lune 16, 2010
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page 2
Man Loses Eye in Jail
Was attacked by
other inmates
H
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(
pages 6-8
An African Am erican man has
lost an eye in what he says was as
a racially-m otivated attack at the
C o lu m b ia C o u n ty Ja il in St.
Helens.
Raymond Lee Batista, 39, was
serving a 20-day sentence for a
gun charge, when he was brutally
attacked June 7 by other inmates
who drove a pencil through his
eye.
“The severity o f this is unusual
for this j a i l ,” said C o lu m b ia
County Sheriff Je ff Dickerson.
Batista, a resident o f Hillsboro,
told the Portland O bserver that he
has hired a lawyer, has no m edical
insurance, and has already taken
enough pain killer to “down an
elephant” for the excrutiating pain.
Dickerson said the s h e riffs of­
fice is doing an internal investiga­
tion into the incident to see if the
ja il’s procedures can be improved.
He also said that the W ashington
County S h e riff s Office is investi-
Raymond Lee Batista is
pictured in a Columbia County
Jail photo.
gating the incident because it has
better resources.
After the savage attack, Batista
was released from his jail sentence,
said Dickerson. He explained that
the furlough was given out o f basic
concerns for “justice,” and wasn’t
done to avoid responsibility for his
medical bills
“ We figured he would be in the
hospital and we w eren’t going to
put any guards on him ,” said
Dickerson, who added that he did
not see Batista as a threat to the
community.
He also said that it was im m ate­
rial if Batista had health insurance
or not because the county would
pay his medical bills if it was de­
term ined that it was responsible
for his injuries.
“ If we end up having to pay his
bills, we w ill,” said Dickerson.
Batista later told K.PTV that the
attack was a racially-motivated hate
crime and he plans to sue Columbia
County. He also said that he can’t
drive or work at his construction
company after the attack.
He com plained to the televi­
sion station that he did not re­
ceive medical attention in a tim ely
fashion.
Dickerson said that any delay
o f medical care was because jail
staffdid not im m ediately com pre­
hend what injuries he suffered.
“We d id n ’t know the nature o f
h is in ju ry rig h t a w a y ,” said
Dickerson.
From 1960 Sit-ins to Today:
Professor sounds off during Portland visit
CNIEUTAINMENT
pages 9-12
C lassifieds
page 13
OH
GOSH
DARN!
O pinion
pages 14-15
WELL BUSHY
GAVE US THE
A TR IO T ACT
HIGHT??
F ood
page 20
In 1960, Anderson J. Franklin was
arrested with 33 other young black
men who challenged laws o f segre­
gation by demanding service at a
Richmond, Va. department store that
served whites only. The group was
later dubbed “The Richmond 34.
Franklin went on to earn a doc­
toral degree from the University o f
Oregon, and conduct research on
the critical role that education and
emotional well-being play in fur­
thering the aims o f the civil rights
movement.
Currently the Hon. David S.
Nelson Professor o f Psychology
and Education in the Lynch School
at Boston College, he gave the com­
mencement address at Graduate
School o f Education and Counsel­
ing at Lewis & Clark College.
What is Invisibility Syndrome?
Invisibility Syndrome is taken
from the Ralph Ellison classic novel
the “Invisible Man.” It’s when the
assumptions o f others tend to domi­
nate a person who is trying to over-
Anderson J. Franklin
come what other people think about
him. One o f the things I teach about
the Invisibility Syndrome is that
stereotypes o f black men and men
o f African descent, particularly
young black men, very often domi­
nate how people see them and inter­
act with them. So their true person­
ality, ability, and aspirations are
overshadowed by the misconcep-
tions based on stereotypes and rac­
ism. Struggling to overcome being
invisible by a stereotypes placed
upon them can have emotional and
psychological consequences.
Like what?
Well it can be very stressful. It
can be very indignant. So you have
people clutch their pocket books
when they see them or cross the
street. They don’t know anything
about their lives, but they assume
that they are like any other stereo­
typical black male. So one o f the
responses o f the syndrome is indig­
nation. Indignation can lead to an­
ger and anger can lead to lots o f
wrong personal decisions about
your life, or immobilization about
thinking about your career options.
I’ve had people come in and say that
their supervisor has not evaluated
their experience as well as their white
counterparts. Therefore they don’t
get breaks or opportunities.
continued
on page 4