Thomas L. Ngo: Two antidotes to white supremacy
We must channel the pragmatism of the past, while rejecting and responding to the systems and structures that allowed white supremacy to flourish in our state.
Digital strategist at @brinkcomm. Grown in Portland. Aged in NYC. @ColumbiaSIPA and @UPortland alum. Formerly at @BDSPortland, @NYCHA, and @TriMet. **
Go back to when you were watching what was happening in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. What was going through your head? Were you surprised? I wasn’t.
When rioters stormed the Capitol in Salem on December 21, 2020, I wasn’t surprised either.
I also wasn’t surprised in 2017 when a deranged killer stabbed and killed two heroes on the MAX, leaving another hero critically wounded.
While these events left me feeling sad and disappointed, they didn’t surprise me because I’ve seen what happens when despair, desperation, and differences grow in communities — what happens is a digression to baser instincts; in a state as white as Oregon, it often leads to white supremacy.
I’ve grown up around white supremacy here in Oregon. And if there’s anything most folks who are Black, indigenous, and people of color agree on about Oregon, it’s that our state’s deep roots in white supremacy continue to affect our experience today. Those roots cannot be destroyed, but we can plant new seeds that allow Oregonians of all backgrounds to flourish.
I’m not labeling people or our beloved state as white supremacist or racist. Rather, I find that we need to call actions out for what they are. These actions include the exclusion of Black people through 1844’s “Lash Law” that began when Oregon was just a territory, then codified into our State Constitution which barred Black people from entering the state. Those laws didn’t make it out of our Constitution until 2002, by the way.
White supremacy is insidious. Even as a person of color, I internalized this as a child growing up in Portland, have said and done things that I’m not proud of, and I am constantly working to become more anti-racist in my everyday life — here are two main ways that we can do that as a state.
1. Advance shared prosperity
White supremacy often flourishes when there is severe inequality and disenfranchisement in society. We saw that in the American South in the aftermath of Sherman’s March, which targeted the key infrastructure that was important to the region’s economic engine, and in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles led to economic disaster during the Weimar Republic.
There’s an abundance of those same ingredients for white supremacy — inequality and disenfranchisement — right here in Oregon in 2021. Many families in rural communities are still reeling from the loss of income and opportunities related to fishing and timber. Like the dying coal industry in this eastern half of this country, these industries are no longer economically viable. The cost of living has skyrocketed in places like Bend and Portland, adding to severe economic hardship for many Oregonians. We, like the rest of the country, are increasingly becoming a society of haves and have nots. And, elsewhere, as is the case here, the have nots are desperate to find sources of stability, comfort, confidence, and pride.
Those aspirations have existed in American history. After I sat watching our members of Congress reconvene to certify the Electoral College votes, Oregon Public Broadcasting cut to an episode of Oregon Experience that highlighted the experience of Oregonians who were part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
As my wife and I watched the story of the CCC in Oregon’s history, we didn’t just see the construction of some of Oregon’s most beautiful parks that provided us with much-needed respite during the pandemic. We were struck by the camaraderie, unity, patriotism and high spirits in the face of the Great Depression, which was a stark contrast to what we had seen on our screens earlier on in the day. We saw an antidote to white supremacy.
When people prosper, they feel united instead of divided. Fighting for a healthy economy with shared prosperity helps in our fight against white supremacy and violence.
2. Protect our democratic institutions
Our elected leaders can only work towards advancing prosperity when they can do their jobs safely. This means we can’t have rioters storm our places of government — that goes for those of all political ideologies. We need to set aside ideology and give legislators the space they need to make drastic changes that meet this moment.
We need to learn how to address white supremacy assertively. To do that, we must channel the pragmatism of the past, while rejecting and responding to the systems and structures that allowed white supremacy to flourish in our state.
The Oregon Way refers to the bygone days of Tom McCall and Mark Hatfield, when Republicans and Democrats worked together towards a common vision. That vision is impossible to achieve when we don’t have a more common and shared understanding of reality.
While social media has been effective at shining a light on injustice, it has also allowed the amplification of extreme voices and created alternate realities that have shred apart a common understanding of the truth. To promote a shared Oregon experience, I subscribe to and support The Oregon Way, The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and Oregon Humanities.
There are organizations that are combating white supremacy in our great state. Rural Organizing Project and Unite Oregon have been very intentional about organizing communities outside of densely populated parts of Willamette Valley. Western States Center has created a toolkit to help confront the white nationalist movement’s active recruitment of school-aged children.
Lastly, I support organizations that advance BIPOC leadership — like Albina Vision Trust, Brown Hope, Imagine Black (formerly PAALF), and Urban League — because I believe the people who are most affected by government policies should be the ones leading the conversation — not corporate interests.
What are you doing to combat white supremacy in Oregon?
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**Thomas previously did paid work for the Western States Center.
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