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Good day African American
business owners, skilled people, church organizations,
etc. If you seriously believe that we should help support
our own and encourage others to do the same, then we’re
inviting you to come and get registered to participate in the
upcoming “20/20” Regional African American Business
directory, featuring what black people are doing in Seattle,
Tacoma, Olympia, Vancouver WA, PTLD, Salem etc.
Registration is taking place now at 2205 N. Lombard,
room 103, PTLD, Oregon. After they are paid for, there
will be thousands of directories produced and distributed.
Basic business directory listing is less than $40 a year,
less than $15 for skilled people listings.
For appointment hours phone Gloria at 360-952-1432,
Ruth at 360-723-8497, John (503) 358-9655 or Lottie
(directory organizer) at 206-271-0311.
May 8, 2019
Writings for a Better World
C ontinueD from p age 3
Oregon Physicians for Social Re-
sponsibility as promoting equity
and justice. She said the group’s
goals are to protect human life
from the gravest threats to health
and survival by striving to end the
nuclear threat, advance environ-
mental health, protect our climate
and promote peace.
The highlight of the evening
was when the students read their
winning entries aloud.
Alyssia Maxwell, the third
place winner from Parkrose High
School spoke about being a mem-
ber of her basketball team and
facing racist taunts during away
games.
“I play for Parkrose High
School and every time we go to St.
Helens high school there’s always
a situation or problem happening
every year...Their school is known
for being racist. We thought we
would be able to just play basket-
ball and not worry about anything
bad happening this time, but we
were wrong about that,” Maxwell
said.
Iman Pearce of De La Salle
North Catholic High School, the
second place winner, wrote about
being in the first grade when a
classmate spoke up in front of her,
the teacher and other students and
said ‘No, you’re black” after she
asked to play from the same toy
box.
“Somewhere that girl had heard
that people like me should not be
allowed to touch something that
was hers,” Pearce said.
First place winner Jack Hill
of Westview High School wrote
about the inequities of providing
housing for people who face eco-
nomic hardships and discrimina-
tion, maintaining his own deter-
mination to overcome obstacles.
“Ain’t never a silver-lining
playbook so rigged/ as Portland
metro’s real-estate market… The
biggest question for you is: How
are you going to use your story
moving forward. Are you going to
create a conversation? Are you go-
ing to make waves? Are you going
to foster understanding? Are you
going to carve out opportunities?
I know I am,” Hill said.
The keynote speaker was Dr.
Brian Gibbs, who serves as vice
president for equity and inclusion
at Oregon Health & Science Uni-
versity.
“Let’s be clear, systemic rac-
ism is a corrosive and widespread
problem in our society, and we
all need to do a better job of con-
fronting it - in our towns, in our
neighborhoods, in our schools
and college campuses, in our
clinics, and in ourselves,” Gibbs
said.
Madison Arnold-Scerbo is a
program assistant at Oregon Phy-
sicians for Social Responsibility.
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