Page A4
APRIL 8, 1998
(Elje ^¡Jnrtlanò ©bserucr
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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.
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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
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