Oregon’s centuries-old history of exclusionary laws and discriminatory practices has long defined the state. Now, lawmakers and citizens are working to push back against racist histories to pave the way toward a more equitable future.
Whiteness in the West
Oregon has a long history of Whiteness, exemplified by Black exclusionary acts signed in 1844, 1849 and 1859 that barred Black people from moving to, staying in for more than three years, buying property and signing contracts in Oregon territory. Even after Oregon’s exclusionary clauses were rendered irrelevant by the ratification of the 14th Amendment, the clauses remained in the state’s constitution until 1926.
Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said this series of exclusionary laws were put in place to protect White populations in Oregon and discriminate against Black and Brown individuals. OJRC is an organization dedicated to disrupting mass incarceration by providing access to legal support and service resources, Singh said. OJRC uses six programs to provide resources surrounding women and youth in the justice system, immigrants’ rights, civil and human rights, wrongful convictions and excessive sentencing.
“It’s impossible for us to fully understand what’s happening currently without understanding where we came from,” Singh said. “It’s important for us to connect that history to what is happening now.”
Singh said understanding the history of systems of power is the only way to understand why our criminal justice, housing, education and social systems look the way they do.
“It’s that history that sort of defines our modern society,” Singh said.
“One of the things that I believe all early writers want to do is express themselves,” Anderson said, adding that a key part of writing is being able to use one’s personal experiences in a way that allows readers to relate.
Housing discrimination in the Eugene-Springfield area
The 1930s saw the increase of redlining, a practice in which public officials and lenders decided which neighborhoods were “good” real estate based on demographics that purposefully devalued Black neighborhoods.
Bills encouraging middle housing, like duplexes, work to incorporate affordable housing into city limits where such housing may be scarce. One such bill in Oregon is HB 2001, which will change housing codes by June to allow for more middle housing units to be built around the city of Eugene and across the state.
The Springfield-Eugene Tenant Association helps renters facing housing discrimination access information. Timothy Morris, executive director of SETA, said zoning laws remain a factor in housing discrimination to this day.
“Folks have found ways to discriminate through legal methods. Zoning law was one of the biggest and still is perpetuated to this day,” Morris said. “It’s extremely frustrating because as a community we know ethically that you should not be racist, that is not an okay thing to be, but we often come across folks that will find loopholes or hidden ways to engage in that kind of behavior.”
SETA hosts a free hotline dedicated to providing information about renters’ rights. Morris said the resource is important because 52% of people in the city of Eugene rent housing. SETA hears about issues regarding a vast amount of discriminatory practices, from people being denied housing due to having a non-Anglo name, to landlords condoning tenants’ sexualities and raising rent prices because of it.
“All of these things are awful and terrible and should not be happening, but because there is no big enforcement agency to prevent this kind of situation, renters don’t really have anywhere to turn,” Morris said. “That’s why I’m so glad that SETA exists because [tenants] can come to us and we can provide them with information and really be able to help themselves and advocate for themselves properly.”
Name-based discrimination
Non-Anglo sounding names can bar access not only for renting housing but also for renting quick getaways. Starting on Jan. 31, Airbnb hosts operating in Oregon have only been permitted to see guests’ initials prior to finalizing bookings on the platform, according to a release from Airbnb. The update comes after a 2019 settlement with three Black women in Oregon — Patricia Harrington, Carlotta Franklin and Ebony Price — in which court records claimed Airbnb’s booking policies “result in unequal treatment to African-Americans.”
Harrington’s statement in 2017 court documents said the company’s booking policies requiring users to maintain a profile that includes personal information cause African American guests to receive unequal treatment. She said these policies also allow the denial of requests based on race.
“Airbnb offers a different service to African Americans than it does to whites,” according to the court documents.
Janice Kai Chen/Daily Emerald
A 2016 research study from Harvard Business School found that “requests from guests with distinctively African American names are roughly 16% less likely to be accepted than identical guests with distinctively white names,” and that the difference persists regardless of the host’s racial or gender identity.
In the official announcement, Airbnb said the policy change in Oregon continues work toward community inclusivity.
“As part of our ongoing work, we will take any learnings from this process and use them to inform future efforts to fight bias,” the release said. “While we have made progress, we have much more to do and continue working with our hosts and guests, and with civil rights leaders to make our community more inclusive.”
Janice Kai Chen/Daily Emerald
Creating campus inclusivity
In 2019, the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center opened its doors to serve as a safe space for community programming and support for Black students, staff and faculty on the University of Oregon’s campus. Dr. Aris Hall, coordinator for the BCC, said the BCC aims to be a place to call “home” on campus by offering academic and personal support.
“The most rewarding part is to see that people are able to do that from all different backgrounds and all different walks of life,” Hall said. She said it’s been rewarding to engage and create spaces for members of UO’s Black community “to come together and to feel like they have a place to call their own.”
The 2021 Oregon Census showed only 2.2% of Oregon residents identify as Black or African American. In 2019-2020, 2.4% of UO’s student body was Black, according to the Division of Equity and Inclusion. Despite being almost 100 years removed from the decommissioning of Black exclusionary acts, Oregon’s population is still over 86% white, according to the 2021 census.
“I think in the state of Oregon, it wasn’t ever meant to be a place open and welcoming for Black people,” Hall said. “I think this gives the BCC an opportunity to have a place for people to feel welcomed.”
Respect for natural hair
Parkrose High School in Portland made headlines in March 2021 after volleyball player Marissa Martino was required to cut her braids before competing in a match. The CROWN Act was passed in Oregon three months later.
The CROWN Research Study found that Black women are “1.5 times more likely to be sent home from their workplace because of their hair” and that Black women are 80% more likely to feel like they need to change their hair from its natural state to fit in at office jobs.
Hall said students at UO can feel comfortable however they wear their hair, but that outside of campus, students may not be granted the same right.
“I think the CROWN Act is not just a state thing that needs to happen,” Hall said. “It needs to be a federal mandate and law.”
Leila Jebara, an Oregon State University student, said some instances of discrimination she’s faced occured in response to her wearing a hijab. Three instances of discrimination where individuals yelled racist remarks still stand out to her.
“They would look at me in a different way. It’s like I’m not normal,” Jebara said. “Sometimes I want to fight back, to be honest, but then I look at them, and I feel like ‘You should be more educated, more literate,’ honestly.”
Jebara said in the face of discrimination, she treats people as the soul they embody rather than based on their outward appearance.
“Whether we all like it or not, at the end of the day, we’re all related at least in one way,” Jebara said. “There’s always one thread that’s connected between one person and the other.”
Bias and hate crimes
Incidents of hate/bias crimes in Oregon show the discriminatory issues communities are facing. The FBI’s Oregon Hate Crime Instances Report from 2019 shows that the city of Eugene reported 28 incidents relating to race, ethnicity or ancestry.
The Department of Justice Bias Hotline Reports saw a yearly total of 1,099 reports filed in 2020, and 1,497 reports throughout 2021. Out of 2,596 total reports filed, 1,455 were considered bias incidents and 728 were considered hate crimes.
A 2020 report on Senate Bill 577, which redefined bias crimes in the state, found that the majority of reports to the DOJ Bias Hotline were reports of “race-based targeting, and a majority of those were anti-Black/African American bias.”
Janice Kai Chen/Daily Emerald
The report also found that “the later half of 2020 saw a 134% surge in hotline reporting compared to the first 6 months of reporting in 2020,” with only 18 defendants convicted of bias charges in 2020. “These data suggest there are gaps in Oregon’s bias response systems, from the hotline to the criminal justice system,” officials wrote in the reports.
The report recommended increased bias hotline staffing to improve capacity for handling high call volumes, ongoing bias training for law enforcement, community outreach and education about Oregon’s bias crime laws and continued improvement of data collection and analysis to allow for better resource allocation.
Fatima Benhabyb, a Lane Community College student, moved to Oregon from Morocco in June of 2021. She said adapting to a new lifestyle and culture can sometimes cause denial for the communities being joined or left. She said for her, feelings of being scattered can cause barriers to adapting to changes.
“It’s like you belong but you don’t belong at the same time,” Benhabyb said. “I’ve never had a serious reaction to [my name], but sometimes you feel the awkwardness of some encounters with people.”
Although moving to the U.S. has been challenging, Benhabyb said sharing her experience with support systems at school has helped her.
“It’s really a nice experience when you have the voice and strength to represent your country,” Benhabyb said.
Steps forward
While initiatives like HB 2001 and the CROWN Act work to lessen the impact of centuries of discrimination, Hall said there is still much to be done.
“I think there’s a lot of work that the University of Oregon has to do, and I think it comes from making sure that students feel as comfortable in a classroom setting as they do in their apartment or when they go to Target,” Hall said. “I think those are the things we have to continue to work on, and that’s not just a University of Oregon thing.”
UO’s Bias Education and Response Team, which provides support for those affected by acts of bias, is on hiatus while the school determines the best ways to equitably and holistically support those targeted by acts of bias, UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard said. He said any reports of bias, discrimination, harassment and retaliation should be filed with the Office of Investigations and Civil Rights Compliance.
