Portland, the Last Bastion of White Flight.
Let me start by saying, I dig Portland. Between the book stores, alternative press/comic book shops, vinyl shops, bike shops, dive bars, cabarets, foodie diners, random taco/waffle trucks, and no sales tax, its bomb. But can I buy some diversity there? Is this town a secret amongst the gwei lo’s? How come no minorities consider moving there? Only a handful of people I know have ever thought about going to school at OU or OSU, thought about moving here for a job, or decided to visit for fun. And this is pretty much the next closest major city to California there is!
I didn’t get any outright racism. But what I DID get was the quick turnaround, which is common in places with ZERO Asians. As in, I could swear people were staring at me, but right when I looked at them, they’d turn away. Everyone. Everywhere. EVEN IN CHINATOWN. That’s where I drew the line. MF’er, if I’m in Chinatown, you can be damn sure I’m gonna stare at your GWEI LO ass until it hurts. I just don’t understand why the hell you staring at me?! But on top of that, the Chinatown was the WORST CHINATOWN ever. We’re talking dragons and lions at restaurant entries, shops that sell KUNG FU outfits and nunchuks, and restaurant names straight out of a Rush Hour 3 fight scene. Just pick out your restaurant using this handy Random Chinese Restaurant Name Generator:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Golden | Pearl | Delight | |||
| Emperor’s | Garden | ||||
| Great | Empire | of the Orient | |||
| Cantonese | Wall | ||||
| Mr. Lee’s | Canton | Village | |||
| Oriental | Dragon | ||||
| 123 | Lotus Flower | House | |||
| ABC | Silk Road | ||||
| Hong Kong | Buddha | ||||
| Cantonese | Monk | ||||
| Schechuan | Moon | ||||
| Lucky | Dynasty | ||||
| Flying | Bamboo | ||||
| Red | Yangtze | ||||
| 888 | Shanghai | ||||
| King | |||||
| Hunan |
I don’t know if it’s the Chineers’ peoples fault or if they’re just catering towards the audience that wants their favorite Kung Pao Chicken restaurant adjacent to the store that sells firecrackers and Chinese stress balls. Not to mention some amazing trinkets like this:
So my advice: visit, but don’t move to Oregon. Unless you want to be mistaken for a worker each time you enter a PF Changs. But you would actually deserve it if you’re Asian and you’re eating at an f’n PF Changs.
February 26, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Yup, Portland is a well-kept secret amongst neoprogressive, liberal-arts educated, farmers market-lovin hippie/hipster white people. Meaning true “diversity” is a huge blind spot. For the entire state of Oregon in general. Jeff Olliver even set up a “Meet a Black Guy” booth at the Corvallis farmer’s market. And Portland’s environment likely prompted artist damali ayo to create the book and website http://www.rent-a-negro.com. And don’t even get started on the racism in schools issues in Eugene, which has meant further difficulty recruiting and retaining faculty of color. And the right-wing militias. Anyhoo…yes, uber-hip and eco-friendly Portland is a great place to live…if you’re a white person.
March 17, 2009 at 10:11 am
Hahah…funny post! Thanks, and I agree with you!
Did you see the article in the Oregonian about Portland being the whitest big city? See it here:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/in_a_changing_world_portland_r.html
If anyone needs proof that racism exists, they can just check out the comments. Some of them are over the top, stating things that people would never say in real life. The internet really does bring out people’s shadow selves. Or check out the comments where I blogged it:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2009/01/portland-the-whitest-big-city-in-the-west/
March 22, 2009 at 1:37 am
[...] and Bun Bo Hue in Bumfuck, TX. But I think I’ll need to create a Vietnamese version of my Chinese Restaurant Random Name Generator soon, just for Dang. [...]