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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1997)
Haue A4 Œhr |)o rila ttb ©bseruer Editorial articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f ILhe |Jn rtlan h © bseruer Attention Readers! Please lake a minute to send us your comments. W e’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. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208, (L ife p e r (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Mark Washington Dists ri hut ion M anager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Iesha Williams tir up hie Design Mike Leighton Copy Editor ast w eek's article provoked cials" are not part of Portland Public quite a discussion among Schools standard curriculum. In fact, Portland Observer readers, they are funded by special federal and particularly among parents and programs developed (at taxpayer’s guardians w ho had bitter experience expense) to offer the appearance of with the “white stu ff’ phenomenon compensating for the math and sci among black students. ence minorities should get as every It does seem that there remains day educational fare. This is nation some vestige of an avoidance of ‘hard wide. core’ math and science by minority Obviously, only a very (selected) students. At the same time, I got an few are reached by such programs as almost vehement response from a "Saturday Academy”, a great math, score of parents whom I polled; that science and computer-enrichment they had encountered this “frighten exercise developed by Michael Grice, ing problem” early on and had taken a dedicated African American in counter m easures - though “the structor. In 1995 I was invited to schools have been very, very weak in present to this group my own devel this situation.” opments in mathematics for com put But I also find that a large segment ers and science. Mr. Grice is no longer of the population that should be in here doing great things for black volved in this critical issue are either students in the Portland School Dis unaware that there is a problem - or if trict. We wonder why? aware, do not have the ‘tools’ to In the meantime, certain strong become proactive in the matter. And and committed African American some have been beguiled by the oc parents and activists continue to con casional presence of a really great front the bureaucracy and the racists. program that involves (a very few) We should all com m end Halim minority students. Rashaan who for so many years has But these “math and science spe fought to secure an equal slice of the L Contributing H r iters: Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, NeilHeilpern 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv(o)aol.com Deadline for all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5 :0 0 pm Ads: Monday. 12:00pm POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes To: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Periodicals postage p a id at Portland, Oregon. Subscriptions. S30.00 per year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned ifaccompanied by a selfaddressed 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 O bserv er-O reg o n ’s Oldest Multicultural Publica tion—is a member o f the National Newspaper A ssociation—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. S ubscribe to B y D r . L enora F ueani ® i !c $ o r t i a n M f ) i i 6 m . r r S ubscriptions T he P or i land O bserver ; I’O B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 ___________________ T hank Y oi F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver To Be Equal Missionary Work B y H ugh B. P rice P resident N ational U rban L eague Who can forget that moment at the opening of the A tlanta Olym pic Games when Muhammad Ali, as if walking out of the depths of our dreams, appeared to take the Olym pic torch and light the Olympic flame, declaring the centennial celebration of the modern Olympiad open. It was a moment that seemed to evoke a gasp from and bring a catch in the throat of the thousands as sembled there in the stadium und one could feel it—from the millions watching around the globe. After all the feverish speculation about who would be so honored, it seemed so right that the final torch bearer would be Muhammad Ali. It seemed so right to me, however, not because of A li’s athletic achieve ments, as peculiar as that may seem at first glance. Oh, yes, o f course, he is one of the greatest boxers-and athletes—of our time, simultaneously enorm ously skilled and powerful: able, as he so memorably put it, to float like a but terfly and sting like a bee. But his athletic prowess alone— his collecting Olympic and world boxing championships with ease— isn’t why Muhammad Ali has be come a transcendent figure on the world stage. It’s because of his character. The other night the Urban League honored Muhammad Ali with its humanitarian of the year award dur ing our annual Equal Opportunity Day Dinner At the reception, as I watched ardent fans of all ages flock to Ali like moths to a brilliant light, I was reminded that the difference between superstars and heroes, if you will, is a matter of the understanding of missionary work. t 1 v e s education pie for minorities; so many thousands of hours of time and ef fort. And there is the su p e r-d e d i c a te d L u lu S t r o u d - J o h n s o n w h o s e s p e c i a l t y is r a i s i n g straight-A , high achieving daugh ters (4) w ho carve new sc h o la s tic niches at G rant H igh School and at O regon S tate U n iv ersity . But this sin g le -p a re n t does not sto p th e re . T h is c o m m u n ity - m inded a c tiv ist form ed an o rg a nization o f o ther black paren ts - “we can all reach this le v e l.” But back to last week’s commen tary on the source of much early black commitment to education. I heard not just from blacks but from a number of whites and from immi grants of other cultures. Some were aware of this phase of the African American experience and some were not. An ‘East Indian’ said, “in one way we had a parallel situation in India where for so long ‘w e’ were the do m estic servants for the B ritish colonialists. So we too had the bitter experience of learning how the infra structure of government and industry was developed and administered - but prevented from exercising this knowledge by force of arms.” He also remarked on the favor able comment generated in his com munity by my article that cited the failure of America to recognize the trillions of dollars in wealth created by black inventors. I had compared the situation with that in India where the greedy British had taken out tril lions in rubber, tea, gold, jew els and critical minerals - yet they had the writer Rudyard Kipling describing these people as “The White M an’s Burden.” Is there an American Ver sion? Two old-m aid cousins o f my grandfather were ‘retired’ domestics who would speak glowingly of the "Atlanta Exposition” of 1895 where black inventors displayed patented machinery from locomoti ves to farm and industrial machinery. I will pro vide documentation from the Con gressional Record during Black His tory Month. This Way for Black Empowerment I he Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home lor only $30.00 per year. Please fill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to: Name: Address: City, State. Zip-Code: tt More "W hite Stuff" And Domestics O O h s e rb e r Charles Washington Publisher & Editor s p e c Superstars, athletic and otherwise, excel in their fields, and often re ceive lucrative endorsement con tracts. But they envision no larger role for themselves in the human community. Indeed, many explicitly reject the notion that they’re “role m odels’’ precisely because that im plies they have a responsibility to contribute something off the basket ball court, the movie set, the band stand, and yes. the corporate board- room or the university lecture hall. Ali has become a heroic figure precisely because he not only recog nized his responsibility to the larger human community, he exuberantly embraced it. H e’s become one of the most revered and probably the most recognized person in the world not just because of his boxing crowns but because he identified so person ally with Ihe aspirations of our people and of all people. Because he was a man of prin ciple, he did not flinch from saying no to military service during the Viet nam War, exchanging a brilliant, lu crative career for widespread con demnation and a prison cell. Muhammad Ali saw himself then as he sees himself now: as a man with a mission. It was a mission that took him during his boxing years away from lucrative markets to the far reaches of the globe—to staging those legendary matches in Manila and Zaire—because he wanted toen velop and engage everyone in his mission ary work More recently, it has ex pressed itself in his determ ined struggle with Parkinson's syndrome and in his book. Healing, a moving statement on overcoming bigotry. Some of that /eal. that sense of mis sion. that humanity is evident in the riveting documentary about the Ali phe nomenon, "When We Were Kings," that won an Academy Award last year. I Much of the national political analysis these days is about the con flict within the Democratic Party between its Clinton-led centrist wing and the p a r ty ’s lib e ra ls. T he A dm inistration’s failure to muster sufficient votes in Congress from fellow Democrats to back C linton’s trade process of choice - fast track - - is the evidence of this rift, accord ing to the pundits. Certainly the fast track failure is significant - a result of a growing lack of trust in the President in the wake of various campaign finance scandals, a well-organized lobbying campaign against fast track by the labor movement, the environmental movement and the Reform Party and a sense among many (80%) Demo cratic Congresspersons that this was an opportune moment to buck the President. But it would be an error to measure the instability in the Demo cratic Party solely at the level of Congressional action. Because there is a bottom-up dynamic in this pic ture that indicates a new instability at the base of the party. It involves numerous constituencies, most nota bly Black voters. And while coali tion breakup and reassembly are a fairly consistent feature of congres sional life, it’s not clear that the rift between Black voters and the Demo cratic Party can be soeasily repaired. The results of several recent elec tions provide insight into this situa tion In New YorkCity, Black voting patterns made a shift that indicates a palpable alienation from and anger toward the Democrats. Fully 70% of Black voters stayed away from the polls, a staggering blow to the Demo cratic m ayoral can d id ate, Ruth Mesinger. who needed an outpour ing of support from African Ameri cans but got a severe rebuke instead. In spite of heavy campaigning on her behalf by Rev. Al Sharpton, Black participation dropped from the 50% in the last municipal elections to 30, demonstrating that Sharpton had no “coattails” and the Democrats had no clothes - meaning that the vener able political rule that Black voters rally round any Democrat to block an anti-Black Republican had broken Black voters were singularly dis e n c h a n te d -- not m erely w ith Messinger - but with the total impo tence of the Democratic Party to act on our behalf. My recommendation to the Black community that it boy cott the Democratic Party — a re sponse I promoted in a month long advertising drive and door to door campaign — resonated strongly. Interestingly, the exit polls showed that of Black vote, somewhere be tween 20 and 30% of them voted for the Republican Giuliani, up from 5% four years ago. At one level this was a function of the boycott campaign, the breakaw ay en d o rsem ent of Giuliani by several prominent Black elected officials and labor leaders, and Guliani’s own efforts to cast himself in a more sympathetic light to communities of color. But ulti mately the double blow (low turnout, and a serious rupture in traditional Democratic bloc voting) was an ex pression of a profound unhappiness on the part of Black New Yorkers with our position on the political landscape. New York was apparently not alone in this regard. In the Virginia gubernatorial race — won by Repub lican Jim Gilmore - Black voter turn out was down. The Democrat, Donald Beyer, polled only 80% of the black voters. In this race, former Demo cratic Governor Doug Wilder - the state's first and only Black governor — refused to endorse the Democrat and remained pointedly neutral in the race, adding to the list of Black D em ocratic elected and form er elected officials refusing to tow the party line. Other signs of black disalignment and realignments surface at the end of the political season. The Black Reformers network had a substantial presence at the national founding convention of the independent Re form Party. A gathering we spon sored for all delegates, alternates and observers in Kansas City at which I spoke, was attended by close to 500 Reformers, all of the party's officers and our 1996 vice-presidential can didate Pat Choate, among others. On Behalf Of A Good Man B y B ernice P owell J ackson W e’ve all heard the phrase “Catch 22” meaning that one is caught in a paradox and a non-win situation. It’s kind of what the old folks meant when they said caught between a rock and a hard place. T hat’s kind of where Bill Lann Lee is right now and we all stand to lose because of it. Bill L ann Lee is president Clinton’s nominee for the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. That’s the job in the Justice Depart m ent w hich helps set the adm inistration’s policy when it comes to civil rights issues. Its a job that at times has been controversial, at times pace-setting and has often been the place w here the marginalized could turn for help in finding legal remedies for their situ ation. Most recently it was held by Deval Patrick, who was instrumen tal in assisting with the FBI investi gations of the burned churches in the African American community. But it’s been a year since that job has been vacant, a long time for such a key position, especially during this time of many legal challenges facing human rights issues and concerns. Bill Lann Lee, the President’s choice for this vital position, is the son of a Chinese laundryman, who came to this county during the De pression as a penniless immigrant. A Chinese laundryman whose busi ness was located in Harlem. His mother worked as a seamstress and ironer in that small, cramped laundry and Bill and his brother watched their father suffer the indignities of being called a “dumb Chinam an” and being denied housing because of his race, even after serving honor ably in the Army Air Force during World War II. Bill Lann Lee, the son of the poor laundryman, was able to attend Yale University, as one of its first affirma tive action admissions but he gradu ated Phi Beta Kappa, with a magna cum laude degree in history. After studying law at Columbia, he has dedicated his entire career to work ing in the field of civil rights law. In a recent statement he said, “In my mind the people I have represented in civil rights cases are people very much like my father.” But Bill Lann Lee is not just a theorist, he is practical solution- seeker, one who has a reputation for searching for common ground in the process of working for fairness for those who have been excluded and disenfranchised. Even the Republi can Mayor of Los Angeles, one of Mr. Lee’s opponents in a case con cerning poor bus riders in that city, wrote in a letter of recommendation for Mr Lee that, “The work of my opponents rarely evoke my praise, but the negotiations could not have concluded successfully without Mr. Lee’s practical leadership and ex pertise.” Bill Lann Lee is an honorable man. He is a man of whom all of America should be proud and should be hon ored that he wants now to work in our government. He is a man who has spent his lifetime working for civil rights law, believing that, "The civil rights laws do not confer charity. Their protections have their roots in prior discrimination and exclusion of those who look different, who speak differently, who are disabled and who were once enslaved. They are laws designed to overcome rel egating minority schoolchildren to segregated schools, the unjust denial of employment opportunities on ac count of ethnicity, the artificial ex clusion of women from educational opportunities, the barriers that ob struct the access of the disabled to public buildings.” Those don’t sound like the words and his is not the story of an extrem ist. But Republicans in the Senate are determined to paint him as a radical and marginalized left-wing lawyer solely because of his support of affir mative action and his work against Proposition 209 in California. This arguments forge, the fact that affir mative action was the law of the land for nearly 30 years, so it is only natural that Mr. Lee would work on their behalf and that as a staff mem ber of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, it should be no surprise that he would be joining in the efforts against Proposition 209, a law which would deny him the very benefits which allowed him to move beyond the horizons of working in his father’s laundry in Harlem. So far Senator Hatch and others in the Senate Judiciary Committee have blocked Mr. Lee’s nomina tion and kept it from going to the full Senate, where it most likely would receive confirmation. Only Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) broke ranks in support of this out standing candidate, while the oth ers c ite d his su p p o rt o f the Adm inistration's position on affir mative action as their reason for opposing Mr. Lee. Following that logic, the President cannot nomi nate anyone who supports his posi tion on affirmative action. Although the Senate has ad journed for the year, it is no, too late to let your Senator know where you stand on Bill Lann L ee’s nomi nation. You can call your Senator at 202-224-3121 or visit your Senator’s office in your hometown and let him or her know how you feel or write the United States Sen ate, Washington, DC 20510. If Bill Lann Ixe loses, we all lose.
