Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1997)
9 4 O ctober 29, 1997 • T he P o r tlan d O bserver P agi A4 Editorial articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views oj JJorflanit (©baeruer Attention Readers! Please take a minute to send us your comments. We're always trying to gise you a better paper and we can’t do it without your help. I ell us what you like and what needs improvement... any suggestions are welcomed and appreci ated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful pens out NOW and address sour letters to: Editor. Header Response, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. J u st O pen Up T h e door (Eljc ^(.lortlanò (Dbseruer (LISPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher & Editor Mark Washington Distsrihutiun Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Larry J. Jackson. Sr. Director o j Operation Icsha W illiams Graphie Design Mike Leighton Copy Editor Í ontrihuting Writers: Professor McKinley Burt. Lee Perlman, Neil Heilpern 4747 NF. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxohserviiraol.coni Deadline fo r alt submitted materials: Articles Friday. 5:00 pm Ads: Monday. 12:00pm POS I MASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Periodicals postage p a id at Portland. Oregon Subscriptions $30.00 per year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property o f the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent o f the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. <0 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WTTH- O lll PERMISSION IS PROHIBI TED I he Portland O bserv er-O reg o n 's Oldest Multicultural Publica- tio n -is a member o f the National Newspaper A ssociation-Founded in 1885, and Ihe National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. Si IBSCRIBE TO B y H i gii B. P rice P resident N ational U rban L eague I’ll get it myself goes the title lyric from one of soul-singing leg end James Brown’s hits of the late 1960s. It was a song-and a sentim ent- that came to me while reading two different kinds of documents last week. One was Jackie Robinson: A Biography, the powerful new book on the life and times of that base ball star and American hero by the distinguished Princeton scholar Arnold Rampersad. The other was a landmark study of the affirmative-action program at the University of California at Davis Medical School published recently in the Journal of the Ameri can Medical Association. The study, undertaken by two of the medical school’s faculty, com pared students admitted with lower scores on the medical school en trance tests through the affirmative action program with those admit ted through the regular program during the last two decades. Sig nificantly, the study pointed out, the program was not limited to Af rican Americans, Hispanic Ameri cans and Native Americans. Nearly half-46 percent-of those admitted p e r S t US( R irtlO N S Im I’ orii \ ni > O bserver ; PO Box 3137 P ori i and ,O bi (. on 97208 T hank Y oi F or R eading T he P or i land O bserver fletter Tfa 'Cite (SLïïitor Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 Their have been several articles written in regard to the Disparity Study in the construction industry. As an active member of the construction industry, and as a member of the Black Conti actors Alliance. AGC. and the Port of P ortland's M entor-Protege Program. 1 believe that I have a well- rounded view of the current state of the construction in dustry with regard to m inor ity and women opportunities. Some members of the pub lic have voiced concerns about the progress being made by the City of Portland and other public agencies w ^ ................s- parity Study two years ago. Whenever public policy is changed, there will be dissent ing voices and no one person or affected group will get ev erything that they might w ant The key is to have all parties working together in a spirit of mutual respect and honesty. I believe that this is occur ring The Disparity Study pointed out instances where women and m inorities, par ticularly African-American, have historically been left out of the public contracting process In response to these find ings, the City ami County have pul into place stake holder groups (of which I am a member) to develop new program s and public pro cesses to remedy these situ ations. Programs such as the City’s proposed Sheltered Market Program, the Port's Mentor- P ro teg e P rogram , the County’s informal Sheltered Market Program, the educa tion of the public project man agers about diversity issues and the modifications to the selection methods used by all apprenticeship programs in Oregon are some of the at tempts at trying to reverse past inequities. Will these types of pro grams solve all problems? Probably not. Will we need to evaluate their successes and failures and fine tune them as we see their results? Yes definitely. Is there com mitments to doing that? I believe there is. We should not cry “wolf" and say that the public agen cies are acting in bad faith or proposing programs that are doomed to fail. But instead, we should give the process a chance by working together as a community to bring forth creative ideas and at the same time, hold the public agen cies accountable. Sincerely, Edward Holmes P re sid e n t Ebony Iron Works, Inc. s p e talent and determination in abun dance, too. It really is that simple W hat has made realizing the American Dream forallcomplicated- and necessary to struggle for-is that some people construct obstacles in order to limit opportunity. Regardless of the form those bar riers take, their purpose has been, as the scholar and poet Sterling Brown so keenly put it in “Strong Men" seven decades ago, to shout prohibi tion at you./"Thou shalt not this’/ Thou shalt not that’/ ’Reserved for whites only...’ That some still cling to the old racist shibboleths, as if to a dank security blanket, is evident in the instances of overt discrimination-”as common as commercials on televi sion,” in the words of the newspaper columnist Bob Herbert-that continue to demand our attention. And it is evident in the surveys by the National Opinion Research Cen ter at the University of Chicago, which, as writer David K. Shipler recently pointed out, have found that "most Americans still regard blacks as less intelligent (53 percent), less hard working (62 percent) and more desirous of living on welfare (78 percent) than whites.” Shipler goes on to write that “Such prejudices are merely thoughts, of c t i course, and to dampen their expres sion. the society has created a struc ture of law, ethics, educational pro grams and other mechanisms. But bias is agile enough to worm its way through the inhibitions." The heartening thing, however, is that the fight against racism goes on, the will to overcome persists. Arnold Rampersad does us all a great service in examining at length the abundance and quality ot the will Jack Roosevelt Robinson pos sessed. He shows that what lifted Robinson to the stature of Ameri can icon was not his athleticism, as extraordinary as that was. It was his commitment to social justice, his will to help bring the American Dream into being, which became manifest to us all because of his singular achievement in baseball Rampersad gets the man right when he writes, “Despite his quick temper in the face of injustice, es pecially racial injustice, he lived on the whole a life of discipline, re straint, and self-denial; he thought of himself and his future in terms of moral and social obligations, rather than privilege and entitlement..." As I stated in a previous column, this is the attitude, and these are the kind of people-success stories-that are the real cause of the opposition to affirmative action. r e s Yes, The North 'Will' Rise Again - if 'We' Rise To The occasion £lte ■f.lortlaub (Observer I lie 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 Name: Address: City, State: Zip-Code: through affirmative action were white or Asian American. The Davis study reported that, while the affirmative action students had lower standardized test scores and grades in key courses in the first years of medical schools, the differences began to narrow i n the later years, and that both groups had high graduation rates: 94 percent for the former com pared to 98 percent for the latter. Perhaps even more important, the report discovered that the post-gradu ate and career experiences of the two groups “were quite similar.” During their residency training both groups gained honors evaluations in nearly equal percentages, both chose sim i lar kinds of medical specialties, and both had similar kinds of practices- even to the point that both groups said that between 55 and 60 percent of their patients were white. Both the Rampersad book and the UC-Davis study speak volumes about how closed and unjust-and wasteful of talent and potential-American so ciety was just a short time ago. Both speak volumes about what happens when the exclusionary barriers are limited or narrowed so that doors of opportunity can be opened wider. Those who’d been previously de clared to be too stupid, too lazy, too shiftless, too culturally deprived, to...show that their “kind” possess One thing was made very clear by the Portland O bserver’s special is sue of Oct. 8,1997, "Minority Enter prise Development." The Northeast community has the people and the resources to make the area economi cally viable again. T his w ell organized and re searched report recited and defined a broad spectrum of people, institu tions and resources available for de veloping the area. And with the right effort and commitment, a new mi nority business complex could be developed, far surpassing the com mercial operations that were derailed or destroyed by Urban Renewal (A major disaster to blacks in over 20 key cities). There was a “can do" inventory of skilled artisans, service firms, pro fessionals of every sort, appropriate educational and financial institutions, experienced counselors and support ing agencies of city, state and federal government. The overall assessment is that of a community positioning C O itself to “do-the-right-thing.” Most immediately some will say, “but haven’t we been this far be fore?” Practically a consensus of opinion drawn from studies, experi ences and real-time analyses given here from time to time will point in this direction. Over the years, I’ve done my best to accurately detail the heights, and the “ full back’ posi tions. The past two weeks I have given some details of a large east coast real estate development proposed but not carried through by a group of A fri can Americans I cited this venture only in making the case that in the Minority Enterprise issue there was a definite limit to the type or genera of business enterprise - especially as compared with that business spec trum of the city as a whole. We must breakout of the mold. In speaking to one small group I suggested applying the “business di versity” structures I introduced in past evaluations of minority busi- ness. Two stand out as I recall both my roles as business consultant to the Model Cities Program, and, later, as an instructor in small business opera tions at Portland State University. Both require following up with in- depth research and the assembly of necessary support structures, but ac complish the initial purpose very well - identifying possible new opportu nities. The first procedure sounds simplistic but is rewarding; Inspect the yellow pages of the out-of-town (large) phone directories at the li brary. And given that expanded reach to possible ventures whose local viabil ity, of course, will have to be deter mined. the next step should be a thorough review of the U.S. Govern ment publication, “Standard Indus trial Classification Manual.” I’ve reviewed this ‘jew el’ before, recommending it for the master cod ing and indexing of the many thou sands of types of commercial enter prises operating in this country. And RAINBOW PUSH A L I T I there isacom panion federal publica tion that also can be put to good use in evaluating the “can-do’ “and the "how-to-do” potential of this com munity. T his second im portant federal m anual is the “ D ictionary o f O c c u p a tio n a l T itle s ” w hich p ro vides a sim ila r type c la s s ific a tion of all the th o u san d s o f jo b s and p ro fe ssio n s in this co untry. C e rta in ly , these tw o com m ercial 'b i b l e ’s sh o u ld e x p a n d o n e ’s reach, grasp and com p reh en sio n o f com m erce to an ex ten t c o m patible w ith a new and w ell-struc tured b u sin e ss com plex in this co m m unity. The N orth c a n ’ rise again! However, as w e’ve observed at other times, factors of people and community relations are equally im portant to the effective planning and design of urban projects. Next week we will evaluate what could have/ should have happened at the N.W. corner of N.E. 19th and Alberta. O African American In the ’84 & ’88 Presidential cam paigns, only one man focused on democracy and liberation in South Africa. In his 1984 Democratic National Convention speech, that same man told the 50 million people who were watching on worldwide TV that the supportive relationship of the United States for apartheid South African was a "moral disgrace.” In 1989. that man played a key role in popularizing the term "African A m erican." That same man was present when Nelson Mandela was freed, and headed the Presidential delegation that observed the first free and fair elections in South African in April. 1994. That man served as co leaderofthe Presidential mission to the recent African/African-American Summit in Zimbabwe. In a ceremony held in the Secre tary of State's private office, that man-Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.-was sworn in as the Special Envoy for the Presi dent and the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa. In Secretary of State Madeleine A lbright' s words: "That is a long title for an important job to be filled at a key moment by an extraordinary individual. Reverend Jackson is ide ally suited to help us as we proceed to build partnerships and establish dialogues to assist Africans as they move down the democratic road. He is, after all. well known to African leaders. He is deeply respected by the African people. He has been a champion of human rights and hu man dignity throughout his career." We should note that this Special Envoy position does not pay. It is not a full-time job, requiring no more than 60 days per year to handle special assignments which reinforce the de velopment of African democracies. The position will not require Jesse to move to Africa, nor will it require him to give up his leadership role in the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Special Envoy Jackson added his ow n p e rsp e c tiv e , noting that “though the years I have been able to develop a view of the world in part because of my kinship with Dr Mar- tin Luther King, Jr., and Dr. Samuel Proctor, which...taught me abiding principles about our relationship to other countries that guide my view to this day. “Africa has meant so much to the world. It helped to subsidize the de velopment of our county and Europe. Through centuries of work without wages and exploitation of vast raw materials, the contribution of Africa constituted a subsidy to the devel opment of Western civilization. “Now in this period of post-colo nialism. President Clinton asserts the idea of Africa as a reciprocal trading partner - a continent of expanding democracies-acontinent of hope and opportunity.
