Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2014)
August 13, 2014 ^Jortlanb (Observer Page Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. W? welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. How Can I Forget Those Frightened Faces Families tom apart by a broken immigration system by the R ev . M . L inda J aramillo I c a n ’t g et them out of my m ind . E v en when I ’m not w a tc h in g the news, I still see those frightened faces o f children w ith tears streaming down their cheeks. How can I forget? Their skin and their eyes are the same color as mine. We speak the same language and share a common understanding of family. We know fam ily that ex tends far beyond a m om and dad, or a sister and brother. We know fam ily to be grand parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and some who live near-by who may not even related by blood. Even if our skin and eyes did not m atch, I still consider these children my fam ily. These past few w eeks have presented but a glim pse at the cruel truth that we m ust take personally. Fam ilies are being torn apart by our broken im m i gration system . I have to take it personally because ju st like m ost o f you, I am an im m i grant. You see my g ran d fath er, m any g en eratio n s rem oved, was born in 1601 in the New M exico Territory. Yes, before the Plym outh Rock landing. Yes before 1776. It was fur ther back than many A m eri can H istory books account for. It was more than 400 years ago w hen the land inhabited by our N ative A m erican ances tors, was part of M exico be fo re b ein g claim ed by the U nited States. The truth is that my grandpar ents and many of my family did not cross the border. The border cro sse d us. E ven w ith my family ’ s history on this land, like most of you, I am an immigrant. I am proud to claim my ances try and refuse to be accused of being a problem to American society. Mass deportations have not created public safety. On the contrary, they have created ter ror and fear of law enforcement officials. W hen local police are forced to serve as im m igration au thorities, people are afraid to report crim e, m ore people are victim ized, and public safety is sacrificed. As fam ilies are torn apart, neighborhoods suffer. The separation o f fam ilies m ust stop. Every day that the A dm inistration and Congress delay, another 1,100 aspiring A m ericans are deported. As a person of faith, I am outraged that record levels of deportations continue. As a re ligious leader, I am deeply sad dened by the fam ily separa tions that deportations create across our country. I respect the law of the land; how ever, I respond to a higher m oral law. O ur faith traditions m ust hold us to a greater calling where we put G od’s law to love our neighbor above and beyond any unjust hum an law. For these reasons, I stood with my brothers and sisters on the grounds of the W hite H ouse and was arrested, to call on P resident O bam a to stop the deportations that are breaking our fam ilies apart. M ost A m ericans acknow l edge that our im m igration sys tem is broken and over 70 per cent o f us agree that the unac c o m p a n ie d m in o r c h ild re n should be treated as refugees. O ur elected leaders m ust stop deporting kids, m om s, dads, grandparents, w orkers, and the members o f our congregations. It defies hum an dignity and denies our rich history as a nation o f im m igrants. President Obama and Con gress not only have the authority to fix this problem now, they have the moral obligation to do so. They must take it personally, because like us, most of them are immigrants, too. The Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo is executive minister o f Justice and Witness Ministries fo r the United Church o f Christ. Our Education System’s Racially-Charged Crisis When children are afraid of learning J eanine R ussaw “Why are you [re a d in g ] so m uch?” “W hy are you speak ing so p ro p erly?” A t a recen t town hall in W ashington D.C., President O bam a illum inated these questions - questions he often hears from youth in pre dominately black neighborhoods where some children are afraid to learn. Yes, afraid. This fear is brought on by the taunting many well-educated black individuals receive because their peers be lieve that being well read and articulate constitutes “acting white.” Covertly racist corporate me dia and hegemonic Caucasian opinion make dangerous impli cations that suggest minorities are both incapable and unwilling to learn and our education sys tem reflects these untruths. These implications only create by innumerable obstacles and widen and to the misallocation of re out and reach for what his true delineate betw een the “haves” the achievement gap between sources in black communities intelligence and abilities may al and the “h a v e -n o ts.” The whites and people of color in that neglects education. low him to achieve. This includes U nited S tates’ capitalistic sys America. In his 2005 book, “Sham e of reaching his full potential with tem thrives on that. Com ing to Knowledge is power, and our the N ation,” author and jo u r access to quality education, en grips with this truth will speed own ignorance of socially con nalist Jonathan Kozol calls our couragement to learn, and a be up our inevitable rejection of structed racial characteristics education system “apartheid lief in the efficacy of doing so. this outdated, harm ful notion. and the ludicrous expectations schooling.” In his m ore recent So, how do we interrupt this M / dream is th at we as we make based on those char book, “Fire in the A shes,” pub pervasive and dam aging racial A m ericans will one day m ove acteristics must stop. Only then lished in 2012, he recalled many divide in our education sys into an actual post-racial era will we create a society where children o f color with whom he tem ? We should discard the w here content o f character is everyone has equal access to w orked often had their educa n o tio n th at “ a c tin g b la c k ” n o t s o c ia lly p r e d ic te d by this nation’s highest right: The tion consistently interrupted. m eans being more interested “race.” That people o f color freedom to learn. W hen they were able to go to in hip hop culture than litera w on’t be afraid to learn, and What does “acting white” look school, their underserved pub ture. L et’s renounce the m is highly educated “m inorities” like? In mainstream America, lic schools “resem bled those conception that “acting w hite” will be the norm. this is going to a quality school, o f M ississippi 50 or 100 years means grow ing up in suburbia My dream is to see a world actually paying attention and before.” W hy is nothing done and speaking properly. We in w hich black youth do not being able to provide a well about this? Cruel reality check: ought to refuse to pander to purposely dum b them selves thought-out answer when ques N othing is done because the the discrim inatory foundations down in an effort to keep pace tioned by the teacher in class. expectation o f achievem ent for on w hich this society w as with what is expected o f them , W hat does “acting black” these students is low. For m ain fo u n d e d — th e so c ie ty th a t and educators w on’t expect look like? On the other end of stream w hite A m erica, th ey ’re hated dark skin and ethnic fea them to lack intelligence. W e the spectrum , there is black not worth the effort. tures so much that a person need a cultural shift o f our ness: C utting classes w hen Is.it any wonder why little with only “one drop” of A fri understanding o f race. All chil ever possible, looking like a Billy feels that, as a young black can blood was forever labeled dren have a natural capacity to fool w hen called on by the boy, he’s neither capable of, nor as a second-class citizen - or learn. O ur educational system teach er, co n seq u en tly se rv supposed to demonstrate, intelli three-fifths o f a person - in - our teachers, adm inistrators ing— and cutting - detention, gence? It’s not entirely his fault. her own country. and policies - needs to reflect blow ing o ff all hom ew ork as H e’s simply conforming to what U nderstan d in g the social this. The future o f A m erica signm ents and failing and re American society expects. His construction of “race” would depends on it. peating your current grade. parents experienced this as well. help as well. We are all human Jeanine Russaw writes fo r These low expectations lead Maybe he has no one to tell him beings; the idea o f “race” in PeaceVoice, is a multimedia to a fear o f succeeding, because to dream bigger— to look be this country is little more than journalist, and a journalism it will go against the “status quo,” yond what this society is handing a socio-political structure to student at Hofstra University.
