M artin L uther K ing J r .
Page 10
2016 special edition
January 13, 2016
From Hunger Strikes to Board Rooms
C ontinued froM P age 8
Lucky might not be how most
people describe such a situation,
but Whitten is known for his abili-
ty to spin good luck out of difficult
circumstances.
“Yes, it sounds kind of crazy to
call myself ‘lucky,’ but I was for-
tunate enough to have the support
of local nonprofits and countless
community members,” he ex-
plains. “Because of their love, I
have the resources and confidence
to pursue my hopes and dreams.”
And pursue them, he is. Only
this fall, Whitten became exec-
utive director of local nonprofit
Know Your City, an organization
that brings social justice art, me-
dia, tours, and events to Portland.
Just 24-years-old, he is already
a local fixture for his participation
in dozens of high-profile activist
moments over the past few years,
be they a 55-day hunger strike for
housing justice, to leading activist
during Occupy Portland protests,
to a run for mayor in 2012. He
talks about the issues that brought
him to those events and the evo-
lution and change in his political
organizing techniques.
While Whitten expresses he has
burnt out on some levels of his
Photo by o livia o livia /t he P ortland o bserver
Cameron Whitten adorns his Know Your City office with an illustration of Martin Luther King, Jr. walking.
youthful activism, he recalls Oc-
cupy, the social justice movement
that started with Occupy Wall Street
protests against social and econom-
ic inequality around the world, as a
life changing moment for him.
“I remember the streets of
downtown, filled with tens of
thousands of people, all mobilized
with the dream of a better com-
munity. It gave me conviction. I
felt something stirring inside me,
telling me that my experience as
a homeless kid, as an abused kid,
as a low-income person of color,
instilled me with stories that could
be used as a vehicle of change to
make my community better,” he
and racism were a problem affect-
ing a large community of people
it made him feel like he was not
alone in fighting those issues.
His journey to establish a foot-
ing in Portland often meant finding
a place to hang his head at night,
including the dozens of times lo-
cal churches gave him a place to
Photo by o livia o livia /t he P ortland o bserver
Know Your City is known for dozens of popular history and city-
based art projects, including Comics For Change, featuring
different community leaders like Paul Knauls (above) the unofficial
“Mayor of Northeast Portland.”
says. “While Occupy didn’t have
the tactics, lasting presence, or
outcome I would have like to see
at this moment, I wouldn’t be do-
ing the work that now fulfills my
heart if I hadn’t been there.”
Whitten says getting involved
in justice issues helped him find
what he called a “sense of purpose
and belonging.” When he started
seeing that poverty, family abuse
stay, or the friends and people he
met along the way took him in. I
myself recall a day when Whitten
was on my couch, and if you ask
other locals about him, you might
find they or someone they know
have also hosted him, met him at
a rally, or broken bread with him
somewhere down the road.
Whitten says he moved up into
his position with Know Your City
by volunteering and getting deep-
ly involved with the group. He
was asked to join the organiza-
tion’s board of directors and later
was nominated for the executive
director position by the departing
executive director.
Whitten says he excited to help
the community through his new
role, thought he has not forgotten
his roots. Earlier this year he was
awarded a scholarship to take the
school aptitude test, which was
presented to him by Oregon Attor-
ney General Ellen Rosenblum. He
is finishing up his degree in Eco-
nomics at Portland State Universi-
ty. He says that hasn’t stopped him
from experiencing discrimination,
however.
“Earlier this year, I was tres-
passed from the Portland Street-
car,” he says of his ongoing ex-
periences as a black man in the
notoriously white city.
He says it happened after a
streetcar he was riding had a leaky
vent that was releasing a slightly
burning smell, which worried sev-
eral riders.
“I felt the need to say some-
thing,” he explains, but says the
driver ignored him. He says he
went back twice, to which the
driver responded with mounting
hostility, telling him to leave him
alone and that the issue was not a
problem. Eventually, Whitten was
told to get off the streetcar.
“I refused to do that because
people of color are constantly be-
ing told we are threatening or ag-
gressive and I believe it needs to
stop,” he says, explaining he was
on the advisory board of the Port-
land Bureau of Transportation and
TriMet, and a firm believer that
public transit should be accessible
to everyone.
When he refused to leave, Port-
land Police took him off the car
and issued him a citation for tres-
passing in the second degree.
“I was used to standing up for
other people, for other issues, but
this time, it really hurt, because I
was standing up for me, for my
own right to be black and exist,”
he explains.
The charges eventually dis-
missed, but he says he no longer
takes the streetcar because of what
happened, even though all Port-
land State University students are
allowed to ride it free of charge.
“Discrimination exists and
there is work to be done,” he says.
The late civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr. gives him
inspiration to continue his work,
sediment made clear by then illus-
tration of King that overlooks his
office.
“I’m honored,” he says, “I am
so inspired by the leaders who
came before me and I always tell
myself I have more work to do.”