Opinion: What will history say about Portland? – oregonlive.com

Markisha Smith and Ted Wheeler

Smith is director of the Portland Office of Equity and Human Rights. Wheeler is mayor of Portland.

At this historic period of protest and institutional change, our grieving process for one Black life lost is interrupted by yet another instance of a Black life lost due to policebrutality and systemic oppression. In just the last few weeks, we learned ofBlack people found hanging from trees, and we saw footage of a Black man who needed assistance, not interrogation,shot in the back and killed in front of his community at a Wendys drive-through. And these are just the stories that we have heard about. We know that there are countless other incidents that are never investigated and never reported. Black Americans have been, and continue to be, mentally, emotionally and physically lynched by oppressive systems and perpetrators of those systems.

Black, Indigenous and people of color constantly attempt to navigate systems that arent designed for them. As a whole, BIPOC communities do not enjoy economic prosperity equally, much less generational wealth, in this country. And Black communities often succumb to modern day slavery through capitalism, low-wage jobs, denial of leadership advancement opportunities, racist educational experiences and businesses or property ownership that is linked towhite supremacist institutions.

The Civil Rights Movement took years; lasting, meaningful reform and dismantling anti-Black, racist, oppressive systems will as well.We cannot simply offer platitudes and small gestures of our commitment to the Black communitywe must change our policies, practices, and procedures. It is time for white people, regardless of position, to step back, listen and follow. We have an opportunity to make history. But what will the history books say about Portland?

History will say that Portland answered the call for reform in transformational ways and rejected the violence that destroyed our city for more than a month.

We are in the midst of a reconciliation process led by Black Portlanders. The terms of forgiveness cannot come from the entity that inflicted the wrongdoing in the first place: Black voices must be elevated when we talk about reconciliation and restorative justice.

Weve listened to the community to disinvest from police, cutting $27 million and reinvesting many of those dollars in programs supporting black youth leadership development, unarmed first responders to move away from police-based solutions for people experiencing homelessness, our Office of Equity and Human Rights and tribal relations.

We are reimagining public safety and proposing policies that will lift our children, unsheltered neighbors and BIPOC people out of the systems of institutional racism that have held down generations.And despite a $75 million gap in our budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portland City Council reaffirmed our commitment to prioritize relief and recovery for our hardest-hit community members, knowing that COVID has worsened disparities for BIPOC communities. Our goal is to emerge from this crisis more resilient.

Our future as a community envisions more counselors, after school programs and restorative justice programs, not school resource officers. More housing, employment, health care options and social workers. We need further investment in more community-based anti-violence programs, trauma services and jobs for young people.

For far too long, our community has relied unreasonably on police to solve a greater amount of our social problems. Detangling these responses will not be easy or fast, but we are determined to invest in the future of what we want to see and not just respond to the crisis of the moment.

And while much of this reckoning is happening within policing, all institutions and organizations should be looking at how they uphold systemic racism.

We have made great progress, but we are not done.

We are not done until we are investing more in the well-being of our communities than we are in the policing of our communities. We are not done until BIPOC students are succeeding at the same rate as their white classmates. We are not done until we have created generational wealth opportunities for Black families. We are not done until we have more elected officials who accurately reflect the diversity of the community we serve.

This is our moment to reshape, reimagine, and rebuild Portland with our Black leaders and communities leading the way.The movement we are witnessing doesnt stop when the marches end.

What will history say about Portland?

History will say the city of Portland did not resist the call for reformation, but rather linked arms with communities and ushered in a new era of reconciliation, restorative justice and prosperity for all.

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Opinion: What will history say about Portland? - oregonlive.com