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What regions belong in the Pacific Northwest?
Alaska, US
British Columbia, CA
Washington, US
Oregon, US
Idaho, US
Montana, US
Wyoming, US
California, US (MODS PLEASE BAN ANYONE VOTING FOR THIS OPTION TIA)
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Mrit SA
Nov 11, 2016

by Lowtax
Sadly it is the whole Pacific Northwest. My coworkers will start talking about 'those' types of people and will stop when I stare at them blank faced until they cut it out(passive-aggressively, like a proper Seattle resident).
All of the racism I see seems to be towards Latinos and/or African Americans, rarely towards Asians.
Lots of sexism also. A coworker of mine is female, and is probably one of the best workers on my team. But since I work in a technical field, there have been customers who don't want her and would prefer a male technician.(these customers have a tendency to have their calls get 'lost')

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seiferguy
Jun 9, 2005

FLAWED
INTUITION



Toilet Rascal

got any sevens posted:

There are billboards around tukwila that say there's a lot of kid trafficing here but I've never seen it so I can't really fight it :shrug:

Trafficking tends to hide in plain sight. Take a drive through highway 99 in Everett and count how many sketchy massage parlors you see. Chances are all the women there are trafficking victims.

got any sevens
Feb 9, 2013

by Cyrano4747

seiferguy posted:

Trafficking tends to hide in plain sight. Take a drive through highway 99 in Everett and count how many sketchy massage parlors you see. Chances are all the women there are trafficking victims.

I thought most massage parlors had 50 year old asian ladies, not 15. Then again, I've never been able to afford a massage. Wouldnt that be easy to check? If the massagers are 15, arrest the owner for child labor, if nothing else.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot

GodFish posted:

My hot take, the PNW is better than non-PNW sections of the US because we didn't vote for Trump, thus proving our moral and intellectual superiority for all time fart
I just think we're better because we have trees, with moss on them, with ferns in it. And most places I've been in the majority of 50 states barely even had 1 or 2 of those.

HashtagGirlboss
Jan 4, 2005

coyo7e posted:

I just think we're better because we have trees, with moss on them, with ferns in it. And most places I've been in the majority of 50 states barely even had 1 or 2 of those.

The problem with this theory is that Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida will score really high too.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot

xrunner posted:

The problem with this theory is that Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida will score really high too.
I've been to them. They can keep them. It takes effort to find noseeums, unlike chiggers, or water moccasins, etc.

ElCondemn
Aug 7, 2005


Mrit SA posted:

Sadly it is the whole Pacific Northwest. My coworkers will start talking about 'those' types of people and will stop when I stare at them blank faced until they cut it out(passive-aggressively, like a proper Seattle resident).
All of the racism I see seems to be towards Latinos and/or African Americans, rarely towards Asians.
Lots of sexism also. A coworker of mine is female, and is probably one of the best workers on my team. But since I work in a technical field, there have been customers who don't want her and would prefer a male technician.(these customers have a tendency to have their calls get 'lost')

As a "latino" that can pass as a white guy I feel like I'm living in a different country (having moved from Phoenix). It really is a wonderful place to live if you're white. It's so weird to be seen as white now, cops are friendly, I get good service at restaurants, I can walk down the street without people yelling poo poo at me from their cars. The most bizarre part is that people will say racist poo poo straight to my face, not realizing who they're talking to.

For instance, when I helped my brother move here we were returning the Uhaul truck and trailer and the guy taking the return said something along the lines of "We don't see too many of these trailers around here, usually they're rented out by Mexicans to haul around their broken down cars"...

But honestly, it's not as prominent as it is in other parts of the country. I feel like it's less of a problem here, but maybe if I was darker skinned I would notice it more.

Bar Ran Dun
Jan 22, 2006




What I see is that in relative terms, and by that I mean if one compares the rural here to the rural elseware and the urban here to the urban else where, it's all better here. There are still the racist homophobic shitheads, but nearly everywhere it's outside of norms. The PNW is the only place in the country I've seen out older trans folk as an example.

Edit: the obvious exception is African Americans, not many up here. Oregon seems worse than Washington on that front.

HashtagGirlboss
Jan 4, 2005

ElCondemn posted:

But honestly, it's not as prominent as it is in other parts of the country. I feel like it's less of a problem here, but maybe if I was darker skinned I would notice it more.

I don't think it's what you're trying to do, but this is a fairly common strategy for sweeping these issues under the rug. "We are not as bad as other places" is essentially "Love it or leave it." Maybe hold us to a higher standard instead of declaring victory because we're better than places that are really awful? When I lived in the South East, people actually talked about this stuff instead of pretending it was left behind in an embarrassing past.

BrandorKP posted:

Edit: the obvious exception is African Americans, not many up here. Oregon seems worse than Washington on that front.

Eh. Plenty of racism against Hispanics and natives too. But why do you think there are so few African Americans? Just the historical exclusion? Or is there something here today that makes them feel particularly unwelcome? My understanding (and maybe my understanding is wrong) is that a lot of people of color who relocate out here end up leaving pretty quickly.

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Portland has a long, strong history of outright racial exclusion that has persisted through today. I learned this after I visited for a conference in July and found myself wondering where all of the people of color were. A friend and I did some research and discovered the Oregon and the PNW as a whole have a strong, healthy history of racism. We found this article, which has become my go-to guide to send to friends when they ask why I didn't just love Portland while I was there. They have a pedestrian bridge! Isn't that just the coolest?!

The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America

Bar Ran Dun
Jan 22, 2006




xrunner posted:

Or is there something here today that makes them feel particularly unwelcome? My understanding (and maybe my understanding is wrong) is that a lot of people of color who relocate out here end up leaving pretty quickly.


The public radio up here in Seattle runs a lot of shows on exactly that. "Black in Seattle" is what is called. Other thing that seems to be going on is the the historically black neighborhood is being gentrified by techies. It's part of the whole area rapidly becoming more expensive.

ElCondemn
Aug 7, 2005


xrunner posted:

I don't think it's what you're trying to do, but this is a fairly common strategy for sweeping these issues under the rug. "We are not as bad as other places" is essentially "Love it or leave it." Maybe hold us to a higher standard instead of declaring victory because we're better than places that are really awful? When I lived in the South East, people actually talked about this stuff instead of pretending it was left behind in an embarrassing past.

Oh yeah, definitely, I was just talking about my experience living here for 10+ years. I call that poo poo out non-stop, I'm very afraid of taking steps backwards with the normalization of bigotry. I've lived all over, people here are definitely afraid to talk about race, they get very uncomfortable when I do it.

xrunner posted:

Eh. Plenty of racism against Hispanics and natives too. But why do you think there are so few African Americans? Just the historical exclusion? Or is there something here today that makes them feel particularly unwelcome? My understanding (and maybe my understanding is wrong) is that a lot of people of color who relocate out here end up leaving pretty quickly.

I have a few black friends here in the Seattle area, I think it's as simple as just not finding work and the cost of living being high. I helped a black friend move over from Spokane and he's had a rough time finding a decent job. One of my other friends who's lived here a long time lives up in Everett, presumably because it's just a lot cheaper there.

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus
Tacoma is a place that seems to be, for lack of better words, more integrated and less racist. Probably because the economy here is less tech focused than big brother Seattle, and economically depressed areas tend to be more diverse. But it is kind of nice that we've kind of got our own little niche here that works.

Well, except for the continued rise in rent prices and other associated costs of living. I'm sure in 5-10 years we'll probably just be Seattle-lite.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot

DrNutt posted:

Tacoma is a place that seems to be, for lack of better words, more integrated and less racist. Probably because the economy here is less tech focused than big brother Seattle, and economically depressed areas tend to be more diverse. But it is kind of nice that we've kind of got our own little niche here that works.
Yeah the same can be said of most of the PNW as long as you're white, or if you marry a white person and assimilate into your local community via cooking parties and the like.. I grew up listening to beaner jokes and occasionally at parties at our house involving a bunch of his coworkers, my dad would step in and say, "hey that includes my wife, can you stop with the beaner jokes" but mainly the status quo for racist jokes and anecdotes in the PNW seems to be, "well you look white so let's talk nitty-gritty! And since you don't care - then it's all fair game!"

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jan 2, 2017

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

coyo7e posted:

Yeah the same can be said of most of the PNW as long as you're white, or if you marry a white person and assimilate into your local community via cooking parties and the like.. I grew up listening to beaner jokes and occasionally at parties at our house involving a bunch of his coworkers, my dad would step in and say, "hey that includes my wife, can you stop with the beaner jokes" but mainly the status quo for racist jokes and anecdotes in the PNW seems to be, "well you look white so let's talk nitty-gritty! And since you don't care - then it's all fair game!"

The only places I've seen that be true in the last ten years has been in godforsaken shitholes like Forks or Vancouver or places that strongly identify as 'rural' even though they are decidedly not. Within city limits where there exist people of color in actual quantity things are a lot different, at least in my personal experience, which includes honest-to-goodness diverse friend groups and not just light skinned non-threatening blacks or whatever.

Like when your actual population consists of people of color no poo poo there's going to be less racism. You can argue that racism becomes more implicit and less explicit but I think in general it's still miles better than Port "whitest city in America" Land or Sea "tech bro central" ttle.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot

DrNutt posted:

The only places I've seen that be true in the last ten years has been in godforsaken shitholes like Forks or Vancouver or places that strongly identify as 'rural' even though they are decidedly not. Within city limits where there exist people of color in actual quantity things are a lot different, at least in my personal experience, which includes honest-to-goodness diverse friend groups and not just light skinned non-threatening blacks or whatever.

Like when your actual population consists of people of color no poo poo there's going to be less racism. You can argue that racism becomes more implicit and less explicit but I think in general it's still miles better than Port "whitest city in America" Land or Sea "tech bro central" ttle.
Okay, then how many dinner parties full of 40-70 year-old white professionals, have you attended in the last 20 years in the PNW? And I'm not talking about "goon-fest full of white people with a few goons who we knew before we knew what color they are," I'm talking "my coworkers and I all came to a party and we got to hear the water-sprinkler joke again."

Because you sound a lot like "the people I invite aren't racist, so what's the big deal bro - we totes solved the racism because it didn't come up over my sous-vide, wine, and cheese selection."

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jan 2, 2017

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

coyo7e posted:

Okay, then how many dinner parties full of 40-70 year-old white professionals, have you attended in the last 20 years in the PNW? And I'm not talking about "goon-fest full of white people with a few goons who we knew before we knew what color they are," I'm talking "my coworkers and I all came to a party and we got to hear the water-sprinkler joke again."

Because you sound a lot like "the people I invite aren't racist, so what's the big deal bro - we totes solved the racism because it didn't come up over my sous-vide, wine, and cheese selection."

40-70 white professionals are a dying breed as we descend into the hellscape of the near future. Most of the people I know are working class people, or college educated folks around 35 or younger who commute to work in Seattle. There are several people of color in my immediate friend group. And why is it important to throw in the last 20 years, or even the last 10? poo poo, 10 years ago gay marriage wasn't even a politically viable opinion. Things change pretty fast.

I am not arguing that the PNW in general doesn't have problems with racism. I am pointing out that in places where there is more integration there is less visible racism (gee no poo poo). I'm not really sure how that's a controversial opinion.

Like, here's an example for you. My 35 year old BLACK FRIEND hosts his birthday party. A bunch of his friends are WHITE HIPSTERS. Someone makes an insensitive poorly themed joke. That person is immediately called out and learns from the experience (or at least pretends to anyway).

HashtagGirlboss
Jan 4, 2005

DrNutt posted:

40-70 white professionals are a dying breed as we descend into the hellscape of the near future. Most of the people I know are working class people, or college educated folks around 35 or younger who commute to work in Seattle. There are several people of color in my immediate friend group. And why is it important to throw in the last 20 years, or even the last 10? poo poo, 10 years ago gay marriage wasn't even a politically viable opinion. Things change pretty fast.

I am not arguing that the PNW in general doesn't have problems with racism. I am pointing out that in places where there is more integration there is less visible racism (gee no poo poo). I'm not really sure how that's a controversial opinion.

Like, here's an example for you. My 35 year old BLACK FRIEND hosts his birthday party. A bunch of his friends are WHITE HIPSTERS. Someone makes an insensitive poorly themed joke. That person is immediately called out and learns from the experience (or at least pretends to anyway).

"People are talking about racism and race related issues. I better go tell them how not racist I am and how much more enlightened the place I live is." How is this helpful beyond just sweeping the issue under the rug while standing secure in your sense of progressive enlightenment. I have spent no time in Tacoma so maybe it is more socially developed than the larger cities to its north and south. Waiting for aging racists to die off doesn't strike me as the most effective strategy. A colleague of mine - late twenties, college educated, generally nice guy - lives out in Sherwood (far edge of Portland metro area to the southwest) and told me a while back that he feels like a racist whenever black people come into his area because he never sees them there and can't help but glance/people watch. I remember doing the same thing in small town Montana as a teenager, and can you imagine how creepy and unsettling that must be for the person being eyeballed? Further, how should we take his admittance of embarrassment? Is it something that is fine to take at face value or should we question what other opinions/views/prejudices he's hiding beneath his outwardly progressive appearance.

ElCondemn posted:

I have a few black friends here in the Seattle area, I think it's as simple as just not finding work and the cost of living being high. I helped a black friend move over from Spokane and he's had a rough time finding a decent job. One of my other friends who's lived here a long time lives up in Everett, presumably because it's just a lot cheaper there.

I think there's something more though, otherwise we'd see similar trends in other pricey cities. I wonder if a lot of people are like my colleague and just don't know how to act around people of color without seeming awkward and creepy and overly polite in a way that comes across as condescension? I imagine it gets discomforting pretty quickly. I ask - and I'm curious - because I feel like this is a part of the conversation we need to have and change our behavior accordingly. Like its not enough to not say racist things and call them out when you hear them. We also need to figure out how we stop making people feel unwelcome as soon as they walk into the room.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot
You make minorities stop feeling "unwelcome " by literally being both welcoming and willing to set yourself below them in terms of personal experiences. When you meet a 27 year old black woman working at Dari Mart who says she has been pulled over 35 times since she could drive.. you ask "why?" Instead of deciding internally that she must be a terrible, terrible driver.

You make minorities stop feeling "unwelcome" by moving Into their comfort zone, accepting their outlook as valid, and then asking for more info if you're not impinging.

I grew up in OR in the 90s and frankly the era does make a difference. It used to be that any professional party was full of racists, while today it's more contained to golf courses and high end business luncheons.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Jan 2, 2017

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

xrunner posted:

"People are talking about racism and race related issues. I better go tell them how not racist I am and how much more enlightened the place I live is." How is this helpful beyond just sweeping the issue under the rug while standing secure in your sense of progressive enlightenment. I have spent no time in Tacoma so maybe it is more socially developed than the larger cities to its north and south. Waiting for aging racists to die off doesn't strike me as the most effective strategy. A colleague of mine - late twenties, college educated, generally nice guy - lives out in Sherwood (far edge of Portland metro area to the southwest) and told me a while back that he feels like a racist whenever black people come into his area because he never sees them there and can't help but glance/people watch. I remember doing the same thing in small town Montana as a teenager, and can you imagine how creepy and unsettling that must be for the person being eyeballed? Further, how should we take his admittance of embarrassment? Is it something that is fine to take at face value or should we question what other opinions/views/prejudices he's hiding beneath his outwardly progressive appearance.

I didn't mean it to come off that way, I just think it's interesting how you can have areas that superficially seem very similar but can be drastically different that are maybe only a 30 minute drive apart. And I think the tech bro culture and vastly increased cost of living of the Seattle area have a lot to do with that.

It's also funny because a lot of people in nicer (whiter) areas look down on Tacoma as being trashy and full of crime... Which hasn't really been true for like 20 years. But there are still more black people here, so they must be criminals!

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

coyo7e posted:

You make minorities stop feeling "unwelcome " by literally being both welcoming and willing to set yourself below them in terms of personal experiences. When you meet a 27 year old black woman working at Dari Mart who says she has been pulled over 35 times since she could drive.. you ask "why?" Instead of deciding internally that she must be a terrible, terrible driver.

You make minorities stop feeling "unwelcome" by moving Into their comfort zone, accepting their outlook as valid, and then asking for more info if you're not impinging.

I grew up in OR in the 90s and frankly the era does make a difference. It used to be that any professional party was full of racists, while today it's more contained to golf courses and high end business luncheons.

Since she could drive? Assuming that was when she was 16 that sounds like social progress. I had an acqaintance in the late 90s in Milwaukie who was pulled 23 times in one year (early 20s, lighter complexion, natural hairstyle not cropped close). He lived in a rented room in a house with an old, white, conservative (but not particularly racist) couple who have never been the type of people that would ever accuse the police of doing something wrong. They shrugged and said "It could only be racism."

There has actually been a lot of progress since that time, but holy poo poo do we have a long way to go.

ElCondemn
Aug 7, 2005


xrunner posted:

"People are talking about racism and race related issues. I better go tell them how not racist I am and how much more enlightened the place I live is." How is this helpful beyond just sweeping the issue under the rug while standing secure in your sense of progressive enlightenment. I have spent no time in Tacoma so maybe it is more socially developed than the larger cities to its north and south. Waiting for aging racists to die off doesn't strike me as the most effective strategy. A colleague of mine - late twenties, college educated, generally nice guy - lives out in Sherwood (far edge of Portland metro area to the southwest) and told me a while back that he feels like a racist whenever black people come into his area because he never sees them there and can't help but glance/people watch. I remember doing the same thing in small town Montana as a teenager, and can you imagine how creepy and unsettling that must be for the person being eyeballed? Further, how should we take his admittance of embarrassment? Is it something that is fine to take at face value or should we question what other opinions/views/prejudices he's hiding beneath his outwardly progressive appearance.

I've spent some time hanging out in Tacoma, I don't find it to be that full of minorities, certainly more than I see up where I now live in Greenwood, but not really that much, census data indicates there's still a pretty big majority white population in that city http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/5370000.

I think DrNutt might just be living in a progressive bubble, which is nice but I imagine not indicative of most of the PNW. I too have a fairly diverse group of friends, but I don't think it's super common for most people.

xrunner posted:

I think there's something more though, otherwise we'd see similar trends in other pricey cities. I wonder if a lot of people are like my colleague and just don't know how to act around people of color without seeming awkward and creepy and overly polite in a way that comes across as condescension? I imagine it gets discomforting pretty quickly. I ask - and I'm curious - because I feel like this is a part of the conversation we need to have and change our behavior accordingly. Like its not enough to not say racist things and call them out when you hear them. We also need to figure out how we stop making people feel unwelcome as soon as they walk into the room.

There's a significant difference between the PNW (and maybe the Midwest) and the rest of the country. I don't know that being eyeballed is that foreign to most minorities, it's just part of everyday life (except for me now that I live in the PNW). I think there's definitely a lot of passive racism and that results in workplaces full of white people (probably also due to the lack of diverse candidates in the area). I've been lucky to work places where they do hire a diverse group, but any time I go to a conference or some industry meetup it's mostly middle age white folk. It makes sense, who else can afford all the 600k+ homes except for established older white folk who've lived here a while?

People are always surprised when I start speaking spanish or it comes up in conversation that my family is from Mexico, so I don't think I can really speak to what the average minority experiences in the PNW. I know when I go anywhere else in the country I am definitely not seen as white and in general my experience is just that people don't want to interact with you (except for cops).

coyo7e posted:

You make minorities stop feeling "unwelcome " by literally being both welcoming and willing to set yourself below them in terms of personal experiences. When you meet a 27 year old black woman working at Dari Mart who says she has been pulled over 35 times since she could drive.. you ask "why?" Instead of deciding internally that she must be a terrible, terrible driver.

You make minorities stop feeling "unwelcome" by moving Into their comfort zone, accepting their outlook as valid, and then asking for more info if you're not impinging.

I grew up in OR in the 90s and frankly the era does make a difference. It used to be that any professional party was full of racists, while today it's more contained to golf courses and high end business luncheons.

Having experienced what it's like to just be a white guy and also a hispanic person (albeit in different parts of the country), I agree with this strategy. I used to work at a company (in Seattle) where after the VP of operations learned that I was hispanic would say things like "you were born in a bean field" to me as a "joke", so it would just be nice to not have to pretend to laugh for fear of alienating myself with the rest of my team. It would also be nice to get some empathy when I tell people how many times cops beat me up and/or handcuffed me, instead of acting like I'm exaggerating or worse try to justify it by saying things like "well, you were a kid who probably got into trouble a lot". Sometimes I just omit that stuff so that I don't have to have awkward interactions with people.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot

xrunner posted:

"People are talking about racism and race related issues. I better go tell them how not racist I am and how much more enlightened the place I live is." How is this helpful beyond just sweeping the issue under the rug while standing secure in your sense of progressive enlightenment. I have spent no time in Tacoma so maybe it is more socially developed than the larger cities to its north and south. Waiting for aging racists to die off doesn't strike me as the most effective strategy. A colleague of mine - late twenties, college educated, generally nice guy - lives out in Sherwood (far edge of Portland metro area to the southwest) and told me a while back that he feels like a racist whenever black people come into his area because he never sees them there and can't help but glance/people watch. I remember doing the same thing in small town Montana as a teenager, and can you imagine how creepy and unsettling that must be for the person being eyeballed? Further, how should we take his admittance of embarrassment? Is it something that is fine to take at face value or should we question what other opinions/views/prejudices he's hiding beneath his outwardly progressive appearance.
I wanted to come back to this. First thing first, get your friend a copy of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, if he even gets 1/3 through it, it'll help a lot. His thesis of the "black body" being a filter through which every interaction must go through is pretty good, and he's super readable overall.

I think one of the problems is that I don't really have a lot of experience with people who aren't racist, going around bragging about how not-racist they are. In fact I'd say it's more the opposite - the more racist you are, the more likely you will be to loudly claim that you're open-minded and fair and balanced and totes know black people and mexicans and even dated an asian chick one time.. The more aware of racism you are, then the more likely you are to call yourself and others out on your own racism.

I mean your twenty-something buddy sounds like he's experiencing his color-based growing pains, which is honestly a healthy and normal thing for him to go through if he's self-aware and empathetic toward others who don't look like him. Calling yourself out on being a "looky-loo racist" is one of the early steps to working past it. I am pretty sure I posted before that I went through very similar poo poo in Eugene/Spfd when I was in middle and high school because it really felt as though there were like, 3 or 4 black people in all of the county - and I'd see them every week or so walking on the sidewalk with a bag full of cans, or simply just rolling around town, looking like they were poor or homeless. I knew it was weird and unusual and unfair to only see poor/homeless black people, and it made me uncomfortable - as it should.

It's when you see that same black dude every day for a year and just go "well, they're all like that, collecting cans and bumming cigarettes," that you ought to be ashamed - but since if you're at that point you're not self-aware very much at all (at least in that scope), then it seems entirely normal and reasonable.

I accidentally moved into a black neighborhood this year and now most of my friends are black - but still when I'm walking down the street and see a stranger who's black, I do a mental-double-step trying to figure out if it's going to be taken well if I look them in the eye and say hi or smile and nod, etc. But the thing is, at least as awkward and bumbling as I am just walking past someone on the sidewalk, at least I gave enough of a poo poo to think about it from their perspective before I jumped in and tried to introduce myself and shake their hand like some kind of maniac.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jan 2, 2017

turn it up TURN ME ON
Mar 19, 2012

In the Grim Darkness of the Future, there is only war.

...and delicious ice cream.
The idea of Portland and the surrounding area being a progressive wonderland is a pretty interesting one. Coming from a deeply conservative area, what I constantly call out isn't the "tolerance" of Portland or the neat things, but the systemic things that make Portland more progressive than South Carolina. Most of these things have to do with making legislative and municipal choices focused on an idea of collectivization vs. individualism.

For example: Bus drivers are unionized. Public transportation is prioritized (even if it isn't perfect and doesn't go to places where it needs to) higher than private transportation, revenue generation tends to be favored over decrease in taxes (although this seems to be fading).

Social progressiveness is a different beast. For what it's worth, I do find Portland to be more socially progressive than SC was - but it isn't consistent across the board. There are at least more places for Homeless folks to try to get help, and there are some programs, but it's not enough. Plus, the lack of black people means it's hard to gauge just how progressive our population is, and just how deep that goes. My feeling is that, like most of the rest of the country, Racism out here is still deeply ingrained. I mean, I know that's the fact where I actually live (which is pretty rural).

I really don't think we are any more enlightened than SC though. For some reason, though, collective policies have won out here, and LGBT are considered part of the community.

seiferguy
Jun 9, 2005

FLAWED
INTUITION



Toilet Rascal
I've been trying to look for it, but there was an article / opinion piece ran in the Seattle Times after a major tragedy (I think the Charleston church shooting?) where the author basically patted himself on the back and said something to the effect of "other cities need to be like us when it comes to racial diversity." It kind of speaks to the mentality that we think we're all great at race relations because lynching didn't start here. Seattle and Portland has real racial issues, but I'd say they're different from the ones in the South.

turn it up TURN ME ON
Mar 19, 2012

In the Grim Darkness of the Future, there is only war.

...and delicious ice cream.

seiferguy posted:

I've been trying to look for it, but there was an article / opinion piece ran in the Seattle Times after a major tragedy (I think the Charleston church shooting?) where the author basically patted himself on the back and said something to the effect of "other cities need to be like us when it comes to racial diversity." It kind of speaks to the mentality that we think we're all great at race relations because lynching didn't start here. Seattle and Portland has real racial issues, but I'd say they're different from the ones in the South.

They seem to be crimes of omission and just forgetting about the population, rather than outright "gently caress you" of the South.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

turn it up TURN ME ON posted:

They seem to be crimes of omission and just forgetting about the population, rather than outright "gently caress you" of the South.

And acting scandalized when the well deserved "gently caress you right back" lands on them

Bar Ran Dun
Jan 22, 2006




seiferguy posted:

but I'd say they're different from the ones in the South.

I've yet to see anyone polishing the confederate soldiers memorial to "get it ready for confederate day". I also have not seen any slave massacres re-enacted as southern cavalry driving off northern rapists.

It's even not the same planet as the south.

I've also seen nothing here that compares to things I saw in Chicago, Detroit, or Baltimore.

anthonypants
May 6, 2007

by Nyc_Tattoo
Dinosaur Gum

BrandorKP posted:

I've yet to see anyone polishing the confederate soldiers memorial to "get it ready for confederate day". I also have not seen any slave massacres re-enacted as southern cavalry driving off northern rapists.

It's even not the same planet as the south.

I've also seen nothing here that compares to things I saw in Chicago, Detroit, or Baltimore.
It was mentioned briefly but a few years back we had a cop in Portland who built a shrine dedicated to Nazis in a public park, and then when he was eventually removed he sued the city and won, and the mayor signed a letter of apology to him and officially had all mentions of wrongdoing removed from his record.

turn it up TURN ME ON
Mar 19, 2012

In the Grim Darkness of the Future, there is only war.

...and delicious ice cream.

anthonypants posted:

It was mentioned briefly but a few years back we had a cop in Portland who built a shrine dedicated to Nazis in a public park, and then when he was eventually removed he sued the city and won, and the mayor signed a letter of apology to him and officially had all mentions of wrongdoing removed from his record.

Woah really? Which episode of Portlandia talked about that.

anthonypants
May 6, 2007

by Nyc_Tattoo
Dinosaur Gum

turn it up TURN ME ON posted:

Woah really? Which episode of Portlandia talked about that.
Well, I don't own a television,

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

turn it up TURN ME ON posted:

Woah really? Which episode of Portlandia talked about that.

Dude's name is Kruger, because of course it is.

anthonypants
May 6, 2007

by Nyc_Tattoo
Dinosaur Gum
Also our weed is bad. Don't move to Portland http://katu.com/news/local/man-suffers-rare-flu-like-syndrome-from-smoking-medical-marijuana

Jack2142
Jul 17, 2014

Shitposting in Seattle

Meydey posted:

I'm fine with making the border along the Cascades. Maybe all the way to Ellensburg so we get Leavenworth, but leave out Yakima.
Cascadia can look like the northern version of Chile.

Why are you cutting out all the minorities on the east side in Yakima and the wine (which I don't drink)?

Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Jan 4, 2017

FUCK SNEEP
Apr 21, 2007





Nice what's the percentage on that??

Bar Ran Dun
Jan 22, 2006




anthonypants posted:

It was mentioned briefly but a few years back we had a cop in Portland who built a shrine dedicated to Nazis in a public park, and then when he was eventually removed he sued the city and won, and the mayor signed a letter of apology to him and officially had all mentions of wrongdoing removed from his record.

Saint Simons has segregated graveyards. Savannah had a "black" hospital, memorial, and a "white" hospital, chandler. Up here it seems more to be lovely individuals as opposed to holy poo poo entrenched racist social structures. Also Oregon does seem to have more racists than Washington.

anthonypants
May 6, 2007

by Nyc_Tattoo
Dinosaur Gum

BrandorKP posted:

Saint Simons has segregated graveyards. Savannah had a "black" hospital, memorial, and a "white" hospital, chandler. Up here it seems more to be lovely individuals as opposed to holy poo poo entrenched racist social structures. Also Oregon does seem to have more racists than Washington.
I'd say that racism in Oregon is more subtle, dog whistle-style racism. It seems like every few months there'll be an article about Confederate flags popping up, and if you spend enough time in Portland you'll see people with "Celtic" tattoos or trucks with Norse/Viking hammers or iron crosses or Nazi skulls. If you're not white you might be told there aren't any vacancies or jobs for you. Maybe if there were more black people up here we'd have a huge private prison industry and chaingangs on plantations and lynchings, but since Oregon refused entry to blacks for decades, we never really got the systemic groundwork of segregation that southern states did. But we still have kids who look like this and believe they're part of the master race.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

BrandorKP posted:

Also Oregon does seem to have more racists than Washington.

Unless you count racism towards Native Americans, in which case there are more racists in Washington just by dint of there being more people there.

As far as segregation goes, Oregon did not allow free blacks to enter the state for a very long time and was just getting around to removing sundown laws and other discriminatory but legally unenforceable laws in the early oughts. At that time and there was actually debate a bout whether we ahould do so.

There was no need for laws to segregate things later on; after we barred black people from coming here and made poo poo miserable for them if they did for a few decades, we didn't have a very large black population to begin with and entrenched structures and redlining did the work for us.

therobit fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Jan 4, 2017

got any sevens
Feb 9, 2013

by Cyrano4747

Wtf

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anthonypants
May 6, 2007

by Nyc_Tattoo
Dinosaur Gum
Also we have homeless dying in the streets http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/01/hypothermia_kills_man_sleeping.html

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