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NOV. 12,1997
(The |Jortlanb ODhseruer
Editorial articles do not necessarily
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(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
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Deadline fo r all submitted materials:
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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-
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1885, and T he N ational A dvertising R epresentative A m algam ated
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A ssociation • Serving Portland and V ancouver.
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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
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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'
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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!