Portland State Magazine Fall 2010

A life of opP.n donrs For Binh "Jimmy" Le, Multnomah County has provided noth– ing but opportunities, making this 26-year-old's srory a sharp departure from the Communities of Color report's findings. Le '07, MPH '09 is the son of Be Le and Dung Tran, both Vietnamese immigrants. After settling in Oregon in 1975, Be Le landed a job at Columbia Corrugated Box, where he still works as a box maker. Dung Tran, who immigrated in 1980, is a homemaker. Neither Binh Le nor his sister, Kim Le '09, spoke English when they enrolled at David Douglas District schools. Still, they thrived. Though he attended school with few other Vietnamese students, Binh says he never felt out of place or experienced discrimination. Both Binh and Kim were awarded PSU's diversity recognition scholarship, which paid their tuition for five years. Today, Binh is on the brink of pursuing either a Ph.D. or becoming a physician's assistant. "We like tO seek out opportunities," Binh says. "We don't wait for chem to come to us." In contrast ro Binh Le's experience, the Communities of Color report found that profound differences exist for the local Asian community compared to whites. Nationally, Asian Americans tend to have incomes, poverty rates, occupations, and education comparable to or better than those of whites. Not so for Multnomah County's Asian Americans. According 10 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE FALL 2010 to the report, this community, in comparison tO whites, is less educated, holds significantly more service positions and fewer professional ones, earns close ro 19 percent less in family median income, and has 8 percent more of its children living in poverty. l-Jelping to foster chr1nge Oregon's Native American and African American children are far more likely than whites tO be removed from their homes and, once in the foster care system, may languish there for years. Kory L. Murphy, an African American graduate student in social work, is attempting tO change that as an Oregon Department of Human Services analyst focused on child welfare racial equity. Murphy, 37, was born and raised in Portland by a single mother and a supportive extended family. He graduated from Benson High School, then played football and earned a degree in sociology at University of Oregon. Murphy was identified as a gifred student in elementary school, which is rare in Portland Public Schools, where African American boys are disproportionately targeted for special education. Murphy says he had strong African American male role models in his family, at school, and in spores. Still, the conditions that allowed him ro succeed are far from systemic, Murphy says. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •