Social Justice Commons^™

Trauma-Informed Gatherings: What Does It Mean And What Does It Take?, Chelsea Williams, Jamie Bain

The Journal of Extension

As community members continue to experience racial trauma at both individual and community levels, our Extension team responded by adapting an anti-racism leadership training program to be more trauma-informed. Our team designed a tool using Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s trauma-informed principles to support public health practitioners to facilitate trauma-informed meetings. This tool can be a starting point for Extension professionals to create more trauma-informed gathering spaces in all areas of their work.

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 …

Cracking The Shell Of White Fragility: Priming Employees For Anti-Oppressive/Anti-Racist Learning, Martha Jansenberger

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Despite the adoption of AO/AR practice frameworks by most human service organizations, consistently integrating the practical elements of AR work into professional interactions continues to challenge many organizations (deFinney, 2011; Saraceno, 2012). This OiP considers the barriers to AO/AR praxis for staff in a crisis shelter, drawing from relevant leadership theory, CRT, change management research, and education research to develop a comprehensive plan aimed at building capacity among employees. With a focus on diminishing the impulse to deny or refute the impacts of systems of oppression on racialized and equity seeking groups, this project uses Kolb and Frohman’s model for …

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 …

Teaching Anti-Racism Practices To White Social Work Students And Community Members, Dennis Cornell

DSW Capstone Projects

Racism continues to plague the United States and White people hold a key element to ending racism by adopting anti-racism practices in their professional and personal lives. This capstone on the findings of a comprehensive systematic literature review, examines empirically-based anti-racism interventions and practices that social work teachers and community educators can utilize in anti-racism courses and workshops for White students and community members. The final results yielded 29 peer-reviewed, qualitative/quantitative research studies within the years of 2003-2021 that can be broken down into six anti-racism intervention categories: class/educational groups, teaching methods, Implicit Association Test (IAT) usage, pro-Black stories/perspectives, interracial …

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 …

Black Liberation In Teacher Education: (Re)Envisioning Educator Preparation To Defend Black Life And Possibility, Justin A. Coles, Darrius Stanley

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Current configurations of teacher education programs are insufficient in attracting and producing teachers equipped to teach through the permanence of antiblackness, instead still relying on race-neutral or color-evasive pedagogies that perpetuate the misrecognition of antiblackness. As evident by the sustained inequities experienced by Black children and the routine marginalization of Black (teacher) educators in the field, we recognize that teacher education programs, and subsequently P-12 classrooms, are not designed nor equipped to reduce the harm caused by persistent anti-Black racism. Despite the ways Blackness is derided and invisibilized in educator preparation, Black students, families, and communities have long countered anti-Black …

A Review Of Integrated Embodied Therapies And Racial Healing In Public Schools, Grace Fosler

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Anti-Black racism lies in the social, political, and economic foundations of the United States of America. Race and racism are manifestations of unhealed generational trauma that negatively impact the minds and bodies of all Americans. Black children are exposed to institutional and interpersonal racism upon entering the public school system, leading many Black students to experience discrimination and segregation, exclusionary discipline, and juvenile entry into the Prison-Industrial Complex. Educators have a unique opportunity to engage in individual and collective racial healing while fostering social change and collective healing in students. An integrated approach of individualized coaching and group embodiment, dance/movement …

But What Can I Do? Engaging White Institutional Agents In Anti-Racist Reflection And Practice, Allie Ross

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

College students continue to become more racially diverse. Despite this, some students of color do not achieve a sense of belonging on their campuses, and whites continue to be overrepresented as educators and administration in higher education. It is critical for white staff and faculty to examine their roles in upholding systemic racism in their institutions. This study investigated how white faculty and student affairs staff, including myself, engage in our own racial identity development and subsequently engage in anti-racist action in our professional roles. Recommendations are provided for how white educators can perform self-work to identify blind spots, how …

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 …

Brave Space Agreement, Kelleen Maluski

Charge and Committee Documentation

Adapted from the McKensie Mack Group with their permission.

Committee Charge, Kelleen Maluski

Charge and Committee Documentation

No abstract provided.

Everyone Matters: Eliminating Dehumanizing Practices In Physical Education, Brian Culp

Faculty and Research Publications

Recently, discussions regarding how to create a positive school climate where all can be successful has come to the forefront. Healthy schools support student learning, well-being, time, space to be active, and opportunities for social and emotional growth. However, a host of numerous trends suggest that the school climate is becoming increasingly hostile towards students who are from immigrant, LBGTQ, and ethnic minority groups. What is often seen as disrespectful behavior toward these students is in fact actions that can be more accurately defined as dehumanization. This article overviews the practice of dehumanization, the implications for learning, and introduces proactive …

Reflections On The Bgj Anti-Racism Seminar, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

In this Letter to the Editor, Billies (2021) responds to critical and supportive opinion pieces in the British Gestalt Journal (BGJ) following their plenary presentation at BGJ’s 2018 annual seminar (see Asherson Bartram, 2019; O’Malley, 2019). As author of the companion article "How/ Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation from Anti-Black Racism?” (Billies, 2021), Billies, who identifies as white, discusses the intent at the seminar to support white people to increase accountability and reduce harm in dialogue with people of color, while supporting the work and needs of people of color on their terms from a Gestalt perspective. Describing a fishbowl …

‘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.

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 …

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 …

Psu President’S African American, African, And Black Student Success Task Force Report, Shirley A. Jackson, Yves Labissiere, Lisa Bates, Tom Bull, Shanice Clarke, Steven Christian, Tara Cooper, Abel De La Cruz, Noni Causey, Alex Herrrerra, Rene Ingram, Vanelda Hopes, Vandy Kanyako, Marlon Dewayne Marion, Taremeredzwa Mutepfa, Marshawna Williams, Ebony Oldham, Tiffany Ganir

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This report is in response to the President’s Charge to the Task Force on African American/African/Black Student Success at Portland State University. As included in the charge, the report assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for PSU in continuing to serve the African American/African/Black community at PSU. In conducting its work, the Task Force reviewed a variety of reports and databases from various offices at PSU. Based on its findings, the Task Force provides recommendations under five main areas:
1) Student recruitment and retention
2) Student Experiences
3) Courses and Programming
4) Faculty and Staff at PSU
5) Best Practices …

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 …

A Proposal Request For A Native American Task Force On Student Success At Portland State University, Cornel Pewewardy

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This is a proposal request for a Native American Task Force on Student Success by the Director of Native American Studies Cornel Pewewardy.

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 …