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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 27, 2018)
June 27, 2018 The Skanner Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 “ This situ- ation has reached a crisis level al law enforcement the ability to simultaneously enforce the law and keep families together.” “Without this action by Congress, lawlessness at the border will contin- ue,” the department said. Sabraw, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said children under 5 must reunited with their par- ents within 14 days. He also issued a nation- wide injunction against further family separa- tions, unless the parent is deemed unfit or doesn’t want to be with the child, and ordered the govern- ment to provide phone contact between parents and their children within 10 days. The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued in March on behalf of a 7-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was taken from his Brazilian mother. “Tears will be flow- ing in detention centers across the country when the families learn they will be reunited,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gel- ernt. More than 2,000 chil- Inequality dren have been separat- ed from their parents in recent weeks and placed in government-contract- ed shelters — hundreds of miles away, in some cases — under a “zero tolerance” policy toward families caught illegally entering the U.S. Many are from drug- and vio- lence-wracked Guatema- la, Honduras and El Sal- vador. Amid an international outcry, Trump last week issued an executive or- der to stop the separa- tion of families and said parents and children will instead be detained to- gether. But parents already separated from their children were left in the dark on when and how they would be reunited, and Homeland Security seemed only to sow more confusion over the week- end. “The facts set forth be- fore the Court portray reactive governance — responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making,” Sabraw wrote. “They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Consti- tution.” Since Trump issued the executive order, the administration has been casting about for deten- tion space for holding families together and has asked the courts to mod- ify a 1997 settlement that generally bars the gov- ernment from keeping children locked up with their parents for more than 20 days. Officials say with more than 2,000 still in custo- dy, the task ahead could be monumental. Read the more at TheSkanner.com Constructing Hope Open House Constructing Hope held its first-ever open house June 19 with a tour of the Constructing Hope training Facility, a view of the expansion plan and words from past graduates. There were also special remarks from Kimberly Branam, executive director of Prosper Portland and David Drinkward, Hoffman Construction. Pictured here are board member Bob Boyer (left); Patricia Daniels, executive director of Constructing Hope; board member Art Hiemstra (First Interstate Bank ); Kimberly Branam; Kimberly Moreland, project manager at Prosper Portland; David Drinkward and Architect Anne Raccine Fishe. Dixon cont’d from pg 1 Democrats, being one of two Af- rican American women to have ever held an executive position for the local party. (The first, former chair Lakeitha Elliott, re- signed in 2013.) “ Eighteen months ago, I was uber posi- tive and excited “Eighteen months ago, I was uber positive and excited,” Dixon told The Skanner last week. “Now I’m energized but I’m not as opti- mistic.” Dixon, a Pacific Northwest na- tive who worked on John Kerry’s political action committee and two campaigns for former pres- ident Barack Obama before re- turning to the Northwest, wants to see the local party focus on more issues of importance to people of color, women, LGBTQ communities and the other stake- holders who have made up the Democratic voting base for the last several decades. She’s advo- cated for the party to write reso- lutions in support of issues that matter to stakeholders, such as addressing the backlog of untest- ed rape kits that have made local headlines in recent years – or ma- ternity pay, equal pay or repro- ductive rights. She contends the party has done a poor job of reaching out to stakeholder groups — including minority groups, but also young- er Democrats — and of keeping them in the room when they do show up. Last fall Dixon formed a race-in- formed social justice committee, which, she said, was very produc- tive in coming up with ideas – but found they were often drowned out by people explaining why those ideas wouldn’t work. Often, people of color who came to at- tend meetings were too discour- aged to come back, she said. “This kind of allyship eventu- ally drives people away,” Dixon said. She was also critical of the organization’s emphasis on ad- dressing racial justice issues with education or awareness-raising sessions. While it’s important to know, for example, Oregon’s rac- ist history, those events duplicate the diversity training being done at recurring events like Race Talks or the diversity training sessions led by local activist Cam- eron Whitten. A political party should emphasize policy. “There’s so many people in our city who are under siege, and the answer can’t be to study their pain,” Dixon said. Dixon’s term is up in January 2019. She intends to finish her term, and keep fighting and or- ganizing. She hopes to see the Multnomah County Democrats engage the community more ac- tively, by attending and recruit- ing for members at multicultural festivals, getting the party’s docu- ments translated into languages other than English. She also hopes to see larger numbers of people color coming to meetings to shift the dynamic. She believes the Democratic par- ty can still be a “big-tent commu- nity.” cont’d from pg 1 tive — one where prosperity is not eq- uitably experienced by communities of color. “Leading with Race” highlights the issues most relevant to people of color today, while breaking down common misconceptions and relaying the per- sonal stories of its community mem- bers. Among the report’s findings: • Vietnamese and Filipino workers have lower incomes at similar levels of education as White workers. • Black high-income home loan appli- cants are 86 percent more likely to have their application denied com- pared to their White counterparts; Latino applicants are 125 percent more likely. • Somali-speaking students are 197 percent more likely than White stu- dents to be expelled or suspended from school. • 68 percent of Native American single mothers with children are in poverty in Washington County, a higher rate compared to 48 percent of Native American single mothers in poverty in the US. In the section on African Americans in Washington County, “Leading with Race” found that while the Black com- munity has grown by 36 percent from 2005 to 2015, only 2 percent of the total population is Black. Of that 2 percent, 44 percent are 18 years or younger. Even so, the outlook for Black youth is grim. First off, representation is scarce. No African American person has never held elected office in any jurisdiction in Washington County. In 2015, according to Oregon Department of Education, only 2 percent of public school teachers across all districts in the county identi- fied as Black. Meanwhile, Black students in Wash- ington County are 100 percent more likely to be expelled or suspended than White students. African Americans also have the highest incarceration rate of all the racial groups in the county — 662.3 people out of 100,000 were likely to be jailed compared to 190.5 White people. The poverty rate, too, among the Black community is more than double that of Whites in the county, with one of every five Black residents in poverty. “The impacts of racism and oppres- sion over time in Washington County carry weight and burden,” said Justice Rajee at the report’s official release on June 18 in Beaverton. Rajee was one of several African American focus group participants during the report’s re- search. “This has to change and that we all have a part to play in making this change possible,” he continued. “No de- cisions about policies about our lives and outcomes can be democratic and just if it does not involve those most im- COURTESY OF THE COALITION OF COMMUNITIES OF COLOR problems for the admin- istration, and it was un- clear how it would meet the deadline. Health and Human Ser- vices, which is in charge of the children, referred questions to the Justice Department. The Justice Depart- ment said the ruling makes it “even more im- perative that Congress finally act to give feder- PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER Families Shweta Moorthy (right), CCC Researcher, at the publication and release of “Leading with Race: Research Justice in Washington County.” pacted. We must be part of removing barriers and dismantling deeply root- ed racist institutions and practices.” Over the next few months, the CCC and its steering members will be co- ordinating presentations across the county to discuss the report’s findings.
