Working in John Wayne Country: Racist and Sexist Termination at a Pacific Northwest University

When asked in the fall of 2000 to be a consultant to an AIDS education and training center at a Pacific Northwest university's health education research center, it was an opportunity long in the waiting. I had been working in the frontlines of HIV/AIDS in Native communities for the last twelve years without much pay! This would be a change, as I knew that working in the ivory tower, one of the last bastions of racism, came with many resources. It was an opportunity to have an impact on aids in Indian Country.

The center had received a two-year grant from a congressional act responsible for HIV/AIDS care education in the United States. The center trains health care providers in five northwestern states. The black congressional caucus had agreed with the rest of Congress to reauthorize the almost two billion dollar act, but only if monies were set aside to provide services to minority populations. The administrators of the act had consistently failed to include minority communities in the funding streams for the act; the university went after these minority monies!

During the first year and a half into its two-year grant, the center could not successfully gain entry into the Native communities in the five states it serviced. In desperation I was hired as a tribal liaison consultant, and we were able to coordinate five conferences in three states, with two on reservations. We provided training to two hundred health care providers to Native communities within the remaining six months of the grant.

Apparently impressed with this work, the center hired me as tribal liaison on July 1, 2001. I insisted on similar pay as other employees, mentioning that all those with master's degrees and PhDs were unable to produce in one-and-a-half years what had been produced in the last six months with my help; however, I still received a lower pay rate due to the fact that I did not have a master's degree.

Months later at the annual all-staff retreat, a historic review of the organization by the founder explained that the center had been created to counter male-dominated research. With a commitment to one another for continued employment, the center has hired gender-specific researchers for their gender-dominated organization.

I mentioned that I noticed the staff consisted of fifty mostly white women and three men, which resulted in an obvious lack of racial and gender diversity The staff adamantly defended their diversity and commitment to diversity. The scale of variables they used to define diversity listed race very low. This set a tone between myself and the organization from which I never recovered.

The "commitment to diversity" still did not appear be getting implemented as time went on. Later, in other meetings when I asked where and how job announcements were made and where consultants were sought, there were few responses, and suggestions I made were not taken seriously beyond just listening.

At one point the head of the center stated, "minorities just don't know how to write resumes" as a reason for the lack of diverse recruitment. I quickly reminded all at that meeting that there are minorities who write excellent resumes and could replace us all, including myself. To voice such a comment showed a limited exposure, and I was appalled by the lack of cultural sensitivity if not outright racist attitude.

The project that I predominantly had conceptualized was designed to bring AIDS care training services directly on to reservations, and it became my focus. The effort to get a commitment of hiring minorities to better communicate with the communities served was not seriously addressed. I was able to get several Natives hired at the center after strong insistence. This trend was quickly reversed, however, and there is now a lack...