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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1997)
% ' • Page A4 ' ----------------------------------- ------- ■' ---------(Elie länrtlanh (JDbserucr « Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views Of (The |3 o rtlan b (iDbscrucr Attention Readers! Please take a minute tn «end us your comment». 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: I ditof Reader Response, P.O. Box 3 137, Portland, OR 9720 8. (Lite }Jnrtlanb (Ohserlu’r (I SI’ S 959-680) Established in 1970 C harles Washington Publisher Jt Editor Mark Washington Distsrihution Manager Gary Ann I ay lor Larry J. Jackson. Sr. Director of Operation Kindness Hanuger Mike Leighton Copy Editor Iesha W illiam s Graphic Design ( antribating Writers: Professor M cKinley Burt. 1 ee Perlman. NeilHeilpern 4747 NE M a rtin L u th e r K in g .J r. Blvd., P ortland.O regon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Etnail: I’ilxobserv « aol.com Deadline ^ trticlcs liid ii\ 3 id)pm -l</s Monday. I2:l)lipm PO STM A STER : Send Address Changes To: P ortland O bserver, P.O. Box 3137, P ortland. OR 97208. Periodicals postage p a id at Portland, Oregon. Subscriptions S3D. DI) per year I lie Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w ill be returned il accompanied b\ a self addressed envelope. A ll created design display ads become the sole property of the new spaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad < 1996 IH I P O R TLAN D OBSERVER A L L RIGHTS ? s c p e c t i v e 3 The Great American Land Grab; What Drove (Drives) Those Europeans? by P roe : sM t K init Bt Rl It IS hardly the ease that many inner city residents - while or black, rich or poor devote much attention to the ideologies and philosophies that have evolved from the im m i grant struggle to “ tame the vast w il derness.” It is much more likely that their waking hours are busy w ith a sur vival spectrum o f nuts-and-bolts problems: Taxes, HMOs, pension plans, capital gains, lay offs, public- education, m utual funds, urban boundaries, housing costs, crime, whatever! However, there does exist for those o f us interested enough to make in quiry about these ideologies and phi losophies - and perhaps we had bet ter - several revealing books and essays on these matters. Here, our thoughts revisit my recent articles on urban space and the problems m i norities (and now whites) are having in maintaining adecentquality ot life w ithin the imposed boundaries. “ Interpreting Environments” by Robert Mugeravert 1995) is just such a book, one that casts much factual light on the centuries -long develop ment o f the disciplines and philoso phies that are, for want o f a better term, called "Urban Planning,” and even "Urban Renewal " ( Many blacks who have lost homes and businesses prefer "Urban Removal.” In h is very in tro d u c tio n Mugeraucuer.p. xlv. firm ly indicates his direction in interpreting the phi losophy o f American colonization and its impact yet today; “ The inter pretation shows how the orginarily ' twinned religious meanings ol Amen- can nature as a paradise given and as a negative wilderness to be over come are now concealed and forgotten..they still operate in our understanding o f parks and w ilder ness and in our attitudes to the use and development o f land." Our author elaborates on pp. 58 and 59, “ O riginally the American understanding o f nature was substan tia lly religious, which means that at tendant practices operated accord ing to a theologically informed economy and politics. ...The interpretation o f america by way o f Scripture was fundamen tal: Columbus, according to his ' Book o f Prophecies', believed that he had discovered the ‘Garden o f Eden’ and thus had made a significant advance in the conversion o f the w orld." Somebody te ll M etro , (see my "A m istad" article this week). D on’ t ask how one equates this religious fervor to the cruelty and savagery that Columbus inflicted upon the Indiansot the New World - or how the famed ‘ liberal’ philoso pher, John Locke not only owned shares in a slave-trading company, but wrote into this “ Constitution for the Carolinas” that African slaves would be held in bondage for all time. Nor can we conceive a rational explanation for relating American philosophies and visions o f paradise to the "A tlantic Slave Trade" and the holocaust o f the "M idd le Passage." in Sunday’ s Oregonian there is a re lated book review o f "The Slave Trade,” by Hugh Thomas (Simon & Schuster). Again, we find that white America simply refuses to deal with the insane horror that their forefa thers committed ( as w ith many Ger- mans yet today in respect to theJewish Holocaust - don't forget the Swiss and the Church). The fall-out from sham continues. This revisionist historian, Thomas, makes a failed attempt to cleanup a centuries-long horror, citing a higher percentage o f deaths among the crew than for the poor creatures below dec k -addressing us as though we were fools, when British and African re searchers reveal that , quite obvi ously, deaths were in the millions. Also sec Black American authors such as Leronc Bennett (Ebony Magazine Editor), John Henri Clarke, W E B DuBois, et al. It goes w ith saying that a com panion piece to this institutional- iz.cd-denial is today s incom pre hensible denial o f the documented intellectual and technological con tribu tion o f A fric a n Americans. ("W e w ould only have done these evils to in fe rio r' people - we are “ God Fearing!” ) Our children the pay the price. Next week, “ The Philosophy de velops fu rthe r, “ de T o c u e ville , M umford, Robert Moses , and U r ban Gods. Rl SI RVI I) Rl PRODUCTION IN WHOM OR IN PARI W ITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. I he Portland Observer—Oregon's Oldest M ulticultural Publica tion—is a member ol the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885 and I he National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. New York, N Y. and The Wes, Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. SUBSCRIBE TO <Elic|Jortlanî» (Observer I I k - Portland ( )bserver can be sent directly to your home lo r only $30.00 per year Please t ill out. enclose cheek or money order, and m ail to: St l»S< R ll’ l IONS Tin P o r ii \ xd O bserver ; PO Box 3137 P o rii vM), O regon 97208 Name: Address; __ ___________________________ City, State:________ _______ _________________________ Z ip -C o d e :__ __________ __________________ __________________ T hank Yot F or K i aping T he P orii and O bserver To Be Equal Robbing Our Future B y J ames T . M< L awhorn , J r . (G uest C olumnist ) C olumbia (S .C .) U rban L eague When it comes to crime, A m e ri can society seems eaught in a para dox Crime rates have plummeted in cities across the country, in the down towns and in poor neighborhoods, too Yet, w hile actual crime has abated, the crime scare rhetoric has not. More dangerously, the imprudent rush to build more and more prisons-a d i rect consequence o f die crime-scare rhetoric o f the 1980s-hasn't eased, nor has the push to try more and more juveniles as adults. Both are among the reasons why so many young A f rican-American males wind up in corrections systems throughout the country President Clinton during an inter view from the Oval Office referred to another reason discriminatory be havior by police officers, and he vowed to "fin d a highly visible pub lic forum" to discuss the issue. O f course. African Americans have long been aware o f such unf air treatment, as President Clinton has heard from black professionals and young people around the country. According to a U S. Department o f Justice survey released last month, law enforcement officers threatened or used force in encounters w ith an estimated 500.000 people in 1996. The report especially noted the dis proportionate number o f encounters African Americans and Hispanic Americans have with law enforce ment personnel. W hile these groups together represent only 20 percent of the population 12 years o f age and older, they make up 50 percent of those w ho’ ve had intim idating and threatening experiences w ith law enforcement. R ep re se nta tive N y d ia M. Velasquez, D-N.Y., pointed out that in New York City people o f color register 80 percent o f the police bru tality complaints Law enforcement officers are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice sys tem. Their discretion at the point of arrest often determines whether juve nile offenders especially are given a simple warning, a citation, taken into custixly. or referred to juvenile court As criminologist A R. Roberts wrote in a recent issue o f Juvenile and Fam ily Court Journal, “ to a great measure it is the officer’s exercise ofdiscretion that really controls the disposition o f juvenile eases." I better 'Crd CSJditdr Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland. OR 97208 Dear Senior Editor I was appalled to hear that there was less than MMX) people that turned out for Eddie Robinson's Iasi hurrah at Grambling. That is pathetic, here is a man who was very committed to his college, and to have only 1,000 fans. W ith all o f these black dignitarians we have, where were they in atte nd an ceIn closing we spend to much time talk ing the talk, and not walking the walk Good luck to you Eddie, in your retirement, go see the world Anthony Jacobs Vancouver, W A B y V alora W ashington People are often surprised to learn about the disproportionate number o f children o f color there are in this country waiting to be adopted. More than 60.(XX) boys and girls - enough to fill 3,000 classrooms, field 12,000 basketball teams or form a line I I miles long -- arc growing up without a family. In a year, these c h ild re n spend 21.900,000 days w aitin g, and 31,536,000,000 minutes feeling unloved and unwanted. The numbers tell a dramatic story: African American children make up 46.3 percent o f the c h il dren in foster care, nearly three times their representation in the general U S. population o f c h il dren. Stunned by the size o f this "fos ter earc gap," more than 30 African A m e rican org an izatio ns have moved into action. They have come to realize that too often the foster care system is grinding the lives of children to a halt, trapping them in an uncertain future. They recog nize, too, that children o f color, in particular, wait years for adoption. A dditionally, they often are repeat edly shuttled through fostercare with little hope o f a permanent home. These organizations also realized that they need to serve as strong advo cates for children and young people who are moved from one temporary “ home" or juvenile facility to an other, to keep them from growing up without the physical or emotional security o f a strong, family connec tion. Who arc these organizations .’ They include such diverse organizations as the National Medical Association, National Urban Coalition. National Council of Negro Women and Na tional Black Child Development Insti tute. In May of 1997, at a conference in Washington. D.C., they committed themselves to do more to promote and speed adoptions and to strengthen the family links in black communities. "W e have always taken care o f ourchildren in our families, extended families, churches, communities, and neighborhoods," said NC NW Presi dent Dorothy I. Height. "B ut too many are entering the foster care system, and we are losing sight o f them. We need to reclaim them as part o f the black fam ily.” The black community takes pride in a long history o f the resilience and resourcefulness o f family in times of crisis. As U S. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D -D C ) told the sum m il a few months ago, “ Nothing can replace family. Family is genesis; family is first The obligation to re build fam ily is the most important obligation ot Black leadership. The system has been slow to recruit adoptive parents in black communi ties, a critical need in which black churches and programs like One Church, One Child, are helping. There also are some innovative approaches being tried, with impressive results. ThcW .K KelloggFoundation’sFami- lies for Kids program, for example, has been working to step up recruit ments and reduce court backlogs at 11 sites around the country. Quicker, less complicated strate gies for achieving permanent place rnents also are producing results. Ac - cording to recent news reports, adop tions o f children in foster care have shot up 72 percent in Philadelphia, since steps were taken to make that c ity ’ s jud icia l processes less cum bersome; and 74 percent in New York City, since it began offering financial incentives to foster-home operators who help speed adoptions. Sometimes the best strategy is g iv ing families support. In Grand Rap ids, Michigan, parents charged with abuse or neglect have alternatives, Instead o f court action and foster care placement, extended family members, friends and neighbors can participate in a conference to de cide who w ill care for the child while the parents undergo treatment. Kinship care is an established ap proach, validating the child's need to remain connected to grandpar ents, cousins or fam iliar settings. Children know what they need, even if they don’t always know where to find it. They are enthusiastic about the modem marketing techniques, ranging from television commercials to get-acquainted suppers at black churches, which promote adoptions. W aiting children embrace every means available to find a home and to stop the revolving door to juvenile centers and prisons. In November, as people around the country pause to celebrate Na tional Adoption Awareness Month, we ask our friends and partners in all communities toeonsider not only how much joy an adoptive child can add to a fam ily; hut also, what can be done to sim plify adoptions and make them less daunting. Civil Rights Journal My Christmas Wish List B y B ernice P owell J ackson This has been one o f those d iffi cult years for me. A year in which I lost trusted friends and colleagues. A year in which I found family mem bers and friends facing illnesses and crises. A year when I have seen is sues which are important to me and to my people under vicious attacks. A year which has forced me to stop and care for m yself and those I love So, this year my Christmas wish list is a little more reflective and a little less optimistic. My first wish is, o f course, for peace peace in Africa, peace in the M iddle East, peace in Europe But not just peace, but peace with justice. Peace w ith justice for the people of Tibet, peace w ith justice for the people o f Haiti. My second wish is for peace - peace in this nation, where people o f color arc still beaten and killed be cause o f the color o f theirskin. Peace in this nation where black churches continue toburn. Peace in this nation where children in cities are still killed in drive-by shootings and gang vio lence. Peace in this nation where families are still subject to terror and which can mean life to H IV /A ID S patients. M y prayer is fo r our churches and mosques that they may embrace those infected and affected by this virus. M y prayer is for those teenagers not yet infected that they might understand that teens o f color arc one o f the fastest-growing groups infected by this virus. My prayer is for the babies who are born with H IV that they may be healed My fifth wish is that our nation w ill reach beyond the political rheto ric and come to understand that to end affirm ative action w ill not only be bad for communities o f color, but w ill be had for the whole nation. M y wish is that those o f us who have bene fitted the most directly from af firmative action over the past gen eration - women o f all colors, men o f color w ill tell our stories and help others to understand the positive impact for everyone or wc w ill find affirmative action dying state by state M y sixth wish is that every child in this nation would have access to health care and quality education and housing and food. How wonderful that would be What a statement about violence in their homes. Peace in this nation where our elders are afraid to walk the streets. M y third wish is for peace - the internal kind o f peace which still eludes so many people in this fast- paced, crazy world. Peace o f mind that the world is not spinning out o f control and that God is still in charge. Peace o f mind in our places o f work and in our homes and our communi ties. Peace of mind that comes with knowing that we are here for a reason and that we can make a good life for ourselves and our families, M y fourth wish is really a prayer. As we mark another W orld AIDS Day. my prayer is for the end ol H IV / AIDS in this century. M y prayer is for all those living with H IV and AIDS, especially those in communi ties o f color That they might be able to reach out to someone else, that they might find love in their family and friends, that they might know andexperience God's healing power. M y prayer is for those pharmaceuti cal companies that their hearts may be softened and that they might re evaluate whether they have to charge such exorbitant fees for medicine this nation I My seventh wish is that every po lice officer tempted to brutalize a civilian w ill see the face o f his/her child in the face o f the person they are about to hit May we have a year with no police brutality or harass ment. My eighth wish is that all o f the commitments made during the M il lio n Man and M illio n W om an Marches w ill come to fruition. That our people w ill continue to rededi cate themselves to their fam ilies and their com m unities and to their own spiritual growth and develop ment M y ninth wish is that somehow we can reach beyond the political machi nations, beyond the personal blind ers, beyond the historical mis-educa tion and beyond the institutional bar riers and really end racism in my lifetime What a gift that would he to our children and grandchildren. My final wish is a wish for all who read these words. May you and yours find new knowledge o f the depth of God’ s love, may you find health and wholeness in your life, may you know nurturing relationships and may you share your blessings with others.
