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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1998)
Page A4 APRIL 8, 1998 (Elje ^¡Jnrtlanò ©bserucr Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f H je ^ o rtla n b (Obseruer Attention Readers! Please take a minute to send us y our comments. We'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 appreciated. We take criticism well! Gel your powerful peas out NOW and address your letters to: Editor, Reader Response, P,O, Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208, (T lje ^ J o r t l a n ò © b s c r ü e r (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles W ashington Publisher & Editor Mark Washington Distribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Tony W ashington Assistant Editor Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Iesha Williams Graphic Design Contributing Writers: Joy Ramos Professor McKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, Neil Heilpem 4747 NE M artin Luther K ing, Jr. Blvd., Portland, O regon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Em ail: P dxobserv@ aol.com Deadline fo r all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm .Ads: Monday, 12:00pm Send A ddress C hanges To: Portland O bserver, P.O. Box 3137, P ortland, OR 97208. Subscriptions: $60.00 per year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper 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 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED The Portland Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publica tion--^ a member of the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885. and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, Oregon Federation of Advertising. American Minorites Media, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. S ubscribe to a r ijc ^ o r t i a n b <s)b scrucr The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home lo r only $60 (Ml per year. Please fill out. enclose check or money order, and mail Io: S ubscriptions T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 N am e:________________________________________ A ddress:______________________ __________________ City, S tate:________ Z ip -C o d e:____ _____ __ ____________ __ T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver Practicing (Practical) Diplomacy B y H ugh B. P rice P resident N ational U rban L eague Less than two weeks ago the American government was about to go to w ar against Iraq again. Newspaper headlines blared that the A m erican ro u n d -th e-clo ck bom bing o f Iraqi military ta rg e ts- intended to force dictator Saddam Hussein to allow United Nations w eapons inspectors unim peded access to the country’s weapons site s-w a s imminent. The Ameri can military high command pro jected that the planned four-day bom bing assault would kill more than 1,500 Iraqis. Those projections helped pro voke vigorous objections to renew ing military action from several o f A m erica’s allies in Europe and among the Arab states-an d , sur prisingly, it provoked a sudden, strong grass roots reaction within the United States, too. Now, there has been no bom b ing, no deaths, and no possibility— always present in such a c tio n s-o f a w ider conflict, because Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secre tary General, persuaded Hussein to permit the weapons inspections on the terms the Clinton “Administra tion wanted. Y et, to h e a r and read som e c o m m e n ta to rs, y o u ’d thin k that A nnan w as, on the o n e h an d , j u s t e a s y p ic k in g s f o r th e sh re w d , d u p lic ito u s Ira q i stro n g m an , or, on the o th e r, ju s t an e rra n d b o y fo r P re sid e n t C lin to n and S e c re ta ry o f S tate M ad elein e A lbright. In the immediate wake o f the accord, some newspapers reported that Albright was in effect A nnan’s ghostwriter in crafting its terms, and in a crack bordering on racist, radio talk show host Don Imus even called Annan “a waiter” who car ried A m erica’s orders to Bagdad. D on’t be fooled by the detrac tors. A nnan’s eleventh-hour and successful negotiations were a dra matic example o f high-stakes di plomacy carried out by a skilled diplomat. O f course, no one takes Saddam Hussein at his word. No one thinks the utmost v ig ilance-and more tough talk on the President’s part- won’tbe required tocompel Hussein to live up to the agreement. It may even be that America will have to take military action in the future. But Annan’s success in averting the bombing campaign was notable fo r one sp e c ific re a so n : As Newsweek magazine put it in its story this week, it bought theClinton Administration time. “Now, the White House is puz zling over a slew o f options,” the magazine stated, “[such as] training insurgents, boosting opponents in ex ile-that might help get rid of Saddam or at lest contain him. If nothing else, the deal gives Clinton’s team breathing room to figure out the next move.” Kofi Annan’s mediation o f this latest world crisis underscores anew that the diplomatic heights he’s scaled are populated by people o f African descent, too. ? e r s j) e c t / V 6 S Identity, Motivation And Innovation II Clearly, a lot o f youths and par ents were able to “identify” with last w eek’s article. Especially re w arding w ere th o se resp o n ses which indicated more than a super ficial, “w ell-thats-nice” sort o f thing; those who wanted to obtain motivational m aterials relating to the African Am erican inventors whose key innovations w ere fea tured. You got it! N o taco n fu sin g clu t- ter o f unfamiliar materials, but spe cific text and illustrations that will greatly assist in clarifying the ba sic process and associated ideas. The several teachers who called about “ lesson plans’ w ere advised to first get the recom m ended basic material and, then, we could go from there. The first such list will be appended to this article if there is room ’. I have been made aware that some o f us do not have copies o f the two half-page articles and photos that appeared in the Portland Observer in February, “Black History Month:” Inventor A, February 25, p C4, “ En gineering The Spruce Goose”, Tho mas M. (Don) Rutherford. - Inven tor B., February 1 l,p C 2 , “The Black Engineer who made Skyscrapers a L iv a b le D o m a in ,” D avid Crosthwaite. If the Observer is out o f these editions and you cannot locate them, I am having some run off at a copy shop soon. Give a call. It is indeed rewarding and im pressive to find neighborhood sci ence clubs operated by black youth. The founders ofTektronix belonged to one as did Steve Jobs (Microsoft C orp.) and al m o st all o f today’s leaders in tec h n o lo g y ‘D o n ’ R uther ford, who gradu ated from B en so n H igh S c h o o l, c o n verted gasoline- powered automobiles to ‘diesels’ while a student at Benson. Boy hood pals, like Harold Gaskin, talk today about the neighborhood shop that spawned many such inventions. It is interesting in many cases, how either blacksor whites will pause in wonder and astonishment when one first introduces the idea o f an African American inventoras an ex tremely useful and relevant role model for a technological or scien tific text. Often, they will blurt out, say w e have T hom as Edison, Alexander Graham Bell! - heck, ge nius knows no color.” But, then, some will take a mo ment to think. “Wait, a moment. How many black kids know or can conceive that an African American can - and did - produce inventions at that very same level?” How will he identify with A m erica’s heroes of technology, all men from an other race, an other culture-a pantheon o f ge n iu se s (all w h ite ) from which text, me dia and history h av e com pletely excluded blacks. “Maybe we do need Black’ History”, they be grudgingly admit. “ H istory is ’ history, by G od”, one startled neighbor told me. “ I guess a w hite boy could relate to that C rosthw aite fellow inventing therm odynam ics that m ade it pos sible to live in buildings o f incred ible heights, ju st like we autom ati cally expect a black kid to adopt Thom as Edison as a role model and be m otivated accordingly.” The man has called me three times in the past w eek, still unsure, still som e what reluctant to accept his own hard-reasoned logic. “ D on’t feel badly”, I tell him. “ School districts, textbook publish ers, curriculum specialists, authors, universities, schoolboards, politi cians and m any others have the sam e problem . In the m eantim e, we the people do what we can when I w rote the book, “ Black Inventors o f A m erica” in 1969, I ju st knew that these revelations o f A frican A merican genius w ould change the mind set o f A m erica. Especially, when I got a publisher right o ff.” At the moment I am looking at a letter from Senator Bob Packwood, dated January 23, 1970. “I’ve al ready written the W hite House to ask if it would be possible for you to make a personal presentation to the president” (To Nixon in the Rose Garden). The request was honored for the third week o f the month, everyone understanding that the en suing publicity would make the book ’. Strangely, the appearance was canceled, “important foreign devel opments.” Continued next week with that list o f materials. African American Youth and Suicide Bv B ernice P owell J ackson The old folks used to say that black people didn ’t commit suicide because you couldn ’t jump out o f the basement window, it seems that now that many African Americans are out ofthebase ment that that old saying is no longer true. I’m glad the old folks aren’t around now as we find out that the suicide rate for black teens has more than doubled in the last 15 years. According to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, suicide is now the third lead ing cause o f death for African Ameri can teenagers, after homicide and accidents. While all the data is not in, the researchers believe that this dramatic increase may reflect the stain some black families are feeling in making the transition to the Ameri can middle class. They conjecture that the pressures o f middle class life, coupled with the breaking up o f traditional black community and fam ily networks and the weakening o f the bonds to the church may be re sponsible for this new and troubling development. The starkest increase in suicides among African American teenagers is found among black males between 15 and 19, where the suicide rate jumped 146 percent. When added to the high homicide rate for young black men (111 per 100,000), the severity ofthe problem becomes even clearer. Young black men in the United States are an endangered spe cies. Most o f the African American male teens who killed themselves did so by using guns, the most com mon weapon for white male teenag ers as well. But another study, done at Rush medical College in Chicago, found that black teens are more likely to kill themselves in the presence of someone else, often a girlfriend or another teenage friend. So, it seems an even greater proportion o f Afri can American teens may be affected by these suicide rates. The statistics are troubling, to say the very least. But one cannot, I cannot, read them without asking why. What overwhelming feeling o f hopelessness has so engulfed black male teens that they turn the guns on each other or on themselves? What signals have we as a nation given these young men so that they see no other way to gain self-respect or peace than homicide or suicide? How can we who are African American reach out to our own children and grand children, our nephew and neighbors to plant even a seed o f hope which may save their lives? How can we who are African American reach out to those who are not in our own neighborhoods, but who are our col lective children, to nurture even the possibility o fa future for these young men? Are we who call ourselves middle class African Americans re ally providing a better life for our children as we integrate into the larger society unless we also provide those age-old support systems which en abled us to survive slavery and seg regation and lynchings and injus tice? I cannot read these statistics about black male teens or hear the three stories in six months o f white male teens who shoot and kill their class mates without asking the question o f why guns are so available to our young people. How many have to die by their own hand or the hands o f another teenager before we as a na tion say enough? Now that all o f our children are endangered by guns will we act even now? What is this devastating sense o f hopelessness that has crept into the spirits o f our young men that allows them to see death as the answer? How have we as adults failed our children? How has the church failed our children? How have schools failed our children? How has our society failed our children? May god give us the courage to ask the questions and the strength to do something about the answers. Our future depends on it. One Step Forward, One Step Back B y B ernice P owell J ackson I guess I am resolved to the fact that when it comes to race relations in this country, there just can’t be a single line o f progress. Indeed, that old saying about taking one step for ward and two steps back at least seems to true to the extent that for every step forward, it appears we take one step backward. Maybe we should call it the race relations two- step. My latest exam pleof this occurred within the past few weeks. First there was a Sunday New York Times article entitled “A TV Generation is Seeing Beyond Color.” Television history has shown us that African Americans and European Americans tend to watch different shows. For instance, “E.R.” is the number oneshow among white viewers, but ranks number 18 among blacks. On the other hand, “Between Brothers” is the most popu lar show among African American viewers and ranks only 107th among European Americans. This has been especially true for sitcoms, with the sole exception o f the Cosby shows. But, this article tells us that among the younger generation o f television viewers this broad gap between races If is narrowing and, in some cases, dis appearing altogether. White teen and pre-teens are watching shows which feature black performers and vice versa. Some watchers o f the entertainment field are looking at this trend with hope that popular culture is moving to a new level o f dealing with race and encouraging young people to move beyond their own usually narrow peer groups to include people o f various races and cultures. Others worry, however, that many o fth e black sitcoms pro mote racial stereotypes which are damaging and misleading. The ar ticle did show a glimmer o f hope that the next generation is learning to see beyond color through its viewing habits. That was my on step forward. W ithin d ay s, how ever, I w as jo lte d back into reality as I heard the story o f the suburban M iami high school new spaper w hich ran ra c ist a rtic le s, w hich could even be co n stru e d to th reaten th e ir A frican A m erican p rin c ip a l. In d eed , the c o v e r story w as a p ic tu re o f the p rin cip al w ith a dart th ro u g h his head. O ne carto o n uses racial ep ith ets about blacks and a n o th e r d ep icts a rape. O ne draw in g refers to a man w ith an “ A frican d ise a se ” and in one a r tic le a stu d e n t w rote, “ I often have w o n d ered w hat w ould h a p pen if I shot (th e p rin c ip a l) in the head and o th e r teachers who have p*** me o f f ...” T he n ew spaper attack s im m igrants and is riddled w ith racism and sexism . The school responded by arrest ing the nine young people respon sible for the newspaper under a I itt le- used Florida hate crime law and by suspending them from school. This action resulted in an outery by the American Civil Liberties Union and by others who believe that the school over-reacted. The students, after all, included a straight A honor student and one Asian and three Hispanic students, all the young people are A and B students. Families argue that the students were misunderstood and say that the students meant the newspa per to be funny and not to be taken seriously. I, too, would like to be able to give the students the benefit o f the doubt. But history tells me that whether or not arresting the students was the appropriate action, their newspaper must be taken seriously—dead seri ously. History teaches us that in pre war Germany, for instance, racist w ritings and draw ings by sm all groups o f Nazis paved the way to a broader acceptance o f these beliefs and ultim ately to the holocaust. Closer to home we know that many o f the perpetrators o f recent black church burnings are white teenagers. And, sadly, we know that too often people o f color get drawn into racist talk and beliefs in order to win peer acceptance. But perhaps the most disturbing part o f this whole incident is that as I have read articles about it no where have I seen parents in this suburban middle-class community disavow the racist writing and drawing. Nowhere have I seen a church leader or elected official or community leader say this is wrong and this is not what our community stands for or believes. Maybe it has happened, but is has not been reported. O ne step forward, one step back ward. W hen it com es to television view ing at least, young people are reaching across the color line, but when it com es to holding racist beliefs, young people are not im mune. Sadly, it seem s that racism will be a part o fth e 21st century as well. i better Tfv rChc (SJdiDr Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208