June 7, 2017
Page 15
Fighting Racism
C ontinued froM P age 11
social media,” James explained.
“That’s a huge difference from
days past.”
The policy director of the Asia
Pacific American Network of Ore-
gon, Zahir Janmohamed, says that
while the stabbings have brought
new media interest to the issue of
racism in Oregon, Portland’s com-
munities of color are well aware
of the region’s historical white su-
premacist activity.
“This has been happening for
quite some time,” Janmohamed
told the Portland Observer.
“We’ve seen the presence of white
supremacist groups.”
According to a March 23 study
released by the nonprofit inves-
tigative journalism group Pro-
Publica, Oregonians reported the
highest numbers of hate and bias
crimes per capita in the country.
In a widely shared opinion
piece that he penned for CNN,
Janmohamed writes about how an
extensive string of racially moti-
vated attacks have been making
waves in Portland’s communities
of color over the past year.
James says that ignorance of
Oregon’s racist past must be con-
fronted for the region to move to-
ward greater racial equity.
“White people in this state and
in this city don’t know the area’s
history,” James explained. “It’s
not taught in schools.”
Oregon’s state constitution
initially included a series of ex-
clusion laws that banned black
residents until 1926. These mea-
sures continue to haunt the state’s
demographic makeup, as 2013
Census Bureau data reveals that
just two percent of the state’s pop-
ulation is black.
Janmohamed says that Ore-
gon’s white population has a re-
sponsibility to counter racism and
white supremacy.
“I’m Muslim -- I’ve been hear-
ing for as long as I can remember
that I need to go to Muslims and
talk to them about problems of
violence and extremism,” he said.
“I’m trying to address problems
that I see within the Muslim com-
munity. Where are white Portland-
ers on this issue?”
Statements from other officials
including Mayor Ted Wheeler and
community organizations such as
the Oregon AFL-CIO labor union
and the Oregon Justice Resource
Center expressed both condolenc-
es for the families of the victims
and solidarity with the state’s im-
migrant communities.
James says that the community
Photo by Z aChary s enn /t he P ortland o bserver
Visitors pay their respects to the victims of a racially-motivated stabbing attack on a MAX light rail
train at the Hollywood/42nd Avenue Transit Center. The front of the station’s concrete façade has
become a makeshift memorial.
and the city at large should con-
tinue to rally around and support
the families of the two men killed,
the man who survived the attack,
and the two teenage girls the three
heroes came to help when they
were harassed by hate speech, in-
cluding anti-Muslim taunts. One
of the girls was wearing a hijab.
“I don’t want the two young
girls to get lost in this conversa-
tion,” said James, “and in some
sense I think they have been.”
Jackson says that while the in-
cident is tragic, she is heartened
by the willingness of the men
who came to help the two young
women and stand up against big-
otry, Rick Best, Taliesin Myrd-
din Namkai-Meche and Micah
Fletcher.
“They did it because it was
the right thing to do,” Jackson
said, adding, “I wish that we had
more people who did those sorts
of things so that we can engage in
a system of checking people’s be-
havior, hopefully without the loss
of life.”
James says that as Portlanders
mourn the lives lost, they must
also remember the racially moti-
vated hatred that resulted in the
violence.
“This conversation is really
about the need to understand what
these motivations are,” James
said. “This is about racism, pure
and simple.”
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C ALENDAR
June 2017
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
FRIDAY SATURDAY
1
2
Stand for Children
Day
4
Aesop’s Birthday
First Ford Made,
1896.
First Hot Air Bal-
loon Flight, 1783
5
First Apple II com-
puters sold, 1977
National Ginger-
bread Day
R
6
7
World Environment
Day
First Drive-in Movie
Theater, 1933
Nikki Giovanni born,
1943
George Mendoza
born, 1955
Radio Patented,
1896
8
Frank Lloyd Wright
Born in 1867
SUNDAY
3
First U.S. Space
Walk By Ed White
in 1965
9
World Egg Day
Donald Duck born,
1934
10
Maurice Sendak
born, 1928
National Yo-Yo Day