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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2021)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2021 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK There were 1,101 reports of hate, bias in Oregon last year Dianne Lugo Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK People gather for a wellness day at Capaces Leadership Institute as the organization celebrates its 10th anniversary. BRIAN HAYES / STATESMAN JOURNAL A future of Latino leaders CAPACES prepares a future wave of leaders to lead their communities Dora Totoian Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK In 2018, while searching for commu- nity as a recent college graduate, Jules Martinez Plancarte signed up for the People’s Representatives training through the CAPACES Leadership Institute in Woodburn, designed for Lat- inx people to explore serving in elected or appointed decision-making bodies. The 26-year-old described instantly feeling welcome, and considered run- ning for office down the road. But when the Newberg City Council had a vacancy in January 2020, the tim- ing was right, she said, and she became the first Latina to serve on the city’s council. “If I wouldn’t have had that support and network from the CAPACES Leader- ship Institute, I don’t think I would’ve taken that step so early on in my career,” Martinez Plancarte, now also a staff member at CAPACES, said. "We’re not just serving the community, we’re work- ing and co-creating with the communi- ty.” On July 13, the CAPACES Leadership Institute celebrated its 10th anniversary. The organization, part of the Alianza Poder network, supports leadership de- velopment in Latinx communities, with a focus on strengthening political con- sciousness and eliminating social dis- parities. “Part of it is to have the communities’ experience at decision-making tables- ...given the demographic changes we’ve experienced," CAPACES executive direc- tor Jaime Arredondo said, describing one CAPACES program. "And we want to also emphasize this isn’t about the rep- resentatives, it’s about the people they’re representing.” The network's other organizations, such as the farmworker union PCUN, Mano a Mano and Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, arose out of need, while CAPACES emerged from op- portunity, Arredondo said. “We’re not responding to emergencies here. We’re built on opportunity, on the future, on self-actualization,” Arredondo said. “We try to marry community wis- dom with institutional knowledge —that's kind of our secret sauce.” The programs at CAPACES, the plural of “capable” in Spanish, encourage civic engagement, support young people in their leadership development and con- nect families to their agricultural and cu- linary heritage. The organization also serves as the backbone of the Oregon Latinx Leader- ship Network, a group of over 100 com- munity-based organizations started amid the pandemic. 'Our past is very deep' While CAPACES is turning 10 this week, the organization was decades in the making, Arredondo said, going back to the founding of PCUN in 1985, and to the creation of the Willamette Valley Im- The programs at CAPACES, the plural of “capable” in Spanish, encourage civic engagement, support young people in their leadership development and connect families to their agricultural and culinary heritage. migration Project in 1977, started to sup- port undocumented workers in response to increased immigration raids in the state. More than a thousand people walked through the doors of the original blue house of PCUN to process their immigra- tion papers after the Immigration Re- form and Control Act of 1986, Arredondo said, including his father and father-in- law. The lumber from that house was used in the new CAPACES building, which re- lied on community members to pull weeds and put up the building’s walls, Arredondo said. Community members also rallied in 2012 to change a Woodburn city ordi- nance to allow public murals, making way for the mural depicting the history of Woodburn’s farmworker movement on the building and for other murals that now color downtown Woodburn. The mural reflects CAPACES’ empha- See CAPACES, Page 4A Oregon’s Olympians: Tokyo-bound athletes with ties to state Chris Hansen Register-Guard | USA TODAY NETWORK From July 21 through Aug. 8, America will be rooting for its more than 500 ath- letes competing in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. But some will hold a special spot in Oregon’s heart. They include Oregon natives, current and former Uni- versity of Oregon Ducks and Oregon State University Beavers, and those who love calling this state home. Here are some of the Olympic athletes with Oregon connections to follow: Jade Carey Sport: Women’s gymnastics Oregon connection: A future Oregon State University student The 21-year-old from Arizona punched her ticket to Tokyo prior to the Olympic Trials by winning both floor ex- ercise and vault in the individual event World Cup series. She’ll compete as an individual at the games. She only competed in two events on the second day of trials – bars and beam. Carey started gymnastics when she was 2. Her parents owned a gym at the time, and her dad, Brian Carey, is now her head coach. According to Oregon State University, Carey signed her letter of intent with the school in 2017, but has deferred while training for the Olympics. She enrolled in classes in 2020 but did not compete for the Beavers while she continued to train for the Tokyo Games. She has an aunt and uncle who at- tended OSU and chose the school “be- cause of the positive team environment and the amazing coaching staff. I also fell in love with the gorgeous campus,” according to OSU. Matthew Centrowitz Sport: Track & Field, men’s 1,500 Oregon connection: Graduated from University of Oregon, runs with Bower- man Track Club. The 2016 Olympic champ proved he’s still at the top of his game when he fin- ished second by a step to Oregon fresh- man Cole Hocker during the Olympic Trials last month in Eugene. A master in-race tactician with a for- midable kick, the 31-year-old veteran will be a medal threat in Tokyo during his third Olympic Games. “I knew where my fitness was (at the Olympic Trials) and I know where I need to get to,” Centrowitz said on June 27. He’ll have plenty of familiar faces around him. Centrowitz is in his second summer See OLYMPIANS, Page 4A Vol. 140, No. 31 Online at SilvertonAppeal.com News updates: h Breaking news h Get updates from the Silverton area Photos: h Photo galleries Serving the Silverton Area Since 1880 A Unique Edition of the Statesman Journal QEAJAB-07403y Oregon’s second annual report on hate crimes and bias shows reports of incidents against people of color spiked in 2020 during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and lat- er the presidential election, and con- tinue to rise this year. And in more than 30% of the inci- dents reported, the perpetrator was a police officer or some other govern- ment employee. The report released this month de- scribes data collected by the Oregon Department of Justice’s hotline. The hotline records reports of bias inci- dents and connects victims to various resources. Victims reported hundreds of inci- dents of harassment, vandalism and assault perpetrated in large part by strangers but also by the government. The data are a first glimpse at how Ore- gon’s changing bias crime laws and new efforts to connect victims with re- sources has perhaps helped uncover more victims in need of support. The report is a result of Senate Bill 577, which passed during the 2019 leg- islative session and changed bias crime reporting criteria. It also direct- ed the Oregon Criminal Justice Com- mission to review data about bias crimes and incidents during 2020. Additionally, SB 577 required the Department of Justice to establish a hate crimes hotline dedicated to as- sisting victims, witnesses and other reporters of bias crimes and incidents. The hotline opened in January 2020. More than 1,000 reports of bias According to the report, 1,101 reports of bias were made to the Bias Response Hotline. Hotline advocates who re- sponded to the reports determined that 304 of them were bias/hate crimes and 606 were bias incidents. Under Oregon statutes, a bias crime is a verbal, physical or visual crime that is motivated in part or in whole by bias against someone’s perceived race, color, national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. Gender identity was added as a protected class under SB 577. Bias incidents are someone’s “hos- tile expression of animus towards an- other person, relating to the other per- son’s perceived race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or national origin, of which criminal investigation or prosecution is impossible or inappropriate.” To make the determination, hotline advocates inquire whether a protected class was involved, whether the inci- dent involved a hostile expression of animus based on a protected class and whether the victim or reporter believes the offender was motivated by bias. Advocates did not investigate the reports made to the hotline them- selves. The report makes clear that the advocates are “centered on the tenet of belief.” Of the 1,101 calls made to the hotline, 492 were reports of harassment (45%). Reports about institutional bi- as conduct made up 23% of the re- ports. The hotline also categorized 142 of the reports as incidents of assault (13%). The other reported incidents types were vandalism (7%), refusal of service (5%), and doxing (1%). The hotline was unable to determine the incident type for 76 of the reports (7%). Race-based incidents the majority Most of the reports involved race- based targeting (63%). Of those 695 incidents reported, 55% of were re- ports of anti-Black or African-Ameri- can incidents. Anti-Hispanic or Latinx reports made up 16% of the reported incidents involving race and 10% were anti- Asian. The report adds that the hotline was tracking whether reporters believed their experience was related to health and political events that occurred dur- See HATE, Page 2A
