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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2005)
J 1,1 |Jo rtlan b © bserucr Page A 4 August 10. 2005 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f The Portland Observer O pinion Watts: Forty Years After the Riot Flames Area witness to blind rage and desperation E arl O fari H i tchinsos by The young National Guard officer curtly and sternly or dered my high school buddies and me to keep moving down the street. He waved his bayo neted rifle menacingly at us as he barked out his orders. Behind him, a small army of white helnteted LAPD officers and battle fatigued dressed National Guardsman stood tensely with their rifles poised. 1 kept a wary eye on them as we nervously walked past the three deep barricades that ringed the streets around my house. My friends and 1 were on our way home from summer school classes that hot August day 40 years ago. The smoke from burning stores a few blocks away choked our eyes and seared our lungs. In the distance we could hear the crackle of gunfire. The streets were strewn with empty liquor and ciga m ism anaged poverty programs, rette cartons that had been hastily slapped together to cool out the discarded by the horde of looters ghetto, did little to relieve the mis that for nearly four days roamed the ery o f the black ptxir. streets near my house. When Lyndon Johnson esca As a resident of the Watts curfew lated the war in Vietnam, politicians area that fateful summer, and the public became even more 1 remember not only the reluctant to spend more on domes fires and the gunfire, but tic programs. The black poor, lack also the blind rage and ing competitive skills and training, desperation that drove were shoved even further to the the rioters as they pil laged stores and blacks embraced the call by black w ringing city o ffic ia ls w ould outer economic fringe. T heiranger sh o u ted, “ burn baby m ilitants M alcolm X, Stokely quickly appoint a commission, or quickly turned to cynicism and bum" (taken from a slo Carmichael, Rap Brown, the Black blue-ribbon panel, issue a volumi despair. Many turned to guns, gan made popular by a local black Panthers and the Black Muslims for nous report on the causes of the gangs and drugs to survive. Civil rights leaders and organi D J). Many considered this a pay black power, armed confrontation riots, cobble together a few job programs, and toss out a few more zations did not help. They defined back for the century of racism and and separatism. The violence in Watts also made dollars for social service programs. the "Black Agenda" in increasingly violence against blacks. When Dr. T o m any A m e ric a n s th at narrow terms. Affirmative action, Martin Luther King visited Watts in m any w h ites re c o g n iz e that sounded like a reward for criminal economic parity, professional ad A m erica's ghettoes were powder an effort to stop the violence, young behavior, and they weren’t having vancement and busing replaced kegs that could explode at any toughs shouted him down. any of that. They blamed the vio poverty, unemployment, quality moment. The suburbs suddenly The orgy of violence and de lence on liberal permissiveness,and education, police abuse and politi seemed less safe and secure. White struction marked the end of an era outside agitators and demanded cal empowerment as the goals that fears forced politicians to scramble for the non-violent civil rights more police, heavy weaponry, and all African-Americans should fight to find solutions to the racial crisis. struggle. To many poor blacks, non tougher prison sentences. With the for. Young,upwardly mobileblack The M cCone C om m ission ap violent marches and demonstra exception of the Martin Luther King business and professionals fled the pointed by Gov. Edmund Brown tions seemed a worthless antidote Hospital, which was the one tan inner cities in droves. This further called for modest police reform and to the cycle of poverty, violence gible thing that came out o f the drained talent, skills and leader increased spending on jobs and and neglect. In the next few years ship, and positive role models from riots, the McCone Commission’s social programs. That established Detroit, Newark, Washington D.C. poor co m m u n itie s. E conom ic recommendations were mostly ig an all to familiar pattern. When cit and dozens of other cities erupted shrinkage, governm ent budget nored. The few piecemeal, badly ies erupted in racial violence, hand- into violence and destruction. Many The orgy of violence and destruction marked the end of an era for the non-violent civil rights struggle. cuts, and the elimination of job and social programs dumped more and more blacks into the ranks of the underclass. This pointed up a phenomenon about race and class in America that has been ignored, downplayed, or denied. There are no longer two Americas, black and white, and seemingly at permanent odds with each other. There are now three Americas, one black, one white, and the other, black and black. In by-gone years, the iron curtain of segregation had blurred, but had not obliterated, the class divisions between the black well-to-do and the black poor. When the Jim Crow signs came down, and the ghetto walls tumbled, more blacks than ever marched into the corporations, onto universities, and into Con gress and statehouses. This gave the false, and misleading impres sion that economic deprivation was a thing of the past for all but a few u n lu c k y b la c k s. T h at w as a pipedream, and America sixin found it out. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a col um nist fo r B lackN ew s.com , an author and political analyst. Gains Made in Struggle for Economic Power More black businesses is a return to tradition 1.2 million black-run companies in J udge G reg M athis T h ough A frican -A m erican s the U.S.; only Hispanics own more have been the objects of economic- minority businesses. This boom in black entrepreneur- exploitation for over 400 years, re cent statistics show that w e've ship is a return to tradition. Prior to begun to pull ahead in the pursuit the legal end of American apart heid, black dressmakers, restau for economic power. New data from the Census Bu rants, funeral parlors, grocery reau shows the number of black- stores and other businesses drove owned businesses have grown 45- the black economy. Research conducted by profes- percent since 1997. In all, there are by so rs at the University of M ic h ig a n shows that, in 1910, black A m e ric a n s w ere m ore likely to be s e 1 f - e m - ployed than any other racial or ethnic group; the data also reveals that black women were more likely to be entrepre neurs than white women were. Even during slavery, there were black business owners: free men and ’ •" '• A' -■ ' August 12 & 13 Hl r ■ ' ' :f 1 X ' . - T ic k e t s $30 tó S50 ' V* £ few er reserves. The lack o f a “cushion” strains a fledgling ven ture when problem s arise; as such, the failure rate o f black businesses is greater than that of w hite-ow ned businesses. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote "The emergency we now face is economic.” Nearly 40 years later, this statement still rings true. Economic power in the form of business ownership is the key to women built homes and schools in cessful. Once legal segregation combatting many of the negative the South and ran boarding houses ended, black businesses w ere forces that are prevalent in the black forced to com pete with white- community. Though life as an en and restaurants in the North. Since A m e ric a ’s in cep tio n , owned companies that had access trep ren eu r is not w ithout it’s blacks have seen business owner to capital blacks weren’t able to tap struggles, owning your own is the surest way to develop personal ship as a way to control their own into. W hile funding for m inority wealth and community pride. It’s destinies. As they searched for fi nancial independence and eco businesses has im proved and has what our ancestors envisioned; let’s nomic power, these entrepreneurs contributed to the growth in black keep moving towards the dream. Judge Greg Mathis is chairman struggled with racism and disc e n tre p re n e u rsh ip , the playing riminatory practices, such as those field is far from level. On average, o f the Rainbow PUSH-Excel Board that restricted where black-owned blacks have less access to start and a national board member o f businesses could operate, that hin up funds than w hites and usually the Southern Christian Leadership dered their ability to remain suc- lau n ch th e ir b u sin e sse s w ith Conference. Though life as an entrepreneur is not without its struggles, owning your own is the surest way to develop personal wealth and community pride. ‘Operation Tsunami’ in Zimbabwe Government debacle leaves millions homeless by T icketsw est 1 -800-992-TIXX geo H S T ■ „ t„ -i i nookVVi nd CASINO RESORT It's B e tte r a t the Beach! Lincoln City, Oregon • 1-888-CHINOOK www.chinookwindscasino.com B ernice P owei . i . J ackson Nearly three-quar ters of a million people in Z im b ab w e have been rendered home less as the government has destroyed their small shanties in a pro gram which the gov ernm ent has named “Operation Restore O rder,” but which the people are calling Opera tion Tsunami. By whatever name, this action by the Zimbabwe government of President Robert Mugabe has been condemned by the United Nations in a recent report, which has also demanded that compensation be paid to the victims. It is winter in Zimbabwe, which means that thousands of families are left without homes to shiver in tents. In many instances, not only were homes destroyed, but so were the markets and small businesses which support many families. More over, the nation is facing a food shortage and oil is not readily avail able to most Zimbabweans. Operation Restore Order is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Mugabe administration that are leading much of the world outside Africa to turn its back on this gov ernment. Other actions include the re-distribution o f much o f the country’s farm land, which Mr. Mugage attributed to the need to end the last vestiges of colonial ism. But it has meant that much of the farmland which had been able to produce food for the nation is now unable to do so. In addition, the status of the last national election is questionable, with many outside observers raising concerns about the fairness and openness of the elec tion. Mr. M ugabe’s politi cal opponents have long in much of Africa and often named with Nelson Mandela. His courage and wisdom guided those fighting the apartheid government of Rho desia and led them into the new nation of Zimbabwe. I remember when many African Americans were buying land and homes in the newly- freed Zimbabwe, inspired by Mr. The bulldozing of tens of thousands of homes of the poorest of the poor is one more testimony to Mr. Mugabe’s zealotry and his willingness to do anything to remain in power. charged that their opposition has meant the harassment, beatings and arrest of their leaders. In addition, many journalists have been impris oned or forced to leave the country. The United Nations report, writ ten by Anna Tibaijuka. the highest ranking African woman in the U.N., called these latest actions under Operation Restore O rdera’ humani- tarian crisis of immense propor tions" which leaves Zimbabwe in a “virtual state of emergency." Yet. leaders o f African nations seem unable or unwilling to speak out against Mr. M ugabe’s actions, calling it an “in ternal matter.” Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the Zimbabwe debacle is that Rob ert Mugabe was a much respected liberation movement leader, revered Mugabe and his beautiful land. Today the economy and the n atio n o f Z im b a b w e are in shambles. The bulldozing of tens of thousands of homes of the poor est of the poor is one more testi mony to Mr. M ugabe's zealotry and his willingness to do anything to remain in power. It's a sad com mentary. Meanwhile, the people of Zim babwe wait - wait for the world to intervene in the madness. They are hungry - hungry for food and hun gry for justice. Now, many of them arc also homeless. Tragically, many are also becoming hopeless. While they wait. Bernice Powell Jackson is ex ecutive minister o f Justice and Wit ness M inistries fo r the U nited Church o f Christ. I
