Profile of a City — Portland, Oregon
by Clay-Adam Dash Johnson, Pointcast News
Portland, Oregon is the biggest city in Oregon, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most prosperous cities, a place that is known as a bastion of progressive values, liberal culture. It is also know for rise of ANTIFA philosophies and groups and various White nationalist groups. Since 2017, the city has been led by mayor, Ted Wheeler, a former Republican, now Democrat.
As of 2019, The United States Census Bureau has estimated Portland to have a population of 654,741, a 12.2 percent increase since 2010. That breaks down to as such: 23.1 percent of the population is underage, with 5.3 percent of that being under five years old. People that are old enough to retire, i.e. 65+, make up 12.8 percent of the population.
As of the last quarter of 2020, the average salary in Portland is $69,000 per year an increase of 0.3 percent. However, the cost of living is 29 percent higher than the national average.
Some of the highest paying jobs are Software Engineer, Project Manager, and Operations Manager, with a pay range between $42,000 and $124,000 per year. Among the most popular employers there are Nike, Inc., Intel Corporation, and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).
Over 70 percent of the city is White without any Latino or Hispanic descent, 77.4 percent white in total. Hispanic or Latino people make up 9.7 percent of the population. People that are biracial or are of multiple races, make up 5.3 percent of the population.
Black Americans make up 5.8 percent of the population, Asian Americans make up 8.2 percent of the population and 0.8 percent of the population is Native American or Alaskan Native. These numbers are common for a suburban part of the country or the rural areas, but rare for a city with such a young population. But, there is a reason for that.
In 1844, the Peter Burnett Lash Law was established. It ordered that all Black people were to leave Oregon Country, the expansive territory under American rule that stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains. If not, Blacks stood the risk of being whipped by “not less than twenty or more than thirty-nine stripes”, to be repeated every six months until they left.
Peter Burnett, a former slaver holder who came west from Missouri by wagon train, passed the law in 1844 — 15 years before Oregon became a state. The law allowed slave holders to keep their slaves for a maximum of three years. After the grace period, all Black people — those considered freed or enslaved — were required to leave Oregon Country.
Black women were given three years to get out; Black men were required to leave in two years. This rule and the tradition of running Blacks and other minorities out of the area lasted well into the 20th century.
Portland, for the most part, ignores this part of their history and as a whole has replaced it with a more liberal bend that says that it accepts all weirdos, rejects and outcasts. Despite the way it speaks to the contrary, Portland, much like pretty much every major city in the United States that has or had a population larger than twenty thousand, is a city with a sordid racial past.
Much like the deep south, and its walk with Jim Crow, Portland and cities like it have had their own methods for “dealing” with Black people, once their usefulness has been reached.
One might want to blind themselves to this history but doing so ignores truly how great our country could be or even could have been. Formerly one might have thought that the deep South nurtured a tradition of exclusion and hate that excused the dehumanization of people. But in truth, Portland and it's history is no different.
Currently, Portland and surrounding communities have seen an uptick in the rise of White nationalists groups, such as the Proud Boys and others; and was the scene of social injustice protests. Sparked by the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake, Black Lives Matters and their allies protested for months seeking social justice and the arresting, charging and jailing of police officers responsible for these and other deaths.
Portland, like others, has its pros and its cons. The city is among the greenest in the country, is a quick drive from many of nature’s wonders, and has plenty of sub communities that one can join for fun.
It may be hard for some people of color to even consider this city as a choice, considering its history, despite all the pros, because of the racist past, and how that may have contributed to a healthy White nationalist movement in the area. But, if you venture west and find yourself in “weirdo country” and can make a good living for yourself, I wish you the best. Ultimately, that’s what making in America is all about.