Racism in Portland’s Politics is Alive and Well in 2016
Monday, May 09, 2016
Fred Stewart
Two Strong Qualified Black Community Leaders
There are currently two strong and qualified black community leaders seeking office in city government. Mr. Bruce Broussard is seeking the mayor’s position and Fred Steward is seeking position number four on city council. Bruce Broussard has been largely ignored by the media, despite a long and impressive history in Portland as a social activist and mover and shaker during some of the most important historical incidents in Portland’s history. Fred Stewart has been viciously and unfairly attacked by racist Portland media for reasons that every parent of a defiant child has ever experienced. Fred has been misrepresented by white racist journalists who hide behind a veneer of civilized liberalism, while clearly hiding darker beliefs and values
Being ignored and being attacked; is that what Portland voter’s want, a limited edition of the “news” but for white people only? Or a slanted and nasty attack on an established black community leader, Fred Stewart? So, the white racists in our community can laugh, point fingers and joke? Has this local election become a bad racist joke in Portland? Is Portland really this racist?
Now we have Steve Duin, a well-liked yet ultimately a mediocre journalist from the struggling Oregonian newspaper, which is in its final death throes, who has added fuel to this racist attack on Fred Stewart. Duin had only one source for his May 7, 2016 article. That is revealing. It means he could not find additional sources. What kind of journalist writes an opinion piece with only one source? When reading Duin’s emotionally charged and very fatherly defense of a young woman he does not know, look for what is missing in the article, not what is present but what is not included. There is a lot.
Recently, one of our local television stations advertised a candidate’s debate and ran pictures of only two candidates, both white males. The only difference between the two men is that one man has blue eyes and one man has brown eyes. The other six or so candidates of a different color and/or gender are invisible to the media and despite citizen outcry, and continued criticism, the media in Portland, and local newspapers like the Oregonian and the laughable Willamette Week remain completely silent on the topic of racism in Portland’s media. We are the media, and you as the citizen simply do not matter; that seems to be their message along with “We will tell you who we want in our city government.”
Sometimes you must walk in another’s shoes to know the real depth of a problem, be it sexism or racism. Sometimes only a black person who has dealt with a lifetime of quiet, unseen, sneaky acts of racism - what they now call “micro-aggressions,” can understand what needs to change because of the pain and destruction that racism causes. Sometimes people of color are exactly what is needed, and sometimes it is only those folks who can come on board with realistic ideas, based on their experience as people of color, that can result in those needed changes. This is exactly what the white establishment in Portland cannot even conceive. Leaders of color are exactly what is needed in Portland right now, but with the hidden racism and the aggressive way this is denied, they are faced with quite an uphill battle.
Fred Stewart has been attacked by Willamette Week in a deliberate attempt to discredit him as a viable candidate. They printed a misleading, sensational, exaggerated, and poorly fact checked article concluding that Fred was a brute of a father, who assaulted his-16 year-old daughter and was arrested for nonpayment of child support. Neither of those allegations are true and in fact they were forced to print a retraction regarding their claim that Fred was “arrested.”
My wife, author and writer, Theresa Griffin Kennedy, has already responded publically to the issue of the blatant yellow journalism that WW has been engaged in disseminating in an effort to destroy Fred Stewart’s candidacy, and I will not belabor it here further.
But look, think of this; volatile white candidate Jesse Sponberg has been arrested for domestic violence. He has been grossly profane and abusive to council members in public and on camera. He has been videotaped telling Portland occupiers to “get off the sidewalk and take over the streets. Tip over a few police cars!” In essence he has encouraged his followers to break the law. Where is the WW article about him, detailing the way he beat a woman when he was arrested for domestic violence?
"I hate cops!"
Sponberg was quoted as saying “I hate cops!” when he ran for Multnomah county Sheriff last election season. Yet because Sponberg is Caucasian, his outrageous, infantile behavior seems to be okay with the mediocre and shallow thinking white media in Portland. Apparently, that is the case. Sponberg is allowed to be ridiculous because he’s white. Were he black we can assume he would not enjoy that privilege. I can only conclude, after observing these recent acts of shameless racism disguised as “journalism,” that if Bruce Broussard or Fred Stewart had said the things Jesse Sponberg has, or had behaved with half the silly immaturity of Sponberg, there would be crowds surrounding their homes demanding their arrest and immediate incarceration.
Racism is not only mean and stupid, but it hurts. It hurts the families of those attacked, particularly when the attack is an unjustified exaggeration, unwarranted and based on untruths. It hurts all involved. And it hurts the reputation of Portland, Oregon, too. Because others are watching out of state and the word is getting out. Portland is not a place that is friendly to people of color.
I have been hurt by racism, on multiple occasions. Because I fell in love with and married a woman of color; a black woman and we had a son together, we both suffered. For many years I was married to my black wife. We purchased a home in Portland and started a family. We loved each other and we were happy. For our efforts, we were warmly received by our white neighbors by having a wooden cross burnt on our front lawn. We had our front porch vandalized with a huge mass of broken eggs which took me quite a while to clean up. We were stared at, whispered about, laughed at and harassed. I know what it feels like to have someone I love attacked merely because of the color of their skin.
Fred Stewart has been hurt, by lies, exaggerations and blatant tabloid journalism by a financially beleaguered newspaper, Willamette Week, which is engaged in a slow painful death rattle. And now again Fred has been hurt by a flimsy, thrown together commentary by Steve Duin, with only a single source for his naïve assertions regarding a young woman who has been accused of dishonesty by no less than four family members.
Fred Stewart’s family has been hurt, his elderly mother, Dorothy Stewart, who happens to be ill with painful rheumatoid arthritis has also been hurt by these deplorable media shenanigans. Fred’s younger sister and younger brother have both been hurt by the written media lynching’s by insulated white journalists who have no ties to people of color and do nothing to promote the causes and issues important to people of color.
White racist journalists in Portland have attacked candidate Fred Stewart for no other reason than he is a black man who demonstrates intelligence, savvy and skill not only in leadership but in transforming entire NE Portland neighborhoods as a real estate agent. These are men who do not want black leaders in city council. Their weak, poorly constructed written attacks have proven this.
This is what the white owned and operated Willamette Week has done to Fred Stewart, and now the Oregonian newspaper as well. This is what the media in Portland, by ignoring viable candidates running for public office, like Bruce Broussard and Fred Stewart have also done. And this racism is a shameful thing. WW, the Oregonian and all the other organizations that have excluded people of color should be ashamed. They should be ashamed of how they have treated these dedicated activists working hard to see social justice become a reality, by running for elected office and helping not only people of color but all people in Portland.
I am in no way telling you how to vote, but you must realize how limited and racist the white media is in Portland. These two attacks of Fred Stewart prove that bias and the obvious racism inherent in Portland media, particularly with WW and the Oregonian, which are both about done as print newspapers go.
Examine all the candidates, both white and black, male and female, think about the issues they support, examine their track record, and how they carry themselves. Don’t judge them because of their appearance, or by the color of their skin. Judge them on the content of their character, and on what they have already done to make Portland a better place. Only then can you vote intelligently, when you vote for the right person without consideration to the color of their skin or which tabloid newspaper has decided to destroy them.
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