The Next Governor Can’t Avoid Oregon’s Past; They Should Help Us Address It
Oregon’s next governor faces stiff headwinds when it comes to cobbling together a desperately needed consensus to counter the poverty, houselessness, and violence that too many Oregonians experience.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is a part of our #GovernorGoals series. Learn more about it here. Send your goals on one of the selected topics to theway@or360.org for potential publication.
Effective statewide policy approaches to human rights, race, and equity find uneasy footing here in Oregon where political polarization is the norm just like the rest of the country.
Oregon’s next governor faces stiff headwinds when it comes to cobbling together a desperately needed consensus to counter the poverty, houselessness, and violence that too many Oregonians experience. These experiences of human insecurity are felt throughout all our communities and are disproportionately felt by non-white Oregonians.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Oregon’s next governor to lead from the front on human rights equity for all Oregonians by first comprehending the residue of the past. In the Army I learned that leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Our next governor has a tremendous opportunity to use their voice and values to purposefully motivate Oregonians to see difference as the gift it truly is.
The majority of nineteenth-century whites who first envisioned the State of Oregon saw Black Americans as a fifth column of sorts not to be trusted to participate in the American franchise. Under the direction of those like Matthew Deady (read more about him here), Oregon embraced a culture of exclusion. By 1844, Black Oregonians were subjected to the Black Exclusion Bill. It prohibited African Americans from entering the state and required all formerly enslaved Americans who had settled in Oregon to leave. The bill also included a section known as the Lash Law, which subjected those who failed to obey the order to a public whipping.
By the time Oregon entered the Union, some fifteen years later, in 1859, it was the only state that intentionally prohibited Blacks from living in its borders.
Oregon’s antipathy to difference is not just a thing of the past or something to debate as a matter of historical thinking. The Black Exclusion Bill and Lash Law were on the books until 1926. Black Oregonians did not gain the voting franchise enshrined in the 15th Amendment until 1959 - nearly a century after it was added to the Constitution. And the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to Black Americans, was not ratified by our State until 1973, one year prior to my birth.
Mark Twain once quipped that history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Our next governor faces a statewide echo chamber on race that does little more than spin new rhyming couplets of exclusion. The time has come for the next governor to use their good offices to write a new state narrative of intercultural communication by facing history and facing ourselves.
Reconciling Oregon’s Past
According to its Greek roots, to “govern” is to “steer” and our next governor must steer our diverse state towards greater social unity and common purpose. These recommendations will help our political leaders steer themselves and the broader citizenry towards a more inclusive, positive vision of collaboration that ditches small bore policy calculations and paves the way to political boldness and cultural healing:
Soft skills, hard outcomes: Diplomacy is about managing change and expectations and Oregon’s next governor can change the current trajectory of race relations in the state. It will be hard and engaging directly with citizens (stop calling them voters or consumers) on issues of identity is downright scary for most politicians.
Yet, Salem must do more to meaningfully reach both majority and minority Oregonians. Try partnering with community colleges to support virtual Town Halls that connect diverse Oregonians with our elected leaders to discuss how race relations impact everyday citizens.
Learn to speak historical truths: Our next governor can steer Oregon with an internal compass grounded in our state’s complicated and painful history on race. When we face history we face ourselves and citizens deserve a governor who genuinely sees historical thinking as a key element for an informed citizenry.
Oregon Truth and Reconciliation: The time has come for our next governor to embrace transparent policies and approaches to healing the racial rift in Oregon. Establishing a statewide truth and reconciliation (T&R) commission is a proven method for facilitating positive individual and institutional change. Models like the Greensboro T&R Commission can be scaled-up to suit Oregon
Civics = Citizenmaking: Oregon Senate Bill 513 requires a half credit civics course for an Oregon diploma, starting with the Class of 2026. This is an admirable goal, yet, there are strident voices in Oregon who contend race has no place in civics education. Yet, self-governance demands an informed citizenry and in Oregon’s case, decoupling race from civics under informs and and dumbs down the consequences for our democracy for nearly two centuries of racist political culture and policy.
An anonymous advisor to Napoleon once remarked to the General: “swords are good for many things, except you cannot sit on them.” Oregon’s social protests; demands for ‘wokeness;’ color blindness; and cancel culture, and the myth of meritocracy are insufficient, blunted swords that need to be sharpened on the whetstone of joy - an external expression of self-worth. If our next governor is to successfully bind Oregonians together to face the challenges ahead, they must do so with a joyful noise that expresses the self-worth and dignity of all Oregonians. That’s the Oregon Way to me.
Aaron is a Portland-based human rights equity culture broker who heads Anthropolicy Culture Brokers LLC. After 20+ years of domestic and international human rights work, he returned to Oregon to live, raise my son Ollie, and work towards a better, less polarized society. And cheer for the Red Sox.
Generally when we are told how racist we were it comes from a valley liberal. For those of us in the rest of the state, there are many areas that have lived with multi cultures for years and never think about race. History is important but the purpose is defeated when we repeatedly here from Oregons failed Governor and others usually from Portland using all the liberal pc terms. Yes there is an urban rural divide and this is another reason for it.