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Dismantling Racism Resource Book

RACING THE NORTHWEST:
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The Organizing Challenge in a Changing Region

By Tarso Luís Ramos, Western States Center

When most people speak of race the “West,” they’re usually referring to California or the
Southwest. But the West includes more than land grabbed from Mexico; there’s also the
Northwest, an area that includes inland states as well as Washington and Oregon.

It’s an area that usually figures outside discussions on race. There is a widely held perception
both within and outside the Northwest that, as one of the whitest parts of the country (about 16%
people of color overall), racial justice issues here are somehow less pressing. My experience
living and working in the region for the last 17 years is that just the opposite is true.

Whether it’s hate group activity (the Northwest has long been hailed as a “white homeland” by
the far right); police violence (the Portland, Oregon, Police Department uses deadly force at a
higher rate than the NYPD); gentrification and displacement (Seattle’s last black neighborhood is
in the final stages of colonization; or a host of other issues, race looms large in the Northwest.
The need for racial justice organizing is especially intense here precisely because communities of
color are smaller, diverse, isolated from each other and more effectively marginalized by the
dominant community.

The Great White North(west)

The Northwest is known for its live and let live ethos and the Pacific Northwest—Oregon and
Washington—has long been considered a liberal stronghold. But consider this: bigots and white
supremacists from this region head not only for the hills but also to the Hill—Capitol, that is.
Washington’s Jack Metcalf led the anti-Indian movement as an activist, state legislator and,
ultimately, a federal Representative. His contemporary, Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) fought
tribal treaty rights as state Attorney General and then used his Senate position to propose that
Congress eliminate tribal sovereignty altogether.

Idaho’s infamous former U.S. representative, Helen Chenoweth, courted militia groups and
defended the racist hiring practices of local Forest Service offices by declaring that “the warm-
climate community (i.e. Latinos and African-Americans) just hasn’t found the colder climate that
attractive.” Even “liberal” politicians can be found championing racist causes. Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) recently joined with his Republican counterpart, Sen. Gordon Smith, in attempting to
revive a farm labor system denounced by one of its former administrators as a form of “legalized
slavery.” And, as many organizers will point out, our elected bigots are even more colorful at the
state and local levels.

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A version of this article appeared in the summer 2002 issue of "The Ark," the journal of the National Organizers
Alliance.

Dismantling Racism Project 79 Western States Center