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
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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
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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.
