Political liberation has yet to translate into material gains for blacks. As one woman said, “I’ve gone from a shack to a shack.”

I was at Portland City Hall last week supporting a program called COEP Contractor Opportunity Enhance Program. Its a program designed to allocated 1% of the proceeds from a small selected group of city owned projects to assist in the development of minority, women and other disadvantaged business contractors. I supported the program because I concluded something is better than nothing.  Although I knew that 1% is close to nothing.  I compared it to the Arts Tax  which is at 2%. The Mayor suggested that it was not enough but he intended to leverage it into something bigger.  In this political season I heard the echos of another prominent activist “Promises Promise Promise”.  After several decades of promising equity, blacks are still at the bottom and I compared it to Apartheid like in South Africa. Continuing several decades of keeping blacks at the bottom, the City is still not interested in significantly divesting in the unions and other institutional systems that maintain Portland’s economic Apartheid with blacks status quo at the bottom.

I never knew Chief Outlaw however I wish her well.  But God knows given the circumstances, her tenure here could only be described as “Mission Impossible”. What is more concerning for me, is the pattern at City Hall of hiring upwardly mobile blacks from around the country who are destined to stay only a few fleeting years. Is Portland becoming Grand Central Station for black transient professionals on the way up? There is nothing wrong with more black professionals climbing another rung on the latter of success regardless of where they come from. But there is a need to stay long enough to understand and appreciate the unique needs and politics of this community. And the truth is regardless of race or sex, Portland needs a Police Chief with long term intentions and demonstrated commitment of breaking the practice of police killing black people at the drop of the hat. I am still trying to figure out why  Kevin Modica is not Chief of Police.

There is nothing worse than a Lying Preacher except maybe a Lying President. 

The New Black Chamber of Commerce

Oh My God. Here we go again. With the exception of Mr. Cason, nobody knows these people. They must all be related and/or work for each other. It smells like another SCAM. And they have the nerve to use the NAACP to birth this mess.

But here’s what I think:

What is it about Portland that encourages and accepts pathological behavior from devious black people? There is a persistent and clear pattern followed by people like E.D. Mondaine.

We’ve seen this movie before. And it’s really a very scary one. It’s called the Roy Jay Rerun and here is the script or story line:

• Find, commandeer and embed yourself into a vulnerable weak non-profit organization like a local NAACP having a solid national reputation and brand.
• Exploit the organization’s weaknesses by imposing self-serving directives over national recognized rules, bylaws and directives.
• Structure and leverage executive officers and processes in absolute conformance to your directives, tolerating no descent.
• Use the organization for personal gain while building self-serving economic and political platforms.
• Latching on to every troubling issue that will further your public profile and your external leadership credentials.
• Produce grandiose events and circumstances primarily centered around your self-serving agenda.
• Cultivate relationships with conveniently naive public officials seeking to ingratiate themselves to the black community.
• Effectively use the NAACP brand without commensurate compensation to the national office.
• Lie and use the misery of black people to gain personal prominence.
• Mis-use membership money and resources to foster a false narrative about the needs, conditions, and aspirations of black people.
• Pretend it is all about us when it’s really all about you.
• Co-opt the local black press with patronizing ads and back door financial deals. Getting the black press to run glorifying un-sourced propaganda.
• Use social media to lie and manipulate public perceptions about your capabilities and motives.
• Sense a void and fill it with a bogus a organization like the Black Chamber of Commerce sham.
• Claiming to be the victim when your dirty deeds are exposed.

Somebody answer me, why do we keep going through this over and over again? I feel like we are contending with the Devil himself disguised as God’s servant.

Whew.

I just saw on a recent Facebook post where Senator Ron Wyden is smiling along side another grinning Negro type. All the while professing to save the black community the image is obscene but fits a pattern for both. Wyden has played the black community like a fiddle for most of his career but because he is still in power, he’s got the Tom-like Negros cuddling up to him. Don’t be fooled by either of these characters, black people are behind the spotted owl and tree seedlings when comes to real action and support from Ron Wyden.

It seems like we have been marching and demonstrating forever in Portland.  Indeed, during the civil right movement, one veteran demonstrator captured the feeling accurately in thought, saying, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”.

No one is sure that the local power structure gets it, but it is clear that there is not the urgency of action necessary to effectively deal with many conditions in Portland that so accurately mirror those in Ferguson, MO. The festering issues of racial profiling, gentrification, job and housing discrimination are acutely similar to Ferguson. What is even more frighting is the fact that some of our elected leaders seem to be gravitating towards a repeat of the mistakes of the past: positioning the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff instead of building the necessary barricades at the top. Continue reading In the wake of Ferguson, can Portland avoid the mistake of acting too little too late? →

In the last few weeks there has been considerable discussion about minority contractor advocacy  in the media. http://theskanner.com/article/Leadership-Changes-Rock-National-Association-of-Minority-Contractors-Oregon-2013-08-06. But a close examination of work sites around Portland will reveal that not much has changed since the mid-seventies in terms of participation by blacks and other minority contractors.   There have been a few bright spots, like Tri-Met continued efforts to maximize the use of minorities. Continue reading Change is coming to Minority Contracting →

Is there new hope for Portland Black’s economic future supported by PDC?

The controversy about PDC’s decision to sell property on the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Alberta to an out of state developer opens up a ton of questions about the economic future of Portland’s black citizens. The developers intend to build a Trader Joe store on the location and the proposal has sparked consternation from some community leaders and approval from others. Continue reading Is There New Hope for Portland Black’s Economic Future Supported by PDC? →