UpFront

Countering white supremacist hate in Oregon, as Portland braces for neo-Nazi rally Saturday; Plus: Stopping devastation from Canada’s tar sands pipeline with Kanahus Manuel

0:08 – Hong Kong protest update – protesters seeing China escalate violence and mis-information campaign, must decide where pro-democracy movement will go next

We’re joined by Mary Hui (@maryhui) is a reporter for the business news outlet Quartz, and covering the protests in Hong Kong. 

0:34 – Indigenous activist communities and climate catastrophe is on the line to stop the Canadian Tar Sands Pipeline

Kanahus Manuel (@KanahusFreedom) is from the Secwepemc and Ktunaxa Nations of the south-central interior of what’s called British Columbia. She is a water protector, birth keeper, and a member of the activist group Tiny House Warriors, and part of the mobilization to stop Canada’s tar sands pipeline.

1:08 – White hate groups are planning a major demonstration in downtown Portland, Oregon this Saturday Aug 17, but Oregon has a long history of hate and racist violence.

For a background on Oregon’s anti-black history, we speak with Karen Gibson is Associate Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University.

Crystallee Crain is a public health and criminal justice scholar, professor of social work at Portland State University and Cal State East Bay, and founder of Prevention at the Intersections, where she trained violence prevention strategists across the country. She joins us to share her story about being physically attacked in Portland. One incident left her hospitalized, and after that she decided to leave Portland altogether. Hers is one of many incidents of racist violence against people of color in Portland. She is working on healing from the trauma, see her poem below.

1:34 – Randy Blazak (@rblazak) is the chair of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crimes, and join to discuss white supremacist organizing in Oregon, hate groups, and the coordinated effort to combat them.

1:45 – Counter-protests are planned against the hate group demonstration on Saturday Aug 17. We’re joined by two organizers:

Alyssa Pariah (@alyssapariah) is with Portland DSA and co-chair of Portland Jobs for Justice, part of the coalition counter protesting. And she’s a host of ‘The Struggle’ on KBOO Radio. 

Effi Baum is a spokesperson with Pop Mob, Popular Mobilization (@PopMobPDX), working in coalition with many community organizations to counter protest this Saturday. 

(Photo: Alt-right rally Aug 4, 2018 in Portland, OR)

 

Poem by Crystallee Crain

This sunrise on my soul makes yesterday seem like a moment in time
Wrenched from me before and brought back to me wrapped in flowered paper
Adorned in laces and glitter that sticks to each leaf of the flowers, I can see.
An assortment that mirrors my past, present
And the unforeseen future.
Mine it is, that time that is coming,
The moments that once told me I was fodder for a moment of ill placed rage,
The lengthy battles to fight back tears and shakes.
In time, the heart beats again.
Remind me o’ good night that choices made,
Lost time and space was not worth the bruises.
With persistence, I learned not to cower to the coward.
My life will not be borrowed by boys in men’s clothing.
With isolation comes doomed thinking, some of which
were former truths denied to be fact for fear of discomfort.
What is it that we know about what’s coming?
What is it the we aim to feel, when your humanity is relegated to categorical definitions of them, us,
and or that
But never never this.
Now, I see the sunsets, I feel them on my grateful round cheeks,
For I have found the nights warmth again.
Wrapping myself in the bosom of a pillow that holds me a willing hostage,
Away from the fate of what is not my truth, but that of the losing, wailing heart of hate.

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