91视频

You probably noticed the cover of our newspaper looks a little different this morning.

Last week, 91视频 reporter Chuck Slothower penned a story on the lack of response by the local building industry to the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd and so many other unarmed Black people across the United States. As we witnessed, protesters around the city quite literally destroyed several of the buildings that many of you helped construct. Despite this statement of dissatisfaction, the building industry remained fairly silent.

As to be expected, the 91视频鈥檚 story received a reaction. It not only was viewed twice as much as our second-most-viewed story of the week, but also caused several people to write us. Some people thought it wasn鈥檛 our place to get involved in such issues, but the majority of people said the story was a stark reminder that the industry needs to do more.

One of those people was Steve Malany, president of P&C Construction. The story prompted a conversation between Steve and Nate McCoy, the executive director of the National Association of Minority Contractors鈥� Oregon chapter, who recently wrote a column for the 91视频 representing a letter to his two sons on the difficulties of talking to them about police brutality and racism. Nate told Steve, who sought ways to help address the issue, that the first step (of a very long process) begins with listening.

The reason we agreed to run a solid black box on our cover today was to promote listening. The concept is a reference to the #BlackoutTuesday movement started last month on Instagram. People refrained from self-promotion and other posts, and instead posted a photo of a black box to promote a moment for reflection on the racism and its effects that are so prevalent in our society.

Many of you may question why a construction trade publication is involving itself in an issue outside of its general coverage area. While I believe there is some truth to that argument, and we have no plans to change our 150-year history of focusing on the local building industry, I would argue the industry has a real opportunity to be a part of the solution. So much of the structural, institutionalized racism that exists in our society can be addressed via economic opportunity 鈥� and the construction industry can provide that. It鈥檚 what puts food on our tables, allows us to provide our kids the opportunities we didn鈥檛 have, and support the communities we live in.

So, while this may be out of our normal routine, it鈥檚 time for all of us to get out of our normal routine. We don鈥檛 run blank covers and we don鈥檛 fill pages 2 and 3 with ads (and likely won鈥檛 ever again), but we believe as an organization that the problem is too big, and opportunity too great, to do what we always have. So I鈥檓 going to take my own advice now to be quiet, listen and promote the voices of our marginalized communities to help create opportunity. I encourage you to do the same and join the NAMC-Oregon listening session (see below) on Tuesday.

And don鈥檛 forget that there are several great industry organizations around town that advocate for minorities. Please take time to become familiar with all of them.

Nick Bjork is the publisher of the Daily Journal of Commerce. Contact him at 503-802-7214 or [email protected].

Industry issue meeting

Event: 鈥淩acism in the Construction Industry鈥�

What: a listening and brainstorming session

Who: minority contractors and trade group leaders

When: July 14, from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Where: online (Zoom)

Register:

Leaders of many local building industry companies and organizations are preparing to attend this listening session being held by the National Association of Minority Contractors鈥� Oregon chapter. Here is a bit of background about this organization.

Founded in Oakland, California, in 1969 by Ray Dones and Joseph Debro, NAMC touts itself as the oldest minority construction trade association聽in the United States. Members have a combined annual project capacity of over a billion dollars nationally. The nonprofit represents the interests of millions of skilled minority workers across the country. Through a network of local chapters and in collaboration with strategic and corporate partners, NAMC assists members with building capacity by providing access to opportunity, advocacy and contractor development training.

NAMC-Oregon, established in 2007, works to serve the interests of disadvantaged (DBE), minority-owned and women-owned construction and professional service businesses in the state. The chapter provides a voice on major legislative issues and information about contracting opportunities. Its mission is to eliminate barriers that hinder full and profitable participation by these disadvantaged businesses on construction and design projects throughout the region. The group has been a part of social movements for decades and stands with Black Lives Matter.