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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2021)
Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle July 21, 2021 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now The President Needs to Pull Out All Stops Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor L Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2019 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2020 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL EVENTS Updated daily online. n F ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n d ay ! • L i ke u s o ac it Hear about it first. Sign up for Breaking News and Events at to y • Opinion ast week, Majority Whip Clyburn, Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, made the observation that the fili- buster currently being used in the U.S. Senate to block the Voting Rights Bill as well as the George Floyd Bill, is a mat- ter of tradition and not a part of the U.S. Constitution. There was also a reference to how former President Lyndon Johnson used the full weight of his office as president to secure the needed votes to get the Voting Rights Act passed. It is a known fact that the president of the United States has far more power and in- fluence than the minority leader of the U.S. Senate in the person of Mitch McConnell. Every Republican member of the senate at some point is going to need something from either the president or a cab- inet office within his admin- istration. The passage of the Voting Rights Act by the sen- ate will undo most of what the states are doing with voter suppression. As suggested by Congressman Clyburn, now is the time to put all power John E. Warren The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint and influence behind getting the senate to act, not only on “ President Biden needs to remember that without the Black vote, he would not be in the White House Infrastructure as slated for this week, but, by all means, the Voting Rights Act. These items cannot wait and should not be held up. President Biden needs to remember that without the Black vote, he would not be in the White House. Without the influence of Congressman Cyburn endorsing him when he did, Biden would not have gotten the nomination of the Democratic Party to run for president. The Black vote has to be as important to the president, if not more so, than Donald Trump is to the Re- publican Party The Texas Democratic Del- egation, fleeing that state and coming to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the Voting Rights Act as a means of stopping voter suppression in that state, has given new meaning to the words, “All Gave Some, But Some Gave All.” President Biden has spent enough years on Capitol Hill to know where the bodies are buried and who placed them. He and Chuck Schum- er cannot continue to play “Gentleman Jack” with Mitch McConnell. McConnell must be stopped by any means nec- essary. That would appear to mean dealing with the filibus- ter by any means necessary. This must be done before the end of July when the Congress goes on recess. One thing should be re- membered about Capitol Hill and the legislative process: There is always a loophole and a back door to solve ev- ery problem. Politics is never absolute about anything. Vice President Harris, while doing all she can, is not a substitute for the office of the president applying full power. To our civil rights leaders, your only message can be: Out with the filibuster, and pass the Voting Rights Act. No in-betweens. If we did not let the pandem- ic stop the protest and emer- gence of our votes to take back the White House, we must not allow the pandem- ic’s resurgence, Republican gerrymandering of the con- gressional districts because of tampering with the cen- sus, or radical conservative acts of terrorism under the “Big Lie” to stop the salvation of democracy that we all are fighting for. Let’s call the Re- publican offices, their home districts and anyone who sup- ports them and let’s make this happen before the end of July 2021. NAACP Vancouver Letter: Police Accountability T he announcement in the case of Mr.Donald was disheartening, but did not come as a shock. Po- lice accountability is some- thing we do not have often, no matter if the victim is a person experiencing house- lessness, a young adult with a future ahead of them, a child, or someone needing mental health resources. Our community and com- munities alike are becoming conditioned to a traumatic cy- cle, and the first step to break- ing this cycle is authentic accountability; we need un- questionable independent in- vestigations. In addition, we need thoroughly reimagined “ Rethink what you are do- ing to be anti racist. policing in our community. Communities dispropor- tionately affected by our back- wards way of policing cannot survive until this occurs. Our communities cannot contin- ue to withstand such trauma, the current state of policing harms everyone including the police, we all need this lev- el of reform. This is one of many pieces of systemic racism that is rooted in our community that needs to be dismantled. Any organi- zation that is whole heartedly invested in justice, needs to stand firm against the current way of policing, and band to- gether to restructure the way we care for our community as a whole. My call to action to all indi- viduals is to rethink what you are doing to be anti racist. Performative activism will not dismantle the systemic racism plaguing our com- munity, your actions need to actually move the needle for- ward, and not just be a sign in a window or a fancy DEI state- ment. We are dying and no one is being held accountable. Sincerely, Jasmine Tolbert President, NAACP Vancouver 1139-B Black America Needs a ‘New Normal’: Equitable Credit Access O ver the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed dual crises. Over 542,000 Ameri- cans lives were lost and con- tinue to increase. At the same time, the rippling effects of a massive economic downturn has caused the nation to lose 9.5 million jobs – more losses than even those of the Great Recession, finds the Universi- ty of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy. Although many officials have called for a ‘return to normal’, millions of small businesses and communities need something new instead. In Black America especially, the ‘old normal’ never de- livered equitable access to wealth-building opportuni- ties as those that well-served served much of White Amer- ica. Instead, a lengthy history Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist of public policies designed to create and sustain a burgeon- ing middle class systemically excluded Blacks and other people of color. Now, while federal lawmak- ers seek to understand how best to bring the nation out of health and financial crises, many advocates are calling for a new paradigm: inten- tional inclusion of all who have been shut out, knocked down and underserved. Re- cent testimony before Capitol Hill committees focused on different issues but led to the same conclusion: the time for change is now. For example, comments during a February confir- mation hearing for Adewale Adeyemo, nominated by Pres- ident Biden to become Dep- uty Treasury Secretary, the nominee said, “Until we con- tain the pandemic, economic policy must remain focused on providing relief to those harmed by the public health crisis, especially those dis- proportionately impacted: low-income communities and communities of color. The pandemic has exacerbated inequality, strained families, and exposed disparities in opportunity throughout our country that existed long be- fore COVID-19. Without ad- ditional relief, this hardship will become even more acute and will inflict long-lasting pain on countless Ameri- cans.” Adeyemo is the agency’s point-person to implement the executive order requiring all federal offices to submit di- versity and inclusion plans to the Office of Management and Budget. In the interim, Trea- sury Secretary Janet Yellen, as reported by the New York Times, announced plans to invest $9 billion into Commu- nity Development Financial Institutions and Minority De- pository Institutions as they look to step up lending. Concurrently, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Fi- nancial Services Committee has convened multiple hear- ings that featured expert wit- ness testimony echoing the calls of Mr. Adeyemo. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
