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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
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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.
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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.