NOVEMBER 23, 2016
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX No. 8
25
CENTS
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Day of Disruption ............9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTLAND
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
WORLD DANCE PARTY
Octaviano Merecias and Raahi Reddy testify at last
week’s meeting of Portland Public School’s board of
education. The board passed a resolution last week
saying it would not assist immigration officials in
finding information about students or families who
may be undocumented.
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
I
n the wake of the election of Donald
Trump, Portland Public Schools vot-
ed to make it harder for immigration
officials to seek out undocumented
students and families.
Thursday night the PPS board of ed-
ucation unanimously passed a resolu-
tion protecting community members
from the U.S. Immigration and Customs
See PPS on page 3
Mula Reda demonstrates traditional Amharic Dance at the World Dance Party Nov. 18 at Meadowbrook Community Center. The event was made possible
by the Seattle Parks District Recreation 4 All Initiative and organized in partnership with The Seattle Public Library, Lake City Future Fund, and several
other community organizations. Neighbors enjoyed a potluck and the opportunity to learn dances from all over the world.
Companies Expand Services for Unbanked
Credit unions seek to tailor their offerings for people who don’t have
access to traditional bank accounts, credit or other banking services
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
A
Vanport survivor Curnel Walden speaks to
documentary producers about the 1948 flood and
his family’s rush to get out of the house before the
waters hit.
FILM REVIEW: ‘The
Wake of Vanport’
Kam reviews the latest
in the series
page 7
Easy Retirement?
page 8
Federal
Deposit
Insurance
Corpo-
ration report re-
leased earlier this
fall reported a decrease in
the number of people na-
tionwide without access to
basic financial services —
but said the number of un-
banked Portlanders is up.
In the Portland area
in 2015, 23.6 percent of
households did not have an
account with a traditional
financial institution. That
number is up from 20.5
percent, the number re-
leased in 2013. Statewide
the number is higher, with
25.6 reporting access to a
lack of traditional banking
services, up from 21.6 per-
cent in 2013.
The FDIC did not break
out demographic data for
specific regions, but its
survey did find that racial
minorities, especially Af-
rican Americans and Lati-
nos, tended to have higher
rates of being unbanked.
(The unbanked rate among
Black
households
de-
creased from 20.6 percent
in 2013 to 18.2 percent in
2015 — but Black Ameri-
cans are still more likely to
be without a bank account
than the general popula-
tion.) Approximately 24.5
million U.S. households,
composed of 51.1 million
adults and 16.3 million
children — or about 20 per-
cent of households were
did not have bank accounts
in 2015, unchanged from
2013.
The FDIC also tracks the
number of “underbanked”
households — defined as
having a checking or sav-
ings account and using
one of the following prod-
ucts or services from an
alternative financial ser-
vices provider in the last
12 months: money orders,
check cashing, interna-
tional remittances, payday
loans, refund anticipation
loans, rent-to-own ser-
vices, pawn shop loans or
auto title loans.
Lower-income
people,
people with less educa-
tion and people with dis-
See UNBANKED on page 3
Black Unemployment Rate Is Up
Among adults 20 years and older, Black men
suffered the biggest setback in October
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Newswire Managing Editor
B
lack workers lost ground last
month, as the unemployment
rate increased from 8.3 percent
in September to 8.6 percent in
October, according to the latest jobs
report from the Labor Department.
October was a bad month for Black
workers, in general. Not only did the
share of Black workers in the labor
force slide, the share of Blacks who
held jobs (employment-population
ratio) also declined. The employ-
ment-population ratio for Blacks de-
creased from 56.8 percent in Septem-
ber to 56.5 percent in October.
The White unemployment rate im-
proved slightly from the 4.4 percent
mark set in September to 4.3 percent
in October. The labor force participa-
tion rate for White workers ticked
See UNEMPLOYMENT on page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF NNPA
Schools won’t help
immigration officials get
information on students
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
PPS Adopts
Sanctuary
Campus
Resolution
The unemployment rate for Black workers
increased from 8.3 percent to 8.6 percent
in October, and the change in rate of
unemployment for Black men was even worse
-- from 8.2 percent in September to 8.7 percent
in October.