Street roots
Dec. 21, 2012
These are deeply rooted emotional and
psychological [pause] infections that have us
look at the world in certain ways. To rid
ourselves of these we need to talk. We need
to think, and we need to do high levels of
introspection. So I think we are ahead of the
game in some things, but we still haven’t
learned yet what to do about application of
the theory we hold.
A lifetime
in pursuit
of equality
J. T.: You sa id that the dialogue does not
direct itself to solutions. W hat k in d o f
solutions do we need a n d what kin d o f
problems would they address?
Kathleen Saadat
reflects on her
career as the city ’s
equity chief and the
solutions yet within
our reach
K. S.: [Sighs] Solutions have to do with
changing the systems in which we operate.
So that means you need to look at those
systems on several levels. Look at the
history, look at the policies, look at the
procedures, look at the people. If you can
find within those things barriers to equity,
barriers to equal treatment, then that’s
where you focus your efforts to change.
You can move a policy. You can rewrite a
policy. You can say it blocks, for instance,
people from disabilities from getting
through your hallways, then you change it.
But there’s a piece that we don’t touch
very well, and that’s the personal piece.
That’s the piece that requires me to do
introspection. That’s the piece that requires
that I do some sort of acceptance of the
reality of the history of this country as it has
treated people of color and women as it has
treated the mentally ill and the physically
disabled. There is a history there that we
refuse to acknowledge because we absolve
ourselves of any responsibility. Now I’m not
saying that people are responsible for the
past, but they benefit from it or they suffer
from it. And that’s a conversation that we
don’t have very well, the one that requires
us to look at ourselves and see what our
role is in all this.
BY JAKE THOMAS
STAFF WRITER
n Dec. 10, Kathleen Saadat accepted
the Lifetime Achievement from the
Portland Human Rights Commission.
The award comes as Saadat, 72, prepares to
retire from her position as diversity
development/affirmative action manager for
the city of Portland.
Saadat has long been a presence in
Oregon working to advance equality and
social justice. Originally born in St. Louis,
Saadat passed through Oregon on a trip to
Anchorage, Alaska, in the late 1960s to visit
her brother who was stationed there in the
military. She fell in love with the beauty of
the area and moved to Portland in 1970.
She has occupied a litany of positions
during her career, bfte
Cascade AIDS Project, served as the state
stigma. That means more of us need to be
director of affirmative action, was an
talking about it with our friends about what
assistant to Portland City Commissioner
we think we could do. People need to get
Gretchen Kafoury and strategic plan
tested, too.
coordinator for Multnomah County’s
Department of Community and Family
J. T.: What did you mean by the politics o f
Services. She has also served on Portland’s
Human Rights Commission, and has sat on a sexual behavior?
range of boards and committees.
K. S.: Well, sex is a big political issue in
Saadat also helped organize Portland’s
this country. I mean just look at the past
first gay rights march and was active in
election and all this stuff around women and
opposing Measure 9, an anti-gay ballot
whether or not we should have trans-vaginal
initiative that was voted down in 1992.
ultrasounds. Gender and sex are all through
everything, and it’s a struggle when you are
Jake Thom as: You’ve worked with
laboring under stereotypes about your
Cascade A id s Project. You’ve been working on
sexual behavior, and then something
the issue o f A I D S fo r a long time. What are we
touches you like AIDS or HIV and the
getting right and what still needs im proving?
stereotype is exploited to your disadvantage.
So if you’re seen as promiscuous, as gay
K athleen Saadat: The thing that needs
men are, period, then that stereotype comes
to happen, from my perspective, to more
to haunt you when you begin to talk about
effectively address AIDS is to give better
remedies for HIV and AIDS. If you’re seen
sex education starting with children. It isn’t
as oversexed, as many African American
just about AIDS. AIDS is a sexually
men are, then that stereotype begins to
transmitted disease, but we don’t protect
haunt you when you begin to talk about
our children by letting them know about
education and preventative measures in the
sex, sexuality, sexual behavior, the
African American community.
consequences of their sexual behavior and
the politics of their sexual behavior. So we
J.T.: Portland’s demographics have changed
need to start there. We need to remove the
O
considerably over the last two decades. D o you
think Portland, as a city a n d culture, has a
good grasp on how to celebrate or even engage
that diversity?
K.S.: No. But I don’t think they’re the
worst on the block. I think Portland works
hard at trying to celebrate, embrace and live
with diversity. Portland is certainly ahead of
a lot of places, in that we have lots of
conversations going on here about diversity
and the impact of racism and the impact of
sexism. There’s lots going on here, which
means there’s an opportunity for dialogue.
You can go to McMenamins once a month
and listen to Race Talks, which is the
program that McMenamins support. You
can go almost anywhere in this city and find
somebody talking about lesbian and gay
issues or women’s issues or older people’s
issues.
The problem is not the dialogue. The
dialogue is good. The dialogue frequently
does not point toward some action that will
remedy the situation. That is one of the
problems. The other problem is people tend
to think that these issues are simplistic: that
all one has to do is raise your hand shout,
let it be done, and it’s done. It’s not true.
J. T.: You served on the city’s H um an
Relations Committee. In retrospect, do you
think it helped?
K. S.: Yes. Yes. It was a place that was
willing, where the people were courageous
enough to say, let’s look at immigration, or,
let’s have a hard look at how our local
government is interacting with the federal
government with these immigration cases.
It was courageous; it was public. It would
say, let’s have a look at what’s going on with
the police here in Portland. So, yes, I think
they’re an incredibly important as a voice
that reminds us of the direction we say we
want to go and that holds us accountable by
ensuring that people who ordinarily
wouldn’t be heard are heard.
J. T.: Affirm ative action has become a
loaded term over the years. What does it mean
to yo u ?
K. S.: Affirmative action is a tool. It’s a
tool that was introduced as a remedy to past
discrimination and the impact of past
discrimination. The people who have been
resistant to equalize things have often made
See SA A D A T page 5
Street Roots is a proud partner
with Jesuit Volunteer Corps
Northwest and Americorps.