Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2016)
Page 2 The Skanner Black History Edition - February 24, 2016 Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Opinion Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Macro-Aggression and the Offended Generation Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor S Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Arashi Young Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2015 MERIT AWARDS WINNER The Skanner has received 20 NNPA awards since 1998 The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com cores of dead White men glared back at them from the walls of the college dorm. The thought that some of these esteemed alum- ni could have actually owned their ancestors have appar- ently haunted the dreams of some of the privileged, elite students at Yale so much that they took to the yard in pro- test. The dorms at Yale, they declared, are no longer a ‘safe space’ for Black students. In Yorktown, Virginia, a thirteen year-old kid forced to deal with the usual cruelties meted out by middle school kids, compounded with an extra dose of racial hostility wrote an open letter to his school demanding redress. These two fragments repre- sent in microcosm the state of racial relations faced by a new generation of Black Ameri- cans. On the one hand, they are ev- idence of the immense prog- ress that has taken place in the country over the past 60 years or so. The very fact that there are significant numbers of Black students at elite uni- versities is a testament to that progress. And the fact that a twelve year-old boy attending a public school in a predomi- nantly White Pennsylvania county has openly voiced his frustration speaks to his ex- pectation that the grownups www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2016 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar RSS feeds BE A PART OF THE CONVERSATION #SkNews Armstrong Williams NNPA Columnist in the room must exhibit bet- ter leadership. That’s prog- ress too. But we have regressed in some ways too. At the Uni- versity of Missouri, students demanded (and received) the resignations of University Administrators, who they per- ceived as being inadequate- “ mandatory ‘inclusion’ cur- riculum, the Black student activists then proceeded to ban White students who had joined in their protests from some of the planning activ- ities, citing the need for a Black-only space for ‘healing.’ One wonders how, at a University, which is over ninety-percent White, Black students hope to be able win friends and influence sus- tainable change using such immature tactics. A group of ‘poor,’ ‘righ- teous,’ and indignant Black students at Dartmouth took us back even further. They They have not yet come to grips with the reality that much of life is about striving to correct the infe- licities in our own character ly responsive to their com- plaints about racial hostilities on campus. But their need to be coddled was so strong that even the ouster of the univer- sity’s President and Provost were not enough. Their list of eight demands included the creation and ‘enforcement’ of a “comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion cur- riculum throughout all cam- pus departments and units, mandatory for all students, faculty, staff and administra- tion.” Despite commanding the university to implement actually invaded what should be the safest space of all at a University – the library. They barged into the library as oth- er students were studying and actually assaulted White students, hurling despicable racist epithets, which have been widely publicized and do not bear repeating. It goes without saying that this group of rash, immature youngsters need to immedi- ately issue apologies to the students they harmed, and seek to make amends. Or they need to be suspended or oth- erwise appropriately disci- plined by the University. At the end of the day, these recent incidents are not really about attempting to achieve more inclusion or redress of age-old racial wrongs. It is about the “offended” genera- tion expressing its’ inherited right to be coddled, entitled and accorded a group priv- ilege based on the assumed mantle of victimization. They have grown up on a steady diet of liberal media hogwash that finds a bigot behind ev- ery door to achievement, a racial slight in almost every utterance which challenges their world-view, whether it was intended or not. The belief in an engineered “equality” to the exclusion of freedom of thought and speech leads inevitably down the road towards fascism. The engineered equality attempted by Stalin wasted scores of millions of lives. The appeal to authoritarian intervention to guarantee outcomes almost always leads to disastrous consequences. Real equality doesn’t mean ev- eryone gets the same things, or even has access to exactly the same opportunities. As the lessons of history have taught us, “equality” without freedom is utterly useless. Missouri Students Teach Lesson in Nonviolent Change P aul Robeson. Muham- mad Ali. Bill Russell. Ka- reem Abdul-Jabbar. Jim Brown. Curt Flood. Hank Aaron. The “Black 14” at the University of Wyoming. The St. Louis Rams. Michael Sam. Tommy Smith and John Car- los, black-gloved fists in the air. LeBron James and Der- rick Rose, wearing “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts. These are only a few of the most visible African-Ameri- can athletes who risked their positions, their high status in our culture, their endorse- ments and their high salaries in the cause of civil rights and equal justice. Not all the athletes that championed fair play were African American, of course. Roberto Clemente comes to mind immediately. Bill Wal- ton spoke out against the Vietnam War. Billie Jean King stood up for women’s equality in sports. Brooklyn Dodgers captain Pee Wee Reese stood by Jackie Robinson out on the ball field, making it clear that the color line had been crossed for good. Now the University of Mis- souri football team has shown us what real “Tigers” do when it’s time to pick up the ham- mer of justice. These African American players stood by the student protesters and hunger strik- Rev. Jesse Jackson NNPA Columnist er Jonathan Butler. Interest- ingly, their White teammates and their White coach, Gary Pinkel, then joined the cause, too. And change came to the campus. “ In this case, of course, the “gun” was nonviolent protest against racial injustice. African American athletes showed their clout. A sleeping giant awoke. Today’s colleges spend a lot of time recruiting Af- rican-American athletes but much less time recruit- ing young African Ameri- can scholars. No expense is spared to develop a young halfback, but fewer and few- er Pell Grants are available The University of Missouri foot- ball team has shown us what real “Tigers” do when it’s time to pick up the hammer of justice The students and the ath- letes showed that they had studied Dr. King and the les- sons of the civil rights move- ment. They were disciplined, nonviolent, focused — and they used their leverage to demand a role in their own educations. Strategically, they chose a moment to act when they had leverage over a million dol- lars in potential TV revenues. It was smart organizing, and it worked. As the old saying goes, rabbit hunting is a lot less fun when the rabbit has a gun. to support young chemists. Good athletes are awarded scholarships (unless they get hurt), while their universities reap millions in tickets sales and revenue from jerseys and sports bling. Athletic departments are supposed to be appendages of universities, but it often ap- pears that the reverse is true. African American players are empowered on the field, but much less so in the classroom. Think about college basket- ball. The entire sports world focuses on “March Madness,” when integrated teams from all over the nation compete for sports glory. But what about “May Sadness,” when graduation time comes, and many athletes are left behind and left out. Meanwhile, good minority students — and many, many good White students — strug- gle to pay excessive tuition and fees, too often ending up buried under massive loans, which will hem them in for decades. On Saturday afternoons, those of us who are sports fans choose to root for our teams based on uniform color rather than skin color. This was not always so. It’s a change in American culture that deserves celebra- tion. And it teaches us a lesson for the rest of society, because young African Americans can compete and excel when the playing field is level, when the rules are public, when the goals are transparent, when the referees are fair. Our sports playing fields are level, and our teams are diverse, multicultural, mul- tiracial and successful. Our societal playing fields are not so level, are less diverse, and the rewards are less evenly shared. College campuses are good places to learn this les- son and to begin to discuss how to do better.
