Social Justice Commons^™

The Occupation Of Surfing By Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color Communities As A Form Of Resistance, Emily Robleza, Karen Park

Summer 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

This study explores the concept of resistance through a qualitative research study by focusing on the occupation of surfing by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The concept and acts of resistance have seldom been discussed in occupational science literature in addressing these communities' barriers. The frameworks include occupational justice, postcolonialism, and collective occupations that provide a layout of why and how current grass-roots efforts of communities marginalized from a meaningful activity utilize the meaningful activity as a vehicle for liberation. Eight participants were interviewed to understand their individual experiences in surfing in Southern California. Themes include Race, Class, and …

Seeing And Unlearning Whiteness: A Mindfulness Workshop For Racial Justice, Emily Haranas

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Racism is a deeply embedded, foundational aspect of American society. However, because the privilege of Whiteness insulates White individuals from the workings of systemic injustice and oppression and enables them to choose the conditions of their accountability in the movement for racial justice, many remain painfully blind to this fact. As such, there is a significant need for those who have been racialized White to develop a critical awareness of the powers and privileges ascribed to their racial identity. The working premise of this thesis is that mindfulness can assist White individuals in unlinking the socialized habits of mind that …

The Future And Thriving Of Bipoc Communities: A Time To Act Macroconvening, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This is the overview of the "Time to Act Macroconvening," an event bringing together the BIPOC community on November 4, 2022. The macroconvening was shaped by five affinity-based convenings that were held from June to November 2022. Each engagement was unique, but centered around discussions of the future of thriving and joy of BIPOC communities in and around Portland, and what role PSU has in bringing this future to bear.

Main downloadable file:
Affinity Convenings Thematic Overview

Additional files:

• Event graphic
• Overview article by Christina Rojas, "PSU Brings Together BIPOC Community Groups to Envision a Thriving Future."
• Pictorial Summary of …

Investigating The Perspectives Of Early Years Professionals’ Anti-Racist Practices, Amy Williams

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This qualitative case study explored the perspectives and experiences of early years professionals engaging in anti-racist practices in Ontario licensed child care settings. Critical race theory and whiteness studies were the guiding theoretical frameworks for the study. The qualitative case study draws from semi-structured interviews with four early years professionals working in licensed child care settings. Based on the experiences of the early years professionals, there seemed to be an overall lack of in-depth continuous anti-racist practices among the participants. The findings highlight that the participants engage in anti-racist work using play materials, videos, and discussion-based learning with children. Some …

Convening On The Future Of Black Thriving & Joy, Office Of The President, Portland State University, Justice Oregon For Black Lives

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This co-creation event aims to be an asset-based intergenerational, inter-ideological, and intercultural opportunity for listening, shared learning, and recognition of points of synergy and opportunity across the rich complexity of the black community in our area -- resulting in a shared agenda and momentum for action.

This affinity/identity based/closed event focuses on the black community and is part of a series of conversations with the different BIPOC communities as stated in the Time to Act plan created as a result of the October 2020 Time to Act summit. As a result of these conversations, Portland State University is seeking to …

Multicultural Music Education: Preparedness, Perceptions, And Practice Among Virginia Elementary Music Educators, Benjamin J. Luna

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Benjamin Joel Luna, M. M.

James Madison University, 2021

Supervisor: Lisa M. Maynard

The purpose of this study was to examine the Multicultural Music Education (MME) practices of established (i.e. more than three years of music teaching experience) Elementary Music Teachers in the state of Virginia by examining their responses to a series of survey questions specific to the topic. Participants (N=18) were all current Elementary Music Teachers in the state of Virginia with more than three years of experience.

Participants were asked to use Likert-scale ratings for the majority of the questions but were also given the …

Asian American And Pacific Islander Presidential Fellows Report, Betty T. Izumi, Bree Kalima

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since the 2010 Census, Oregon’s Asian American population has grown by 42.3% and its Pacific Islander population has grown by 57.3%, making these groups the fastest growing in the state (US Census Bureau, 2019; US Census Bureau, 2020a). In the Portland metropolitan area, these populations experienced a growth of 42.1% and 64.7%, respectively (US Census Bureau, 2019; US Census Bureau, 2020a). Although Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are often lumped together as a monolith, they differ from each other in ethnicity and also culture, politics, socioeconomic status, language, religion, immigration status, and migration and colonization histories. Given the history …

Blacks In Oregon, Darrell Millner

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Periodically, newspaper or magazine articles appear proclaiming amazement at how white the population of Oregon and the City of Portland is compared to other parts of the country. It is not possible to argue with the figures—in 2017, there were an estimated 91,000 Blacks in Oregon, about 2 percent of the population—but it is a profound mistake to think that these stories and statistics tell the story of the state's racial past. In fact, issues of race and the status and circumstances of Black life in Oregon are central to understanding the history of the state, and perhaps its future …

‘The Environment Is Us’: Settler Cartographies Of Indigeneity And Blackness In Prophecy (1979), Kali Simmons

Indigenous Nations Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the triangulation of whiteness, Blackness, and Indigeneity in the ‘creature feature’ sf-horror film Prophecy (Frankenheimer US 1979), arguing that the film’s renderings of environmental racism ultimately function to justify white supremacist hetero-patriarchal maintenance and surveillance of Black and Indigenous lands and bodies. A close examination of Prophecy’s representational and ideological shortfalls – in particular its renderings of Black and Indigenous maternity – reveals troubling entanglements between settler-colonial logics of geography, ecology, monstrosity, and subjectivity.

Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Memories Of Abolition Day, Amber Butts, Ayize Jama-Everett, Calvin Williams, Donte Clark, Lisa Bates, Naudika Williams, Shawn Taylor, Walidah Imarisha, Amir Kadar

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The anthology is available here for download, and the YouTube video of authors reading excerpts is embedded.

Wakanda Dream Lab and PolicyLink present a storyworld of safety and freedom in a future without prisons and policing.

While debates about “defunding” raise the question of what a new public safety system might look like, authors and artists are showing us what is possible through speculative fiction. In the spirit of visionary fiction, we convened future-bending Black storytellers for a Black Speculative Writer's Room Project, and together, we created an anthology of freedom dream stories exploring a world after the abolition of …

How Oregon’S Racist History Can Sharpen Our Sense Of Justice Right Now, Walidah Imarisha

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Writer Walidah Imarisha on eight years of talking about the brutal history of race in Oregon.

Name a small town in Oregon. I have most likely been there, talking about race.

For the past eight years, starting as part of Oregon Humanities’ Conversation Project, I’ve stood in front of thousands of attendees in packed libraries, community centers, senior homes, college campuses, and prisons.

I’ve seen it all: multiple people arguing the Ku Klux Klan was and remains a “civic organization,” chiding me for focusing solely on the “negatives” while adamantly denying they support racism or are themselves racist. I’ve received …

A Hidden History: The Stories And Struggles Of Oregon's African American Communities, Walidah Imarisha

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

A Conversation Project program reveals the stories and struggles of Oregon's African American communities. Walidah Imarisha led this Oregon Humanities sponsored Conversation Project program entitled, “Why Aren't There More Black People in Oregon? A Hidden History.” This article describes her efforts in organizing and leading the program, and includes details of Oregon's history, how the state was "was created as a white utopian homeland," subsequent policies such as the "lash law," and hundreds of years of activism that is ushering change. The Hidden History Timeline embedded in this article starts with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, covers the founding of …

The Portland State University Task Force On Latina/O Student Success, Carlos J. Crespo

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

In the fall of 2009, Portland State University President Wim Wiewel commissioned a Task Force, and an associated Advisory Board composed of community stakeholders, to make strategic recommendations concerning how Portland State can best serve the higher education needs and aspirations of Oregon’s Latino community. President Wiewel further charged the Task Force to base its recommendations on the best research and evidence available and to consider the most effective investment of PSU resources.

The Task Force met monthly from September 2009 to May 2010. It reviewed the literature, studied relevant data, learned from the success of comparable institutions, and performed …

Bleeding Albina: A History Of Community Disinvestment, 1940‐2000, Karen J. Gibson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland, Oregon, is celebrated in the planning literature as one of the nation’s most livable cities, yet there is very little scholarship on its small Black community. Using census data, oral histories, archival documents, and newspaper accounts, this study analyzes residential segregation and neighborhood disinvestment over a 60-year period. Without access to capital, housing conditions worsened to the point that abandonment became a major problem. By 1980, many of the conditions typically associated with large cities were present: high unemployment, poor schooling, and an underground economy that evolved into crack cocaine, gangs, and crime. Yet some neighborhood activists argued that …