alcoholism and
drug abuse which plagues most In
dian families, as well as a variety o f
other social problems.
To o u r sham e, we have a h is
tory o f co n v en ien tly ignoring our
tre a tie s w ith In d ia n trib es. We
have a h isto ry o f not a c k n o w l
e d g in g th at w e ow e the very e x
iste n c e o f this n atio n to our n a
tiv e A m erican b ro th e rs and s is
ters. M r. G o rto n ’s cruel b u dget
tric k only takes us b ackw ard.
B ut, we have an o p p o rtu n ity to
b eg in the fu ture w ith a new m ind
set and a new com m itm ent to h o n
o rin g all o f the p eo p les w ho have
c o n trib u te d so m uch to th is n a
tion.
T he first step m ust be to h o n o r
those tre a tie s in the past and to
tre a t n a tiv e A m erican n a tio n s
w ith the re sp e c t they so d eserv e.
(Y ou c a n w rite to P re s id e n t
Clinton asking him to veto such
legislation at 1600 Pennsylvania
A venue, N W , W ashington, DC
20500 or write to your Senator voic
ing your concern about this legis
lation at U nited States Senate,
W ashington, DC 20510.)