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FEB. !8, 1998
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Campaign
Season Is Here
As we a p p ro ach the m idterm
e le c tio n s, we need to rem ind
o u rse lv e s o f the im p o rtan ce o f
voter p a rtic ip a tio n in the dem o
c ra tic p ro cess. Low v o te r p a r
tic ip a tio n is a ch ro n ic illn e ss in
th is co u n try . T he h ig h est voter
turnout in A m erican h isto ry was
in I960. And even th en , less
than tw o -th ird s o f e lig ib le v o t
ers m ade it to the polls.
T u rn o u t and incom e
A v o te r’s lik elih o o d to go to
the polls on ele c tio n D ay is di
reetly related to that v o te r 's in
com e.
* L ess than 40% o f p eople
earn in g less than $ I 5 .0 0 0 /y e a r
vote.
* A bout 75% o f p eople earn
ing m o re th an $ 5 0 ,0 0 0 /y e a r
vote.
T h is c re a te s a v icio u s cycle
P o litic ia n s are not re sp o n siv e
lo w o rk in g c la s s a n d p o o r
p e o p le ’s needs b ecau se they do
not vote. B ecause the p o litician s
are not re sp o n siv e , the people-
feel p o w erless and stay hom e
on ele c tio n Day.
T he only way to break the
cy cle is to co n v in ce lo w er in
com e p eople to vote If these
num bers w ere reversed and 75%
o f w o rk in g c la s s a n d p o o r
people voted, p o litic ia n s w ould
he forced to be re sp o n siv e to
them re g ard less o f who e o n trib -
The follow ing c ritic a l a n a ly
sis o f the teaching o f histo ry in
our sch o o ls may ex ten d the p a
ram eters of our own running co m
m entary here. “ H istory on T rial:
C u ltu re W ars and the T eaching
o f the P a st” N ash, C ru b tre e and
D unn, A lfred A. K noff, N .Y .
¡997.
P rin c ip a lly , my ap p ro ach , or
p re sp e e tiv e , has been to retriev e
th o se e x p e rie n e e s/le sso n s that
retain th e ir value o v er tim e and
c irc u m sta n c e. And there is no
qu estio n but what b lack people
have m any hundreds o f such well-
d o c u m en ted m odels a v a ila b le to
them , w h eth er the A m erican e x
p erie n c e or on a w orld stage
B uilders, a rtists, p o ets, in v e n
to rs, e d u cato rs, en tre p re n eu rs.
G iven these facts about such
an e x te n siv e and a u th en tic data
base of relev an ce, then the re
m aining q u estio n s or issues m ust
be about ease o f access (to the
m any) an d /o r th eir m otivation
and d ed ication to the task. W here
as I have been ad d re ssin g the
latter param eter (for years), “His-
The proposed $41.8 billion MCI/
WorldCom merger, the largest busi
ness transaction in history, is poten
tially devastating to consumers and
minority participation in the telecom
munications industry. It is monopo
listic and anti-competitive on its face
and must be stopped.
The T e le c o m m u n ic atio n s A ct
o f 1996 w as o rig in a lly presen ted
to the A m e ric a n p e o p le as a
m eans o f stim u la tin g c o m p e ti
tion.
It has fa ile d to do so. R ather,
it has in creased m arket c o n c e n
tratio n in few er and few er c o m
pan ies, d isc o u ra g e d en try and
p a rtic ip a tio n o f sm all and m i
nority b u sin e sse s, re stric te d d i
versity o f opinion and p e rsp e c
tive increased prices for co n su m
e rs, and re d u c e d c o n su m e r
choices.
And now in ju st a few m onths,
m illions o f A m ericans could face
d ra m a tic a lly increased long d is
tance te le p h o n e rates as a resu lt
o f a p ro p o sed m erger o f te le
co m m unications giants, MCI and
W orldC om .
The Portland Observer-Oregon's Oldest Multicultural Publica
tion—is a member of the National Newspaper Association -bounded in
1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated
Publishers. Inc. New York. NY. Oregon Federation ol Advertising.
American Minorites Media, and The West Coast Black Publishers
Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver
T hank Y oi F or R eading T he
B y P rof . M c K inley B urt
tory On T ria l" re p re se n ts a very
recent g e n e ra tio n o f ed u cato rs
and h isto ria n s w ho have gained
or assum ed enough pow er to ch al
lenge a firm ly e n tre n c h e d e sta b
lish m e n t It is only 't h a t , ’ at
p resen t, a “c h a lle n g e ” , but the
en ergy, c o m m itm e n t (and c o u r
age) o f the Y oung T u rk s” may
yet allow them to su c c e ssfu lly
engage those w ho b eliev e the
w o rld ’s history is "inherently and
e te rn a lly W e ste rn .” The latter
view p o in t we find e n th u sia sti
cally a d o p ted by E.D . H irsch,
au th o r o f the 1987 b e st-se lle r,
“C u ltural L iteracy: W hat Every
A m erican N eeds To K now ” , V in
tage B ooks
S everal re a d e rs say they re
m em ber a q u a rte r-p a g e special I
presen ted in the A ugust 8, 1990
Portland O bserver, "W h e re ’s The
Beef: Is it to be C u ltu ral L iteracy
or E uropean L ite ra c y ? ” My im
p assioned polem ic h ead lin ed my
le ss-th a n -e n th u sia stic review of
the english p ro fe s s o rs ’ argum ent
for “a com m on store o f basic
know ledge that w ould perm it all
c i t i z e n s to 't a l k th e sa m e
language...society would be more
e q u ita b le , ju s t and u n ifie d ," he
fu rn ish e d a lis t "W hat E very
A m erican Should K now "
I point out, o f course, that w hat
D r. H irsch is ab o u t is not only a
fu rth e r rigid e x c lu sio n from our
histo ry texts o f the m ajor c o n tri
bu tio n s to the w o rld ’sc u ltu re and
tech n o lo g y by people o f color,
but a tactic to im plem ent for all
tim e an e d u c a tio n system g u a r
a n teed to p ro d u ce an accep ted
‘N ordic re sp o n se ’ from every stu
dent.
H i t l e r ’ s p r o p a g a n d is t, D r.
H e rm a n G e o b b e ls , a sk e d no
m ore. N or did the fam ed ‘lib
e r a l’ p h ilo so p h e r L ocke w ho d e
sig n ed the C o n stitu tio n o f the
C a ro lin a s to p e rp e tu a te slavery
forever.
T hese g u a ra n te e d , o n e -h u n
dred p ercent, ‘a n g lo ’ lists are not
the e x clu siv e dom ain o f the e d u
c a tio n e s ta b lis h m e n t E v e ry ,
te a c h e r and p a re n t (w ho c ares)
sh o u ld be aw are o f the avalanche
o f c o rp o ra tio n -d e sig n e d “ E thnic
S u pport M a te ria l” that is re a c h
ing the school houses du rin g a
recen tly d is c o v e re d ’ B lack H is
tory M onth. M ajo r firm s seem
intent on c a tc h in g up w ith the
to b acco and liq u o r co m p an ies in
d o lla rs d irected to “ Special M a r
k ets", e g. A frican A m ericans.
S everal te a c h e rs and a p r in c i
pal have sent me co p ie s o f m a te
rials received. All o f course h ig h
lig h t R e v e re n d K ing, J a c k ie
R obinson, Dr. C arv er, and a few
cite C rispus A ttucks
But those I ’ve seen p re se n t a
black whose ex istence in the U n i
verse began w ith sla v e ry -th e re is
no E th io p ia, E gypt, Black P opes
or V irg in s, no L eo A frican u s, no
G reat P yram id, no great u n iv e r
s i t i e s in W e st A f r ic a lik e
T im b u ctu , no speech by N a p o
leon S tanding on the sands o f
A frica, before the G reat p y ra
m id, “ Forty c e n tu rie s o f g r e a t
ness look dow n upon y ou.”
No sir, th ere is nothing th a t
w ould je o p a rd ie s a c o r p o r a tio n ’s
bottom line, that could p rovoke
objectio n by e ith e r a racist o r a
fe a rfu l c u rric u lu m s p e c ia lis t.
B lacks are ju st here th a t’s all-
and w e ’re stuck w ith th e m ’.
MCI/WorldCom Merger Creates Cause for Alarm
RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN W H 0I I OR IN PARI W ill I
OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED
S ubscribe to
Black History Month Is Here (Again) III
uted to th e ir cam p aig n s.
T he D angers o f Low T urnout
To c o m b a t a p a th y , people
need to see how the decisio n s
that elected o ffic ia ls m ake a f
fect th e ir liv es every day. The
ex am p les of w hat can happen
when voter turnout is esp ecially
low are p le n tifu l and frig h te n
ing. One recent exam ple springs
to mind the 1994-m idterm e le c
tions.
The averag e tu rn o u t for all
c o n g re ssio n a l d istric ts in 1994
was 36%). The result was a right-
w ing C o n g re ss led by N ew t
G in g rich bent on d ism a n tlin g
the social safety net and p ro
gram s like M edicare w hile g iv
ing hu g e tax b re a k s to the
w ealth iest A m ericans.
P o ssib ilitie s o f H igh T u rn
out
South A frica is a p e rfe c t e x
am ple o f w hat can be a c c o m
p lish ed w hen nearly every b o d y
votes W hen they finally won
the right to v o te, B lack South
A fricans U nited and finally won
the right to v ote, B lack South
A frican s U nited and used th e ir
pow er to elect N elson M andela.
T he stak es this fall are high.
* 435 C o n g re ssio n a l races.
* 37 G u b e rn a to ria l races.
* 34 U.S S en ate races.
* Thousands o f sta te and lo
cal races.
B y M . G asby G reely
(G uest C olumnist )
N ational U rban L eague
M Gasby Greely is Editor-in-
Chief of Opportunity Journal and
Senior Vice President forCommuni-
cations and Devel >pment o f the Na
tional Urban League
“I want to expand the place in
which we sec black people in history
and how they functioned," said Danny
Glover, the actor, recently, explain
ing his involvement both in front of
and behind the cameras in the madc-
for-television film, “Buffalo sol
diers.”
Apt words indeed. That sentiment
guided the literary, journalistic and
scholarly endeavors of the National
Urban League’s magazine, Opportu
nity Journal, during its first publish
ing era, from 1923 to 1949, and it
guides our efforts now that we have
revived it after a hiatus of nearly a
half century. We think w e’ve made a
good effort with our issue just out for
Black History Month.
“We were everywhere doing ev
erything!” a colleague fairly shouted
recently when I mentioned to her
some of the articles the issue con
tains. Her enthusiasm was meant to
underscore how much there yet is of
African-American history to be, as
she put it, re-discovered
By that she meant, how much of
the facts and circumstances of our
long existence in this land remain to
Rev. Jackson has called on the
FCC to impose a moratorium on
major media and telecommunications
mergers until the FCC can establish
standards for evaluating whether a
merger benefits consumers and pro
motes minority entrepreneurship and
employment.
If the MCI/WorldCom merger is
finalized...
* Twocompanies will control 75%
of the long distance telephone mar
ket.
*M CI/W orldCom will control
60% of the Internet backbone over
which all Internet traffic flows.
* MCI/W orldCom will almost
certainly downsize, sending thou
sands of people to unemployment
lines.
W orldCom’s Record of Exclusion
race, one-gender board of a major
telecommunications company.
* No minorities or women sit on
W orldCom’s Executive Committee.
* W orldCom has already an
nounced plans to move its headquar
ters ou, of Jackson, Mississippi to
the suburbs and to move M CI’s com
puter operations from Fairfax, VA to
Leesburg, VA-away from African
American workforces.
Call To Action
Here is what the Rainbow/PUSH
coalition is doing to stop the MCI/
WorldCom merger:
* We have p e titio n e d the FCC
to deny the m erg er on p u blic in
te re st grounds. O ther p e titio n s
w ere filed by the C o m m u n ic a
tions W orkers o f A m erica, A FL -
C IO , G TE, Bell A tlan tic, Bell
S outh, and m any o th e r o rg a n iz a
tions.
* We have formally asked the FCC
to hold public hearings on the merger
proposal.
* We have filed papers with the
Depanment of Justice to reject the
merger on anti-competitive grounds.
* We will hold our own public
hearing on media and telecommuni
cations competition in Chicago on
March 16-17.
* As a stockholder of both MCI
and WorldCom, we will emphasize
the issues of redlining, discrimina
tion, and anti-competitive behavior
to the com panies’ stockholders.
What you can do to stop the MCI/
WorldCom merger:
* Call or write to the Federal Com
munications Commission
* Call or write to the Department
of Justice Office of Public Affairs,
Anti-Trust Division
Make your voice heard! The FCC
and the Justice Department need to
know we oppose this merger.
be brought into the mainstream of
knowledge about African-American
history-and therefore, American his
tory : How much there is to be brought
out much there is to be gleaned from
the oral and written recollections of
individuals, and the genealogie' of
black (and white, and Native Ameri
can) families How much there is to
be interpreted and perhaps traced
from photographs and daguerreo
types.
The roots of African Americans
go very deep here. Although nearly
all the Africans who came here dur
ing the 17th and 18th centuries were
brought as slaves, they-because they
were human heings-im m ediately
became full-fledged participants in
the great struggle for freedom, for
the United States, and for themselves.
W. Jeffrey Bolster’s essay, drawn
from his fascinating 1997 book, Black
Jacks: African-American Seamen in
the Age of Sail, examines the role
black seamen played in creating, out
o f the cauldron of slavery and racial
oppression-and, it must be said, op-
portunity-what came to be Black
America. His work will lead many
readers toconsider the pre-Civil War
history of A fricans and African
Americans in an entirely new way, as
well the companion piece, written by
ourcolleaguc, Dachell McSween, on
the black whaling community that
flourished on the island of Nantucket
before the Civil War.
Molefi Kcte Asante, the renowned
Afrocentric scholar, presents a pow
erful essay asserting that African and
African-American history must be
made a foundation of our schools’
curricula in order to help inspire black
schoolchildren to achieve. It is a po
sition that deserves the broadest dis
cussion.
We also include my consideration
of President C hnton's awarding last
year the Medal of Honor, the nation’s
highest award for bravery in battle,
to seven black soldiers and sailors—
a half-century after their deeds of
heroism, as well as a discussion of
Dona Cooper Hamilton and Charles
V. Hamilton’s important history of
the 20th-century civil rights struggle,
from theirrecent book. Dual Agenda:
The African-American Struggle for
Civil rights and Economic Equality.
Y ou’ll also be inspired by our
rem em brance of M allie M cG riff
Robinson, the mother of that Ameri
can icon, Jackie Robinson Read it
and you’ll understand why we say he
was his mother’s son. And you’ll see
that M Denise Dennis’ poignant trib
ute to her family is, writ large, a
tribute to the heritage of all African
Americans.
Make no mistake. W e’re not in
favor of a distorted, “feel good” his
tory that pretends some African
Americans, whether male or female,
w eren’t rakes and rascals No, we
want the full version of African-
American history—and thus, Ameri
can history.
We want it because, as Professor
Asante makes clear, it is important
for our children to understand their
ethnic heritage as well as know the
truth about history, and their history:
that African Americans have never
sat on the sidelines of the great drama
of the American experience, watch
ing as others “made history.” W e’ve
always sought to forge our own path
and to take our place as equal mem
bers of American society.
T h a t the legacy o f the P ast
still inspires the men and w om en,
boys and girls o f today is ev id en t
in o u r o ther a rtic le s-in our tr ib
ute to five M ovem ent sta lw a rts
who passed aw ay last year; in
our p ro file s o f ac c o m p lish e d e n
tre p re n e u rs, Ed L ew is, p resid en t
of E ssence C om m unications, and
C h a rle s M. C o llin s, the U rban
L e a g u e ’s sen io r V ice ch airm an ;
and in our taking note o f the e n
ergy and d e te rm in a tio n o f the
teens from the youth program s o f
our T o le d o and P ittsb u rg h a f f ili
ates. T hey m arched all the way
to o u r a n n u a l c o n f e r e n c e in
W ash in g to n , D.C last sum m er,
and plan to repeat th a t this su m
m er fo r our c o n fe re n ce in P h ila
delp h ia.
Their determination tells me that
re-discovering our history gives us
our marching orders for the future
/Z4/M B 0IK PU $H
.C O A L IT IO N
better
Sailing as a sport dates back to the 17th century. Originating in the
Netherlands, it was introduced In England by Charles II.
4
♦WorldCom is a nonunion com
pany governed by a board of fifteen
White males-they are the only one-
'T^he (S^ffrtor
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Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208