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Interesting how some Portland defenders like to claim "racism still exists here."
Details, names, examples?? What is so different or worse here than anyplace else on the PLANET?
"Racism" is today'' cop out default for anyonetrying to defend the indefensible.
Interesting how some Portland defenders like to claim "racism still exists here."
Details, names, examples?? What is so different or worse here than anyplace else on the PLANET?
"Racism" is today'' cop out default for anyonetrying to defend the indefensible.
Coming from Texas, I would say that racism in Oregon is worse than it was there in certain ways, and I grew up in a rural community.
The first apartment I moved into, my new neighbor said "watch out for those wetbacks who live in building 3. They steal." She made some other comments about how they smelled. She was a Jill Stein voter, ironically. She did a lot of drugs and I stifled a comment about the odors coming from her unit.
The first house I bought in Oregon was a low end rent-house. Tbe former renters were Hispanic, the mom only spoke Spanish. I met the family a couple times as the house was pending. After the sale closed, they left and I moved in, the neighbors were quite glad to discover the new owner was a white man. The across the street neighbor commented that the former tenants were ""illegals" and "dealt drugs," proceeding to complaon about the "illegal invasion." I saw no evidence of drug paraphanalia when I met them or after they vacated. I don't know their document status but there was little reason to think they were undocumented just because the mom spoke Spanish. The owner I bought the house from made fun of the food they ate and made a number of petty jokes about Hispanics and what they were like as tenants, but when I asked he admitted they paid their rent on time every month.
That kind of casual racism against Hispanics doesn't happen in Texas as much anymore, to the extent I was shocked to hear people in Oregon say the kinds of things I hadn't heard in at least 10-12 years.
That's just a small sample. I could tell the stories of what my few black colleagues at work have confided what they go through. Again, I would say worse than Texas, because there are much larger and more substantive minority communities there, and you can't just get away with the kind of stuff people say here.
I also work with people from the PNW Native American communities occasionally, and they experience A LOT of racism. A hell of a lot.
The idea that Oregon or Portland doesn't have racism is kind of silly. It's a bunch of white people who THINK they aren't racist when they are. They think their progressivism is some kind of racism force field but it's not, and they don't get out enough to realize it.
Comparing Portland to San Antonio where I previously lived before moving, definitely more racist in Portland area, it just doesn't present itself the same way.
Last edited by redguard57; 07-25-2021 at 11:00 AM..
Coming from Texas, I would say that racism in Oregon is worse than it was there in certain ways, and I grew up in a rural community.
The first apartment I moved into, my new neighbor said "watch out for those wetbacks who live in building 3. They steal." She made some other comments about how they smelled. She was a Jill Stein voter, ironically. She did a lot of drugs and I stifled a comment about the odors coming from her unit.
The first house I bought in Oregon was a low end rent-house. Tbe former renters were Hispanic, the mom only spoke Spanish. I met the family a couple times as the house was pending. After the sale closed, they left and I moved in, the neighbors were quite glad to discover the new owner was a white man. The across the street neighbor commented that the former tenants were ""illegals" and "dealt drugs," proceeding to complaon about the "illegal invasion." I saw no evidence of drug paraphanalia when I met them or after they vacated. I don't know their document status but there was little reason to think they were undocumented just because the mom spoke Spanish. The owner I bought the house from made fun of the food they ate and made a number of petty jokes about Hispanics and what they were like as tenants, but when I asked he admitted they paid their rent on time every month.
That kind of casual racism against Hispanics doesn't happen in Texas as much anymore, to the extent I was shocked to hear people in Oregon say the kinds of things I hadn't heard in at least 10-12 years.
That's just a small sample. I could tell the stories of what my few black colleagues at work have confided what they go through. Again, I would say worse than Texas, because there are much larger and more substantive minority communities there, and you can't just get away with the kind of stuff people say here.
I also work with people from the PNW Native American communities occasionally, and they experience A LOT of racism. A hell of a lot.
The idea that Oregon or Portland doesn't have racism is kind of silly. It's a bunch of white people who THINK they aren't racist when they are. They think their progressivism is some kind of racism force field but it's not, and they don't get out enough to realize it.
Comparing Portland to San Antonio where I previously lived before moving, definitely more racist in Portland area, it just doesn't present itself the same way.
Thank you for the examples. I appreciate your response. Hardly ANY different that anywhere else in USA or world for that matter. EU is a blatantly racist place but they like to pretend they are not.
OTOH, your examples are pretty soft. #1. They are not going to keep driven people from accomplishing ANY goals and #2. What is any civic, local or governmental entity going to do that actually would change anything?
What your reply points out is that "for the most part" people are going to be people. Preaching wokeness and perpetual racism is not designed to solve anything. Rather it is to split people along various lines and thus get people to naively give up freedom in the name of some unattainable solution.
We should want equality - not equity. Dangerous concept equity is.
I just got back from a West Coast vacay with some slight interest in potentially heading back west from the SE. NO WAY! I WILL NEVER consider Portland based on what we experienced while we were there. What a disgrace of a city right now its nothing like we remembered from just a few short years ago. It was actually sad to see the chaos that has taken over.
Endless Trash, thousands of used needles on the ground, in the streets, on the play grounds , stolen cars everywhere, daily tent fires, stealing of aything they can get their hands on, stripping and burning anything automotive, literally multiple car and bike chop shops, tweakers roaming around like the walking dead harassing cars, walkers, etc.... We went to explore some of our favorite places and restaurants and it was the first time in my life I felt unsafe to be in an area. It was aweful!
someone told me to check out @portlandlookslikesh%t on insta and go see for yourself what is happening on a daily basis. Kate Brown and Ted Wheeler need to be relieved of their duties! what a mess they have enabled!
Last June, the city of Portland, Oregon, hopped on the “defund the police” bandwagon. Now, it is flooded with gun violence, and the mayor is already backtracking from his support for the cuts.
Mayor Ted Wheeler has requested $2 million in emergency funding for the police department, pointing directly to the surge in gun violence. At this point last year, Portland had seen just one homicide. This year, that number is 20, with 208 shootings in the city so far.
Wheeler backed the Portland City Council’s decision to cut $15 million from the police budget last June, which included disbanding police units that investigate gun violence. ...
A few years ago, I considered moving to Portland or Seattle. Glad I didn't.
When we lived near Portland years ago, it was a super safe city....now it's like they're trying to get their murders up, and it's working. Defunding the police is working just as you would expect it to.
Thank you for the examples. I appreciate your response. Hardly ANY different that anywhere else in USA or world for that matter. EU is a blatantly racist place but they like to pretend they are not.
OTOH, your examples are pretty soft. #1. They are not going to keep driven people from accomplishing ANY goals and #2. What is any civic, local or governmental entity going to do that actually would change anything?
What your reply points out is that "for the most part" people are going to be people. Preaching wokeness and perpetual racism is not designed to solve anything. Rather it is to split people along various lines and thus get people to naively give up freedom in the name of some unattainable solution.
We should want equality - not equity. Dangerous concept equity is.
From the POC friends I have who have shared, in Oregon today the racism is more of the 1000 little cuts variety that that wears you down, makes you exhausted after a while. I had one black female colleague, the only one actually, look for jobs elsewhere because she was just sick of all the little things. People wanting to mess with her hair, the guys that were only interested in her to make some kind of racial conquest, etc... It wasn't like she was called "n-word" or barred from promotions or something.
In the south it's more obvious, in-your-face. But there is also more genuine support because of the larger minority community.
I won't deny the crime surge is a problem here and that there is a lot that needs to be done locally, but you have to laugh when you see people that aren't from here clutching their pearls over how unsafe Portland is, when homicides are going up in their cities as well.
In 2020, despite the uptick in shootings, Portland still managed to have a lower homicide rate than Oklahoma City, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Charlotte, and several other cities. I guess it's easier to fixate on cities that you have nothing to do with rather than address the issues of your own.
Overall crime actually declined last year, as one would expect during a lockdown. We are, however, seeing disturbing increases in two types of crimes, murders and general “mayhem” – crimes of unruliness in public settings.
In the midst of this surge, it should be noted that our overall murder rate remains very low, about where it was in 1965, but that rate increased by roughly a quarter last year. This did not happen elsewhere in the world.
[...]
Though journalists love to talk about crime in Chicago, this gonzo crimewave is neither an urban problem, nor a regional one. Chicago saw a stunning 55% increase in homicides in 2020, but that was only a modest rise compared to many other US cities. Lubbock chalked up a 180% increase in homicides. Murders were up by a stunning 60% on the mean streets of Omaha in 2020. Murders doubled in Mitch McConnell’s Louisville. Murders nearly doubled in white, Republican Colorado Springs.
“Urban crime” just ain’t what it used to be and people are beginning to notice. Wilmington, DE has maintained a murder rate consistently about a third higher than Chicago for many years. Kansas City, Little Rock, and Memphis regularly outpace Chicago in homicide rates. Our emerging new murder capital is Birmingham, AL. Even Shreveport, LA had more murders per capita than Chicago in several recent years.
From the POC friends I have who have shared, in Oregon today the racism is more of the 1000 little cuts variety that that wears you down, makes you exhausted after a while. I had one black female colleague, the only one actually, look for jobs elsewhere because she was just sick of all the little things. People wanting to mess with her hair, the guys that were only interested in her to make some kind of racial conquest, etc... It wasn't like she was called "n-word" or barred from promotions or something.
In the south it's more obvious, in-your-face. But there is also more genuine support because of the larger minority community.
Life for all in 2021 seems pretty good IF this is the extent of this "serious systematic racism" problem.
OTOH perhaps there is just a lot of race baiting going on in both Portland and the country in general.
The black and brown people I know in Portland area are successful and generally don't seem to dwell on life's inconsistencies.
Seems like a better and certainly more fulfilling approach than a "whoa is me" attitude.
My best friend in WI, (Acknowledge that this is not a Portland story) is a black man. He was raised in Memphis. As a young man he chose to move away from his family because he specifically did not want to raise his children in the "perpetual victim" mentality he saw in his family.
It's just one man's story - but I find it interesting.
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