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PSU’s Black Studies Department Marks 50 Years

NNPA NEWSWIRE — “Higher education had not done a good job of looking at our past, or the sociodynamics of the country, the cultural dynamics, in an honest and diverse way,” Professor Emeritus Darnell Millner told The Skanner. “It had been committed to a very Eurocentric view of both the past and the present, and the assumption that it would be the same in the future. And so, what even a small Black Studies department was able to do was to begin to change the intellectual and academic environment on a university campus in ways that were pretty remarkable and unpredictable.”

Published

7 years ago

November 13, 2019

Oakland Post

Director of the Black Studies Center Lenwood Davis (left) awards the first certificate ever issues in Black Studies at Portland State to Clarence Barry in 1972. (Photo from 1972 Viking yearbook, courtesy of PSU)

Despite budgetary concerns, the department remains one of the strongest and longest-lasting of its kind in the country.

By Saundra Sorenson, The Skanner News

The Black Studies Department at Portland State University turns 50 next year, and according to faculty, it’s a hard-won anniversary–and a cause for celebration.

Professor Emeritus Darnell Millner has been with the department for 45 of those years and recalls that 1970 saw the launching of many ethnic studies departments around the country.

“Higher education had not done a good job of looking at our past, or the sociodynamics of the country, the cultural dynamics, in an honest and diverse way,” Millner told The Skanner. “It had been committed to a very Eurocentric view of both the past and the present, and the assumption that it would be the same in the future. And so, what even a small Black Studies department was able to do was to begin to change the intellectual and academic environment on a university campus in ways that were pretty remarkable and unpredictable.”

But establishing those departments was a community effort.

“The Black Studies department here and in many other places around the country was created basically by the activism on campuses of the Black student unions that had been created in the late 1960s,” Millner said. “And also, by the involvement of the Black communities around the nation and here in Portland that didn’t feel like higher education was doing a very good job in addressing the needs of Black people or the Black community.”

Millner said that across the country, many old guard university administrators and faculty looked down on Black Studies as “a political movement rather than an academic one,” often arguing that ethnic and women’s studies were not legitimate disciplines on a college campus.

Ultimately faculty, administrators and members of the public who saw the positive in Black Studies won out–especially at public universities like PSU.

“The contradiction was that the universities were saying ‘This is a place where you can achieve, you can gain access to mainstream resources,’ but they were coming up against explicit and implicit forms of anti-blackness,” Prof. Ethan Johnson, chair of Black Studies at PSU, told The Skanner. “And so they organized, and I think public education–specifically because it’s based on our tax dollars–became a central place for the struggle.”

Millner recalled coming to the university as a young history teacher.

“The universities of the country had not really trained many professionals, many black academics, many people who had an interest in making higher education, academics, their career,” he said. “And that was certainly true of me as well. When I was a young man, when I was going to high school in the sixties, when I was going to college in the sixties, there was no such thing as Black Studies. So, there was no way I could anticipate that that would be the career path that I was going to follow. Our generation essentially created that new career path out of whole cloth.”

Faculty member and former Black Studies chair Darrell Millner lecturing in 1975. (courtesy of PSU)

Struggles continue

But Black Studies remains the smallest department at PSU, and some faculty are concerned by what they see as a lack of support from the university. Johnson confirmed Black Studies has only ever had four tenured full-time professors at a time and will be losing two this year with the retirement of Dr. Derrais Carter and Dr. Winston Grady-Willis. Johnson said that PSU administrators have indicated there is no funding to hire their replacements.

In a letter to interim dean Matthew J. Carlson last month, Johnson called the current status of the Black Studies department “precarious.”

“The already dire representation of Black faculty and staff on campus will be even further diminished,” he warned.

Dr. Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate, an assistant professor who has been with the department for more than 20 years, agreed that “lack of institutional support” was a burden to Black Studies faculty.

“We’re supposed to be teaching classes and doing research, but we’re always in a crisis mode, and we don’t get enough support to even resolve conflict in our own department,” Ferbel-Azcarate told The Skanner.

Johnson pointed out that 10 Black faculty and staff members left PSU in the past year, and argued that the university struggles with the retention of Black employees and students alike.

“Oregon has the highest dropout rate for Black high school students in the country,” Johnson told The Skanner. “And similarly, at Portland State, Black kids have the lowest graduation rate, even though academically they perform on par with other comparative groups. So it’s more a question of the financial resources that they don’t get, which keeps them from graduating.”

Johnson doubts the university’s assertion that budget constraints prevent his department from being able to maintain its faculty size.

“They’ll build a stadium for basketball, which is mostly for young black men to play, but they won’t invest in our intellectual development,” he said.

Community connections

But Black Studies Prof. Shirley Jackson, former chair of the department, does not agree that funding woes are the Black Studies program’s greatest obstacle. She believes the department has not done enough to connect to the Black community.

“I started at Portland State in January 2016 and was doing my part in terms of making sure that we were involved in the community,” Jackson told The Skanner. “I wanted to have this connection where we’re not just simply this department that lives in a vacuum. We came about because of the community and the support that they gave us when we were in our very early stages. And that to me was something that could not be overlooked. But prior to my coming to Portland State, it seemed as though no one was really doing that in the department.”

Jackson also expressed frustration with the number of Black employees who had left the university in recent months, and said she is working with the president’s office at PSU to explore the possibility of reinstating a campus-wide ombudsman to better serve students and staff who experience inequity at the school.

Jackson told The Skanner she filed a complaint with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries last month in response to what she described as unequal treatment from her male colleagues, as well as a number of incidents on campus and within the department that made her feel unsafe. She said that PSU administrators were unresponsive to her requests for support.

Department longevity

PSU’s Black Studies department has outlived many similar departments at public universities nationwide. Millner told The Skanner this was due to the fact that PSU has always committed to funding the department through its budget, while many other departments depended on government funding that was subject to changing political tides.

“That doesn’t mean it was easy,” Millner said. “Because in the 50 years since Black Studies got started here, the Oregon university higher education system has gone through many periods of crisis, many periods of reduced commitment. And it was always a battle to protect your budget, to have the resources to continue. You always had to fight for that, and you still do today.”

Johnson points out that unlike most public universities, there is no Ethnic Studies general education requirement at PSU–a mandatory course that typically drives students into areas of study they might not have considered, and which could capture their interest and potentially lead them to a new major or minor.

“It’s not just for Black students,” Millner said. “People who potentially gain the most from a Black Studies experience are people from the majority culture, who because of our history and because of the way that society was organized and because of the legal nature and the institutional nature of separation and segregation and Jim Crow laws, before they get here, they’ve had very little opportunity to learn the history of a race or a group other than their own.

So, it’s eye-opening for them.”

Ferbel-Azcarate, who identifies himself as the only Black Studies faculty member not of direct African descent, says that despite the ups and downs in his department, he sees reason to hope.

“I am finding that students, at least in PSU, will arrive in our classrooms with a greater awareness and knowledge around race and identity,” he said.

Ferbel-Azcarate describes the department as “both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary.”

“I’m an archaeologist, Darrell’s a historian, Ethan does work in education, Shirley’s a sociologist,” he said. “Some people are Black Studies-focused. So you get exposed to different ways of approaching a topic: the multidisciplinary of it, and the interdisciplinary of it, makes it like a great place for critical thinking, and for the consideration of multiple perspectives.”

“It changes the dynamic of the discussion,” Millner agreed. “And it opens up possibilities and considerations that had not existed before those kinds of programs existed on college campuses, and that’s probably what I’m most pleased and satisfied with in terms of the contributions that a department like Black Studies can make to a university community.”

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2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring Review — Is This $136K EV Sedan Worth It?

AUTONETWORK ON BLACKPRESSUSA — Finished in Stellar White Metallic with the Tahoe Grand Touring interior, this Lucid makes a strong first impression. The shape is sleek and low, but it still feels elegant instead of trying too hard. Features like soft-close doors, powered illuminated door handles, 20-inch Aero Lite wheels, and the Glass Canopy Roof help the car feel expensive before you even start it.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 3, 2026

Oakland Post

The 2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring is the kind of luxury EV that makes people stop and ask a simple question: Is this really better than a Tesla Model S, Mercedes EQS, or BMW i7? At $136,150, it has to do more than look futuristic. It has to feel special every time you get in it.

Finished in Stellar White Metallic with the Tahoe Grand Touring interior, this Lucid makes a strong first impression. The shape is sleek and low, yet it still feels elegant rather than trying too hard. Features like soft-close doors, powered illuminated door handles, 20-inch Aero Lite wheels, and the Glass Canopy Roof help the car feel expensive before you even start it.

Inside is where the Air Grand Touring really makes its case. The 34-inch Glass Cockpit Display and retractable Pilot Panel screen give the cabin a clean, modern look that still feels different from other EVs. The Tahoe Extended Leather and Lucid Black Alcantara headliner lifts the sense of occasion, and the front seats are a highlight. They are 20-way power-adjustable, heated, ventilated, and include massage. That matters because luxury buyers at this price expect comfort first.

Rear passengers are not ignored either. You get 5-zone heated rear seating, a rear center console display, and power rear and rear side window sunshades. Add in the Surreal Sound Pro system with 21 speakers, and the Air feels like a true long-distance luxury sedan.

Lucid also gives this car serious EV hardware. The dual-motor all-wheel-drive system, 900V+ charging architecture, and Wunderbox onboard charger are big talking points. Buyers in this segment care about range, charging speed, and everyday ease, not just raw performance. That is where the Lucid continues to stand out.

On the technology side, the Air Grand Touring includes DreamDrive Premium, with 3D Surround View Monitoring, Blind Spot Warning, Automatic Park In and Out, Automatic Emergency Braking, and a Driver Monitoring System with distracted and drowsy driver alerts. This one also has DreamDrive Pro, which adds future-capable ADAS hardware.

There are still some real-world annoyances. Based on your notes, the windshield wiper control is hard to find and use, and that matters more than people think in a high-tech car. When controls become less intuitive, even a beautiful interior can feel frustrating.

Still, the 2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring succeeds where it matters most. It feels luxurious, advanced, comfortable, and thoughtfully engineered. For buyers who want an EV sedan that feels truly premium and less common than the usual choices, this Lucid makes a very strong case.

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Snoop Dogg Celebrates 10 Til’ Midnight at the Compound

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL — The album is paired with a film that stars Snoop Dogg, Hitta J3, G Perico, and Ray Vaughn, and one of the strongest elements of the whole project is that the production stayed rooted right here in Los Angeles.

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2 weeks ago

May 3, 2026

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Snoop Dogg celebrated the premiere of 10 Til’ Midnight at his Inglewood recording studio & multipurpose facility, The Compound, but the night felt like much more than an album release. It felt like Los Angeles. It felt like legacy. And it felt like another major move from one of the city’s greatest cultural architects as he continues to prove that he is not just dropping music — he is building moments, shaping narratives, and pushing the culture forward in real time.

What made the event so powerful was the clarity behind the vision. During a panel conversation with DJ Hed, Snoop opened up about the heart behind 10 Til’ Midnight, explaining that the project was created to help bridge older and younger generations while also speaking to the long-standing divisions between Bloods and Crips in a unique way through film. That alone gave the project a different kind of weight. This was not just about songs. This was about using creativity as a tool for connection. This was about taking a story rooted in Los Angeles and telling it in a way that could bring people together.

Snoop Congratulated By Rapper & Fellow 10 Til Midnight Cast Member G Perico (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

The album is paired with a film that stars Snoop Dogg, Hitta J3, G Perico, and Ray Vaughn, and one of the strongest elements of the whole project is that the production stayed rooted right here in Los Angeles. The film was shot in the city, including at WePlay Studios in Inglewood, which gave the entire project an even deeper hometown feel. It was not just a West Coast story in content — it was a Los Angeles-made production from the ground up.

That matters because, in a city like this, authenticity still carries weight. Snoop understands how to make sure that what he creates does not just represent Los Angeles on the surface, but actually comes from it.

What also makes 10 Til’ Midnight significant is that it represents another major step in Snoop’s evolution as both an artist and executive. Public reporting around the project identifies it as his 22nd studio album, but the bigger story is what it represents in this season of his life. This is one of several consecutive moves he has made in his 50s that show he is still building, still expanding, and still finding new ways to reinvent what the next chapter looks like.

Snoop Dogg at the Premiere of 10 Til Midnight (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

Now, as the head of Death Row Records and the newly aligned leader of Death Row Pictures, he is taking the brand into a new dimension. That is what made this moment feel bigger than music. Snoop is not just protecting the legacy of Death Row — he is stretching it. He is expanding it beyond records and into film, visual storytelling, and larger creative worlds that can continue carrying the label’s impact forward. Public reporting has noted that this project arrives as part of that broader cinematic push.

That is a major Los Angeles move because the city has always been built on the intersection of music, film, neighborhood identity, and cultural storytelling. With 10 Til’ Midnight, Snoop is leaning all the way into that intersection.

The room at The Compound reflected that. It felt like a private premiere, but it also felt like a statement — a reminder that Snoop Dogg’s staying power has never been based only on nostalgia. It comes from his ability to remain connected, remain visionary, and remain in tune with how to move the culture without losing the essence of who he is.

That is why this premiere mattered. It was not just about celebrating another album. It was about witnessing a Los Angeles legend continue to evolve, continue to unify, and continue to use art to tell stories that hit deeper than entertainment alone.

In that sense, 10 Til’ Midnight became more than a project launch. It became another example of how Snoop Dogg is still taking Los Angeles to the next level — using music, film, and legacy together to build something bigger than a moment.

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OP-ED: Small Businesses Need Minnesota to Act on Pass-Through Tax Policy

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN RECORDER — A Twin Cities immigrant entrepreneur who built several businesses including grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods is calling on Minnesota lawmakers to extend the Pass-Through Entity tax option before it expires, warning that its loss would hit small businesses already recovering from Operation Metro Surge with higher federal tax bills.

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2 weeks ago

May 3, 2026

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A Twin Cities Small Business Owner Is Urging Minnesota to Extend a Tax Policy That Could Save Thousands of Businesses

By Daniel Hernandez | Minnesota Spokesman Recorder

I came to the United States as a teenager with a clear goal: to build something meaningful through hard work. I put in long days in construction, restaurants, and landscaping; doing whatever it took to learn, save, and eventually start my own business.

Over time, I built and ran several successful ventures, including an event photography company, a magazine, a tax and accounting firm, and now grocery stores serving neighborhoods across the Twin Cities where other retailers chose not to invest. I’ve created jobs, supported families, and committed to communities that deserve stability and opportunity.

That’s why I’m speaking out now.

Small business owners in Minneapolis and the communities we serve are recovering from serious disruptions, including the impacts of Operation Metro Surge. That event hit immigrant communities especially hard. In my own case, I lost nearly half of my 60 employees and saw revenue drop by about 85%. While I worked to provide competitive wages, health benefits, and paid time off, the real hardship fell on the people who lost their jobs and income.

Even as we rebuild, small businesses are facing another challenge. The Minnesota Legislature is considering letting an important tax policy expire: the Pass-Through Entity tax option.

Here’s what that means in plain terms.

Many small businesses, including mine, are pass-through businesses. That means the business itself doesn’t pay income tax. Instead, the owners report the income on their personal tax returns. But under current federal rules, there’s a limit on how much state tax we can deduct. That often leads to higher federal tax bills.

The Pass-Through Entity option fixes that. It allows the business to pay the state tax directly, which means the business can fully deduct those taxes on its federal return and lower the total amount of income taxed federally. The result is straightforward: small business owners pay less in federal taxes, without reducing what the state collects.

This policy is not new or controversial. Thirty-six states already offer it. It doesn’t cost Minnesota anything, it’s revenue neutral. And it benefits more than 66,000 businesses across the state.

In a state where the cost of doing business is already high, it’s hard to understand why we wouldn’t offer the same basic tax treatment as states like California and Illinois.

Small businesses have carried a heavy load in recent years, through a pandemic, rising costs and public safety disruptions. We’ve adapted, reinvested and stayed committed to our communities. What we need now are practical policies that support that work, not make it harder.

If the Minnesota House does not act soon, many businesses will face significantly higher federal tax bills. That’s money that could otherwise be used to hire workers, raise wages or reinvest in local neighborhoods.

I urge Gov. Tim Walz and members of the House Tax Committee to pass House File 3127 and extend the Pass-Through Entity election.

Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. We’ve proven our resilience. Now we need our state leaders to show the same commitment to us.

Daniel Hernandez is the owner of Colonial Market located at 2100 E. Lake St.

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