Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2016)
August 31, 2016 The Skanner Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 sentences cannot be re- duced for good behavior. In the years ater Mea- sure 11 was implement- ed, the number of de- fendants seeking a trial dropped from 21 percent to 16 percent, according to a 2011 analysis from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. The number of defendants Prison is no joke. Quite frankly you are not going to come out as the same person who pled guilty or pled to lesser charges went up -- leading to more people being incarcerated and serving longer sentenc- es. Dao’s story stood in contrast to those partic- ipating in Black Male Achievement. Instead of being trapped in cycles of delinquency and re- cidivism, the BMA youth were steered into jobs, mentorship and civic en- gagement. BMA participant Ben Smith gave animated tes- timony of the impact of the organization on his life. He described substance abuse and needing en- couragement to study and be the best possible version of himself he could be. “Drugs, alcohol, bad habits just consumed my life — but when I found BMA, I found a group of Black young people who weren’t trying to be thugs, who weren’t trying to be hard,” Smith said. “They were trying to hit them books, they were trying to be suc- cessful people trying to change the world.” The BMA youth were between 15 to 21-years- old. They participated in the Summerworks pro- gram, working in jobs at Vanport Male Achievement coor- dinator CJ Robbins said he encouraged them to dive deep and know the law intimately enough to make recommendations. Here are the Measure 11 Policy changes sug- gested by the BMA: • Raise the age that in- dividuals can be tried and convicted as an adult to 18. • Allow youth convicted of Measure 11 crimes to reduce their sentences based on good behav- ior. Currently those who have been convict- ed of a Measure 11 of- fense must serve every day of their sentence. • Allow young people convicted of a Measure 11 crime to have a “Sec- ond Look.” The Oregon “Second Look” law allows young people who have been tried as adults to return to the community with post-prison supervi- sion. Right now Mea- sure 11 ofenses can- not receive a “Second Look” or that right may be waived for a lesser sentence. • Clarify the wording of Assault and Robbery II, III to diferentiate the crimes. Read the rest of this story at TheSkanner.com ‘I AM’ Procession Anastacia Renee’ Tolbert leads a healing exercise during the I AM Procession an event organized by artist Kimisha Turner, and several others, with help from the Northwest African American Museum as a way to acknowledge colorism across multiple communities of color. A few dozen women walked from Daejon Park to the Northwest African American Museum, where they participated in several healing exercises and released butterlies to signify transformation. The project was a way of using an alternative method to create solutions for things like colorism, sexism, racism and other -isms. Pot cont’d from pg 1 holders, the proposed language mostly funnels money into drug and alcohol education, public safety investments (including increased DUII training for oi- cers) — but also small businesses, speciically businesses owned by women and minorities. “It’s really, for lack of a better term, a watershed moment in cannabis regulation,” said Jesce Horton, cofounder of the Mi- nority Cannabis Business Asso- ciation, who was involved in the drating of the tax. “When you look at what’s happening across the nation, people of color and the prosperity in the cannabis in- dustry — people aren’t seeing the beneit of cannabis regulation in their industry, in their neighbor- hood.” Horton is African American and owns two cannabis business- es in Portland — a dispensary and a cultivation center. He estimates that just a fraction — between 5 and 10 percent — of the roughly 1,000 members of his organiza- tion, a nationwide trade group founded just last fall are people of color who work in the legal in- dustry. Others are curious about getting into the industry or advo- cating for racial minorities who want to get involved. Horton said his group is work- “ arrested and incarcerated on marijuana-related charges at a much higher rate than Whites, despite survey data showing ra- cial minorities may be less like- ly to use marijuana than their White counterparts. Horton said his group is working on a study with the University of California investigating the demographics of the legal cannabis industry ing on a study with the Universi- ty of California investigating the demographics of the legal canna- bis industry. He said while there is a perception that the industry is overwhelmingly White, right now there are no hard numbers available on who owns and works in the majority of legal recre- ational or medical businesses. But decades’ worth of sta- tistics – from Oregon and the United States as a whole – show racial minorities, in particular African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans – have been Disparities persist even in ju- risdictions where pot is now le- gal: in Colorado, which legalized marijuana in 2014, arrests of White teens on marijuana-re- lated charges fell 10 percent be- tween 2012 and 2014. But in the same time period, Latino teens were 20 percent more likely to get arrested on the same ofenses, and arrests of Af- rican American teens went up 50 percent. Read the rest of this story at TheSkanner.com cont’d from pg 1 Many of the stories told in the “Wake of Vanport” series described life before and ater the lood. The hastily-con- structed town forced a grudging accep- tance of racial integration. But ater the war efort was over and Black families needed to relocate into Portland, the ac- ceptance was over. In the Vanport ilm community histo- rian O.B. Hill spoke about moving fre- quently through segregated housing projects in North Portland. In Moore’s Vanport history, he described having crosses burned on his front lawn. In the short ilm “Scattered,” survivor Gloria Lavender faced harassment at school as Black children from Vanport began to attend Portland schools. Her teacher asked her how to pick cotton, a question that hurt Lavender and en- raged her mother, who then confronted the teacher. “Just because I had come from the South did not mean that I knew how to pick cotton,” Lavender said. In addition to the showing of the “Wake of Vanport,” the event hosted local author Zita Podany who wrote the book “Images of America: Vanport.” The irst 40 guests to register for the event online received a free copy of the book. Podany told The Skanner News that she was intrigued by the history of Vanport as a child. At irst she could “ those who made a home there. “People need to hear about this story, they need to see the pictures, they need to see the whole thing and the lood shouldn’t be the only thing that deines Vanport,” Podany said. In addition to Moore, Vanport survi- vors O.B. Hill, Ethan Scarl and Mariah Taylor also attended the showing and ofered to share their personal expe- riences with the audi- ence. Podany told The Skanner News that The Wake of Vanport and the Vanport Mosaic Project, a collective of storytellers and artists dedicated to remembering Van- port, have invigorated research and deepened the understanding of the his- tory. When she began her investigation, very few people were willing to talk about living in Vanport. She had infor- mation from archives and images, but The hastily-constructed town forced a grudging acceptance of racial integration not believe that there was a city in the Delta Park area and thought adults were joking with her. As a teenager, she researched Van- port at the library and discovered that the history was true. Over the years Po- dany collected more and more stories and felt compelled to write a narrative of Vanport that celebrated the lives of PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER “ the city of Portland, in Multnomah County, the parks department, the Portland Water Bureau, KBOO radio, SKANSKA and Trillium Charter School. For the Measure 11 event, the group spent eight weeks researching the law and developing policy changes. Black PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED BMA Vanport survivors O.B. Hill, Mariah Taylor and Ethan Scarl attend the showing of The Skanner News documentary series “The Wake of Vanport” on August 26, 2016. she wanted to know the lived experi- ence of the city -- the sights, the smells, the day in and day out life of Vanport. “All of these oral histories that are being collected are very fascinating, because that is the missing piece in our historical record,” Podany said.