Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

Black Voices And Perspectives On Portland's Black Lives Matter Protests With Shirley Jackson, Shirley A. Jackson

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORERS, Professor Shirley Jackson discusses research in which she examines how members of the Black community in the Portland metro region perceived the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd protests that took place during the summer of 2020. Jackson, a sociologist and expert in race, social movements, and gender, is interviewing members of the Black community in the metro region to better understand individual and community sentiments on issues including the government response to the Black Lives Matter protests, participation of whites in BLM protests, and "Defund the Police."

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio …

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 …

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 …

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 …

‘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 …

Reflection Roundtable: White Supremacy In Oregon History, Karen J. Gibson, Darrell Millner, Carmen Thompson, Adrienne Nelson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon Historical Society Panel Discussion with Dr. Karen Gibson, Dr. Darrell Millner, Dr. Carmen Thompson, and Justice Adrienne Nelson, Moderator. Reflection on Hatfield Lecture by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. October 29, 2020.

This panel reflects upon the Oregon Historical Society event two days prior, the second virtual Hatfield Lecture Series talk held October 27 that featured the one and only Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of Finding Your Roots and author of a number of books including his latest work, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow.

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 …

Black Americans And The South African Anti-Apartheid Campaign In Portland, Oregon, Ethan Johnson

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper argues that in order to understand the anti-Apartheid campaign in Portland, Oregon it must be located within the particular socio-historical context of race and racism in the city and state. Thus, Black people living in Portland had good reason to compare the Apartheid system in South Africa to their own experience. Therefore, the confluence of national and local issues that move the local anti-Apartheid campaign forward is examined; the paper documents the rise and development of critical organizations in the anti-Apartheid campaign in Portland; the paper focus on the closure of the Honorary South Africa Consulate in downtown …

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 …

Black And Blue: Police-Community Relations In Portland's Albina District, 1964-1985, Leanne Claire Serbulo, Karen J. Gibson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

As in many cities across America, the relationship between African Americans in Portland, Oregon, and the city police force was fraught with tension through the late twentieth century. Scholars Leanne Serbulo and Karen Gibson argue that Portland's African Americans, who collectively made up less than ten percent of Portland residents and were segregated into neighborhoods including the Albina district, experienced police as figures of colonial oppression. The authors chronicle how, over two decades bordered by African Americans' deaths at the hands of police, neighborhood activists attempted to reform the police department and met resistance. The authors conclude that transformation 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 …