Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle January 2, 2019
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Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Opinion
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Racial Profiling: A National Epidemic Hits Home, Again
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
A
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
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Foundation
MLK
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January 21
2019
simple internet search
uncovers
countless
studies and statistics,
from highly credible
sources, outlining the dispar-
ities relating to the frequency
and severity of interactions
between law enforcement
and African Americans, com-
pared to interactions with
other races. Increasingly, so-
cial media is being used as a
platform to expose the world
to the deeply entrenched ep-
idemic of racial profiling in
the United States.
Once again, the Pacific
Northwest, namely Port-
land, Ore., is thrust back into
the conversation. Jermaine
Massey, a 34-year-old African
American man, in Portland
for a concert, stopped in a
quiet seating area at the Dou-
bleTree Hotel in Lloyd Center
at approximately 11:23 p.m. to
take a call before returning to
his room. After being racially
profiled by hotel security, Mr.
Massey was escorted from
the hotel by officers of the
Portland Police Bureau. Ac-
cording to the oolice report,
Earl Meyers, a hotel security
guard, asked Massey for proof
that he was indeed a guest of
the hotel. Meyers went on to
report that “Massey refused
to give a room number.” Mey-
ers informed the guest that,
“If a room number couldn’t be
provided, he would be asked
to leave the property,” re-
E.D.
Mondainé
President,
NAACP
Portland
1120
sponding Portland Police of-
ficer Richard Harvey wrote in
the police report. The police
report also states that Massey,
a Kent, Wa. resident, accused
Meyers of being racist.
This negligent, avoidable
situation, along with numer-
ous other unreported and
public instances of racial pro-
filing, highlights the reality
that in the 21st century, this
evolving epidemic contin-
ues to be fueled by the lack
of action in both the private
and public sectors. It is not
a novice experience for an
overwhelming population of
African American men to be
stopped while driving, chal-
lenged while traveling by pub-
lic transportation, plane or
train, or in doing any number
of daily activities, to become a
victim of racial profiling.
The N.A.A.C.P. (National
Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People) has
been at the forefront of pro-
moting effective law enforce-
ment practices since its incep-
tion in 1910. It is with great
urgency that we move swiftly
to address the over 100-year-
old grievance. It is egregious
that we are still dealing with
fundamental issues that
erode confidence and respect
between law enforcement,
African Americans and oth-
er communities of color. The
N.A.A.C.P. endeavors to es-
tablish humane and effective
“
Implicit bias
is often the
root of racial
profiling,
compounded
by severely
under-trained
security per-
sonnel
public use of force standards
for law enforcement officers,
to eliminate racial profiling,
to advance policies that re-
quire data collection for all
police encounters, to insti-
tute full transparency of such
interactions and increase
support for adaptable com-
munity policing strategies.
We have a grave concern
regarding the ability of local
law enforcement to facilitate
an illegal eviction of a patron
that has legally obtained tem-
porary lodging, and unduly
removed without proof of vi-
olating any laws, and without
the right of due process. Im-
plicit bias is often the root of
racial profiling, compounded
by severely under-trained
security personnel often em-
ployed by hotels, malls, and
like places. Since we can see
increasing instances of the
profiling of African Amer-
ican men–the intertwining
effect of systemic racism
has written a narrative that
black and brown people car-
ry the overwhelming burden
of the enforcement of rules.
Although neutral as written
law, when applied it has a ra-
cial and discriminatory im-
pact.
Additionally, we are chal-
lenging corporations to adopt
and enforce policies and pro-
cedures against racial pro-
filing, and to promote diver-
sity and inclusion not just
among employees but also as
it relates to their customers.
Having a policy against ra-
cial profiling does not mean
that there will be no claims
of discrimination. However,
having adequate policies and
procedures, in conjunction
with annual diversity and
inclusion training for all em-
ployees, will assist in prevent-
ing the racial profiling of cus-
tomers and provide definitive
procedures for employees to
follow that ensure equitable
consumer care, professional
treatment, and ensuing inter-
actions are addressed quickly,
effectively and humanely.
Listen — A 2019 Challenge in Memory of Robby Gregg
By Julianne Malveaux,
NNPA Newswire Contributor
I’m leaving 2018 behind,
with its myriad trials and
tribulations. For me, many
of the challenges revolved
around the unhealthy atmo-
sphere in Washington, D.C.,
and that’s not likely to change.
But many of the challenges,
joys, and sorrows were also
personal. One of them was the
loss of Robby Gregg, Jr., a di-
versity expert and consultant
at Cook Ross, a diversity and
inclusion firm in the DC area
that was founded by my dear
friend Howard Ross.
Robby died unexpectedly at
58, just a week before Christ-
mas. Alarmed at not having
heard from him, a friend went
to his home and found him
gone. Unless you are part of
the D&I community (as diver-
sity experts call themselves),
connected to Wake Forest
University (Robby was a 1983
graduate), or part of the vast
Maya Angelou extended fam-
ily (Robby was one of Dr. Ma-
ya’s students at Wake, and an
ardent supporter of the Maya
Angelou school in Wash-
ington, D.C.), you probably
wouldn’t know Robby. He was
a man worth knowing.
I’m writing about Robby
because his memory has chal-
lenged me to make a 2019 res-
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
olution. I am going to endeav-
or to listen more, especially
to people I disagree with. I’m
going to seek some of these
people out for conversation,
and I’m also planning to have
“
I am going to
endeavor to
listen more,
especially to
people I dis-
agree with
tea or a meal (without knives
— halfway joking) with a few
of them. While I will never
let go of my commitments to
social and economic justice,
to racial parity, and to repa-
rations, knowing Robby made
me realize that it is also im-
portant to open oneself up to
thought-provoking conversa-
tions with those we disagree
with.
Robby and I had been friends
for a while, but he was no fan of
my confrontational style, and
he didn’t mind telling me. He
was offended by my Facebook
page, which is a combination
of policy analysis, organizing,
and personal sharing. Because
I live in a gentrified neighbor-
hood where, in my opinion,
my melanin-deficient neigh-
bors can be entitled and in-
considerate, with a sprinkling
of racism thrown in, I vent on
my page about the Brads and
the Beckys. And Robby didn’t
like it. He responded that if I
didn’t like my neighborhood,
I should move from the home
I’ve lived in for 20 years. Not. I
became so angered by his sug-
gestion that we began to avoid
each other and cease interac-
tion.
An unpleasant encounter
at a social gathering (I was
wrong to carry our disagree-
ment into that space) prompt-
ed me to reach out, and the
result was a wonderful three-
hour lunch where we offered
each other the gift of listen-
ing. I think we both walked
away feeling affirmed, if not
in perfect agreement or align-
ment. We could agree that we
loved and respected each oth-
er and shared common val-
ues, even if our ways of going
about things was different.
Robby and I shared an ap-
preciation for Howard Ross,
the founder of Cook Ross and
author of Belonging: How
Our Need to Connect is Tear-
ing Us Apart (Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, 2018).
It’s a great read about the
ways our human tendencies
to belong work both for us
and against us. Part of the
book recounts Howard’s
journey around the country
talking and listening to peo-
ple who voted for 45, some
of whom regret their vote,
and others who stand by it.
He walked away with a more
nuanced understanding of 45
supporters, which he shares
in the book, along with tech-
niques for having civil, even
friendly, and informative
conversations.
When I interviewed How-
ard a few weeks ago, he threw
out the suggestion of lunch-
ing with those with whom
I have profound disagree-
ments. I scoffed at it, consid-
ering it an utter waste of time
in many cases. The day after
our interview, Robby Gregg,
Jr. was found dead, and I won-
dered if there was a message
in his passing for me. After
all, had we not had that de-
lightful long lunch, my friend
and I would not have had rap-
prochement.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com