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First they came for us
Oregon has joined the growing effort to eliminate affirmative action and mandate discrimination against immigrants
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by Inga Sorensen
believe it. I tell them, ‘No, I think affirmative
ay men and lesbians in Oregon know
action is necessary.’ ”
what it’s like to be the target of
"I’m afraid to say that there is a growing
discriminatory initiatives. All along,
hostility out there about affirmative action,” says
opponents of the measures targeting
William Lunch, a political analyst for Oregon
gay men and lesbians have put forth
Broadcasting and a political science pro
the notion that these campaigns were Public
just the
fessor at Oregon State University. He believes
beginning of a conservative effort to scale back
that if a vote were held tomorrow asking citizens
the rights of women, people of color, the poor and
whether they wanted to maintain or abolish the
immigrants. The growing anti-affirmative action
state’s affirmative action policy, the latter would
and anti-immigrant sentiment currently sweeping
win hands down.
the nation, they say, proves their point.
“I have a copy of the Oregon Citizens
“I really do think a lot of this goes back to the
ending of the Cold War. Like so many Americans,
Alliance’s training manual, which flat-out says
I never thought I would live to see the Berlin Wall
the group is opposed to affirmative action. It’s
come down. The Cold War gave Americans an
right there,” says LaVeme Lewis, executive di
external target to focus on. That threat has been
rector of the Lesbian Community Project. ‘‘We’ve
been saying all along that the OCA’s attack on
removed, and now we’re targeting minorities and
gays and lesbians was just the tip of the iceberg,
women, gays and immigrants. It’s a very nasty
climate out there,” he says, adding, "It’s not like
but nobody has been listening.”
Like gay and lesbian rights in the early 1990s,
there weren’t people like Lon Mabon and Pat
affirmative action and immigration have become
this year’s hot-button electoral issues. Several
initiatives and legislative measures designed to
eliminate affirmative action programs and crack
down on illegal immigrants are being considered
by federal and state lawmakers. On a federal
level, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate
Majority Leader Bob Dole have called for hear
ings on affirmative action, and reports say conser
vative policy experts are working with party lead
ers to eliminate funds for the 160 affirmative
action provisions in federal law, killing them off
by eliminating their funding.
Federal affirmative action policies, which were
established in the 1960s, are designed to mitigate
past and present discrimination based on race,
religion, national origin, age, gender, veteran
status or disabilities. This is done through govern
mental, corporate and college guidelines which
require that qualified women and people of color
be hired and promoted in order to create equity in
the workplace and educational institutions.
Oregon law, meanwhile, requires that all
branches of state government and its contractors
engage in affirmative action to offer “fair and
equal opportunities for employment and advance
ment in programs and services and in the award
ing of contracts.”
State Rep. Bob Tieman (R-Lake Oswego)
introduced a bill this session that would have
repealed provisions in existing state law that
review or encourage affirmative action. House
Buchanan parading around before the end of the
Bill 3394 would have also prohibited the state and
Cold War. There were. But now they’ve got a
its political subdivisions from “utilizing affirma
much broader audience listening to their rheto-
tive action in employment, contracting or provi
sion of public services.”
While the bill is considered all but dead, the
ased on that rhetoric, one would think white
issue remains very much alive. A group called
men were being discriminated against in
Oregonians for Equal Rights, which drafted the
droves. That doesn’t seem to be the case,
language for HB 3394, has already filed papers
however. Consider the following: The U.S. Labor
with the state to place an initiative on the ballot
Department has reviewed discrimination opin
that would do exactly what HB 3394 would have
ions by U.S. district courts and courts of appeal
between 1990 and 1994. It found fewer than 100
done.
reverse-discrimination judgments among the more
And don’t think the anti-affirmative action
mentality is limited to Republicans and conserva
than 3,000 cases. Another new study concluded
tives. "Those feelings definitely cross party lines,”
that an estimated 95 percent of senior manage
says state Rep. George Eighmey (D-Portland).
ment positions in major companies are held by
white men.
Eighmey, who is a strong supporter of affirmative
action, says a handful of his Democratic col
Bias is not only found in the workplace. Edwin
leagues have secretly professed their support for
J. Peterson, a former Oregon Supreme Court
the growing anti-affirmative action movement.
justice, recently spoke before the Portland City
"They’ve come up to me and said, ‘I’m really
Club about a report on racial and ethnic issues in
glad the Republicans are doing this. We never
the judicial system. The 65-year-old Peterson told
could have done that when we were in the major
the crowd that the courts are racially biased against
nonwhites. (More than a dozen bills have been
ity,’ ” he recounts. "They say, ‘Come on, George,
you know you feel the same way.’ And I just can’t
introduced this session that address the problem.)
G
B
Statewide, Johnnie Bell, administrator for the
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries civil
rights division, which investigates discrimination
claims, says in her 16 years with the bureau she
knows of “only two or three” discrimination com
plaints brought by white men saying they had
been the victim of racial discrimination.
‘T ake a look at the faces of senior and middle
management. Take a look at the faces of those
people who are getting public works contracts.
The vast majority are white men,” she says.
“I agree it’s important for us to take the time
and evaluate how well affirmative action pro
grams are working. That just hasn’t happened,”
says Prince Washington, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s
acting director of affirmative action. Washington
estimates a little more than half of the state gov
ernment work force is made up of women; less
than 2 percent of the work force is African Ameri
can.
Though there are no statistics detailing how
many illegal immigrants are in Oregon. Markham
has contended that undocumented immigrants are
a primary cause of the state’s economic and crime
problems.
After Markham introduced his bill, there was
loud outcry on the part of many Latino/a organi
zations, and Kitzhaber vowed to veto the mea
sure. Tieman, chairman of the House General
Government and Regulatory Reform Committee,
has said he will not schedule a hearing on HB
2933, virtually ensuring its demise. Two other
measures, however, have been introduced that
would have a similar effect. They are HB 3284,
which would require proof of citizenship or legal
immigration status in order to receive a driver’s
license, and Senate Bill 999, which would in
crease criminal penalties for making false immi
gration documents.
“Illegal immigrants just aren’t the problem in
Oregon that they may be in California. I think
some lawmakers here are trying to milk the issue
for what they think it’s worth,” says Bradley
Maier, immigration coordinator for Sponsors
Organized to Assist Refugees, an organization of
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, which repre
sents 17 denominations and 2,000 congregations
statewide. “What’s really ironic about this whole
thing, though, is that historically the United States
has encouraged immigrants to come here so that
there is a cheap and abundant labor pool.” For
example, says Maier, in 1981 the federal govern
ment granted special status to illegal immigrants
so agri-business would have an inexpensive labor
source.
Much like anti-sexual-minority-rights efforts,
Maier believes there is a national organization
fueling the anti-immigration campaigns that have
ignited in many states. He specifically cites the
work of the Washington, D.C.-based Federation
for American Immigration Reform. "It’s the OCA
of immigration issues,” he says.
L
ike affirmative action, Oregonians may be
voting on an anti-immigrant initiative in the
near future— Markham has publicly threat
ened to turn to the initiative process to push his
plan.
"I think all of this shows how important it is for
PHOTO BY LINDA KUEWEH
the liberal left to begin to work together,” says
Dave Farber, chair of the Harmony Committee, a
broad
coalition of individuals and organizations
“I’ve been told the governor plans to conduct
including the Lesbian Community Project, the
a state study exploring whether minorities and
American Jewish Committee, Blacks in Govern
women hit a glass ceiling,” says Washington,
ment, Cascade AIDS Project, the U S West Foun
who is also president of the Black Networking
dation,
US Bank and many others.
Association. "We need to begin to assess what’s
The committee meets on a regular basis to
what, rather than making knee-jerk assumptions.”
network and discuss human-rights-related issues.
Both Bell and Washington say their respective
Most recently it hosted a meeting which focused
offices plan to conduct a series of public forums
on the growing white supremacist activity in the
to help separate the rhetoric from the reality. That
Pacific Northwest.
strategy will also be employed by the national
“I think citizens are tired of being misled by
American Association for Affirmative Action,
government, so they’re listening to other sources.
which met two weeks ago in Portland for its
The right has done a very effective job in making
annual conference.
themselves a source. We have to do the same,”
says Farber.
mmigrant rights are also the focus of heated
debate. Earlier this session, state Rep. Bill
“There could very likely be three initiatives on
the ballot next time: one that is anti-gay, one that is
Markham (R-Riddle) introduced a bill mod
eled after California’s Proposition 187, a ballot anti-affirmative action, and one that is anti-immi
grant. I think this clearly shows why it’s important
measure approved by voters last year. Like that
that a group like the Harmony Committee be
initiative, Markham’s HB 2933 sought to prohibit
active. It allows us the chance to educate each other
undocumented immigrants from obtaining public
about our respective communities,” adds LCP’s
education, social services and health care. It would
Lewis. "We are many groups coming together to
have required public schools to verify the immi
fight the common threat of oppression.”
gration status of students and would have forced
police to check the status of all people arrested.
I