DECEMBER 13, 2017
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 11
25
CENTS
News ...............................3,9,10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Wildlife Ecology ..............9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
DE-ESCALATE WASHINGTON
Dante James
Resigns
From City
Post
Equity director will be
replaced by Koffi ‘Jean-
Pierre’ Dessou
The Skanner
News Staff
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
See JAMES on page 3
Lindiwe Sisulu, the nation’s minister of Defense and
Military Veterans, is among the candidates for the
ANC’s next president. In this photo, Lindiwe Sisulu,
participates in a ceremony, during a visit to Brazil.
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
D
a n t e
James’
last day
as direc-
tor of Port-
land’s
Office
of Equity and
Human Rights
will be Friday,
Dante James
the
mayor’s
office announced last week in a press
release.
James told The Oregonian he has de-
cided to leave Portland so he could pur-
sue options in Denver, where his wife
and son live.
The equity was created in 2011 and
James was hired in 2012.
“Dante’s work was instrumental in
creating the budget equity tool, and our
plan to enhance equitable workforce de-
velopment in city construction projects
through the Community Equity and In-
clusion Plan, which was unanimously
adopted by (the) city council this year,
The family of Charleena Lyles, a pregnant mother of four who was killed by Seattle Police June 18, speaks at a De-escalate Washington, Building Bridges
Call to Action Rally Dec. 10 at Cal Anderson Park. De-escalate Washington is a coalition of organizations collecting signatures for I-940, an initiative
that would require law enforcement to receive violence de-escalation, mental-health, and first-aid training and provide first aid to victims of police
shootings. De-escalate needs to collect 340,000 signatures by December 22nd. The rally featured speakers from numerous organizations who support
the initiative including the Black Law Enforcement Association, Not This Time, Seattle Indivisible, the Puyallup Tribe and Equal Rights Washington.
New Planned Parenthood Board Chair Speaks
Sita Symonette is the first Black woman to serve in the position
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
T
he board of directors
for Planned Parent-
hood Columbia Willa-
mette (PPCW) recent-
ly elected small-business
owner Sita Symonette as
its new chair.
A practicing acupunctur-
ist who owns Black Pearl
Acupuncture, Symonette
served as a board member
since 2012 and as vice chair
since 2015. She is the first
Black woman to hold the
position of board chair.
Symonette, who iden-
tifies as queer, earned a
bachelor’s degree in bio-
logical psychology from
Western Washington Uni-
versity, before complet-
ing her master’s degree in
acupuncture and Oriental
medicine from Oregon Col-
lege of Oriental Medicine.
Symonette spoke to The
Skanner from her home in
Vancouver, Wash., which
she shares with her wife
Lai-Lani and their sev-
en-month old daughter.
The Skanner News:
You’ve served on the
Planned Parenthood Co-
lumbia Willamette board
since 2012. What made you
initially want to join the
board?
Sita Symonette: I’m a
big supporter of women’s
rights and equitable health
care, and I think Planned
Parenthood does a good
job of making sure people
from all walks of life can
have accessible, affordable,
high quality reproduc-
tive healthcare. And it’s
not just reproductive care
nowadays. We just start-
ed offering primary care
in the form of wellness
checks, as well as cancer
screening services.
As the owner of Black
Pearl Acupuncture, I want-
ed to represent alternative
and whole body wellness
care on the board. I also
tend to have the honor of
having a lot of communi-
ties of color seek me out
– being a person of color
who practices acupunc-
ture – which is not that
common in the Portland
metro area. And I know
it’s important for persons
of color to be in places of
leadership within health-
care services, so that’s why
I wanted to join.
TSN: Does the current
vulnerable state of federal
South Africa’s
Teressa Raiford Running for City Mayor 2020
Next President The
activist said Mayor Wheeler hasn’t done
Movie Credits Dickens
for the Way We
Celebrate Christmas
page 7
enough for police accountability and public safety
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
P
ortland activist and organiz-
er of Don’t Shoot PDX, Teressa
Raiford, told The Skanner she
plans to run for city mayor in
2020.
While she’s yet to make a formal
announcement, Raiford said she
plans to make it official in the coming
weeks. She’s already launched a cam-
paign Facebook page and a website.
“I’ve run for office before, though
I used the platform to plant value
from voiceless people in my commu-
nity,” she said.
Raiford ran to unseat Loretta Smith
as county commissioner in 2014, but
was unsuccessful. She also ran for
city council in 2012, but lost to Aman-
da Fritz.
Four years earlier, in September
See RAIFORD on page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF TERESSA RAIFORD
The ANC Battle for
South Africa’s Presidency
Heats Up
page 9
See SYMONETTE on page 3
Portland activist Teressa Raiford said she will
run for Portland Mayor in 2020.