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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 2018)
Page 12 November 28, 2018 O PINION Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Rude Theatrics Targeting Black Reporters Trump’s racism by omission C aleb g ayle April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, and other journalists of color have not been fa- vorites of President Donald Trump. From telling Ryan to set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus when she asked if he planned to meet with black members of Congress to calling her a los- er, President Trump has displayed his con- tempt for Ryan. In his post-midterm press conference, Ryan became the target of Trump’s ire yet again. But this time what the President did was show more than displeasure with black female reporters – his theatrics overshad- owed a key issue that Ryan was trying to address: voter suppression. While his rage, his diminishing of the credibility of these black, award-winning journalists, and his stupidity in calling their questions “racist” minimized what was actually happening: Trump was committing racism by omis- sion. Ryan’s question was simple, “Mr. Pres- ident, what about voter suppression?” She stood up after Trump acknowledged her question but was promptly told “sit down.” While pundits opined about Trump’s mis- treatment of black women journalists, many missed that Trump refused to an- swer the question about voter suppression, which is poisoning our democracy and dis- proportionately disenfranchising commu- by nities of color. The reality is that suppressing votes has become a hallmark of most of the Republi- can electoral strategy. Their politicians re- fuse to engage with communities of color, and instead embark on strategies to dimin- ish our power at the voting booth. We can all see it. But the President uses his bully pulpit to create distractions that shield scru- tiny of this undemocratic tactic. Moreover, it allows him to avoid questions about the strategy that he has happily endorsed and enacted with the Republican Party. As a reminder, Republicans have not been particularly shy about their voter in the past few elections. In the run-up to the midterms, some 32 counties in Florida violated the law by not providing bilingual ballot assistance. More egregiously, states like Kansas use the Interstate Voter Registration Cross- check (Crosscheck) to identify duplicative voter registrants across numerous com- bined voter rolls and subsequently purge those duplicates. Expanded under Kris Kobach – the outgoing Republican Sec- retary of State and failed gubernatorial candidate – Crosscheck, which had an er- ror rate of 99.5 percent, uses a loose name matching that disproportionately targets More egregiously, states like Kansas use the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck (Crosscheck) to identify duplicative voter registrants across numerous combined voter rolls and subsequently purge those duplicates. suppression efforts. For example, Ben Na- dler of the Associated Press broke news in October that in Georgia, approximately 53,000 voter registration applications were sitting on hold at the office of Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Secretary of State and Republi- can nominee for governor. Nadler’s team at the AP identified that most of these appli- cations were those of black voters. Voter purges are supposed to be used to eliminate people who become ineligible to vote usually because they move or because of a death or incarceration. But in some states like Ohio, voter purges have wrong- fully removed people who have not voted voters of color for purging. According to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice, “African-American, Asian-American, and Latino voters are much more likely than Caucasians to have one of the most com- mon 100 last names in the United States.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 16.3 percent of Hispanic people and 13 percent of black people have one of the 10 most common surnames, compared to 4.5 per- cent of white people. An ongoing lawsuit on this is underway and being pursued by the advocacy group Demos. And in states like Alabama, voters are up against photo ID laws, which dispropor- tionately affect black voters, limited access to offices to issue IDs in black areas, and more. Clarity around where to vote, how to vote, and eligibility to vote become even more significant when these impediments make voting disproportionately harder for black people. According to a study by the Public Religion Research Institute, “black (nine percent) and Hispanic (nine percent) Americans are three times more likely than white Americans (three percent)” to report complications with voting for them or someone in their household because of identification issues. In the same report, “black (15 percent) and Hispanic (14 per- cent) Americans were roughly three times more likely” to have trouble locating their correct polling place than white Americans (five percent). As president of the United States, Trump had an opportunity to explain his views on voter suppression when Ryan asked her question. Because of his inconsistent ap- plication of the truth, one can expect the truth would be stretched or he would of- fer up unverifiable facts. Instead he exhib- ited the Trump brand of racism – racism by omission, refusing to acknowledge that voter suppression exists and is spreading across the land in states predominantly controlled by Republicans. Voter suppression is a weighty issue, especially for African Americans, whose ancestors marched, protested and died for the right to vote. For President Trump, to simply dismiss voting suppression by as- sailing Ryan is a racist slight to all people of color, and our forefathers. Caleb Gayle is the Emerging Voices Fel- low at Demos, a national public policy and advocacy organization. Making It My Business to Support Immigrants Sown fears and racism breaks my heart d reya m oore Two years ago, I left a corporate job as a chemist and bought an artists’ studio and gallery. I’d just become a mother, and my corporate job was taking me away for some of my daughter’s most important milestones. I was meeting with clients when she rolled over for the first time, crawled for the first time, and said her first words. This broke my heart. The studio, which I co-own with my mother in Lancaster, Penn., has meant more time with family and the chance to be more involved with art — my own and by others’. We’ve also made our studio a place for cultivating community. Here, we celebrate all the people who make up Lancaster. One of our exhibits shared #BlackGirlMagic, and an- other featured Latinx artists. In July, we held an exhibit called “Hex,” highlighting Amish artists. We want to make sure everyone’s art is seen, and everyone feels welcome. Our studio has also begun of- fering free art classes. Money shouldn’t be an obstacle for peo- ple engaging with art, just like it shouldn’t be an obstacle to educa- tion, food, or health care. Knowing how important com- munity has been to my business, my heart breaks when I see how much fear and racism is being sown by politicians who want to shrink our sense of community in- stead of enriching it. The news is flooded with sto- ries about this, but a lot of it’s happening behind the scenes. For example, the Trump administra- tion is rewriting the rules to make it harder for people to become cit- izens. One idea they’re proposing is a new wealth test for people seeking a green card, one of the first steps toward citizenship. That test has an income thresh- old of almost $63,000 a year for a family of four — a test that about a third of the U.S. population would fail. Are we all supposed to think we’re not good enough to be U.S. citizens? This test puts huge power in the hands of government officials to reject people for a green card, when already too many people are denied any chance to move toward citizenship. This flies in the face of what we, the people, want. Poll after poll shows that big majorities fa- vor people being able to get citi- zenship and live with their fami- lies. Making it worse, the adminis- tration say it’s also going to count Medicaid and food stamps against people in the immigration process. Most people who are applying for their green cards aren’t eligible for these important programs as it is. But the rules are complicated, and immigrants at all stages in the process are afraid of risking their chance at citizenship. As a result, immigrant families will miss out on food and health care, whether they’re citizens al- ready or hoping to become citi- zens. We’re already seeing stories of families walking away from es- sential assistance out of fear. This new wealth test is a cruel maneuver to make our community and our country smaller instead of stronger. We shouldn’t be a coun- try that takes food and health from people — and denies them citizen- ship — because they aren’t rich. Immigrants have enriched our community. They’ve helped give new life to our downtown and neighborhoods. They’ve created new opportunities for learning and sharing. And they’ve brought vi- tality to our local economy, help- ing us keep more than a thousand manufacturing jobs local. Leaders whose strongest mes- sage is division aren’t real leaders. So, it’s up to all of us to be leaders in our communities. I try to do this in my business every day. Today I’m going to do it in one more way: by writing to the administration and telling them I’m against wealth tests and for immigrants in my community. Dreya Moore co-owns The Art- ist Studio & Gallery @ Annex 24 in Lancaster, Penn. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
