Webinar coordinated by Ashland resident; four-part series kicks off Feb. 1

By Art Van Kraft for Ashland.news

Racism is very much alive in Ashland, even if it’s hidden, according to Portland State University history professor Kristen Teigen, who in a recent talk said the seeds were planted decades ago and still flourish today.

“Oregon’s sometimes questionable past and the events that created our modern society made us who we really are,” Teigen said during a two-hour webinar, “Seeds of White Utopia,” that was watched by about 250 people from across the state Jan. 11.

“I find it really interesting, as a historian, to look at how we have developed the concepts of ourselves, we have developed this impression of who we are and, for a lot of Oregonians, that is based on the notion that we are a progressive state,” Teigen said.

She went on to explain the reality of that myth and how it has created a false impression.

“The reason that I teach what I teach, is because we, when it comes to issues of race and racism in Oregon, this is where we hit the wall, and we fall down,” Teigen said.

The webinar was hosted by Ashland resident Hillary Larson, a cofounder of the racial justice nonprofit Ashland Together. Larson cited figures from the U.S. Census Bureau that she said might be surprising: “The estimated population of Black residents in Ashland in 2023 is .53%. Native Americans and Alaska Natives is .36, Asians 2.5, Latinos and Hispanics 9.87. Now, the white population of Ashland according to the 2023 census was 89.28%,” she said.

“I don’t typically use the word ‘racist’ myself,” Larson said. “I’m not saying I don’t think racism exists, I just have never said Ashland is a racist place. There were two young women in Middle School at the MLK rally in Ashland, who were sharing exactly what happens to them … being called the N-word, and reporting that to whoever and experiencing being gas-lit. I listen to those people, that’s my reference point.”

“I just think using that word (racist) is problematic because it tends to put people on their heels and makes them less open to take in information,” Larson added in a followup email. “Then education is met with resistance and defensiveness rather than curiosity. … I don’t believe Ashland is a racist town. I believe there are frequent and ongoing expressions of racism that would surprise many residents here.”

D.L. Richardson served as emcee and keynote speaker for the 36th annual celebration of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on Jan. 15, where he shared candidly about racism in Ashland in particular. A former SOU Journalism and Communication professor, he now serves as a board member for Black Southern Oregon Alliance.

Richardson is from Selma, Alabama, and moved to southern Oregon in the early 2000s.

He didn’t mince words regarding racism locally during his keynote speech attended by about 500 people on Jan. 15 at the Historic Ashland Armory.

“I listen to students tell me that they hear the N-word daily, walking to class and that’s here in Ashland,” Richardson said. “I know ya’ll don’t believe that.”

A common response to that Richardson hears is, “Not in Ashland, not in Ashland,” to which Richardson responds, “Oh yes, my friends, in Ashland.”

“I want to be sure when I walk away that you know that,” Richardson said. “These students are facing these issues here, today … I know it’s not just in Ashland, it’s Medford. But I can tell you from my own experiences that I’ve had more combined racial insults thrown at me more in Ashland than I have in Medford, Grants Pass, Cave Junction. It’s true. It’s here. It’s something that we have to face, and if we don’t face it now, what hope do we have for our kids?”

Richardson emphasized that youth are being targeted even on their way to school in Ashland.

“They deserve to … be able to be able to go to school … not have words thrown at them, disparaging their bodies, disparaging their hair, disparaging their looks,” he said. 

“You need to understand that we are better than that.”

Larson explained the surprise reaction she is often met with and what she calls a naiveté with many of the people she meets.

“When I relay these stories, people are shocked — ‘not here, not in this town’ — and the more we know about that, the greater the possibility where are we, where do we live. And what do we not know about where we live?” Larson added.

Teigen addressed the cause of racism in Oregon, in a prelude to her four-part online series “Unwelcomed: Oregon’s History of Exclusion” set for Feb. 1, 8, 15 and 22.

She said racial issues go back to the founding of the state, and it all began with Peter Burnett, who was a leader on the Oregon Trail in the 1800s, a town builder, legislator and the region’s first judge.

“When Peter Burnett arrives in Oregon, he sees that there is this measure of this antislavery measure, and he’s fine with that. He ran away from Missouri because he doesn’t want to be around Black people, period. OK. And so he says, this is great, but you don’t have an enforcement mechanism here. How are we going to make sure that Black people get out?’

“If you were Black in Oregon, if you’re a man, you had two years to leave. If you’re a woman, you had three years to leave. And if you didn’t leave, you would be publicly beaten. Every six months, it was called Peter Burnett ‘slash law.’ That’s an example of the importance of whiteness, the power that people feel like they have, because of whiteness,” Teigen said.

She said the scenario was created where white people have someone else who is beneath them, making sure that their power is secured.

“Well, the people on top were telling the white poor, ‘we’re the same, because we both have the same color skin, they don’t,’ the people at the top don’t have to do any more work, they get to sit there and maintain their power, while everybody else does all of the dirty work for them. OK. And it’s a pretty devious trick and horrible trick also for Black people, it was the biggest sin — that and the genocide against Indigenous people — with the biggest sin that this country has ever committed,” Teigen said.

According to the brochure about the “Unwelcomed” series, “Teigen will take us through the deliberate steps taken to construct Oregon, first as a territory and later as a state, to exclude non-white people. Woven into each week, we will discuss Southern Oregon’s specific history with regard to race.”

Teigen says half of the proceeds of the course will go to the charitable organization Black Alliance & Social Empowerment (BASE).

Art Van Kraft is an artist living in Ashland and a former broadcast journalist and news director of a Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate. Email him at [email protected]. Additional reporting contributed by Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth. She can be reached at [email protected].

Feb. 1: Additional context added to Hillary Larson’s comments on use of the word “racism.”