Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, June 16, 2010, Page 4, Image 4

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Page 4
ït!' TJortlanì» (Dbseruer
Dixion \ Rib Pit
between 19th & 20th on Alberta Street
503-753-0868
Hours
12 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Tueday thru Saturday
Sunday after 3 p.m.
Dinners $9.50
Sandwiches $8.50
And Soul Food
Try us once you 'll come back again
THE LAW OFFICES OF
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd
Portland, Oregon
Portland:
Hillsoboro:
Facsimile:
Email:
(503) 491-5156
(503) 615-0425
(503) 244-2084
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com
Interested in a rigorous
education for your child?
Come learn about
The SEI Academy
• A holistic education that includes values,
critical thinking and community service.
• Exposure to dance, drama, music and the
arts.
• A learning community where your child will
build meaningful relationships with teachers
and peers.
• Our test scores surpass the district’s
average and comparable middle schools’ test
scores for our student population in reading,
writing and science.
lune 16, 2010
From 1960 Sit-ins to Today:
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3
How can having a strong sense
o f racial identity serve as a buffer
against racism?
Part of the invisibility syndrome
is developed out of having a con­
flicted identity; one person has a
perception of you, and others have
another. If young kids think they're
bad, but they're not, and they get
treated that way they figure they
might as well act like a bad kid. They
get confi icted about how to be good.
That can also happen in terms of
racial identity. What is the appropri­
ate way to be for someone of Afri­
can American descent? A lot of
afterschool programs foster char­
acter development in trying to an­
chor social identity in the cultural
values of African and African Ameri­
can traditions believing that the
person with a strong sense of his­
tory and cultural legacy will give
them the necessary resilience and
fortitude to deal with life challenges.
What do we have to optimistic
abou t? Where have we m ade
progress?
We certainly have made progress
in areas where I think that institu­
tions are trying to be responsive to
diversity issues. We're a long way
from the goal, but there is some
encouragement that there is some
discussion o f these issues both
public and private, and there are
actual things we can point to in
terms of accomplishments. How­
ever, we seem to go from one gen­
eration to the next generation with a
lot of problems around the youth,
specifically challenges around edu­
cation, and the whole issue of eq­
uity and education. I know we had
Brown v. the Board of Education
that was supposed to end segrega­
tion in the school system , but
schools remain de facto segregated.
You have a pretty interesting
background. Has that influenced
you r work?
Yes, because that has all been
generated by a civil rights legacy.
Throughout my life I've been very
much interested in social justice
equity, not only global, but specifi­
cally for people of African descent.
During the Jim Crow era, rac­
DNA Solves Murder
ism was very overt, but now it's
much more subtle. What sort o f
challenges does this present to
black parents?
Parents need to become more
aware of the subtleties of racism and
institutional racism, particularly in
terms of policies with education, and
if neighborhood schools are not
achieving goals. So parenting is be­
ing part of school policy. More par­
ent involvement really should be a
central value of family. One of the
things I've written about is the impor­
tance of family in conveying to chil­
dren values and the necessity of hav­
ing some sort of knowledge of the
social and cultural history of people
of African descent in this country.
You said we don't have the
metrics to fully assess the achieve­
ment gap. What do you mean by
that?
Well, we have the metrics in terms
o f tests for specific content areas,
like measuring language achieve­
ment. We don't have sufficient tests
to understand the social and emo­
tional well being of aparticular child
relative to their capacity to learn.
Irving Park Tennis Camp
On Monday, June 21, Kids N'Tennis, Inc. will
A man who strangled a Portland woman 23 years ago celebrate its 24th year o f sponsoring summer
has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after a police cold tennis camps at Irving Park.
case unit matched his DNA to the crime scene.
This youth program is affiliated with the U.S.
James Samuel Owens, 67, pleaded no contest last Tennis Association and National Junior Tennis
month to manslaughter in the death of Nancy Eileen League established by the late tennis great Arthur
Converse, who was 42 at the time. Her body was found in Ashe.
Mr. Ashe felt that tennis and education should
bed at herCascadian apartment complex in north Portland
go hand in hand. Portland’s Kids N' Tennis pro­
by a building superintendent in February 1987.
Portland police detectives questioned more than 300 gram has offered tutorial assistance whenever
neighbors, friends and others, including Owens, but were possible.
The camp will run six-weeks from 11 a.m. until
unable to link him to the crime. The Portland Police Bureau
Cold Case Unit began investigating in 2006, getting a DNA 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday. You can
register on site on J une 21,22,23, and 24 or request
match. But they also had to track down old witnesses.
Owens was sentenced Friday in Multnomah County registration forms via emails. Contact Don Johnson
Circuit Court
at Kids N' Tennis, 503-880-0582.
Chiropractic Auto Injury Clinic, PC
Zchon R. Jones, DC
333 NE Russell St., #200, Portland, OR. 97212
(503) 284-7838
Truly making a difference in the lives of
Auto Accident victims and Injured Workers for 16 years.
If you or someone you know has been in an accident,
call us so we can help you with your needs. (503) 284-7838
We are located on the
corner o f MLK and Russell
Street, on the second floor
above the coffee shop.
SEI Academy
3920 N. Kerby Ave.
Portland, OR 97227
p
W
Pm king Area
333 NE
Russell
»200
\ . I \ ci 11 sc \\ i11) di \ k rsity in The P o r t l a n d ( ' ’INVIACI
( all 503-288-0013
ads@portlandob ¿erver.com
Russell St
s
2
Ci.