37
years
50j¿
Spring Forward!
of
~com munity service
íSnrtíanh (Observer
P
’
‘City of Roses
‘P it\z n t
Clocks move ahead one hour for
daylight savings time Sunday at 2 a.m.
Established i o in 7 n 1970
acpc
Obama Makes Selma March
M o re th a n a
th o u s a n d
people, includ
ing presidential
c a n d id a te s
Barack O bam a
and
H illa ry
C lin to n g a th
ered in Selma, Ala. Sunday to com
m em orate the 1965 “ Bloody S un
day” voting rights march. Partici
pants retraced the steps to the
bridge where marchers were beaten
back by state troopers. See sto ry ,
pageA 2
White House Aide Guilty
The form er chief
o f staff to Vice
P re s id e n t D ick
C h e n e y L e w is
“Scooter” Libby
w a s c o n v ic te d
T uesday o f o b
struction, perjury and lying to the
FBI in an investigation into the
leak o f C IA operative V alerie
Plam e’sidentity to reporters. Libby
faces up to 30 years in prison. See
sto ry , page A2.
Arrest in Teen Murder
A 16-year-old w as arrested M on
day for the January m urder o f an
other teenager w ho died after be
ing shot in the head on North
K illingsw orth Street. See sto ry ,
p age A 2.
» i „ „
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVII. Number 10
.Week ¡n
The Review
.........
Wednesday • March 7. 2007
A Record
Retailer’s
Last Stand
Music Millennium
adapts to downloading
S arah B lount
T he P ortland O bserver
by
W hen M usic M illennium ow ner Terry
C urrier received a cal 1 from a friend and co m
petitor w ho had ju st lost his lease at his
southeast Portland record shop, he did not
take the new s as one m ight expect.
“ Y ou'd think I’d be happy when com peti
tors go aw ay, but it’s a very sad situation,”
he said.
T h a t’s because For W hat It’s W orth
Records and Tapes, w hich at one tim e had
several Portland stores, iso n e o f many retail
ers to disappear after a fatal drop in business.
Portland has alw ays been a bastion for
independent-m inded music fans, but a shift
in technology has led people out o f the
stores and onto their hom e com puters, w here
they can dow nload entire album s illegally or
legitim ately purchase songs from online
music stores like iTunes.
It’s been a dism al decade for m usic retail
ers, causing national chain T ow er Records to
shut dow n com pletely late last year, as well
as another local shop Reverb Records.
Music M illennium has been able to stay
photo by S ean
O ’C onnor /T he P ortland O bserver
Music Millennium owner Terry Currier adapts to changing tastes and the loss of sales because of music downloading.
afloat, but C urrier said they’ve lost money
three out o f the past six years, and have only
turned a minimal profit during the other
three. It’s the oldest music store in the
Pacific N orthw est, opened in 1969 at its
current Fast Burnside location originally as
a place to find underground music. A sec
ond store was soon added, now on N orth
west 23rd A venue, plus a w ebsite and a
classical music store.
Currier, w ho took over the business in
1984 and describes him self as a passionate
music freak, acknow ledges that a “sm arter
business m an" w ould have called it quits by
now.
“Everything I’ve w orked for is in this
building," he said. "M y philosophy is that
I ju st want to be a recording music store. But
after losing m oney for two years I had to find
another w ay.”
M usic M illennium and its fellow small
retailers suffered their first blow around a
continued
on page A6
Suspect Sketch Released
D e te c tiv e s re-
leased a sketch o f
a suspect in the
*
murder of23-year-
o ld
J e rm a in e
N y ro n
D a v is .
D av is w as sh o t
dow ntow n around 2 a.m. after par
tying on New Y ear’s Eve near
Southw est Fourth and Stark. See
sto ry , page A2.
Ci
Belmont Store Clerk Shot
Police are looking for a suspect
w ho shot a store clerk Sunday
afternoon after a failed robbery
attem pt. The attack took place at
the Belm ont G rocery in southeast
Portland. See sto ry , page A2.
NAACP President Resigns
B ruceS . G ordon
resig n ed his p o
sitio n as p re s i
d e n t o f th e
NAACP Sun
day,
c itin g
c la s h e s
w ith
b o ard m em bers o v er m a n ag e
m ent style and the civil rig h ts
o rg a n iz a tio n ’s m ission.
Shaq Shoots for Reality TV
S h aq u ille O ’N eal is ready to re
turn to the screen to star in a six-
ep iso d e reality series for A B C in
w hich he w ill help a bunch o f
o v erw eig h t e lem en tary and ju n
io r high school stu d en ts shed
p o u n d s w hile ed u c atin g the kids
an d T V view ers about the perils
o f c h ild h o o d obesity.
photo by
R aymond R endi
eman /T iif . P ortland O bserver
A Fred Meyer billboard hangs over Paulo Escobar and Juan Escultor as they wait for day labor on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The demographic makeup of the neighborhood was used as criteria for the advertising, according to a company spokesperson.
Advertising ‘ Blackand White
Using race to
sell products
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
W ho w ould have thought that a
local baby-food com pany and a
superm arket chain's billboard cam
paign em erging in the sam e month
could start a m eaningful discus
sion about race? O nly in Portland,
as they say.
A Fred M eyer billboard featur
ing a black boy eating an orange
ap p e ared on N o rth ea st M artin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard next to a
pickup site for immigrant day labor
ers, w hile sim ilar billboards adver
tising the superm arket's fruit fea
tured white people in other areas.
At the same tim e, Nice Cubes
frozen organic baby food debuted
in local New Seasons stores with
five flavors, each with its own baby
m odel. The sole non-white model is
a black girl representing "Sassy
S quash,” as other models repre
sent "Gentle Lentils" and "Perfect
Pear" flavors.
D o th e s e e x a m p le s re v e a l
Portland’s latent and injurious rac
ism ? O r arc these com panies just
p ro m o tin g b e n ig n fa ilu re s in
m ulticulturalism ? Some maintain
that such cam paigns sim ply mirror
our diverse society, but no one
says an ad is ju st an ad.
Fred M eyer Regional Public A f
fairs D irector M elinda Merrill ar
gues that the com pany's unwritten
billboard-placement policy follows
long-accepted standards based on
dem ographics.
"W e've tried to make the diver
sity in our advertising reflect our
client base." Merrill says. "We place
our ads in the vehicles through
which we can reach the largest
num ber of our custom ers for the
least amount o f money."
T he retail giant points to its com
m itm ent to the advancem ent of
African American and other m inor
ity populations by the charitable
donations received from its em
ployees and change boxes at cash
registers Fred M eyer can cite 63
organizations in northeast Portland
alone that it has given $ I (M)to$2,5( Ml
t
t
in the past three years.
But som e com m unity mem bers
see a lack o f responsibility in Fred
M eyer's ads.
Hannah Bea's head ch ef Saan
Patterson says, "I think it's messed
up. It's not that much about caring
about the com m unity because there
are definitely things they could put
on the billboards that would help
the com m unity rather than just sell
ing their products."
Standing under the billboard in
question, recent im m igrants point
out an even more insidious p o ssi
bility.
"There's a lot of ads that make it
seem like everyone has a go<xl life
here, but here we are, no w ork,"
says Paulo Escobar.
Can the same ad reflects diver
sity, eschew resp o n sib ility and
m isrepresent A m erican society?
Part o f the trouble with any critique
o f advertising is that everyone has
a different point o f view.
A nother recent im m igrant by the
name o f Zach Asfaw drivesa Broad
way C ab for a living.
"I've seen so many ads taking
advantage o f black people, but what
really bothers me are the w om en
that are practically naked," he says.
A dvertising w atchdog org an i
zations tend to ignore com plaints
of racial stereotypes because other
abuses are more clear-cut.
M am ie G lickm an o f Portland-
continued
on page A 6