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My Turnby Elisa Dozono |
 |
From The Asian Reporter, V18, #18 (April 29, 2008), page 6 & 7.
VOTE or be a victim
Every year, about half the people in this country leave it up to the other half to decide what their daily lives will be like by failing to go to the ballot box.
Will their chances of going to jail increase because of racial profiling policies? Will their child receive a worse education because of funding disparities between schools in wealthy and poor neighborhoods? Will they be denied the right to marry because their life partner is the same sex?
"The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men," said Lyndon Baines Johnson upon signing the Voting Rights Bill on August 6, 1965.
Yet on average, fewer minorities and those of lesser economic means vote.
May 20, 2008 provides us the chance to make history not just by voting for either the first female or African-American presidential candidate, but by increasing the number of minorities taking part in the voting process.
It’s an opportunity to make a difference, and one we should not take for granted. After all, not so many years ago, many people reading this column would not have had the right to vote.
Still, minorities today continue to vote in smaller numbers, in part because barriers to voter registration and voting still exist.
For example, voter ID programs frequently pose difficulty to Asian Americans because family surnames are often reversed with first names, and some Asian Americans use Anglicized names in addition to their native names, creating discrepancies in DMV and Social Security databases. (Earlier this year, a coalition of AAPI organizations filed a supporting legal "amicus" brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in William Crawford et al. v. Marion County Election Board, arguing that an Indiana law imposing restrictive voter ID requirements disproportionately deprived Asian Americans of the right to vote. The Court heard argument in January, but has not yet ruled.)
And, before language-assistance provisions were added to the Voting Rights Act in 1975, many Spanish-speaking citizens didn’t register to vote because they couldn’t read the election material or communicate. As recently as 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the City of Boston for discriminatory voting practices that suppressed Asian-American and Hispanic voters.
Empowering people of color through policy influence
Such challenges motivated a small group of Oregonians to form the new Oregon League of Minority Voters (OLMV). Ironically, it’s a 70-something-year-old white male attorney, Bill Crow of Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, leading the charge. Behind him is a cadre of powerful names who co-founded the organization and now back him up on the board, including attorney and current city council candidate Nick Fish, Asian Reporter publisher Jaime Lim, The Skanner newspaper publisher Bernie Foster, Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, Wells Fargo communications director Tom Unger, and Asian American Business Alliance vice president Jennifer Harry.
Its executive director, Promise King, a Nigerian native and former political columnist and policy advisor, says the group’s goals are to increase the number of minority voters, develop a solid public policy debate, create partnerships with supporters, and increase the level of participation at the policy level by people of color so the byproduct gets the buy in of everyone.
"We have an appreciation that there are cultural nuances that need to be addressed in public policy," said King. "If you have a policy that doesn’t address poverty or language, you are setting the system up for failure. We’re involving immigrants because policy hasn’t corresponded to changes and new demographics."
The group announced its formation in March and has hit the ground running. Already, it has sponsored candidate forums for the offices of Portland Mayor and City Commissioners and Multnomah County Commissioners. Most recently, it co-sponsored a live televised debate between U.S. Senate candidates.
While the initial focus has been the election process, their sites are set on longer-term policy changes. King describes it as "cultural competency." Take workforce policy. King notes that in communities of color, people often work three to four jobs, which leaves little time for children. "When you have a better workforce policy that provides for job training and self-sufficiency, you begin to chip away from those blocks that hold parents down from involvement in schools, you help them buy new books, or hire someone to assist their kids," said King.
OLMV hopes to engender that change not only by encouraging minority voter participation, but by reaching out to take the minority perspective statewide. For instance, the U.S. Senate candidate forum, co-sponsored by KATU and Pacific University, was held in Forest Grove.
The group seeks not just to put minorities in office, but to make sure people in office, and their staff, understand the minority perspective.
"We want to create not just spectators in public policy, but participants. We don’t want to stop there any more, but move several steps ahead to encourage policy," said King.
On May 12, the group will hold its first annual candidates forum and fundraiser, bestowing its first "Liberty Awards." After soliciting nominations from the board and others in the community, OLMV chose Portland Mayor Tom Potter and Russ Danielson, Chief Executive of Providence Health System in Oregon, as their first award winners, based on the work the two have done in Oregon for racial justice and the opportunities they have provided to people of color.
As for the long term outlook for OLMV, King says he’ll know the group has succeeded, "When civil rights and social justice are talked about the way livability and sustainability are talked about."
To learn more about OLMV, e-mail <info@oregonlmv.org> or call (503) 289-7520.
Elisa Dozono is an attorney with the business litigation team at the law firm of Miller Nash LLP. An active member of her community, she serves as Multnomah County’s appointment to MERC (the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission), which oversees the Oregon Convention Center, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, and the Portland Expo Center, and as local counsel to the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. She sits on the Japan-America Society of Oregon’s board of directors, chairs the Finance Committee for the Democratic Party of Oregon, and is a member of the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association and several other civic organizations. She earned her law degree at Lewis & Clark Law School, and holds a journalism degree from Boston University’s College of Communication.