Oregon’s 2011 Legislative Equity Report Card

On the anniversary of what would’ve been the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, a coalition of seven local community groups issued a report card on how well Oregon’s Legislative Assembly did in moving our state toward racial equity. Equity is like justice. Like fairness.

The evaluation is called Facing Race: 2011 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity. And it addresses our two legislative chambers’ 2011 performance within the current context of many of Oregon’s racially unjust public institutions. In short, how fair were our elected state leaders?

According to the Legislative Report Card, Oregon’s Senate scored a C. Our House of Representatives got a D.

In the weeks following the report’s publication we heard plenty of commentary. Some thoughtful, some not, but every bit of it essential in moving forward our American instincts for justice, for fairness.

But listen — because race is an emotional menace and a sociological mire for both of Oregon’s legislative chambers, for both competing parties, for both our urban and rural populations, for both America’s mainstream and our many ethnic minority streams — let me approach the 2011 Legislative Report Card in simpler terms.

In talking story style.

Never mind for the next minutes our issues with race; forget our efforts at equity. Focus for now on grades.

When we were kids, not one of our mother’s four sons could bring home a C. As for the letter D, it was not in her household’s alphabet. Not in her children’s names. Not one of her magnetic fridge letters.

Today, her standard still rules over her third American generation. The threat, "I’m telling Oma (about your grades)," sent exactly the same spine-straightening jolt into her eight grandchildren as it now sends into her 10 great-grandchildren. Same standard. Same currency.

I talk about this particular traditional elder because that’s where Old Worlders and New Americans go when crazy complexity happens on our chaotic new continent. Please lend me another 600 words to set out two lean reasons why dropping back into old-school analysis works, especially in uncertain times.

1. When average is awful

We came to the United States with hearts wide open, even if our eyes were not. That changed about a year after settling into Salem. America’s only Mahatma, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered, and America went into riot. Then, President John F. Kennedy’s handsome little brother Bobby, the one who cried unashamedly after he walked haltingly out of that Southern Black family’s humble home — was also shot dead. Also before our eyes.

Our eyes all went to Momma. She didn’t blink. We looked at our pop. He didn’t breathe.

The next morning, without a word on what just happened, our mother made up her mind about her sons’ minds. She would not let her boys tumble into it. She would tolerate none of it. Not ever.

Our mom got practical. No negotiation. No backtalk. Her American dreaming would not fail because America was getting an F. Not one of her boys could bring home a D (Poor). An average or passing grade (C) would never do. Not if "average" meant being at level with all that awfulness. Tidak. Not in her house.

Accordingly, us just doing good (B) would never be enough momentum to overcome our country’s startling meanness. By our mom’s scorecard, only "A" grades would do. By her reasoning, only by being excellent would her FOBby boys not fall into that abyss. Only As could make her kids, her kids’ kids, and their kids’ kids a place we could all proudly call home.

2. When the news is not new

For four decades, our expanding American family has done as Oma expected. During those same decades our national and local leaders have tried and tried to pull our public institutions out of their racialized ruts. Deep and unjust ruts. Deep as River Columbia’s Gorge and just as sure to determine the course of our mainstream, unless elected lawmakers mind and measure our habitual bigotry as carefully and consistently as our mother guides all those she’s responsible for, generation after generation.

I’m holding fast to our elders’ ethos of discerning and disciplined leadership because there’s been some harsh criticism of the methodology and even of the ideology behind the 2011 Legislative Report Card. And while honest critique is essential for democracy to grind out a better product — after four decades of swearing off race as a determinant for social success, now is not a good time for quarrelling over how 2011 Legislative Report Card researchers arrived at their data. I can still see my mom’s face when I brought home a C in chemistry. I can still remember me mumbling some excuse about that teacher.

By now, the credibility of the Report Card’s author is not deadly, but the senate’s C grade is. When average is awful, a passing grade is an approval of awful. Don’t like the Report Card’s science or the reporters’ politics? — Contribute to the work, let’s get ready for our next legislative assembly.

By now, the disparities between black and brown and white, in income and in wealth, in schooling and in housing, in jobs and in political leadership, should be old news. The research has been done. And done again. It’s a really old rut.

The newsy part of the 2011 Legislative Report Card is its deliberate focus on more equitably assessing the good and the harm of proposed laws. What’s also newsworthy is the dramatic racial and ethnic shifts in many Oregon legislative districts. The costs in treasury and misery of failing and jailing our kids, of sickening and disintegrating our families, will soon be out of this world.

Another three generations of Cs and Ds won’t do. Another approach at good governance is necessary. The method laid out by the Legislative Report Card provides lawmakers with an avenue out of our awful ruts. We start by minding our public institutions’ bad habits and measuring their good intentions. We need to do it as carefully and consistently as every old-school mom directs her energetic kids.

When one term ends, a report comes home. No kid likes it, but as the next term begins we know exactly how to do better.

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The Asian Reporter’s Expanding American Lexicon

A year after: also called "after the honeymoon," a common experience of U.S. immigrants. The dissonance between American dreaming and harsh resettlement realities.

Facing Race: 2011 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity: Authors and representative organizations comprising the work group responsible for the report include Joseph Santos-Lyons, Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon; Jessica Lee, Basic Rights Education Fund; Aeryca Steinbauer, Causa Oregon; Kayse Jama, Center for Intercultural Organizing; David Rogers, Partnership for Safety and Justice; Mdme. Midge Purcell, Urban League of Portland; and Kalpana Krishnamurthy of Western States Center. Krishnamurthy and graduate policy intern Diego Hernandez were principal researchers. Our families’ sincere gratitude to you all. For a complete listing of the research methodology team and the supporting Equity Report Advisory Committee, or to download the full report, please visit <www.westernstatescenter.org>.

FOBby (Pan-Asian): Fresh Off da Boat. Characterizing an immigrant’s simply sincere attitudes, as well as humorously noting our lack of savvy fashion sense.

Mahatma (Hindi): Great Soul. Indian Independence leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is popularly known as "Mahatma" Gandhi. Traditional elders say each nation gets one. Just one.

Oma (Indo patois, from Colonial Dutch): Grandma. Also an address for any grand elder, expressing affection, respect, and submission to her moral authority.

Old World: norms of respect and reverence common to many traditional western and non-western societies, including Native- and African-American communities.

poor: a lack of money. Not the same as poverty, which includes lacking sufficient social and cultural capital to secure adequate stable income. Socially, culturally, and spiritually rich New Americans will ordinarily not be poor long if integrated into America’s economic mainstream inside six to eight years.

Research on Oregon’s racialized institutional ruts: Legislative Report Card authors cite several sources in their study. Please also see: Urban League of Portland’s State of Black Oregon (2009). For an assessment of the harm done to Oregon Asian and islander families by our racialized institutions, please see Communities of Color in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile (2010).

tidak (Bahasa): nope.