Portland observer., January 16, 2019, 2019 Special Edition, Page 23, Image 23

January 16, 2019
M Artin l uther K ing J r .
Page 23
2019 special edition
Advocacy Work Transforms Young Leader
C ontinueD froM p age 12
Whitten said he’s experienced
struggle from a very young
age, both in his home and in
the form of systemic oppres-
sion.
“I’ve experienced what it’s
like to be denied your basic
humanity, your basic rights.
And one thing that I just viv-
idly remember, ever since I
could remember, was that I
had nobody there to advocate
for me. It took me a while but
I realized I am an advocate,
I could be my own advocate,
and I could advocate for oth-
ers. And I’ve been doing that
ever since,” Whitten recalled.
Searching for his place in
the world, Whitten bought a
Greyhound bus ticket from
his home town in Virginia and
headed west, back in 2009.
“Portland just became my
destiny,” he said.
A couple years after that,
Whitten became involved with
the Occupy Portland move-
ment, an offshoot of Occupy
Wallstreet in Zuccotti Park,
New York City, which brought
international attention to the
economic inequalities that
plague the United States in re-
sponse to the 2008 economic
recession.
The Portland chapter of the
movement became the largest
encampment of its kind on the
West Coast, drawing in an es-
timated 10,000 people at its
launch on Oct. 6, 2011.
Whitten was there for the
entire 39+ days that the pro-
testors occupied Chapman
Square in downtown and other
city parks. He said that experi-
ence, the first civil organizing
work he’d ever done, embold-
ened him to be more coura-
geous in telling his own story
and confidence in his abilities.
And he’d sacrificed housing,
going to school, and other re-
sponsibilities to participate.
“At this time I didn’t have
a degree, didn’t have a driv-
er’s license, didn’t have a job.
I was just some young, black,
queer kid and thinking that I
wasn’t worth much, I had no
value. And Occupy was like
‘no, you are human, you have
value.’ And I’ve taken that and
kept it going,” Whitten re-
membered.
In the year following the
Occupy movement, Whitten
photo by
D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
In addition to his role as executive director of the Q Center, Cameron Whitten, is behind the non-profit group Brown
Hope, a social justice group geared toward lifting local African Americans up economically. Brown Hope has hosted
regular community building meetings for people of color and has funneled donations made by white donors as economic
reparations for the suffering black people have experience because of the history of racism in America.
staged a 55-day hunger strike together and build community, “reparations” in the form of which is an economic devel-
in front of City Hall to bring discuss, and take action on lo- donations from white donors; opment program for black
attention to housing issues and cal political issues and receive another is Blackstreet Bakery, people in plant-based baking.
even ran unsuccessful cam-
paigns for Mayor and Oregon
State Treasurer, still in his ear-
ly 20s.
Now 27, his advocacy work
has transformed quite a bit
since then, moving toward
more sophisticated, long-term
strategies, to address inequi-
ties.
“It’s interesting to have
come from a background of
direct action and anti-estab-
lishment politics and now
I’m at a place where I work
at a desk every day. And I’m
schmoozing with the Mayor or
major donors or real estate de-
velopers. So the work does not
seem the same to me at all. But
I do feel I have the opportuni-
ties to take the learning that I
had and that paradigm and to
find ways to really just shift
the structures that I could op-
erate in,” Whitten said. “I re-
ally want to build a movement
and not so much be a part of a
movement,” he added.
In addition to working at the
Q Center, Whitten is the found-
er of Brown Hope, founded
last year, and focuses on so-
cial justice issues. The organi-
zation has two main programs:
one is an on-going event for
black, brown, and indigenous
community members to come