ÎIîe^Jorthxnô © hseruvr Page A4 O pinion Make Your Vote Count Elected officials need to hear from you Jt ix.h M v i his democratic because the party generally supports social justice issues that As both the Demo affect ourday today lives. cratic and Republican If, as a voter, you’ve candidates tor President selected one candidate zig-zag their way across over another, and so have the country, debating, the rest of the voters in making speeches and your state, you'd, rightly, fighting for votes in the country’s primary elections, one particular expect them to receive the state's group has become a target: "super votes for the nomination. It will be an insult to your sensibilities to delegates." With no real front-runner for the learn that, because of behind the nation's top office for either party, scenes politicking, the votes in these "super delegates” could be stead went to the second-place the deciding factor in who receives finisher. The nation’s democratic pro the nominations for president this summer. The question: who should cess will only work if the votes of its citizens truly count. Both the they be voting for? Super delegates are elected offi 2000 and 2004 elections have cials - members of the house, sena proven to this country what can tors and others - who cast votes at happen when the voices of the the party conventions. Because of people are ignored. bï G ri <; Both the 2000 and 2004 elections have proven to this country what can happen when the voices o f the people are ignored. How can you make sure your their positions as government lead ers, they are not bound by the votes state’s "super delegates” reflect of their constituents; they are free your interests at the August Demo to cast a vote for whomever they cratic National Convention? Call choose. If a particular candidate them. Write them a letter. Send them an email. If you sup can win their support, they can also win the nomination, no matter what port Senator Barack Obama, call that state’s voters decided in their your senators and representatives and let them know’ you expect them primary elections. For example, a candidate could to support Obama. If you support come in second in a large state but, Senator Hilary Clinton, let your if they have enough "super del representative know. Inform them egates" on their side, they could that their job is to reflect your interests as a constituent. lock up that state's nomination. Judge Greg Mathis is national How does this affect African- vice president of Rainbow PUSH Americans? The fight for the Democratic and a national board member of Party nomination is especially tight the Southern Christian Leader and, historically, blacks have voted ship Conference. hi memory o f Joyce Washington May your dreams stay alive. January 23, 1937 - March 15, 1996 Dentures Worth Smiling About! • Professional Services • Affordable Prices • Payment Plans: OAC • Over 20 years experience • Full & Partial Dentures • Natural Appearance • Full Service Lab • Accepting Oregon Health Plan Melanie Block, L.D. D enturist 503-230-0207 We 've Moved! 200 N.E. 20"’ Ave., Ste KM) Portland, OR 97232 Free parking lanuary 23. 2008 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f The Portland Observer NPNÇ VfOA * F<X RULES 'H FAVOR o f FORTH ERAAEPÍ í X PEReôULATtONi ANE. WoHT s /IE t/A M e tx A ANONOtW A s AH WAP6PVAENT T o FREE S P E E C H ... . . . A ? toUG-ASX&Ü DoMT ^ e E A POLÎCE SIKTfe AS AN IfAPEWMBIT T o PBAO c R a SY.' B la c k A m e r ic a n s in D if f e r e n t W o r ld s Gulf between rich and poor hurts bv W illiam R eed W hen you h e a r a black person saying they d o n ’t see race, watch out! “Colorblind blacks” are usually also middle-class in terms of their income and out looks. There is such a widening gulf betw een the val ues o f m iddle class and poor blacks that we no longer can think o f blacks as a single race. A Pew Research C enter sur vey found black college gradu ates who say that “the values of m iddle-class African A m ericans are more closely aligned with those of m iddle-class whites than those o f low er-incom e blacks” . More and more there are two kinds of African A m ericans - the ones with education and jobs and those with neither. The problem is that the m ore “co lo rb lin d ” blacks becom e the more they gravitate toward whites and away from their brethren at the bottom of the econom ic ladder. A majority o f black Americans surveyed blamed individual fail ings, not racial prejudice, for the lack o f econom ic progress by lower-income African Americans. The report said in 1994, 60 per cent of African A m ericans be lieved racial prejudice was the main thing keeping blacks from succeeding econom ically; and only 33 percent blamed the indi vidual. This year, 53 percent said individuals were re sponsible for their own condition. At the same time, the survey found most blacks believed ra cial prejudice was still a w id e sp re a d problem . ferent than those at the bottom. F o rty -fo u r p e rc e n t o f blacks polled in 1986 said they saw greater differences created by class than by race. Today, that figure has grow n to 61 percent. The feeling holds for blacks with less than a high school educa tion: 57 percent of those surveyed said m iddle-class blacks are more like middle-class whites than they When you hear a black person saying they don’t see race, watch out! Sixty percent of African A m eri are like poor blacks. O verall, the survey found that cans surveyed said blacks often faced discrim ination when they there has been a convergence of applied for jobs or looked for values held by blacks and whites. Blacks and whites have become housing. One result o f shifting views on more culturally integrated and, individual responsibility may be therefore, less-affluent blacks feel changes in blacks' attitudes to more estranged. The survey also ward immigrants. In 1986.74 per found that pessim ism about eco cent of blacks said they would nomic prospects has grown sig have more economic opportuni nificantly among blacks. Fewer ties if there were fewer immigrants; than half o f those polled, 44 per today, 48 percent feel that way. cent said they expected life to get Most blacks and whites who par better. Tw enty years ago, 57 ticipated in the poll agreed that percent had said they thought imihigrants tended to work harder life would improve. at low-wage jobs than workers of Blacks up and own the eco nomic scale do not see the kind of their own groups. On the topic o f diverging val forward momentum they'd saw in ues, the values of blacks at the earlier times. One reason for the top of the econom ic scale are dif pessim ism may be that the condi tion o f the black middle class appears to be more fragile than that of whites. M iddle-incom e African American families appear to have trem endous difficulty passing on their m iddle-incom e status to their children. About 45 percent o f black children who grow up in m iddle-class families will slip into a low er-incom e bracket in adulthood. About 16 percent o f w hite children and about 45 percent of black chil dren were unable to match their parents' success and slipped into a lower socioeconomic bracket in adulthood. African Americans of all stripes are highly patriotic and concerned about a concentration of eco nomic pow er as are whites. They share the general belief in the benefits of hard work - and are equally adm iring of those who acquire wealth through hard work. And while they are far more sup portive o f governm ent help for the needy than are w hites, two- thirds o f blacks are concerned that too many low-income people depend on governm ent aid. While middle-class blacks tend to be more “colorblind," the sur vey found blacks on all sides of the econom ic divide less upbeat about the state o f black progress now than at any time since 1983. William Reed is president and chief executive officer of Black Press International and pub lisher of the "Who's Who in Black Corporate America Register." Tyranny in Law School Admissions Requirements devastate minorities bv M ichael C oyne The requirem ent of the A m eri can Bar A ssociation that law schools use the Law School A p titude Test in adm issions deci sions is having a devastating e f fect on A frican-A m erican appli cants. The ABA uniformly denies ac creditation to law schools with average LS AT scores below 143, ye, the average LSAT score for African Am ericans is 142. Since many ABA law schools employ inflexible LSAT ‘cut-off’ scores, individuals with superior grades arc rejected out of hand. Despite this, the ABA has never accred ited a law school that uses an alternative test. ABA law-school accreditation policies begun in the 1970s have begot skyrocketing tuition and fees greatly exceeding the cost of inflation in the decades that fol lowed. t Law-school tuition has risen at a far greater rate than college tuitions. W hile tuition, room and board at undergraduate institu tions increased by 58 percent in the 1990s, law -school tuition jum ped by 88 percent. In 2002, then-president of the ABA. W illiam Paul, decried the alarm ing lack of m inority repre sentation in the legal profession. The 2000 U.S. Census put this figure at 9.7 percent. The key to an accessible high- quality education is not more loans or state subsidies to feed In 2002, then-president of the ABA, William Paul, decried the alarming lack o f minority representation in the legal profession. No student can finance the cos, of law school from his or her earn ings at work alone. The escalation of the cos, of attending law school disproportionately affects people of color and those from the less affluent segments of society. solute pow er granted it by our governm ent and has beguiled state supreme courts to accept its dictates in determ ining who can sit for the bar exam ination. T his abusive and d estru ctiv e accreditation tyranny has block aded both minorities and the af fordable law schools that serve them. By design or indifference, the A BA ’s policies regarding law school accreditation dispropor tionately impact people of color and the less affluent. The D epart ment of Justice cannot continue to tacitly condone that discrim i nation and that the Department of Education must term inate rec ognition of the ABA as the only fe d e ra lly a p p ro v e d n a tio n a l accreditor o f law schools. The D epartment of Justice must act to ensure justice for all. not just the white and the wealthy. the gaping maw o f ever-higher tuitions. Rather, schools mus, take steps to be more productive and reduce costs and federally Michael Coyne is associate recognized accrediting agencies dean of the Massachusetts School mus, encourage those efforts. The ABA has misused the ab of Law at Andover.