Viewpoint: Bad News for Blacks

By ISHMAEL REED Ishmael Reed''s latest book is The Terrible Threes.

Before Columbus, an organization devoted to the promotion and distribution of multicultural literature, has an office in the Ginn House, one of 16 renovated buildings in Oakland's showcase Preservation Park. From there, I can at times envision the grand design of a multicultural nation with its capital in Oakland, America's most integrated and multicultural city, where, in some districts, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans and European Americans live side by side. But at other times I wonder whether in 20 years, blacks, finding themselves faced with soaring yellow and brown racism, might miss the uncomplicated old days when the only racism they had to contend with was white racism. (

The highly publicized success of Asian Americans, 29 culturally distinct groups that are sometimes classified by California demographers as white, is being used by the media and some members of the policy elite to embarrass African Americans. Some Asian Americans have documented the existence of an Asian-American "underclass" (people engaged in socially deviant behavior or living below the poverty line, or both). But such findings have not dented the widespread impression that these groups are "model" minorities. Blacks are seen as less hardworking and less deserving than members of model minorities -- although 90% of them hold jobs and their West African ancestors were members of a society whose work ethic out-Calvined Calvin's.

Here is a sample of things to come: in July, Oakland's black city manager, Henry L. Gardner, came under fire from a coalition of Latino groups because Latino Americans weren't sufficiently represented among the finalists for the position of Oakland fire chief. Though Gardner was not obligated under the city charter to find a candidate from every ethnic group, he was praised for a statesmanlike gesture when he extended the search for a period of 30 days. An additional Latino candidate was found, but the job went to an African American. Lewis Butler, who resurrected an organization called California Tomorrow, had it right when he said, "In a multicultural environment, affirmative action may mean taking a job away from a black person and giving it to an Asian or Latino."

But for every case of interethnic conflict one can cite a case of cooperation. Unlike school boards in San Francisco and Berkeley, the Oakland school board rejected Houghton Mifflin textbooks that it considered racist and sexist. Though the local press and the New York Times presented the textbook opponents as raving, politically correct Afrocentrics, one of the most eloquent speeches opposing the textbook adoption was made by a Chinese American.

Few who have examined the evidence will disagree that Oakland is losing investments because of its image as a black-run city. In addition to its city manager, its mayor (Elihu Harris), the publisher of its leading newspaper (Robert Maynard), even the director of its symphony orchestra (Michael Morgan) are all black. Investors also shy away from Oakland because of its underground crack economy. Though drive-by shootings continue, there is evidence that the crack problem is waning, a fact overlooked by the national media. News organizations blame blacks for the drug problem and ignore the participation in the drug trade of other ethnic groups, but drug dealing in Northern California and other parts of the country is a multicultural enterprise. Yet during early August, NBC aired the typical black-grandmothers- raising-crack-babies story, when there are plenty of suburban white grandparents in the same situation.

Despite the fire that left 5,000 homeless in Oakland last month, I would rather live here than in any other city in the country because it remains a place of promise and culture. Besides its championship sports teams, it boasts an international cuisine, rap and blues sound, and at one time or another has been home to such literary luminaries as Gertrude Stein, Jack London, Joaquin Miller, Jack Foley, Floyd Salas and Ambrose Bierce.

Not long ago, I was giving Bharati Mukherjee, a writer from India who now lives in Berkeley, what I call the Ishmael Reed Oakland tour, which lately has also been given to an Australian Aborigine writer, three Czech writers and an Italian television crew, a professor of film from the University of Bologna and the French editor of an African magazine. As we rounded Lake Merritt -- an urban gem endowed with islands that attract migratory waterfowl -- she said she hadn't realized that Oakland is so beautiful. I replied that a lot of us run down this city that the rappers call "Oaktown" because we don't want anybody else moving here. I was more than half serious.