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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2018)
January 24, 2018 Page 5 Activist Derides Remark Takes to social media when guard asked about bomb When a security guard at City Hall searched a bag from a Portland activist and commu- nity leader and joked about searching for a bomb, the res- ident, an immigrant from So- mali and an official candidate for political office in Oregon, wondered if he was being ra- cially targeted. Kayse Jama, director of the nonprofit organization Unite Oregon and a candidate for the state senate from Portland, told the story this weekend in a Facebook post. “Are there any bazookas or bombs?” the security guard asked as the bag was checked through security, Jama said. “He clearly saw I am an im- migrant and I have an accent. To me this is not a joke. I am wondering if I was being iden- tified by him as someone from Somalia or if this has happened to others.” A wave of Facebook com- ments criticized the guard’s re- mark as racist, while others said it was just a poorly thought-out joke. Many offered their sym- pathy and support to Jama. Most who commented said they’d never heard a remark like that and derided it as inap- propriate, unacceptable racial Kayse Jama profiling. Others, some identi- fying themselves as white resi- dents, said they’d been subject- ed to similar low-brow humor from security personnel. Jama updated his post after the comment thread, saying, “It is evident that this is not just something that happens to people of color or immigrants or refugees. I posted to learn. To be clear, I have no interest in punishing this guard or “get- ting him fired.”” But Jama said he still found the remark discomforting and chalked it up to a system fail- ure. He called for better train- ing for security guards on how to communicate to the public, in particular to “those who are impacted by the current envi- ronment around race and im- migration“ At Unite Oregon, Jama helps immigrants and refugees navi- gate inequality issues. Recruiting Candidates C ontinueD from p age 3 “I’m just a single working mother, and people can look at me and see a regular person who happens to be in office,” she said. On average, it takes a poten- tial candidate of color being asked to run for office eight to 10 times before they agree, ac- cording to Jesse Beason, board chair at Color PAC. He noted however, that since the presi- dential election in 2016, peo- ple have been more willing to get involved and take action. Color PAC is run by a board of volunteers which helps build a network of recruiters to find and encourage people of color to engage in local politics, and provide them with tools to help them succeed. These include individual trainings on how to run a campaign, fundraise, and engage volunteers. “We need people in office who represent who Oregon is and is becoming,” said Beason. Another main priority for the board is to provide ongo- ing support for candidates after they have been elected. Champions of color have historically lacked political in- frastructure in Oregon, and find that most current systems are not designed for their leader- ship and ideas, and thus rarely serve more than one term. “We want to help candi- dates not only run and win, but govern effectively when they get there,” said Beason on the importance of retention. “Ineq- uity stems from public policy, so we need more people of col- or to be decision makers, with their personal influences that stem from their lived experi- ence of race,” he added.