CCC Statements :: Juneteenth & DACA

Juneteenth, for African Americans, is known as Independence Day or Freedom Day and is a holiday commemorating the June 19, 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of African American slaves. While President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation effectively ending slavery on January 1, 1863, that Proclamation had little effect in Texas until two and a half years later.

The Staff and Board of the Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) would like to lift up the Black community in Oregon and the United States, honor the sacrifice of all those who endured such unjust and immoral bondage and echo and reaffirm the rising crescendo of those declaring that, in fact, and always, Black Lives Matter.

We at CCC have chosen to use Juneteenth as a day of reflection, inquiry, and gratitude for the gifts that those who have passed before us have bestowed upon us: the opportunity to breathe free. Although we work daily for culturally specific organizations and the underserved, we believe we still have much to learn about anti-black racism and other inequities. Juneteenth is our pause to continue the journey. We hope all can take a moment or two for reflection, as well.

This day also reminds us that we have an obligation to continue to fight for justice, whether it is the civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s, the right to vote, the right to be counted in the Census, the right to fair housing and strong education, or the battle for the DREAMers today.

We especially want to acknowledge and lift up on Juneteenth all of the hard working African American and Black Led organizations that are part of our Coalition, and that labor for this community every day: Africa House, KairosPDX, Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF), Portland Community Reinvestment Initiative (PCRI), Self Enhancement Inc. (SEI), Unite Oregon, and the Urban League of Portland.

Juneteenth in Oregon can be a day to remember that, even in a state where slavery was illegal, other actions can be almost as unfair and debilitating to the advancement of a people’s progress. Whether it is exclusion laws, lack of access to land, an annual tax for just being of color, being excluded from the vote, a ban on interracial marriage, or insurance surcharges for drivers of color, and we must remain steadfast to our values and continue to battle for all of our communities. As long as we keep fighting, we are truly emancipated.

Happy Juneteenth, Oregon.

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DREAMers and families were finally given some relief yesterday, June 18th, with the U.S. Supreme Court decision to block the Trump administration’s attempt of ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The ruling impacts approximately 650,000 DACA recipients nationwide, and 11,000 of those recipients are here in Oregon. This decision is the result of the hard work of our Latinx, immigrant & refugee, and BIPOC communities who organized, mobilized, and with hope as a North Star, believed that even our most radical dreams for a better life could come true.

La lucha sigue, (our fight continues), though. The Supreme Court has not banned the Trump administration from ending DACA.  Communities across the country continue to mobilize and demand systemic changes to policing and community & public safety. The CCC and our members will continue to advocate for student safety in the classroom, on the way to school. We will continue to advocate against police & ICE presence in schools. We will continue to advocate for the accessibility of quality education & economic opportunities for DACA, undocumented, immigrant and refugee, and BIPOC students.

We appreciate the work of all of our member organizations, through their commitment to elevating community voices & addressing their needs. We want to especially acknowledge and recognize the dedicated efforts of Latino Network, IRCO, APANO, Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, Hacienda CDC, Milagro Theater, and Verde.

We call on our federal delegation to pressure the Trump Administration to respect the decision of the Supreme Court, end its futile attempts to terminate the program, and ensure that USCIS does not share information with ICE about DACA recipients and their families. We call on our federal delegation to listen to the voices of the DREAMers and accelerate efforts to manifest their visions for their long-term status.

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We Can't Breathe - An Open Letter to Community

May 29, 2020 

TO: An Open Letter to Community — Portland, Oregon, United States of America

FROM: Marcus C. Mundy, Executive Director, Coalition of Communities of Color 

RE:  We Can’t Breathe

Eric Garner could not breathe.  George Floyd could not breathe.  I cannot breathe.

I, my brothers, my son, my cousins, my friends – Black men all – watched in abject, stultifying horror this week as yet another Black man died at the hands of yet another policeman in yet another video broadcast to the world as if it were some rerun detached from reality.  It was not detached from reality.  It is reality. Our daily, inescapable reality as Black men in America.

We know all the victims’ names by now.  We know the outcomes.  We all know, step by inexorable step, the Kabuki theater that ensues after each such incident, the choreographed recitation of the injustice. The video is shared; the indignation is palpable; the protests begin; the lawyers go on television;usually, the perpetrators are not punished; the laws don’t change; police training doesn’t change; the cycle begins again…

Many tears were shed as we collectively and individually watched replays, on the daily news no less, of the very life oozing out of a man who looked just like us, right in front of our eyes.  Such frequency of these events, I believe, attempts to numb us to its harshness, but:  it cannot, not for Black men or those who love us.  Our mere existence in the world as Black men should not evoke such rage from others, and such callous indifference for human life should evoke outrage, not just from Black people, but from all people.

I would trade a million virtue-signaling lawn signs stating “Black Lives Matter” and “In Our America, Love Wins” for a single day of those epigrams being realized.  Arbery, Bland, and Cooper must not be the ABCs of Black life in America.  They should be our societal wake-up call.  

As the Mayor of Minneapolis reminded us, “If you had done it or I had done it we would be behind bars right now.”  But it wasn’t the mayor, or me, or you; it was a craven Minneapolis “peace officer” who committed this incomprehensible act as his three equally culpable and enabling colleagues looked on. No charges filed, investigation underway.  So here we go again.

Fannie Lou Hamer once plaintively said, over 50 years ago, “…I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”  She was speaking about civil rights then, but that phrase should apply to all of us right now, especially when it comes to the incessant, inhuman ways that Black men are treated in America.  This person violated not just the civil rights Ms. Hamer was speaking of, but the most essential human right:  the right to live.

After witnessing the replay of the slow motion demise of George Floyd, many of us feel horror; but that horror no longer means anything without action.  Our bromides and platitudes and good intentions and righteous indignation, however heartfelt, are as a flatus in the wind unless we are prepared to work for change, and respectfully demand that change.

I reflected today that the mission of the Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) is to “address the socioeconomic disparities, institutional racism and inequity of services experienced by our families, children and communities; and to organize our communities for collective action resulting in social change to obtain self-determination, wellness, justice and prosperity.”  If little else is clear, institutional racism and inequity of services are real, and evidenced in the treatment of George Floyd.  We must see what is happening in the world and, with our mission in mind, commit ourselves to action.

We must, and immediately: 

• work to remove any policies on our existing jurisdictions’ books similar to those in Minneapolis, which may permit the use of the procedure used to kill George Floyd;

• work to facilitate and codify the implementation of suggestions developed by groups such as the Portland Police Reform Network, the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, etc., in a formalized process;

• work to strengthen the Independent Police Review Division and the Citizen Review Committee, with the goal of adding power to compel testimony;

• seek to facilitate and codify change in Oregon State Statutes, as appropriate, for use of deadly force by officers;

• work to have jurisdictions commit to training/retraining all law enforcement officers on proper use of force decision making matrices;

• work to have jurisdictions commit to explicit, comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion training for all law enforcement officers, as well as heightened de-escalation training;

• work to seek and acquire a commitment from all police unions, governmental leaders and officers in Oregon to condemn illegal or immoral behavior from police officers

The CCC urges all of you to take the steps we have outlined, with us.  There is more than one pandemic raging in America, and none will be solved without collective action.

Join us.  Help us end the reruns of “Another Black Man Killed Today Show”.  

Join us.  Help us breathe again.

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

—  Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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What happens to a dream deferred? 

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

 Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load. 

Or does it explode?

“Harlem”, Langston Hughes