If the white nationalist rhetoric is trickling down into our community, then we will push back from the ground up
Every now and then, something shocking rattles a community’s foundation.
It’s been one week since a man spewing racist epithets on a TriMet MAX train stabbed two men to death and seriously injured another. The men killed and wounded were trying to defend two young black women, the target of the killer’s horrific attack. All of us at Street Roots are saddened by these events, the loss of life and the latest reminder of the toxic racism people of color face every day.
We’re also inspired by how people have responded in support of the victims, in opposition to hate, and in solidarity with the whole community. It is impossible to look upon the memorial at the Hollywood Transit Station where the violence occurred without feeling the overwhelming love displayed there. It is difficult to make room for it all.
In its wake, however, are rallies of the so-called alt-right, whose platform of racial and religious intolerance the killer embraced. The online world is abuzz with political extrapolations over the event. Labels are flying. But it wasn’t politics that abused those girls or killed those men, it was hate and intolerance, fueled, possibly, by mental illness. Still, national political leaders are validating and empowering the most basic impulses of bigotry in this country – exploiting ignorance and hate for their own profit and power. There are terrible events happening all across this country under the banner this administration is waving.
As much as we would like to silence the hate, Portland honors free speech and expression above all else. Bring it on. We can take it. We’re stronger than that.
Communities of color have endured these kinds of aggressions for generations, right here in Portland. This event may have rattled hearts across the city – even reached across the nation – but it is definitely not a new thing.
And if the perpetrator had invoked Islam, we all know he would be labeled a terrorist. Instead it was the language of the extreme right used in our highest office, and reinforced by broadcasters on our airwaves and online. It is as much a gross distortion of “patriotism” as most of us know it, as terrorism is of Islam.
The killer in this case may be considered an individual and his violence an isolated incident, but he and many others are tethered together ideologically by white nationalist organizations that exist all across Oregon and the nation.
In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center said that among metropolitan areas, Portland has had one of the highest rates of hate incidents since the election. The SPLC invited people to report incidents through its website , and since the election, it has gathered nearly 1,500 reports nationwide – and they continue to roll in.
What happened on May 26, 2017, was horrific, even if it wasn’t a total aberration.
We hope the emotions Portland is feeling now can take deeper roots. There’s a vibrant network of cultural and civic organizations people can plug into to learn more about the diversity in our community and get more engaged. If the white nationalist rhetoric is trickling down into our community, then we will push back from the ground up.
As more people move into our city and region, with each passing year, Portland needs to reaffirm who and what we stand for. We stand united. We stand for love.
