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Street Roots • June 26-July 3, 2015
Creating a vision fo r equity in Oregon
Nkenge H annon Johnson and Katie Sawicki,
o f the Urban League o f Portland, share insights
about the latest State o f Black Oregon report
BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT
obviously has limited capacity, so how do you
prioritize what needs to be accomplished first?
S TA FF W R ITE R
ast month, the Urban League of
N.H J .: So here’s the good thing about
Portland released the State of Black
the report. There are action steps at the
Oregon 2015, the second iteration in
end of every chapter, there are things that
its series of reports released roughly every
we can jump on and get to work on right
five years. Through data, case studies,
now. It is not the work plan for the Urban
essays, profiles and portraits, these studies
League. It is the work plan for all those
detail the economic and social realities of
people who understand that this work is
life for black Oregonians.
important for our community and for our
The latest report tells the stories of
state.
several organizations and individuals
B
working hard to advance racial equality in
Oregon. However, the numbers show that
since the first report, in 2009, many,
economic and social conditions have not
improved for black Oregonians, and some
areas, such as unemployment racial
disparity, has actually gotten worse.
New Urban League President and CEO
Nkenge Harmon Johnson and policy director
Katie Sawicki, the executive editor of the
new State of Black Oregon, hosted Street
Roots at the Urban League’s headquarters
in North Portland to talk about the new
report and its potential to facilitate race .
equity across Oregon.
Katie Sawicki: One of our hopes when
we put these reports out is to be a convener
of a lot of these different components. So
while we won’t be doing all the work, we see
one of our roles as creating a vision for what
equity looks like in the state of Oregon and
saying, hey there has been so much work
done around this. We’re gonna put it in one
place so we can all see what we’ve done so
far and where we can go. So that we’re not
all starting from scratch each time.
that the Urban League included in the
report stories and some information about
these groups means that in the future when
other folks start to do this work, they have
to include these groups so that eventually
there will be data.
A.G.: There’s so much data in the report,
but there’s not as much data fo r black
immigrants and black L G BTQ people.
K.S.: It’s about creating that visibility and
saying we know that you are here, and now
everyone else does too. And I think that is,
to me, 50 percent of why this report is so
important and why all the photographs in
the report are all real black Oregonians.
There’s not a single stock photo in there,
and that was because we wanted people to
not just read that there are black people in
Ashland but to see that. A lot of times,
that’s the most powerful thing.
N.H J.: That’s one of the reasons that the
team took pains to talk to people. Because
in cases where there isn’t pre-existing data,
at the very least you have to have stories.
And that can inform our work a great deal,
especially as you start to hear the same
story in different places. It opens a window
to the idea that there’s a need to collect
data about these different communities,
where before people may have been able to
deny these communities even
existed.
The
fact
N.H J .: Jobs, the high unemployment
rate in the African-American community,..
Unemployment, the rate has gone down all
across our state, especially in Portland
and Multnomah County. But it still
turns out that black folks have
higher rates of unemployment
than everybody else. The same
thing is true in .other parts of
the state in rural
communities where they
hear about all of the
wonderful things that are
happening in our economy
and all the businesses
that are coming to our
state, all the jobs that are
being grown here and
there, but none of that is
happening in their
communities.
Health care: You can .
use the same example. A
reason that a woman in
North Portland doesn’t
seek early prenatal care,
doesn’t receive early
prenatal care is the same
response am ong the bigwigs been (to the State
o f Black Oregon)?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson: Really
good. People have been excited about
the report. They have been curious
about it. Fve had a few different
meetings where before I arrived
to meet the new “bigwig,”
they had already reviewed the
report, either the hard copy
because they had shown up
somewhere where we were
selling it before we sold out
or they’ve gone online to
download i t We launched
the report over a month
ago, and there
continues to be
excitement around it.
New folks encounter it
every day.
A.G.: There is so
much in the report, and
the Urban League
See REPORT,
page 5
he State of Black Oregon isn’t just a
compilation of statistics, but an examination
of numerous factors in the lives of black
Oregonians and what needs to be done to
improve the lives of all, All of the areas covered
include recommendations and policy initiatives
for economic and social change. The report
also honors the historic contributions of black
settlers and visionaries, as well as the diversity
and partnerships within the black community,
B i H
N.H J .: That there are so many issues
that we found, some of the shocking data
relevant to black folks in Oregon that is on
point for white people who live in rural
communities in our state.
A.G.: What do you mean by that?
Ann-Derrick Gaillot: W hat has the initial
H -
A.G.: You both know a lot about the
lowercase state o f black Oregon, but in the
State o f Black Oregon was there anything that
surprised you?
SU
Nonetheless, many challenges stand out as
imperatives for change:
■ Despite steady economic improvement,
black unemployment remains double that of
white Oregonians. Thirty percent of blacks live
in poverty, with the income gap between white
and black Oregonians higher now than it was
prerecession.
■ Between 2000, and 2010, the fulMime
employment rate for white men increased 2.5
percent. For black men, it dropped more than
10 percent. For white women it dropped just
over 1 percent. For black women, the full-time
unemployment rate dropped nearly 11 percent.
scores, higher drop-out rates and lower college
enrollment. Black students also have a much
higher rate of borrowing money for a college
education and a far higher rate of not finishing
due to debt
■ In education, black students face significantly
disproportionate discipline rates, from
elementary school to high school. That, plus the
impact of poverty, community displacement and
related factors have led to lower achievement
■ Only 32 percent of black households are
homeowners, compared to 65 percent of white
households. Only 1 out of every 100 small
businesses in Oregon are black-owned
businesses (1.2 percent).