The owners of the Dixie Mattress Company at SE 33rd and Belmont had the unfortunate experience of showing up to work this morning to find their property sign had been altered. Where two confederate flags once adorned the awning, were two images of Dr.Martin Luther King, affixed with clothes pegs.
The (anonymous) people responsible phoned to leave a message here, saying only something about “an image of hatred” this morning, and sent me a couple of jpgs while I was out taking photos of the shop, and talking to Judie, the owner, who wouldn’t give her last name. Here’s what it looked like before:
“They’re coming down tonight,” Judie said. “They’ve got the nerve to spray paint on your building, now they think they can do whatever they want. If people don’t like the sign they don’t have to look up there. They think we’re stupid?”
Judie described the signs as “harassment,” and didn’t respond when I asked whether she thought the people responsible might have been trying to make a political point.
While I’m tempted to applaud the gesture for its direct-action feistiness (YAY! Portlanders did something confrontational based on their beliefs!!!), I’m in two minds. Yes, the confederate flag brings up images of the South, and of “civil war racists,” for many Americans, judging from the quick straw poll I just did around the newsroom (i.e. I asked Amy Ruiz)—before moving to this country from England, I only knew it as the flag from Dukes of Hazzard, so I’m hardly an expert on the image.
What I do think, however, is that the Dixie Mattress Company has been on Belmont for years. The people running it seem like hold-outs from before the time when politically ambitious young people with too much time on their hands and, evidently, plenty of energy, started moving in round the corner. Since before there was a Zupans right opposite. When local blogger Ask Steve took on the issue in December 2006, he had this to say:
I’ve lived in this neighborhood for eight years now. I’ve watched great new businesses like Laughing Planet, Blue Monk, Missing Link and Kaiju Cafe come in. I’ve watched existing businesses make improvements. All the while Dixie Mattress Co.’s storefront has just gotten uglier and uglier. And it was bad when I first moved here.
The list of those businesses reads like the rundown from Stuff White People Like. While the confederate flag stands for segregation in a different time, Belmont’s recent history and this protest, perhaps, stand for segregation of a different kind. Of those with class privilege from those without it. Of the gentrifiers from the gentrifiyees.
Bottom line: It’s bullying. Leave the poor bastards alone. Right? As I mentioned, I’m conflicted, here. Help.
Just because you’re an old bastard doesn’t make a racist symbol all right. I mean, you can cringe and look the other way if it’s your grandfather or something, but with a business like this? Sorry. No love from me on this one. I love what they did to the sign. Come on, it’s clipped on there with clothespins. No permament damage done. More power to ’em.
Goddam I hate the Dixie Mattress Company with every ounce of my being. They contribute 0% to the neighborhood, they are conspicuously absent from EVERY fair, festival, or community event along Belmont or in Sunnyside, and it’s the high point of hilarity that they’ll just jump to their feet to take down pictures of MLK but sit on their fat asses all day long while the trash and debris pile up in front of the store.
And, awesome that the idiot storeowner complains about “they’ve got the nerve to spray paint on your building,” yet that spray paint has been there for months now without her doing a thing about it.
This has nothing to do with “class privilege,” but rather doing the bare minimum to make the real estate you hold on a busy stretch of street look decent, and actually contributing something to the community.
Which reminds me. Jo Ann Bowman of Oregon Action had a post about Understanding White Privilege on Blue Oregon this weekend:
http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/06/understanding-w.html
I have white privilege because I’m white, I was born to middle class parents, I had a private education, I own a condo downtown that used to be a single room occupancy hotel, I work in the media, I have friends and family who are in powerful positions, and so on, and so forth.
Because I have all those advantages, I tend to pick my battles when it comes to protesting perceived injustice. Like you say, cringe and look the other way when it’s your grandfather, maybe. But not mine. He should know better.
I hate to say it but if I didn’t have those advantages and I flew a confederate flag outside my business like the Dixie Company has, I’d think in some sense that the fuckers who did it were just lording their privilege over me. Whether or not they were “right” to do it. Whether or not is was excusable.
Poor white people? Shit. It’s open season these days…
Bullying? They’re putting a symbol up on Belmont that stands for slavery of an entire race. It doesn’t matter what it means to Judie or her family. If she doesn’t get why it’s wrong to have a sign like this up then maybe someone needs to tell her in ways like this.
Wait. People actually work there? I’ve lived in Portland for almost 6 years and I have never ever (not even once!) seen the Dixie Mattress Company open. What do they do there? Do they sell things? Just judging by what I’ve seen peering through the dirty windows all the merchandise looks older than I am. I always just assumed it was a front for something sketchy.
Dixie Mattress Co. is choosing to make a statement that will be perceived as confrontational by some of the public.
These “protesters” chose to make a confrontational statement.
The difference is, one statement is clearly against the law, the other isn’t.
Fucking with small business owners is not cool. Find another way to make your point.
This city has an long and sorted history when it comes to segregation and as progressive as we might think we are now, some things serve as potent reminders of how easy is to take a step backward.
Aside from the confederate flag, this place is a dive and a scar on the neighborhood. Tell them to fix their place up, take down the flag, and then maybe business will pick up for them.
They make custom mattresses and box springs in there. My girlfriend has an odd sized, antique bed. Dixie mattress made her a box spring and mattress to fit. Very high quality and very reasonable.
Whoa Matt there. Didn’t know this was all about you. I thought it was about the confederate flag symbols on the Dixie Mattress sign? I think it’s creative vandalism that’s about sending a message. The place is a dump. Boo hoo they’re going to have to climb up there with a ladder and take it down.
Fucking with small business owners is not cool. Find another way to make your point.
By putting up two easily removable signs? Seriously, it will take all of 3 minutes and a ladder. In the grand list of ways to “fuck with small businesses,” this probably ranks about #3,582.
“Creative vandalism.”
Is that part of Portland’s creative class?
Sam Adams will be thrilled.
Clothespins? That’s gotta be the most passive-aggressive “protest” ever. C’mon. It’s not subtle at all but it definitely makes a point without causing any permanent damage. It’s not like, say, naked skinny kids in front of a fur shop for months on end or anything.
Wait… Matt Davis asked for help? Did he leave himself signed on at work? Can someone get a hold of him and let him know his password isn’t secure anymore? kthx
Matt, for a guy who claims he likes to pick his battles, you’re picking a weird one here. Those two signs are probably the most attractive thing to grace that storefront in the past 8 years.
There’s two sides to white privilege/white guilt. The first is that you don’t recognize the advantages you’ve been born with, and go around expecting that everyone shares your belief system.
The second side is you become overly sensitive to the fact that you have these advantages, and attribute to people ideas and virtues that they probably don’t hold, and probably lack. That’s what I think is going on here–you’re so wrapped up in your “oh my gosh, I’m rich, I’m white, I’m a member of the landed gentry, oh noes!11!!!” mentality that you can’t see a harmless prank played against a shitty store for what it is: a harmless prank played against a shitty store.
It seems that your story is missing an important detail. If they left you a phone message, why don’t you post it on blogtown?
Why hold back all the facts in your reporting?
After all you had no problem posting the phone messages of the confused Larry Norman fan awhile back.
I’ve always felt a bit weird passing by there. As a business owner myself, I’ve found it’s usually best to keep my beliefs personal, even if they are popular, and not let them be reflected in my business so as to not risk alienating a potential customer. No matter how they feel personally about the meaning of the flag, it doesn’t seem like a good move for a business to make. The name alone shows the pride you have. Drop the flags and sell more mattresses.
I suppose if you just moved to Portland the Dixie Mattress Co. signs might be offensive.
As a native of almost 30 years, I gotta say that even as a person of color this building and its signs never bothered me. It’s funny that this issue comes up NOW, as people of color have since been relocated to other areas of the city and the inner-eastside is as white as ever.
Funny how folks who have lived in inner SE for 8 years think they have the pulse of the neighborhood. The liberal gentry rise up against the oppression of a . . . oh that’s right, it’s a mattress store. Taken it to the streets man. Oh, wait a minute, I need to pick up a latte before we start the revolution. Is that OK? And, if that store had picture of the iconic left, say Che, that would be fine wouldn’t it? Or, if it sold cupcakes, coffee and new age crystals under a red sign that said, “The People’s DooDads” that too would be juuust fine. Those damn mattress people, they don’t act like the rest of us. Damn their eyes. Excuse me. Can someone give me directions to the Jack Reed book store?
While I’m not a fan of what Dixie Mattress Co.’s iconography stands for and I think they are probably not a very good community citizen BUT it’s a freakin’ free country (or used to be anyway pre GWB). They can fly whatever flag they want no matter how fucked-up (seems like they’re just doing it to be assholes but whatever).
Conversely, other people can protest whatever way they want. As long as it isn’t out and out vandalism(destruction of property that requires repair or replacement) and nobody gets hurt. I think this particular stunt is pretty brilliant. As for the graffiti and trash, DMC should clean it up themselves no question. One would think, with property values being what they are in that neighborhood they could sell, open up a new store in Gresham and make a nice profit, at the same time removing a longtime eyesore from Belmont street. Again, I think they probably stay just to be assholes.
It seems like a fairly harmless way to make a point. On a related note, ask-steve sounds like a real dick.
Anonymous? Can we even take this “protest” seriously if they anonymously put up the signs and then anonymously leave you a message about it? Sounds like they’re not even taking themselves seriously. In other words, sounds like the hundreds of idiots (myself included) who rant on Blogtown anonymously just for shits and giggles.
Come on people, the confederate flag is not a racist symbol that stands for enslaving an entire race of people. If you believe the civil war was only about slavery then you probably believe the war in Iraq is strictly a war against terror. It’s just easier for the government to wage war if they make one side look evil and wrong. The main difference between the north and the south was that the south believed in more rights being given to the state and not the federal government. Read a history book people!
And by the way, I got a mattress there when I first moved here. Not sure how they managed it, but its nearly four inches taller on one side. I sleep with my feet going downhill.
dls3: perhaps not as it was originally used, but I have no doubt that most of the folks who fly it today do so because they know it pisses off the libs, and they enjoy infuriating other people.
Let’s call it what it is: the battle flag of an armed insurrection against the US government. Why on earth should we celebrate that?
Also, the South? You guys got beat. Get over it, already.
flags old or new, are overrated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFU3obGOpEg
I’ll help with your confliction.
“While the confederate flag stands for segregation in a different time”
First, what is wrong with those history classes in England? It didn’t stand for “segregation”. It stood for slavery and treason.
Now, replace the word confederate with nazi and segregation with holocaust..
Still conflicted?
Dear Portland,
Please unbunch your panties.
Thanks,
A Black Guy From The South
I should add that “BEING OFFENDED” is one of Stuff White People Like’s most recent entries.
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/
Nazis indeed.
Anyone know what’s up with that storefront with all the creepy masks on Belmont? Way more scary and offensive than the stars and bars.
If the dixie mattress company’s logo was a big rainbow with an X through it it would have been defaced years ago and continuously. The confederate flag is obviously a symbol of hatred, as the governments of Alabama, South Carolina, and other states have taken steps to remove it from their government buildings and flags. I think it highlights how insensitive the northwest in general is to race issues while environmentalism and gay rights are at the top of their agenda.
If this were a discussion of a city ordinance would force the removal of said sign, I would take the opposite side. As it is, it doesn’t bother me that someone, harmlessly, decided to call out Dixie for a controversial symbol.
I’m sure if you asked the owners, they wouldn’t say anything about celebrating the institution of slavery; they’d say something about pride in southern traditions, state’s rights, Jack Daniels, hush puppies etc…
Still, in most parts of the country, we see the flag and see nothing but slavery. While we may be ignoring some of the nuances of the civil war, the flag has come to bear a certain meaning that is (as it should be) offensive to most people. If the Dixie doesn’t understand signs and signifiers, someone can surely clothespin up a bust of Saussure. No real harm is done, and the government isn’t intervening–General Lee would be proud.
Now a separate issue is dumbass commentators whose issue is that the storefront isn’t pretty enough for their precious neighborhood. Just because it doesn’t have Neutral Milk Hotel playing over the PA, or skinny girls in American Apparel V-necks ignoring you while they make you coffee doesn’t mean it should be moved out to 82nd with everyone else displaced from the neighborhood.
I don’t see what the big deal is on either side. On the one hand, the Confederate flag is a symbol that’s been highly diluted by the passage of time. It’s like someone getting upset over an image of Julius Caesar cause he’s a tyrant.
On the other hand, they’re just a couple of pictures clothespinned to the damn sign. Seems harmless. It’s a respectable image of a civil rights icon. Not like they plastered penises all over the building. haha. Penises.
Come on people, the confederate flag is not a racist symbol that stands for enslaving an entire race of people. If you believe the civil war was only about slavery then you probably believe the war in Iraq is strictly a war against terror.
Oh yes…it was all about states rights. Bullshit. I grew up in the South, I am a Southerner, I’ve seen that flag waving on capitol grounds and in front of people’s houses. To Southerners it means they are still pledging their allegiance to the South. I know exactly what that flag means to Southerners and I’ll give you a hint, it isn’t about heritage. If you want to call heritage on a flag move down there. Here in Yankee Oregon you don’t get to claim heritage. It’s just a symbol of racism.
You can make the same argument about the Nazi flag. To some Germans it may represent Germany rising out of the quagmire of the muck they were in after WWI. How would you feel if those were Nazi flags instead?
welllll. there’s paris hilton class and there’s barack obama class.
my family works for a living and we know that the confederate flag is fraught with ugly connotations. don’t automatically let people off the hook because they’re poor. proud ignorance is unacceptable all the way up the various social ladders.
Of course Dixie Mattress has left their sign up. And (duh?) of course they don’t sell many (if any) mattresses. They’re most likely sitting on the property as long as possible before throwing in the towel and turning a profit on it. And meanwhile they’re leaving their sign up as a big FUCK YOU to the neighborhood’s newer, younger, lefter, and wealthier residents.
Which, I suppose they have the legal right to do. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not assholes for doing it.
And don’t start comparing the “segregation” between poorer whites and wealthier whites with the STATE-MANDATED racial segregation that existed in the south. It’s quite a bit different.
And about the SWPL website reference: I’m going to go out on a limb here and call it out for being racist — but not “racist against white people.” It’s racist because it supports the racist ideology of perpetuating stereotypes. It seems that a lot of white people like this website — probably because it makes them feel a little bit less guilty about the stereotypes they secretly hold about people of color.
As a foreigner Matt can you just trust us that the Confederate flag is a symbol of brutal racism?
There are African-Americans alive today whose parents were lynched under that flag. Saying it’s power as a symbol of racism is diluted is wishful thinking.
And since when did Martin Luther King Jr. become a symbol of gentrification?
Now a separate issue is dumbass commentators whose issue is that the storefront isn’t pretty enough for their precious neighborhood.
Must surprise you to find yourself in a discussion with people who want their neighborhood to look nice, eh? I shudder to think of the shithole you must inhabit.
That flag does not belong in Portland.
It maybe “ok” in the south where it can my considered to a symbol of southern pride or what ever. But here it doesn’t stand for anything here but racism.
“Must surprise you to find yourself in a discussion with people who want their neighborhood to look nice, eh? I shudder to think of the shithole you must inhabit.”
You might shudder, I don’t know. I live on a pretty modest income, and probably couldn’t afford that particular neighborhood or the Pottery Barn furniture you buy in lieu of bed from your neighborhood mattress shop. Apparently Dixie can afford it, and shouldn’t made to feel unwelcome because they don’t look like something that yuppie assholes like yourself think looks “nice.” They’ve been their longer than the places you want them to resemble. Why would a custom mattress company want to participate in some bullshit street fair that would do absolutely nothing for their business? But I’m sure your ideas for Belmont capture all the subtlety of your above-take on the civil war.
The confederate flag without a doubt still symbolizes racism and slavery and is not just about “segregation of a different time.” The fact that one of the oldest and most influential civil rights group, the NAACP, STILL has an official boycott of the State of Carolina for its continual display the flag on its State House grounds should imply something about how highly charged the issue is.
I think it’s great that finally someone opened up conversation around these signs…I googled The Dixie when I first moved here and didn’t see anything that implied that Portlanders had any kind of blog commentary or media coverage or any issue with those signs. And I agree with the statement above that if the flags had been anti-gay or anti-animals the whole city would be in a fury to have them removed. But somehow we are OK with a blatant sign of slavery?
Even if for the Dixie people the confederate flag is about Hank Williams and hush puppies I agree with “VOR” above that its association with slavery is just as strong and more commonly recognized than that other stuff. What is has taken Portland so long to have a public discussion about this?
Gee, I sure do wonder if any if the insightful critics of the Dixie have actually ever been in the store or know anything at all about the business, the history and people behind it.
Thought not.
Just like Portland to get up in arms about something fucking pointless.
Love it!!!!
Blondezilla—you actually googled, (fucking googled!!!) the Dixie to see whether or not Portlanders had any blog commentary or “public discussion” concerning the place?
Really?
God, I love this town!!!
“I should add that “BEING OFFENDED” is one of Stuff White People Like’s most recent entries.”
Matt, werent you upset that Robert Downey Jr portrayal of an african american in Tropic Thunder was “to suble for the average american…”, and were therefore offended?
Gee, I sure do wonder if any if the insightful critics of the Dixie have actually ever been in the store or know anything at all about the business, the history and people behind it.
Thought not.
In my 9 years of living in this neighborhood I’ve never once seen one person walk in or out of that place. I don’t really need a new bed but if I did I’d rather buy one from a place that looks like it’s been cleaned since the Nixon administration.
All y’all going to miss it when it’s gone.
I’d get it if it were a junk shop, or some badass carburetor rebuild hut, but no, this place sells things for you to sleep on.
And neither the flags on the sign, nor the windows so dirty you can barely see through them really make me want to get naked with what’s inside that store.
I’d much rather get a mattress at Goodwill.
for real, i’ve never seen that place open! and then i’m confused by what’s in their windows since it’s a mattress store….
do you have their hours? b/c i would love to go in there sometime.
Wow. Apparently we all needed to discuss this. There’s some stellar copy here. As a transplanted Southerner with honest-to-God Confederate ancestry, I will never be offended by that flag. We had it at picnics when I was a kid, right next to the American flag. We never thought of it as a hateful symbol. I can’t tell you how to feel about it, but i can say that when we flew that flag it was about land and farming and family and heritage. That said, I was pretty surprised to see it on a storefront when I moved here. I mean, what with the relatively few important Civil War battles that happened in the Pacific Northwest. I guess where I am now is that enough assholes have adopted that flag as their banner that I’ve finally reached a point where I wouldn’t display it. As for the Dr. King posters, I say it was a tasteful move not to deface the sign permanently. Harmless statement. I’m also happy to hear that people have shopped there. I’d pegged it for a money laundering operation. Stay civil, y’all.
No we don’t think you’re stupid Judy. We’re think you’re ignorant.
Now that everyone has their panties good and twisted into a big ‘ol knot, can we please discuss people and symbols that are really and truly offensive… Washington residents. If the drunk numbnuts teenagers that vandalized a single nothing store that nobody goes to anyway would instead mobilize their efforts into vandalizing any car with a Washington license plate, we’d really be onto something.
And after that, we can move on to red heads. Offensive! Then men. Also offensive! Rawr! The no business mattress store is just the tip of the offended iceberg, people. I hear that if their employees float, they’re witches.
Surely, this is worth so much blowhard angst, time, and negative vitriol. It’s a small business with very few customers, after all. Clearly, this is very important in the grand scheme of things.
I moved here 20 years from Tennessee in part to escape the stifling racism, bigotry and small-mindedness in the South. Big surprise–there is no escape! Oregon does indeed have an ugly racist history, including the so-called “sundown” law which excluded blacks from moving here for decades. Until our shipbuilders needed any labor they could find during WWII, Portland was almost 100% white. The thriving African-American community of the 40’s and 50’s was then decimated by the wrong-headed (racist?) “urban renewal” policies of the 70’s. A complacent and ignorant populace stood by and allowed this insidious attack on an entire community.
I was shocked the first time I saw the Dixie Mattress sign. Southern business owners for the most part abandoned this racist symbol even before I moved here, and it is only on display in the back windows of pickup trucks with gun racks. It is not a symbol of Southern pride or states’ rights; rather, it is the defiant gesture of a dwindling number of clueless morons whose grip on reality has always been tenuous at best.
Wow, Dave J, your indignation at untidiness runs deep. Shall we guess that the Avalon/Electric Castle is next on your list of neighborhood anachronisms to whine about?
i think they should blow the fucking building up. that place has been grossing us out for years. fuck, i’ll do it myself.
Matt Davis in attention seeking by teaching Portlanders about racism SHOCKER
Wow, Dave J, your indignation at untidiness runs deep. Shall we guess that the Avalon/Electric Castle is next on your list of neighborhood anachronisms to whine about?
No, it’s a decent place and there’s a constant flow of people going in and out.
Hey, we all have our own stupid little battles that make sense to nobody outside our immediate orbit. Mine is that I hate the little mattress shop near my house. I don’t apologize for it.
Interesting that people are this upset about a facet of Southern culture in Belmont when 3 blocks down a purveyor of standard Southern cuisine is the hippest thing in town. 30 minutes for a fucking biscuit!? HIPSTER FAIL.
It’s good to keep a little gritty business around, even if it does sport a questionable symbol. Surrounded as it is by all the progressive businesses and restaurants on Belmont, I feel like the confederate flag loses all it’s potency- it just becomes this harmless curiosity, a “why’s that there? How odd” kind of thing. Belmont has a more interesting and complex flavor because of it. Soon enough, it will all be new and shiny, and nice, and… sigh.
Of course, I am a total hypocrite- I live in “Deep SE”, aka Felony Flats, and cringed the other day when I saw one of those Foster antique/junk shops flying a confederate flag, and I was relieved when I noticed it was gone the next day. But in this neighborhood you really feel like there might be gun totin redneck racists behind that flag- I never felt that with the Belmont one. Out here where “grit” and “character” are so common, I am less inclined to defend it as a rarity.
Hmm, I think I just talked myself out of my point, but I’m posting this anyway!
It appears that the owners have no sense of humor and seem just a little more offended then they should be.
Of course they have the right to display the white supremacist confederate flag publicly but why whine like a liberal when you get a response?
Yeah there were a lot of reasons for the Civil War i.e. the right to propety (the right to own slaves), state rights (the right to own slaves, economic competition with the North (the right to exploit your slaves for cheap labor). Nah, the war had nothing to do with slaver . . . yeah, right.
Folks who like to pretend they are so rebellious by flying the Confederate Flag are right about one thing though it does appear that the Confederate South will rise again, shit always floats to the top.
Good for you Portland for taking a stance, good for you!
Please do some research on the flags history. Once you are educated on its history you will be able to blog with knowledge. Order your $5.00 coffee and $4.00 muffin open your $2500 laptop and get to work. Look outside that coffee shop and wonder what alot of people of color can not afford. You are the problem, not the flag.
I believe I acknowledged my white privilege in the post, Braveheart. And incidentally, didn’t the English kill you centuries ago?
Order your $5.00 coffee and $4.00 muffin open your $2500 laptop
ha ha, jokes on you, my coffee only cost $4.00. Wait, what?
P.S. Since we’re all talking about the awesomeness that is Belmont, why no posts on the guy who (allegedly) flung himself through Stumptown’s front window yesterday, requiring about 7 cops cars and a fire truck when he finally got chased down a few blocks away, Blogtown?
Because we rely on tips from dudes like you, Dave. See the top of Blogtown…
THANKS!
“P.S. Since we’re all talking about the awesomeness that is Belmont, why no posts on the guy who (allegedly) flung himself through Stumptown’s front window yesterday, requiring about 7 cops cars and a fire truck when he finally got chased down a few blocks away, Blogtown?”
I know I’ve felt much the same way after experiencing the joys of the Belmont Stumptown.
I like the Division store though.
That storefront is pertty gross but does anyone want SE Portland to become another sterile city — DC, LA, NYC, the Pearl? It will if you push it in that direction. Maybe we could replace it with a nice Panera Bread. I’m hoping we can live with diversity in all it’s forms. Echoing a sentiment above, if you don’t like the store, go hang elsewhere.
Everybody knows that Dixie is a mob front. People have been saying that for years. Why else would a place that does no business take up 3 highly sought after store fronts for that long? Think about it.
They need to hurry up and shut down so the KKK can open up a smoothy shop.
The flags are racist and always have been. OTOH, Oregon has a stronger freedom of speech clause in its constitution than the federal one, which is a good thing. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get some grief for them. Good job, whoever did the MLK’s on there.
The Dixie Mattress people are bad neighbors and it astonishes me that hipsters pretend their red neck thing is some kind of working class cool. NOT. They got exposed a few years ago for putting new covers on old pee-soaked mattresses and reselling them.
Word on the street is that the only reason they haven’t sold is that nobody in the family can read, and they don’t trust anybody enough to sign anything. Fine by me because it would probably just become another place for hipsters with six figure salaries to pose as bicycle messengers while getting shit-faced.
The flags are racist and always have been. OTOH, Oregon has a stronger freedom of speech clause in its constitution than the federal one, which is a good thing. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get some grief for them. Good job, whoever did the MLK’s on there.
The Dixie Mattress people are bad neighbors and it astonishes me that hipsters pretend their red neck thing is some kind of working class cool. NOT. They got exposed a few years ago for putting new covers on old pee-soaked mattresses and reselling them.
Word on the street is that the only reason they haven’t sold is that nobody in the family can read, and they don’t trust anybody enough to sign anything. Fine by me because it would probably just become another place for hipsters with six figure salaries to pose as bicycle messengers while getting shit-faced.
Weird…The latest issue of Zyzzyva has a story set at (or above) the Dixie Mattress Company! It’s by local author Liz Prato.
http://www.zyzzyva.org/w05.prato.htm
“On the other side of the Dixie Mattress Company was a store that sold candles and greeting cards. Veronica liked to go into this store, because it always smelled of vanilla and cinnamon, just like the kitchen when her mother used to bake spice cakes with brown-sugar-and-butter topping…”
Not really my bag, mate. Sorry.
I saw a place flying the Union Jack the other day.
Talk about offensive. I heard they used to tax whole countries!
i am from the south. the confederate flag definitely means something down there. i think if there was a concern about the flags on belmont, some one from the community would just try to talk about it with the owners. this just seems like privileged white trustifarians misbehavin en route from eating a wrap at laughing planet to reggae night at where ever.
I live near it. The door is always chained shut. It’s an eyesore. I’ve never seen anybody working there, or shopping there. They’ve had the same stuff sitting in it for 2 or more years. It’s trashy. If it’s a front, it’s not a very good one.
The confederate flag is just icing on that cake.
You know, I’m Cuban-American and I’m deeply offended by all the Che imagery around here in Portland, probably much worse than any black person who’s looked at those confederate flags in the past year.
Where’s my white American protest?!?! The only people who seem to know Che killed and tortured tens of thousands of Cubans in prison and did exactly jackSHIT for us are the Republicans, and I don’t want to side with them!
Now THERE’S a conflict for ya..
I a few blocks off of Belmont.
I would rather have a McDonald’s on that street than this place. Not only have I never seen it open (in 5 years), its a rat-hole, and I find it terribly insulting.
Every time I walk past I’m half tempted to toss a rock through their window.
I live a few blocks off of Belmont.
I would rather have a McDonald’s on that street than this place. Not only have I never seen it open (in 5 years), its a rat-hole, and I find it terribly insulting.
Every time I walk past I’m half tempted to toss a rock through their window.
I’m offended by that place. Its really unneccesary to have the flags there, if anything it tells me that I’m not welcome to shop there. I applaud whoever did this for actually standing up for black people in portland instead of just talking about how white it is day in and day out like i overhear nearly every fucking day.
The list of comments here is long enough as is, but I still feel I should add my 2 cents.
It’s not THE “confederate flag.” The “suspenders” flag was actually only the battle flag for the state of Tennessee and was never adopted as the flag of the Confederacy. That association is a widely accepted bastardization of history. As a battle flag flown by a state militia of a member state of the confederacy, it far from symbolizes the civil war as a whole.
What IS bad about the use of the symbol is the post war adoption of the image as a symbol for hate groups such as the KKK.
In short, the flag is bad, but not for the reasons you think it is. And, the use of MLK to cover it (as opposed to the Stars and Stripes, for example) was a good choice given that it’s more a symbol of oppression during the fight for civil rights than a symbol for slavery.
Sorry, I’m just a big history dork.
These folks think the flag is great, too:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=E_PZlp1Ynk8
Its my understanding that the folks who own Dixie Mattress Co. own the whole block and lease the buildings to the other small businesses. Based on this I would think that they are benefiting a plenty from the “gentrification”. Hardly victims of the “new segregation”.
Its my understanding that the folks who own Dixie Mattress Co. own the whole block and lease the buildings to the other small businesses. Based on this I would think that they are benefiting a plenty from the “gentrification”. Hardly victims of the “new segregation”.
i am an african american woman and live around the corner from the dixie mattress company. it is painful to see those symbols of segregation and racial terrorism that the confederate flag has represents for so many people in the heart of my neighborhood.
needless to say i love this gesture of radical , creative activism. the beloved sunflower painting at the nearby intersection of se 33rd and yamhill is another awesome example of folks taking things into their own hands to create something of peace on top of something so ugly.
God help us…what have we become? Are you proud that we protest minor things and puff up our chests as if we’ve achieved victory over true evil?…God help us.
Apparently they are getting arson threats. Hope whoever does that gets locked up. Flag is bad, but violence just begets more. Cool your jets, whoever is harassing them. You are just being STOOOPIIDDD.
This is all about being ‘proud’ of heritage and very little about the flag itself, it seems. If only so many southerners didn’t walk around with a costco-sized chip on their shoulder over losing a war fought in the name of enslaving other humans 143 years ago. If your proud heritage is inexorably tied to the flag known today as the “Confederate Battle Flag” or the “Confederate Navy Jack”, and you simply can’t accept that many people would like to kick your crotch for your stubborn stupidity, well, expect more of the same. If you walked around with a shirt that said “I love ni**ers” on it, but explained to everyone you met it meant something different where you were from and was an important part of your heritage, would that change the ass kicking you got from the people here?
The Belmont Business Association, Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, and the unnamed, anonymous neighbors who supposedly “…wonder about Dixie” are the people we all need to be afraid of and, at the very least, aware that those kinds of throwbacks, bigots, racists, and fascists are alive, well, and simply clothing themselves in the modern vestments normally associated with “liberal”, “open minded”, “progressive” citizens of the world. They were described in the article as the ones who “…want to know why those women won’t sell, why they won’t at least wash their windows or make the front of their store more attractive. They call them insensitive and worse. They view the MLK signs, heavy-duty things that were clipped over the Confederate flags, as a creative and justified form of protest.”
We should all be thankful that they are really showing their true colors in this article especially through the uninformed, shortsighted, and narrow minded comments made by their spokespeople and some anonymous members of the “…neighborhood known more and more for bustle and bright lights: the neon signs of the Avalon Theatre, the oddly colored hair of customers at Laughing Planet Cafe and Stumptown Coffee, the cheerful tones of newly restored bungalows and Victorians on surrounding streets.
Young readers and those who are new to Portland should be warned not to fall into supporting the obvious ploy being made to force Dixie Mattress Company out of business by the cutthroat, greedy, and bigoted group who has moved in and appointed themselves as the ruling elite in that neighborhood. Any longtime resident of Portland and, most especially, the vast majority of business owners who have been around since before there was a “…neighborhood known more and more for bustle and bright lights: the neon signs of the Avalon Theatre, the oddly colored hair of customers at Laughing Planet Cafe and Stumptown Coffee, the cheerful tones of newly restored bungalows and Victorians on surrounding streets,” will tell you that Dixie Mattress Company has been a solid, upright, pillar of the business community, and furthermore, the company and its owners are known to be anything but racists or bigots.
My family, an openly Jewish family, started doing business with Dixie Mattress Company back in 1971. Long before it was fashionable, or politically correct to do so, my father offered low income families clean and affordable furnished houses, apartments, and transient accommodations in what were then the roughest neighborhoods of Northeast, Northwest, and Southeast Portland. One of the reasons that he was able to offer housing resources to some of the most needy families in Portland was because of the alliance that he had with the owner of Dixie Mattress Company.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of doing business with Dixie Mattress Company will tell you that they are well known for their straightforward, ethical dealings, and selling good, solid, unembellished products. Dixie isn’t the kind of company that feels like they have beat you over the head at every turn with the idea that they have been a locally owned family business operating with sustainable practices and providing products made from recycled and renewable resources, although these are the very fundamental principles which have allowed them to continue as one of the oldest independent small businesses in their area. They have never had the need to proclaim their “celebration of diversity” in multi-racial advertisements, and they haven’t been known to scream about their open mindedness with amateur murals on the side of the building they own. More than that, they have no reason to boast continuously about how much they contribute locally or how they have done so over the last forty years on a person-to-person basis, or a business-to-business basis, as well as to the economy. Where so many new image only, flash in the pan, and fly-by-night operations run by hucksters and modern day snake oil salesmen talk a good game, Dixie Mattress Company walks the walk the way it has decade after decade without saying a word – simply continuing to do good business.
And what about those rebel flags? When it comes to Dixie Mattress, the symbolism of those flags has as mush to do with racism as swastikas in a Hindu temple. Nothing. In case it hasn’t occurred to any of the self entitled elite passing judgment upon this Portland landmark of a business, there are great numbers of Americans who would lovingly go on at length, perhaps for hours, to describe the wonderful cultural legacy of Dixie, or the American south, in fond and loving terms without ever supporting racism, slavery, or the other deplorable human rights tragedies that region has fought so hard to overcome.
If that concept can’t be understood, perhaps it is time we do away with the all forms and images of American flags and symbols of this republic in light of the unquestionable genocide that was carried out against the natives of this land, and as a result of which less than 4 million exist today.
Over the years Dixie Mattress Company and my father supplied affordable, and often times free mattresses to members of the Confederated Tribes, the Urban League, countless churches, homeless shelters, shelters for battered women, halfway houses, rehab facilities, transient worker programs, and a rainbow colored list of recipients that numbers in the thousands. I would venture to say that it would take at least ten years of business for the businesses that neighbor Dixie to even approach their customer count, and a miracle for them to be able to claim a customer count with as much diversity.
As much as so many “pretenders to the thrown” would like to take credit for the now popular concept of local, or family owned sustainable businesses that celebrate diversity that are all the rage, the fact is that numerous prototypical models that served to fuel the fire for this way of thinking can be found to have originated right here in the Portland, Oregon of days gone by. Can there be so many who are silly enough to think that this way of doing business just popped out of their little hemp woven “mojo” bags following their migration from Berkeley? Maybe its time for those arrogant, fledgling entrepreneurs to stop tooting their own horns and pointing the finger at everyone else with their miraculous realizations and heed their own advise by educating, and familiarizing themselves with their environments. Maybe they should stop judging books and businesses by their covers or facades, and start giving real, honest, locally owned and operated, sustainable businesses that make products using recycled and/or renewable resources the respect, and patronage they deserve.
Maybe its time for the real close minded, judgmental, self entitled, holier than thou, bigoted, hate mongers to take a good look in the mirror and realize that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and that condoning the hate filled vandalism committed against Dixie Mattress Company last week is as vile and abhorrent as any similar act of intolerance with the common roots of ignorance.
The Belmont Business Association, Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, and the unnamed, anonymous neighbors who supposedly “…wonder about Dixie” are the people we all need to be afraid of and, at the very least, aware that those kinds of throwbacks, bigots, racists, and fascists are alive, well, and simply clothing themselves in the modern vestments normally associated with “liberal”, “open minded”, “progressive” citizens of the world. They were described in the article as the ones who “…want to know why those women won’t sell, why they won’t at least wash their windows or make the front of their store more attractive. They call them insensitive and worse. They view the MLK signs, heavy-duty things that were clipped over the Confederate flags, as a creative and justified form of protest.”
We should all be thankful that they are really showing their true colors in this article especially through the uninformed, shortsighted, and narrow minded comments made by their spokespeople and some anonymous members of the “…neighborhood known more and more for bustle and bright lights: the neon signs of the Avalon Theatre, the oddly colored hair of customers at Laughing Planet Cafe and Stumptown Coffee, the cheerful tones of newly restored bungalows and Victorians on surrounding streets.
Young readers and those who are new to Portland should be warned not to fall into supporting the obvious ploy being made to force Dixie Mattress Company out of business by the cutthroat, greedy, and bigoted group who has moved in and appointed themselves as the ruling elite in that neighborhood. Any longtime resident of Portland and, most especially, the vast majority of business owners who have been around since before there was a “…neighborhood known more and more for bustle and bright lights: the neon signs of the Avalon Theatre, the oddly colored hair of customers at Laughing Planet Cafe and Stumptown Coffee, the cheerful tones of newly restored bungalows and Victorians on surrounding streets,” will tell you that Dixie Mattress Company has been a solid, upright, pillar of the business community, and furthermore, the company and its owners are known to be anything but racists or bigots.
My family, an openly Jewish family, started doing business with Dixie Mattress Company back in 1971. Long before it was fashionable, or politically correct to do so, my father offered low income families clean and affordable furnished houses, apartments, and transient accommodations in what were then the roughest neighborhoods of Northeast, Northwest, and Southeast Portland. One of the reasons that he was able to offer housing resources to some of the most needy families in Portland was because of the alliance that he had with the owner of Dixie Mattress Company.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of doing business with Dixie Mattress Company will tell you that they are well known for their straightforward, ethical dealings, and selling good, solid, unembellished products. Dixie isn’t the kind of company that feels like they have beat you over the head at every turn with the idea that they have been a locally owned family business operating with sustainable practices and providing products made from recycled and renewable resources, although these are the very fundamental principles which have allowed them to continue as one of the oldest independent small businesses in their area. They have never had the need to proclaim their “celebration of diversity” in multi-racial advertisements, and they haven’t been known to scream about their open mindedness with amateur murals on the side of the building they own. More than that, they have no reason to boast continuously about how much they contribute locally or how they have done so over the last forty years on a person-to-person basis, or a business-to-business basis, as well as to the economy. Where so many new image only, flash in the pan, and fly-by-night operations run by hucksters and modern day snake oil salesmen talk a good game, Dixie Mattress Company walks the walk the way it has decade after decade without saying a word – simply continuing to do good business.
And what about those rebel flags? When it comes to Dixie Mattress, the symbolism of those flags has as mush to do with racism as swastikas in a Hindu temple. Nothing. In case it hasn’t occurred to any of the self entitled elite passing judgment upon this Portland landmark of a business, there are great numbers of Americans who would lovingly go on at length, perhaps for hours, to describe the wonderful cultural legacy of Dixie, or the American south, in fond and loving terms without ever supporting racism, slavery, or the other deplorable human rights tragedies that region has fought so hard to overcome.
If that concept can’t be understood, perhaps it is time we do away with the all forms and images of American flags and symbols of this republic in light of the unquestionable genocide that was carried out against the natives of this land, and as a result of which less than 4 million exist today.
Over the years Dixie Mattress Company and my father supplied affordable, and often times free mattresses to members of the Confederated Tribes, the Urban League, countless churches, homeless shelters, shelters for battered women, halfway houses, rehab facilities, transient worker programs, and a rainbow colored list of recipients that numbers in the thousands. I would venture to say that it would take at least ten years of business for the businesses that neighbor Dixie to even approach their customer count, and a miracle for them to be able to claim a customer count with as much diversity.
As much as so many “pretenders to the thrown” would like to take credit for the now popular concept of local, or family owned sustainable businesses that celebrate diversity that are all the rage, the fact is that numerous prototypical models that served to fuel the fire for this way of thinking can be found to have originated right here in the Portland, Oregon of days gone by. Can there be so many who are silly enough to think that this way of doing business just popped out of their little hemp woven “mojo” bags following their migration from Berkeley? Maybe its time for those arrogant, fledgling entrepreneurs to stop tooting their own horns and pointing the finger at everyone else with their miraculous realizations and heed their own advise by educating, and familiarizing themselves with their environments. Maybe they should stop judging books and businesses by their covers or facades, and start giving real, honest, locally owned and operated, sustainable businesses that make products using recycled and/or renewable resources the respect, and patronage they deserve.
Maybe its time for the real close minded, judgmental, self entitled, holier than thou, bigoted, hate mongers to take a good look in the mirror and realize that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and that condoning the hate filled vandalism committed against Dixie Mattress Company last week is as vile and abhorrent as any similar act of intolerance with the common roots of ignorance.
This was a publicity stunt to grab storefront property. Shame on the Belmont Neighborhood.
It is time to ban those racist Irish Pride shamrocks. Time to deface them with the Union Jack. Boohoo. And why is everything colored sickly green? Irish racism is alive and well.
The Dixie Mattress company contributed to the community.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8…
The comments by the local-yokels above are ignorant. Even blacks are telling you hypocritical bigots to cool it.
Jim Crow laws continued after the civil war. Segregation exists today on Belmont. There are tunnels in Portland where slaves were captured. The civil war was not about racism. It was an attempt to divide the country by European powers. Slaves came in all colors. The North was industrialized and did not require uneducated agricultural workers and used this force the south into economic submission.
Listen to “The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down” by The Band. It is about how the Northern army scorched the earth, raped, looted, murdered, innocent and defenseless, good decent people. Those people had homes and families and were living according to the times. The Dixie flag represents that culture. The same culture that brings Dixie Land Jazz.
The Belmont Neighborhood is a vile echo of crass Yankee imperialism. The neighborhood is white and extremely racist.
This is not about the Dixie Flag or racism. It is about greedy, evil business looking for an excuse to grab valuable storefront commercial property from a decent and valued member of the community for many, many, years. The publicity stunt, defacing the Dixie flag, is cynical, considering that other racist symbols are allowed to stand. It is all about being politically correct in oppressive Portland Oregon.
If you are Irish wearing green and a racist shamrock. The Irish were Nazi supporters during WWII. They are hypocritical bigots.
How many years did it take to partially cover the swastika in the sidewalk on Belmont Street in front the the Tao if Tea? And other hateful racist signs and words are etched in the sidewalk and allowed to remain. Some forms of racism and intolerance are openly supported in Portland which kind of resembles a Nazi state.
The Belmont Neighborhood is extremely racist and this was a publicity stunt to drive a business away from a valuable location.
It is time for affordable housing, section 8, and total integration of the Belmont neighborhood schools, churches, apartments, and workforce.