General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOregon was founded as a racist utopia.
When Oregon was granted statehood in 1859, it was the only state in the Union admitted with a constitution that forbade black people from living, working, or owning property there. It was illegal for black people even to move to the state until 1926. Oregons founding is part of the forgotten history of racism in the American west.
Waddles Coffee Shop in Portland, Oregon was a popular restaurant in the 1950s for both locals and travelers alike. The drive-in catered to Americas postwar obsession with car culture, allowing people to get coffee and a slice of pie without even leaving their vehicle. But if you happened to be black, the owners of Waddles implored you to keep on driving. The restaurant had a sign outside with a very clear message: White Trade Only Please.
Its the kind of scene from the 1950s thats so hard for many Americans to imagine happening outside of the Jim Crow South. How could a progressive, northern city like Portland have allowed a restaurant to exclude non-white patrons? This had to be an anomaly, right? In reality it was far too common in Oregon, a state that was explicitly founded as a kind of white utopia.
Americas history of racial discrimination is most commonly taught as a southern issue. Thats certainly how I learned about it while going to Minnesota public schools in the 1980s and 90s. White people outside of the South seem to learn about the Civil War and civil rights movements from an incredibly safe (and often judgmental) distance.
http://gizmodo.com/oregon-was-founded-as-a-racist-utopia-1539567040?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Some of these Y'all Qeada yahoos have a long generational history of right wing reactionary nonsense.
niyad
(113,510 posts)image these days.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)a "southern thing",it's not and never has been exclusive to southerners.
niyad
(113,510 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Indiana, the state of Washington, and other western states still have significant strongholds.
Anansi1171
(793 posts)...states having legalized, pervasive and institutionalized racism and those barriers or their functional remnants are everywhere to be seen.
Unless, that is, if you think the divide between white and black is because of the knockout game and you call people on DU bad words, like "liberal". If so, Oregon is a paradise of natural wonders, beer and good times.
Tipperary
(6,930 posts)Racism exists in every state in this country.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Despite the conservatism of most of rural Oregon, it's been a reliably blue state for a long time now.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)They try to assert that "keep portland weird" really means "keep out the minorities".
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)We also have legalized marijuana and even stronger free speech protections than the US constitution, both things that drive would-be authoritarians (not that we have any of those on our side, of course) positively bonkers.
If you've ever been out to eastern Oregon, it's beautiful, but empty. To try to indict the very blue, very progressive state of 6 million because some wyoming ranchers and their yahoo pals took over a bird sanctuary in the middle of nowhere...
Silly.
niyad
(113,510 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)okay.
niyad
(113,510 posts)it up, we can all use the laughs.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Let me run it down. The year-old article is dug up and posted with blanket, broad-brush assertions about Oregon (I'm not the only one who noticed, BTW) along with some spurious linkage to the current situation in Burns, oblivious -either via deliberateness or ignorance- to the fact that the people driving the crazy train down there are coming in from out of state, specifically the Bundy Ranch clown show from Nevada.
While the historical stuff is interesting, to be sure, it's pretty indisputable that you can't dig back 150 years in ANY part of this country and not uncover some ugliness around racism.. where the piece jumps the shark, again, is by trying to connect it to modern day phenomena, like (as I said) the popular slogan "Keep Portland Weird"... somehow implying that it's really saying "Keep Portland White", an assertion which this LA-based author seems to have yanked whole cloth, magician-like, out of his own rectum.
As to whether .... whoever.. can use the laughs, of that I have no doubt. I suspect entertainment is pretty sparse and frikkin' hard to come by, in certain sectors.
niyad
(113,510 posts)which is NOT the OP (the post to which I was responding). but, keep trying.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Maybe you should go back and look at it again?
The editorializing from the DU member is only the last sentence, but like I said, it's trying to imply that this year old article with its spurious assertions about the character of the state of Oregon is somehow relevant to this standoff situation which is being driven by right wing crazies from Nevada.
Response to Warren DeMontague (Reply #76)
niyad This message was self-deleted by its author.
cali
(114,904 posts)was originally a democratic organization
demmiblue
(36,875 posts)Perhaps the OP isn't aware of all the complexities regarding this situation.
chalmers
(288 posts)You see something like this happening in Connecticut?
Bucky
(54,041 posts)This might be worth a listen, before you conclude the Northeast doesn't have it's own unique brand of structural racism
http://wnpr.org/post/new-england-kind-racism#stream/0
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Because if you mean the people, in Mid-Eastern Oregon there aren't very many.
maybe the rocks are racist.
https://www.google.com/search?q=harney+county+or&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=harney+county+or+population
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Personally, if it means fewer uptight east coast types move here only to start complaining endlessly about things like the nude nike ride, the legal pot, the pirate festival, or the vegan strip clubs, it's a win win.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)but so was the entire ( what we call) Western Hemisphere.
Pretty much, anyway.
Good post, though.
OregonBlue
(7,754 posts)Oregon is not a very racist state. Not even Eastern Oregon. Things have changed a lot since the 50's.
jonno99
(2,620 posts)boomer55
(592 posts)the gentrification
go downtown and count the homeless/street people by race then hit the online mugshots and count the faces of non whites and compare the percentage there to the percentage as a whole in the state.
tons of racism going on just not alot of in your face name calling these days.
chalmers
(288 posts)Ashland
Astoria
Coos Bay
Dallas
Eugene
Florence
Grants Pass
Jacksonville
La Grande
Lake Oswego
Lebanon
McMinnville
Medford
Milton
Monroe
Oakridge
Oregon City
Pendleton
Roseburg
Salem
Springfield
The Dalles
Tillamook
Toledo
http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?state=OR
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...thanks for the information. I never knew about that.
mwrguy
(3,245 posts)based on this.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)derp
Bucky
(54,041 posts)Of course Mississippi & Alabama are #1 & #2. My home state (YeeHawwww!) came in 3rd. Sorry, but Texas racism is what Oregon racism wants to be when it grows up.
Interestingly, in this article (actually a collection of personal anecdotes about racists who come from each state) we find out that, even with 42 states being assessed as more racist than Oregon, we still hear testimonials like this:
Portland is VERY racist and they do know it{.} I'm a white woman married to a black man and have mixed kids... We don't live inside Portland but on the out skirts{,} but anytime we go to the store and my husband hands anyone cash they put his change on the counter they will not hand it to him in his hand and people stare at us everywhere we go. I have recently gotten VERY AWARE of {h}ow deep the hate of people here in Oregon City is since my son started going to school. {H}e is one of only 3 black children in the whole school... The kid's were telling my son that they wouldn't play with him because he's black and black people steal and black people go to jail... So as his mother I went directly to the principal who tried to brush it off by saying "kids will be kids"
I lived in West Linn just outside of Portland, and I have to say that there is a lot of racism in Oregon. It's just very hush hush, you know they don't want to seem behind or stupid up there. When me and my husband first got married we went to visit a family friend of my in laws just outside of Portland and the first thing she said was "I bet your mom was real happy to see that you didn't bring home a little n***** girl". I guess she just assumed that everyone in Mississippi are African American. I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and there are tons on interracial couples and biracial people. I grew up with just as many African American friends as white and I never have been spoken to in Mississippi like I was in Oregon.
Portland wants to be perceived as a city of liberals. But most of these liberals are secretly very racist towards people of color.
As an elderly Asian woman, born, raised, college educated in the U.S., and living in a middle-class neighborhood in the city, I experience and witness racism everyday.
I also experience this with the Portland police who are only there to protect the white male.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)So obviously, there's a racism problem, duh.
Bucky
(54,041 posts)What are you babbling about? What's that got to do with anything under discussion here?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)And that's the undercurrent being promoted in this thread, from the earliest posts on; "and to think it has a reputation as progressive".
I mean, yes, there are right-wing fuckos in every state, but lets get real.
The linked article even tries to assert that "keep portland weird" contains embedded coded racism. So who is "babbling"?
Not to mention the fact that these are outside agitators responsible for this current ledger of shit.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Lord knows there are no right-wing fuckos in, say, downstate Illinois.
Response to Warren DeMontague (Reply #17)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Takket
(21,607 posts)of the progressive movement.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Derp
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)...right.
i've lived here 10 years, the only confederate flags I've seen have been on tv.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)who says "we," being the county govt and community of Harney County, agree with the principles exhorted by the occupiers. He doesn't sound particularly disturbed, though he says the tactics are wrong and he wants a peaceful resolution.
Hoo boy.
Grasty added that his community often worries about excessive government regulation, but most people would like the outside militia groups to leave the area, especially given that their very principles are that they think local control oughta take place. Our citizens are questioning why theres an outside group like this, coming in and trying to put their values on top of ones that in many cases dont line up with local values.
While the local government has no communication with the militia groups, Grasty said that he and his colleagues would like to keep the situation non-confrontational.
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2016/01/04/armed-group-oregon-federal-land
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)ucrdem
(15,512 posts)So unless the Bundy crowd damages anything it's probably best to handle this non-confrontationally.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)ucrdem
(15,512 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)That does not sound to me like an unqualified endorsement, not even close.
Guess what? When I read about the Georgia Swat Team that threw a flash grende into Baby Bou-Bou's crib "becuz of teh Drugz drugz ZOMG DRUGZZZ!!!!", I worry about excessive government regulation, too.
The point is, the locals don't want these people here. Whether or not they think the charges against the ranchers are excessive or not, is immaterial, because they are not supporting these out of state milita asshats. Even the ranchers themselves haven't asked for this. This is grandstanding by the Bundy crowd, and they are from Nevada.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)That's a quote.
So if they're not clamoring for a full on guns blazin' federal invasion over a remote bird museum, but instead telling these people "please leave- we dont want you here"
...Can you really blame them?
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)you guys must be very, very proud.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/25/medical-marijuana-using-parents-get-baby-back/3202373/
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)this OP dreaming up feverish conspiratorial excuses for an article that simply points out that the anti government racist yahoos in your state and region aren't people who should be referred to as "y'all" qeada,there's no "y'all" being uttered there. Did you really search the internet for bad things to say about Michigan?? I'm well aware of Michigan's problems,I don't lose my shit when it's pointed out on the internet. Not all of Oregon is Portland and the northwest has a long history of being a breeding ground for white power,anti government groups,including eastern Oregon.Your need to turn this into a conspirital attack on Bernie Sanders,marijuana,strip clubs and whatever else you threw in there is truly unhinged.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)The people driving this crap are from Nevada.
So why was it so important to take a big ol' shot at Oregon, here? The "Y'allQaedas" in question are coming in from out of state. The folks in Burns have made it expressly clear they don't want them there.
I suspect I'm more spot on here than you want to let on.
pa28
(6,145 posts)You've glibly stereotyped an entire state.
Some of these Y'all Qeada yahoos have a long generational history of right wing reactionary nonsense.
What is your point? How are you connecting these things? Why am I even bothering at this point?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)DU seems to maintain a list of groups acceptable to stereotype or attack as needed for that very reason. Looks like Oregonians have been added to list. You'll have it worse than atheists, I reckon, but better than smokers.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Im sure someone will try to spin that as a character flaw, too.
It would appear our side has its own little "family values" authoritarian coffee klatch.
pa28
(6,145 posts)The only possible reason for something like that is because Oregon is a "racist utopia". Right? Expect them to trot that one out when Bernie wins the primary here.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Also we are annoyingly pro-freedom on issues like pot legalization, the 1st Amendment, etc --- and that really chafes the authoritarians, I've noticed.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)If not, this is a pretty lame attempt to slander a state. Pretty sure Bundy and his spawn aren't from Oregon.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Gee, that's odd.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Look at the poor reception Obama received!
Seven recs, though. This is pretty high for her.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)it explains why I keep seeing biodeisel fueled VW buses with both sanders stickers and confederate flags!!!!
H2O Man
(73,581 posts)as important, as what it is like today. If one were to consider Eugene, OP, for example, they would find it to be one of the most progressive cities in North America.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I think when someone tries to assert that "keep portland weird" is somehow coded racism, we have ventured well off the field of anything resembling logical argument.
H2O Man
(73,581 posts)reading your responses on this OP/thread. I figured that it was important to point out the error in perception in the OP's century-old history. And, the more I read and re-read it, the more I agree that there is something "unsaid" being communicated.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Of course.
And there are assholes and good people in every state in the union.
But it's undeniable that oregon, taken in whole, is an overwhelmingly blue, progressive state. The first openly LGBT governor in US history. Two solidly progressive (albeit in different ways) Senators. Legal Marijuana. A constitution with stronger free speech protections than even the US 1st Amendment.
I'm very proud of my state, and while I acknowledge that some of the rural, far less populated areas are red (a situation common to most states, I would think, even New York) it is worth noting that the locals are not responsible for this standoff situation nor do they particularly welcome it.
apnu
(8,758 posts)Look at Utah, the Mormon utopia state. Its still generally f'd up.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Said no one, ever.
apnu
(8,758 posts)Just pointing out that the founding of many western states came from people who were pushing out with weird agendas and/or trying to preserve a way of life that was no longer socially acceptable by the nation.
That does fit the creation of Oregon and Utah.
former9thward
(32,064 posts)I love how people who like to slam states ignore their own history.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Slavery legal in the USA until December 18, 1865 ?
I think Oregon has nothing to apologize for, whatsoever.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)just a guess.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,189 posts)....e.g. the constant "Florida Man" threads you see here, I can't say how this is relevant today or how it reflects on the state as a whole today.
That being said, I do have a question for Oregonians......given that Oregon is a very large state in terms of land area, with most of the population geared towards the Western coastal areas of the state, is there a significant cultural difference between the Western part of the state and the rural Eastern part of the state? I'm talking in terms of general mindset.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Eastern Oregon is, in many places, better characterized as Western Idaho.
But, then, as I note elsewhere in this thread, this pronounced blue/red urban/rural dichotomy is common to many, if not most, states, including many of the more traditionally "liberal" ones- Illinois, New York and California all spring immediately to mind.
Still, Portland Metro - specifically Multnomah county, with approx 750,000 residents--- and the Coastal/I-5 areas swing most of the Demographic weight in Oregon, which is why our politics are reliably blue.
pa28
(6,145 posts)I live near Bend, it's the population center on the east side of the cascades and it's just recently turned blue. It's mostly well educated, younger, outdoor minded people.
The type of people the OP is referring to still exist in Oregon but it's become a badly outdated stereotype.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)the Mormon church taught that black skin was the "mark of Cain" (this was due to Brigham Young being a racist, so far as I can tell; Joseph Smith was an abolitionist).
And further:
The Great Compromise of 1850 allowed California into the Union as a free state while permitting Utah and New Mexico territories the option of deciding the issue by "popular sovereignty". In 1852, the Utah Territorial Legislature officially sanctioned slavery in Utah Territory. At that time, Brigham Young was governor, and the Utah Territorial Legislature was dominated by church leaders.[26] The Utah slavery law stipulated that slaves would be freed if their masters had sexual relations with them; attempted to take them from the territory against their will; or neglected to feed, clothe, or provide shelter to them. In addition, the law stipulated that slaves must receive schooling.
Utah was the only western state or territory that had slaves in 1850,[27] but slavery was never important economically in Utah, and there were fewer than 100 slaves in the territory.[5] In 1860, the census showed that 29 of the 59 black people in Utah Territory were slaves.[citation needed] When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Utah sided with the Union, and slavery ended in 1862 when the United States Congress abolished slavery in the Utah Territory.
Racial restriction policy
Under the racial restrictions that lasted from the presidency of Brigham Young until 1978, persons with any black African ancestry could not hold the priesthood in the LDS Church and could not participate in most temple ordinances, including the endowment and celestial marriage. Black people were permitted to be members of the church, and to participate in some temple ordinances, such as baptism for the dead.[28]
The racial restriction policy was applied to black Africans, persons of black African descent, and any one with mixed race that included any black African ancestry. The policy was not applied to Native Americans, Hispanics, Melanesians, or Polynesians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_and_Mormonism#In_Utah_Territory
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)So, are you surprised that people who genocidally exterminated a swath across a continent stealing all the land were racists?
Response to sufrommich (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)The gasps of horror will be audible from overseas...
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Yes, indeed.