Accretionist posted:

You'd think Conservatives would want a database of names and addresses.

computer parts posted:

If you include Latinos it is economically and violently.

I mean not 3 months ago Oregon voters banned illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses.

anthonypants posted:

One of the great things about that Gizmodo article was that it opened a lot of eyes, but then people of color have been trying to get people to understand Oregon's racist history for a loooooooooong time and it gets brushed off every time.

Kaal posted:

Sure the KKK was popular here in Oregon, but

computer parts posted:

computer parts posted:

Kaal posted:

It gets brushed off because the whole "Oregon / The NW is Secretly Racist" shtick is built upon conflation and an extremely narrow historical perspective. It's Headline History, which is great for Gizmodo click-bait but falls apart pretty quickly when you actually start looking at the history. Sure Oregon passed some problematic laws in its first founding year or two, but they were generally based in the progressive politics of the period, and Oregonians quickly realized that they were crap and as a result they were never enforced and most of them were undone within months. Sure the KKK was popular here in Oregon, but as a fraternal organization that was completely differently-minded than those down South - indeed when racist firebrands took control of the organization and tried to promote bigotry in the Oregon KKK, membership tanked. I mean, have the conversation by all means, but trying to paint Oregon as being some kind of bastion of racism requires a pretty uncritical view of sources.

Reverse Centaur posted:

Most Vancouverites don't know/think about why we have so many Asians but almost no Japanese. It's because we stole everything they owned and forbid them from living west of the Rockies after we let them out of concentration camps in the 40s.

Accretionist posted:

You'd think Conservatives would want a database of names and addresses.

effectual posted:

Canada did that too? Woah.


BIG GOVERNMENT!

Error 404 posted:

So that explains the early years of statehood, what about all the poo poo in the years from then to now?

The Northwest may not have idiots burning crosses on lawns, but we've most definitely got a fuckton of racism in the area both historically and contemporarily.

Ardennes posted:

Also Washington State has a lot of the same issues and as a whole is probably a bit more politically conservative than Oregon, especially on economic issues.

Kaal posted:

It gets brushed off because the whole "Oregon / The NW is Secretly Racist" shtick is built upon conflation and an extremely narrow historical perspective. It's Headline History, which is great for Gizmodo click-bait but falls apart pretty quickly when you actually start looking at the history. Sure Oregon passed some problematic laws in its first founding year or two, but they were generally based in the progressive politics of the period, and Oregonians quickly realized that they were crap and as a result they were never enforced and most of them were undone within months. Sure the KKK was popular here in Oregon, but as a fraternal organization that was completely differently-minded than those down South - indeed when racist firebrands took control of the organization and tried to promote bigotry in the Oregon KKK, membership tanked. I mean, have the conversation by all means, but trying to paint Oregon as being some kind of bastion of racism requires a pretty uncritical view of sources.

Error 404 posted:

So that explains the early years of statehood, what about all the poo poo in the years from then to now?

The Northwest may not have idiots burning crosses on lawns, but we've most definitely got a fuckton of racism in the area both historically and contemporarily.

quote:

Racial restrictions, validated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1926, then ruled unenforceable by the same court 22 years later, are linked to the original deeds of the 500-plus homes, north of Seattle in Shoreline.

quote:

Written into the neighborhood's bylaws by Boeing founder Bill Boeing, the 60-year-old restrictions prohibited the sale or lease of the homes to anyone who wasn't white. Blacks and Asians, the restrictions said, could occupy the homes only as domestic servants.

quote:

The neighborhood needs notarized signatures from two-thirds of the households in the development � 360 in all � before it can file amended documents with King County to replace the old ones.

But after almost a year, only 122 signatures have been collected. Some residents say that's because the neighborhood has been preoccupied with a different kind of battle � one over tree heights and waterfront views.

Error 404 posted:

I agree, which is why I referred to the Northwest, and not just Oregon there. And tbh Portland, Seattle, and (insert liberal paradise) are very much the exception and not the rule here.

There's no real difference between people in bumblefuck washington or bumblefuck oregon, or anywhere idaho really.

Ditocoaf posted:

When/how did Portland get its modern reputation, anyway?

sullat posted:

I think it was a result of an aggressive marketing campaign about 10 years or so designed to entice wealthy young people to come retire to Portland.

Schwack posted:

I guess I've never run into the rude Canadians stereotype. I love Vancouver, BC and try to visit as often as possible, it's a great city.

Also, noted progressive bastion Corvallis has a large park and elementary school still named after Joseph Avery. Avery had ties to the KKK and ran a pretty heavily racist newspaper in Corvallis, The Occidental Messenger. The Messenger later became the Corvallis Gazette Times which is the city's largest periodical.

Kaal posted:

It gets brushed off because the whole "Oregon / The NW is Secretly Racist" shtick is built upon conflation and an extremely narrow historical perspective. It's Headline History, which is great for Gizmodo click-bait but falls apart pretty quickly when you actually start looking at the history. Sure Oregon passed some problematic laws in its first founding year or two, but they were generally based in the progressive politics of the period, and Oregonians quickly realized that they were crap and as a result they were never enforced and most of them were undone within months. Sure the KKK was popular here in Oregon, but as a fraternal organization that was completely differently-minded than those down South - indeed when racist firebrands took control of the organization and tried to promote bigotry in the Oregon KKK, membership tanked. I mean, have the conversation by all means, but trying to paint Oregon as being some kind of bastion of racism requires a pretty uncritical view of sources.

Lazy_Liberal posted:

Even trying to narrow it down to specific events is problematic.
Was Danzig or War right or wrong?
Was the Holocaust right or wrong?
It clearly has elements of both. Trying to cast super broad concepts in yes/ no terms is argumentative reductionism.

Error 404 posted:

All them illegals crossin the border and stealin are milk!

Error 404 posted:

All them illegals crossin the border and stealin are milk!

Ditocoaf posted:

When/how did Portland get its modern reputation, anyway?

seiferguy posted:

the packed overpriced hell that Seattle is.

reading posted:

Hahaha this reminds me of when I got back from traveling around India (an actually packed part of the world) and my uncle, who had never left the united states, started talking about overpopulation and unsustainable crowding in Seattle. Seattle, which is a very sparsely populated fishing village with a lower density than Los Angeles and worse traffic.

The 1800's frontier mentality is still quite prevalent even in the urban areas of the PNW.

reading posted:

Hahaha this reminds me of when I got back from traveling around India (an actually packed part of the world) and my uncle, who had never left the united states, started talking about overpopulation and unsustainable crowding in Seattle. Seattle, which is a very sparsely populated fishing village with a lower density than Los Angeles and worse traffic.

The 1800's frontier mentality is still quite prevalent even in the urban areas of the PNW.

Error 404 posted:

So that explains the early years of statehood, what about all the poo poo in the years from then to now? The Northwest may not have idiots burning crosses on lawns, but we've most definitely got a fuckton of racism in the area both historically and contemporarily.

Lazy_Liberal posted:

Kaal posted:

Like what, in particular? Are we going to say that Oregon is racist because there are skinheads and trucks with Confederate flags in Oregon? There are skinheads and Confederate sympathizers in every state. Are we going to say that Oregon is racist because there was racial segregation? Because it wasn't any worse than any other state, and better than many if not most.

I think that a lot of this line of discussion comes down to the extremely problematic perspective that equates racial diversity with "black people"; something that is a real disservice both to the many Latino- and Asian-Americans who have migrated here over the last 200 years, as well as black culture specifically and advocates of racial equality more generally.

Schwack posted:

I think this is what most people would have a problem with. The common message taught in Oregon public schools is that the state joined the Union as a free state and was anti-slavery all the way. The reality doesn't match up with that image at all. Oregon was better than some, but I'm not sure being only slightly less awful is a major achievement. What I try to get kids to take away from this stuff is that Oregon is not some insulated pocket of the country where everything has gone great from the 1850s onward. Oregon has an ugly history that closely mirrors the rest of the country, Oregonians just have the unfortunate tendency of attempting to sweep that history under the rug.

Kaal posted:

Like what, in particular? Are we going to say that Oregon is racist because there are skinheads and trucks with Confederate flags in Oregon? There are skinheads and Confederate sympathizers in every state.

Kaal posted:

Frankly I think that modern Americans simply have such difficulty accepting any kind of contemporary faults in their own culture that we end up trawling the past to find someone else to blame for our modern problems.

Kaal posted:

Well if it's oppression Olympics then Americans don't even get onto the podium when it comes to Black slavery, so I don't know what to tell you. If the only "ugly history" that one can come up with is that Oregon didn't miraculously jump from the Missouri Compromise to 21st Century radical racial theory, then yeah, mea culpa. Also, I don't know where people are getting the idea that Oregon schools don't talk about Oregon's racial history. Because certainly the ban on black people and the debate over extending the Missouri Compromise to Oregon got talked about in both my 8th Grade US history course and then later in my 12th Grade social history course. If anything, they're far too pat in their easy declarations of how bad the Oregonians were, with the same implication that moderns are therefore far more intellectually and morally superior. When you start looking at how these votes actually happened, and how they were implemented, that narrative kind of falls apart. Frankly I think that modern Americans simply have such difficulty accepting any kind of contemporary faults in their own culture that we end up trawling the past to find someone else to blame for our modern problems.