local news
Wall
continued from page 1
the Skanner News: Tell me about the ‘9/11 Unheard
Voices’ website. What is it?
amardeep Singh: The website is a video wall that allows
members of the Muslim, Sikh, Arab, South Asian commu-
nities to talk about discrimination against Arab communi-
ties as a result of 9/11. There’s a belief that many of the sto-
ries of school bullying, racial profiling, hate crimes,
employment discrimination, haven’t been adequately cap-
tured by our government or the larger media, and this is an
effort to take our stories and tell them ourselves and pre-
serve them for posterity. That’s really what the website’s
about.
tSN: And it looks like it’s very graphics-driven, very
accessible.
aS: Absolutely, so anyone can go on the site, and let’s say
you want to learn about how school bullying has affected
members of our communities. There’s a dropdown and you
go to “school bullying.” Same for “hate crimes” and “racial
profiling” and the like.
tSN: Talk a little bit about what you are seeing as you put
this website together. What is the upshot of how people
have been impacted since 9/11? What is the moral here?
aS: I think what’s happened is right after the attack, the
more open discrimination like hate crimes was prevalent.
That has gone down markedly since the last 10 years. What
has happened is you’re seeing softer forms of discrimina-
tion like school bullying; the extra checks that members of
the Sikh community get at the airport; the extra questioning
that members of the Muslim community get at national bor-
ders. That has become not only prevalent, but has gotten
worse since the attacks.
And I think the dynamic here is that while violent dis-
crimination has gone down, the popular image in the public
mind — for example, that equates a turban and beard with
terrorism – has gotten worse. It’s solidified. The last 10
years has been about taking that image of turban and beard
and really driving home through popular media that this is
the image of a terrorist. And of course as regards the Sikhs,
a terrorism and beard have nothing to do with terrorism.
And what you end up seeing for example is our organiza-
tion has done surveys of hundreds of young Sikh school stu-
dents, both in the Bay Area and New York, and what’s so
disturbing about those surveys is that in both areas over 70
percent of turban-wearing boys report some sort of bully-
ing, teasing, harassment, based on a supposed association
with Osama bin Laden or the Taliban and the like. And over
30 percent on both coasts have been reporting unwanted
physical touching or hitting.
These are crisis-level numbers and I think it’s a reflection
of what’s happening – the dialogue that is happening among
The civil rights organization’s “unheard Voices of 9/11” invites community members to tell their own
anecdotes of bullying, harassment, and just plain being singled out as “potential terrorists.” Anyone
impacted by such discrimination may upload their stories to the wall
the adults and the images that are out there of the turban and
beard. There’s just a lot of ignorance to still be dispelled 10
years out.
tSN: I know that in some of our other communities
there’s a sense of us versus them. And so how does it bene-
fit everyone in the country to embrace this awareness of
how people have been hurt by 9/11-related discrimination
Community members tell their
own anecdotes of bullying,
harassment, and just plain
being singled out as ‘potential
terrorists’
in unintended ways? How does everybody benefit by what
you’re doing?
aS: It’s important that we – I think a vast majority of
Americans don’t want discrimination in our midst. And the
only way to resist this is to document it.
People just don’t know; the only real way to address the
issue is document it, to say this is happening. I know
America doesn’t like little children to be bullied, I know
you don’t like old men to be physically attacked. Let’s put
an end to this and the first step is to acknowledge that it’s
happening and to document it.
I think that the other thing this project does is it allows
community members to speak in their own voice, and often-
times when people see the faces – for example of the
women in the hijab who is Muslim or a Sikh young boy or
a man in a turban, there might be all sorts of assumptions
about how they’re going to speak. And when they get out
there on the video wall on our website, and they’re speak-
ing for example without an accent because they were born
and raised in this country, I think that helps to dispel a lot of
myths also about our communities.
For example if somebody would get to know me they
would know I was born and raised in the United States, I
played little league baseball, my mom was a soccer mom,
I’m a die-hard New York Yankees fan – when people tell me
to go home I don’t have anywhere to go except New Jersey,
where I’m from. So I think this documentation project, done
via video so that average people’s voices can be heard, is
just critical in putting forth that we have a problem here,
and that it’s a problem happening to good people who are
just like anyone out there.
tSN: What’s the most important thing that people should
know about this project that you’re doing?
aS: I think the most important thing is that the project
engages in truth-telling about discrimination in our country,
and that truth-telling will hopefully lead to dialogue and
eventually change. But the project is about getting voices
that haven’t been heard, heard. So that the myths that are
out there are hopefully dispelled.
Go to the website at http://unheardvoicesof911.org/
College
continued from page 1
year, joining more than 300 students in
grades 10-12. All Portland high schools
offer students the opportunity to take some
college classes, and Jefferson students
already have been crossing Killingsworth
Street to take classes on the Cascade cam-
pus. But teachers and mentors are commit-
ted to helping more students make that jour-
ney and promise they will raise the bar,
Calvert said.
“It’s about expanding kids opportu-
nities and seeing ways to get there
–knowing that they are going to be
surrounded by caring adults who are
going to push them in a loving way.”
The partnership between the
schools and SEI is designed to help
more Jefferson students aim higher,
and offer them the support they need
to achieve their goals. Portland
Community College instructors and
Jefferson teachers have been working
closely together to make sure their academ-
ic language and content is consistent. Self
Enhancement Inc. has committed to work-
ing with every student at the school, offer-
ing mentorship, and wraparound services
designed to help students overcome the
challenges they face.
Superintendent Smith said the elementary
schools have been working hard to improve
student’s academic skills and it shows.
About 50 percent of Jefferson students
“It doesn’t start at Jefferson,” he said.
“We’re going to do a much better job with
students at schools in this cluster….
“It would be a shame if the kids of color
who are already living here can’t take
advantage of this opportunity, as opposed to
2 to 3 years of remedial work to get up to
speed.”
Nationally, Hopson noted, about one-
third of students graduate from high school
prepared for college; another third
graduate unprepared for college; the
remaining third don’t graduate at all.
Disproportionately these students are
low-income Black and Latino stu-
dents. A report by Eco Northwest for
the Black Parent Initiative showed
that those students do learn as fast as
everyone else, but they face obstacles
related to poverty, such as frequent
Tony Hopson changes of school.
Gatewood talked about the ‘belief
Middle school. Now SEI faces the new gap’ that prevents many first-generation
challenge of beginning work with student high school graduates from seeing them-
already halfway through their academic selves as university graduates. As a first
generation student himself, he says, he
careers.
“…a large percentage of the kids who understands that challenge. Attending
show up at Jefferson aren’t prepared to go classes at PCC gives students the experi-
across the street to PCC or go down I5 to ence of being a college student, he said,
see the University of Oregon,” Hopson said. while the promise of financial aid makes it
“They are struggling just to stay in school a real possibility.
“I truly believe that this partnership will
and to gain enough educational background,
get the job done,” he said.
so they eventually can go across the street.
arrived this year with below grade level test
scores. That’s far better than in previous
years, where 80 percent arrived without the
skills they needed. But it still means that
many students will have a steep climb to get
the scholarship.
Tony Hopson said SEI hopes eventually
to work with every one of the students in
Jefferson’s feeder schools. At the moment
SEI serves students who go to Humboldt
“They are struggling just to stay
in school and to gain enough
educational background, so
they eventually can go across
the street”
Lariviere agreed, saying that the steepest
barriers is not to do with inborn intelligence
or academic preparation or even self-disci-
pline, but rather students’ confidence and
ability to thrive socially in an academic set-
ting. Students at Jefferson will overcome
that hurdle through their experiences at
Portland Community College.
“The University of Oregon is often
viewed as a place that’s not accessible,
that’s not affordable; for the elite, harder to
get into etcetera, and we are doing our best
to overcome that belief,” he said. “The
biggest impediment to success for many,
many young people is that they can’t imag-
ine themselves succeeding at the University
of Oregon. The truth of the matter is that we
are hungry for the opportunity for them to
succeed.”
Mayor Sam Adams, school board member
Bobbie Regan, staff and students also con-
tributed to the discussion. Adams said the
city’s cradle to career initiative would target
help to pre-schoolers so they arrive at
school ready to learn. Students, Bridgette
Lang and Robel Haile said attending PCC
classes has helped them set and achieve
goals. Haile said that in Ethiopia, where he
was born, high school graduation is out of
range for most children. Now the Jefferson
Varsity soccer captain believes he will go to
university.
September 14, 2011 The Portland and Seattle Skanner page 3