Opinion
Oregon Legislature: Poor Grades on Race
O
n the anniversary of what
would’ve been the Rev-
erend Dr. Martin Luther
King’s birthday, a coalition of
seven local community groups
issued a report card on how well
Oregon’s Legislative Assembly
did in moving our state toward
racial equity. Equity is like justice.
Like fairness.
The evaluation is called Facing
Race, 2011 Legislative Report
Card on Racial Equity. And it
addresses our two legislative
chambers’ 2011 performance
within the current context of many
of Oregon’s racially unjust public
institutions. In short, how fair
were our elected state leaders?
According to the Legislative
Report Card: Oregon’s Senate
scored a C. Our House of Repre-
sentatives got a D.
In the weeks following the
report’s publication we heard
plenty of commentary. Some
thoughtful, some not, but every bit
of it essential in moving forward
our American instincts for justice,
for fairness.
But listen – because race is an
GUEST C OLUMNIST
Renault Catalani
emotional menace and a sociolog-
ical mire for both of Oregon’s
legislative chambers, for both
competing parties, for both our
urban and rural populations, for
both America’s mainstream and
our many ethnic minority streams
– let me approach the 2011 Leg-
islative Report Card in simpler
terms. In talking story-style.
Never mind for the next minutes
our issues with race. Forget our
efforts at equity. Focus for now on
grades.
When we were kids, not one of
our mother’s four sons could bring
home a C. As for the letter D, it
was not in her household’s alpha-
bet. Not in her children’s names.
Not one of her magnetic fridge let-
ters.
Today, her standard still rules
over her third American genera-
tion. The threat: “I’m telling Oma
(about your grades)” sent exactly
the same spine-straightening jolt
into her eight grandchildren as it
now sends into her 10 great grand-
children. Same standard. Same
currency.
I talk about this particular tradi-
tional elder because that’s where
Old Worlders and New Americans
go when crazy complexity hap-
pens on our chaotic new continent.
Please lend me another 600 words
to set out two lean reasons why
dropping back into old-school
analysis works, especially in
uncertain times.
1. When average is awful
We came to the United States
with hearts wide open, even if our
eyes were not. That changed about
a year after settling into Salem.
America’s only mahatma, the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. was murdered, and America
went into riot. Then, President
John F. Kennedy’s handsome little
brother Bobby, the one who cried
unashamedly after he walked halt-
ingly out of that Southern Black
family’s humble home — was also
shot dead. Also before our eyes.
Our eyes all went to Momma.
She didn’t blink. We looked at our
pop. He didn’t breathe.
The next morning, without a
word on what just happened, our
mother made up her mind about
her sons’ minds. She would not let
her boys tumble into it. She would
tolerate none of it. Not ever.
Our mom got practical. No
negotiation. No backtalk. Her
American dreaming would not fail
because America was getting an F.
Not one of her boys could bring
home a D (Poor). An average or
passing grade (C) would never do.
Not if “average” meant being at
level with all that awfulness.
Tidak. Not in her house.
Accordingly, us just doing good
(B) would never be enough
momentum to overcome our coun-
try’s startling meanness. By our
mom’s scorecard, only A-grades
would do. By her reasoning, only
by being excellent would her
FOBby boys not fall into that
abyss. Only A’s could make her
kids, her kids’ kids, and their kids’
kids a place we could all proudly
call home.
2. When the news is not new
For four decades, our expanding
American family has done as Oma
expected. During those same
decades our national and local
leaders have tried and tried to pull
our public institutions out of their
racialized ruts. Deep and unjust
ruts. Deep as River Columbia’s
Gorge and just as sure to deter-
mine the course of our
mainstream, unless elected law-
makers mind and measure our
habitual bigotry as carefully and
consistently as our mother guides
all those she’s responsible for gen-
eration after generation.
When average is awful, a pass-
ing grade is an approval of awful.
Don’t like the Report Card’s sci-
ence or the reporters’ politics? –
Contribute to the work, let’s get
ready for our next legislative
assembly.
By now, the disparities between
black and brown and white, in
income and in wealth, in school-
ing and in housing, in jobs and in
political leadership, should be old
news. The research has been done.
And done again. It’s an old rut.
Read the rest online at
www.theskanner.com
Letters to the Editor
Let’s teach it strong
F
ighting and violence are only
justified when we are defend-
ing somebody who is being hurt or
if we must defend ourselves
against an oppressive force deter-
mined to hurt us. At no other point
is it justified. All other aspects of
the fight have no bearing on the
choice these young people made
to hurt the young lady in ques-
tion.
We sell video games that depict
what we see on this video, we con-
stantly show people movies that
contain this type of behavior, we
don’t teach people why such
behavior is wrong, evil, and non-
productive, we don’t teach people
why and how they are to love one
another and care for one another,
and then we wonder why these
kids did what they did.
They should be punished and by
the way, NO, they don’t deserve
18 months in jail for it. The Amer-
ican system is off when it comes
to crime and punishment but that’s
another topic. I grew up in another
country where we took care of our
fights, we got wooped at home for
fighting, the churches taught us to
be gentle and kind, and we grew
up with a sense of respect. If jail is
what is necessary to fix this, all of
us would have gone there for
fighting and many of us would
have so scarred from the experi-
ence we would have had a bad
life.
Preachers, let’s stand up, let’s
teach it strong, let’s call it out,
let’s teach our young people what
it means to be decent human
beings, and of course the only real
way that works is to teach them
the Gospel by our words and by
our actions.
This is the only answer but as
long as we have preachers who
dance and sing on Sunday morn-
ing, who go to bed with choir
members, who steal the church
money, who talk about angels and
not about the demons walking
around with sagging pants, we
will continue to have a society on
its way down ever so much more
close to the animal kingdom.
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As long as we teach our children
they are evolved animals, they
will continue to grow more
towards the manifestation of such
animalistic behavior. We are the
only created being made in the
image of God. Let’s teach it and
then watch our societies improve.
No amount of social engineering
is going to work as long as secular
humanism teaches people to just
follow their urges.
Evangelist Rico Kaplan
Kingston, Jamaica
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February 15, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 5