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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1998)
APRIL 1 , 1998 Page A3 (The Portlauò (lìbsriw r Black Teen Suicide Study Alarming, Yet Misleading A frican-A m erican Leadership Network Says Youth Are Not Kill ing Them selves Because Their Families Are Doing Better Finan cially Members o f the African-Ameri can Leadership Network Project 21 reject a recent center for Disease Control and Prevention study on teen suicide that says African- American teens reared in upwardly mobile families are not able to cope with the “stressful” environment created by black prosperity. The study shows the suicide rate o f African-Americans between the ages o f 10 and 19 has increased by 114% since 1980. In southern states, the rate has grown by 214%. Some scholars and the study’s authors say that a consequence o f rising pros perity and social integration for blacks over the last few decades has caused a loss o f racial identity and a distance between families, children and the community. Members o f Project 21 say the situation is not so simple. Career Connections Job Fair The Career Connections '98 Job Fair will happen on Thursday April 2 at the Memorial Coliseum. ber and adjunct fellow at the W ash ington-based Center for New Black Leadership says, “given the collapse o f urban family and educational in stitutions, should we be surprised at the spiritual emptiness which causes our young people to make often fatal choices'? Whether they passively dri ft into the gang-war lifestyle or defi antly turn deadly weapons on them selves, the result is the same: A lack o f self-esteem turning into self-ha tred turning into self-destruction. Clearly, these are not factors o f race — they are factors o f culture, spiritu ality and morality. Unless a com m it ment is made to strengthening the basic family unit, reforming our ur ban schools and re-energizing the spirit o f our communities, these aw ful numbers will only increase." Project 21 has been a leading voice ofthe African-American community since 1992. For information contact Roderick Conrad at 202-543-1286 or Project21@ natinalcenter.org, or v isit P ro je c t 2 1 ’s w e b s ite at w w w .project21 ,org. Project 21 D irector Roderick Conrad said, "Headlines on the in crease in the black teen suicide rate, while troubling, are hardly news." While many loud, liberal and radical voices have decried the (quote) geno cide (unquote) perpetrated by main stream society, clearly the larger problem has always been an internal cultural suicide. How can we really be shocked at [these] numbers when ’black-on-black’ crime -- often an extension o f drug and gang-related activity - has been raging for years'.’" “The root cause is the chaotic re sult predicted decades ago by Demo c ra t S e n a to r D aniel P atrick M oynihan,” states Phyllis Berry Myers, president o f Black America PA C’s Leadership and Training In stitute. “ It is a liberal bureaucratic welfare state, which has eroded the most effective tools to producing stable, nurturing environments for young black Americans - an intact family and safe, effective educational learning systems.” Robert George, a Project 21 mem A full house o f ninety employers are expected at the fair. The Urban League will feature their One Stop Career Center booth during this event. Workplace sc Public Policies O ut of Sync With Their Lives Washington D.C.— After 27 years as one o f the nation’s most effective advocacy groups, the W om en’s Le gal Defense Fund became the Na tional Partnership for W omen 8- Families this month. With the new name and a new agenda focused on health care and workplace issues, the organization released a national pub lic opinion poll. Fam ily M a tte r: A N ational Survey o f W om en and M en. Fam ily M a tte rs found that, even with an im proving economy, two- thirds o f African Americans (63%) say that time pressures on working families are getting worse. Just 18% say time pressures are getting better. H alf (48% ) say that making sure their fam ily can get qual ity health care has gotten harder and more than four in ten (44% ) say that the health care Lichtm an said. “That holds true for w o m en and m en; A fric a n A m ericans, H ispanics and w hites; generation Xers and baby boomers; R epublicans, D em ocrats and inde pendents; people with high incomes and people in poverty; stay-at- hom e m om s and w orking w om en. And the dem and for change is only going to grow . T o d a y ’s younger w orkers expect m ore.” T he N atio n al P a rtn e rsh ip a n n o u n ced tw o new in itia tiv e s: the Q u a lity H ealth C are In itia tiv e to help w om en get th e in fo rm a tio n and basic c o n su m e r p ro te c tio n s they need fo r th e m se lv e s and th e ir fa m ilie s; and the F am ily L eave In itia tiv e to m ake fam ily and m edical leav e a v a ila b le to m ore w o rk in g fa m ilie s for m ore reaso n s. system is getting worse Neither the women nor men think workplaces are nearly as flexible or fair as they should be. Three in four African Americans (75% ) under age 45 ex pect to need family or medical leave in the next ten years. Ninety-six percent o f African Americans want employers to do more to help work ing families, and 90% want govern ment to do more. Conducted by Lake Sosin Snell Perry & Associates, the poll compares attitudes o f Ameri cans o f different generations, and explores views by gender, race, po litical affiliation, and income level. “A m ericans w ant m ore respon sive em ployers and law m akers. They w ant change. They expect change. And th e y 're w illing to pay for it and vote for it,” National P artn ersh ip President Judith L. You are 2 months old. Y our lungs are this tiny. You spend day after day around secondhand ciga rette smoke. You breathe it in. You cough. You hack. You wheeze. Your lungs clog up with sticky fluid and thick mucous. You get bron- c h itis. O r * Tobacco Prevention Education Program Oregon Health Division Martin Luther Memorial Lutheran Church invites you to a retirem en t celebration for the Rev. Dr. Rozel 1 Gilmore on Saturday, April 4,1998 from 5pm to 8pm at the Lutheran Community Center located at 4219 NE Martin Luther King Blvd. For more information call 281-7036. p n e u m o n ia . If you have asth ma, it will like ly get worse. All to g eth er, up to 300,000 babies end up getting sick every year. 15,000 of them could end up hospi talized. Simply from being exposed to cigarette smoke. A m essage from the people of O re g o n . NAACP Supports U.S. District Court Nominee NAAC'P President Kweisi Mfume urged Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch to approve the nomina tion o f Frederica Massiah-Jackson to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District o f Pennsylvania. “Judge Frederica Massiah-Jack son has been described by civil and criminal attorneys as a patient, fair, thorough and well-presented jurist,” wrote Mfume in a letter to Sen. Hatch, “the NAACP believes that Judge Massiah Jackson is eminently and unequivocally qualified to serve in this very important position and de serves our nation’s full endorsement and support.” M f n m i* n sailed \ 4 n c c ia h - la c k s o n “one o f the finest ju rists the state o f Pennsylvania ever pro d u ced .” The rate o f reversals o f her d eci sions have been low and during her career only 14 o f 4,000 cases w ere reversed. She has been praised for her balanced sentencing and c rit ics and allies alike have com m ented that Judge M assiah-Jackson’s ru l ings are neither too lenient nor overbearingly tough. “Judge Massiah-Jackson is a fair jurist who deserves to serve on the U.S. District Court and we whole heartedly recommend her and urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to move toward confirmation expeditiously,"
