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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1998)
ïlje ^Jortlanò (Obseruer Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views Of (Tlic P o rtla n d (Obscruer Attention Readers! Hleaxt- take a minute 1« send us your comments. We’re always trying to give you a l>etter paper and we can't do it without your help. T ell us what you like and what needs improvement... any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. We take criticism well! Get your powerful pens out N<) W and address your letters <Tlie ^ìnrtlaitù ODbsenter (USI‘S 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher «S Editor Mark Washington Distsribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Larry J. Jackson. Sr. Director o f Operation lesila Williams (iraphic Design Tony Washington Associate Editor C'ontributing Writers: Prolessor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, Neil Heilpern Joy Ramos 4747 NE M artin Luther K ing, Jr. Blvd.. Portland, O regon 9 7 2 1 1 503-288-,MI33 • Fax 503-288-0015 Entail: Pdxobserv@aol.com D ea d lin e fo r a ll su b m itte d m a teria ls: Articles:Friday, 5 0 0 pm Ads: Monday. 12 00pm Send A ddress C hanges To: Portland O bserver, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 972(18. Subscriptions: $60.00 per year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manti scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w dl be returned it accompanied by a sell addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property ol the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent ol the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition ol such ad © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER \LL RIGH TS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN W HOLE OR IN PART WITH Oll i PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED The Portland Observer--Oregon's Okies! Multicultural Publica lion- 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 flic West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. S ubscribe to £ i,e ( O b s m u 'r The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home lor only $60 (Ml per yeai Please fill out. enclose check oi money ord e r and mad to S ubscriptions T he P orti and O bserver ; 1*0 B ox 3137 P or i i and , O regon 97208 Name Address: City. Stale Zip-Code: T hank Y ou F or R eading T iie P ortland O bserver JUST THINKING B y M aurice A. D awkins The first bull scale attack on the failings o f the W elfare Re form Act passed by Congress and currently implemented at the State level is being launched by the militant Black founder of s e lf help jo b tra in in g in America. Calling together OIC Lead ers and Community Based Or ganization M ovement leader ship o f the Urban League, SER. and other Hispanic and Native American job training programs Sullivan is contacting Congress men, Senators, and the White House on M arch 4th in the nation's capital. He is calling for amendments to the Welfare Reform Act that will repair the safety net. De claring that far too many wel fare re c ip ie n ts are fa llin g through the holes in the socio economic safety net the founder o f selective patronage boycotts in Philadelphia and highly re s p e c te d a d v iso r to Je sse Jackson’s Operation Breadbas ket is using the legislative pro cess and focusing on the House and Senate Labor Committees. A Bill outlining OIC Type pre-vocational training to “feed welfare recipients into cortimu- rtity based job training pro gram s” is receiving bi-partisan support from both Republicans and Democrats. After ten years experim enta tion with Governor Thompson in W isconsin the M ilwaukee OIC has offered its experiences as a prototype for new methods and strategies such as church based mentoring, transportation subsidies, child care provisions and even short term loans to help bridge the gap between welfare and permanent work. Thompson has agreed to get the National Governors Association behind the Sullivan initiative and the Black Caucus of State Legislators has adopted a reso lution urging passage of com munity based organization pre- vocational job training. The Congressional Black Caucus is being urged to push with its con siderable clout during the 55 day session. Carol Geary, Publisher o f the Black Milwaukee Courier has joined Dorothy Leavell, Presi dent of the National Newspaper Publishers in endorsing the Sullivan Initiative. The Black Press Across the nation calls upon Black Ameri cans to contact their Congress men and Senators and urge them to support this new Community Based W elfare to Work Bill. I went to Phoenix, AZ to ask Dr. Sullivan about this legisla tion. His daughter Atty. Hope Sullivan is the new Washington Representative of OIC coordi nation this effort. His response was as expected: “We must help people make the transition from welfare rolls to payrolls, without the thou sands of casualties that are be ing dropped into homelessness, joblessness and despair as is being reported from all the state. We must patch up the holes in the safety net. We m ust help them help themselves as OIC has done for three decades now graduating more than two million disad vantaged Americans. “MEET ME IN WASHINGTON ON MARCH 4TH.” p e r s p e c t i v e s "Bring Out The Noise, Bring Out The Brains" B y P ropessor M B urt c K in l e y A long-tim e reader o f the P o rt land O b serv er says y o u ’ve done ju s t that w ith recent “ th rillin g rev elations in our 'B lac k H istory M o n th ’ se c tio n .” T hank you but ju s t w ait until you see w hat we have for this w eek! It seem s that our proud reader w ent to the p h o to co p y shop and had dozens o f copies m ade to send all over the co u n try to re la tiv es, frien d s, and “ frat b ro th e rs .” W hen he called and later c a m e by I sa id , “ m a y b e you should have w aited ju st one m ore w eek. We c e rta in ly a p p re c ia te y o u r in te re st and e n th u sia sm , th a t’s our g o al, but ch eck this o ut, W ednesday, F eb ru ary 2 5 .” “ O ur p re se n ta tio n o f a n o th e r black e n g in e e rin g g e n iu s is a m in d -b lo w er: A ‘h o m e -g ro w n ’ p ro d u ct o f P o rtla n d ’s 'B e n so n T ech n ical H igh S c h o o l’ as it w as c alled in th o se days. T h o m as M. R u th erfo rd , o r ‘d o n ’ as he p re fers (in sists) on being c a lle d , w as a 1932 graduate o f B enson (T e c h nical A viation m ajor) and a 1941 g ra d u a te o f the U n iv ersity o f O r egon. O ur b rillian t, but m odest e n g i neer, w ent on to e sta b lish a fifty- year career in top level te c h n o l ogy, in c lu d in g c ritic a l e n g in e c o n tro ls he d e sig n e d and in s ta lle d on H o w a rd H u g h e s ’ fa m e d “ S p r u c e G o o s e ,” th e w o rld 's largest plane. ‘ D o n ’ says “ it w as ac tu a lly m ade o f birch w o o d !” But turn to our B lack H istory M onth sectio n to read ab o u t the w o n d ro u s c a re e r b e tw een B enson H igh S chool and “ R uth erfo rd & A sso ciate E n g i neers o f S o uthern C alifo rn ia. B e lie v e me th e re w as not nearly enough room to d e sc rib e th is rem ark ab le saga; I w ill be d o in g that in a national p u b lic a tion. M eanw hile, back at the ranch, it seem s th at 1 “ w as th ere fa ste st- w ith -th e -m o ste st” as they qu o te a fam ed C ivil W ar g eneral. T he re fe re n ce is to my w eekly in siste n c e that h o n o rin g B lack H istory for ju s t one m onth o f the y e a r is not en o u g h -it m ust be lived, e x p erien ced and e x p lo ite d on a continual basis, rational, and sp iritu a l. R eaders have sent me "W hy The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Brotherhood Crusade, dozens o f other progressive organizations and community leaders, and thousands o f citizens marched from the LA Coliseum to the Ronald Reagan State Building on Monday February 23 at 8:00am to protest Propositions 209 (anti-race and gender), 187 (anti immigrant), 226 (anti-worker) and 227 (anti-language). Just as we face down foreign weap ons o f mass destruction, so too must we face down domestic policies of mass destruction. These exclusion ary propositions are anti-growth. They are divisive. They seek to drive a wedge between us instead o f trying to bring us together. Devastating Impact o f prop. 209 In the wake o f Prop. 209, doors o f opportunity are being slammed shut in minorities’ and w om en’s faces. * Only one African American cur rently enrolled in the UC Berkeley Law School first year class. * African American and Latino enrollment at California’s public law schoolsand business schools has been nearly cut in half in only one year. * There are virtually no women contractors with the City o f San Di ego. * O f LA C ounty’s $1.4 billion paid to contractors in FY 96-97, only clip p in g s from several ‘B la c k ’ com ic strip s that em p h asize this very point. T h is p a st S unday in “Jum p S ta rt” w h ic h fe a tu re s a black co u p le, a po licem an , nurse and a to d d le r, w e have them q u o tin g Black H istory and ending up with the w ife c o m p la in in g , “ ...ex cep t th a t i t ’s o n ly ta u g h t for one m o n th !” A nd in the daily black com ic strip , “C u rtis ,” the very sam e p o int w as m ade. T his latter series d eals w ith a very real sc e nario built around inner-city life, e sp e c ia lly as it affe c ts the early black teens. A nd it w as w ith a deep g r a tifi catio n th at I review ed the c o m m unications from readers who re m arked that I was “out there early o n ” w ith the a d m o n itio n th at B lack H istory can n o t be a p e ri od ic th in g like S pring B reak. S everal re a d e rs noted that in the P ortland O b se rv e r for 2 /18/98, the guest c o lu m n ist for the N a tio n al U rban L eague takes up the th e m e I ’ve been p u sh in g fo r m onths. His delay ed a d v ice is “ To Be E q ual: R e d isc o v e rin g B lack H isto ry .” IV T arch i 6.3 went to Community Business Enterprise firms. * The number one growth indus try in California and much o f the rest students admitted to UC-Davis Medi cal School under “special circum stances” than African American and Latino students. Æ4/JVS0WPU$H C O A L IT IO N o f the country is the Jail Industrial complex. We are throwing money into new jails to lock our youth up instead o f investing money in new schools to lift our youth up. Shatter Affirmative Action Myths * Affirmative Action is not about race and gender preferences. Quotas have always been illegal. Affirma tive action is a conservative remedy to demonstrated patterns o f race and gender discrimination. * Affirmative action is a majority issue, not a minority issue. In Cali fornia, minorities are 48% o f the population and women are 51% o f the population. * Standardized tests and grades are not the only criteria for university admission. According to the Journal o f the American Medical Associa tion, last year there were more w hite T o G ood stuff, as far as it g oes, but you will note the critical point m ade last w eek in the final a r tic le o f my se rie s, “ B lack H is tory M onth is H ere (A g a in ). It seem s very w ell to presen t a c a re fully c o n tro lle d , e sta b lish m e n t and c o rp o ra tio n ap p ro v ed ro ste r o f ‘a c c e p ta b le ’ black h e ro e s-n o t a th in g w rong w ith o u r g re a ts, fro m R e v . K in g to J a c k ie R obinson and from Dr. D rew to Dr. C arver. But as I p o in ted in my “ P e r sp e c tiv e s” colum n on the sam e page, th ere is a m ethod in ‘o l ’ m a ssa ’s m a d n e ss.’ T h e m a te r ia ls I ’ v e s e e n presen t a black w hose e x iste n c e in the un iv erse began w ith sla- very-N o E gypt (k now n as E th io pia to the an cien t w rite rs), no py ram id s, no B lack P opes, no E u ro p ean s a tte n d in g the g re a t u n iv e rsitie s o f T im buktu in W est A frica, no N a p o le o n ’s black g e n e ra ls, no P u sh k in , no A le x a n d e r D um as, N o Issaac N ew ton d e scribing A frican m athem atics and a stro n o m y .” No n o th in g but a new sla v e ry o f the m ind. English-Only Measure (Prop. 227) counterproductive-English is a great language, but there is nothing sacred about it. Jesus did not speak it. In the new world economy, America’s great est strength - our competitive advan tage over all other countries - is our diversity. We should be striving to be bilingual or multi-lingual. Our ability to grow inthenexteentury will largely be determined by our ability to com municate with people o f all different cultures and nationalities. Workers Under Attack An issue on the June ballot in California, the deceptively titled “ C am p aig n R eform In itia tiv e ” (Proposition 226) is a direct assault on the First Amendment rights o f working people. It is a blatant at tempt to silence working people and eliminatethem from the political pro cess. If passed, this initiative would require union members to go through their employers for authorization to use dues for political purposes. Campaign Finance Protections Already Exist In CWA v. Beck (1988), the Su preme Court said that workers who are employed in a union shop do not have to join the union. As such, work ers who do not want their money to be used for political purposes have the right to request that it not be. This ruling makes Prop. 226 unnecessary if its intent is truly to reform cam paigns. Similar Initiatives In other States and Congress * Michigan and W ashington have already passed similar bills. * The results o f the W ashington bill are particularly disturbing. Be cause labor’s political contributions have been slashed by 90%, both houses in the state legislature and the G overnor’s mansion are controlled by Republicans. * States presently trying to force through anti-worker measures in clude NV, AZ, AK, W l, OR, MO, and GA. * In Congress, US Senate Bill 8 and House Resolution 2806 are at tempts to eliminate w orkers’ voices in federal elections. B e E q u a l Black Poverty/White Poverty B y H ugh B. P rice , P resident , N ational U rban L eague Earlier this month I read a news paper article about a part o f Ken tucky where hard-core poverty has settled over the landscape-and the people who there-like a shroud. This is an area where 46% o f the residents live in poverty and at least 25% liv e b elo w th e federal g o v e rn m e n t’s b aselin e poverty marker-a rate almost double the na tional average; where nearly half the adults are unemployed, where two- third receive some kind o f federal assistance, and where more than hal f the adults are so bereft o f schooling that they are functionally illiterate. This is an area where residents are i n such despair that a new program to help them accumulate savings-for every one dollar individuals put into their own savings account, the pro gram will contribute six-has, aston ishingly, largely been ignored. The program ’s administrator ex plained the low participation by say ing: “They don’t think they have a future. If they did. they would think about it and delay instant gratifica tion. But they have no reason to. And they can’t. They can only think about how they are going to feed the children this week and pay the rent this month.” If you think this place is an inner- city neighborhood, peopled by desti tute African Americans and Hispanic Americans, think again. It’sOwsley County, Kentucky, one o f the poorest o f the 399 counties in 13 states which make up Appalachia. This is one o f the places where hard core white poverty lives. I thought o f the people in Owsley County, Kentucky and throughout Appalachia when I watched, again, earlier this month, the “ Frontline” program on PBS. The Two Nations o f Black America, in which Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and other black scholars and civil rights figures discussed whether a wide divide has opened up between the black middle class and theblack poor. They concluded that it has, and that the black middle class must find a way to narrow it substantially, al though, it was strongly implied, some middle-class blacks could care less about the black poor. These two news media consider ations o f poverty and poor people in America starkly illustrate how, you’ll pardon the expression, colored our thoughts, our language, our perspec tive, and our public discussion are by our notions o f black and white. That is to say, how, when it’s African Americans being talked or written about, the entire issue is placed inside a “black frame,” and, very often, “dis-connected” and iso lated from being considered part of the American mainstream. It’s not accidental that the “Front line” program ’s title was “The Two Nations o f Black America”-as if blacks live in a separate land, where what they do and think and aspire to has no relationship to what happens in American society— while the news article in The New York Times about the white poor in Appalachia was devoid o f any reference to race or ethnicity, or, for that matter, a “cul ture o f poverty” at all. Why is that, particularly when the Time's wrenching report implicity illuminated the parallels that exist between the continued existence o f desperate poverty among both poor whites in the depressed, rural areas o f Appalachia and the black and His panic poor in depressed urban neigh borhoods? No one can honestly examine the problem o f poverty in Appalachia and then say that the problem o f those African Americans who are desperately poor is a “black prob lem” that every American but A fri can Americans need pay no attention to. This is the old racist posture o f “separate bu, equal” at its crudest and most dishonest. Yes, even in this period when a robust economy is benefiting mil lions, there is a continuing signifi cant problem o f poverty in America among white, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Ameri cans, and African Americans. It has systemic causes. Some o f those causes have been discussed before in this column, and were all too briefly mentioned by the scholars and civil rights figures on the “Frontline” pro gram and by the anti-poverty activ ists interviewed forthe Times article. We keep missing opportunities to both categorize things in racial terms and to discuss issues in ways that transcend racial and ethnic bound aries so that there can be a substan tive conversation across the bound aries o f race and ethnicity about what are American problems. It’s long pas, the time to break the color barrier that limits an honest discussion o f A m erica’s public agenda.
