July 25, 2018 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
governor has made her
a national political celeb-
rity.
“The contrast ... could
not be sharper,” said Em-
ory University political
science professor Alan
Abramowitz. “Kemp is
running as an all-out
Trump supporter and
a ‘politically incorrect
conservative.’ Abrams is
not only the first African
American candidate for
Abrams is not only the first
African American candi-
date for governor in Geor-
gia, but probably the most
liberal Democratic candi-
date for governor in history
governor in Georgia, but
probably the most liber-
al Democratic candidate
for governor in history.”
Both national parties
are running ads labeling
the opposition as danger-
ous.
A Republican Gover-
nors Association spot
slams Abrams as the
“most radical liberal ever
to run for governor”
-- the voiceover doesn’t
even limit the claim to
Georgia. The Democratic
Governors Association
labels Kemp irrational,
using the same secretly
recorded audio Kemp ex-
ploited to defeat Lt. Gov.
Casey Cagle, who lament-
ed that the GOP contest
came down to “who had
the biggest gun, who had
the biggest truck, and
who could be the crazi-
est.”
For her part, the
44-year-old
Abrams
steered clear of heated
partisan
broadsides.
After Kemp’s victory,
she sent a Twitter fund-
raising appeal that men-
tioned her Republican ri-
val only by his last name.
“Service, faith & family
guide our vision for GA:
Police
tionally. Kemp’s victory
margin affirms Trump’s
imprint and the Repub-
lican base’s continued
embrace of hardliners,
sending another warn-
ing to establishment crit-
ics of the president.
November’s vote will
test this strategy with
two candidates that could
hardly be more different.
Will a Deep South state
— led by White, male
governors since 1776 and
not long removed from
having Confederate in-
signia on its flag — elect
a self-declared progres-
sive Nlack woman from
Atlanta as its chief exec-
utive?
Or will an increasingly
urban, diversifying state
— now the eighth most
populous and home to
The Coca-Cola Company,
Delta, Home Depot, UPS
and the 1996 Summer
Olympics — embrace a
brash, chain saw-crank-
ing Republican who pre-
tended to intimidate his
daughter’s
boyfriend
with a shotgun in a cam-
paign ad.
Read more at
TheSkanner.com
Gateway Discovery
Park Opens Aug. 4
Gateway Discovery Park will celebrate its grand opening from 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 4 at 10520 NE Halsey St. This grand opening
event includes a formal dedication, food carts, entertainment, and
activities for all ages.
Gateway Discovery Park is Portland’s newest urban park. The Aug.
4 event will be the celebration of our partnership with Prosper
Portland, Harper’s Playground, and the Gateway Community to
bring inclusive play and gathering areas to East Portland.
Gateway Discovery Park includes “The Fifth Wind,” a piece of
public art created by Horatio Hun-Yan Law and pictured here.
The five emerging butterfly wings of the sculpture are symbolic
reminder of our combined immigrant histories, both ancestral and
contemporary. The unfolding bejeweled wings also represent the
blossoming of Gateway as a welcoming and dynamic neighborhood
that is enriched by the presence of diverse cultures and immigrants
from around the world.
Tubman
cont’d from pg 1
doors in 2012.
“Tubman represents the com-
munity we used to work and
reside in, which has drastically
changed,” she told The Skanner.
“It’s an opportunity to preserve
what I believe in many instances
has been lost.”
To celebrate the school’s re-
birth, Butler had organized a
celebration in July for former
students and faculty, intended to
highlight the talents of Tubman’s
alumnae and build a new commu-
nity of partners.
Due to structural reorganizing
within PPS, however, the district
canceled the event, pending a lat-
er date.
“It required more PPS support
than was provided,” said Butler.
“I was greatly disappointed and I
feel not enough momentum was
put behind it.”
The new principal – who has
extensive experience working
with Title 1 programs and under-
served communities — points
to the new executive leadership
within PPS, which she says has lit-
tle to no historical ties to Tubman
or the surrounding community.
“They’re bringing people into
the fold that have either never
worked for PPS, or are not even
from Portland,” Butler said. “It’s
hard to really encourage people
to be participants when they have
no connection to the past.”
And the past has not always
been kind to Harriet Tubman
Middle School.
Its opening in 1982 represented
a monumental win against insti-
tutional racism within the school
system.
At that time, African Ameri-
can students were being bused
from their North and Northeast
neighborhoods to attend some
32 predominantly White schools
around the metropolitan area, as
part of PPS’s integration practice
implemented during the 1960s.
The district’s desegregation
plan backfired, however. Black
attendance at White schools only
upped enrollment, which further
vindicated the majority-White
school board’s decision to shutter
schools in Black communities.
But with fierce protest from
groups such as the Black United
Front, the school district eventu-
ally agreed to open Harriet Tub-
man Middle School at the Eliot
Childhood Education Center.
Twenty-five years later, it was
converted into the Harriet Tub-
man Young Women’s Leadership
Academy, as part of restructur-
ing Jefferson High School.
Five years later, the academy
dissolved when finances ran dry.
The decision to reopen Tub-
man coincides with the city’s
“Right to Return” strategy, which
aims to give housing preference
in historically Black North and
Northeast neighborhoods to fam-
ilies who were displaced from the
neighborhoods through gentrifi-
cation.
Likewise, the school district has
reserved 50 seats at Tubman for
children of displaced families.
PPS told The Skanner that to date,
fewer than 10 have applied, but it
expects more as the school gets
up and running.
Tubman’s resurrection gained
traction when PPS introduced a
new policy last year which would
redraw boundaries, convert sev-
eral existing K-8 schools into K-5
schools, and open two new mid-
dle schools — Tubman and Rose-
way Heights.
Yet what should be a joyous oc-
casion to resurrect a symbol of
educational equality is under-
girded by concerns over poor air
quality in the neighborhood.
Read more at TheSkanner.com
cont’d from pg 1
ment. Others were skeptical, saying he
appears traumatized in the photo; after
the family died reporters reviewing the
Harts’ social media feeds revealed that
Devonte was prodded by his parents
to carry a “Free Hugs” sign to political
events and concerts and evidently co-
erced to hug strangers against his will.
Subsequent reporting also revealed
one conviction, and a trail of abuse and
neglect investigations followed Devon-
te’s adoptive mothers across several
states. Shortly before the family disap-
peared from their Washington home,
neighbors had contacted authorities
to say the children had told them they
were being starved and abused.
“It wasn’t Devonte’s story,” Greene
said. Too often, she said, Black individ-
uals are tokenized – invited to the ta-
ble, but not truly heard. So she and her
husband, co-pastors at Abundant Life
Church, decided to gather feedback
from the community and present it.
The survey consisted of one question:
“If you could have a representative in
the police force that would work on
your behalf to change the relationship
between your community and the po-
lice force, what would they be working
on?” The responses were open-ended,
but the Greenes grouped them into
three categories: accountability, trans-
parency and 21st-century policing.
One-tenth of the 100 responses ad-
dressed accountability. These respons-
es included “ending White suprema-
cy,” “corrupt cops” and creating better
training within the police department
around racial equity.
Thirty-four percent of respondents’
answers were grouped under trans-
parency with participants suggesting
police educate the community about
the issues at hand, meeting with resi-
dents more often and finding ways to
build bridges so the public has a better
understanding of what it is to be a cop.
Finally, 56 percent — more than half
— of respondents’ answers were cat-
egorized as a search for 21st century
policing, or community policing. They
included requests to get the police
more infolved on the community lev-
el, hire more officers who look like the
communities they serve and encourag-
ing relationship building — and ending
profiling.
The Greenes’ presentation closed
with several recommendations:
• Hire more officers that look like the
communities they serve, including
more officers of color in positions of
authority;
• Allow the community more oppor-
tunities to participate in hiring and
promoting procedures;
• Provide cultural competence train-
ing for officers (and let the communi-
ty know that this training is offered);
• Provide and publicize training in
de-escalation and unconscious bias;
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
“
Affordable health care.
Excellent public schools
for every child. An econ-
omy that works for all,”
she wrote. She isn’t ex-
pected to campaign pub-
licly or grant media in-
terviews until Thursday.
Georgia’s version of the
widening gulf between
the two major parties in
style and substance in the
Trump era offers plenty
of spillover effects na-
PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTLAND PARKS & RECREATION
Georgia
Nike Greene, pictured here, presented results from
an April survey at the July 13 Community Peace
Collaborative meeting.
• Encourage more participation in the
community when there is not a prob-
lem;
• Hold officers accountable when they
commit crimes.