"Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law on Thursday a measure that allows businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers in the name of "religious freedom." -CNN (Click here for full article )
In New York they tell you, stay south of 97th on the East Side, East New York probably isn’t for you, and Harlem has good festivals but I wouldn’t roam around at night. These are opinions developed over time by Brooklyn and Manhattan natives. They are spoken as if they are fact, because I am a white women. At the particular time that I lived in New York, I wasn’t even a woman yet, I was a white girl with little street smarts and a large thing of mace attached to my keychain. I was unintentionally afraid and somehow that protected me, or in some cases, isolated me from reality.
Why does fear drive action?
In Portland, Oregon they don’t speak about their neighborhoods in the same way. No one has put the “fear of God” in my mind about traveling north of Mississippi Ave or East on MLK. But it is this way for quite a particular reason.
The truth is, Portland is MUCH less diverse than New York. I mean, much less. When you read about the history of Portland you find a strong tie to the KKK and serious segregation as recent as the 1940’s. In this Smithsonian Article “How Portland’s Second Largest City Vanished in a Day”, Natasha Geiling writes about the flood of 1948 that wiped out the area then known as “Vanport” and forced white and black residents to find a new place to live. With Portland’s blatant racism, it was much harder for the black residents to start over. As stated in the article:
“As the Albina district became a center for black residents, it also became one of the only places in the city where they were allowed to live. Extreme housing discrimination, known as redlining, prohibited minorities from purchasing property in certain areas: in 1919, the Realty Board of Portland approved a Code of Ethics that forbade realtors and bankers from selling or giving loans for property located in white neighborhoods to minorities.”
I now reside in the modern Albina district and let me tell you, it is a bunch of white people parading around in their hipster uniforms drinking their microbrews. (which hey, good for them) So when I ventured out to the grocery store last night a little farther from my front door I found myself in a more diverse part of Portland. Just 2 miles north you find neighborhoods that actually represent the real America. The diverse America. The America that was built by people from all over the world looking for a better life. Unfortunately, this is also a less affluent area of the city. You can tell, like I think you can in a lot of places in America, that the residents here have it a little harder than maybe I do or my sister does or you know, other white people have it.
I felt a little at home. One of the biggest things I miss about New York is its diversity. Because what is life without discovering the beauty in the differences? I learn so much from people of a different culture than my own, so sometimes when I walk the streets of Portland and I see only people that look just like me for blocks and blocks I start to feel a little weird.
I entered the grocery store with a list. The usual new apartment needs; a mop, a broom, a dish towel. As I made my way through the aisles I started to see a trend. The usual “organic”, “all natural” alternatives to toxic bleach cleaners and chemically induced face washes were not on the shelves. My choices were bleach and more bleach.
As I made my way to the food aisles with my list in hand I found no dairy alternatives, my usual Almond Milk options were null and when it came to produce the shelves might as well have been empty.
Fresh greens had been replaced with rotting iceberg, ripe strawberries and blueberries had been replaced with crumbling produce, not a berry fit for eating for miles. And if you wanted to get weird, you know like find a squash or maybe fresh cheeses that aren’t made of plastic, there wasn’t a chance in hell that was going to happen.
I obviously live in a unique little world. The fact that Almond milk is something I can even afford or think about affording is a true luxury. I have always known that, and luckily I have a boyfriend that also constantly reminds me of our blessings. But I am not ignorant, it’s not as if I thought that people all over the US had access to all of the things that I did. I have read about “Food Deserts” and the lack of fresh produce in more poor neighborhoods. What I guess I failed to understand was how terrible it really still was and how it became this way. See, because of our ignorance and prejudice we have forced an entire population of people to live a life full of disease and struggle. Because of our blinders we have caused this. There are children malnourished, uneducated and disease ridden because of decisions we have made as a society.
You call the state of “their” neighborhoods “crime laden slums“, I call it surviving.
You say “I shot him because it was obvious he was going to shoot me” and I say “You have been raised on lies and racism so the fear you have may have felt real, but it is in fact, complete fiction“.
You say “It’s important that we allow our citizens to hold religious beliefs, maybe even those we might be appalled by, and to be able to express those,” (pulled from Tom Cook’s Indy Star Article about Indiana Senate Bill 101)
And I say, “Wow, history really does repeat itself, doesn’t it?”
Will you all feel better if we can now force another population into despair and poverty? Let’s just push all “The Gays” to the suburbs and cut off nourishment and funding. Then we can call it “Holding Religious Beliefs” and turn around and walk in the other direction as they deteriorate.
Are we still really here, 60 some years later?
I am an almost 30 year old educated white girl. I went to private school for awhile (paid for by my Catholic grandfather) and then my parents got smart and introduced me to public schools so that I would be more acquainted with the real world. I am not a Harvard grad, I don’t have a silver spoon in my mouth or even in my utensil drawer. I haven’t dined with Presidents or knocked elbows with the richest of the rich, those that have the resources to make the changes this country needs. I haven’t sat in Congress or the Senate and had to vote on a bill that would allow business owners to refuse service to someone (but hey, maybe I should start)
But here is what I do know; Access to an education can mean a better life. Teaching enables opportunity for new perspectives. Resources enable good health. Inclusion creates opportunity. A responsibility to humanity enables change.
Remaining stagnant? Passing laws that further discrimination and segregation? That will only break us down. That will only tear us apart. That will only cause destruction.
Kerry Washington said it best in this GLAAD acceptance speech:
“We can’t say that we believe in each other’s fundamental humanity and then turn a blind eye to the reality of each other’s existence and the truth of each other’s hearts. We must be allies..”
I don’t know why produce is so astronomically priced. I don’t know why Whole Foods is one of our only options for real, organic, locally grown produce and it also happens to cost half a weeks paycheck. I don’t know why our government has allowed the market to exist like it does; a market where the less “affluent” neighborhood grocery store’s shelves don’t even have produce. I don’t know why we think it is ok that our own people, our neighbors, our friends and children don’t have enough food or that they aren’t “equal enough” to shop at our stores or eat at our restaurants.
I have thought about going back to Indiana many times. I have a wonderful community of friends and family there. I believe in them and know that they are good. Most of my friends are teachers and I listen to the struggles they have with the public school district and how they bring extra breakfast with them every day because most of the time, some of their students haven’t eaten since lunch the day before.
But when the politicians of Indiana are capable of passing a law such as The Religious Freedom Act I really am not sure I can be a part of that kind of society. I’m really not sure I can be honored to call that place home or pay taxes to that community or raise a family in that environment.
I’m thankful for Michelle Obama and her Healthy Food Financing Initiative which you can read more about here. It’s not to say that there aren’t these types of initiatives happening all across the country, but the truth of the matter is it starts with our belief system. It starts with all of us, as individuals, choosing to truly believe and practice the sentiment that we are all created equal.
Teresa Sabatine 