JA N . 20, 1999
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raphic
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Showing My Race: Politically Incorrect
Essays On Identity
(DSPS 959-680) Established in 1970
C harles W ashington
P u blish er
s
P u o i I s s llK
Ml K IM I 1
B l HI
B y P rof . M c K inley B urt
I was not surprised that som e read
ers needed an extra week or so to mull
over my-rather disquieting com ments
on the U.S. C ensus process (Per
spectives, Jan. 6, 1999). But, they are
back on the phone and fax, now, after
m y deferm ent last w eek to the birth
day ofD r. Martin Luther King Jr. - the
m artyr whose personal census took
in “all o f G o d ’s children”.
A nd no one proved surprised that
1 leaped right on the issue o f direful
econom ic consequences should the
Y ear 2000 count be structured to the
preferences ofth e ‘Right W ing’ poli
ticians and their fellow-travellers who
i t l ffirm
U U l U ative
V i ’ V i A c
vehem ently y oppose i A
tion, Equal Employment Opportunity,
and sim ilar concepts.
The “undercounting ofm inorities’
was seen to seriously im pair govern
ment and business decisions affect
ing every category o f their existence
- from em ploym ent and housing to
health care and elections. A m ong
those strongly w arning against a re
peat o f the 1990 errors, we find Mr.
High B. Price, president - N ational
Urban League. A nd others w am
against the deceitful “color blind”
rhetoric o f those to whom race has
always m attered and alw ays will.
There follows here the governm ent’s
proposed schem e for restructuring
the count o f you-know -w ho for the
year 2000 C ensus. This is w here the
' feds’ w ere at the m iddle o f this de
cade and they have been tinkering
w ith the process ever since (at stake
are a lot o f jobs, votes, loans, m ort
gages, childcare, food stam ps, health
care, seniors aid).
The
ent
i i i v U.S. O ffice O f M anagem
o
and Budget (O M B ) is review ing the
racial and ethnic categories used by
federal agencies for governm ent-
wide recordkeeping and statistical
data collection. T he review is the
result o f increasing criticism that the
standards no longer truly reflect the
U.S population’s diversity since they
w ere first issued 17 years ago.
W hile the m ost com m only know n
use o f racial and ethnic categories is
census reporting, the categories are
also used for evaluating public and
private sector affirmative action plans,
monitoring minorities' access to home
m ortgage loans, enforcing the Equal
C redit O pportunity A ct and assist
ing firms under m inority business
developm ent program s.
Proposed changes include:
♦Adding a "M ulti-racial” category
so that respondents w ould not be
forced to deny part o f their heritage
by having to choose a single cat
egory;
♦Adding
an “other” category for
v
services through local “one-step” sys
tems overseen by local work force in
vestment boards. Oregon has 18months
to submit a plan o f implementation to the
U.S. Secretary o f Labor. Contact: Steve
Tegger(503)947-1478.
November Unemployment Claims
Up: Oregon Employment Department
officials report the effects o f the state’s
economy slowing is now being felt in the
local employmentoffices. In November
the department filed 16,928 new unem
ployment insuranceclaims.up 13% from
November 1997. Contact: Frank Richey
(503)947-1691
Department Obtains Fraud Convic
tions: TheOregon Employment Depart
ment successfully prosecuted three in
dividuals fbrunemployment fraud in the
month ofDecember illegally collecting
unemployment benefits LsaclassC felony
punishable by up to five years in prison
anda$100,000fine.Courts ordered those
convicted to pay $ 13,659 in restitution to
the department. The convictions came
from Douglas, Linn, and Multnomah
counties. In Douglas County, Carla
Renee Starnes ofRoseburg received 24
months probation and 20 days on a
county work crew for illegally claiming
those individuals with multiracial
backgrounds and those who want
the option o f specifically stating a
unique identification;
♦Providing and open-ended ques
tion to solicit inform ation on race and
ethnicity, or com bining concepts o f
race, ethnicity and ancestry;
♦Changing the category for Black
to A frican A m erican;
♦ C h an g in g the ca te g o rie s for
A m erican Indian or A laskan Native
to N ative A m erican;
♦Including native H awaiians as a
separate category or as part ofN ati ve
A m erican rather than as part o f the
A sian or Pacific Islander categories;
♦Including H ispanic as a racial
designation rather than a separate
ethnic category; and
♦A dding a “ M iddle Easterner”
category to the list o f ethnic designa
tions.
Be sure to save this federal blue
print for your future to com pare to
next w eek ’s startling revelations.
Oregon Employment Department
Department Steps-UpEvaluationOf
Employment Service Quality: The O r
egon Employment Department has in
stalled a process for evaluating the ac
curacy and completeness o f informa
tion received from employers and job
seekers that is needed to provide quality
employment services. The Employment
ServiceQualityAssuranee(ESQA)Pro-
gram will take an intense look at the
quality ofjob seeker enrollments andjob
orders on a quarterly basis. Department
officials say ESQA is designed in re
sponse to federal guidelines and in
volves self-appraisals by local field of
fice management and staff. Contact: Rod
Simmons(503)947-1661.
Workforce Investment Act O f 1998
Goes Into Effect: the Workforce Invest
ment Act o f 1998 went into effect Janu
ary 1 The act calls forjobplacementand
training, and other employment-related
$3,939 in unemployment benefits. In
Linn County, Derek Dearment o f Al
bany received 18 months probation and
1 Odayscommumty service fbrclaiming
$3,512 in benefits.
And in Multnomah County, Daniel
Frank O ’Brien o f Portland received 24
months probation and 16 hours ofcom-
munity service fortaking $6,208 in ben
efits. In 1998, the Employment Depart
ment successfully prosecuted 88 indi
viduals resulting in $396,215 to be re
turned to the unemployment insurance
trust fund. Contact: Craig Spivey (503)
947-1303.
IAM CARES OREGON
T hank Y ou F or R eaping W ire ÿaim rtA A 'B <fh»»TEKWt*
Cordially Invites You
Scare Tactics
B y M arian W right E delman
In a recent column, I reported
the good news that the arrest
rate for juveniles involved in
violent crim es fell 23 percent
from 1994 to 1997, and in
cluded a drop of more than 40
percent in the juvenile murder
arrest rate. But how does that
jibe with the words o f U.S. Rep
resentative Bill McCollum, who
predicted before a House Com
m ittee on Early C hildhood,
Youth, and Families in 1996 that
a “coming storm ” of youth vio
lence was on the horizon?
Brace yourself for the coming
generation o f super-preda
tors’,” McCollum warned.
Super-predators? When you
looked at your children beside
the Christmas tree, or gathered
around the candles celebrating
Hanukkah or Kwanzaa this year,
did you see in their faces the
viciousness o f a super-preda
tor? Or did you see a child, con
fused perhaps, too easily influ
enced, angry, or just plain scared
maybe, but most o f all, a child
who needs love and guidance?
I recently read an excellent
book by Franklin E. Zimring, a
law professor at the University
C alifornia at Berkeley. His
American Youth Violence does
a great deal to debunk the myth
that your youths are becoming
irretrievably violent and beyond
control. This is important be
cause this kind o f wrong think
ing and fear are behind a lot of
half-baked policy proposals that
keep surfacing at the federal,
state, and local levels.
In the last Congress, sanity
prevailed, thank God, and S. 10,
proposed juvenile crime legisla
tion that would have turned the
clock back 25 years on protec
tions for children, did not pass.
Had it become law, juveniles
could have been jailed with adult
criminals, yet the legislation did
nothing to promote prevention
programs we know work, like af
ter-school and mentoring pro
grams that keep children out of
trouble.
And it did not do anything to
control the proliferation o f guns
that have resulted in increased
homicides.
In his book, Zimring shows
how easily statistics can be ma
nipulated and distorted. For in
stance, if aggravated assaults are
up, is it because of more vio
lence, or new and/or non-stan
dard classifications of aggravated
assault versus simple assault?
And statistics showing increased
teen violence seldom note the
increase in the number of teens.
Zimring writes that the “teen
population increased rapidly dur
ing the 1960s and e a rly
1970s...followed by fifteen years
of decline [and the expectation
now that] the number of teenag
ers will grow 16 percent over the
fifteen years ending in 2010, to a
total o f 21.5 m illion.”
Most o f all, I want to make
the point that many scary pre
dictions are based on the as
sumption that all conditions will
remain the same. But that is only
one o f the choices we as a na
tion can make. We can instead
choose to do something about
the factors that lead an inno
cent, beautiful child created by
God to turn to crime. C an’t we,
individually and jointly, decide
that it is no longer acceptable
to condemn our children to
poverty, sub-standard educa
tion and health care, and unsu
p erv ised , vio len ce-p lag u ed
hom es, neighborhoods, and
schools?
Or we can continue to choose
to put our money and our faith
into cleaning up afterwards. We
can continue to allow our chil
dren to waste their precious
lives in more and more prisons,
attempt to find solace in drugs
and guns, or fantasize about fu
nerals instead of graduatings be
cause they see many of their
friends die so young.
Zimring poses and interest
ing question. “How does it hap
pen,” he asks, “that a child-cen
tered and optim istic culture
embraces such a narrow and
negative view of a future gen
eration in prosperous times?
Perhaps it is not because of
what we see on the street but
rather what we see in the m ir
ror. What are we doing to make
tomorrow a time o f success,
safety, and satisfaction for our
children? What are we not do-
to our
Annual Appreciation Luncheon
January 27,1999
11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Keynote Speakers:
Charles A. Moose, PhD, Chief of Police
Stephanie Parrish Taylor, Branch Manager
Vocational Rehabilitation Division
PLEASE PLAN TO JOIN US AT
THE OAME BUILDING/CASCADE PLAZA
4134 N. VANCOUVER AVE.
PORTLAND, OREGON
In recognition of our partnering agencies, community-based organizations,
participating employers, elected officials, community leaders and residents.
mg.'
Refuse to be swayed by scare
tactics and hopeless, nothing-
works rhetoric and racism
Stand for Children in your
homes, neighborhoods, schoo
districts, and with those who
make public policy at all levels
‘Super-predators’ are not bom
they are made; and the darkest
clouds of a ‘coming storm ’ wil
fade in the light o f love and care
we can choose to give to all the
children in our country.
1 am CARES is the human services arm of the International Association of Machinists.
IA M CARES is a
national, non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with special employment and training needs
attain career progressive job opportunities. It is our privilege to provide an important link between orga
nized labor, employment and training programs. Welfare to Work, rehabilitation, school to work, and youth
and adults who need our services. We proudly serve the Portland Enterprise Community, dislocated work
ers, disabled workers, underemployed and underrepresented Individuals. Our programs have made it possi-
ble for over 27,000 youth and adults (nationwide) to return to work and become productive members
of
the
labor force participating fully in enterprise. Industry and commerce.
RSVPtQM-ML
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