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The Atlantic magazine on Friday, July 22, 2016, posted a piece describing Portland as the nation's whitest big city.
(Bruce Ely/The Oregonian/File photo)
The Atlantic magazine on Friday published a stinging profile of Portland on its website, dubbing it "the Whitest City in America."
The 3,500-word piece says Portland - "known for its progressivism" -- has earned that title among the nation's big cities because of the 72.2 percent of residents who are white, and 6.3 percent who are African American.
But beyond the demographics, the article delves into the history of Oregon, and features what it describes as a photo of a Ku Klux Klan march through Ashland, possibly in the 1920s. The report also notes that the state forbade black people from living within its borders when it entered the union in 1859.
While that prohibition was later repealed, whites today have taken over close-in neighborhoods such as North Williams Avenue - displacing black residents to the "far-off fringes" as "fancy condos" and "juice stores and hipster bars with shuffleboard courts" have popped up, the article states.
The article also taps the experiences of various minority residents, including one African American man who said that although overt racism has subsided over the decades, he still notices "racial tensions when he walks into a restaurant full of white people and it goes silent..."
The piece quotes the former organizing director of The Urban League of Portland as saying it's tough for the black community to talk about racial issues during meetings when "60 white environmental activists" show up with their own concerns and crowd them out.
So what is your take on The Atlantic's report? Does it fit your perception of Portland?
Is it sobering? A much needed reality check that brings the topic of race to the forefront of public discussion?
Or is it a cheap shot that unfairly singles the city out, while failing to recognize efforts at valuing diversity or that these racial problems exist nationwide?
-- Aimee Green
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