Portland Open Thread

[sopdx]

That is an excellent point. The speaker or writer in this case, represents a view that is influenced by their personal and collective history, color, etc... If only white males are writing, then that is the perspective we are reading. If a woman of color writes, undoubtedly, a different perspective is presented.

Although a valid question, I'm troubled when people ask whether or not a place is racist. Racism and bigotry of any sort has never been place specific. Yes, there are extreme examples of racism and bigotry based in particular cultures and regions - wars have been and are being fought because of it. However, my caution is that by associating racism with a place or a culture, we somehow avoid how racism is evident in every culture and region of the world and I would argue, in all of us. It is important for every culture and individual to deal with this and not feel exonerated by an idea that a place is or isn't considered racist.

Regarding Portland is it is obviously white - white, white, white. Whitest major city in the US - however not the whitest metropolitan area. African Americans in most cases, did not only leave the south because it was racist, they left for employment in the big industrial east coast and midwest centers. Trust me, there was plenty of racism in Chicago, Detroit and New York - although being large cities it was more covert. Read Richard Wright. The NW was isolated and manufacturing was limited.

The KKK was big in Oregon in the 1920's, although it was big everywhere in the US. In Oregon, there were few blacks due to the exclusion laws. Exclusion laws also existed in Illinois and other states. The US had a Chinese exclusion act until after WWII. Since there were no blacks, they went after Catholics and in fact, the state legislature just repealed an law banning religious wear in educational institutions that was instituted during the anti-catholic period.

African Americans moved here for work in the shipyards during WWII. After the war those that stayed faced racism and red-lining. Red lining, excluding blacks from certain neighborhoods was encouraged by the Federal policies. It wasn't limited to Portland. In fact, in very tolerant San Francisco, there were only 1000 blacks before WWII. Many moved into the Filmore having many available properties after the Japanese Americans were interned. The Filmore, in turn, was bulldozed for urban renewal in the 1960 forcing people from their homes or into costly and troubled projects.

Anyhow, sorry for the lengthy post, I could go on and on. It's an important subject. I've studied quite a bit about racism and particularly racism in Portland.