May 6, 2020
Page 2
Young Activist Runs for Metro Council
Position has no
incumbent in
crowded field
b everly c orbell
t he P ortland o bserver
When Cameron Whitten moved
to Portland at age 18, he had no
place to live and no resources, but
a local nonprofit with a long histo-
ry of helping homeless youth took
him in. Now he wants to give back
and is running for the District 5
seat on the Portland Metro Coun-
cil, a regional government serving
Multnomah, Clackamas and Wash-
ington counties.
“I was a client at Outside Inn,
I had access to mentors, to meals,
to shelter, and I had advocates that
helped me enroll in school and be
successful,” Whitten said, describ-
ing his experience with the organi-
zation and a concern that too many
others, like he was 10 years ago,
are still vulnerable.
“Our world is so broken right
now, and I think the resources that
currently exist do not adequate-
ly meet the needs we have,” he
said. “There are people who are
extremely vulnerable with very in-
tense challenge.”
Whitten, in an interview with
the Portland Observer before the
by
coronavirus pandemic caused a
worldwide health crisis, said he
felt lucky that he had been able to
find successful employment and a
career in public service. But while
he credited the support he’s had, he
also pointed to his own hard work
to make a productive life for him-
self.
To focus on his campaign,
Whitten ended his tenure as exec-
utive director of the Q Center to
devote the time necessary to win
an election. Besides the Q Center
which offers programs to support
the LGBTQ+ community, Whitten
has served as founder of the racial
justice nonprofit Brown Hope,
known for the Reparations Power
Hour and Blackstreet Bakery. He
also serves on the boards of Reach
Community Development and Pio-
neer Courthouse Square.
A long time activist, Whitten
led protests following the deaths
of Trayvon Martin, Eric Gardner,
Sandra Bland and other people of
color, and in 2012 he staged a 56-
day hunger strike in front of City
Hall that focused attention on the
suffering caused by the city’s hous-
ing crisis.
On top of all that, in 2016 he
earned his bachelor’s degree in
economics from Portland State
University, and he is currently
studying for his master’s in busi-
tunities that have happened.”
Service to others is his life’s
calling, Whitten said, but his great
passion is racial justice, and his
initial encounter with racism was
when he first got to Oregon.
“We were in Albany and went
there to stay at my friend’s dad’s
house, but after one night the dad
asked us to leave because he was
uncomfortable having a black man
in his house,” he said. “Coming
from Virginia, where I never had
experienced overt racism like that,
it made no sense to me. I actually
laughed at myself and said, ‘What!
There are racist people in Oregon?’
Ten years later I no longer find it
funny.”
The historic racist devastation
of the black community in Port-
land by gentrification and so-called
civic improvements or Urban Re-
newal, cannot be overstated, Whit-
ten said.
“Place is so important. Place
shapes our identity, it shapes our
community and it shapes our fu-
Photo by b everly c orbell /t he P ortland o bserver
ture,” he said. “In Portland, we
Steeped in Portland political activism for a decade, Cameron
took that from our black commu-
Whitten is running for a seat on the Metro Council in the May
nity.”
19 Primary. He most recently served as executive director of the
Whitten is so passionate about
nonprofit Q Center and is founder of the racial justice nonprofit
the loss to the black culture in north
Brown Hope.
and northeast Portland that he even
ness administration.
number of years I’ve been on this launched a walking tour, “The Hid-
“I’m 28 and the impact I have planet,” Whitten said. “But I think
c ontinued on P age 5
made has been outsized to the it speaks to my passion and oppor-
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Week
in
Review
COVID Hospitalizations Fall
State officials reported the number
of Oregonians sick enough to be
hospitalized with coronavirus hit
a new low Sunday. There were
92 active hospitalizations May
3. That number represents a drop
of more than 40%t from the 156
reported hospitalizations on April
8, the first day state officials dis-
closed active hospitalizations for
confirmed cases of COVID-19.
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Protest at State Capitol
Hundreds of people opposed to
Oregon’s stay-at-home order
demonstrated at the state Capitol
on Saturday as public health offi-
cials in the state announced doz-
ens more cases and five additional
deaths from COVID-19. Most of
the protesters were white and did
not wear face masks, and many
waved American flags and Trump
campaign signs.
gized last week to people who have
encountered problems trying to ap-
ply for unemployment during the
coronavirus crisis. A record number
of people have applied for bene-
fits, but many have been stymied
by breakdowns in the system. “If
you’re waiting on an unemploy-
ment claim: I hear your frustration,”
Brown, a Democrat, wrote on Twit-
ter. “I’m sorry for the delays.”
Hispanics Hit Hard by Virus
New data show that nearly half of the
people who have tested positive for
COVID-19 in Washington County,
representing Hillsboro, Beaverton
and other local cities identify as
Hispanic, even though the coun-
ty’s overall Hispanic population is
16.5%. The pandemic brings into
sharp focus the systemic social,
economic and health inequities that
many of our Latinx residents already
face, Washington County public
health officials announced.
Bottle Drop Complaints
A dispute over large crowds at
a BottleDrop center at Hayden
Meadows in north Portland has
escalated with the owner of the
retail strip mall hiring guards and
fencing off a vacant lot where peo-
ple were lining up to return cans.
The retail development’s CEO Va-
nessa Sturgeon said the company
needed to step in to prevent drug
dealing and fights, but representa-
Record Unemployment Claims tives of the bottle drop said it was
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown apolo- the guards causing chaos.