State-Of-Black-Oregon-2015

ehind educationally and being expelled fromschool at a much greater rate than their Whitecounterparts. Their youth also linger in jails,exposed to the full brunt of our failed criminaljustice system. All this is discussed in Africanhomes, but not well understood.To quote a young Somali man, Omar SheyOmar, “When you are here, people do not careif you are African American or Black immigrant/refugee, they only see you as a Black person.As a youth I have seen Somalis being expelledor suspended from school. I have seen manyyoung men profiled by the police, and I haveseen many youth without jobs or prospectsof achieving economic mobility. They treat uslike African American youth, but when I goback home, I have to deal with the additionalstruggles that my parents face because theydo not speak English, nor do they understandhow to navigate their new country’s cultural andracial dynamics.”161