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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2012)
News/Bids/Classifieds To place your ad, email Advertising deadlines 12:00 Noon Monday Hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. advertising@theskanner.com ‘Hi! My Name Is Loco and I Am a Racist’ Force continued from page 1 Community Police Commission, which would be a civilian over- sight body. Court oversight would continue for five years, but the city could ask to end the scrutiny earlier if it has complied with the said. Surveillance cameras and police-cruiser videos had captured offi- cers beating civilians, including stomping on a prone Latino man who was mistakenly thought to be a robbery suspect, other community groups called for scrutiny of the department after a Seat- tle officer shot and killed the woodcarver, John T. Williams, in 2010. Video from Officer Ian Birk’s patrol car showed Williams crossing the spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington state, was also pleased. ``The city and the DOJ appear to have taken our concerns about exces- sive force, racially biased policing and flaws in the oversight system s e r i o u s l y, ’’ Honig said. ``The imple- mentation is what’s going to matter.’’ Since the beginning of 2010, the Justice Depart- ment’s civil rights divi- sion has previously reached settlements to reform police practices in New Orleans and in Warren, Ohio. It has sued the Marico- pa County, Arizona, sheriff’s office and the East Haven, Connecti- cut, police department for a pattern and practice of discrimination against Latinos and Hispanics. Talks between Seattle officials and the Justice Department had been hung up after city officials initially balked at some federal proposals for reform agreements for two years. ``This city is commit- ted to eliminating bias,’’ McGinn said. Perez said the agree- ment could serve as a way to help reduce crime and increase pub- lic confidence in the city’s police officers. ``We must continue to be well aware of the very raw feelings that many Seattle residents continue to have toward the Seattle Police Department,’’ Perez and an officer kicking a non-resisting black youth in a convenience store. The earlier Justice Department report found that force was used unconstitutionally one out of every five times an officer resorted to it. The department failed to adequately review the use of force and lacked policies and training related to the use of force, it said. The American Civil Liberties Union and street holding a piece of wood and a small knife, and Birk exiting the vehicle to pursue him. Off-camera, Birk quick- ly shouted three times for Williams to drop the knife then fired five shots. The knife was found folded at the scene, but Birk later maintained Williams had threatened him. Birk resigned from the force and was not charged. A review board found the shooting unjustified. Doug Honig, Associated Press writ- ers Gene Johnson in We honor the many accomplishments of African Americans. It is our primary goal as a labor union to better the lives of all people working in the building trades through advoca- cy, civil demonstration, and the long- held belief that workers deserve a "family wage" - fair pay for an honest day's work. A family wage, and the benefits that go with it, not only strengthens fami- lies, but also allows our communities to become stronger, more cohesive, and more responsive to their citizens' needs. Our family wage agenda reflects our commitment to people working in the building trades, and to workers everywhere. In this small way, we are doing our part to help people achieve the American Dream. This dream that work- ers can hold dear regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, creed, or religious beliefs. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Representing more than 5.000 construction workers in Oregon State. Do you want to know more about becoming a Union car- penter? Page 6 The Seattle Skanner August 1, 2012 Book Review by Kam Williams Baye “Loco” McNeil is an African-American who took a most unorthodox path to discovering, confronting and eradicating the racism he found within himself. Born in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, he was raised by parents with a Pan-African ideology, which led to the lad’s joining a cult as a teenager which preached black superiority. But after serving in the U.S. Army and earning a B.A. at Long Island University, Baye ventured to Japan where he would teach English for 8 years. And in the Land of the Rising Sun, he found himself subject- ed to a vicious brand of bigotry that made him feel like a social pari- ah. For instance, none of the locals would sit next to him whenever he rode the subway, even if the car was crowded. In a chapter entitled “An Empty Seat on a Crowded Train” he recounts how an overpro- tective mother had hissed “Abunai!” (Japanese for “dangerous”) while yanking her 4 year-old daughter back to her feet rather than allow the child to spend one second in the vicinity of a “gaijin” (“for- eigner”) with dark skin, thereby Hi! My Name Is Loco and I Am a Racist indoctrinating the impressionable young girl in the ways of discrimi- by Baye McNeil nation at an early age. Hunterfly Road Publishing Such routine displays of contempt on the part of fellow commuters Paperback, $17.99 day-in and day-out left Baye in a 392 pages helpless state of “impotent hate” as ISBN: 978-0-615587783 if these strangers were spitting in his face. No matter how much he tried to ignore it, or play it down as merely the consequence of a homogenous culture, it still bothered him because it was clear that white Americans were being treated very dif- ferently. He knew that the Japanese had bought into a bunch of stereotypes about black people which allowed them to think things like: “We don’t like you. We don’t trust you. We think you’re a bad person, a pitiful person, an inferior human lacking morality. You steal. You habitually womanize and rape. You commit violent acts against inno- cent people like us as a matter of course.” What is surprising is that Baye wasn’t embittered by all the years of relentless ostracism, but rather he came to see the empty subway seat beside him as a gift. For, through introspection, he realized that he had to work on his own prejudices about whites, Asians and others, and he evolved to the point where today he takes on racism of any form every time he encounters it. A really remarkable and thought-provoking memoir about a sensi- tive soul’s most unlikely route to a life-changing epiphany about the true meaning of racial tolerance.
