PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Just days before the five year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, the Portland Mercury published “BlackOut: A Five-Year Retrospective on Portland’s Racial Justice Movement,” in which African-American Portlanders weighed in on racial justice in Portland since 2020.
The article issue spotlights 12 African-American writers, who discuss the work that needs to be done on the road to racial justice.
A Pew research survey found that five years later, 72% of the people surveyed said the focus on race after Floyd’s killing did not actually lead to improvements in the lives of black people.
“It’s important for us to remember why those protests were so visceral at that time because it’s visceral for black people in this city, state, and country every single day,” said Donovan Scribes, an author of the BlackOut issue.
The authors talked about how advocacy is more than just holding a sign.
“Volunteer, collaboration, doing the work [as opposed to] hashtagging or something,” said Christopher Lambert, another author of the article.
“There are so many different ways that you can get involved. I would say one of the things that matters most right now is showing up and participating in our city council budget process,” said Scribes.
The Portland Mercury “BlackOut” edition was roughly six months in the making.
“It was like, their writing is like, it’s like so visceral and important, and it’s just like words that everybody in Portland like needs to hear and remember and reflect on, because the messaging behind the racial justice movement has frankly been commandeered by those who said, oh, the protests destroyed Portland, and then we got this really terrible reputation,” said William Steven Humphrey, the Editor and Chief of the Portland Mercury.
Even though the authors of this edition say there’s work to be done, there is a lot of hope in this moment.
“I just want people to know that actually Portland is a great place and it’s full of love, and I don’t want the negativity to overshadow the things that take place or the growth that Portland has seen,” said Lambert.
