Il|e $Iortlanb (©bscruer Page B6 May 11,2005 I Xihcnise with diversity in s p o r tia n i' (O b s tru e r Call 5O3-288-ÜO33 a d s@ |X )rtla n d |^ se i\e i.c o in BANK Home Purchase Refinance Great Service Jason W. Ruecker Loan O fficer My first priority is your best interest! Office: FAX: Toll Free: 5 0 3 .2 2 3 .2 1 6 2 Cell: 5 0 3 .8 0 3 .5 1 7 7 5 0 3 .2 2 3 .2 1 6 3 8 0 0 .2 8 0 .4 1 8 7 t=} 926 NW 13" Avenue. Ste. 140, Portland, OR 97209 jasonjueckertgflagstarcom COMVpLES Phone Prepaid C e l1 Service K eeping you In Touch Airvoice $39.99 Free Activation +60min if you mention ad! P hoto by N icole H oopper /T he P ortland O bserver Melanie Dixon (left), the PCC student director o f legislative affairs, discusses a rally trip to the State Legislature to advocate for college funding with another PCC student. Student Fights for College Funding continued from Metro mom as a role model. “My daughter needs to realize that as a black woman she is smart and needs to learn the importance o f giving back to the community,” said Dixon. « 3 In 1993, Dixon opted for a GED because high school w asn’t im ­ portant to her. She was more con­ cerned about what was “going on in the streets.” Now Dixon has a 3.2 grade point average in c o l­ lege and m any opportunities are in her future. ____ el “M elanie has proven to every­ one that she com es into contact with ju st how ready she was to return to school, take on a leader­ ship role and make significant changes at Portland Com m unity C ollege,” said Kendi Esary, stu­ dent leadership coordinator and D ixon’s mentor. Dixon is graduating from PCC in June and will attend Portland State University in the fall. As a com m u­ nication major, she believes she will be well equipped foracareeras a motivational speaker or news re­ porter. 503-286-6070 317 NE Killingworth, Ptld ¿Snkunring T he H om e O w n e rs h ip O xpeH ence” REAL ESTATE Karmen Baricevic CSP â Direct 503-380-3315 karmenb @ johnlscott.com www.johnlscott.com/karmenb MLS Selling In your neighborhood! O bservador (AP) — It took just hours for Jennifer W ilbanks’ story to dis­ solve, and until Thursday for her to apologize. It turns out the runaway bride-to-be had not been kidnapped — much less by a gun-wielding Hispanic. But among minorities, a white w om an’s tale o f being victimized by a threatening man o f color is unlikely to fade quickly, partly be­ cause it’s happened before and taps into powerful stereotypes rooted in painful history. “This speaks to how Latinos are perceived in society,” said Lisa Navarette, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza in Washington D.C. “Americans only know minority communities, par­ ticu larly L atino com m unities, through stereotypes, through im­ ages in the media. If people keep being portrayed as criminals — as undocumented immigrants or crimi­ nals or gang members — that’s what we tend to believe.” Wilbanks was believed missing when she vanished days before she was to be married in a 600-guest affair in Duluth, Ga., population 22,(XX). On April 29 she claimed that she had been kidnapped in Atlanta by a Hispanic man and a white woman with a handgun, a story that Jennifer Wilbanks quickly unraveled. Such racial hoaxes are actually Her admission that she had run away, overwhelmed by wedding not rare, said Katheryn Russell- p re ssu re s, p ro m p te d p ro te sts Brown, a law professor at the Uni­ among local and national Hispanic versity of Florida, who wrote “The Color of Crime,” a book document­ leaders. At one point, a Hispanic leader ing 67 such cases that occurred not only demanded an apology but between 1987 and 1996. “The majority of perpetrators said she should be made to perform community service in a Hispanic were someone white falsely accus­ neighborhood. Now, Georgia au­ ing someone black,” Russell-Brown thorities are debating whether to said. “You typically don’t see the Hispanic criminal in terms of a hoax prosecute or sue her. Santana Honored at Latin Awards TU (A P)— After more than 30 years in the music business, 36 albums and eight Grammy Awards, Carlos Santanacan call himself a BMI icon. The virtuoso guitarist known for his passionate, energetic rhythms received the special honor at the 12th annual BMI Latin Awards last month in Las Vegas. Santana joined past honorees James Brown. Brian Wilson, Dolly P arto n , Isaac H ayes and Van Morrison. Emilio Estefan and Latin pop star Estefano shared the songwriter of the year award. Carlos Santana Estefan, co-founder of the M i­ ami Sound Machine and husband o f singer Gloria Estefan, was hon­ ored for his work on C ristian Castro’s “No Hace Falta,” Shalim’s “Se Me Olvido Tu Nombre” and Victor M anuelle's“TengoG anas.” Colombian rocker Juanes won song of the year for “Fotografia,” a duet with Nelly Furtado. The hit is from the nine-time Latin Grammy winner's multiplatinum album, “Un Dia Normal.” The awards recognized the past year's most performed Latin songs on U.S. radio and television. Goldman Prize Honors Mexican Farmer animals and plants in the Okapi The other winners were: AP) - A Mexican farmer who - Jose Andres Tamayo Cortez, Faunal Reserve throughout a de­ ;ht for land rights and forest ection for the Tarahumara Indi - 47, a Roman Catholic priest from cade of civil war. - Stephanie Danielle Roth, 34, of of northern Mexico is one of six Honduras who organized a coali­ vists who won the prestigious tion of small farmers to battle for Romania, the lead organizer against construction o f E urope's largest 5,(XX)Goldman Environmental forestry reforms. open-cast gold mine in her country. Biologist Kaisha Atakhanova, e. - Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, 58, "he award to Isidro Baldenegro 47, of Kazakhstan, who led a suc­ ez was announced Sunday in cessful fight to keep her country of Haiti, who founded the Peasant Movement of Papay and has taught Francisco. The prize is granted from importing nuclear waste. - Congo botanist Corneille E.N. principles o f sustainable agricul­ ;rass-roots activists who are Ewango, 4 I. who protected rare ture to more than 200,000 people. med environmental heroes. 9 WE PAY — YOUR DEDUCTIBLE!! We p a y up to 1 0 0 % o f y o u r d e d u c tib le Quality work at affordable pricing Bride’s Tale Opens Racial Wounds Fabrication tapped into stereotypes □ S o h n C .S c o tt case, but she put this duo together and it’s got this resonance. ... It’s still this idea o f a criminal element that is colored.” Historically, the threat of black men victimizing white women has loomed large and powerful, and provoked many of the more than 4,700 lynchings in the decades be­ tween the end of the Civil W ar and the dawning of the civil rights era. The peak came in 1892, with 230 killings, but continued well into the 2(Xh century, according to Tuskegee University, a one-time black college in Alabama that is now a National Historic Site. Most of those seized by white mobs and hanged were black men, but Native Americans, Asians, Jews and Hispanics also were victimized, experts said. Today, growing national anti­ imm igrant sentim ent that feeds Americans’ stereotypesof Hispanic immigrants stealing jobs and un­ dermining the nation’s prosperity made W ilbanks’ story plausible, Navarette said. Advertise with divei sity in f "'T lo rtllattò