PSU Magazine Winter 1989

'I Racism in Portland Violence is only the most obvious manifestation of racism, and blacks are only one target. P ortl and has a reputation that has nothing to do with it's styli sh architecture, its mountain views , or its small city fee l in the heart of the pristine Northwest. It has a reputation fo r hate. A young Ethiopi an man, Mulugeta Seraw, and two of hi s frie nds were returning from a party last fa ll when they were set upon by a group of white thugs belonging to a racist group called East Side Wh ite Pride. The gang members punched and kicked the threesome , and shattered Seraw's skull with a baseball bat. Seraw 's death became national news, and in Portland it became the symbol of an ugly undercurrent in the city - one that was blatantly racist but , until that shock ing event , large ly ignored . Bombi ngs , vio lence and displays of rac ist machi smo had been seen for years throughout the Pacific Northwest, part icularly in some of its most isolated areas such as northern Idaho , but it wasn't until the Seraw incident that Portl anders rea li zed how much their town was a haven for racism . The one-year anniversary of Seraw 's murder provided a backdrop for a two-day conference held in November at Portl and State Uni versity that sought to bring the community to grips with rac ism in all its forms. Titled the "Symposium on Mali cious Harassment and Rac ism ," it not onl y rek indled the outrage agai nst the killing , but brought to foc us bigotry 's many faces. Bill Wassmuth , executive director of the North– west Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, warns against racism in Portland. By John Kirkland The several hundred attendees learned that vio lence is only the most obvious manifestation of racism, and that blacks are onl y one target. Jews , Hispanics, Asians , women, gays - all are subject to overt or subtle fo rms of prejud ice. And as speakers at the sympos ium brought out , all members of soc iety - no matter how liberal they see themselves - need to take a hard look at their own attitudes. "Once you have internalized and accepted the concept that you can treat someone different because of a defined category, then it 's not going to be just one of the categories. " R acism is nothing new in Oregon, accord ing to Darre ll Mi llner, head of PSU 's Department of Black Stud ies . In fac t, the prevalence of white su premacist groups in the Northwest is consistent with an hi storical pattern that began when the firs t wagon trains moved west. Millner, who teaches black hi story, sa id the early settlers quickly and commonly passed laws exc lud ing blacks from the new territory. The fi rst such law was passed in 1844. When Oregon became a territori al government, it passed another. And the first Oregon constitution had a number of articles that excl uded free bl acks from li ving in the state and making real estate transactions. Wh ile thi s was happening , the US Congress passed the Donation Land Act fo r the Oregon territory, giving out 300- to 600-acre parcels of valuable fa rmland to every fami ly that sett led here . Such acts set the stage for a white– dominated soc iety that, in the beginning, excluded bl acks altogether. Although blacks li ved a second-class ex istence throughout the country, in Oregon they li ved no ex istence at all. Later when bl acks did enter the picture , they were so fa r behind that, even with the c ivil rights movement of the 1960s , they still haven't caught up economically with whites. Even in the 1900s , blacks and As ians were officially barred from li ving in many Portland ne ighborhoods. Millner said language in the Oregon constitution barring bl acks from the state was not removed until 1927. In 1905 , the Oregon Supreme Court approved segregation in public places , and that was not overturned until 1953 . If we' ve lost touch with these hi storical roots, Mi llner said , it 's because we fin d them a little embarrass ing. "We don't like to thin k of ourselves as a population that refl ected those kinds of rac ial va lues, but we certainly did ," he said. ''And that rea lity is what makes the Northwest the good potenti al target for those hate groups today. They know th at hi story was here. They know we have a popul ati on that has been created from that hi story... PSU 13