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recession
love your Natural Hair
tears.
Economists say the Great Recession last-
ed from 2007 to 2009. In 2004, the median
net worth of white households was
$134,280, compared with $13,450 for black
households, according to an analysis of
Federal Reserve data by the Economic
Policy Institute. By 2009, the median net
worth for white households had fallen 24
percent to $97,860; the median black net
worth had fallen 83 percent to $2,170,
according to the EPI.
Algernon Austin, director of the EPI’s
Program
on
Race, Ethnicity
and
the
Economy,
described the
wealth gap this
way: “In 2009,
for every dollar
of wealth the
average white
household had,
black households only had two cents.”
Since the end of the recession, the overall
unemployment rate has fallen from 9.4 to
9.1 percent, while the black unemployment
rate has risen from 14.7 to 16.2 percent,
according to the Department of Labor.
“I would say the recession is not over for
black folks,” Austin says. He believes more
black people than ever before could fall out
of the middle class, because the unemploy-
ment rate for college-educated blacks
recently peaked and blacks are overrepre-
sented in state and local government jobs
that are being eliminated due to massive
budget shortfalls.
Maya Wiley, director of the Center for
Social Inclusion, says the anti-discrimina-
tion laws passed in the 1960s took decades
to translate into an increase in black eco-
nomic security — and that was before the
recession.
“History is going to say that the black
middle class was decimated” over the past
few years, Wiley says. “But we’re not done
writing history.”
Goldring was born and raised in
Baltimore,
and her moth-
er was single
for much of
G o l d r i n g ’s
childhood. At
16,
she
dropped out
of school and
went to work
cleaning hotel
rooms.
“That’s when I first met white people.
Some of them would stay a month at the
hotel. They would have all their children
with them,” she remembers. “I thought, one
day I’d like to hang out at a hotel.”
She didn’t know any middle-class people
in her all-black neighborhood. “Where we
lived, everyone struggled. We just struggled
a little harder,” she says. “If the lights
stayed on for a whole year, if we didn’t get
put out, I thought we were doing really,
really well.”
“History is going to say that
the black middle class was
decimated”
PHoTo BY SuSAN fRIED
continued from page 1
renee mitchell’s exciting new project will look at the many issues
surrounding Black hair, especially when worn in its natural state. The
Natural and Proud People Inspiration project kicked off Wednesday with a
men Only discussion. Next up in the series of events is: ‘Our Hair yes!’ “my
kinky love affair with my hair,” from 3 to 5 pm Saturday July 16 at Talking
drum café and Bookstore, 446 NE Killingsworth St.
At 21, pregnant with her second child,
Goldring decided to get her GED. Then she
went to community college, got a degree in
secretarial work, and began a career.
She met her husband in 1983. He had a
steady job as a heating and air-conditioning
installer, and owned a brick two-bedroom
home in Morgan Park, a leafy, integrated
neighborhood.
With two incomes, money was not a prob-
lem. He liked to travel. She had never been
out of Maryland.
“I thought, ‘Is this how rich people live?’”
Goldring remembers. “From where I was to
where I ended up, it was way different.”
Her husband had been married before. As
a condition of the divorce, his daughter’s
name was added to the deed of the house.
port, they condemned him right from the
start.”
Thompson hit out at city policymakers,
saying Portland has its priorities wrong.
“Do you know bike lanes will get $600
million over the next 20 years, but there is
half a million for gang outreach for the next
two years?” Thompson said. “Outreach
organizations have to go to a bidding party
to get any funding.”
The City of Portland funds
10 outreach workers who
serve at-risk youth across the
city.
Despite Reese’s letter, the
Oregon Liquor Licensing
Commission did not suspend
Seeznin’s license. Instead it
placed seven stringent restric-
tions on the bar. The OLCC
told Thompson that to continue as a bar he
would have to:
Hire four DPSST-certified security people
to be on duty Fridays and Saturdays from
9pm to close, and one DPSST-certified
security person all other times
Institute a dress code. Anyone wearing
“gang-related clothing” to be refused entry.
The OLCC list of “gang-related” clothing
includes: “athletic jerseys…torn or ragged
clothing, casual sweat pants or track suits,
headwear of any kind, or street gang attire,
including colors.”
Wand everyone entering the bar and
search all bags. Any person with a weapon
(or prohibited item) to be refused entry for
24 hours
Use age verification equipment to check
Platinum certification to prove it. The proj-
ect also includes 9,000 square feet of
ground floor retail space.
“We believe many homeowners want to
be urban pioneers,” Winkler said. “We’re
committed to building a healthy, sustainable
community where people can live, work
and recreate with minimal environmental
impact.
“Killingsworth Station offers solar-ther-
mal hot water, energy efficient appliances,
green roofs, on-site storm water manage-
ment, responsibly sourced bamboo hard-
wood floors, sound-treated windows, bike
racks on every floor, and light rail and bus
service right outside your door. They’ll
even be a Zip Car across the street and an
electric car battery station available for
those who might need the use of a vehicle.”
For more information about the project
visit KillingsworthStation.com
Contact the African American Alliance for
Homeownership at 503-595-3517 or by
email at info@aaah.org
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
Seeznin’s
continued from page 1
tains. “I’m a victim of the violence that’s
been going on – as well as of these false
accusations. To characterize me as gang
associate is highly offensive.”
“I have no sympathy for gang members,”
he says. “I believe people who are terroriz-
ing the community need to be treated as ter-
rorists and taken off the streets.
“Bars have never killed anyone. Parks
have never killed anyone. Deal with the
people who are the problem.”
Shootings have occurred in many parts of
the city, on neighborhood streets as well as
near drinking establishments including: The
Interstate Bar and Grill, The Good Call, the
82nd Avenue Bar and Grill, as well as
downtown at Kelly’s Olympian, the 915
Club, the Barracuda nightclub and the
underage club The Zone. Response from the
OLCC has varied. The 915 lost its liquor
license immediately, for example, but oth-
ers, such as the Interstate Bar and Grill, and
the Good Call, remain open until 2 am.
Joyce Olivo, who runs Good Tymez
Entertainment, helped organize a youth
employment fair at Seeznin’s during the day
on a Saturday, and she held receptions there
for two of her young performing artists.
“I’ve been to Seeznin’s countless times
Sam Thompson and Joyce Olivo
and I’ve never felt unsafe,” she told The
Skanner News. “I’ve never seen any gather-
ing of gang members or questionable people
there ever. I was embraced by everyone
there: by Sam, by his mother, by his sister.
The people who went there were family,
friends, longtime members of Portland’s
Black community.
“Sam’s a very good person, and he really
opened his place up to the community,”
says Olivo. “He’s a young Black male in
this city, trying to do good, and it’s really
sad that rather than lending him more sup-
“He’s a young Black male in
this city, trying to do good...”
the age of every patron
Shut down the bar at 11 pm, with the busi-
ness to close at 11:30 pm.
The restrictions would effectively kill his
business, Thompson says, so he will have to
close.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
Home
continued from page 1
year.
With one or two bedrooms, the develop-
ment will probably appeal to young single
professionals and couples, said Cheryl
Roberts, executive director of the African
American Alliance for Homeownership.
http://www.aaah.org/
“They will be a great investment because
that area is still being revitalized,” Roberts
told The Skanner News. “There are defi-
nitely benefits to living in that area near
Mississippi and near employers such as
Adidas, Kaiser and PCCs Cascade campus.
There’s a lot going on.”
Roberts said AAAH has similar loans
available up to $30,000, for first-time
homebuyers. She encourages anyone inter-
ested in buying a home in any part of the
city to contact her for more information.
Prices for the one-bedroom homes start at
$160,000, with three two-bedroom homes
priced from $275,000.
Developed by local real estate investor
Jim Winkler, the 57 homes on offer are
about as green and energy efficient as you’ll
find anywhere, and they have the LEED
July 13, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 3