White Supremacist Jeremy Christian.
White Supremacist Jeremy Christian. Doug Brown

Portland's historical and present-day racism will be the focus of a CBS News special on Monday evening and you should consider checking it out.

It'll be streaming on cbsnews.com/live and on streaming devices like Apple TV at 5, 8, and 11 pm on Monday.


The video preview for the special—dubbed "Portland | Race Against the Past"—shows a bunch of clips from the bloody Patriot Prayer rally and counter protest from August. The preview online highlights Jeremy Christian's May 2017 killings and the racist Oregon constitution:

The perpetrator, Jeremy Joseph Christian, appeared to brag about the attacks as he sat in the back of a police patrol car, saying "that's what liberalism gets you," according to court documents. Christian, 35, shouted "You call it terrorism! I call it patriotism!" and "Death to the enemies of America!" as he made his first appearance in court not long thereafter.

For some people, this attack came as no surprise. "Oregon is a racist utopia," said Walidah Imarisha, an Oregon historian who explained how racism is baked into Oregonian history. In 1857, its constitution contained a provision that stated "No free negro or mulatto...shall ever come, reside, or be within this State, or hold any real estate, or make any contracts, or sustain any suit therein."

Racist provisions banning blacks from entering the state remained on the books, even if they weren't enforced, until 2001. And in 2017, racism and white supremacism may have become less overt, but are no less sinister.

It may not have much more information on Oregon's racist roots than what the Atlantic wrote last year or what Gizmodo wrote about in 2015, but it'll probably be a good refresher on the issues the city and state face.