CLINTON ST. HITCH Born August 13,1899, the son of a poultry monger. Died April 29, 1980, the master of suspense. FtieiaUiy Heigltbenltud State t a l i pWuce ol fewpTim been Rwa OffendFoul Ca. S.W. M ett &IVIutohet BISHOP COCHRAN Horseshoe Music Co. 2419 SE39th (at Division) authorized Alembic warranty & repair Old Town Optics Custom Design Specializing: Sports Eyewear Racquetball —Skin diving Mountain Climbers Ski Wear 214 N.W. Couch Street Portland, Oregon Complete Optical Service Eyewear for the Active Adult 222-1738 2 Illustration by Steve Blackburn
CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY TH E C LI NTO N ST. QU ARTE RLY vol- 2, no. 2 the t id y p a p e r summer 1980 Contents A Hitchcock Tribute Steve Blackburn............................ 2 Cold War Fashions Jim Blashf ie ld............................... 4 The Dream Dies Hard Lenny Dee. . ................................. 5 An Encounter Harold Schwamm........................ 8 Gay Rights Come Home Carlin Chrisman........................... 9 A Volcano Story, Lori P e r r y .............. 12 Family Home Night Dana Hoyle...................... . . ......... 14 An Uncertain Fortune David Milholland.......................... 15 Masters of War Norman Solomon ........................ 18 Cold War Comix, David C e lsi............ 20 Genocide, Enrico Martignoni.............. 21 The Worms Turn Shelly MacLeod.............. 22 Ash Hiss, Joe U ris................................ 23 Our Creamy Nougat Center Jim Blashfield................................ 24 Wet Whistle, Walt C urtis.................... 26 The Death of Jim Loney Steve Wallin................................. 28 Voodoo, Sex and Chicken Michael Goodwin . . . . ............... 29 In Transit, Katherine D u n n ................ 35 W N A , A tty F itzpatrick...................... 39 Musical Newts Michael A de lshe im...................... 40 The Desnos Letters BobDesnos................................... 42 The Clinton St. Quarterly is published free to the public by Clinton St. Center for the Arts, Inc., 2522 S.E. Clinton St., Portland, OR. © Clinton St. Quarterly 1980 S ta f f Hot Tips from Fat Lips Editors Emeritus: Eric Edwards Joe Uris Bev Walton Co-Editors: Lenny Dee Joel Weinstein Design & Production: Joel Weinstein Kim Honer Eric Edwards Proofreaders: Steve Cackley Teresa Marquez A d Sales: David Milholland Kathy Livingston Lenny Dee Contributing Artists: Steve Blackburn Jim Blashfield Jan Ross Tom Kramer Isaac Shamsud-Din Harold Schwamm Nan Wyldie Eric Edwards Dana Hoyle Steve Sandstrom Alan Brewster David Celsi Barry Curtis Frank Poliat Kim Honer Bob Gardiner THE BOZO FACTOR Welllll, you were starting to feel pretty sharp there. That upstart Ron Wyden kicked old Bob Duncan right in the pants. The Cadillac- Fairview behemoth developed a bad case of the willies and skedaddled, hooted out of town by people who love this city. What seemed to many like the biggest roadblock to a sensible education plan for Portland’s schools and the least likely to change — the tenure of Robert Blanchard — suddenly evaporated. Best of all, Portland’s most wretched months, that dark and lunatic time of living like slugs in a bog, was giving way to the glorious renewal of spring. Pret-ty sassy. Enter the Bozo factor. You remember Bozo, the big red-head with the paddle-ball nose, the blue pantaloons, the air-horn. What an unpredictable nut! His sense of humor might have been Rotarian, but watch out! Savoring those first spring rays? Blooie! A ton of ash that fills your snoot, wrecks your car, gooses city-hall hysteria and makes you literally pray for rain. The Bozo factor. Who would’ve ever thought?! Appreciating those victories at the polls? Bam! Sock! A Reagan to the midsection, a Carter to the groin. A left and a right to the political process! Omigod, the Bozo factor. Think you’ve got racism licked? Lick again. Underneath that sweet scoop of Terminated Superintendent is a rancid blend of Bob Hazen, Charlie Davis and Assorted Big Guns who’ve threatened a well-organized, well-heeled campaign to unseat the Board members who voted Blanchard out. (Sort of reminds you of the days of Seventy when some of those same fatcats organized to keep PSU open during the university strike. Remember Kent State? Remember the Vietnam War?) It iust goes to show that every silver lining has a cloud, every day has its dog, into every life a little shitrain must fall, beware the Ides of Bozo. Fighting the Bozo factor is akin to complaining about Mt. St. Helens (what one Oregonian letter writer recently called “ volcaneurosis” ), so are we complaining? No...this is more a warning against smugness, a call for vigilance. Other Cadillac- Fairviews loom on the city’s skyline. The “ choices” in November seem largely like faint passings of gas even more than echoes. Our recent triumphs teach us that organization and persistence do not cancel the Bozo factor altogether, but they hose it down, sweep it into the gutter, flush it into the sewers for now. — J.W. Comic by Tom Kramer Editorial Cartoon by Jan Ross 3
CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY WAR FASHIONS RETRO RUNG DEATH the SKIES fireproof Air-Raid Clothing blow fa sh io n a b ly a t £ h e a dnd y e t p rov ide pro tec tion in ; tired and ye P . i s demonthe face o a c o s tume de - s e a te d bv M rs F ran c e s Kuskm of signed by M I t i s m a d e of 1 New Y o rk C * m b l i n g k haki, f r i eb ne dr e mre ad te f r i i r ae l pr r°o , omd u insp te o an dt t I process. S 1J C ^ i n t e d hood hang - g j | I of skirt, and a p o i n t e r s I ing from th e sb d o w n | for vision whe p ro tec t- g over the head , c P T h e n On - ing the face and y b g h t i n ■ inflammable g a r ’ guards weight and easy to mputn on,n g d. a r y , ■ The blouse has pockets ■ bombs. ! * k i n w h ich a re m - ■ fron t and back m t e r _i n ch I se r ted plastic p o r g a n s n ■ thick, p ro tec ting th S from flying objects. Installation of mach ine guns on fire trucks for anti-aircraft work when not fighting flames is an experiment of the Boston fire department men! bw U. S. housing Above, on air-raid .Heber being s.ud.e official*. {[F irewood still S g h th of th e w o r ld s power. MAY, 1941 Employees lose respect fo r a company that fails to provide their comfort Tw RY ee k w o ip n i n h g a rs y h o , ur c he h a a p n ds p ap si e x r d to a w ys e l a s or awkward, unsanitary roller towels — and maybe you, too, would grumble. Towel service is just one of those small, but important courtesies—such as proper air and lighting—that help build up the goodwill of your employees. That’s why you’ll find clothlike Scot- Tissue Towels in the washrooms of large, well-run organizations such as R.C.A. Victor Co., Inc., National Lead Co. and Campbell Soup Co. ScotTissue Towels are made of "thirsty fibre’’. . . an amazing cellulose product that drinks up moisture 12 times as fast as ordinary paper towels. They feel soft and pliant as a linen towel. Yet they’re so strong and tough in texture they won’t crumble or go to pieces . . . even when they’re wet. And they cost less, too—because one is enough to dry the hands—instead of three or four. Write for free trial carton. Scott Paper Company, Chester, Pennsylvania. Is you r washroom breeding S c o tT is s u e To uue l s - really dry!
9MHT9NH.^ARTERLY THE DREAM DIES HARD .WHEREDID I GOH W ? PORTLAND IS SUPPOSEDTOBETHEHOME OFTHESUEPYMSRoH AND SUCHIRRESPONSIBLE M b UNGRATEFUL BLAC* PARENTS ..THATDAMNEDBUCKUNTIED FRONT, < HEREWEGIVETHEM ACHAKE TO ROBELBOWSWITHUSINCURFINE SUBURBAN SCHOOLS . . . . . SOMEBODY'S OCT ToBEA LUTLg UNCOMFORTABLE ASWELL BETHEM NIGROS, I kNoWDAMN WELL THEWHITE FOLKS WN'I STANDFORWAITINGINUte COLDFOR THE SCHOOL BUS EVERY A U J E S U S ^ ^CHWST t BOB CRAZEN $ Co. WILL HAVETOSTAMPOUT THIS NUISANCE . . . . I CAN'T BEUEVE THIS JSHAPPENING1& ME / BlG RED I * ----- " By Lenny Dee The recent firing of Superintendent of Public Instruction Robert Blanchard by the Portland School Board has touched off a storm of controversy unparelleled in Portland’s educational history. That the issues seem to be racial in a largely white, middleclass town adds a disturbing note to this confusing, sometimes paradoxical struggle, a struggle that may shape the educational future of Portland in ways that most of us never expected. Immediately after the firing, some of the city’s most wealthy, influential business leaders — including the likes of the Benjamin Franklin’s Bob Hazen, Charles Davis, a lawyer and former head of the Public Utilities Commission, and former Congresswoman Edith Green — formed a group to promote and finance the recall of Board members who voted against Blanchard. Spokesman Carlos Rivera cited those members’ “ immaturity of judgement, irresponsibility in decision-making and failure to put the welfare of the children first.” For their part, two of those Board members say that Blanchard was fired because of his troubled working relationship with the Board. Nowhere in the emotional exchange of charges, or in the press accounts of them is the startling idea that is at the root of the controversy: community control of the schools, and with it a repudiation of 25 years of attempts by liberal educators to establish equal, integrated education. While Blanchard’s firing is a dramatic development, it is only one outward sign of a trend of thinking that is growing in the Black community. But why should a group like the Black United Front, formed last summer to call for changes in Portland’s educational policies towards Blacks and regarded as having broad-based support in the Black community, demand what is essentially a return to “ separate but equal” education, a presumably white-racist notion that was to have been laid to rest in 1954 with the landmark Brown vs. the Board o f Education decision? That decision asserted unequivocally that separate education for Blacks and whites was inherently unequal, so why should it have the blessing of the BUF? To answer that question, we can begin by quoting the words of Derrick Bell, a Harvard law professor who is soon to become the dean of the University of Oregon law school. In a recent Oregonian article, Professor Bell stated, “ The Brown decision was significant because it ended the legal subordination of blacks, removed the barrier that prevented blacks from going to school with whites and made it possible for black parents to gain an equal educational opportunity for their children wherever those children attended school. “ But the Supreme Court neither guaranteed every black a seat in a mainly white classroom nor ordered black children to be enrolled in such classrooms against the wishes of their parents. The court invalidated all coerced assignments of black children based on race. It also mandated that the black victims or racial segregation were entitled to an equal eduIllustration by Isaac Shamsud-Din 5
CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY cational opportunity. “ To date, the major priority in implementing Brown has been placed on eliminating segregation by eliminating racially identifiable schools. All too often, as in Portland, this has meant the assigning of black children to white schools and the loss of schools in black neighborhoods. “ Now, many black leaders are concerned with the failure of most blacks attending integrated schools to achieve better scores on standardized tests than those blacks remain-, ing in black schools. They have concluded that the cost of integration is too great; and they are supporting remedies that provide black parents with a choice of sending their children to predominantly white schools or providing effective schooling for them in neighborhood schools even though these schools remain mainly black.” To further understand the BUF position, it is important to look at two recent trends in our national life: the worsening economy and the state of integrated education 25 years after Brown. The success or failure of an educational system can in many ways be measured in economic terms. Thanks to the Civil Rights acts of the sixties, the old barriers to full social and economic integration were battered down. As a result, the ratio of Black to white family income and employment improved steadily for Blacks in the sixties. However, in the 1970s major changes occurred in the economy to reverse those trends. By 1977, a majority of the Black work force — 58 percent — held jobs in the better- paid industrial, blue-collar sector. Those opportunities are now in sharp decline as technological advances replace human workers with machines. Thirty years ago one-half of all workers were employed in manufacturing, mining, construction, transportation and utilities. By 1978 only about one- third of all workers were so employed. According to the United Auto Workers Union, some 15 million blue-collar jobs have been lost in the last eight years. On top of this, traditionally unionized industries have fled the inner cities for the suburbs, the sunbelt or foreign markets, leaving urban Black communities to depend on the degrading dependency of welfare. The new jobs are now in whitecollar positions, and it is here that the Black community’s impatience with the school system becomes particularly important. White-collar jobs require that Johnnie be able to read. Forty percent of all white working men are employed in professional, managerial or administrative positions. Only about 12 percent of the Black labor force has such jobs. At the same time that this change in the job market has been taking place, another dislocation of Blacks has been occurring. Government employment, which in the 1960s and 1970s rose dramatically, included large numbers of Blacks, through affirmative action programs. With the economy in a decline and with a middle-class tax revolt, these jobs have peaked and are in the process of being cut. The failure of the unions and the government to continue to provide opportunities for Blacks has forced the Black community to rely on the traditional American arenas of career seeking — geographic mobility, personal connections, and education. In what has always been a catch-22 situation for Blacks, without the degrees, their network of family and friends counts for little in the white-dominated world. In this context the importance of a proper education becomes almost a life-and-death issue in the Black community. As they see the failure of the integrationist period, the question of why Black children are not learning becomes paramount. Basic intelligence is usually the standard by which students advance and opportunities are granted, and the traditional measurements — IQ tests — have been labeled as racist by Black educators almost since their inception. According to Robert Williams, a Black Ph.D. who is head of the Minority Mental Health Program in St. Louis, the vocabulary in which IQ tests are written, as well as the questions on the tests that require children to use or define words, are unfair to Blacks because Blacks do not speak so-called standard English. Williams says that “ Black English” is not inferior to “ White English” but is different enough so that Black children are not able to understand or answer test questions as easily as white children can. In an article published in a 1974 Psychology Today, Williams reported the results of a study in which he “ translated” test questions into Black English. Thus, “ Point to the toy that is behind the sofa” became, “ Point to the toy that is in back of the couch.” “ Point to the squirrel that is about to run up the tree” became, “ Point to the squirrel that is fixing to run up the tree.” He said that Black children performed significantly better on the translated version of the test. Williams also reported that questions about so-called general knowledge are unfair to Black children. One IQ test question is, “What is the color of rubies?” A Black child is likely to answer, “ Ruby is black.” Another question is, “Where is Chile?” A Black child will answer, “ It’s on the shelf.” Another type of question asks the child to look at a picture and say what’s wrong with it. According to Williams, a Black ghetto child may see nothing wrong with a picture of a three-legged table, because such tables are common in the ghetto. Some IQ tests ask children to interpret proverbs. Williams’ study shows i i im tH i iii iii im ii t iiim H ii i The Hard Lessons of a Bitter Fight In the summer of ’68, having used up every possible student deferment, I found myself at New York City’s Hunter College taking three mickeymouse education courses to get an emergency teaching certificate and another opportunity to serve with our nation’s finest. A new teaching, license in those days qualified you for front-line duty in ghetto classrooms where the casualty rate rivaled Khe Sahn’s. That idyllic summer was spent sitting in the Bronx crabgrass arguing with young education majors over why people of dark skin wanted to be called Blacks and not Negroes. It seemed improbably to those students of higher learning that maybe Blacks had a motive similar to the Guineas, Kikes, and Micks of yesteryear. Naturally 1 wondered how these youngsters would make out face to face with the natives. At lunch, the first school day at P.S. 49, I was treated to a graphic description of the sexual similarities between the ape and our fair students . . . conducted by uptight young marrieds masquerading as teachers, two years away from pregnancy and permanent retirement. One, the “ music” instructor, would enter class and run through rythms by clapping her pudgy mitts 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. All the while the eight-year-olds would be working out James Brown numbers on the back desks. The first PTA meeting of the year found a local high school dance troupe swaying to the beat of African drums as they put on a marvelous show for the assembled parents. Only trouble was that half the faculty found the sensual gyrations of the scantally clad students a bit beyond reasonable taste. Needless to say this crew was a suited for ghetto teaching as they were for deep-sea diving. That’s not to imply that yours truly won any national teacher awards. But at least some semblance of an appreciation of another culture existed in the cerebellum’s grey matter. Part of that understanding came from urban rebellions of the Sixties which had forced many of us to reaccess our attitudes towards Black America. Also reexamining the Black experience was the Ford Foundation, who realized that unless they found ways of teaching Blacks the three R’s they’d learn their own three R ’s : (Riot, Rebellion, Revolution) in the street. So sho-nuff they figured maybe if we give the younguns a big dose of Black heritage and pride-stir — some positive role models and strong community support — maybe these kids could turn into half-decent stock. They couldn’t do worse than a school system that averaged a 50% drop out rate among minority students and about 2 kids per class able to read at grade level. The NYC Board of Education said, ; “ What the hell, you guys built the Model T and if you’ll give us some big bucks, we’ll give community control a test run.” Obtaining those leadership models required the nonvoluntary transfer of a good number of union teachers and principals to white schools and the hiring of a community-chosen staff that may not have had too many degrees after their names. This infuriated the liberal 60,000 member United Federation of Teachers, who had a vested interest in job protection. They had guarded their castle so well that only 12 teachers in the preceeding 20 years had been fired for incompetence . . . and half of those were mentally deranged. Given the success ratio in ghetto schools, it seemed incongrous to Black activists that so few teachers had been dismissed over the years. With the support o f the Ford Foundation, the Ocean-Hill Brownsville Community began to implement their version of neighborhood control by transfering the largely white staff out of the district. They were replaced by a group capable of providing strong role models, teaching the basics and l l l l t lH H t l l in m U I I IH im U l l l l l l im i l lH U M M IH I I I lU IH I I I I IH offering a heritage alien to the previous administration and faculty. This blew the union’s last gasket and precipatated the vitrolic two month strike by the teachers and principals that polarized the big apple into racial camps. The union played every card it could find to divide the city. They managed to get ahold of some anti- semetic literature being passed out in one classroom and a million copies of it were spread throughout the Jewish neighborhoods . . . as if racists weren’t teaching black kids. One hundred thousand middle-class, voting taxpayers descended on city hall in support of the union. On a walk th ro u g h th e neighborhood I grew up in, I heard a conversation on every corner. “ How could you side with them and turn on your own k ind .” “ This isn ’t Mississippi. Why should they get to choose their own teachers and principals — we don’t . ” To everyone I met, I tried to explain that whites were generally pleased with the schools their kids were attending. ' When I was in 6th grade I read at. an 8th grade level, which put me midway in the class. At P.S. 49 I would’ve been a child prodigy . The middle-class white kids were learning to read and write.They — and not the Blacks — were getting the jobs that schools were supposedly training them for. At P.S. 49 the staff was reduced to 5 black members and myself. The rest of the crew spent their idle time pouring glue into the school locks, threatening to “ get me” and “ picketing" in their cars with the motors running just in case . . . Inside the school, wonders were being wrought that I ’ll never forget. The Afro-American history teacher became principal and instilled a stern, loving, educational atmosphere hitherto unheard of at P.S. 49. Mrs. Howard had grown up in the back- woods of North Carolina. She barefooted 5 miles to and from school every day. The winters were too cold to make it — so high school graduation didn’t come until her 21st year. Mrs. Howard had a way of explaining the world that made sense to children. One of the biggest problems the school faced was toning down the constant battle between the boys and the girls. Our new principal spent the entire assembly retelling the famed Scottsboro Boys Case in a way that made those young boys understand that if they picked on the girls there was no telling what kind of trouble might result. Classroom upstarts were personally delivered home by a volunteer parent. You’d be amazed how quickly Johnnie learns to behave when a neighbor personally tells his mother of his misbehavior. Parents flocked to the school . . . to run the boilers, prepare the lunches, assist the teachers and patrol the halls. Everyone in the neighborhood was talking about / ;c goings-on at P.S. 49. As a result the ome environment became more ot a learning space. Homework was actually get- ting done for the first time in memory. One child who had been passed on to the 5th grade as a functioning illiterate was discovered to be the best reader in the school. I could go on for pages but the point is that community control can work. The uneducatable can be educated. After the strike, the com- 'placent staff was back in the saddle again. Community control had been smashed by the United Federation of | Teachers. Mrs. Howard went back tog her classroom. The parents headed | home. By the end of the year, 50% of | the classroom doors were withoutE windows. Seventy-five per cent o f the | books were destroyed and all the! televisions were stolen. The hallways | were training grounds for the asphalt = jungle. On the last day of school a | gang of 4th graders broke in, ran - i sacked the principal’s office and | defacated on his desk. Twelve years | later that principal is still at his desk. |
that Black children can interpret an African proverb — “ The monkey watching the man shave, one day slit his own throat” — when they cannot interpret the comparable “White” proverb — that is, Don’t throw pearls before swine.” Even asking a child to estimate quantities can be unfair, Williams reported. Black children do better on such tests if they’re allowed to work with RC bottles instead of the laboratory beakers that usually are used. The IQ test questions that IQ test critics dislike the most are those that ask children to make judgments about what they would do in different situations. These questions can hardly even be said to have “ correct” answers, because the acceptable answers, according to IQ test makers, are those that would be given by most people. According to Williams, “ That means the test rewards for thinking like everybody else.” One question of this type is, “What would you do if you were sent to buy a loaf of bread and the grocer said he did not have anymore?” The acceptable answer is that you would go to another store. But Williams says that a ghetto child should go straight home, not wander around the neighborhood looking for bread. Another such question is, “What would you do if you lost one of your friend’s balls?” The acceptable answer is that you would replace the loss. However, a Black child is likely to answer, “ I’d take him to the hospital.” The most famous of these questions is the “ fight item” — IQ test critics’ favorite example of “ cultural bias” in the exams. The test asks, “What is the thing to do if a fellow (girl) much smaller than yourself starts to fight with you?” The acceptable answer is that you wouldn’t fight back. However, this answer reflects “ white values,” while in the ghetto Black children learn to fight back when attacked. Black children aged 6 and 7 “ miss” this question more than twice as often as white children do. It is no wonder that the system overlooks the potential of Black students and tracks them into slow classes,, remedial courses and athletic programs. In a broader sense, the idea that integrated education is any better than the pre-Brown segregated system has come under attack. In a recent article in The Oregonian, Professor Bell emphasized that “ the desegregation movement has been premised on the idea that ‘green follows white,’ that the money in the public schools follows the white students, and Blacks must enroll their children with white children in order to get the quality education the school system will provide the whites. “ The strategy seemed a viable approach, but experience over the years indicates that to the extent school officials gave the needs of white students priority, they continued to do so even in desegregated schools. Extra money for special programs with better, higher-paid teachers tends to follow white students into special, upper-track classes even within integrated schools, where most Blacks are trapped in lower, generally ineffective and less expensive, course offerings.” Closer to* home, Board member Herb Cawthorne pinpointed another important flaw in the integrationist concept of education in a recent Portland Skanner article. “A difficult idea for most white people to understand is that Black citizens do not have the depth of advocacy from principals and staff which the whites enjoy. In the Portland Public Schools, everything is dominated by and is more responsive to the concerns of white parents. In contrast to staff and principals in majority white schools, those in majority Black schools seem to painstakingly avoid advocacy on behalf of the parents who are frustrated or angry. “ Perhaps, as is often suggested, they would be earmarked as ‘too liberal’ or as divisive or not team oriented. The word has traveled down: “ Keep your mouth shut.” Consequently, too many of them maintain a conspicuous silence. “ I do not mean to infer that these principals and staff are ineffective administrators and educators; most of them deeply care about the day-to- day functions of teaching children. I do suggest, however, that survival, career potential and common practice dictate that they adhere to the restrictions. “ Let me illustrate this with a fresh example. Recently, the Board of Education held a hearing in the Madison Cluster. The community there was upset, legitimately, by an action which transferred funds from a middle school project at Gregory Heights to a school in North Portland. “ The contrast, as compared to the desegregation hearings, was striking. “ In support of parental concerns, district administrators spoke with undaunted candor. One high official criticized the judgment of Dr. Blanchard, our superintendent, claiming that the superintendent gave the board faulty advice. Another administrator told the board it must work ceaseThe instrument o f the integrationist dream has been busing, and nothing has divided this country more bitterly in the past two and a half decades than busing. lessly to heal the breach of confidence. Finally, the Gregory Heights principal, with strong emotional and educational commitment, clearly enumerated the concerns his constituent parents had voiced. “ The contradiction is expressed in a nutshell: In terms of advocacy on behalf of parents, what is good for the goose is not good for the gander. “ For the most part, white principals and staff accept what they know parents believe to be a bad situation. They accept it without challenge. They know that should they challenge the administration or the board on grounds of obvious contradiction in the treatment of children based on race, they would be instantly earmarked for a difficult time. These principals and staff are not less qualified, less committed, or less interested. They do have a sense of survival. They are caught in the vise of institutional racism. As soon as they are transferred to a school with a predominantly white enrollment, they will be allowed the right and privilege of advocating for parental concerns without the subtle but effective pressures to the contrary. “ If Black parents were more involved in the selection of the principals and staff coming into predominantly Black schools, they would feel more compelled to speak up for our community. If they speak up, our concerned parents can be heard. We will not have to struggle so hard. We will not have to boycott and demonstrate so often. Through the channels available to others, Black parents could get their message to the administration and the board.” If the inheritors of the Brown decision have devised a system that is fatally flawed, they have also overlooked what was good about the “ separate but equal” days. As Oregonian staff writer Linda Williams pointed out, “ It is no accident that the chief spokesman of the BUF, Ron Herndon, received his early education in a segregated Black school system typical in the South until about 10 years ago. “ The problems with that system have been well documented, but the problems were the result of a lack of resources from without, not a lack of strengths from within. Among the strengths of that system was that it produced people like Herndon. Reed College gave him legitimacy in the white world. “ The Black system in the South was responsive to the Black community. It provided a measure of insulation for children from personal contacts with racism. It assured a continuation of Black America’s rich heritage and made Black children believe they had a future. “ The system did not start from the premise that Blacks could not learn. A Black child did not have to possess great intellectual abilities, or be able to run, jump, sing or dance to get attention. Being Black and ordinary was not a stigma. “ The system demanded maximum effort because sloth was a mortal sin, and the rewards were expected to be the improvement of the entire race. It did not use the fact that children came to school hungry and from broken homes as excuses for not educating them. Given its limitations, the system’s achievements were remarkable.” The instrument of the liberal integrationist dream has been forced busing, and nothing has divided this country more bitterly in the past two and a half decades than busing. Witness the explosions from Little Rock in 1954 to Boston in the mid-seventies, that have been etched into our nation’s soul. Whatever the motives of the proponents of forced busing to achieve integration, the effect has been to deepen racial animosities and prevent, rather than promote, educational opportunities for everyone, Black and white. In all these cases busing polarized the poor whites and Blacks into opposing armed camps. Most of the establishment do-gooders who advocated busing lived in the suburbs or could afford to send their children to private schools. The lower classes were stuck in the blackboard jungles. For both races, learning became secondary to survival. In his book, Tribes o f America, Paul Cowan points out that whites have suffered as much as Blacks in telling of South Boston High School. “When Barbara Quinion was a little girl her father, a postal clerk, and her mother, a waitress, loved to tell her glorious Southie sagas. They’d describe the snowball fights and the egg fights between the boys and the girls, the times they fooled their music teacher by rolling a piano down the stairs, the annual Class Day, where kids would make lasting impressions by imitating Elvis or Bill Haley and the Comets. Barbara’s first day at Southie was the first day of busing. She wanted to go up there anyway, but the boycott was on and her parents told her to stay home. Like most of her friends, she observed the boycott until the Thanksgiving recess^ It was hard for her to make up all that lost classwork when she returned. She seethed inwardly every day, for she believed the teachers gave the Black kids all the breaks. She spent much of her time fighting the invaders. She had to, she said, for the pride of Southie. But those battles terrified her. She couldn’t concentrate in school, or see any point in studying when she got home. Her fear and confusion turned into outright pain when she was left back that spring. She returned to Southie the next September, but it was a world she’d never imagined — no one went to the football games; cops were swarming all over the school building; outside, you weren’t even allowed to pick up a snowball for fear that a fight that began innocently would trigger a race riot. “ It was like being in a cage,” she says. Depressed, she started playing hooky. She and Maureen would hang out at the sub shop for days at a time, flirting with the customers and countermen, arranging “ times” that would prove their corner had kids who knew how to party better than any other kids in South Boston. That spring Barbara was left behind again. Maureen had already quit school. Barbara decided to drop out, too. Barbara says that dozens of her classmates quit with her — kids who might have been on the football or hockey teams or in the band before the advent of busing. Some of the boys found jobs at the American Brush Company or Gillette. Some are still looking for work. At first she figured she’d get hired as a secretary with no trouble at all. But soon, “ I realized I couldn’t type or file the way they wanted. When they asked me where I’d been employed before, I had to tell them the truth . . . nowhere.” She still goes downtown to look for work once or twice a week, but without much hope. “ I feel like a flunky, a bum,” she says. The Black United Front’s stand for community control and against busing challenges the most basic tenets of white liberal thinking about education. Particularly it challenges white control of the system, and Blanchard’s firing represents the ascendency of this viewpoint. Perhaps it is this loss of control — coupled with the racism that often tinges the outlook of the white and powerful, no matter who they are — that accounts for the ferocity of the reaction of Hazen and Company. The elite have always tried to keep races and classes divided — the better to maintain their own hegemony — and the new wave of thinking among Portland’s Blacks threatens these divisions. Symbolic of the harmony that the BUF’s plan could engender, Board member Sarah Newhall received a call from Bob Nixon of the Longshoremen’s Union following the vote to fire Blanchard. Nixon told Newhall that he and 1,000 men behind him were in support of the Board’s decision, and that they had been trying to get rid of Blanchard and his busing policies for 10 years. In an interview, Ms. Newhall expressed concern that the Board would get blown out of the water before ever having a chance to implement their substantive changes. She hoped that the Front would see that this was the best board they were going to get and that they needed to work quietly behind the scenes to implement many more far-sighted educational policies. It would appear, however, that the unyielding pressure of the Black United Front has wrought the changes that have occurred so far. For the Black community the stakes are too high to compromise future generations. Anyone who is concerned with a progressive direction for education in Portland would do well to examine the Front’s position. We are at a crossroads now . . . down one path lies a unique opportunity to provide quality education for children of all races and classes. Down the other lie the broken dreams that recently found expression in the streets of Miami. The choice is ours. 7
CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY GRAND OPENING MONTH Encounters with Art by Alex the Milkman HABROMANIA 316 S.W. 9th, 223-0767 A CALLERY OF UNOFFICIAL & DEGENERATE ART 1124 SW 11TH AVE PDX ORE 97205 H R S '9A M -1P M ,7 1 0P M DAILY INFO - 241 3381 f r ic t io n group show - 11-26 July special even t • 24 July. 9pm georg la o 'kee ffe film 8 Illustration by Harold Schwamm
CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY Oregon Child Custody Case GAY RIGHTS COME HOME By Carlin Chrisman Not long ago Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Harlow Lenon granted a recently divorced mother of five custody of three of her children. What is unusual about Judge Lenon’s decision is that the mother, Joan Brown (not her real name) is a lesbian who makes no secret about her sexual preference. The concept of what will be “ in the best interest of the child” is the legal standard used to determine which parent will have custody in most divorce cases, but gay men and women have long suspected that decisions about parental fitness rest more on prejudice against homosexuality when the sexual orientation of the parents is known. Judge Lenon’s decision is therefore considered to be a victory for lesbians and for the gay community in general. Like other lesbian mothers who undergo custody fights for their children, Joan Brown discovered that the burden of proof was on her to show that lesbianism would not detrimentally affect her ability to be a parent. In the courtroom, whe was asked openly about her sexuality and about her feelings towards her lover and children, often in an insinuating or antagonistic manner. However, Joan and her lover Sandy Echland (also not a real name) did not back away from the questioning. On the cont r a ry , they open ly p resen ted themselves as lesbians in a relationship with each other — the first time this has been done successfully in an Oregon custody case — and asserted that their relationship would not adversely affect their ability to raise Joan’s children. Their victory came with the able help of attorney Katherine English of the Community Law Project and in the face of what English and Joan Brown believed to be homophobic feelings of the presidingjudge. Joan says she realized when she was a teenager that she was attracted to women, but that it was not something she could deal with at that time. “ I kept running from my feelings, ignoring and denying them, and ended up getting married,” she says. “ Years later I realized that it was not something I could hide from, and that I was so much happier accepting myself and my feelings.” She asked her husband for a divorce and told him that she was a lesbian, “ but he kept saying that it was okay, as long as there was still a place in my life for him, and he didn’t want a divorce.” Two years ago she met Sandy, and after a few months they began living together. Joan’s husband was in California with the Air Force reserves, and once more Joan wrote to him asking for a divorce. She and Sandy wanted to be parents to the children, and they were able to obtain temporary custody of them because Joan showed that she had been steadily employed and had supported the children for years. Joan believes that finding a sympathetic lawyer, and one who had had experience with lesbian custody cases, was a key to her gaining permanent custody. English was recommended to Joan by a friend, and she found the lawyer eager to take her case. Personal loans and pledges gave Joan the first thousand dollars she needed for a retainer, and now the legal bills — which amount to about $2,560 — are being paid with contributions from the Lesbian Mother’s Defense Fund and from local lesbians (see box). A second important factor in her successful fight, Joan says, was that she did not leave her children. She points to the case of Barbara Smith (not her real name), the first woman in an Oregon custody case to openly acknowledge her lesbianism, who was not successful. Barbara and her husband had been separated for a year, during which time she was supporting the children and her husband was not living in Oregon. When he returned to Portland, he insisted that he had the right to take the children for the summer, and Barbara agreed. This was a costly mistake, however, because she found that the courts are very reluctant to take children out of a settled situation. Since the children had been with their father for several months, and especially because his girlfriend at the time testified that they were going to get married, the judge decided to let the father keep the children. (Barbara’s ex-husband and his girlfriend later broke up.) Furthermore, Barbara’s attorney did not adequately prepare her for the trial, implying that the issue of her lesbianism would not be brought up. “ He just said I might be asked if I ’m a lesbian,” she says. “ In fact, this was the first question asked after my name and address, and it was the basis for my husband’s case against me.” Joan, on the other hand, feels that English prepared her well to deal with what she considers to be a homo- phobic court system. She was told, for example, that Multnomah County is the best county in Oregon for homosexuals attempting to win custody of their children, because here they are more likely to encounter a fair judge. However, although Judge Lenon gave custody of the three younger children to Joan (the two older children had asked to live with their father), he stated quite clearly in his closing remarks that he did not consider either parent to possess the qualities of a fit parent. This sort of speech, which English calls the “ custody to the least scuzzy of two scuzzies” speech, is apparently common in Judge Lenon’s court. This is not surprising, English explains, because of the way custody cases are tried, with each parent painting a detrimental picture of the other. “ Judges see each parent at their worst,” says English, “ so they naturally get an imperfect impression of the parenting.” This speech by Judge Lenon, however, was especially bitter. Judge Lenon told Joan that her conduct with her lover Sandy had been “ ...immature, markedly indiscreet, utterly gross and wholly impermissible.” He continued, “ She is selfish. She is self-centered and has, above all, shown ambivalence between her children and [Sandy Echland]. Her relation with [Sandy Echland] is inherently impermanent as demonstrated by [Sandy’s] statement that the last relation she had was two years long and has ended, and she is now in her early maturity.” Joan Brown believes that Lenon’s remarks echoed her husband’s claims that she and Sandy were indiscreet sexually in front of the children. These “ incidents” included roughhousing in front of the children, and an instance where one of the children had walked in on the couple while they were making love. Joan’s husband, Ed Brown (not his real name),, had, in fact, written numerous letters and made many telephone calls to Child Protective Services (CPS) complaining of impropriety in front of Illustration by Nan Wyldie 9
CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY u i iim ii iii iii iu i i i i i in n i i i i i i i i iM it i in u in i i i iH i i i iHH i i i i i i i i i The Lesbian Parenting Alliance originally began as a financial and emotional support group for lesbian women going through the ordeal of custody battles and now functions as a discussion and support group for lesbian mothers. How to raise children in a lesbian household is a primary concern of the group members, and other issues discussed are co-parenting; giving up children willingly (as opposed to having them taken away); dealing with ex-spouses and other men; raising male children; and coming out as lesbians to family and friends. The group meets regularly, but its membership is fairly flexible, with about 30 women and their children involved directly or through a related group called the Lesbian Mother’s Support Group. Paula Whittaker (not her real name), who started the support group, is concerned with providing a social setting where lesbian mothers can llUU II IlUUU IItllUH IIIIIIim illlllllllttU lllllllllllllllltltM II the children. “ CPS came out to investigate seven times as a result of Ed’s complaints,” says Sandy. “ The last few times they were here, they said they were just here for their records, to show that they had responded to all the complaints. They said they didn’t want to hassle us.” Joan and Sandy admitted that three incidents had taken place which they agreed were indiscreet, and they gave evidence that the indiscretion would not continue. However, says English, the fact that these incidents were brought up and given so much importance is that they occurred between a lesbian couple. “ I believe that if the couple had been heterosexual, these incidents wouldn’t have been treated with nearly the vitriol as they were in this case,” she says. “ These ‘incidents’ all occur regularly The Lesbian P; meet informally and plan activities together with their children. The support group is now setting up its summer calendar, with picnics, softball games, and visiting a petting zoo as some of the activities. Paula followed Joan Brown’s court case and felt that Judge Lenon made a fair decision in awarding her custody o f the younger children. “ 1 can see that Joan really cares about them, and they’re happy, rowdy children.” She spoke of the booth that the Lesbian Parenting Alliance sponsored at the Gay Pride Day Demonstration on June 21, which was decorated with the children’s drawings of their families. “ Joan’s children drew very happy, comfortable pictures,” says Paula. “One shows Joan and Sandy in their waterbed, one is a selfportrait, and one is a yard with playthings, all drawn in bright, cheerful colors.” Paula has custody of her two IIMM III IIU IU tlllllllim illllllllHn illU lUU IIIIItlllUU IIIIIIIHH IIIIII in normal, happy, sexually well- adjusted families. “ The courts aren’t known for their progressiveness in dealing with matters of sexuality,” continues English. “ It was only last year [in the Lee Marvin case] that they recognized a couple can live together without the benefit of marriage and still have some obligations to each other. It is my impression that Judge Lenon happens to believe that sexual play of any kind shouldn’t be engaged in in front of the children.” Joan also believes that Judge Lenon perceived her as ambivalent in her feelings towards Sandy and her children because of her answer to the question, “ If you had to choose between your lover and your children, which would you choose?” “ Your honor, that’s like asking me which I would prefer, to cut off my mting Alliance children, and feels very fortunate that she and her ex-husband were able to agree on such matters. “ I think one of the reasons custody cases are so bitter is that it is very hard for a man to accept his wife’s realization of her sexual preference for women,” she says. “ I’m sure men feel rejected or think they’re responsible, and this makes them react in a belligerent way. When I see what happens to other women who try to get custody of their children, I feel so lucky I’m blown away.” Paula said she knew before she married that she was a lesbian, but that she felt conditioned by society to get married. “ During the Fifties when I was becoming aware of my lesbianism, there was a tendency toward role-playing — the butch- fem business — that I didn’t identify with. I felt more identified with heterosexual women, and I got married fully expecting my marriage to last.” m iii iim in u i i i iu u i i i i i i iH i in i i i itm i i i i i i i i iM i i i i i i i i ituH i i i left arm or my right,” Joan replied. English had anticipated this question and prepared Joan to deal with it. It is nearly always asked of lesbian mothers and, says English, “ It is inevitably interpreted as showing that the mother won’t put her children before her lover. And it is a question rarely asked of heterosexual parents.” The statements of Judge Lenon’s are not unusual when placed in the context of other lesbian custody cases. Judges are often white, upper-middleclass men having little familiarity with alternative lifestyles in general, and moral prejudices against lesbians and gay men in particular. As one Massachusetts Supreme Court judge put it, finding against lesbian mother Bunny King, “ The environment . . . in which she proposes to raise the children, namely a lesbian household, creates an element of instability She believes that as society becomes more tolerant of homosexuality, more women will feel comfortable in expressing their lesbianism. “ I t’s not something you can squelch,” she says. “ For me, it S was reluctance to live a lifestyle | that no longer suited me.” The Lesbian Parenting Alliance was organized through the Lesbian Parenting Project, funded by a grant from the MacKenzie River Gathering. It is housed in the Community Law Project, which serves as a resource center for information on lesbian custody cases. They maintain background files on lesbian custody cases as a reference for other attorneys, as well as a community resource, and rent out a film on lesbian custody called, In the Best Interests o f the Children. The Community Law Project is also the Portland representative of the Seattle-based Lesbian Mother’s Defense Fund. m iim iHM im iumm i i iHmm i it i i itra i i i i i iu iM H 'i iuM i i i which would adversely affect the welfare of the children.” Judge Lenon said that Joan and Sandy’s relationship is inherently impermanent since Sandy’s last relationship had lasted two years, apparently believing that by age 21 she should have engaged in a long-term relationship. His opinion may be due to a societal prejudice which says that homosexuals cannot engage in stable, enduring relationships as heterosexuals can. Although many lesbian mothers have lost their cases solely on the basis of their sexual preference, it may also be only one of a number of factors the husband’s attorney uses to discredit the mother. Typically, Ed Brown’s attorney also brought up Joan’s housekeeping abilities. Joan admits that housekeeping isn’t her first priority, but felt that Judge Lenon was not sensitive to her situSUMMER WORKSHOP INSTEP STUDIOS 221 S E. 11th 235-2068 or 288-3072 Heidi Parisi — Artistic Director Aug. 11-15 Ballet Modern/Jazz Yoga Teenage Intro, to Dance Aug. 18-22 Modern Dance (Graham) Afro-Haitian Exercise Children’s Ballet Aug. 25-29 Modern Dance Ballet Aerobic Dance Tap Dance Workshops are designed for intensive study in a limited class. In order to reserve a place in class, send $10 non-refundable deposit applicable towards tuition. FEES: one class daily $18; two classes daily $35 (per workshop). 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