6
Wednesday, August 12, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
In the
PINES
By T. Lee Brown
On the corner of
Cascade & Larch
Virus or no virus, a slow
river of traffic wends its way
through our small town every
Saturday. Flanked by Wild
West storefronts, drivers
have something new to look
at this year: Sisters residents
demonstrating for justice and
equality.
Near the iconic bronze
statue of a rearing horse,
people line Cascade Avenue/
Highway 20 on both sides.
One day I joined a group of
teenagers, retirees, children,
and all ages in between. Most
of them appeared white.
Masks were worn; social dis-
tancing was kept loosely.
The signs were all home-
made. <Rural and Anti-
Racist,= read one. <Racism
is not patriotism,= and <Time
to heal our white privi-
lege,= others proclaimed.
One protester got specific:
<White Accountability =
Reparations.=
American flags waved
overhead and in the hands of
children. A woman handed
out fans with the letters
<BLM= carefully glued on
in what looked like African
cloth. I could hardly believe
that a few weeks ago, the
letters BLM signified the
Bureau of Land Management
around these parts.
It was a big day for tour-
ists. Some appeared flum-
moxed by this display of
solidarity in a majority white
town. Many broke out in
grins, hastily rolled down
their windows and hollered
out support.
Others shook their heads
in disgust. A number of white
fists gave the thumbs-down.
A few drivers burned rubber
and drove erratically as they
sped off. I wasn9t there last
Saturday, but protesters tell
me that one guy drove by
seven times, rollin9 coal in
an attempt to scare them off
4 or at least damage their
lungs.
One day when I attended,
many drivers stared straight
ahead, faces set in stony
expressions. They appeared
to be of various ages and eth-
nicities. They drove sporty
SUVs hauling kayaks, trucks
pulling livestock trailers.
Little cars, big cars, semis,
Harleys.
When a car emblazoned
with the Deschutes County
Sheriff9s Office logo crawled
through, a person of color
pushed his way to the front.
The deputy inside, a white
man, waved in a friendly
manner.
The protester was Luke
R., age 28, who identifies as
BIPOC. (He is of African,
Brazilian, Portuguese and
Native descent.) Luke said
he was affiliated with Central
Oregon Peacekeepers, <a
loosely built group of activ-
ists including people of color,
veterans, members of clergy
and punk rockers.=
It was his first day check-
ing out the ongoing protests
in Sisters. He appreciated
the <really good turnout.=
Sisters Indivisible, a progres-
sive organization, counted 85
protesters.
Originally from Arizona,
Luke has lived in Bend for
12 years.
<I grew up where half the
billboards were in English,
half in Spanish,= he said.
Yet he attended a private
school where he was one of
only three students of color.
He experiences more racism
PHOTO BY TL BROWN
Here, and across America, small-town residents make their voices heard.
here in Central Oregon than
he did there.
A U.S. Forest Service
truck drove by. Its white
driver looked straight ahead,
stone-faced. Shortly after-
ward came a USFS law
enforcement pickup, whose
occupant offered a neigh-
borly wave. In an older
pickup truck with Tennessee
license plates, an elderly
white woman sat straight
upright, wearing a country-
style plaid shirt. She nodded,
gave a modest smile, and
waved.
A Black woman popped
her head out of a van win-
dow. She and her companion,
a white woman, yelled that
the protesters were going to
hell. <Repent, sinners!= read
their cardboard sign.
<At the end of the day, this
country was built on allow-
ing everyone to have a voice
and to feel comfortable voic-
ing that,= Luke R. told me.
A young Black man drove
a low-slung, sporty red car
through a slowdown, staring
the stone stare.
<God bless America!=
shouted a white man from his
vehicle. <I agree!= responded
a demonstrator. OK, maybe
that was me.
Two white Sisters High
School students held up
signs. Sage R., age 15, said
she was sending a message
that <Black lives are just as
important as anyone else9s.=
Sixteen-year-old Rachel
L. said, <Black people are
oppressed.= Race and white
privilege were discussed
at Sisters High School
while reading <To Kill a
Mockingbird= in literature
class. The subject was also
brought up in the advanced
placement U.S. History class
she and Sage attended.
<I feel like we9re lucky,=
Rachel said.
A white man in a black
F-450 made his way through
the bottleneck to the open
road, where he could speed
off without interacting with
anyone. Then he yelled
angrily back at the crowd,
dropping N-bombs all the
way.
<Did he say&??= one
protester asked another.
< Ye s h e d i d , = s h e
answered, <with a hard r.=
Another big black truck
pulled through the intersec-
tion at Cascade and Larch,
hauling a trailer of ATVs.
This time the driver, also
white, flashed a smile and
gave a thumbs-up.
Then a shiny SUV pulled
out from its parking space
at Suttle Tea and joined the
highway traffic. A young girl
with dark skin and black hair
looked out the window at the
people and their signs. Her
eyes widened and her jaw
dropped in surprise. Then she
smiled a big, delighted smile.
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