Is color an obstacle to good relationships/is diversity accepted? (Portland: 2014, crime)

[andrevirl]

Not wanting to rely on history and whats been written by the founders, do diverse people really get along in Portland?

[Yankeemama]

Portland is more segregated than the Western burbs and as a mixed race family, we have found Beaverton much mirr racially integrated and my husband feels more comfortable out this way. Regular posters on the Portland forum will deny my claims but that's because they benefit from the racist past in Oregon.

[AnotherPDXGuy]

I don't know how much outright racism there is in Portland as it has changed over time. Most Portlanders are "progressive" and certainly don't want to think of themselves as racist. But I think that many Portlanders have a natural distance and can be difficult to get to know. (This has been commented on a lot here.) I think this baseline stand-off-ishness probably leads to continued segregation of different groups of people, even if it isn't intentional or malicious.

[Port Pitt Ash]

There is certainly a xenophobia nobody talks about in Portland. It's largely self segregating.

I have examples of blatantly racist things the newspaper saw fit to print in letters to the editor.

There's usually an uptick in crime/race related crime from other people coming in from the more rural areas of Oregon during the Rose Festival.

At one point I worked with a black guy who saw his white co-workers getting away with something and when he decided to try it too he was fired. The white co-workers never had anything said to them about doing the same exact thing.

That said the racism is certainly less or at least less in your face than many places I've been. I couldn't say if that makes it "better" or not.

Two other issues:

1. Dating out was easier in Portland than it was in Pittsburgh/the Midwest.

2. The area you will find to be much more of an issue is having a different political leaning than the majority of Portland (far left) & the whole politically correct thing that plagues the city.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

People are people. Some get along and some don't. I haven't seen any difference in Portland than anywhere else I have lived or visited.

[Leisesturm]

I recently heard an amazing statistic. Apparently, (nationally) 91% of white people do not have a black friend, and 75% of white people don't know anyone black at all... not even casually! Portland probably swings to the extreme side of this, and not the good side. Seriously, some of you are missing out, and I'd like to do what I can to help. . Just PM me if you are in that 75% demographic and lets set up something. Coffee, tea, Kombuchu... actual friendship will require several prior sessions of a more casual nature. Before we can have all this happy diversity that everyone claims to want we have to actually get to know one another, I think.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Those darn Saltine Americans!

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

I recently heard an amazing statistic. Apparently, (nationally) 91% of white people do not have a black friend, and 75% of white people don't know anyone black at all... not even casually! Portland probably swings to the extreme side of this, and not the good side. Seriously, some of you are missing out, and I'd like to do what I can to help. . Just PM me if you are in that 75% demographic and lets set up something. Coffee, tea, Kombuchu... actual friendship will require several prior sessions of a more casual nature. Before we can have all this happy diversity that everyone claims to want we have to actually get to know one another, I think.

I just had to comment on this. Is it because there are fewer and fewer Black people in Portland? Or is it that the color divide in Portland is increasing because there are just more Caucasians relocating there than Black?

I guess I should mention to the OP I am white. I had Black friends when I lived in Portland but that was awhile back from the early 80's through the 90's. By the time I moved from Portland in 2014 they had relocated to other places. Two moved to LA where they were from originally because of better job opportunities and because they were feeling more and more alienated from the mainstream. One moved to the South where she had family. She got fed up with Portland for what she felt was job discrimination.

I wonder if maybe Portland isn't all that attractive to many Black people these days as far as a relocation spot.

[harrishawke]

Portland proper is about 78% white and much of them are yuppie types. The NW attitude is kind of keep to yourself; independent frontier style. So you won’t likely experience racism, as everyone ethnic background experiences the freeze unless you’re a native. Hillsboro (which some of the locals disparagingly call Hillsburrito), and some of the surrounding communities, are more Hispanic, so you may want to explore neighborhoods to see what you feel the most comfortable in.

[Port Pitt Ash]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

I recently heard an amazing statistic. Apparently, (nationally) 91% of white people do not have a black friend, and 75% of white people don't know anyone black at all... not even casually! Portland probably swings to the extreme side of this, and not the good side. Seriously, some of you are missing out, and I'd like to do what I can to help. . Just PM me if you are in that 75% demographic and lets set up something. Coffee, tea, Kombuchu... actual friendship will require several prior sessions of a more casual nature. Before we can have all this happy diversity that everyone claims to want we have to actually get to know one another, I think.

The struggle is real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iz_mVgEzqg

Black people making friends with white people usually means applying Hanlon's razor liberally.

Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

I'd say Portland is a bit unusual since it is so overwhelmingly white. Many days would go by and the only other black people I'd see were my immediate boss, my co-worker, my friend, and if it happened the weekend maybe a small group of 3-4 black people huddled together at the bar/club. Depending on when it was maybe one of the black girls I was dating at the time.

That said even I had far fewer black friends than Latino or, oddly, Pacific Islander friends. Of the four guys/girls who I'd consider my best friends from the time when I lived in Portland are as follows:

Guys:

A Hmong (from CA)
Two white guys (both from Alaska oddly)
A Guatemalan (originally from the Midwest, but had lived in WA for the past decade)

Girls:

A white girl (from OR)
Puerto Rican (grew up in OR)
Hawaiian
A black girl (from the Midwest)

So the mix of people in the city was richer than say the Midwest albeit at much smaller levels than a lot of places.

Still something like 60% of my friends (probably more as I'm going by those I'm still friends with on social media) overall where white.

Although I'm probably unusual in the sense that I'll be friends with whomever and I may be more social than most.

Downtown on any given day you really never saw many black people much and for Portland that's the main issue. A lot of people there simply don't come in contact with people of other races/ethnicities often enough to just look at the lack of black friends and jump to the conclusion one way or the other.