Alert! Turn out at one of six rural Oregon locations Sep 4-9 and take part in Walidah Imarisha’s conversation project, “Why aren’t there more black people in Oregon?”, organized by Oregon Humanities and the Rural Organizing Project.
To say it’s been a big summer for race relations in America is putting it mildly.
Among other incidents, in New York there was the strangulation of Eric Garner by NYPD using a banned choke hold on July 17 in broad daylight (and caught on cell phone video), which was later ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. Somehow this incident did not draw much protest. But soon after, the August 9 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO ignited full scale unrest and national protests.
For white Americans who thought they were living in a blissfully calm “post race” society, Michael Brown was a major wake up call. When the police (overwhelmingly white in the case of Ferguson) can still shoot unarmed black teenagers with no consequences, something is terribly, terribly wrong in America.
On a different but related subject, Portland educator, writer, poet, activist, and spoken word artist Walidah Imarisha is bringing a conversation on race in Oregon to six rural communities starting Thursday. Organized by Oregon Humanities and the Rural Organizing Project, Imarisha’s “Why aren’t there more black people in Oregon?” is an exploration and excavation of black history in Oregon and how the state’s early racially exclusive founding principles continue to resonate today.
Come turn out and be a part of this important discussion.
Tour
Sep 4 – Grants Pass
Sep 5 – Redmond
Sep 6 – Astoria
Sep 7 – Albany
Sep 8 – Newport
Sep 9 – Bay City
Here’s a recent (8.27.2014) interview with Imarisha in the Mercury.
