Page 4
November 30, 2016
of
Brothers Color
nation,” or the sort of racism and
classism that occurs within one
particular race.
One student, for example,
shared how some don’t believe
he’s of a Latino background be-
cause his parents “don’t work in a
field,” while another spoke on how
some black students have tried
stripping him of his racial identity
by referring to him as “white” due
to his good grades.
McGee was able to relate, shar-
ing with them a story of how some
of his former colleagues thought of
him as a racial “sellout” for work-
ing at Lincoln because it’s repu-
tation as a “rich, white school,”
similar to the sort of classist bias
students have experienced at other
schools.
During a recent discus-
sion, members of the organiza-
enter them Brothers of Color and tion opened up about what they
deemed as “internalized discrimi-
leave them Brothers of Color.”
The club meets a few times a
month for discussions, field trips,
and social justice and philanthrop-
ic endeavors. They’ve attended
police reform forums, mayoral
debates, and plays that convey ra-
cial challenging themes like “All
Hands Up.” The participants also
work as mentors of young stu-
dents at King Elementary School
in northeast Portland, and they’ll
soon begin working with students
at West Sylvan Middle School,
which is considered a feeder
school into Lincoln.
Brothers of Color at Lincoln
have even carried racial justice
issues forward as members of the
school’s football team, taking a
knee during the National Anthem
at some recent games, aligning
with the protests by San Francisco
49ers quarterback Colin Kaeper- Minority students at Lincoln high School, the most ethnically barren of Portland’s primary high school campuses, have banded together
nick.
to form a Brothers of Color club tailored to create and support their own sense of community.
C ontinued from f ront
“When the kids say to me that
people outside of Lincoln stereo-
type them, I get it,” McGee says.
“Some of them live across the
bridge. Some of them live around
here and some of them live up in
the hills, but whenever they’re in
a car with their dark skin and get
pulled over, they’re just another
black male.”
He describes each of his stu-
dents as having diverse interests
and thoughts,” We try not to fall
into the trap of thinking ‘when
you see one male of color, you’ve
seen them all.’”
An offshoot of Brothers of
Color has also developed in the
last year for the school’s minori-
ty females named Sisters of Col-
or, based on the same guidelines
of garnering a safe community at
Lincoln.