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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2010)
Page 8 Portland (DbserUer January 27, 2010 Rising to Your Full Potential Community colleges offer a path by A lgie C. G atewood “During the last eight years, the poverty gap in America has w id e n e d ,” w rite s M arcu s Mundy, president o f the Urban League o f Portland, in the intro duction to the League’s recent report on The State o f Black Oregon. “It has been said that when America gets a cold, African Americans get pneumonia. If there’s a poverty gap for Ameri cans g en erally , the A frican American poverty gap widens to chasm proportions.” Sage words from Mr. Mundy, and sobering words as well. The hard fact o f the matter is that despite the many and manifest strides our society has made in the direction o f equality - not the least o f which is the election o f the first African American president o f the United States - a substantial gap persists be tween the relative positions o f communities o f color and the mainstream population. Whether it’s in educational attainm ent, econom ic status, health, representation in the criminal justice system, even quality o f the local environment - people o f color consistently come out on the losing end in c o m p a ri sons with the majority. C onsider the following fin d in g s from the Urban League’s re port: with $46,800 for mainstream households. • By the time they reach the 1 Oth grade, 60 percent African American students in Oregon do not meet reading standards. Sev enty-five percent do not meet math standards, and 63 percent to not meet writing standards. • 3 7 percent o f African Ameri can-headed families own their homes, compared to 68 percent o f mainstream families. the more likely he or she is to attain professional success, own a home, maintain good health, stay out o f prison, and - perhaps most importantly - pass on the importance o f education to his or her children, thus ensuring that future generations can share in the American dream. Again, there are a host o f reasons why the American edu cational system produces a dif ferent set o f outcomes for dif- Regardless o f background, one’s economic security is a direct function o f one’s level of educational attainment. underrepresented students en rolled in community colleges are the first people in their families to seek higher education, com munity colleges offer an acces sible, less-intimidating environ ment than many four-year insti tutions. For example, at Portland Com munity College’s Cascade Cam pus, where I am campus presi dent, minority students are rep resented at a higher rate in the student body than they are in the general population. This is due in part to demographics - the cam pus lies in one o f the most di verse neighborhoods in Oregon - but also because costs are reasonable and systems are in p la c e to su p p o rt underrepresented and first-gen eration students. My intention here is not to suggest that the deck is n ’t stacked against some students - the Urban League’s report is full o f examples o f the pernicious persistence o f inequality. Rather, my objective is to show that the pieces are in place at community colleges for students o f all back grounds to rise to their full poten tial. Over the course o f my career, I have seen too many examples to count o f the transformative power o f higher education. The road may at times be difficult, but the opportunities exist. It only remains for one to rise up and seize them. • Median income for African American-headed households in • African Americans are six ferent segments o f the popula Oregon is $30,000, compared times more likely to be incarcer tion, and again, I’ll leave it to ated in Oregon than members o f others to spell out those reasons. the mainstream population. As much as the educational sys Much ink has been spilled over tem needs reforms to improve F ill O u t & Send To: the decades in an attempt to access and quality for minority explain the root causes o f these students, these same students disparities, as well as their stub | Ann-. Subscriptions, PO Box 3137, Portland OR 97208 I born persistence even in an age are faced with the reality o f the moment - they need education I s u b s c r i p t i o n s a r e j u s t $ 6 0 p e r y e a r I that has been described by some and job training now, not at some J (please include check with this subscription form) I as “post-racial.” I w on’t re-cross far-off point in a rosier future. that well-traveled ground; most There are many barriers be N ame : people, in any event, can come tw een tra d itio n a lly T elephone : _______ I up with their own, quite accu underrepresented students and I rate, explanations for the linger higher education, most notably I A ddress : ing social and economic divides c o st and a v a ila b ility o f I between Americans o f different coursework. So in many cases, I o /' em a il su b sc r ip tio n s@ p o r tla n d o b se r v e r .c o m I backgrounds. Rather, I would a great option for minority stu — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — j propose a simple, elegant solu dents is com m unity college, Algie C. Gatewood. Ed.D., tion - education. where these barriers are signifi is president o f Portland Com The common denominator that cantly reduced if not eliminated m unity C ollege s Cascade undergirds the statistics above is entirely. Campus. You can read the education. Regardless o f back Community colleges offer the Urban League o f Portland’s ground, one’s economic secu most affordable tuition, and the report on The State o f Black rity is a direct function o f one’s greatest variety o f scheduling Oregon at .u lp d x.o rg / level o f educational attainment. opportunities. And given that a StateofBlackOregon. The more educated a person is, s ig n ific a n t p ro p o rtio n o f Q I , h o p r i h p I 503-288-0033 J I I 1 I!,‘giordani» 1,1 jportlanb (¡Dhsemer iOhserucr ! I ____ ________ J I OU U S C II DC ’ j Your Care Our First Priority Dr. Marcelitte Fatila Chiropractic Physician We are lo c a te d a t 1716 N.E. 42nd Ave. Portland, OR 97213 (Betw een Broadway and Sandy' B/vd.) • Automobile accident injuries • C hronic headache and jo in t pain • Workers Compensation injuries Call for an appointment! (503)228-6140 Marines in Haiti The M arines have landed. Not a new expe rience for Haiti. While Americans are focused on the natural disaster, many o f us are unaware that much o f Haiti’s disaster is manmade. Made in the USA. From the early days o f the republic, when the U.S. imposed a trade embargo for 60 years (fearing a spread o f the slave revolt), Haiti has been economically crippled by American impe rialism. U.S. corporate interests in Haitian sugar and coffee plantations were enforced by a Ma- rine occupation from 1915 to 1934. More recently, subsidized U.S. agribusiness products have flooded Haitian food markets, driving small farmers o ff the land to work in American-owned industrial sweatshops. In2004, the U.S. military removed the elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, who had dared to raise the minimum wage in those sweat shops. Beware whose interests are served by the “humanitarian” Marines. Jamie Partridge Northeast Portland