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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2013)
October2.2013 ____________ Minority & Small Business Week_______________ page2s Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. W? welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Immoral, Biased and Ineffective Brutal practice of capital punishment Correia, the case against Troy lacked conclusive evidence after m any of the key w itnesses re canted testim ony from the time of the original trial. In the last weeks of Troy's life, the G eorgia State Board o f Par dons and Paroles received 663,000 petitions from people im ploring the group to reconsider the e x ecution given the sheer am ount of d o u b t s u rro u n d in g th e c a se . W orld figures, including Pope Benedict XVI and form er U.S. President Jim my Carter, human rights groups and com m entators urged the execution to be halted - - all to no avail. In the hours before his death, the NAACP held a rally and lob bied the D epartm ent of Justice to intervene on the grounds of a civil rights violation. The glim pses of sadness and quiet resolve I saw on the faces of Troy's fam ily when his death becam e im m inent will stay with me forever. The last time I saw Troy, he told me "This m ove m ent started before me, and it ignored the facts, doubts and pleas of hundreds of thousands of people and killed Troy Anthony Davis. On the anniver sary of his execution, we rededicate ourselves to ending the immoral, biased and ineffective practice of capital punishment. For 15 years, we fought along side Troy to clear his name for the killing of Savannah Police Officer M ark Allen M acPhail. Troy re m ained adam ant about his inno cence to his last breath. As ex plained in the new book I Am Troy Davis, by author Jen M arlowe and T ro y 's siste r, M a rtin a D avis- needs to continue, no m atter what, until we destroy the m achinery of death." W hile many o f the supporters who stood in solidarity with Troy have put away their signs and returned home, the battle to end the sham eful practice of capital punishm ent wages on in his name. Side by side with T roy’s fam ily, we rem ain on the frontlines o f this fight to abolish a system that is ineffective and steeped in racial bias. Racial disparities pervade ev ery com ponent o f the justice sys tem. A report from Amnesty Inter national concluded that 77 per cent o f people executed since 1977 were people convicted o f crim es involving white victims, compared to only 15 percent o f people ex ecuted for killing blacks. A full 42 percent of the 3,100 inm ates on death row are people of color. Furtherm ore, we know that the death penalty is a poor deterrent ofcrim e. FBI data shows that all 14 states without capital punishm ent in 2008 had hom icide rates at or below the national rate. The only effective way to deter killings in our streets is to ensure justice is swift and certain. In or der to do so, we must ensure both that we have police leadership that builds strong partnerships and trust with all communities and also that they have enough officers and detectives to ensure every hom icide in every com m unity is responded to with the requisite resources to find and catch killers quickly. Since Troy’s death, we have made definitive strides in our ef fort to end the death penalty. We have worked with a diverse and m ultifaceted coalition o f advo cates including Am nesty Interna tional and the National Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty fix our nation’s broken justice sys tem. Last year our work led to C on necticut repealing the death pen alty. This year, M aryland became the first state south o f the M ason- Dixon Line to do the same. Those two states now jo in New Jersey, New York, New M exico and Illi nois as the fifth and sixth state in six years, and the 17th and 18th in the nation to abolish the death penalty. O ur strategy is clear. Our strat egy is simple. We will outlaw capi tal punishm ent in a m ajority of states, and then we will go to the United States Suprem e Court and make the argum ent that the pun ishm ent is cruel by its very nature but also unusual because most states have passed laws against it. "I Am Troy" rem inds us that each year on the Sept. 21 anniver sary o f his death will serve as both a solemn anniversary and a call to action. It is and will continue to be an annual rem inder that justice and comm on sense dictates that we end this brutal practice of capi tal punishm ent. Benjamin Todd Jealous is the president and chief executive of ficer o f the national NAACP. Good for Football and Good for America Another barrier in sports is falling receivers, they did not possess the ability or intellect to be quarterback -- the on-the-field CEO - of a Na tional Football League team. At one time, a black NFL quar terback was as unthinkable as a black American President. But, what was once a rarity is now becoming the norm. In 1920, Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Pollard became profes sional football ’ s first black quarter back, leading the Akron Pros to victory in the NFL’s inaugural cham pionship game. It wasn’t until al most 50 years later on the first Sun day of the 1969 regular season that James Harris, playing for the Buf falo Bills, became the first black pro fessional quarterback to start on an opening day - and subsequently the first black NFL quarterback to be a full-time starter at that position. by M arc H. M orial Sports is one of the most race-neutral m e rito c ra c ie s in America. From the record-shattering feats of Jesse Owens to the transcendent accom plishments of Serena and Venus, there is no doubt that African Ameri cans can excel at the highest levels in any sport if given a chance. Historically, that chance has rarely been given to aspiring black professional quarterbacks. For de cades, the prevailing view seemed to be that while African Americans made good runners, blockers and ^Jnrtlauh (Dhsemer P ublish er : E d it o r : Established 1970 Mark Washington M ich a el L eig h to n E xecutive D irector : Rakeem Washington C reative D irector : P aul N e u feld t O ffice M anager /C lassifieds : A dvertising M anager : From 1969-1977, with the excep tion of a six-game start in 1974 by Joe Gilliam for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Harris was the only starting black quarterback in the NFL. In 1988, Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. A stellar few have joined them in the modem era-W arrenM oon, Randall Cunningham, Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb come to mind. But according to a 2012 article in Pro Football Weekly, “Surprisingly, based on the overwhelming major ity of black players in the league, only four, or 12.5 percent, of the 32 starting QBs in the league on the final day of the 2011 regular season were black.” The 2013 season has seen that number more than double. The third week of this year’s NFL season saw nine starting black quar USPS 959-680 R eporter /P hotographer Donovan M. Smith meritocracy. I still root for Drew Brees on Sundays, and most of the black NFL quarterbacks will tell you themselves that race doesn't mat ter. Their only goal is to compete and win. But as we celebrate 50 years of African American progress, I can not help but note that another bar rier in sports is falling. More black quarterbacks are getting a chance to excel on the field and earn the dignity, big salaries and endorse ments that come with their success. That is good for football and good for America. Think about that as you sit back and enjoy another weekend of NFL skirmishes. And may the best man - the best team - win. Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer o f the Na tional Urban League. 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will he returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 2008 THE PORT LAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland Observer-Oregon's Oldest Multicultural Publication-is a member of the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association Lucinda Baldwin Leonard Latin terbacks take the field for their teams — the most in history. They include: Robert Griffin III (RG3) in Washing- ton; R u ssell W ilso n , S eattle Seahawks; Terrelle Pryor, Oakland Raiders; Colin Kaepemick, San Fran- cisco49ers; EJ Manuel, Buffalo Bills; Geno Smith, New York Jets; Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles; Josh Free man, Tampa Bay Buccaneers; and Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers. The trend is accelerating, and the new class of black quarterbacks is making history. Jason McIntyre, co founder of The Big Lead, a popular sports website, predicts that “It is conceivable that by week one in 2015, half the 32 NFL teams will have a black starting QB ” This is not to imply that we should only root for black quarterbacks. I began this column by noting how sports is largely a color-blind CALL 503-288-0033 news@portland.observer.com FAX 503-288-0015 ads @portlandobserver, com subscription@portlandobserver.com P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer, PO Box 3 1 3 7, Portland, O R 97208
