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M a y 24, 2000
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(The P ortland (JiXiaeruer
Public education in crisis
Jilortlanh
© bserüer
USPS 959-680
Established 1970
STAFF
E
d it o r
P
C
in
h ie f
,
u b l is h e r
Charles H. Washington
Eu I T O R
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary AnnTavlor
C
E
opy
d it o r
Joy Ramos
C
r e a t iv e
1 here’s a lot ot talk these days about the problems o f urban school districts
and the inequities ot funding avai table to these districts, but it seems that many
have decided that the solution to the public school crisis is a voucher system.
Never mind that vouchers never completely cover the cost o f private education
and that most poor families cannot pay the difference.
Never mind that as we have now entered the Information Age, it is education
which will be the key to survival o f families. If we simply write off hundreds of
thousand ot urban (and rural) students, then we can only expect the number
of families in poverty and in crisis to increase. We can only expect as well that
the numbers in our prison population will increase, we already may incarcerate
more than any other nation in the world.
Now make no mistake about it, money without a new paradigm for public
education will not solve the problem. There is just such a debate going on right
now in Kansas City, where their schools are also in trouble. Some are
complaining that while $2 billion has been spent in the Kansas City school
system, that test scores are still low and students are not achieving.
The new paradigm for public education must take into account the students
o f today. Students who come to school speaking many languages, students
who came to school from families in crisis, students who come to school from
communities which can offer little support and nurturing. It must find ways to
educate parents as well as children, it must provide a holistic education to
today’s families who face many obstacles.
The new paradigm must take account new role o f education in an economy
where there are fewer and fewer unskilled jobs and where the agricultural
calendar year is less and less important and yet our school years and systems
are structured for these past realities. It must prepare computer literate thinkers
who can be the workers o f the future. The new paradigm must take into account
positive contributions o f many racial and ethnic groups to our county and must
find new ways to develop leaders for the multiracial, multicultural world in
which we live. The new paradigm must take into account the enormous peer
pressure which young people today face and must find ways o f making
academic achievement just as “in” as athletic achievement is. The new
paradigm must take into account the often-violent world, which our children
live in and must work to make schools a safe space.
Only the combination of adequate money and programs which address the new
paradigm can ensure that every child in this wealthiest o f nations receives
quality public education. The funding inequities in public education that exist
in nearly half o f the states o f the nation are a true national security risk. For
without quality public education for every child, I shudder to think whether
our democracy, which is based on knowledgeable voters and people working
for a just wage, can survive.
D
ir e c t o r
Shawn Strahan
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EORTHE PO RfLA NU O gSERS ER
As we reflect on the extraordinary contributions o f African
American women in American to the Black freedom struggle
and the sustenance o f the Black community, it is also
important to note that Black women have had to confront
and overcome double oppression - racism and sexism.
Though there is some evidence that women enjoyed
greater status and rights in ancient and traditional African
civilizations and societies, in large measure the experience
o f African women in America has been conditioned by the
patriarchal values o f the system o f male domination
operative in Euro - American society.
Generally speaking, for much o f the history o f Africans in
America, the reality is that inside the community Black
women worked the fields nursed thechildren. Prepared the
meals and tended to the housekeeping chores with the
assumption. That the man was the head o f the household/
family and leader in the affairs o f the community. The role
o f the Black man was to provide for and protect the family
and to take care o f his women. The protests o f Black men
about the highly provocative movie The Color Purple
notwithstanding, domestic violence against women and
incest has been for more prevalent than many in the Black
community have been willing to acknowledge.
It is a well known that Black women have most often been
the backbone o f churches and civic organizations in the
Black community, the worker bees that have made Black
institutions and organizations viable and effective. For
much or our history in the country, however, leadership
was seen as a role reserved for men. Hence, Black women
often performed the tasks essential to the survival and
success o f Black institutions and organizations while
Black men enjoyed the fruits o f their labor by being the
leaders.
For years Black women could be teachers and nurses, but
being a doctor, dentist, lawyer, scientist, engineer was off
limits. Similarly, driving a truck or bus, working on the
assembly line in a manufacturing plant or working in the
construction industry was taboo. These were considered
men’sjob. To the degree that Black women aspired to enter
these professions and occupations it was often considered
a threat to the role o f the Black man as head o f the
household. In the church, the idea that women could be
a minister was unthinkable.
Obviously much has changed in Black America as it
relates to the struggle for women’s equality. Indeed,
Black women have never been totally subservient within
the Black community. Hence the struggle for women’s
equality in the Black community has been qualitativ ely
different from the struggle White women. Because ofthe
reality of racial oppression however, sometimes Black
men have been reluctant to confront and address issues
o f sexism and gender inequality in the Black community.
For some Black men there is a sense that these issues are
somehow consumed by the larger struggle for racial
equality or the belief that these issues can be deferred
until issues o f racial oppression have resolved.
During the civil rights and Black Power movements o f
60’sand 70’s, Black women increasingly proclaimed that
they would not be confined to the clerical and
administrative work and risk their lives as organizers
while being excluded from leadership roles. Though the
debate and tensions over the issue o f gender inequality
was inevitably influenced by the “w om en’s liberation
movement” framework o f the black freedom struggle.
While some aspects ofthe women’s liberation movement
were decidedly anti-male, by and large, this was/is not
the case within the Black freedom struggle or to settle for
anything less than the right to fulfill their dreams and
aspirations as Black women free o f the prejudices,
misconceptions and constraints o f patriarchy and male
domination.
As I argued during the debates leading up to the Million
Man March and Day o f Absence in 1995, equality,
collaboration, cooperation and partnership should be
the values, which guide Black male-female relationships,
not patriarchy. Being put on a “ pedestal” by black men
is not a substitute for genuine equality, power and
leadership in the Black community. No occupation, no
field o f endeavor should be viewed as the exclusive
preserve o f men. Black women and men must be free to
fulfill theirdreams and freeofbarriers o f race, gender and
class. Only when Black women are able proclaim, “free
at last,” will the entire race be truly liberated.
The lucrative business
of minority leadership
EQ R Tat£oR ILA H Q (ÌB S£8YtB
4 7 4 7 NE M artin Luther King,
The struggle for w om en’s
equality in black America
The headline in a leading Los Angeles
b la c k
n e w sp a p e r
g lo a te d
“Community Leaders Support New
Historic Driving While Black Bill.”
There were two things wrong with
this. The bill by Black Democratic
State Senator Kevin Murray that
purported to attack the problem o f
racial profiling o f minorities by law
enforcement agencies in California
was neither new nor historic. It was a
terribly compromised bill that ripped
the provision out o f an earlier Murray
bill mandating that police compile
racial stats on unwarranted traffic
stops. Most experts agree that this is
the only way to tell if police profile
black and Latino motorists.
The biggest thing wrong with the
headline was that it presumed that
the handful o f black organizations
pictured beneath the headline with
names such as Zulu Men, Mothers in
A ction, A frican-A m erican Unity
Center, Black Agenda, and Black
Ministers Conference could speak
fo r all b la c k s. T h e re w as no
in d ic a tio n w ho th e se g ro u p s
represent and what their programs
are. The arrogance o f a handful o f
amorphous groups claiming to be the
exclusive voice for blacks is the big
reason many blacks ask, “Where are
the black leaders?” “ What are they
doing for the community?” They are
talking about black leaders such as
these as well as the NAACP, SCLC,
U rb an L eag u e, C O R E , the
B ro th e rh o o d C ru sa d e , Je sse
Jackson’s Operation Push, black
D e m o c ra tic p o litic ia n s , b lack
ministers and celebrity activists.
Many o f these leaders are mostly
m id d le -c la ss
b u sin e ss
and
professional persons. Their agenda
and top down style of leadership is
remote, distant, and often wildly out
o f step with the needs o f poor and
working class blacks. They often
approach tough public policy issues
such as the astronom ical black
imprisonment rates, the dreary plight
o f p o o r black w om en, black
homelessness, black-on-black crime
and violence, the drug crisis, gang
warfare, and school vouchers, with a
strange blend o f caution, uncertainty.
and wariness. They keep counsel ;
only with those black ministers,
politicians, and professional and
business leaders they consider
respectable and legitimate and will
blindly march in lockstep with their
program.
Worst o f all, they horribly disfigure
black leadership by turning it into a
corporate style competitive business
in which success is measured by
p ilin g up p o litic a l favors and
corporate dollars. The sad thing is
that it wasn’t always this way. For
d ecad es
m a in stre a m
black 1
organizations such as the NAACP
relied on the nickels and dimes of
poor and working class blacks for
th e ir support. T h is gave them
complete independence and a solid
constituency to mount powerful
campaigns for jobs, better housing,
quality schools, and against police
violence and lynching.
The profound shift in the method and
style o f black leadership began in the
1970s. With the murders o f Martin
Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the
collapse of the traditional civil rights
organizations, the destruction and
co-optation o f m ilitant activist
groups, mainstream black leaders,
politicians and ministers did a sharp
volte face. They quickly defined
the black agenda as: starting more
and better businesses, grabbing more
spots in corporations', universities,
and the professions, electing more
Democrats', buying bigger and more
expensive homes, taking more luxury
vacations, and gaining admission into
more country clubs.
They launched a frenzied campaign
to establish themselves as the leaders
o f record for African-Americans.
Their reward was more business and
construction contracts, foundation
grants, corporate contributions to
their fundraising campaigns, dinners,
banquets, scholarship funds and
training programs.
T hose black leaders w ho turn
leadership into a lucrative business
transaction smother new, innovative
local leadership, deaden social and
pol itical activism in black ommunities,
and deepen cynicism of poor and
working class blacks toward black
organizations. This is agood business
forthem but a bad business forblacks.
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