News Jun 6, 2018 at 4:00 am

Where Does This Leave the New Meetup for People of Color?

Comments

1

This was an utterly ridiculous event to start with, but this type of overreaction by a bunch of anonymous bullies to a small meaningless event is just plain ugly. Welcome to America under Trump I guess.

2

"Just a few weeks earlier, Back to Eden fired two white staff members for turning away a Black customer who entered the shop as it was closing."

I believe the customer arrived at 9:06pm when the posted hours were until 9pm. I wouldn't characterize 6 minutes after closing as "as it was closing."

3

Death threats are shitty. Let the grifter get his grift on. Whitten is an expert in cashing in on liberal white guilt, more power to him. Anyone who would willingly sit next to a pile of instant mashed potatoes and customer complaint cards wrapped up with a bow tie (Tucker Carlson) deserves a free drink.

4

Agreed: the event itself is fairly meaningless, but I'm all for pissing off bullies.
That said..."Blomgren allegedly shared his concerns with Whitten. Whitten, who said he felt pressured by Blomgren’s anxiety surrounding the event, decided to cancel the pending June meetup at Back to Eden."
I can't tell if this is bad writing -what exactly is "allegedly" doing in there?- or people who don't communicate very well - Whitten "felt pressured by Blomgren's anxiety"?- but this is becoming the shared experience of anyone who reads the Mercury these days.

5

The Mercury used to have much better journalistic integrity, not to mention a sense of humor. I moved to Portland in 2001 and used to love reading it all the way through. Mind you, that was back when the only people who deserved vicious mockery were the political right, as they pushed us humorlessly into pointless and immoral wars while trying to silence fact-based opposition. The Mercury skewered their pretensions with perfectly irreverent humor. How sad that this same publication is now gullible enough to swallow this idiotic identitarian narrative and present us with drivel no more plausible than the cheerleading for the War on Terror was. Mercury staff, grow a brain; and if you've already got one, grow a spine and use it.

6

"Blomgren allegedly shared his concerns with Whitten. Whitten, who said he felt pressured by Blomgren’s anxiety surrounding the event, decided to cancel the pending June meetup at Back to Eden."

I would say to fuck off with that incredible buck passing you accomplished right there, but passin' bucks is what the event is all about, no? Eyyyyyy! Keeping it consistent!

7

Portland remains overwhelmingly white, dozens of decades after forming in a state that was founded as a white utopia. It's so very white that this is the kind of news that goes viral, and because white supremacists who love the whiteness here treat it like their holy land.

It's tough for white people to imagine getting ten tons of shit for doing things everyone else does without being noticed, but this is what happens to people of color in this town every single day. Pro tip: if what you do is what you're noticed for, you're probably white. If who you are is what you're noticed for, you're probably not. So if you're a white person supporting advocacy and are considering quitting because it's too hard, at least recognize that you have the choice to change something in order to quit being noticed. People of color don't have that privilege, no matter how much hateful trash is aimed at them.

8

One doesn't have to be alt-right to recognize that Whitten is an unabashed racist.

Every "defense" of him is just like this one... name calling and attempted demonization of others. At this point, I don't even think Alex believes what he's writing.


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