PSU Portland Civil Rights Project Script

 Although the early period of the African American experience in Portland has been fairly well documented, after 1955 there is very little documentation, particularly of the civil rights movement in Portland. As an effort to remedy this, the PSU PDX Civil Rights Project’s goal is to add this important part of history to the public record.  In this presentation, we focus on the areas of employment, housing, and education.

Oregon has a long history of discrimination against African Americans. During the 19^th century, a series of Black exclusionary laws were passed, which excluded African Americans from even coming to Oregon.  This included an exclusionary clause in Oregon’s Constitution, which was not repealed until 1926.  However, evidence shows that African Americans lived in Oregon despite the exclusionary laws, many living in the Portland area.  Most of the information here focuses on African Americans in Portland.

During the first half of the 20^th century, most African Americans in Portland were employed with the railroads.  The only employment available to African Americans on the railroad was as chefs, waiters, or porters, also known as “red caps.”  The majority of these men were recruited from the South, as far East as Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  The recruiters from the railroads promised higher wages than their current employment offered, and many of these recruits were farmers and sharecroppers.  This allowed many railroad men to earn a living wage and most were able to own their own homes and pay for their children’s college education: [Michael "Chappie" Grice quote]

Other large employer’s in Portland for African American men and women were at the Portland Hotel and the Golden West Hotel.  The Portland Hotel hired African Americans, however they were not allowed as patrons of the hotel.  On the other hand, the Golden West both hired and catered to African Americans.   

In the early 20^th century most of these businesses were located downtown, where most African Americans lived and worked.  After the construction of the Broadway Bridge, much of the African American community moved into the Albina neighborhood, and African American-owned businesses followed their clientele across the river.

World War II changed the face of African-American employment in the city. The booming war industry attracted large numbers of African Americans from other parts of the United States seeking employment and between 1941 and 1943; fifteen to twenty thousand Africans Americans came to Portland, many of whom found work at the Kaiser shipyards. [multiple quotes]

The war ended and the 1948 flood of Vanport caused many African-Americans living in the Portland area to leave the city due to poor housing and poor employment prospects.  Those that remained faced a highly discriminatory job market.  Education and experience were less important than skin color in the hiring practices of Portland businesses, and institutionalized racism forced many into lower paying, menial jobs.  Even though Oregon had passed a Fair Employment Practices Act in 1949, there was little enforcement and few businesses were willing to hire African American professionals.  Various groups led boycotts against discriminatory businesses, including Fred Meyer and Grandmother’s Cookies: [multiple quotes]

Labor unions were notoriously discriminatory towards African Americans, and limited their ability to obtain higher paying blue-collar jobs.  This discrimination caused a ripple effect on other businesses.  Dr. Booker Lewis, an African American dentist recalls the impact it had on his business: [Dr Booker Lewis quote]

In the 1950s and 60s African American owned businesses faced tremendous hardship because of the construction of the Memorial Coliseum, the I-5 Freeway, and the Lloyd Center. I-5 diverted traffic away from the streets where African American businesses were located, and less traffic meant fewer customers.  Construction for the Memorial Coliseum and I-5 caused many African American businesses to be torn down. [multiple quotes]

In the 1960s, Emmanuel hospital also moved into the Albina district, destroying 188 houses and other businesses.  This essentially wiped out the heart of the community, forcing it to move to Union Avenue. Albina had been a vibrant area, complete with a nationally renowned jazz scene. The city told the community that the new hospital would provide jobs and create new business opportunities for the city.  The city had also hoped to build a Veteran’s hospital on the site.  Unfortunately after the project was already in motion and houses destroyed, funding fell through leaving vast amounts of land vacant.  Construction on the empty lots did not start until 2008, which meant the land was vacant for almost 40 years. [multiple quotes]

Unemployment and poverty levels were consistently higher in African American neighborhoods throughout the 20^th century.  In Portland in 1960, 8.2% of African Americans were unemployed versus 3.7% of whites.  The census also showed that while most families in Portland earned an average income between $10,000-$25,000 a year, most African American families in the city earned $10,000 or less a year.  The census also showed that most African Americans were employed as either clerical or service workers. [quotes on employment]

One of the areas African Americans could hope to find work was in the public sector.  These were more stable positions; however, the majorities were employed in building maintenance and trade positions.  In 1968 3.2% of the city’s employees were African American, a comparably high percentage, though all but 24 of these employees earned a lower end wage.  The Model Cities Program during the late 1960s opened up new employment avenues for African American professionals and some recall how it helped their careers: [Alcena Boozer quote]

Emergency services were one area where the government failed to integrate.  In the years between 1954 and 1968, there were only 9 African American Portland police officers, and there were no African American firefighters employed by the city.  Dick Bogle recalls his experiences as a Portland Police Officer: [Dick Bogle] 

Other African Americans became business owners, some catering to a predominantly African American clientele, such as Charlotte Rutherford’s Black Fashions on Union Avenue: [Charlotte Rutherford quote]

By the early eighties, the Police department only had 13 officers employed with none above the rank of Lieutenant, and only one African American Sergeant.  It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Portland appointed it’s first African American police chief, Charles Moose.

African-American owned businesses have also had a difficult time in Portland’s history.  In 1981, two off-duty Portland police officers tossed four dead opossums in front of the African American-owned restaurant, the Burger Barn.  Police Commissioner Charles Jordan fired officers, Craig Ward and Jim Galloway.  However, an independent investigator declared the incident an “ill-advised prank” and re-instated the officers with back pay.  Many people recall the impact of the opossum incident: [multiple quotes]

Another incident happened in February of 1990 during the Union Avenue/ Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard street name change. Bernie Foster, the African American owner of the Skanner newspaper and the driving force behind the street name change, called for a boycott of businesses supporting the Union Avenue name.   Within days his business was firebombed and he his business annex was destroyed, along with the Skanner’s archives.  As these examples show structural racism was evident in Portland even into the 1990s.    

[break]

Housing has been a perennial problem for African Americans in Portland.

At the turn of the 20^th century, the African American community was concentrated on North Broadway near Union Station as most African Americans were employed by the railroad industry. With the advent of streetcars and the opening of the Broadway Bridge in 1913, the majority of African Americans moved across the Willamette River to Portland’s eastside. At this time, the African American population was about 1,700.

In the 1920’s, the Portland Realty Board made it official policy to prevent African Americans from moving outside of the eastside neighborhoods they already occupied.  The 1919 guidelines established by the Portland Realty Board declared it unethical to sell property to African Americans and Asians in white neighborhoods and the rules were so strictly enforced that going against this was cause for losing one’s realtor’s license.  Restrictive housing covenants continued through the early 1950s.

During the 1930’s, The African American population became more established in the Williams Avenue district. Homeownership rates increased from 23.4 percent in 1910 to 42.6 percent in the mid-1930s.  Even though housing discrimination was a serious issue, many African Americans lived throughout the city in integrated neighborhoods. [multiple quotes]

World War II created a labor need in Portland’s shipyards and housing shortage in Portland. Prior to World War II, there were fewer than two thousand African Americans in Portland, but from 1941 to 1943, Portland’s African American population increased by 20,000 to 25,000.  Many pre-war residents took in the newcomers: [multiple quotes]

The population boom created a need for an estimated 37,000 housing units, but the Housing Authority of Portland built only 4,900 units.  Industrialist Edgar Kaiser intervened and built Vanport north of Portland and the Housing Authority of Portland also added housing projects at Guild’s Lake and Swan Island.  Some people still recall the new housing developments:[multiple quotes]

After the war ended, the Portland City Council began to destroy the war-era housing to make way for industrial development.  Both Guild’s Lake and Swan Island’s housing developments were torn down.  In 1948, Vanport was also destroyed in a flood, and housing became a critical issue in Portland.  Between 1940 and 1950, Portland’s African American population increased by 7,500 residents, and about half crowded into the Williams Ave district. At this time, the African American community was concentrated in four neighborhoods south of Fremont Avenue: Lower Albina, Elliot, Irvington, and Lloyd.

The post-war period also brought urban renewal to Portland.  In the 1950s, the city approved a proposal to build the Memorial Coliseum in the lower Albina district, displacing hundreds of African American families. 476 homes were destroyed, 224 of those were owned by non-whites.  Many people remember the impact of the Memorial Coliseum’s construction: [multiple quotes]

Urban renewal continued with the Construction of I-5 and Emanuel Hospital. In 1960, four out of five Black Portlanders lived in Albina.  Local African American community groups such as the Albina Neighborhood Improvement Program (ANIP) did put up a fight against these municipal projects but in the end their efforts were to prove futile.  In the end, almost 800 homes and businesses were destroyed during the 1950s and 1960s for urban renewal. 

Black home ownership also declined during this period, dropping from 57 to 46 percent. Key factors in this decline were the large-scale displacement due to urban renewal, wide-spread unemployment among the Black community, unfair loan terms asked by banks, and the real estate industry’s discriminatory inflation of housing prices.  Several people recall the problems they faced finding housing: [multiple quotes]

By the late 1960’s, America’s racial climate was at a fever pitch.  Riots swept across the country, including two in Portland. There was a small riot in Irving Park in 1967, but in 1969, Portland experienced four days of riots along Union Avenue:[multiple quotes]

The city’s longstanding neglect and mistreatment of the Black community had left many Portland African Americans frustrated and disillusioned.    

Throughout the 1970’s, residential segregation remained present in Portland and this led to sustained school segregation. By 1970, the median value of homes in the Albina area was two thirds of the value of homes in the rest of Portland.

By the 1980’s, systematic disinvestment in Albina changed the landscape of north and northeast Portland, characterized by absentee landlordism and redlining by the banking and real estate industry. In addition, predatory lenders and speculators bled the Black community with unjust contracts. During the 1980’s, the value of homes in Albina continued to drop to 58 percent of the city’s median. Housing abandonment, crack cocaine, gang warfare, prostitution, redlining, speculation, economic stagnation, and population loss all negatively affected the Albina area. Many residents remember how serious the situation was in Albina: [Shamsud-Din quote] [multiple quotes]

The situation changed in the 1990’s as the city began to reinvest in Northeast Portland, making it far more attractive to white Portlanders.  After years of efforts and fighting to clean up the Albina area, the flood of White owned businesses and white homeowners received the help African Americans had fought for over the past five decades. By the end of the 1990’s less than one third of African American Portlanders called Albina home.

[break]

The history of Portland’s educational integration began in 1867 with the founding of “the colored school,” a segregated school with 26 African-American students, twenty-one boys and five girls.  The school lost funding just five years later and in 1873, 30 African-American students were admitted to the newly integrated Portland Public Schools. 

Prior to World War II, student enrollment was based on housing distribution so segregation was a relative non-issue in Portland’s schools.  However, structural racism in the schools deeply affected many African American students.  Several recall songs and coursework that portrayed African Americans in a very negative way: [quotes from Dick Bogle and Carl Deiz]

By the time African Americans reached high school, the impact of structural racism was obvious.  The disparity in a High school graduation rates between whites and African during the 1940’s was astonishing: 40 % of whites in contrast to 10 % of African Americans attained their high school diploma.  Some of this inequality can be explained by economic factors, such as the need to work in order to live, while other reasons include a lack of interest in school caused by the prevalence of racism in the classrooms.  

World War II brought many African-American workers to the Pacific Northwest because of new job opportunities in the shipyards.  Restrictive housing covenants and racism by realtors led to de facto segregation.  As a result, Portland’s African-American residents lived primarily in the Albina area of inner-Northeast Portland.  Many of the new African American residents who stayed in Portland were just starting their families and their children attended either Holliday or the old Eliot elementary schools.  Humboldt was also popular with African Americans and had several African American teachers: [multiple quotes] 

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled against legalized educational segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education making segregation on the basis of race unconstitutional.  The Brown ruling had minimal impact in the already desegregated Portland Public Schools, but de facto segregation based on housing patterns and other discriminatory practices was still a serious issue.  De facto segregation continued to intensify into the 1960’s as the population of African-Americans residing in Albina increased to over 15,000, largely as a result of housing restrictions.

Nine of Portland’s 94 public schools enrolled 73% of the African-American students in Portland, who were being served primarily by the Boise, Eliot, King, Holladay, Irvington, and Humboldt schools. In the 60’s, the African-American graduation rate increased to 30-40% but was still disproportional to that of white students, which increased to 60-70%.  Many people recall what school was like for them during the 1960’s: [multiple quotes]

In the aftermath of the Brown decision, Portland undertook several studies of the public schools to determine how to better serve its African American population. In an attempt to further integrate Portland schools, a plan was implemented that transported African-American students out of their neighborhoods to predominately white schools, and scattering African-American teachers among various white schools.  The administrative transfer program was unpopular with many African Americans who viewed it as a way to close their neighborhood schools and further disinvest in their neighborhoods. [Hardy quote]

In the early 1970’s, the Portland school board adopted a new plan, cleverly called “Portland Schools for the Seventies.”  This plan accelerated the already unsuccessful administrative transfer program and by the mid-1970s, almost 90% of the students being bused were African American.  It also called for the creation of Early Childhood Education Centers in all of the Albina area grade schools.  Several Albina area middle schools were closed to create the new Education Centers, which caused uproar among many parents. These solutions didn’t cure the core issue of having under-funded the schools in the Albina area, which caused much of their underperformance.

Structural racism within the schools had numerous consequences. African-American Students were being suspended and expelled at a much higher rate. On average their marks were less satisfactory than white peers.  In addition, African-American High School completion rate was much lower than whites.  By the summer of 1977 many in the community had expressed their concern over the problem of student achievement and were petitioning the school board to make some real changes. [quote]

Community leaders enlisted the help of the NAACP and the Urban League to confront the problem of “racial imbalance” in Portland Public schools.  In late 1978, the Community Coalition for School Integration released a report titled: “Equity for the Eighties”, but the School Board largely ignored the report, which led to the rise of the Black United Front in Portland.  The Black United Front, led by the charismatic Ron Herndon, staged a series of boycotts against the schools and the school board.  In one particularly memorable incident, he got everyone’s attention at a school board meeting: [quote]

The Black United Front was successful in getting some change from the school board, including the appointment of a new superintendent, Mattew Prophet: Portland’s first African American School Board Superintendent. Prophet brought a new generation of African American educators into the Portland Public schools: [multiple quotes]

Although Superintendent Prophet was able to make some changes, schools in inner-Northeast continued to face serious problems.  Reverend Alcena Boozer served as the principal at Jefferson High School and she recalls several of the issues she had to face, including an arsonist setting fires in the buildings: [multiple quotes]

Schools in inner-Northeast Portland continue to be under-funded and still face many of the same problems they did in the 1950s and 1960s. 

These three civil rights issues – education, employment, and housing – remain serious concerns for many of Portland’s African American residents.  Grassroots organizations continue to work for these three basic civil rights and hope that one day equality will exist in housing, education, and employment.   

The Future of  the Albina Community

Portland’s history is an area of particular personal interest for me since I have been an Oregon resident for almost 23 years, and a Portland and specifically Albina neighborhood resident for 12 of those years. When I first moved into Northeast Portland in 1998 at eighteen years old to NE 28th and Killingsworth, I did not know the history of the neighborhood. I didn’t know that I was able to find a great rental home with cheap rent in a culturally diverse neighborhood, years before it was officially named  the Alberta Arts District, because of gentrification, and because of the urban renewal policies that began decades before, displacing African Americans, policies which continue to disproportionately displace African Americans in particular and low-income communities in general.

Gentrification and urban renewal has drastically altered the Upper Albina landscape. The Alberta Arts District now has an event called Last Thursday which over the summer of 2008, has resulted in growing tensions between the established Black community, whose neighborhood Albina was in the first place, and the newer artist and upper-income mostly white community, many of whom don’t know Portland’s African American community and the making of the Albina neighborhood. This gap in awareness needs to be addressed and soon. As to what solutions would be best, there are many disagreements.

Although newer Albina residents may not understand the public policies and private practices which enabled them to buy land and homes so affordably in Albina, once an awareness is reached through education and community outreach, solutions must be determined in order to ensure equity and justice. First, we must learn our histories in order to know the truth. Once we have learned the truths, many of which have been intentionally hidden from us, we can understand why and how society has taught us to fear and hate each other, and our differences. We are then empowered to resolve these conflicts, right these wrongs, learning to love ourselves and each other. We must reach out to each other and love each other in order for equity, equality, and justice to be achieved. 

Some groups trying to resolve these conflicts:

Restorative Listening Project through the City of Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement. For more info check out their website: http://www.portlandonline.com/ONI/index.cfm?c=45627

Last Thursday Steering Committee under the new direction of Magnus. You can contact them at: lastthursdaypdx@gmail.com. There is A LOT of dispute over Last Thursday, so this may not be the way to go about change, an almost entirely white decision-making board making decisions about a culturally diverse community, but Magnus is very interested in reaching out to the community for feedback and inclusion at the decision-making table.

Also, you can contact me at: rustad@pd.edu.

*A lot more entries on these contemporary issues, as well as historical pieces particularly on the Portland and Oregon’s African American history will be coming soon. I think it is very important to learn about the African American history, which IS NOT taught in our schools or in most of our communities, in order to understand where we’re at as a society in terms of race relations. As well, it is important to become culturally-competent in order to live side-by-side in diverse neighborhoods, and for the future of cross-cultural and intra-racial community building as coalitions and as allies.

Fall 2008 Term, I took a class at Portland State University from first time instructor Felicia Williams called Recording Portland Civil Rights History. We did extensive historical research and conducted oral history interviews with African Americans in Portland who were active in the civil rights movement. We are in the process of creating an archive of these oral history interviews at Portland State University Library. Also, we made a 30 minute documentary about the civil rights movement in Portland with photos from our narrators (those whose oral histories we recorded for the archive) as well as photos we found through our research. In addition, there are quotes from our narrators, detailing their experiences of discrimination in employment, housing, and education, and the their struggle against du jure and de factor discrimination in Portland.

Also, Felicia is planning to work on a website modeling the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project website http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/- for her second run at this course Summer 2009 Term.

Here is the script and I will add updates about how to access a copy of the documentary once completed. I have also included excerpts from the syllabus at the beginning so you can see what research we did…

UNST 421-509: Recording Portland’s Civil Rights History

Fall 2008

Instructor: Felicia Williams, fwilliam@pdx.edu

Course Description: The Civil Rights movement changed the way people thought about race and equal opportunity in America.  This course will examine how the movement happened in Portland as students record oral histories from people who fought for civil rights in Oregon.  There will be a total of three interviews: one unrecorded pre-interview, one two-hour interview, and one follow up one-hour interview.  The interviews will then be transcribed, indexed, and archived and copies of all materials provided to the narrators.   Students will also use photographs and clips from the interviews to create a video documentary that will be presented publicly and can be used in the future as a teaching tool.

Community Partner: The African American Alliance (AAA) is a community group committed to furthering African American concerns with local and state officials, as well as promoting business and cultural ties within the community.  Members of the AAA are supporting this project by participating as narrators and referring other potential narrators.

 Course Goals and Objectives:

-Become familiar with the basic principles and practices of oral history fieldwork, as well as learning the strengths and limitations of oral histories

-Learn about the ethical responsibilities researchers have when working with people who are still alive and the impact their research can have

-Learn how to do primary source research and the importance of oral histories in scholarly work

-Gain practical experience in recording oral histories and making them archive ready, as well as learning ways in which oral histories can be used

-Work collaboratively in creating an historical resource that can be used in a wide range of settings and by a variety of people; this will include using iMovie to create a documentary.

-Learn the importance of ethnic minorities in shaping both local and national history through the fight for Civil Rights

 Academic Research/Reading List:

City Club of Portland Report.  “Portland’s Civil Rights Ordinance.”  Walter B. Moore, Chair.  31, no. 20 (1950): 5 pages. (handout)

 “The Negro in Portland: A Progress Report 1945-57.” E. Kimbark MacColl, Chair. 37, no. 46 (1957): 16 pages. (available through PSU Library website)

“Problems of Racial Justice in Portland.” Richard W. Nahstoll, Chair.  49, no. 2 (1968):  63 pages. (available through PSU Library website)

 “Racial Integration-Desegregation Issue in the Portland Public Schools.” Ron Lansing, Chair.  60, no. 56 (1980):  40 pages. (handout)

 Deiz, Mercedes.  Interviewed by Linda Brody Dodds for the US District Court Historical  Society.  Archived at the Oregon Historical Society.  (1981): 46 pages. SR 1256  (OHS)

 Gibson, Karen.  “Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940 -2001.” Transforming Anthropology 15, no. 1 (2007): 3-25  (Anthrosource)

 Haggerty, Ancer L. Interviewed by Clark Hansen for the US District Court Historical Society. Archived at the Oregon Historical Society.  (2005-06): 89 pages.  (handout)

 Katz, Michael B., Mark J. Stern, and Jamie J. Fader.  “The New African American Inequality.”  Journal of American History 92, no. 1, (2005): 75-108.  (History Cooperative)

 McElderry, Stuart, “Building a West Coast Ghetto: African American Housing in Portland, 1910-1960.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 92, no. 3 (2001): 137 – 148. (PSU Library)

 Ritchie, Donald A.  Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pgs.  51-56 “Legal Concerns” and pgs. 57-84 “Conducting Interviews” (handout)

Roosevelt, Robinson. Interviewed by Clark Hansen for the US District Court Historical Society.  Archived at the Oregon Historical Society.  (2004): 129 pages (tapes at OHS and interview handout) SR 1285.1

Taylor, Quintard.  “The Civil Rights Movement in the American West: Black Protest in Seattle, 1960-1970.” The Journal of Negro History 80, no. 1 (1995): 1-14. (JSTOR)

Yow, Valerie Raleigh.  Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 2nd ed.  New York: Altamira Press, 2005.  “Preparing for the Interview” pgs. 68-90, “Interviewing Techniques” pgs. 92-118, “Legalities and Ethics” pgs. 121-152, “Interpersonal Relations in the Interview” pgs. 157-183. (handout)

 Methods of Assessment:

Students will be graded on their completion of the assigned tasks, including reading summaries, completing the oral history interview and making it archive ready, thank you letter for narrator, and submitting a five minute clip for the class documentary.  There are no tests or quizzes in this course.

Archive Ready Interview, including interview file notes:              50%

Documentary Clip:                                                                                25%

Weekly Reading Summaries                                                                10%

Attendance and Participation:                                                            10%

Practice Interview                                                                                  5%

Week 1:

Sept 29:  Introduction to the course and Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project website http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/

 Oct. 1: Film in class: Local Color

City Club of Portland Report.  “Portland’s Civil Rights Ordinance.”  Walter B. Moore, Chair. 31, no. 20 (1950): 5 pages. (handout)

City Club of Portland Report.  “The Negro in Portland: A Progress Report 1945-57.” E. Kimbark

MacColl, Chair. 37, no. 46 (1957): 16 pages. (available through PSU Library website)

 Week 2:

October 6:  McElderry, Stuart, “Building a West Coast Ghetto: African American Housing in Portland, 1910-1960.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 92, no. 3 (2001): 137 – 148. (PSU Library)

City Club of Portland Report. “Problems of Racial Justice in Portland.” Richard W. Nahstoll, Chair.  49, no. 2 (1968):  63 pages. (available through PSU Library website)

 October 8: Taylor, Quintard.  “The Civil Rights Movement in the American West: Black Protest in Seattle, 1960-1970.” The Journal of Negro History 80, no. 1 (1995): 1-14. (JSTOR)

City Club of Portland Report. “Racial Integration-Desegregation Issue in the Portland Public Schools.” Ron Lansing, Chair.  60, no. 56 (1980):  40 pages. (handout)

Prof. Quintard Taylor Lecture: Wednesday October 8, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Portland State University’s Multicultural Center

 Week 3:

October 13: Gibson, Karen.  “Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940 -2001.” Transforming Anthropology 15, no. 1 (2007): 3-25  (handout)

Katz, Michael B., Mark J. Stern, and Jamie J. Fader.  “The New African American Inequality.”  Journal of American History 92, no. 1, (2005): 75-108.  (History Cooperative)

 October 15: Ritchie, Donald A.  Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pgs.  51-56 “Legal Concerns” and pgs. 57-84 “Conducting Interviews” (handout)

Yow, Valerie Raleigh.  Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 2nd ed.  New York: Altamira Press, 2005.  “Preparing for the Interview” pgs. 68-90, “Interviewing Techniques” pgs. 92-118, “Legalities and Ethics” pgs. 121-152, “Interpersonal Relations in the Interview” pgs. 157-183. (handout)

 Week 4:

October 20:  Deiz, Mercedes.  Interviewed by Linda Brody Dodds for the US District Court Historical Society.  Archived at the Oregon Historical Society.  (1981): 46 pages. SR 1256  (OHS)

Haggerty, Ancer L. Interviewed by Clark Hansen for the US District Court Historical Society. Archived at the Oregon Historical Society.  (2005-06): 89 pages.  (handout)

Roosevelt, Robinson. Interviewed by Clark Hansen for the US District Court Historical Society.  Archived at the Oregon Historical Society.  (2004): 129 pages SR 1285.1 (Tapes at OHS and transcript will be handed out)

 October 22: Practice interviews with fellow classmates.

 Week 5: Begin Interviews with African American Narrators in the Community

October 27: Practice interviews and interview questions.

October 29: Practice interviews and interview questions.

Begin interviews.

Week 6:

November 3: Interviews and transcribing.  In class handouts on transcribing, editing and indexing. 

November 5: Interviews and transcribing

Week 7:

November 10: Interviews. Transcribing, editing, and indexing

November 12: Interviews. Transcribing, editing, and indexing

Week 8:  Finish Interviews this week.

November 17: iMovie and documentary

November 19: iMovie and documentary

Week 9:

November 24: iMovie and documentary

November 26: No Class, Thanksgiving

Week 10:

December 1: iMovie and documentary

December 3: Public presentation of documentary – location TBA.

Look at Part 2 for the “PSU Portland Civil Rights Project” documentary script-

Rachel Rustad

BST 450U: Female Resistance Personalities in the African Diaspora

Professor Clare Washington

Final Exam Essay

16 August 2008

Essay 4: The experiences of Caribbean women are of growing interest to scholars as well as writers, and are often compared with the experiences of North American women. The various political, economic, racial, and gender inequalities that have plagued societies in both regions provide common ground for such comparisons. However, there are aspects of the Caribbean experience that are unique. Compare and contrast the experiences of Caribbean women to women in the United States with regard to race and other situations that brought on different forms of resistance movements and rebellions.

Historically and today, where there is oppression there is also resistance. Beginning in the 15^th century during the age of exploration and conquest and continuing in its brutality until the late 20^th century (and due to globalization, it is still not even close to being over) people of African descent were forcibly removed from their African homelands by Europeans, as well as with the economic and political coercion of some African rulers, who “”aware of the negative effects on their people and /or the stability of their nations, were often caught between the desire to end the [slave] trade and the ramifications of such a decision”, according to the article “Resistance to Slavery, the Anti-Slavery Movement, and Abolition”. Imposed for over four centuries in what is known as the Atlantic Slave Trade, a complex history of colonialism and human enslavement collided, as Peter N Stearns, Michael Adas, and Stuart B. Schwartz describe in their article, “Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade”:

The slave trade was the means by which the history of the Americas and African became linked and a principal way in which African societies were drawn into the world economy. [Even before the infamous Middle Passage, or the long voyage across the Atlantic to slave plantations in the Caribbean as well as the Americas] conditions during the process were deadly and perhaps as many as one-third died along the way or in slave pens [during the forced marches to interior trading towns or slave pens at the towns or forts of the western African coast]…The so-called Middle Passage, or slave voyage to the Americas, was a traumatic experience for the slaves. However traumatic, the Middle Passage certainly did not strip Africans of their culture, and they arrived in the Americas with their languages, beliefs, artistic traditions and strong memories of their past. (Stearns, Adas, and Schwartz 1992).

Further, passive as well as active resistance on the slave ships by African men and women as well as active, organized resistance to colonial powers in Africa by such African women warriors as Nyabinghi the “hidden queen” in Jamaica and Nanny of the Maroons of Ghana reveals the many ways in which Africans fought for dignity and equality, always resisting the shackles they were forced into.

Slave societies in the Americas and the Caribbean differed in many ways which required creative and adaptive ways of resistance by the enslaved. As the plantation system utilized on the Atlantic islands of Spain and Portugal was transferred to the new World, “the plantation system of farming with a dependent enslaved work force characterized by the production of many tropical and semitropical crops in demand in Europe…became the locus of African and Afro-American life” (Stearns, Adas, and Schwartz 1992). Yet plantations weren’t the only place in which slave labor was in demand, for in places such as Brazil and Mexico as well as colonized Latin American cities where urban slavery was more characteristic, “there was virtually no occupation that slaves did not perform, although the vast majority lived their lives as agricultural laborers” (Stearns, Adas, and Schwartz 1992). Varying by colonial power and location, the lives of Africans, and later with interracial mixing, the lives of people of African descent in the Caribbean and African Americans in the Americas were shaped by oppression as well as resistance. Large slave and free Afro-American populations developed in locations in the Americas such as Charleston and New Orleans also played a key role in the formation of a distinctly African American culture in the U.S. where the legacy of slavery and the unending struggle for racial and social justice and equality continues to shape the lives of African Americans as descendents of Africans today.

Whether on sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean or on cotton plantations in the southern United States, Black women as women of African descent have resisted slavery and oppression as individuals as well as in leadership roles in resistance movements. Because different geographic locations shaped the realities of women of African descent in varying ways, the ways in which they resisted the violent and forced exploitation of their labor and reproduction also were incredibly varied. In particular, slavery in North America was less directly influenced by Africa because by the mid-18^th century, the slave population was mostly reproducing itself. By 1850, less than one percent of the slaves in North America were African-born. Free people of color were also less common in the southern colonies of British North America than in the Caribbean or Brazil. Hence, “the combination of natural growth and the relatively small direct trade from Africa reduced the degree of African cultural reinforcement in comparison with Cuba or Brazil” (Stearns, Adas, and Schwartz 1992). In this way, a distinct Afro-American culture developed, hence many of the differences between the experiences of Black women in the Americas and in the Caribbean can be found here. Despite the variations by time and place, the experience of enslavement by women of African descent intersects race as well as gender, for although all women are oppressed as women, the history of colonialism and slavery created a hierararchy of human rights where women of African descent have been relegated to the bottom because of the intersection of race, class, and gender. Thus, it is imperative to study the ways that women of African descent have resisted slavery and oppression in order to understand that Black women in the Caribbean as well as in the Americas were anything but submissive and docile, and that they were often on the frontlines in the struggle for racial equality and justice.

Since Caribbean women played such a central role in religious ceremonies and resistance from religious practices, one of the primary ways in which Caribbean women resisted slavery was by the preservation of African culture through the use of oral traditions in passing on knowledge to their children, families, and communities. According to the article “Women and Resistance to Slavery in the British Caribbean: “outward expressions of culture were not permitted and as a result women would use oral tradition to keep past traditions and histories alive”. In Alexander Giraldo’s article “Obeah: The Ultimate Resistance”, he discusses the origins of the African religious practice known as Obeah, as “the practice of harnessing supernatural forces and spirits for one’s own personal use”, originating in the Ashanti and Koromantin tribes of Africa on the Gold Coast, detailing that imported slaves introduced it to the Caribbean as early as the mid 17^th century: “The Obeah man and women played a prominent role in the Caribbean slave societies from the beginning of the slave trade. The functioned as community leaders and teachers of the African folk’s cultural heritage” (Giraldo). Further, Obeah women were key figures in the resistance of their colonial oppressors working as community leaders as well as teachers of cultural heritage, preserving their history and culture. In Barbara Bush’s detailed book-length study of female slave resistance, Slave Women in Caribbean Society: 1650-1838, she documents the ways in which slave songs such as “Steal Away”, “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”, “Git on Board, Little Chillen”, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”, and many others were utilized to convey hidden messages by slaves relaying important information about routes and times and dates for planned escapes, meetings, and directions to freedom (“Women, Religion, and Resistance”).

Black religion in the Americas as well as African religious traditions in the Caribbean made a major contribution to resistance to slavery. As well as taking on leadership roles such as in the case of Henriette Delille and Old Elizabeth, Black women in the Americas continue their work as cultural and historical preservationists, educators and activists, further revealed through the revolutionary work of women like Ella Baker in the Black Freedom Movement of the early 20^th century, a foundation upon which the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and ‘60’s was built. In a book review of Barbara Ransby’s Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, Cheryl Clarke states that “Baker exemplified ‘the revolutionary in action, transcending more attendant concerns and reaching for something larger, greater, more inspirational.’ For Baker, the black freedom struggle was always the crucible of that ‘larger freedom that encompasses all of mankind’” (Clark 2006).

The racialized context in which Black women are located historically as well as today is due to the four centuries long colonial project of enslavement and the subsequent formation of global capitalism, connects the histories of the Americas to African history, and also reveals the ways in which the forced and induced as well as voluntary disbursement of Africans from their native lands, also called the African diaspora, connects all of our histories. Hence, the influences of African histories and cultures are important to all locations in which Africans and people of African descent have lived and continue to migrate and settle. For example, in the article “Women, Religion, and Resistance”, in colonial Louisiana, the Roman Catholic religion greatly influenced the lives of Native Americans, white settlers, and free and enslaved Black Americans alike. Since 18^th century French missionaries baptized indiscriminate of religion or race and sanctioned interracial Catholic unions in the hopes of building a Catholic colony of settlers and natives, “particularly in the rural parishes of southeast Louisiana, Roman Catholicism provided a venue for religious, as well as social, and economic, opportunities for enslaved and free African Americans” (“Women, Religion, and Resistance”).

Religious influence was a multi-directional process as well for not only did Roman Catholicism influence African American culture but African culture also played a central role in the formation of African American culture. Although slavers tried to mix up slaves by culture on their plantations “so that strong African identities would be lost”, Africans maintained their cultural identities and preserved their histories, despite the complexities of having to adapt and change and to incorporate other African peoples and their ideas and customs, as well as “the ways and customs of the master that were both imposed and adopted” (Stearns, Adas, and Schwartz, 1992). Thus, what developed was a dynamic and creative Afro-American culture the has greatly shaped the course of American life, revealing the ways in which the history of the Americas and Africa is still interconnected today. In her article “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class”, Bernice McNair Barnett discusses the often secondary, marginalized role that Black women in the United States have been relegated in religious institutions such as the Black church, which differ from the more central role that African women played in their religious traditions. Yet, the significant Black women’s role in the Black church reveal the religious influences of their African ancestry as they are often deemed the backbone of the Black church:

Even in pre-civil war days, black [sic] women stood in the vanguard for equal rights [sic]; for freedom from slavery, for recognition of women as citizens and co-partners with men in all of life’s endeavors…However, because of the nature of American history, and particularly because of the institutions of slavery and segregation, the names and lives of black women leaders are all but unknown in American society- black as well as white. (Margaret Walker (in Sterling 1979, xvi) McNair Barnett, 1993)

Religion is a prime example of both continuity and adaptation for the cohesion of Christianity, and Catholicism in particular and African religions was both a strategy of survival as well as resistance. The Obeah religion was greatly feared by slave owners in the Caribbean for Obeah leaders served as inspirational leaders in slave rebellions, and particularly in Jamaica for the knowledge of herbs, plants, and poisons rooted in Obeah became a powerful tool of active resistance to slavery in the Caribbean as well as in the Americas. This powerful knowledge of poisons was also an invaluable tool of resistance utilized by the enslaved as the most common and one of the most feared forms of resistance particularly by women, for the poisoning of one’s master became a possibility due to the close proximity of female domestic slaves to the master and his family via “the big house”. Obeah was so feared by plantation owners that beginning in 1684, various laws were enacted which connected slave rebellions to Obeah, forbidding the possession of articles which were used in the practice of Obeah or “witchcraft”, due to the connection of one with the other (Giraldo). In addition, maroon societies existed throughout the Caribbean and South America and were a constant source of concern for slave owners and profiteers for they were inspiration for resistance and freedom. African women warriors such as Nanny of the Maroons iconic in Jamaica, a women warrior originally from Ghana, led the eastern Maroons based in Moreton, and forged an alliance with another group led by Cudjoe. According to an article titled “African Queens and Warrior Women”, the Jamaican Maroons were the first people to force the English to sign a treaty with their subjects on March 1, 1738, decades before the formal end to the Atlantic Slave Trade. One of the communities gained by this treaty in which lands conceded formed a base for the maroon’s independent survival was named Nannytown after this famed female leader.

In addition, resistance and rebellion was also characteristic of the African American experience during slavery and carried through the Civil Rights Movement and still strong today. Women resisted through various means but since both their labor and their reproductive capacities were exploited, unique forms of resistance by women were utilized, from the refusal to work productively to infanticide as a desperate means by which to alleviate the suffering of their future offspring. In her comprehensive two-volume documentary history of Black women in America titled Black Women in American: An Historical Encyclopedia, Darlene Clark Hine documents the ways that Black women both individually and collectively, resisted slavery and oppression in the American South:

Deeply painful and contradictory choices, such as infanticide, often were thrust upon women in their need to negotiate the brutality of forced breeding, the separation of families, sexual coercion, and material conditions adverse to the health and sustenance of human life… certainly their methods included forms of contraception and abortion as a means to create sites of resistance and self/family protection within a system that routinely exploited their womanhood. (Clark Hine 1993)

Clark Hine goes further to document the well-known case of Margaret Garner whose story is revisited in Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved, who in order to escape bondage fled from Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio with her three children and while pregnant with her fourth. However, under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress, her owner had the federal right to track her in the free state of Ohio, claim and capture her, and take her back under his rights of ownership. Rather than subjecting her children to a life of bondage, she slit the throat of her infant daughter and then attempted to kill her two sons. Her captors defeated her attempts and she was eventually sold to a planter in the Deep South and separated from her family. According to Clark Hine, Garner’s case is perhaps the most thoroughly documented case of infanticide but many other women chose this option as a attempt to subvert the power of their masters in determining the fates of Black families and their futures. Additionally, the example of a woman named Lucy reveals that Black communities protected women when their cases went to trial, for in Lucy’s case the collective defensive of her captive communities protected her, “express[ing] a communal recognition that infanticide was bred by a system that unjustly exploited Black women by trying to control their sexuality and their capacity to be mothers”. Clark Hine deems infanticide “collaborative acts” of resistance in which entire enslaved Black communities in the Americas came together to protect each other.

The importance of studying the African diaspora and the connections between the histories of the enslavement of peoples of African descent, the central role people of African descent, particularly women, have played in resistance, as well as the formation of societies and cultures within the African diaspora, is imperative to understanding the modern social world as well as the ways in which contemporary social problems are inextricably linked to the history of colonialism and conquest. In addition, learning about African cultures and histories illuminates the central role that Africa has played around the world wherever the presence of Africans and peoples of African descent are located. In particular, African Americans in the United States carry on traditions and histories of Africa in a place of dispersion which is now home in all the conflicting ways in which America as home is still plagued by severe and institutionally-sanctioned inequalities based upon race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, and ability. African American women as women of African descent play a central role in preserving and passing on traditions, history, and culture and in connection to the African continent both historically and today. In Bridget Brereton’s article “Searching for the Invisible Woman”, she contends that it isn’t that Caribbean women didn’t play a central role in resistance to slavery but that Caribbean history like most patriarchal, colonialist world history is gender blind. Additionally, history is most often written by the conqueror, so it is racist and imperialist as well. Thus, it is imperative to study the resistance of women of the African diaspora to slavery and oppression in the Caribbean and the Americas, for it connects their legacy of struggle to the strategies they utilize today in the ongoing fight against racial and social inequality.

The Color of Violence- Trask’s concept of “peaceful violence” and the tenure case of Prof. Andrea Smith

I really want to address Prof. Andrea Smith’s (author of Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide) tenure case at the University of Michigan because this is a prime example of contemporary institutional racism, a kind of racism that Haunani-Kay Trask discusses as “peaceful violence”(82). Described by Frantz Fannon in his 1968 book The Wretched of the Earth, “peaceful violence” is the way in which racism and racial inequality persists on a macro-institutional scale, as implicit rather than always explicit and overt, and despite many claims by “progressives” as well as neo-conservatives that racism is a thing of the past, demands to “just get over it” or accusations of “playing the race card”, a very hostile environment is created where if you’re a person of color it is increasingly stigmatizing and silencing to decry racism despite overwhelming evidence of racial inequality (see Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s concept of “colorblind racism in Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States).

In this hostile environment, Prof. Andrea Smith’s tenure case cannot be directly discussed by the University of Michigan as an issue of race, as the result of the contemporary environment of what Bonilla-Silva describes as color-blind racism, evidenced in the dismantlement of affirmative action policies (which is increasing across the United States despite racial disparities in academia and other governing institutional structures which still haven’t been solved which was the reason for affirmative action policies in the first place). It is even more telling that U. of Michigan won’t release a public statement as to why they denied Prof. Smith’s tenure case. It is certainly not for lack of credentials, for she has more than earned scholarly respect as one of the greatest indigenous feminists intellectuals of our time. As 1 of 4 Native women professors at the University as well as located as a political and numeric minority as a woman of color in the Women’s Studies Department, her work is ever-important as a voice that needs to be heard.

Trask describes Native women’s leadership as always being formative in resistance to the institutional manifestations of “peaceful violence” despite the odds: “These women leaders [Andrea Smith], and many more unknown, continue to carry the burden of indigenous resistance against imperialism” (87). In addition, Prof. Smith’s rigorous scholarly standards as well as her impressive list of publications and activism should make her claim for tenure even stronger, yet they are “letting her go”? If she is not only qualified, but one of the most qualified tenure cases, why is the Women’s Studies Department bowing to the whims of the University of Michigan, a school predominated by white male professors, when the Women’s Studies Department should be a sanctuary for historically excluded voices, for feminists, and particularly for women of color feminists, and Native American feminists?

What hope can we have for preserving, supporting and fore-fronting the work of women of color feminists and Native feminists when even Women’s Studies departments aren’t working as allies and are allowing the silencing and disinvestment of the work of women of color and Native feminists from academia and from feminist discourse overall? Unless we look at Prof. Smith’s tenure case within the lens of race and inequality in America, seeing the academic institution as one of the institutional structures of “peaceful violence” which perpetuate white supremacy, we will not be able to adequately address the complexity nor implications of this political struggle for Prof. Smith’s earned and well-deserved place at the fore-front of feminist struggle, for if feminism excludes anyone, it cannot liberate us all.

***For more info, check out Campus Lockdown: Women of Color Negotiating the Academic Industrial Complex-

http://www.woclockdown.org/

Is whiteness looking outward for the answer to the world’s problems- rather than looking inward and examining our own role, our own complicity, our own oppressive ways? Unless we address our own white privilege as white people, as a racial group, a cultural group, an ethnic group, we will not be useful or instrumental in addressing and fighting against racism. Unless white “progressives” and “liberals” own our whiteness- which means going beyond acknowledging it, but working hard to stop ourselves from often unknowingly oppressing via (white) dominant/normative/hegemonic cultural methods (for greater depth on this look at Maria Lugones’s discussion of racist ethnocentrism in her essay “Hablano cara a cara/Speaking Face to Face: An Exploration of Ethnocentric Racism” published in 1990 in Gloria Anzaldua’s Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras). As part of the dominant oppressive group who benefit from unearned white priviledge (see Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”), whites struggling against oppression (many of whom perhaps wouldn’t choose to be a part of this group if there was a choice) critical self/inner reflection is a necessary component of anti-racist struggle, as well as fighting oppression alongside those who are directly experiencing it.

When whites see the struggle as global and don’t connect it to the local, we neglect the very real issues of racism and racial inequality in our own communities. Silence and inaction is complicity to racism, and this is the most common way in which racism is dealt with by white friends in my experience. My white friends often justify their inaction and apathy to themselves and those around them because if they “aren’t racist”, why should they have to do anything about it. Being white is experiencing a disconnect between cause and effect, in terms of history and how it affects our institutional structures as well as individual attitudes (passed on through culture, norms, and socialization) today. But as whites, we are taught to see ourselves as the norm. We are taught that we are all individuals (especially within (white) American culture), and many are taught that racism and oppression is wrong, yet a thing of the past. Hence, if we have good values, and think we are good people, we believe we aren’t racist and that as long as we aren’t racist individually, we are then off the hook. Why should we spend all of our time angry and upset, with our nose in books, looking at old historical documents? Why can’t we just move on, “get over it”? What is our role as whites in all of this? And for those whites who are committed to anti-racist struggle, there are still many oppressive ways that we act without perhaps realizing and/or addressing them. For example, inclusivity within many progressives circles leave many people out who aren’t “radical” enough, and often those left out at the decision making table are people of color. Look at Pedro Azcarate-Ferbel’s discussion of the green movement in Oregon (below), for example and the utter lack of the voices of people of color at the decision-making table. Think for a moment about who comprises groups of environmental activists, in which communities they live (and who used to live there), as well as for whom are their sustainability efforts benefiting?

(from Pedro’s site- http://blackstudieswhitestudies.blog.com/- from post on Focus the Nation Day, Monday, January 28, 2008)

In Oregon and U.S. , green groups are mostly white

Ethnicity – Environmental leadership across the nation has little diversity, which two Portlanders work to change
Sunday, January 27, 2008
SCOTT LEARN
The Oregonian Staff
In the mainstream green movement, being any color but white can be a little lonely.
Take it from Marcelo Bonta, who’s half Filipino. He got a job with the Portland office of a wildlife nonprofit, then began going to national environmental conferences.
“I’d see only one or two or three people of color out of 100 to 200 people in the room,” he says. “I felt like I’d stepped back a few decades, if not more, in terms of race and ethnicity
Despite decades of hand-wringing by the typically liberal organizations, more than one-third of mainstream green groups and one-fifth of green government agencies in the United States don’t have a single nonwhite person on their staff, according to a 2004-06 University of Michigan survey.
And about 90 percent of the staff and board members for groups belonging to the Natural Resources Council of America are white, according to a 2002 survey for the group.
Oregon is no exception. The 115 staff members for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Oregon Environmental Council, Ecotrust, Oregon Wild and the Audubon Society of Portland include two Latinos, two Asian Americans, one Native American and no African Americans, their leaders say.
Ecotrust has two Native Americans on its board. Of the 56 board members for the four other groups, 55 are white and one is Asian American.
Bonta, 34, now a Portland-based green consultant, is teaming with Charles Jordan, 70, a former Portland city commissioner and parks director, to help mainstream green groups walk their progressive talk.
The two co-wrote the keystone chapter for a just-released Yale School of Forestry book on diversifying the green movement. Bonta advises environmental groups on how to diversify, and he started a center for diversity and a group for young environmental professionals of color in Portland . Jordan, the first African American board chairman of a national group, The Conservation Fund, has emphasized the importance of green diversity for years.
The clubbiness of mainstream environmental groups threatens to leave out the fastest-growing portion of the population. That limits outreach to nonwhites and contributes to a segregated green movement, with more minorities heading to grass-roots environmental justice groups…

Posted by pedro at 11:43 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

Comments

1 – I would like other people’s take on a program I used to work with.
The problem with the Forest Service being a strong majority white is an issue. I once worked for the Forest Service as a Youth Corps Supervisor. The program was made to try and encourage hispanic children to join the forest service when they get older.
I had 8 kids, all low income and hispanic. From what I saw it was a great program. It allowed the children to make some extra money to help their families. The job offered them experiance and opportunities that may have otherwise been available.
I liked the program.
What I wonder is, does it work?
Perhaps the children gain experiance and opportunities, perhaps they gain interest in working for the forest service, however, I do not think it is a matter of these things, but a matter of hiring practice. No matter how experianced some one is, if people not hired because they are a minority, what good are these programs?
(Comment this)

Written by: Syrill at 2008/02/04 – 13:03:34

Written by: Don Mateo A.K.A. Matt Ross at 2008/02/08 – 01:00:42

Thus, unless we as white people (especially those committed to anti-racist struggle) struggle with our own role in oppression (white privilege, racist ethnocentrism), the struggle against racism will fall upon the backs of people of color, and if the work of white people excludes people of color from the decision-making table the work that whites are doing to benefit us all will only benefit a few (whites).

I’m not sure these are the questions that need to be asked in order to really get to the heart of these issues…

1. How might you respond to someone who may claim that Black people are simply better at sports because of their race? Give 3 short answers, imagining how to best convince a person who may make this claim.

2. Why is the system of racial classification, as presented in the U.S. census, incapable of measuring reliable differences in the U.S. population? (See Naomi Zack’s “American Mixed Race” article in coursepack)- I have been thinking a lot about race and ethnicity, about “choosing whiteness”, about interracial marriage, about mixed race, about the history of poor European immigrants and their ability to “choose whiteness” as ethnicity whereas people of color haven’t had this choice, about race defined as a black/white binary where Black people in America are racialized and other peoples of color (particularly Spanish, Hispanic, and Latino/as) are deemed ethnic groups rather than racial groups by the U.S. census. I’m not sure what this means. I know that social science research often follows the demographics of the U.S. census, which means that this issue has a great impact on “progressives” who claim to be attempting to solve societal problems.

Since social science research often follows the demographics of the U.S. census, this means that you are asked if you are Spanish, Hispanic or Latino/a- as an ethnicity question- and even if you answer yes, you are then asked to choose a racial group- White or Caucasian, Black or African-American, Asian or Asian-Indian, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Pacific Islander, or other/refused. We are still trying to figure out race and ethnicity in this country. But we have such a multiracial history, some argue that we should put other, or mixed race, and that would disprupt the binary. But others believe that would take away power from Black Americans as a racial group which has been historically as well as presently marginalized and disenfranchised socially, economically, and politically. According to Bonilla-Silva, if given the choice of one or more category, many will choose white on the U.S. census. Does this refect “honesty” in the American populations, the belief that most people can trace their race/ethnicity to white people, or is this reflective of the fact that people want to identify with the more powerful group? If this reflected “honestly”, why don’t white people acknowledge their multiracial ancestory- Native American, African-American, Spanish/Hispanic/Latino, etc? If we don’t pick a race on the U.S. census, will this increase or diminish racial inequality? [This is a topic I will write about further in another essay...]

-In chapter 8 of “Racism Without Racists”(177-205), Bonilla-Silva discusses this further.

3. What is the origin of white privilege in U.S. history, as related to human labor?

-Slavery.

-White Europeans created the system of slavery, maintained and perpetuated it despite human cost in order to make profit; set up American institutions to protect profit and privilege, as well as creating psychological justifications in order to feel okay about it (racism as pathology, whiteness as pathology); and are now in denial because the historical and present weight of it is so apparent and horrendous (cognitive dissonance, denial, white complicity). In short, slavery connects to institutional/structural white power and privilege connects to racism connects to the “new racism”/colorblindness = racial inequality, denial, isolation, segregation, loneliness, dehumanization, fear, ignorance, sadness, and pain as well as power, priviledge, pathology, desentitization, murder, genocide, violence, hatred, fear, apathy- Racism affects the oppressed as well as the oppressor. It dehumanizes.

-Capitalism perpetuates racism and racial inequality because it relies on inequality for its profits. Globalization is neocolonialism, and militarism/Homeland Security/The Patriot Act/The Real ID Act/criminalization of immigrants and people of color as “illegal” and/or terrorists, as well as police brutality/racial profiling/criminalization of poverty and people of color in the U.S. is the enforcing arm.

4. Define and explain the four frames of “colorblind racism” as outlined by the author of [Eduardo Bonilla-Silva] of “Racism Without Racists”?

-Discussed in great deal in 2 of my other essays- “racism without racists, an analysis” and in “white habitus”…

5. How useful is the distinction between racial prejudice and racism, i.e. can only white be racist be definition?

-Bonilla-Silva answers this one best. He says that the question needs to be redefined, as prejudice and not as racism when asking the question, “are blacks as ‘prejudiced’ as whites.” This is because the concept of “racism” as used by most social scientists and commentators is grounded in methodological individualism and pathology, and this needs be be changed. In contrast, Bonilla-Silva seeks to “conceptualize racism as a sociopolitical concept that refers exclusively to racial ideology that glues a particular racial order”.

In other words, racism is a structure that isn’t just constructed of individual actions but of institutionally-sanctioned advantage and disadvantage. Hence, Black people cannot be racist because they aren’t part of the white privilege system which benefits from Black and Brown people’s oppression. They can be prejudiced against people, but not racist, because they don’t benefit structurally from being racist against white people. White people benefit from racism structurally so they can be racist- the larger institutional dynamics- and prejudiced- individual and personal interactions. White privilege is also the privilege of being blind to racism and the institutional advantage that being white gives you.

Thus, Bonilla-Silva describes color-blind racism as the ideology of the “new racism” era, so the answer to the re-defined question is that anyone can be prejudiced against any other race or races, but only white people can be racist. Yet, Bonilla-Silva’s research indicated that blacks are less likely to be antiwhite than whites are to be antiblack (Bonilla-Silva 172-173).

This was a final class evaluation-

1. Are you a Black Studies major or did you have a similarily strong background in the topics of this class?

2. Which best describes your overall experience in this class?

3. Which of the following activities led to the MOST and LEAST engagement and learning on the topics of this class?

4. For any of the above categories, please comment on specific examples of what went well, what went poorly, and what you would recommend to make things go better. Explain with detailed examples.

5. In what ways did the professor help you and other students in making this class an engaging and educational environment and in what ways could the professor make this class a more engaging and educational experience?

6. Did the professor’s race have an impact on your personal learing in this class? Explain with detailed examples.

7. Leaving this class, do you think you have gained a greater understanding of racism, power, and white privilege?

8. Leaving this class, do you think you have gained a greater understanding of what YOU CAN DO about racism, power, and white privilege?

The answers below may or not reflect an exact response to these questions. A lot of my responses were a free-write based on ideas brought up by these questions. However, I plan to directly respond to these questions during the coming weeks as I absorb what happened in this class more fully, as well as the usefulness, and implications for these questions, and what different questions need to be asked in order to really get to the heart of these issues…

I am not a Black Studies major and didn’t have a strong background in the topics of this class, but I am working towards a Black studies minor that I will complete next term.

I was engaged because of the commitment and knowledge that fellow students brought to the class, but the facilitation was severely lacking.

Activities that led to the most engagement and learning were the guest lecture by Heidi Tolentino at Cleveland High School whose work as an anti-racist teacher can be used as a model, the reflective blog, whole group discussions (small groups would have worked better with a smaller class and/or a longer time period for the class), and mostly from discussion and connections with other students outside of class to discuss what was lacking in the classroom.

The least engaging aspects of the class were lectures by the professor, books and readings (except for Bonilla-Silva’s Racism Without Racists- a must read!- and Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me), but I was mostly familiar with the other readings. In addition, small group discussions didn’t work because the size of the class was too large, time was short, and it often got so loud in there, you couldn’t hear what people were saying. The final action project should have begun at the beginning of the term to make connections and help alliance-building (allies) between white students and students of color.

Specific examples of changes I would recommend:

-Curriculum should acknowledge and reflect the significance of the origin of white studies, which is in critical white studies which originated from critical race theory (both by Black people) so that white priviledge doesn’t co-opt knowledge

-Curriculum should incorporate specific framework of critical white studies done by Richard Delgado

- If “fishbowl” exercise is going to happen, students of color as well as white students should have the opportunity to express their voices without the interference and often domineering voices of white students; If the point is to create allies, we need to know what people of color need from white people

-Professor needs to consciously work harder towards counteracting socialized patterns of privileging the white students which means better facilitation, i.e., not letting white students “dumb down” the curriculum, as well as giving equal voice to students of color so white students don’t dominate class time

-Co-teacher needed who is a woman of color. Female as well as person of color perspective is needed. This would dramatically improve the dynamics of the class (Yes, the race of the teacher does matter! Look at learning gaps, test score, drop-out rates, and the disproportionate number of white teachers vs. teachers of color- this can all by measured by race)

- Spending a week or two on white privilege should be sufficient. If white students don’t “get” the theories, the class shouldn’t be “dumbed down”, and final action projects should be initiated at the beginning of the term for ally-building. If white students don’t “get it” through theorizing maybe action will help.

Professor didn’t really help to make class engaging and educational- he was open to changing the syllabus and listening (this was appreciated) but the changes he made reflected that he didn’t “get it” either. With a white male teacher, it becomes even more apparent why a course about whiteness and privilege (what we may all know as white male privilege) needs a co-teacher, a female and a woman of color might help to reveal the other perspective of white male privilege. This course has shown how difficult it is for white students to even admit or understand the implications of their white privilege, hence the need to push us even further. In addition, by not telling us his background at the beginning of the class, the professor negated potential for a trusting and safe-space environment that the class really needed, as a necessary ingredient to address the traumatic and personal as well as structural dynamics of racism and white privilege. The lack of good facilitation by the professor created a fragmented class environment (which is why so many students started connecting outside of class) and made it difficult to come up with solutions to the racial problems which we were all there to discuss.

The professor could make the course more engaging and education by having a co-teacher (as discussed above), revising the syllabus (with suggestions I added above- make changes specific to Delgado’s critical white studies research and publications), and making a very concerted effort not to privilege the white students in the class.

Finally, YES, the race of the professor matters! (as described above) For example, the changes the professor made during the course due to the intervention by frustrated students of color as well as a few white students, still did not address his white male privilege until the 8th or 9th week of class where he gave us a family history that still didn’t break down his white privilege, nor suggest any way to deconstruct it and/or use it for change in the racial hierarchy of which white privilege maintains and perpetuates. His teaching style also did not address or make changes to counter the normative way in which the learning and experiential gap between white students and students of color occurs. To clarify, the white students in the class were for the most not ahead, but way behind.

However, because of the knowledge brought to the class mostly by the students of color as well as a few white students, in addition to their patience, compassion, and commitment to helping us white students “get it”, I gained a greater understanding of racism, power, and privilege. As far as what to do about it, I plan to follow through on some of the budding friendships and connections made with students of color as well as a few white students, in taking action.

White privilege is about the ability to choose whether or not to be in the fight in the first place, to what extend, and if and when to quit- and although I can’t do much to disinvest from my own white privilege, I can use it to do good things- hence I must use it.

In Racism Without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, research professor of sociology Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discusses the social and spatial isolation of whites from people of color as rooted in American history and continuing today. He describes the “white habitus” of most whites in America as a “racialized, uninterrupted socialization process that conditions and creates whites’ racial taste, perceptions, feelings, and emotions and their views on racial matters” (104). In addition, one of the most central consequences of the white habitus is that “it promotes a sense of group belonging (a white culture of solidarity) and negative views about nonwhites” (Bonilla-Silva 104). This “separate residential and culture life” (Bonilla-Silva 103) has consequences which shape many whites ignorance of or obliviousness to racial matters. Colorblind racism is a direct result of the segregation and isolation of whites from communities of color. Through its ideology, white culture as the dominant culture affects society on a macro-level scale. This is because racial ideology is the way in which as Bonilla-Silva states, “the frameworks of the dominant race tend to become the master frameworks upon which all racial actors ground (for or against) their ideological positions” (9). Bonilla-Silva reiterates Karl Marx in The German Ideology who stated that “the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force” (9).

Hence, the racial ideology of dominant culture allows whites in America as a culture and as a race who have the (unearned) privilege of “whiteness” to ignore the historically-rooted structures of inequality which continue to shape society today. For example, well-documented racialized residential patterns set up by white America from the institutions set up and legitimated to protect the interests of slaveholders, to the Donation Land Act of 1850, to the white backlash (in the North as well as the South) against the upward mobility of people of color from the 1890’s through the 1940’s, as well as throughout the 1960’s which fueled the Civil Rights Movement, to the backlash against affirmative action which continues today.

As discussed by professor emeritus of sociology and regular contributer to the History Channel’s History magazine James W. Loewen in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Teacher Got Wrong. Black Americans and disenfranchised minority groups who didn’t have the choice of benefiting from the unearned priviledge of “whiteness” were denied land and other major means of economic equality(163) long after “the nadir of American race relations (1890-1940)” where African Americans were put back into second-class citizenship (161). The legacy of this period in American history continues today in addition to other forms of disinvestment and dispossession structures of whiteness on the basis of race, such as racialized lending practices justified by “credit risk”, racist and exclusionary real estate practices such as redlining and housing covenants, as well as institutionally-sanctioned “urban renewal projects” evidenced in gentrification’s effect upon communities of color. White America has segregated, separated, and isolated Americans by race (see Loewen 168 and Lake Oswego housing covenant document dated in the 1950’s), and the disproportionate effects of this unequal distribution of wealth, access, and resources has shaped the dynamics of poverty and un-equal opportunity to this day. Racial disparities are well-documented today, for example, Loewen documents that in 2000 African American and Native American median family incomes averaged only 62 percent of white family income; while Hispanic families averaged about 64 percent as much as whites. Further, Loewen documents that African Americans still have worse housing, higher percentages of young men in jail, disproportionate nutritional deficiencies, less access to health care, even a lower median life expectancy at birth which was six years shorter than whites, and other indicators of the fact that “money buys life itself [...] in the form of the freedom from danger and stress” (170,171).

However, if we don’t look at the causal relationship between history and the present, many of us (particularly whites who are isolated from people of color socially and spatially) might find it easier to “blame the victim”, but if we understand how historically-rooted racism and the depth at which it is imbedded into our institutions, we might connect slavery, to lynchings, to civil rights, to affirmative action, to redlining, to gentrification, to lending practices based on “credit risk” and see the ways in which racism and racial disparities still strongly exist today albeit it in different forms (Loewen 170, 171).

We are not living on an equal playing field, yet colorblind racism is a convenient way for many white Americans to ignore race, and the “wages of whiteness” as what Bonilla-Silva deems the “multiplier effect” which have been passed on down through the generations.

Bonilla-Silva argues that the white habitus is not natural, it is not how some white people would choose to live today (even though many might choose to live this way). Social and spatial segregation and racial isolation is not a natural process because minorities “do it too”, or “choose” to live together by race in racial/social/spacial segregation. It is historically-rooted, and continues to be structurally and institutionally-sanctioned by white America. Denial of equal access to land, resources, business and property ownership and other signs of “equal opportunity” was strategically planned out why whites in power to maintain their hold on power, pass it on to their children, and this was accomplished by keeping Black Americans, people of color, and disenfranchised minority groups from power at a macro-level, not just through micro-scale individual acts of “mere prejudice and discrimination”. Racial inequality persists because racism is deeply imbedded in our institutions.

Aspects of white habitus that Bonilla-Silva has studied and documented include whites’ levels of residential segregation and personal association with Blacks; how whites interpret their racial segregation and isolation from Blacks; and some of the potential consequences of whites’ limited level of interaction with Blacks (104). Bonilla-Silva found that there is a “paradox” between whites’ commitment to the principle of interracialism and the mostly white pattern of association (105).

In fact, Bonilla-Silva found that most whites he researched OVER-REPORT friendships with people of color, as superficial friendships were found be predominant rather than long-term relationships based on trust, confidentiality, and interactions beyond formal contact (111). The research showed that less than 10% of whites have Black friends, for even when the demographics provide opportunities for interracial friendships, whites didn’t cross the “color line” (109). Why? Bonilla-Silva explained this by the white experience in schools where emotional attachment to whites as primary social group teaches kids stereotypes and skills of colorblindness (109-110), finding that this pattern of white habitus as social segregation, even if spacial segregation is lessened by “desegregated” schools and if whites live in diverse neighborhoods, continues into college. Bonilla-Silva found that whites interpreted their own racial segregation within the rhetoric of colorblindness, i.e., via abstract liberalism, minimization, denial, and naturalization (all mentioned in detail in essay, Racism Without Racists: my analysis).

Sadly, he found that few whites recognized racial isolation from minorities as a problem, but as normal and natural. Bonilla-Silva attributed this lack of reflexivity to whiteness, where whites can reach adulthood never having to think of themselves as a culture or a race (112), hence the unquestioned norm. Thus, whites viewed “racial problems” as something that happens to “other” people, in other neighborhoods, i.e., in “nonwhite neighborhoods”. This demographic excuse was often used to justify lack of interaction with minorities (114). Thus, we can see how spatial and social segregation creates a white culture of solidarity and distorts whites’ views of nowhites (Bonilla-Silva 104).

In this way, whiteness is viewed as “normal” and therefore “nonracial” (Bonilla-Silva 115). This dynamic is the primary mechanism that whites use (whether conscious or not) in the rhetoric of colorblindness, for if the white race doesn’t exist, how can it matter? Thus, the white habitus creates and conditions views; fosters racial solidarity; de-racializes whites while racializing people of color; naturalizes and justifies racial segregation; produces whites’ positive view of self (social psychology); perpetuates a social and residential distance between whites and communities of color; results in a disconnect between whites’ racial claims of colorblindness and actual racial practices; and finally, the lack of interracial contact produces lack of empathy by whites as the “universe of whiteness” has dangerous attitudinal, emotional, and political implications (Bonilla-Silva 123-125).

The term white habitus made me think about my own life, where I go to school, where I live, where I go for entertainment, to relax, and I realized how WHITE my world is and will remain unless I do something about it. I don’t even have to try to live in a white world, but it is business as usual unless I remove this white habitus from my sub-conscious and analyze its very real impact. Is this lack of reflexivity on race how whiteness as “common sense” is so normalized/naturalized? Because as whites, we don’t have to think about race, we have a choice to leave race in our subconscious if we don’t want to deal with it. We can choose whether or not to be involved in struggles against racism, because we think it doesn’t affect. We miss the fact that racism degrades us all. We are degraded by not speaking and acting out against racism. I have asked white friends about the white habitus before I learned Bonilla-Silva’s terminology, and like the participants in his research, they most often naturalized it, talking about “self-segregation by saying things like: “but Portland is so white”. But, Portland isn’t so white; its segregated but it isn’t just full of white people. Portland has a lot of diversity. It is where I go in Portland, that is so white. To what extend this is really a choice depends on white skin privilege. I want to start making some different choices. I don’t want to live in a white world. I do not want to be surrounded by whiteness, by white people who are oblivious to their white choices, who may not even realize they live in a/as a white habitus. Yet, at what point is my search for diversity, for a nonwhite world just aiding gentrification?

As a work in progress, I am constantly reviewing and revising my work to avoid speaking for someone else or taking someone else’s ideas, to remain accountable and responsible for what I say, to update sources used, to clarify connections made based on the fact that the more I learn, the more I understand the cliche that the more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t know, each and every day. Hence, any and all feedback/critique is much appreciated…

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States (2nd edition). Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. , 2006.

Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (2nd edition). New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007.

Black Studies 410: Topics: White Studies course packet/PSU Winter 2008, Prof. Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate, Ph. D (listed in same order as in course packet):

Daniels Tatum, Beverley. “Defining Racism: ‘Can We Talk?’”pp 100-107.

Fennimore, Beatrice S. “Addressing Prejudiced Statements: A Four-Step Method That Works!”. pp 202-204.

“How to Interrupt Racist Comments: Principles for Eliminating Racism”, Things To Say To Interrupt A Racist Comment”, “Action Steps” from Tools for Diversity/Portland, Oregon.

“American Anthropological Association- Statement on ‘Race’” (1996). pp 1-3

Harris. “Race, Human Variation, and the Forces of Evolution”. Cultural Anthropology. American Anthropological Association, 1991. pp 82-100.

Vigilant, Linda. “Race and Biology”. pp 49-60.

Gould, Stephen Jay. “The Mismeasure of Man”. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp 50-75 and 350-364.

Hegel, G.W. “The natural context or the geographical basis of world history”. Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. pp 152-197.

“The Enduring Inequalities of Race”. Race. ed Stephen Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. pp 1-17.

Zack, Naomi. “American Mixed Race: The United States 2000 Census and Related Issues”. pp 13-29.

“The Beginning of the Oregon Black American Experience: The Death of Markus Lopeus as recorded in Haswell’s Log of Sloop Washington, 1788 August Saturday 16th”. Oregon Historical Quarterly (OHQ), V XXIX, No. 2, June-March 1928, pp 174-177.

“Key Statements About Blacks in Early Oregon Legal Documents”- 1843 Organic Law of Provisional Government, 1843 Rules of The Great Wagon Train Going to Oregon, and 1844 Ammendment to The Organic Law (Black Exclusion Laws)

“Donation Land Act of 1850″- original vs “presentation” vary histories (shows a comparison between the precise wording written into the law vs. its presentation in a high school history textbook)

“Subsidies OK’d for apple growers”- Oregonian article 10/20/00

Original Oregon Constitution, adopted Sept 18, 1857 (with 3rd Black Exclusion Law adopted into Article 1- Section 35)

“Prohibition of Intermarriage”. The Organic and other Laws of Oregon (1843-1872). Eugene Semple, State Printer, 1874; A.L. Bancroft & Co, San Francisco, Oregon Historical Society. (evidence of anti-miscegenation laws)

Lynching episode in Marshfield, Oregon (1902). Oregon Journal. September 18, 1902.

The Oregonian editorial against equal public accommodations in response to case of Oliver Taylor, Black pullman porter against Supreme Court. May 20, 1905. (evidence of unfair public accommodations practices based on racialized laws protecting white supremacy/privilege)

Photo of KKK with rep from National Safety Council, Portland Police Chief, Sheriff, D.A., U.S. Attorney, Justice Dept Special Agent, Mayor of Portland, and a few others in Portland. Portland Telegram, August 2, 1921. Oregon Historical Society.

“Code of Ethics, National Association of Real Estate Boards, Relations to Customers and the Public, article 34″. The Real Estate Handbook. 1948. (evidence of unfair housing practices based on race)

The Lake Oswego Development Co. document, January 5, 1952 (evidence of housing covenants based on race)

Ignatiev, Noel. “Immigrants and Whites”. pp 15-23.

Dyer, Richard. “The Matter of Whiteness”. Whiteness: The Power of Invisibility. pp 11-13.

Dalton, Harlon. “Failing To See”. Whiteness: The Power of Invisibility. pp 15-18.

hooks, bell. “Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination”. Whiteness: The Power of Invisibility. pp 19-23.

Wildman, Stephanie M. with Adrienne D. Davis. “Making Systems of Privilege Visible”. Whiteness: The Power of Privilege . pp 89-95.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. Whiteness: The Power of Privilege. pp 97-101.

Frankenberg, Ruth. “White Women, Race Matters: The social construction of whiteness”. pp 447-461.

Williams, Patricia J. “Race and Rights”. pp 421-429.

Churchill, Ward. “White Studies: The Intellectual Imperialism of U.S. Higher Education”. pp 334-355.

Ignatiev, Noel. Race Traitor: Abolitionism and “White Studies”. <http://www.postfun.com/racetraitor/features/whitestudies.html> 4/11/2001 pp 1-6.

Wise, Tim. “Honky Wanna Cracker? A Look at the Myth of Reverse Racism”. June 24, 2002. 7/25/2002 pp. 1- 6.

Willie, Sarah. “Playing the Devil’s Advocate: Defending a Multiracial Identity in Fractured Community”. pp 275-281.

Tolentino, Heidi. “Race: Some Teachable- and Uncomfortable-Moments”. Rethinking Schools. Fall 2007. pp 46-50.

Sanjek, Roger. “Intermarriage and the Future of Races in the United States”. pp 104-130.

*It is important to note that it was very difficult to compile this list in an appropriate bibliographical format, because there was so much missing information. For the titles in quotes, they are supposed to be the names of articles yet due to the lack of table of contents in the course packet, missing information here is because of missing info in the course packet. Hence, titles in quotes may also by the names of books. I am just not sure.

*In addition, MANY conversations with fellow students have connected and clarified ideas, and I must draw attention to this because without corrections, connections, clarification, and re-education, I might still be an oblivious white girl living in my white habitus. I am still that girl but I am aware of this now, and this is the first step…