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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1997)
» « * *• .J Ï. ,*, . Page A4 S'Z ' ' * > “ %<• .7-.'*’ Z e *’ <ì . \ V, ,’< NOV. 26,1997 Œbr }Jortlanò (i)bsmier Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f (The |Jo rtla n b © bserucr Attention Readers! Please lake 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. 'Fell 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. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. (E lfe ^ L ln r tU x ttb ? £ r (IJSPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Mark Washington D istrib u tio n M anager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Larry J Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Iesha W illiams Graphic Design Mike Leighton Copy Editor I 'ontributing H riters: Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, NeilHeilpern 4747 N E M a r t in L u th e r K in g ,.J r. B lvd ., Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv(a)aol.com Deadline fo r all submitted materials: A rticles:F rid a y, 5 :0 0 p m A d s: M onday, 12:00pm PO STM A STER: Send A ddress C h anges To: P ortland O bserver, P.O. Box 3137, P o rtla n d , O R 97208. Periodicals postage p a id at Portland, Oregon Subscriptions $30.00 p er 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 © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART W ITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland Observer—O regon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica tion—is a member o f the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York. NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. SUBSCRIBE TO ^ I l|e ^ J o r tI a x x b O f ) h B c r u c r The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00 per year Please fill out. enclose cheek or money order, and mail to: SriBSi R IP I IONS T he P ortland O bserver ; PO Box 3137 P or i land , O regon 97208 Name: Address: City, State: ___ Z ip -C o d e :__________________________________ ____________ T hank Yot F or R eading T he P or i land O bserver better TPhe (Seditor Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 B y D orothy I. H eight As a child growing up in Rankin, Pennsylvania, one of the first lessons I learned was that “family” is not neces sarily determined by blood. I would ask my mother, "Is that my real aunt?” She would always answer, “That’s your aunt.” T hat’s the way it was in African American communities. If you cared for one another, you were family. If tragedy struck, the aunts, cousins, grandparents, neighbors and friends would provide. That was how we got along in those days. We looked after each others’ children and took them in We were a more caring community. But as the social services estab lishment cast a wider net, standards and restrictions were established on who could care for a child, when parents could not. There were court orders, home inspections, com pli cated applications, age and income requirements, investigations by so cial workers. The informal system gave way to a highly structured one. And with the growth of a vast net work of temporary housing for chil dren in crisis, extended families were discouraged - in some cases, barred - - from playing their traditional roles. I believe that we have a special responsibility, especially in Novem ber, when the nation celebrates Na tional Adoption Awareness Month, to correct some misconceptions that have grown up around foster care and adoption and to bring attention to the children who are waiting for families. Although many people feel they're not economically in a position to take care of a child, adoption is nei ther as costly nor as unwieldy a pro cess as they suppose. Some em ploy ers are providing adoption benefits. i I The heads of more than 30 African American organizations have joined forces to promote and speed adop tions; after attending a Black leader ship “summit” in W ashington last May, several took steps to support the recruitment of black families and, in some cases are setting up funds to help lower income parents with the payment of legal fees. The number of children growing up without families is appalling. Today, more than 60,(XX) children of color in foster care are ready and waiting to be adopted; some have been waiting for years. Yet there are caring people in our communities who don’t realize that they can qualify to receive children. According to the latest Census figures, there are more Black chil dren in foster care than there are children from any other racial or ethnic group. Black children make up 47 percent of the foster care popu lation, almost three times their share (1 6 .5 percent)ofthegeneral popula tion. They are five times less likely than white children to be adopted during their first 3.5 years in care. And the longer they wait, the less likely they are to ever have the per manent family, the anchor, the source of love and mentoring that every child needs and deserves. We must do better than this, if we want to keep these children from being shuffled from one temporary “home” or juvenile facility to an other, without any family connection or moral compass. I think it starts with the recogni tion that these are our children - not somebody else's children, not the system ’schildren - and that we must embrace them. We are their family, and we must rekindle that spirit of caring for one another. P e c t V e s Re-Segregation And That "White Stuff" ( O h s e r u c r Charles Washington Publisher A Editor s A startling and quite deplorable situation frequently was reported by several teachers and leaders in the northeast community in the past de cade. A number of black students had stayed away from the “white stuff’ (math and science) either because it was not thought to be “relevant” or else “grades would suffer.” Before we engage in any analysis of the ’current” situation, let me point out that a quite different scenario existed in the past’, and why. Those of my situation and experience, unfortu nately, have a great difficulty in ex plaining the causative factors to the education and social science profes sionals from other cultures — or to many ‘younger’ black professionals, for that matter. “ You’ve got to have been there,” as the saying goes. If one is to be clear on this issue, we need to avoid the seman tic confusion that might arise from use of the term, “re-segregation.” Any fairly perceptive citizen would look around at the majority’ of the nation's churches, residential areas and schools (excluding remaining inner-cities), and the nation’s workforce (except the highly visible public sector) - and im mediately ask, “when did segregation ever end?” Actually, we are talking about a ‘mind’ thing here, not to lie confounded with social interaction. For my often startling, experience-based observa tion is that the ’socially segregated African American of the “South” pro duced most of those great inventions and science which blacks contributed to the industrial revolution and medi cine. And the same technological genius was exhibited by the second and third generations after leaving the South for the “North”. I confound many here in the education establishment when I write of our teenage science and math clubs in the neighborhood; and a ' seg- regated’ high school curriculum of algebra, geometry, biology physics, chemistry, languages - allcompulsory in St. Louis, MO before World War II. “Why not now”, I keep asking. What those education and social science professionals to whom I re ferred earlier do not understand is that from the time of slavery to World War II - and past- huge numbers of blacks worked as domestics in the homes of southern white officials, professionals and businessmen. They had Access to the system. These black ‘fathers’, mothers, aunts, uncles and grand parents, not only knew who ran the world, but how it was run and what knowledge and training was necessary to that end. Consequently, these chauffeurs, but lers, maids, cooks, gardeners and nan nies ‘carried the message back to the ghettoes, where it was well received. All of that “white stuff”, that is. With a driving commitment and fervor they designed, built and oper ated educational and social institu tions that would equip and motivate their children for that'G reat day in the m orning... free at last, tree at last, free at last! We helped build the world and we ll help enjoy it.” The general deterioration of the nation’seducationsystem is not restricted to any one race or culture. I noticed the difference decades ago - in industry, before I began teaching. Later, I’d ride the bus and recruit young black high school seniors for PSU, only to find that many could barely read, write or count ( this last was in the 1970’s). Portland, Oregon was not at all like this when I arrived in 1945. The sys tem was producing black engineers like Benson High Schools Don Ruth erford who designed all the engine controls for Howard Hughe’s flying boat, “The Spruce Goose.” Of course, 99% of Portland's early black popula tion was from the “South”. Signs of Hope B y B ernice P oweix J ackson I keep reminding myself of the importance of finding good stories amidst the bad - stories of people working to eliminate racism-in their lives and the life of theircommunity, stories of opportunities for commu nities to come together and tell the truth about the past, to learn about the rich histories of people of color in this nation. Here are two such sto ries. Wilmington. NC It was nearly 27 years ago that Wilmington, NorthCarolinacome into ournational consciousness, when black high school students began to protest the racism they saw in their school. Organized by Rev. Ben Chavis, the students boycotted the school andcame toGregory Congregational Church for a meeting. The reaction of some whites in the community was immediate and violent, beginning with threats from the Kian and leading to drive-by shootings into the church, where the students remained. Before it was over a white-owned grocery store was burned, one police officer was wounded and two people died. And the case of the Wilmington 10, A m erica’s first internationally acknowledged political prisoners' case, was born. The Wilmington 10 included Rev. Chavis, eight high schools students and one other adult, who were tried and convicted ol con spiracy to burn the grocery store and of firing on emergency personnel. All were sentenced to 23 or 24 years in prison, based on circumstantial evidence. It took nearly 10 years for a federal appeals court to overturn the convictions. For years afterward relationships between the black and white commu nity were soured. So it is a sign of hope to see a new relationship be tween the Gregory Congregational Church, and African American con gregation and the predominantly white Unitarian Universalist Fellow ship. Led by their pastors. Rev. Suzanne Graves of Gregory and Rev. Lone Jensen of the Unitarian Church, these congregations are holding joint worship services and picnics and beginning to reach across the diffi cult and shared past. Importantly, part of the reaching out has included a recognition of what happened in 1971 Indeed, when the Unitarian members first visited Gregory, they were shown the bullet holes which are still in the walls from that troubled time Their new rela tionship is being built on the ac knowledgment of their shared his tory, but is looking toward a new future. Kansas City, MO Eighteenth and Vine is a legend ary address in the African American Community. Anyone who has heard it knows that it’s in KanasaCity and it was the heart of that city’s African American community in the early years of this century. It was also the heart of jazz for a number of years, as well-knownjazzmusicians were nur tured and performed there. In recent years though, the 18th and Vine district had declined, as the African American community dis persed. Businesses closed, the clubs were no more and even housing had suffered. All that has changed as the city of Kansas City has sought to rebuild that legendary community and to re-develop it in a number of ways. Just opened are the new Kansas City Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which share a bright new building. Music fills the air in the Jazz Museum, as the stories of some of jazz’s greatest performers are told. It includes inter active exhibits, a sound library and a mixing studio. It even includes a jazz club, as well as the old signs from the heyday of that street. The new Negro Leagues Baseball Museum covers the entire history of the Negro Leagues from after the Civil War through their end in the 1960’s. It tells the stories of the he roes of that League, through photo graphs, video and sports memora bilia. It is the story not only of black athletes, but of black entrepreneurs who created the league. Across the street from the new museum is the re-furbished Gem Theater. Originally a movie theater, it quickly became a center of social and cultural activity for the 18th and Vine community. Great performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker once stood on this stage and once again this cultural and performing arts center will be filled with musical performances, theater productions and multimedia events. And, if you walk just around the corner, you' II find the set of the movie Kansas City, which starred Harry Belafontc and many jazz greats and told the story of the heyday of this community. In addition, new restau rants and businesses are scheduled to open in this re-developed legendary community. There are signs of hope across this nation We only have to look for them This W ay For B lack E m pow erm ent Ending Racism In America B y D r . L enora F dlani Black people look at America and we are very proud of our coun try, even though it’s still the case that we are less than fully included - in political terms, economic terms, social and cultural terms - in much of mainstream American life. We look at the most influential and dominating of American in s t i tutions - the Democratic Party - that originally come into being as an all-white party to preside over a society that practiced slavery; we see the other party — the Republi can Party - that came into being as an all-white party to preside over the abolition of slavery. In neither case were we -- or any other popu lations of color — a part of the founding of those parties, the shap ing of their vision or their funda m ental sensibility. We simply weren’t there. And though, over time. Black America became associated with first one and then the other major party, hoping that first one, and then the other, would unlock the door to full participation in the life of our country, this did not happen. Sometime we made strides - as we did in the period of Reconstruc tion after the Civil War or in the 1960's in the civil rights movement. But even the civil rights movement had its limits, because American de mocracy was itself so structurally limiting, that there was only so far we could go. Quotas, affirmative action, majority Black and Hispanic districts, and other such attempts to improve the position of people of color were not. as some people be lieve, the success of the civil rights movement. They were, in my opin ion, an accommodation to its limits. Unable to restructure the whole of American politics to make it more inclusive and participatory, largely because we were politically attached to the Democratic Party which had absolutely no interest in a political restructuring that would threaten their institutional power, we instead fought for little pieces of access to a system that was controlled from the top by the top. Identity politics came to domi nate. African Americans became a part of special interest politics. Ironi cally - and tragically -- race rela tions worsened as a result. Black Americans felt increasingly frustrated and alone. Black politicians-m ainly Democrats - who made their own careers off of the perpetuation of racism proliferated. They weren’t interested in structural change ei ther. Racial inequality keeps them in business. Much of white America felt frus trated. too. America was not doing well. Everybody took to blaming everybody else. But the real problem was not we, the people. It was Big Government -- unresponsive, corrupt and irresponsible Identity-based politics -- which has shaped much of Black participation — only made matters worse. My own involvement in third party politics was based on wanting to cre ate a way out of this bind for Black America; a way out of being essen tially held hostage to a two party system that was not only hostile to us, but hostile to the democratic partici pation of all the American people When Ross Perot announced his independent candidacy for the presi dency in 1992 and said it was time for the American people to take back our country, I was deeply inspired. And I quickly and passionately accepted the invitation I am well aware of the fact that I was not your most typical Perot voter. The press tends to paint in d e p e n d e n ts as angry, w hite m ales who are politically co nser vative. That stereotype doesn't fit m any independent voters -- and it certainly d o esn ’t fit me. When Ross Perot arrived on the scene, this meant that a new m o ment and a new movement had ar rived. That movement was the first sign of the upsurge of all the Ameri can people against special interest politics and the corruption of our political process and for a total politics restructuring, that would put we, the people, in control. As that movement progressed and be gan a process of consolidating it self intoapolitical party, we finally stood at the doorway of being able to solve A merica’s race problem. How? If Blacks and Hispanics and Asians and Native Americans were included in that party-building pro cess, then we would be part of cre ating the foundation, the vision, the morality, and the culture of a major political party for the first time ever in the history of the United Statesof America.
