The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America

[MachineGhost]

“I think that Portland has, in many ways, perfected neoliberal racism,” Walidah Imarisha, an African American educator and expert on black history in Oregon, told me. Yes, the city is politically progressive, she said, but its government has facilitated the dominance of whites in business, housing, and culture. And white-supremacist sentiment is not uncommon in the state. Imarisha travels around Oregon teaching about black history, and she says neo-Nazis and others spewing sexually explicit comments or death threats frequently protest her events.

Violence is not the only obstacle faced by black people in Oregon. A 2014 report by Portland State University and the Coalition of Communities of Color, a Portland non-profit, shows black families lag far behind whites in the Portland region in employment, health outcomes, and high-school graduation rates. They also lag behind black families nationally. While annual incomes for whites nationally and in Multnomah County, where Portland is located, were around $70,000 in 2009, blacks in Multnomah County made just $34,000, compared to $41,000 for blacks nationally. Almost two-thirds of black single mothers in Multnomah County with kids under five lived in poverty in 2010, compared to half of black single mothers with kids under five nationally. And just 32 percent of African Americans in Multnomah County owned homes in 2010, compared to 60 percent of whites in the county and 45 percent of blacks nationally.

“Oregon has been slow to dismantle overtly racist policies,” the report concluded. As a result, “African Americans in Multnomah County continue to live with the effects of racialized policies, practices, and decision-making.”

Whether this history can be overcome is another matter. Because Oregon, and specifically Portland, its biggest city, are not very diverse, many white people may not even begin to think about, let alone understand, the inequalities. A blog, “Shit White People Say to Black and Brown Folks in PDX,” details how racist Portland residents can be to people of color. “Most of the people who live here in Portland have never had to directly, physically and/or emotionally interact with PoC in their life cycle,” one post begins.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... nd/492035/

[Kriegsspiel]

“Portland's tactic when it comes to race up until now, has been to ignore it,” said Zev Nicholson, an African American resident who was, until recently, the Organizing Director of the Urban League of Portland.

Well fuck me.. if that's not a brazen example of government racism, I don't know what is.

[Reub]

Ignoring race is inherently racist. The leftists need to march on this town and burn it down right now.

[ochotona]

Ignoring race is inherently racist. The leftists need to march on this town and burn it down right now.

How do you march on yourself and burn yourself down? Portland is occupied and run by white liberals.

[Kriegsspiel]

The only solution seems to be that they all kill themselves.

[Pointedstick]

Well this thread went… somewhere. I guess it was inevitable given the source material.

[MachineGhost]

Lets get this back on topic. I had always wondered why Oregon and Portland were so overwhelmingly white (I won't lie, its a very attractive place to consider moving to for sheer cultural homogenity reasons). But its news to me that progressivism is only a relatively recent phenomenom -- so as Reub noted, its indeed curious why they don't all act upon what they're supposed to be against theoretically. Lack of social signaling to do so???

I recall before that last remnant of the White Supremist stronghold got busted in Arkansas during the 90's, there was still an active chapter around the Portland area and they were still instigating fights and interracial trouble. That seems to be what you generally wind up with whenever you have a lot of white homogenity anywhere, even if they're liberal lemmings! For instance, I bizarrely used to know a Democrat from Arkansas who was prejudiced/racist enough that it rubbed off on his son who via "sins of the father" had Neo-Nazi skinhead friends (yes, I had the interesting experience of interacting with them and hearing/reading their propaganda and it makes Alex Jones look sane).

If anyone wants to glimpse a look into skinhead culture, I suggest watching the excellent American History X movie. Romper Stompers is also great for an Australian take on it, but its less sanitized for American tastes.