Opinion
Equity and the Power of Accusation
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
Advertising Manager
J ERRY F OSTER
Account Executive
L ISA L OVING
News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
Multimedia Editor
D AVID K IDD
Graphic Designer
M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
“A
lways, always first ask
yourself,” our pop
used to say, poking
my sternum. “What do I know?
Really know. And what am I
assuming.”
That last part of his lesson was
not a question. It was an admoni-
tion. “Hati-hati, Joh (Beware my
boy)” he’d say. Then he blinked
firm twice, turned my skinny
shoulders clear around and sent
me off.
Our father schooled his sons
during anxious political and eco-
nomic times. We grew up in a
complex place — Indonesia spoke
in 900 languages; neighbors were
black and brown, yellow and
white.
In those tense times and in that
vigorous place, it was all parents’
quiet duty to teach acceptance and
conciliation to wild kids like our
pop’s boys. We were a densely
peopled island so we either shared
well or lived in hell. We either
asked ourselves what we know, or
we assumed divisive biases. Up to
us.
Maybe it’s all a lot like now, like
Portland. Probably I best poke my
sternum daily, and we all ask our-
selves: What do we know?
A familiar chill
A few weeks ago, a professor
whose 30 years of good work I
know well, caught my eye. And
iced my porous bones. The chill
started where our pop used to rap
me. It followed my ribs out and
around, then leached into my
heart.
His web page named two iconi-
cally-acronymed federal agencies
– one with jurisdiction over alco-
hol, tobacco and firearms; one
tasked with taking out terrorists,
E-mail: info@theskanner.com
E QUITY AND P OWER
Ronault LS Catalani
kidnappers, interstate and interna-
tional criminals. Both, he blogged
“played important roles . . . . in
this serious campus security
issue.” He thanked everyone for
their care. That’s an avalanche of
facts. Bad ones. On first impres-
sion. But here’s what’s known
about what’s been said: University
officials said that campus security
conflicted. I know how conscien-
tiously this grad student leads
interracial neighborhood concilia-
tion and how consistently he
contributes to local community-
building. I know folks’ affection
and respect for him. For sure.
More problems: I know his
physician father. I know his Asian
ma like I know ours. And getting
to the core of my column: these
two ladies are exactly like another
mom I know real well — the one
who 8 years ago looked straight
into a KGW camera’s red eye and
‘University officials said that security
officers said that a student said that
her Asian classmate said that he
wanted to shoot this Portland
professor’
said that a student said that her
Asian classmate said that he want-
ed to shoot this Portland professor.
And we know the student owns
guns.
That’s probably too many
hearsay links to know what’s true,
but I can say with certainty that it
brought me straight back to our
last two campus killers. Mentally
ill kids with guns. Both Asian.
Another thing I can surely report
is my dread over this Asian stu-
dent’s face stapled to every
campus lamp post, his face
dropped into every kid’s, every
teacher’s and staffer’s e-inbox. It’s
a familiar chill. One ethnic minor-
ity Oregon knows well.
My problem is that I also know
Henry the young Portlander this
professor said triggered all those
muscular feds. And I know I am
told Oregon that her boy did not
kidnap or rape or murder that love-
ly young Corvallis coed. We know
the cops and their prosecutors did
not believe Dawn Kim, or her son.
Three years later, Joel Courtney
confessed to the unimaginable sea
of sorrow he caused Brooke
Wilberger’s family. But no one’s
taken responsibility for the terrible
harm done Mrs. Kim’s family. For
our assumptions. For our biases.
Our familiar ruts
About Henry’s situation, I
haven’t done the science, but I’ll
bet half my paycheck that a flash-
poll 1000 Portlanders would net a
racialized divide over what
respondents assume happened
between the accused, the accuser,
and all those downstream officials
triggered by her accusations.
Mainstreamers on one side, ethnic
streamers on the other. Like with
OJ and Kobe. Like with Sung
Kim.
As a matter of American histori-
cal fact, we know that race
matters. We know that power dif-
ferences between races matter
even more. Overwhelming institu-
tions on one side, dread on the
other. The awful familiarity of it
— every next time it all comes
around.
What those of us favorably
biased for this outspoken student
and soft-spoken community prob-
lem solver know is that Oregon
Health Science U’s examining
psychiatrist cleared him after cam-
pus security cops locked him up.
We know that the Portland Police
Bureau’s examining detective did
not charge him. With any crime.
We know Henry’s humiliated
Asian family drove him straight
home. We know they took their
phone off the hook. For their
shame. For the shame of it all.
We know those law schools that
admitted him for fall semester,
took their offers and their scholar-
ships off the table. We know
we’ve damaged Henry’s future,
his family’s fine name, his com-
munity’s stubborn belief in
American democracy.
“Always, always first ask your-
self,” our pop used to poke my
sternum. “What do I know? Real-
ly know. And what am I
assuming.”
His was an admonition for kids
schooled during unstable times.
Times when ordinarily generous
societies lose their discernment.
Times like these. Places like
ours. Our Portland.
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Save Black Men – Get Your PSA Screening
L
ast week, the United States
Preventive Services Task
Force (USPSTF) recom-
mended that healthy men should
no longer take a routine PSA
blood test for prostate cancer
because the procedure may lead
patients to pursue unnecessary and
potentially debilitating treatments
for a disease that may never fully
develop. This week, the National
Urban League joins the National
Medical Association, the Prostate
Health
Education
Network
(PHEN), the American Urological
Association and other leading
medical experts in rejecting that
conclusion, especially for African
American men who are 60 percent
more likely to develop prostate
cancer and twice as likely to die
from it.
We agree that unnecessary med-
ical tests should be avoided, but
the evidence for eliminating PSA
screenings for prostate cancer,
especially for African American
men,
is
inconclusive
at
best. Instead of abandoning PSA
screenings for everyone, we
encourage more education for
both providers and patients that
will allow men to make more
informed decisions about the risks
and benefits of the test. There are
several reasons for our position.
First, while prostate cancer
remains the second-leading cause
of cancer death among men, we
Page 4 The Portland Skanner June 6, 2012
T O B E
E QUAL
Marc Morial
also know that advances in early
detection and treatment have
resulted in a 40 percent decline in
prostate deaths in the United
initial PSA testing at 40 years and
a multi-factorial assessment of
risk based on age, ethnicity, and
family history.
Second, the NMA also points
out that the USPSTF made its rec-
ommendation based on large
clinical studies performed in
Europe, Canada and the United
States, which included very few
African American men.
And third, while the USPSTF
correctly states that a percentage
“With the prevalence of prostate
cancer disproportionately affecting
our men, we must be vigilant to
ensure aggressive testing continues for
this most vulnerable population.”
— Cedric M. Bright, M.D., president of the
National Medical Association
States over the past two decades.
The National Medical Association
(NMA), the nation’s leading advo-
cate for African American
physicians and patients, has stated
that PSA screening remains the
best method to detect early stage,
curable prostate cancers. The
group endorses the American Uro-
logical Association’s guidelines
for early detection, which include
of men will experience harmful
side effects from treatments fol-
lowing the PSA test, the test itself
is risk-free. It simply alerts both
doctor and patient to the possible
presence of disease.
Anthony D’Amico, chief of
Genitourinary Radiation Oncolo-
gy at Boston’s Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, suggests that
the USPSTF’s recommendation
may actually be harmful to high-
risk groups, which includes
African American men. He said,
“I think men at high risk…have
the most to lose from not getting
PSA tests. They are the ones who
get the lethal cancers.”
In a letter accompanying the
USPSTF recommendation in the
May 21 issue of the Annals of
Internal Medicine, D’Amico and
other leading prostate cancer
experts concluded, “The USPSTF
has underestimated the benefits
and overestimated the harms of
prostate cancer screening. There-
fore, we disagree with the
USPSTF’s recommendation.”
So do we. Since 1922, the
National Urban League has been a
leading provider of health-related
services in the African American
community. We urge African
American men to continue dis-
cussing the pros and cons of
prostate cancer screening with
their doctors. And we support
more community-based education
and early intervention efforts for
low-income and minority patients
who face barriers to consistent,
quality health care.
Marc H. Morial, former mayor
of New Orleans, is president and
CEO of the National Urban
League