When black men gathered at Self Enhancement Inc. to talk about Trayvon Martin and how to improve their families, it was a segregated affair.
The men met in the auditorium. The dozen or so women who showed up were sent to a classroom.
A woman leading the discussion for the females assured them that the men were interested in what they had to say. Notes would be taken and passed along.
Let’s hope this was more than rote consolation to the ladies. They have a better grasp on what needs to be done than the man who made the most noise this weekend at still another protest on behalf of Trayvon Martin. The unarmed 17-year-old was killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer claiming self-defense and who, to date, has not been charged.
In the classroom at Self Enhancement Inc., in North Portland, a 23-year-old black woman said she couldn’t stop thinking about something she heard on NPR: A black man doesn’t die until he is shot by a white man.
“We are killing ourselves slowly every day, and we never hear about it,” she said. She looked around the room of mostly middle-aged black faces and asked why there weren’t more people her age at the meeting.
She moved to Portland nine months ago. She is an attractive young woman, wearing a tailored black jacket, her hair pulled back in a stylish knot. She would look at home in a law office or corporate environment. Her brother went to Georgia Tech and is an industrial engineer.
“I’ve been blessed to have parents who care about me. … It was never a situation where I could go out and act out … My father would’ve stopped me from walking out of the house dressed a certain way,” she said. “My parents instilled a little bit of fear in us. … I am not going to question my father.”
Veronica, a hairdresser, returned to Portland after living for a while in Georgia. Her 20-year-old grandson was living in Portland, and she recently sent him to live with relatives in Atlanta because she thought it would be better for him.
“He wanted to hang out in the mall. I told him there are other things in life … ‘Put down your teenage things.’ … I put him there (in Atlanta) around men to coach him,” she said.
“When I had a salon in Georgia, I worked on people’s hair, and I got an education. These people were 22 and 25, and they were working to be engineers and lawyers … buying houses. … We’re not how they portray us on TV. We’re not wanting to be killed, not wanting to be in prison. …. We really have more doing good than bad.”
Veronica suggested that, if possible, other mothers and grandmothers should consider sending their sons to live with relatives in a state that has a bigger city with more blacks so they can see the opportunities that are available.
She suggested that adults stop being scared of young guys wearing baggy pants hanging low on their hips.
“The way I do guys I see in those drooping pants, which I hate … ‘You’re such a good-looking young man …. You could be even better looking if you pulled those pants up.’”
Lakeitha Elliott, who was born and raised in Oregon, has a teenage daughter who told her, “He (Trayvon) could have been my husband. He’s around my age.”
Elliott asked the women in the classroom, “Where are the husbands going to be for our kids?”
Were the black men in the auditorium asking aloud, “What kinds of husbands are our sons going to be?”
If they are asking themselves questions like that, it might help if they didn’t hide it. Why shouldn’t the public see that side of black men?
A more common sight was days later at the second protest march in support of Trayvon Martin at Peninsula Park in North Portland.
Before marchers set out, a black woman spoke of a Gang Task Force meeting she had attended the day before, and she talked about the summer activities that will be available to keep kids off the street.
A white man said this month will mark the one-year anniversary of 14-year-old Shiloh Hampton’s death. The boy was shot in Holladay Park near Lloyd Center, and soon after a group of adults began walking in the park every Friday evening.
“Police say crime is down 25 percent since we’ve been there. Not to brag, but you can make a difference,” the man said. “Another group walks on Killingsworth. … I encourage you to keep this going.”
After some warm-up chants – “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” – about a hundred marchers headed out of the park and hit Commercial Avenue. It’s an older street lined with many handsome, two-story houses from a “Father Knows Best” era. A few residents – white and black – came out to wave.
When the marchers reached Killingsworth Street and walked past Portland Community College’s Cascade campus, from the rear a black man with white whiskers (King Jay or King J?) bellowed into a megaphone: “Can’t stand no more! Can’t take no more! Can’t have no more! We’re all fired up! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! … Show some love for Trayvon! … Show some justice for all who’ve been murdered! … Ain’t goin’ nowhere! Gonna be right here!”
He recycled and varied the order of the commands, and a few of the guys in the crowd raised their arms and stabbed the air with each “Stop it!”
They continued until they arrived back at the park where they started.
“I think we made a statement today …,” said the man with the megaphone. “We are under attack. I am not a preacher, let me say we are under attack. …Really we are under attack.”
He urged them to turn out at City Hall to protest a state arbitrator’s ruling that the city of Portland reinstate police officer Ronald Frashour, who was fired after shooting a suicidal black man.
“Leave here, go home, get on your computer and let people know we are under attack here in Portland.”
About 15 hours later, a 22-year-old man would get shot in the abdomen while partying at a house on Northeast 84th Avenue.
It probably wasn’t the kind of attack the man with the megaphone was referring to.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
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[…] The Man With the Megaphone […]
The bigger prleobm with all this is the fact that the police just decided to ignore the crime. They released Zimmerman and did no investigation either when the crime was committed or at anytime after. It wasn’t until the family went to the media that anything was done. And then, it wasn’t the police department, but every other agency.The reason Zimmerman got off to begin with probably has a lot to do with his connections. His father was a Magistrate Judge in the Supreme Court in VA and his mother worked for the courts.This is the same nonsense that goes on in NY. The courts are involved in the corruption that goes on, and they too, just ignore it. Eventually, the victims have to move on, and they know this. This is why they get away with it. Let’s see if anyone actually looks into what they are doing in this case in FL. Ignoring the crime, covering it up, and releasing bits of disparaging information on this child. All those school records that are being released are protected under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act. It will be interesting to see if whoever is releasing those records in violation of Federal Law gets prosecuted.