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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1997)
r ‘ Page A4 .’’ . •• ¡ ' /* « - j . - J • 9 , f V NOV. 12,1997 (The |Jortlanb ODhseruer Editorial articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f 53ortlanb (©bserucr Attention Readers! p Please take a minute to send us your comments. We’re always trying to give you a better paper and we can’t do it without your help. Tell 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 your letters to: Editor, Reader Response, P.O. Bos 3137, Portland, OR 97298. (E ljc ^ U n r t l a n b e r (U S P S 95 9-680) E stab lish ed in 1970 M ark W ashington D istsribulion M anager G ary Ann T aylor Business M an ager Larry J Jackson, Sr. D irector o f O peration lesha W illiam s G raphic D esign M ike Leighton C opy E ditor For ease ol reference we will desig nate this N.E. 19th and Alberta institu tional food supply business as the "A lberta Food Project. In tact, as I retrieve my files lor 1982-83, most are found to have some variation of that title. And speaking of tiles related to my research on the feasibility of acquiring this operation for acorporation owned ( on trih uting Writers: P rofessor M cK inley Burt. Lee Perlman, Neil Heilpern within the com m unity, I see that they rang a full spectrum; "Agri-Business C ouncilofO regon.U .S. Army Supply Bulletins, Oregon-W ashington Small Food Processors. New York National Food and Confection Show, and a collection o f menu m odels "from schools, airlines, correctional institu 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland,Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv(o)aol.com Deadline fo r all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday, 12:00pm POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer. P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. tions, you-nam e it." There were also exploratory pre sentations I had made to what 1 thought would be interested (it not enthusiastic) members of the commu- P eriodicals po sta g e p a id at Portland. ( iregon Subscriptions $3 0 .0 0 p e r yea r The Portland O bserver w elcom es freelance subm issions. M anu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned ifaccom panied by a se lf addressed envelope. All created design display ads becom e the sole property o f the new spaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage w ithout the w ritten consent o f the general m anager, unless the client has purchased the com position ot such ad. © 1996 TH E PO R T L A N D O B SE R V E R ALL RIGHTS RESERV ED. R E PR O D U C T IO N IN W H O LE OR IN PART W ITH O U T PERM ISSIO N IS PR O H IB IT E D The Portland O bserver—O re g o n ’s O ldest M ulticultural Publica- tio n - is a m em ber o f the N ational N ew spaper A sso c iatio n -F o u n d ed in 1885, and T he N ational A dvertising R epresentative A m algam ated Publishers, Inc, N ew York, NY, and T he W est C oast Black Publishers A ssociation • Serving Portland and V ancouver. Si JBSCR1BE TO B y H i gii B. P rice P resident N ational U rban L eague In the first m onths o f welfare reform , th ere's been a wave ot cuph o riaab o u t the sharpdecline in the num ber of w elfare recipients. F u e le d by a s tro n g n a tio n a l eco n o m y , caselo ad s across the country have fallen by about 14 percent in the 14 m onths since C o n g ress passed and President C linton signed the law overhaul ing the w elfare system . But now the w elfare reform law "m ism atch ” is becom ing m ore and m ore evident. That m ism atch is the gap betw een the rhetoric about w hat the law would accom plish and the reality of w hat is happen T he I’ ori i . and O usery er ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 Name: A ddress^ City. State: Zip-Code: T hank Y oi F or R eading Tin P ori land O bserver A Call To Duty black poor. I c t / v e s mty. Realizing, of course, that one cannot always make assessments on thebasisofthe noises' apersonm akes It is to be understood that I was not describing or ollering tours through some "Elysian Fields' of an imaginary enterprise, but presenting a thoroughly- researched evaluation of an ongoing business-reality seems to cool ardor. Already, several readers have asked if this series is reinforcem ent ot my essay suggesting it is the case that in the Northeast com m unity. "O pportu nity will olten knock until its knuckles are raw" Before I am through. I be lieve most will have drawn their own very firm conclusions. But " Hie North eight, she possessed a "can do alti tude which, if universal, would have made the whole project work. I’m especially wishful as I look at a file containing some well-structured projections she made in respect to the U S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. And always open to new ideas and oppor tunities, there is her com mentary on the model suggested by an article in the Sept. 28, 198.3 Oregonian. ’‘C on cern Over Idle Plant led to D evelop ment o f French Fries." A concept o f mine which I was quite sure would persuade the other six in the group to move forward on the incorporation and financing was to integrate a retail grocery into the com plex; food supplies were already flow ing through the firm at a lower w hole sale cost than that enjoyed by any small stand-alone store. The entrance would have been on the Alberta Street side. And parking could have been M ust' Rise A gain.” It was very good to hear from a successful black business person in the com m unity, a most enthusiastic young woman in the attempt Io launch the "A lberta Food Project. I recall herexpertise. dedication and that, along with the one other female in a group ol negotiated with the owner of the va cant lot next door (a good cash flow). T oo often there seems to be the same limiting factors at work in these situations, and this isthe same wbethel we speak o f an "A lberta Food Project in Portland. Oregon or the aborted "Real Estate. Investment Trust' I d e scribed as stillborn in W ashington, D C. For many minorities there is usu ally an unvoiced fear ot transferring high level and proved skills from a perform ance “for-the-man (on the job) to performing the same tasks for the public as an entrepreneur. This situation, of course, is ad if fer- ent stage entirely. one where the actors soon realize that in addition to good skills, a high level of discipline and responsibility is required. As said ear lier, there soon is a time when reality seems tocool ardor. It will not help to cite and docum ent all the successes ever achieved. The will must be there. (Continued next week.) The Welfare Reform Mismatch ( E l j p ^ l o r t l a n b ( Û liB r r u e v “ I haven't heard a word o f w hat’s been said up there, and I d on’t care" Emma Wilkes, o f Trenton. N J..sta n d ing in the vast throng i)f African-Ameri can women present at the Million W oman March in Philadelphia on O ctober 25, told a reporter. "The point isn't what one person has to say. Hie point is all of us com ing together. " Il was a sentiment obviously shared by most there, who refused to let the glitches in the sound system that kept them from clearly hearing many ol the speakers, distract them from the pur pose of the gathering. These women d id n 't need anyone to tell them what to do. Rather, they had com e to Philadel phia to tell Am erica what they in tended Io do. "W e want to take back our streets, our homes, and take back our children," said another partici pant, Joyce M osby, o f Richmond, VA. "W e want to rid our neighborhoods of the drugs and crim e and other bad elements. We know that education is the key to achieving our goals." The event was the idea of two Phila delphia community activists, Asia Co ney and l’Iule Chionesu, and its twelve- point program reflected their determina tion to. mi >st i if al I, bi lister the con tide nee and the resources of black women at the bottom of tile economic ladder. They were right to d o so . T oo often we ignore the burdens poor and w ork ing-class black women bear It is those burdens which include low levels ot education, the difficulties o f rearing children alone, and jobs w hich pay them less than white men, black men, and white women get, living in neigh borhiKKls ridden by crime, unem ploy ment and poor municipal services- which largely define the plight of the e' To Be Equal The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home lor only $30.00 per year Please till out. enclose check or money order, and mail to: S ubscriptions B y H ugh B. P ru e P resident N ational U rban L eague p The North will Rise Aflitin (coat.) O D h s c rU c r C harles W ashington P ublisher A E ditor s But, o f course, it is not ju st poor black women who need help. Just this month a report was released docu m enting that, despite affirmative ac tion, w omen o f color have made little progress moving into management jobs. Hie study, done by Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit research group, found that, among other things, black women make up mi ire than 12 percent i if the female workforce, but only 7 percent of the 2.9 million female managers in private businesses. In addition, it found that women o f color who are managers earn only 57cents lor every $ I that white male managers earn. In other words, one cannot ignore the diff iculties black women as a group face, no m atter where they are on the socio-econom ic spectrum. It is a m at ter of econom ic power and, as A retha Franklin sang so famously, r-e-s-p-e- c-t. Nor should we overlook the even larger meaning of the Million Woman March. This was another m anifestation ol Black A m ericans' determ ination Io lace the tum ultuous present and the challenging future with the faith that they will, not merely survive, but thrive. This extraordinary event marked the second time in three years that hundreds of thousands--at the least— of African A m ericans cam e together to im prove their lives and make their com m unities better places to live. In 1995 the M illion Man March brought, m ost likely, more than a m il lion African Americans to W ashing ton. For all the misgivings and contro versy which attended the preparations for it. there can be no doubt that it was a positive event. Reports of a greater involvement of black men in com m u nity life around the country following that march are too widespread to dis miss as coincidental. V ing. It involves the difference be tw een the strength o f the national econom y as w hole and the various stre n g th s--a n d w e a k n e sse s--o f state and local econom ies. It in volves the difference between the requirem ents of the national law and the laws o f the various stales, w hich in m ost cases are tougher And it involves w hether the level o f education and the job skills of the w elfare recipients can easily m atch the needs o f the local job m a r k e t. The fact is w e’re now learning that the m ism atch is a great deal w ider than the ballyhoo acknow l edged. W e all knew that the early going w ould be easy, because the go-get ters am ong those on w elfare would go gel jobs, especially in co m m u n i ties where unem ploym ent was low. It's true--and good—that all the talk about drastic changes in welfare assistance has pushed som e welfare recipients to discover within them selves that am bition, ability and a sense o f responsibility that the ne cessity to work can stim ulate. W e're heartened that thousands o f folk on w elfare have m anaged to find work, because th at's the way it ought to be. But we also knew all a lo n g -a n d jo in ed others in w a rn in g -th a t the flaws of the welfare reform act would quickly surface, and that the day w ould come when the strict welfare tune lim its w ould endanger children on w elfare whose parents would not be able to find jobs. W ell, the stories are ju st begin ning to trickle in that this is exactly w h at’s happening T hat was illum inated by a recent N ew York T im es report on the w el fare situation in the M ississippi Delta region: the poorest region in the poor est state in the country, where the unem ploym ent rale is about ten p er m ents are scarce, education levels low, distances great, and publ ic trans portation non-existent. One study o f jo b prospects in the region indicated that there would be one new job for every 254 I ami lies leaving the w elfare rolls. Only about h alf o f the people who found jobs when the state instituted its welf are reform program two years ago were w orking as little as fifteen m onths later. T hat was largely due, on the one hand, to a m ism atch be tween the level o f education and jo b skills the jobs required, and. on the other, the f act that many single m oth ers gave up their jo b s rather than continue roundtrip com m utes o f three to five hours aw ay from their ch il cent, dependable child-care arrange receive welfare benefits have found dren. In recent m onths, for every w el fare recipient placed in a job. two were dropped, at least tem porarily, from the w elfare rolls for failing to m eet the state’s w ork rules M ississippi is far from the only state that has high rates o f poverty and low governm ental spending. But even states with strong econom ies are having difficulty m atching w el fare recipients and work. F orexainple, the W all Street Jour nal reported that in New Jersey adults in just one quarter o f the 8(),()(M) f a m ilie s m w h ic h a d u lts a n il c h ild r e n som e kind o f job. In addition, a recent national sur vey show ed that ju st six states were operating com puter system s ca pable of tracking how long a recipi ent has been on welfare to enforce the new national five-year limit. And many states have no way ot determ ining w hether all the people w h o ’vc left the welfare rolls have actually gotten jobs. The Journal report suggest that "a year o f na tionw ide hype about w elfare o v er haul may have had more im pact than new welfare rules them selves." N one of these difficulties are surprising. Last year, before the law passed, one national study w arned that few er than hal f o f those pushed off welfare would find work. Yes, every able-bodied person should earn his or her keep. But one m ust have a jo b to earn o n e’s keep. It is neither com pas sionate nor pragm atic to pretend that ju st m oving people off the w elfare rolls will solve the problem o f people on welf are. T o prevent w elfare reform from becom ing a calam ity for children and parents, the C linton A dm inis tration, congress, and the states must respond positively to the question that has alw ays loom ed over any plan to reform welfare for the b et ter: W here are the jobs? The Million Woman March: A Message From The Grassroots n O ctober 25. 1997 the im p ro b a b le h appened. Hundreds o f thousands o f O A frican w om en converged on Phila delphia for the largest gathering o f Black w om en in the history of this country, the M illion W oman March (M W M ). This necessary gathering o f sisters was im probable because even m ore than the M illion Man M arch and Day o f A bsence (M M M / D O A) in 1995 this m agnificent event defied conventional w isdom about w hat was possible in term s of turn out given scarce resources, scant or ganization, limited time and no highly recogm zable/prom inent national o r ganizations or "leaders" to serve as an attraction. Taking inspiration from the M MM/ DOA but adopting a radically differ ent organizational approach, a group o f local grassroots activists led by o f this country ? The success o f the M W M is a testim ony to the sheer will, dedication and tireless work of a group o f grassroots w omen who had faith that if you can “conceive it you can achieve it." And, as is o cca sionally the case in history, the pow er o f the idea in and o f itself becam e the m agnet that attracted the m asses of Black w om en who stream ed into Philadelphia. There was som ething about the very idea of those who had historically carried the burden of the survival o f the Black Nation on their shoulders gathering to share their pain and jo y , interests and asp ira tions, vision and values and determ i nation to be full partners in the pro cess o f reconstructing the Black N a tion into the 2 1 st century. It w as tim e for the sisters to have their say and businesswoman Phile Chionesu and public housing advocate Coney Asia conceived the idea of the M W M and worked diligently against great odds to make it happen. From the very beginning there was a conscious deci sion that the M 'V M em anate from and be substantially led by grassroots women; sisters who often provide se rious leadership in their neighborhoods whose vocies are often unnoticed or drow ned out by the more prominent mainstream leaders who have little interest or inclination to share the stage with grassroots leaders. Their good intentions notwithstanding, ordinarily this approach was not likely to pro duce the massive turn out the organiz ers hoped for. How did a small core o f local w om en leaders from Philadelphia m obihz.e/organize the largest gath ering of Black w om en in the history take the lead! M iraculously, the pow er o f the t idea spread like wildfire via the grape vine, the A frican drum beat. Black talk radio, the Black press and the skillful use o f the internet. Sisters began to hear about it and spread the w ord — th e re 's going to be a M illion W om an M arch in Philadelphia. In m ost instances people did not know w ho the leaders were, the nature of the platform /program or the ultim ate goal. W hat m attered most was the pow er o f the idea that Black w om en, sisters, were going to get together to m ake a pow erful statem ent by their m ere presence in m assive num bers in Philadelphia. M iraculously, sp o n taneously they cam e. By som e e sti m ates m ore than a m illion african women poured into the “city of broth erly love" for the M W M . The o rg a nizers achieved their objective of s e n d in g a m e s s a g e fro m th e grassroots!
