Diversity in
Public Art
Decade in the Making
A new frontage fo r
Jefferson High School
fulfills a late
activist’s dream JEFFERSON
Arts group looks
fo r works out o f
the mainstream
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VolumeXLIII
■City «/Roses'
Number 24
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Established
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www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday
Wednesday . • lune
June 19.
19, 2013
2013
C Committed
o m m itte d to to C Cultural
u ttu m t r Diversity
ti^ m ,
Troubleat the Workplace
Employees impacted by recurring acts o f racism
by
D ohotan M . S mith
pursued in an effort to better support his
T he P ortland O bserver
It is still happening, people are going to
work only to be met with unacceptable
acts of racism and a paystub as the only
consolation for an apology. In a city
where protests against injustice are plen-
tiiul, and the unofficial motto is progres-
<J1VP n n l l t l P C
i t i c t r n u l - t l i n r r trv.
sive politics, it
is troubling to hear that
several o f Portland’s own have been the
victims of such bigotry recently.
Lifetime Portlander Ivery Mays Jr.
says, as an African-American, he is cer­
tainly “underrepresented” in his profes­
sion as an Apprentice Pipefitter, how­
ever, he never thought he would encoun­
ter racism on job, especially not so bla­
tant.
But to his surprise racism is what the
39-year-old says he found in the trade he
3
family.
His sense o f normalcy was destroyed
while finishing up work at a Camas,
Wash, jobsite in early December. As per
usual, his supervisor asked him and three
other apprentices to begin cleaning out
toolboxes before everyone left for the
day
Mays was given four toolboxes to
clean, but the very first one would pro-
vide a disturbing surprise; a hangm an’s
noose was revealed when he opened it,
taped to the inside door. He immediately
went to the bathroom to attempt to re-
group and then snapped a picture of it
with his cam eraphone. “Nooses aren’t
. . . .
As an African-American,
Ivery Mays
Jr. is certainly ‘underrepre-sented’
in his profession as an Apprentice
Pipefitter, but he never thought he
would encounter racism on the job.
photo by D onovan M. S mith /
T he P ortland O bserver
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part of our materials.” says Mays.
i l r
whenever,her e isa„ i„cide„ ,o rco„-
apprentice m u s o X w V r ^ T r t i f The
second-year trainee did so. but without
resolution. Now he has acquired an at-
tomey and has filed a complaint with the
state of Washington and is pursuing legal
action against his employer Harder Me-
chanical for racial discrimination,
M ays’ attorney Sean Bannon savs
J
J'
u u u n u ii
aays
‘It’s shocking that it’s happening in this
day and age, and a big part of why w e’re
taking legal action is to make sure that
there’s accountability for companies tol­
erating this conduct.”
Perhaps more troubling is that he is not
alone.
Community leader and activist Rev.
Leroy Haynes, the pastor of Allen Temple
continued
on page 4