Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Mirror Project: Reflections On The Experiences Of African-American Female Adolescents Experiencing Foster Care, Bahia Anise-Cross Degruy Overton

Dissertations and Theses

As the author Zora Neale Hurston says, "If you're silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it." The Mirror Project (MP) aims to break this silence by giving voice to Black women who have experienced foster care in Portland, Oregon during their adolescence. In focus groups and interviews, participants shared their stories. Racial identity development theory, phenomenology and Afrocentric feminist epistemology provided lenses for gaining insight into their experiences in a predominantly white city. The MP revealed six themes: lack of youth engagement in foster care decisions, the need for a cultural lens in social work, …

Critical Analysis Of Anti-Asian Hate In The News, Benardo Douglas Relampagos

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2019, the United States has had an increase in violence against Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities along with an increase of mainstream anti-Asian racist rhetoric. Between 2021 and 2022, The Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism reported an overall 164% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes (Report to the Nation, 2021). While racism against black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities has been the topic of an ever-growing body of critical discourse, prior to 2019 few publications had addressed racism and injustice regarding language choices and discourse in the context of anti-Asian rhetoric in the US, specifically …

Love Letters For Liberatory Futures, Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins, Roberta Hunte, Lakindra Mitchell Dove, Antonia R.G. Alvarez, Alma M. O. Trinidad, Gita Mehrotra

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This collection of letters serves to explore the narratives of a collective of women of color in academia by examining individual, collective, spiritual, and institutional strategies for surviving and transforming our institutional spaces and the ways that White Supremacy has shaped our journeys. Multiple perspectives are viewed, and we have written to our children, our future social work students, our future selves, our BIPOC faculty siblings, and our feared enemies to envision and embody more liberatory futures.

Keywords: liberation, academia, BIPOC faculty, institutional racism, White Supremacy

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

Son Otros Tiempos: Generational Experiences Of Male Friendships Amongst Mexican And Mexican American Men, Marisela Rodríguez Molina

Dissertations and Theses

Culturally specific work with Latinx men has also discussed the way Latinx masculinities are being redefined by younger generations. Grounded in Chicana Feminist epistemologies, I use Gloria Anzaldua's borderlands framework to analyze data from 20 interviews with sons and their father figures in understanding experience of masculinities within the context of male friendships. Differences between father's and son's experiences can be attributed to social context in which men are socialized and their borderlands experiences. Findings illustrate how understandings of masculinities represent a melding of cultural values between the dominant individualistic perspective in the U.S. and the collectivist perspective from men's …

Shame And Silencing Of Amejo In Okinawa: Examining Gendered And Militarized Violence, Katie Hashimoto

University Honors Theses

Off the southern part of Japan is the small archipelago of Okinawa. Of Japan's total land mass, Okinawa makes up only 0.6% of the country, yet it hosts over 70% of the land occupied by U.S. military bases. Since the end of World War II, Okinawa has existed under dual-subjugation by Japan and the U.S., which has created the grounds for systemic gendered and militarized violence. Rape and sexual violence perpetrated by U.S. military servicemen continue to be the primary concern of Okinawan feminists pushing for the demilitarization of Okinawa. However, these concerns often get lost within heteronormative and male-masculinist …

How Latino Anti-Blackness Upholds Racism In The United States: A Counterstory Book Review Of Tanya Katerí Hernández’S Racial Innocence, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this piece, the author uses counterstorytelling as a research method to write a book review of Tanya Katerí Hernández’s recently published book, Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality. Specifically, in this counterstory, the author created two composite characters, Alberto and his mother, Lola, made up of arguments from the book to engage in a real and critical dialogue about the anti-Blackness amongst Latinos in the United States. Drawing on Hernández’s argument that Latino anti-Blackness upholds racism, the author uses this counterstory to illustrate the various ways Latinos enact anti-Black ideologies and practices to …

“Why You Always So Political?”: A Counterstory About Educational-Environmental Racism At A Predominantly White University, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using critical race counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race and space and racism in higher education, I argue that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. Through narrated dialogue, Aurora (a composite character) and I delve into a critical conversation about how educational-environmental racism is experienced by MMAX students through a racialized landscape in the …

Educational Myths Of An American Empire: Colonial Narratives And The Meriam Report, Madhu Narayanan

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Meriam Report is a remarkable historical artifact of the United States' colonial project. The idea of a stronger nation through education embodied in the report betrays the report's imperial core. The report's authors express moral outrage at the failure of the United States to respect the human dignity of Native Americans. To absolve these failures, the report repeatedly looks to education as the way forward. My interest is in the discursive construction of that argument, specifically how new discourses of progress, scientific management, and modern administrative principles were used to justify expansion of the federal government and solidify the …

The Power Of Counterstory With Martín Alberto Gonzalez, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Chicano & Latino Studies Professor Martín Alberto Gonzalez discusses the counterstory. As Gonzalez explains, counterstories are a narrative form of scholarly communication that uses stories to disrupt oppressive narratives established by empowered groups. Counterstory does so by pointing to the roles that systems of oppression, like white supremacy, racism, sexism, and capitalism, play in society, and higher education, in particular, by providing alternative narratives.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

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 …

Native Leaders Round Table, Institute For Tribal Government, Portland State University, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University, Serina Fast Horse, Direlle Calica

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This event was a Zoom meeting, a "pre-summit" to start conversations that will take place at the first Native Summit set for Spring 2023. The main file is the event description, and the supplemental files include 5 pictorial summaries of the output.

Long overdue, Portland State University is on a journey to becoming an Indigenous affirming institution, a place with authentic relationships and partnerships with the nations/tribes in our area and a place that invites and, is supportive of, Native students who graduate at equitable rates, equipped to advance their communities and the world.

Part of the Tribal relations work …

Convening For A Prosperous Future: Middle East North African South Asian (Menasa) Convening, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University, Middle East, North Africa, South Asia (Menasa), Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

PSU is proactively leaning into its future as a majority-BIPOC student institution and is dedicated to coming alongside BIPOC communities, critical partners, actors, and agents to act in the present to ensure a prosperous future.

We recognize that opportunities and challenges for BIPOC communities require collective, rather than singular, action. In that spirit, we invite you to save the date and join Portland State University's Global Diversity and Inclusion Division on Sunday October 23rd between 11am-2pm for a convening luncheon contemplating present challenges and imagining a prosperous future for our Middle East North African South Asian (MENASA) Community.

This social …

Convening For A Thriving Future: Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Asian, And Asian American Community, Stephen Percy, Ame Lambert, Lindsay Romasanta, Patrick Villaflores, Christian Aniciete, Marchel Marcos, Allie Yee, Alyshia Macaysa, Aileen Duldulao, Sokho Eath, Roxanna Bautista, Global Diversity And Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

On October 1, 2022, Portland State University (PSU) held the Convening for a Thriving Future for Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Asian, and Asian American (PIAA) Communities at the university’s Native American Student Community Center (NASCC). This event was part of a series of BIPOC-centered and -led community convenings by PSU’s Global Diversity & Inclusion as one of our action items in the Time to Act Plan for Equity & Racial Justice.

PSU contracted with Roxanna Bautista of Rise Up Solutions to support the planning, development, and coordination of this convening, in addition to providing facilitation and contributing to this convening …

A Look At The Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis: Investigation Of Potential Causes And Effects, Verity Saige Vogel

University Honors Theses

In North America, Indigenous women go missing and are murdered at a rate higher than any other demographic. Scholars and governmental agencies agree that the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis is a pressing issue; it was not until a series of successful social media campaigns (using the hashtag #MMIW) and other grassroots activism took root across First Nations and Native communities in North America that the gravity of the situation became widely reported. Although many agree that the MMIW crisis is a wicked problem (in that it has many contributing factors that amplify its effect and contribute to …

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 …

In Their Own Words: Examining The Educational Experiences, Expectations, And Values Of Oregon Low-Income, Single Black Mothers, Reiko Mia Williams

Dissertations and Theses

The long-standing achievement gap between African-American students in grades k-12 and their White counterparts has inspired many educational leaders and policy makers to seek a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the various factors affecting the well-being of Black students. The conversation has historically focused on deficits and dysfunction while ignoring strengths and resiliencies. The research in this study investigates inaccuracies regarding Black families in order to change the conversation from one of deficits to a strength-based lens. In spite of the inequities that exist for Black families with regards to housing, employment, and health, Black parents remain committed to ensuring …

Introduction: Into The Academy, Maika Yeigh

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Maika Yeigh, Co-editor of Northwest Journal of Teacher Education, introduces this special issue, Into the Academy, to put into practice the aims and scope of the journal, by “amplifying previously silenced and emerging voices, first-time authors, and those for whom the publication process has felt burdensome or laden with barriers.” Putting those aims into practice, the editorial board encouraged manuscripts with first-authorship belonging to new and emerging scholars, and the Board is thrilled and honored to present their work in this issue.

Linking Conservation And Environmental Justice: Exploring Relationship-Building Between A Land Trust And Four Pacific Northwest Tribes, C. Noel Plemmons

Dissertations and Theses

Conservation organizations around the world are addressing exclusionary policies and implicit biases that have alienated segments of society from both the conservation movement and natural places. Native American tribes make up one segment of society with a particular interest in and deep ties to land and resources. Vancouver, Washington-based Columbia Land Trust recognizes tribes' special relationships with their ancestral lands and resources thereon, but has struggled to develop policies that involve tribes in conserved areas and conservation plans. The conception among mainstream scientists that western conservation science is better equipped than Indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) to determine best practices is …

"We Had To Rely On Each Other": Voices Of Latinx Foster Youth With Experiences In Care With Siblings, Isabella B. Ginsberg

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Relationships between members of sibling groups have been found to impact well-being for children who enter foster care (Herrick & Piccus, 2005). Being placed in stranger foster care is often challenging and can be traumatic with children reporting confusion, worry, and loss of identity and sense of belonging (Herrick & Piccus, 2005, Unrau et al, 2008). While there is some research that explores the experiences of siblings groups in foster care and others separately that examines Latinx children in foster care, there is very little information that looks into the potentially unique experiences of Latinx individuals who were in care …

Situating Hiv/Aids Humanitarian Film In The National Cinema Culture Of Mozambique: Historical, Contemporary And Feminist Perspectives, Sebastián Andrés Suárez Hode

University Honors Theses

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mozambique has enabled a new wave of humanitarian cinema to develop as it seeks to educate and empower a population that has been adversely affected by the epidemic. Colonial-era patriarchal systems that persist have resulted in Mozambican women being disproportionately impacted by the virus, and humanitarian projects in turn use film as a vehicle for the exploration of Mozambican women’s subjectivities. Thus, these films have made for an especially feminist reconditioning of Mozambican national cinema culture. This essay will explore HIV/AIDS humanitarian cinema’s place within the larger discourse of Mozambican national cinema and will demonstrate 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 …

Evaluating The N/Ne Preference Policy, Amie Thurber, Lisa Bates, Susan Halverson

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

North/Northeast Portland has long been the heart of Portland's Black community. By 2010, the area had lost two-thirds of its Black residents to displacement. In response, the City adopted a Preference Policy that prioritizes displaced affordable rental and homeownership applicants. This report describes findings from the first phase of a study to understand what difference this policy is making in the lives of residents.

‘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 …

Healthy Birth Initiatives: The Road Toward Reproductive Justice, Roberta Hunte, Susanne Klawetter, Sherly Paul

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study concerns racialized experiences of reproductive oppression among Black women and the efforts of one organization - Multnomah County’s Healthy Birth Initiatives (HBI) - to combat this oppression and move towards Reproductive Justice. This study explores how Black women experience and respond to racism-related stress and its impacts on their health during and after pregnancy and subsequent parenting. The project was informed by a pilot focus group conducted in 2016 by Drs. Jenna Ramaker and Roberta Hunte in partnership with HBI, which asked HBI clients about the role of toxic stress and racism-related stress in their lives. The current …

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 …

White ‘Alliahs:’ The Creation & Perpetuation Of The ‘Wise Indian’ Trope, Jessica Mehta

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine auto-fill features allows us to see how people search online, and the words they use, in real-time. Anonymous querying equates to anonymity, and by nature when we input key words or key phrases in search engines like Google we use succinct, brief, and to-the-point queries. What does this mean for how we search for Native American or “Indian” results? A 2019 SEO and keyword/phrase analysis revealed that the notorious “wise Indian trope” (similar to the “magical negro” trope) is still very prevalent today, particularly when comparing the keyword “wise” paired with non-Native races. …

Racial Justice Is Climate Justice: Racial Capitalism And The Fossil Economy, Julius Mcgee, Patrick Trent Greiner

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The narrative of oppression moves through dialectical pressures. Capitalism evolved from the feudal order that preceded it, creating new forms of racial oppression that benefited an emerging ruling class [1]. Racial tensions evolve alongside economic oppression that subjugates labor to capital. The preceding racial order molds to emerging mechanisms of expropriation and exploitation by way of force and resistance. Beneath the surface of these tensions lies the interconnected threads of ecological and human expropriation. At the heart of all oppression, lies the manipulation of reproduction. The social processes necessary to reproduce black and brown communities, the ecological processes necessary to …

The Use Of The Birth Control Movement As A Eugenics Weapon, 1920'S-1960'S, Peyton P. Holstein

Young Historians Conference

While Margaret Sanger made great strides in the crusade for legalization and open access to birth control for women, groups paired her work with ideologies such as Social Darwinism to arm the eugenics movement throughout the Twentieth-century. The eugenics movement was a culmination of racism and newly found scientific theories which led a crusade to purify the American population through reproductive cherry-picking on the basis of race. One of the primary ways that this group attempted to weed out “undesirable” races within the American population was through birth control as well as sterilization. These two movements - birth control and …