Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2003)
was like, ‘Noooo. I’m not…’” Jones was able to turn this incident into an opportunity to introduce and reinforce diversity training, and since that time feels that things have im- proved. Mays describes a situation that happened while shopping on her lunch hour. “I’m waiting in line,” she says. “I’m dressed pro- fessionally, and there are a couple of other people in front of me who write checks — no problem. I get up there, and I’m asked for my ID.” She rolls her eyes and sighs in ex- asperation. “I’m on my lunch break, I’m in a hurry, I show my ID, but I’m thinking, ‘You didn’t ask them for their IDs…’” “The store representative then proceeds to call Telecheck to verify my check. That’s when I just lost it. There are times when I’ll say, ‘OK, I’m going to the mat on this one.’ After I conveyed my concerns, asked to speak to the manager, went and talked to the manager, it was, ‘Oh… well, we…’ and they don’t have a good excuse.” “When I didn’t get results locally,” Mays says, “I went to this store’s corporate office up in Portland and … the corporate office got involved, came down to Eugene, talked to the staff, did some diversity train- ing.” She smiles and says with satisfaction, “They also underwrote our NAACP three- on-three basketball tournament that year. … I’ve never had any other negative incidents with them. We call this company every year now to support our tournament, they’re al- ways very open to it, they want to send vol- unteers. So it was really a learning experi- ence for them as well…” TODD COOPER ‘There are times when I’ll say, ‘OK, I’m going to the mat on this one…’ –Marilyn Mays Ultimately, both Jones’ and Mays’ situa- tions ended in a positive way, and each is determined to remain in Eugene — at least for now. But doesn’t it sound exhausting to think that because your skin color makes up only five or one or less than one percent of the population, you have to leave your home every day preparing for some sort of trouble or other? College Town More than once I’ve heard, “If it wasn’t for the university, I could never live in Eugene.” The University of Oregon affords this town an influx of culture and diversity that it would not otherwise have. But the UO also contends with issues of diversity — last winter’s KUGN Voice of the Ducks fiasco was evidence of that. John Shuford of the Center on Diversity and Community says, “In October 2000, President Frohnmayer gave a rousing State of the University speech promising that UO would become a diverse institution. There have been a number of new diversity initia- tives since then, with many good results. But we’re running into a wall of economics and public perception that hinders fulfill- ment of that promise… It’s a hard time for higher education in general, due to the shift in corporate and foundation interests and the major economic downturn.” He says that these realities, and the per- ception in many circles that diversity and di- versity issues are “peripheral” or “political,” make it very hard to create meaningful insti- tutional changes that will keep UO educa- ‘…if we send out technically competent but culturally unconscious students, we have failed’ –Carla Gary tionally competitive and serving the state of Oregon. Carla Gary, university advocate and di- rector of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, also has an insider’s understanding of diver- sity at the UO. It frustrates her on some lev- els. She says, “We have become exceed- ingly creative in avoiding the elephant in the living room. But the longer it goes, the more space that elephant takes up…” But she is hopeful. “In many ways we have stepped to the challenge. We have ac- cepted that diversity is core to the institu- tion. We know that if we send out techni- cally competent but culturally unconscious students, we have failed.” Shuford says that within a 30-year pe- riod, the Census projects a major population shift in Oregon: In 1995 one in 10 Oregonians were non-white. By 2025, that number is going to be one in five or greater. But even now, he says, the UO struggles to keep apace of the demographic changes in the state. Both Shuford and Gary articu- late what is, in theory, the university’s senti- ment on diversity, and what many students and faculty seem to agree on: that a diverse campus is powerful and empowering. It re- mains to be seen whether financial and ad- ministrative support will truly cultivate and encourage that theory. The UO, like Eugene at large, has had its share of the “revolving door” phenomenon, where people of color come and leave when diversity issues be- come too overbearing. But there are signs of hope: Gary says the university has launched a personnel search for a Vice Provost of Institutional Equity who will be, according to the job de- scription “responsible for providing leader- ship, guidance, and direction for all univer- sity equity and diversity matters…” Making a Difference Elliot Cooke, 30, walks into the coffee shop for our interview and his black dread- locks swing a little around his dark face and beneath a nylon cap fit snug to his skull. Cooke moved to Eugene from Chicago with his family when he was 10. He had been a good student in Chicago, but that quickly fell apart here in Oregon. “I moved out here,” he says, “and I’m instantly labeled ADD, problem child…” School administra- tion just looked at him, he says, and saw “a black child from the ghetto of Chicago — boom — instantaneous ‘He’s going to be a problem…’” He bounced through two elementary schools, struggling mightily as the only black student around. Things finally came to a head when he entered Jefferson Middle School. In sixth grade, he says, “There was this picture drawn by a student. It was of a black man hanging from a tree, with a burn- ing cross and KKK underneath. I’m looking at it, and I went to the teacher and asked, ‘Is this what you’re teaching in this school?’He looked at me and said, ‘It’s freedom of speech; there’s a right to express that, and it’s part of your history.’” In frustration with his teacher’s dismissal, Cook went to the prinicipal’s office with the drawing, where he was again rebuffed. So he went to his mother. And from there, his mother took Cook and his brother out of school, and they were homeschooled. After that incident, Cook says, “Some heads rolled… some people were fired and the school became committed to being a racism-free zone.” He smiles and says, “And now that’s where I work as a staff as- sistant.” Cook and Jefferson Middle School are just a few rays of hope on Eugene’s racial APRIL 3, 2003 13
