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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2016)
March 2, 2016 The Skanner Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 “And it’s a very positive place to be,” Causey said. Just two years ago ad- ministrators pulled the plug on Causey’s Black education program at Portland Community College on the Monday after her first success summit attracted 300 students. College officials at the So we bring in community, we bring in businesses; we are actually trying to create a pipeline time said the program had run out of money, but within a year former PCC President Jeremy Brown was forced out of his job, with a $300,000 severance from the col- lege. Left without a venue, Causey didn’t give up advocating for cultural- ly competent education. Last year she helped re-launch the Black Bac- calaureate program for high school students — a major accomplishment for local families push- ing to keep their kids in- terested in school. Oregon’s high school graduation rates are among the lowest in the nation for students of all races. That’s why Causey said she has expanded her approach to reach kids as young as middle school through a new program for young teens called the Middle Pas- sage to Education, held in January. Almost 100 middle schoolers showed up a few weeks ago for the first Black Student Suc- cess Summit tooled just for them. Causey said high schoolers and col- lege students volun- teered their time at the event to support the youngsters’ goals and vi- iPhone see themselves in the curriculum, they need time to be together and have connections to oth- er students and adults that look like them,” Cau- sey said. Her big idea is to bring in people from outside of education. “So we bring in community, we bring in businesses; we are ac- tually trying to create a pipeline,” she said. “I hear people all the time saying they’re going to diversify, we’re going to diversify. “My thought is that if we continue to do what we’ve done, we’ll contin- ue to get what we’ve got.” Causey said she was inspired to dedicate her life to student success when she was in gradu- ate school. “When I was working for the community col- lege, I was watching a lot of students take any- where between three and five years to get a two- year degree,” she said. “A lot of our students were walking out with $30,000 and $40,000 worth of debt and I thought it was outrageous.” Black students bear the burden of an education- al system that doesn’t work for them starting in grade school, she said. Justice cont’d from pg 1 national Safety and Justice Chal- lenge, a project that seeks to re- duce over-incarceration. It was released internally to county offi- cials last fall but only made public in mid-February. The report broke down experi- ences like referrals to the district attorney’s office, arraignment and prosecutorial charging, as- signment of court-appointed counsel and pretrial release by demographics. It found cases where the suspect of a crime is Black were 440 per- cent more likely to be referred for prosecution; Black offenders were 29 percent less likely to have cases diverted and 700 percent more likely to be referred to jail or prison. The report also shows nota- ble disparities for other racial minorities – including dispro- portionate representation of Hispanic and Native American populations in jail. What it doesn’t do is ask why the disparities exist, or make rec- ommendations for change. Now stakeholders – including Met- ropolitan Public Defenders, the ACLU, Oregon Justice Resource Center and Partnership for Safe- ty and Justice — are asking the county to take steps to address those disparities. Lane Borg, the executive direc- tor of Metropolitan Public De- “ particularly African American youth, are much more likely to be tried as adults than White youth. That report showed that while just 4 percent of youth under 18 in Oregon are Black, they repre- sent 19 percent of Measure 11 in- dictments. A majority of indicted youth It found cases where the suspect of a crime is Black were 440 percent more likely to be referred for prosecution fender Services, said in a press statement released by the ACLU of Oregon that the organization would like to see “measurable goals in place” to understand and reduce disparities. “Multnomah County is to be commended for participating in the Safety and Justice Challenge. But now all of us working within the criminal justice system need to take ownership,” Borg also said. A 2011 report on youth tried as adults in Oregon produced sim- ilar findings: that youth of color, end up with plea deals that allow them to sidestep mandatory sen- tences, but still leave them with adult convictions on their record. In general, hard data offering demographic breakdowns in the criminal justice systems can be scarce, at least in local jurisdic- tions. An internal report show- ing Black inmates in Multnomah county jails are more likely to be subject to use of force didn’t be- come public until February, after local media filed public records requests for it. cont’d from pg 1 any iPhone -- not just Syed Farook’s. At one point during the demonstra- tion a man shouted that the protestors were supporting terrorism. He contin- ued goading the crowd as he walked, still screaming when he was a block away. His counter protest was mostly drowned out by booing from the crowd and calls for the right to privacy. Raiford spoke about the history of “ RGB in the CD Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and a couple of boys from the community cut a ribbon, to officially dedicate the newly painted crosswalk on Martin Luther King Blvd at Powell Barnett Park. The crosswalk was painted in the Pan-African colors of red, green and black as a way of acknowledging the history of the African American community in the Central District. pening because you are investigating against us, because you think that we are a threat, we need to keep you out of our business,” Raiford said. “It’s not your business until we bring it to you. It ain’t your business until we are sit- ting at the table talking to you about it.” The poster Raiford carried read “Se- cure Phones Save Lives.” Raiford knows she is being watched because of her Don’t Shoot Portland If killing us is something that is happening because you are investigating against us, be- cause you think that we are a threat, we need to keep you out of our business COINTELPRO activities to spy on polit- ical organizations. She mentioned the surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and John F. and Bobby Ken- nedy, who were all later assassinated. “If killing us is something that is hap- activism. She said she has organized protests where she wasn’t sure any- one would show up, and yet there was a large police presence waiting for her. In November of last year the Oregon Department of Justice came under fire for investigating people who used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media. The inves- tigation profiled social media users as part of an assessment of potential police threats. Even the Director of Civil Rights for the State Justice De- partment, Erious John- son, was profiled. The ACLU of Oregon said this investigation was illegal -- state and lo- Demonstrators gathered in front of the Apple Store last week to ask cal police cannot collect the company continue to protect their privacy. information about the information about our private lives; political, religious or social views of from conversations, to locations, to any individual or group that is unrelat- banking information and much more. ed to a criminal investigation. Armstrong said the new request of Sarah Armstrong, the outreach direc- Apple is much different than previous tor of the ACLU of Oregon spoke in sup- requests for information. port of Apple standing up for personal security. She said the smartphones of Read the full story at TheSkanner.com today carry an enormous amount of PHOTO BY ARASHI YOUNG “ sions for the future. “I’m from Portland, Or- egon and so I’m a prod- uct of the school system here,” she said. “I remem- ber a time when I used to have Black teachers, before the school district started busing students. “Now you talk to stu- dents and they don’t have Black teachers, they don’t PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Summit
